Shannon > Recent Status Updates

He reached back to touch Lew, but just then my mom turned the key, started the engine. The car made a big noise. My door was still open.
Over the noise of the car, through my open door, Dad said, "Annie, please? We can still ... They're my kids ... I'll try to ... Don't do this ..."
"I already did," she said. "We'll call you when we get there."
That was how we left him, through an open car door.

I didn't have to listen. I shouldn't have, but I did. I turned my head from my dad and unhugged him. I pulled away from his arms, wiggled out, opened the car door, and ducked inside. I looked at my lap. I didn't look at him. If he wasn't going to cry, then I wasn't going to cry either. I could be strong too.

I felt frozen. Stuck to him, stuck with him in a bubble, in that hug so tight it was bruising my arms. We were going to leave him—my dad—and there was nothing I could do. It wasn't possible. It was too fast. I just hugged and hugged and hugged.
But then.
Then my mother, behind me, said in a tiny voice, "Rebecca, please? Don't make this any harder for me."
And I listened.

I put my arms around his chest. He didn't make a sound, and there were no tears, but his body was shaking all around me, like a silent movie of someone crying. Or maybe he was just shivering in the wind. He smelled a little like cigarette smoke and a lot like sweat. My dad. My dad. My dad was so strong. He never cried. "I don't know ...," he whispered to me. Answering a question I hadn't asked.

"You think I like the way things are any better than you?"
She didn't answer him.
I couldn't stand it after that. It was totally dark and quiet. I'd never been anywhere so still as that room. It was like I was waiting in the back of a closet, sitting on lumpy shoes. Only there was no door to open, nothing I could do to get out. I'd never listened so carefully to something I didn't want to hear.

I was kind of impressed with this seagull. He didn't care that we were bigger than him. He didn't care that we were kicking at him. He didn't even move when we got up and ran right past him to buy our ice cream. That seagull had a sandwich and he was going to eat it. It was his playground and he wasn't going anywhere.
I never forgot that dumb bird.

FUCK YEAH.

HOLY SHIT.

Thanks go to Jillian -always aspiring- for finding it, but seriously, I really can't handle any more authors publicly making such fools of themselves. Goodreads stars are a personal rating system, they do not mean a book is worth a specific letter "grade."

People, I love you all, but I can't keep up with all of these PMs, notifications, and friend requests! Now I know how Wendy and Stephanie felt ... Must only create one scandal per year ...
Here, to tide you over, have some kitties:

First, Wendy was a bitch, now I'm a bully, a hater, and an ass. Just because we don't want to read or like your books doesn't mean you can take to Twitter and call us names. I can shelve my books any way I damn well please.

I was between Rachel and Charles. River was across from me, and His Lordship was next to her, looking amazing in the deep amber robe that he was probably wearing nothing underneath.
Rachel glanced at me. "Did you say something? Or stub your toe?"
"No." Must suppress stupid whimpers.

Reyn tilted his head slightly, looking at me. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You look—"
"Is that why you woke me up?" I said. "To comment on my appearance?" It was such a relief to be doing this, sparing pointlessly with the Viking god. As opposed to, say, seeing your former best friend burning all of your other friends in the forest.

An awful, awful book made worse by not even bothering with a real ending. Complete waste of time.

Sorry I'm starting late! Read-along with Cillian and Hana Joy.

I've been stuck with less than 10% left for over a week and I might finish tonight, if only so I can get it off my CR shelf to make room for Darkness Falls, which I'm starting tonight with Cillian.

Happy Paczki Day! If you ate one or have access to them, I FUCKING HATE YOU.

Anyone else on Pinterest? It's probably the dumbest thing for me to start pinning things, I need another time-waster like I need another hole in my head ...

If you're still spending so much time explaining things to your main character at this point, you're doing something wrong.

"Oh," Liesl said, and "Oh" again. There was a hollow feeling in her chest. The house, the pond, the tree—it was all both overwhelmingly familiar and different from what she remembered—smaller and shabbier, somehow. It was like waking up to find that your reflection in the mirror had aged overnight, or had sprouted a new mole: You were forced to admit that things changed, whether you gave them permission to or not.

"I really don't know what I would do without you," Liesl said, with a rush of gratitude, as they set off into the forest. "I don't know what I did without you. Now that we've found each other, you'll never leave, will you?"
Po did not answer, but Liesl took his silence for agreement, and was happy.

I wonder, who will be my super special 300th follower?

"The red ones are usually okay, but some people react more to them. It's the black ones that are really strong. You don't want to take them. Phew!" He tapped his head. "Like a bomb's gone off in your scone. Now, where's this meeting?"
Suki gave her fiercest stare, which came off a little weird as she hopped from one foot to the other and scratched her arms. "What's-it-to-you?"

...

WHAT AM I READING.

This book has so many characters, it's hard enough keeping them straight and now they're dyeing their hair and changing their names. And I feel like I've already forgotten everything I've read. WHAT IS GOING ON.

"What's hyper-reaction?" she heard someone ask.
"It happens when you cross the Spiral. Some get blissed out or real down. But it lasts ... like forever," answered the girl on one side of her. "Some even get it afterwards."

Uh ... huh. That answers ... that question?

"We aren't retarded," she said. "We are ..." She searched for the word. "Private."
"Is that why you don't go to school or to Council meets? Is that why you live in that stupid compound? Cos you're private."
Cal's sarcasm made Retra nervous. "We attend Face-School," she said.
"Face-School's weird, just talking to a teacher-head on a square box."

Talk about being thrown into the world head-first.