Jonathan > Recent Status Updates

writing style is too obnoxious, dnf-ing this right here

style might catapult me right out of this book, let's see

ah now this is shaping up to be a fun read >-<

owned this as a child, don't recall anything. painful that my dhana is daine in english... so far seems rather run of the mill children's fantasy, although i do enjoy how many women are present here, just not how the worldbuilding is delivered. the fun fact: preferred this series to alanna's, girls crossdressing has always been painful for me to read about. let's see about the age gap (hated it as a kid lmao)

my neither tried nor tested theory about shirley jackson is that she derives most horror from isolation (fantasies?), and that's why i'm immune to the kind of horror she writes. this book didn't scare me in the least. didn't enjoy it anywhere as much as we have always lived in the castle, went in with the wrong mindset of the horror as debatable, found the men annoying. eleanor and theodora... yeah i felt that :( :(

enjoying this less than we have always lived in the castle so far but hmm i think it's just that haunted houses and the is it real or no part isn't all that intriguing to me

finally putting this here as it's invisibly tucked away in my mobile bookmarks so i keep forgettting to read more of it

so far not as terrible as the (obviously?) outdated language about trans people would make one assume. i actually appreciate that the author isn't narrowing lesbian down to cis woman for cis woman but goes as far as to include lesbians who have sex with men, as much ire as this seems to draw. i am primarily reading this for fic research purposes,,,

my other issue with this book is that it depicts nazis as brute monsters who are [insert ableist slur of choice insulting intelligence]. as right as he may be about everything else, i'm too tired for this. that aside, i don't think books about nazis need to be written without letting one's anger over how they destroy societies show, so this criticism doesn't ring true for me. will we ever get rid of the afd though

still as disturbing (gross) as bleak, and the contrast to the art now amuses me. the lack of commentary in reviews on aurora not being a sympathetic character is very interesting... aware this is supposed to be understood in the frame of death, but it feels more like a book about growing up to me, losing instincts, traits, attitudes to the whims of the life one is subjected to. the book can stay for another few years

not gay enough, sadly (i know it was scandalous). loved the premise, did not enjoy conflation of cruelty with ugliness; dorian could have lived his life aging in grace & beauty, unsuspected, despite how terrible of a person he was without the painting. a lot of this felt like padding (which it seems it was?), and the pacing seemed off due to it. ending felt too dogmatic about the book's message :/ fic was also eh :/

major issues with this book: author resorts to nicknames for many of the party members, which makes distinguishing them hard. i also have issues distinguishing recounts of current events from those of nazi germany, due to how nazi germany language is applied to current events (and also it being an audio book?). third: it's rather obvious this man isn't running in feminist/anti-racist circles, to the book's detriment

... may need a shelf for 'books that make me sort of suicidal'

... guess who forgot why they didn't touch wilde for many years (it's the antisemitism, good grief). that aside i do not recall any of this at all, it's not even ringing a faint bell, so i must have never read it before?

rereading so i can read a fic based on it and judge its execution informedly (the things i do for fic (but also i haven't read it in twenty years so naturally remember nothing at all))

i really am fascinated (again, surely) by the slow development and deepening of her writing. this one, too, isn't a favourite, but it builds towards the books that are so dear to me.

very happy my friend was interested in reading them so i get to reread them too this year ;u;

... realised too late that this doesn't work for me as an audiobook :/

why am i still here TT

picking this one back up. surprisingly amusing, and touching in how it navigates a grieving and jaded gay character so far. would need a slice of life tag on ao3 which also amuses me, but it meanders in ways that lend it a kind of depth i need to work on in my own writing

i do question if i have any sense of someone building intrigue at all since i am usually not a quitter of books and tend to read faster the less i enjoy one. it's not an enjoyable experience. my notes on her short story collection said 'determined to never read her again', should have stuck to it. it's a tangle of me simply not liking her, the middle class vibes of it all and the walls kept intact btw author & reader

interrupting a memoir about a topic as difficult as emotional abuse with pop culture references and factual stories about domestic abuse that escalated to murder distorts its focus. there's a lot of reluctance to bare herself as expected of a memoir. i think the closest this book came was a mention of why people like to live close to volcanoes, as in this gf, but there's near zero about this inner conflict otherwise.

tone is far more casual than imagined, speaks too broadly about issues so far which makes it uninteresting, tries to be funny, lacks also the urgency and bite that e.g. ed zitron has on this exact topic. 2026 will be the year i drop books that don't introduce anything new to me, so...

idk that i enjoy this book, maybe because it often takes the tone of a lecture for the uninitiated...? (those refusing the possibility of violent/abusive women at large and queer women in particular). idk it's strange i'll have to think about it some more

such tiny chapters

wish gr let you make a checklist of books to read in one year. in other words i need to read tove jansson's true deceiver rather urgently but i'll have to buy a used copy and cannot make up my mind whether to read it in german or english ;-; i know the german translator might take some of its shine off, unsure about the english one's capabilities. how do people decide these things (<- person who never reads samples )

"geumbok's long-dormant sensuality and passion were slowly beginning to awaken. now that her chest had swelled and puffed like an angry blowfish and her rear had grown even more shapely, [...] her young, fresh womb was now desiring the genes of a stronger man." wasn't even the worst description. what makes you think i was interested in anything you had to say about women if you describe them this way. she's 13-14 btw

mildly pleasant prose in the first chapter immediately overshadowed by the most atrocious descriptions of all female main characters. might go on the dnf pile because damn is it disgusting