Andreas > Recent Status Updates

Okay I think maybe I was a bit harsh - the story is picking up, and the history is interesting, important and devastating in equal measure. I think I just don’t vibe with the writing style

I’ve been ‘reading’ this book for over a month and it’s kind of a drag, which is a shame, because how do you manage to make the weimar era dull? Clearly a ton of research went into it and I will finish it but ugh

I’ve reached the trans character! I actually love him (was expecting worse trans rep from murakami lol). Honestly liking this book quite a bit

Trying a murakami book for the first time in about a decade, and I totally forgot what a weirdo he is when it comes to writing women & sex. Sure why not have a 18-20 year old woman jerk off 15 year old kafka, afterward saying that it would be nice if she were his lost sister 😐

I was promised gay soldiers - where are the gay soldiers?? Realising I’m not very interested in wwii history and war stuff from a british perspective

Back on my gay priest shit! This looks super promising already 👀

I’ve been slightly fixated on the vatican and priest stuff after watching conclave & decided it was the perfect time to tackle this behemoth of a book - very interesting so far, but my god, I’ve been reading it for well over a week and I’m only on page 106…. will I ever finish this….

noooo I spoke too soon. cringiest sex scene ever, and they’ve moved to trusting each other and fucking WAY too quickly, especially given that I still have 260 pages of this thing left

I was seduced by a stunning special edition of this book, and so far it’s not too bad given that it is a stucky AU with the names switched out lol

Why am I struggling so hard with all names omg. I feel just like my slovak grandma when she complained that agatha christie novels are too confusing for her with all the foreign names

Ah how I love the gay naval officers suffering on ships genre

Two chapters in and I feel like this definitely needed an extra round of editing ☹️ sticking at it, but I hope the writing gets better

Man this book has the blandest writing style and the most cardboard characters ever. Major disappointment. Thought it would get me out of a reading slump and be appropriately halloweeny but ugh

Holy shit this is GOOD! I’ve been very excited for this book for ages, and I was worried it wouldn’z live up to my expectations, but I’m loving it so far

I love all the different characters and stories in this so far! Unsurprisingly I’m absolutely feral for Daniel/Armand (the main reason why I decided to read this book after watching s2 of iwtv), but the history of the Talamasca & Jesse, and Kyahman - so many new characters aaa! Anne Rice ily <3

Please slap me next time you see me buying a ya book, no matter how gay or trans it might be. It’s not bad it’s just so painfully ya

Actually in love with this book - best 36 dollars I ever spent on ebay

Why am I not loving this as much as I hoped I would!!! It feels too insta-love-y!! I sure hope it gets better

OBSESSED with this. As a gay trans man who had my own teenage period of being a “girl” who is totally obsessed with anything gay men related, I feel the flashback scenes on a visceral level fhjdksk

HOW did Gene go from hating Luis to being head over heels for him this fast. Arghhh why am I not enjoying this… the trans aspect is written so well but the romance :((((

Also like Luis is OBVIOUSLY autistic and Gene is being a bit insufferable and their conflict just seems so manufactured to create tension aaaa

……hate to say that I’m not enjoying this as much as I had hoped, and that’s after I went all in and bought the fancy illumicrate edition, rip. Idk what I expected given that I literally could not care less about baseball or sports - I guess I had hoped that the gay trans romance would carry it, but so far I’m really not feeling it.

Absolutely living for this - combines my love for 1800s arctic exploration & survivalist cannibalism with truckloads of homoeroticism

“This is too YA for me” I complain, consciously choosing to read a YA book

Yeahhh so I’m 30 pages in and finding this book really annoying so far. Something about the writing style. I’m glad I took this on a flight which is probably going to force me to finish it. Update in 2-3 hours lol

I am legally obliged to buy every single trans horror anthology I came across, but damn this one has more duds than expected.

On the first page and already asking myself whether I can read an entire book about a trans man being constantly misgendered without throwing it at the wall. Yes I want to read about the only famous czech trans man in history but ARGH

I think the reason why I like Baoxiang more than Zhu despite the fact that they’ve both done terrible things is because Baoxiang actually seems to feel shame over them. Baoxiang has regrets, and has to work hard to convince himself that what he’s done is worth it - but for Zhu, despite her not taking pleasure in suffering, everything no matter how terrible is justified.

Going absolutely FERAL for whatever it is Zhu and Ouyang have

This is probably going to be my final read of 2023 and so far, absolute banger. Shelley Parker Chan writes emotions SO well. I love-hate all the characters so much aaaaa