JJoyce Yu > Recent Status Updates

The most masterful writing I’ve ever read, amazing characters polished to a shine, the messy friendship, neighborhood, patriarchy, class struggles i don’t just read, but somehow relive through. I’m just in awe. Also currently reading an extremely mid (but highly acclaimed) dramione that’s all melodrama with no substance, in contrast these books seem so mundane but the reading is sensational. Bra freaking va.

Ok narrator is way too much of a doormat. Or is the self destructive behavior part of her response to the friendship/her insecurities? I can’t believe there’s 3 more books of this friendship Lila is the worst!!!! Also nostalgia over fuck that neighborhood lol.

Super enjoyable listen on our backpacking trip this weekend. Made the 80 degree and 15 mile days go by so fast! Lila is so toxic but I can’t help but be drawn to her... What she’s doing with nino is so inexcusable….

This author’s character studies are insane.. the way these characters and relationships morph through the narrative I can’t believe these aren’t real lived in people.. and all the while I still feel like I’m getting a glimpse of what my life would’ve been like if I never left my hometown.. and I was 3 continents and 5 decades away from her world.. Art really transcends!! I cannot wait to visit Naples.

Wild that the weather bureau guy literally hid Cuban alerts of the storm because he didn’t wanna be shown up by the Cubans. He made western Union ban weather cables from Cuba! I hate it here! Also turns out book is a lot easier to follow when I’m not catching 3 flights lol.

Restarting this book. Erik larson’s early works seem much weaker.. the amount of contextual details is too ahdh even for me.. instead of painting a picture it just takes me out of the main story. Can we stick with the storm. Or at least Isaac ._.

Part of the slowness is because I keep having to put down my kindle and pick up my phone to complaint to the group chat about the plot.

Loved this!! Def reading book two. Not even coerced to do that like with the ravens books haha. Secrets and masks is extremely slowly while I finished this one in two days lol

No more umvelts!

Lived up to the hype. It’s so good!

Read by Anthony palmini!!? If I’d known earlier I would’ve read this last year haha. Finally catching up with book club friends now tho

Masterful. Craving good writing after trying to catch up on s&m which is sooo midddd.

Love this as our road trip listen

(3/3) Also came to mind the Taylor swift lyric - I hate it here so I’ll go to lunar valley in my mind; where they found a better planet only the gentle survive. Even Machiavelli went from thinking the Borgias are evil and corrupt to admiring Cesare Borgia after Senigallia for his strength. What strength!! He’s just straight up evil!! This planet is so cooked.

(2/3) Also the part about the two teenage rulers of a Romagna city is almost exactly what happened to the MMC in my dark and depraved smut book. Art imitates life fr. I hate it here.

(1/2)The part about Cesare’s campaign in the Romagna is insane and very game of thronesque! The only thing I thought I knew about the Borgias (that Cesare and Lucretia had an incest relationship) was false but it’s still so much worse than I expected. I kinda get it now why Diana gabaldon keep insisting the rampant rapes of her characters are historically accurate cos damn. Things were brutal back then.

Still drowning in bad writing. Don’t know what I’m missing ._. Every page is agony to read man.

40% ._. When is it supposed to grow on me ._. I still hate these characterizations and the weak writing makes me wanna nitpick even more grrrrr

The most delightful book to listen to on drives with Alan

Me: take a break from weird smut book and read a serious history book
Serious history book: pope Paul II gorged himself on melons then got sodomized to death by one of his favorite page boys ._.

This book can’t hurt me cos I can’t feel!

Dumbness aside the way the characters and stories resonated with and matched my life is uncanny. I’m sure if I’m not Shut Down TM atm I’d be a puddle that will take years of therapy to get me out of. But alas I am Shut Down TM so I’ll just not process this. Just a poignant and painstaking read. A classic I’m glad I finally read. Like 100 years of solitude!

Sooo mid. And I hate these characterizations of d and h. I know I’m gonna get stockholmed into liking this fic eventually or the sad ending is gonna make me feel bad for everyone. But rn I’m rooting for nobody lol everyone is horrible in this fic!

So cool 🤩

This is a delightful read and I love reading it with Alan and going “taste with your butt?!” In unison in the car 😆