Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

This book is better by far than its predecessor. I'm glad I stuck with the series.

The flashbacky scenes to life in an era closer to our own are a nice addition to this series, though so far they just seem like A Handmaid's Tale fanfic.

It turns out the first book in this series was nowhere near memorable enough to stick with me until I picked up this sequel -- and it's only been three months.

"I have to introduce the part of me that feels like a winner to the part of me convinced I'm a loser and see if they can't agree to exist somewhere closer to the middle."

He won't even let her carry her own laundry basket. I hope this is at least building to Cath realizing what a jerk this boy is and dumping him, but so far there's no real sign of that.

It's weird that this author is genre-savvy enough to make a Bella joke when a character wakes up to find her roommate was watching her sleep, but doesn't call out similarly problematic behavior in said character's love interest.

I feel like this book's idealistic view of independent bloggers as trusted news sources was probably naive even in 2010, but it feels hopelessly outdated today.

Granted I only just started this book, but I'm having a really hard time rooting for the main characters so far. DON'T GO OUT ZOMBIE-BAITING IF YOU WANT TO LIVE. That's like rule 101.

Well, she kissed him. I'm not disappointed in Cath, since characters making poor decisions is fine and more or less expected. But I'm pretty disappointed in the author for basically condoning Levi's earlier ignoring of Cath's expressed boundaries.

And there's our obligatory Judas Coyne reference.

My favorite ridiculous Stephen King thing is when his characters reference movies based on his other books. So far in this novel we've had mentions of both Christine and IT.

I love it when speculative fiction authors make up new idioms to suit their invented cultures, and "water long lost to the sea" (in place of "water under the bridge") is particularly beautiful.

I really need this audiobook reader to stop pronouncing Myshkin like Cecil on Welcome to Night Vale pronounces Michigan.

I'm generally all about audiobooks, but I'm starting to think this one might be easier to digest in print. At the very least, it would probably be easier to tell all the Russian names apart that way.

"She reopened the book and began to read, but an aged man in violet robes so old they had faded to lavender entered the room and castigated her for touching the books. Despite the differences in language, age, and sex, his tone was a mirror of that of Uneshyl Pos, the librarian at the Women's College; for all librarians are the same librarian."

Nastasya, you can't just get engaged to someone you met earlier today. That's highly irresponsible.

"It's just laziness that makes people classify themselves according to appearances, and fail to find anything in common."

This jerk who keeps calling Cath by a name she doesn't like better not be a future love interest, I swear to God.

Yeah, I have serious issues with a TON of this book's claims. I've only got an hour left in the audiobook so I'll go ahead and finish up, but I'm pretty disappointed with how this book turned out, given it was so hyped for me ahead of time.

I appreciate the overall approach, but this book is riddled with ideological blind spots and bad data.

Thank you Kij Johnson for introducing the word "clowder" into my life. I didn't know how much I needed that until now.

I really wish the 'Year in Books' feature still showed more than just your 100 most recent titles. I submitted a support ticket when I first noticed the change and was told, "Right now it looks like this is expected behavior."

What is even the point of that? Who cares how many total pages etc. you've read just in your last 100 books, rather than for the whole year?

It's so tough to read about laws (and extralegal retribution) against interracial marriages like mine. It never becomes less of a gut-punch.

This has felt like a 2-star book right from the start, but I'm beginning to think it might be a 1-star instead.

This is such a quick read, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to finish it. Chapter 2 was less violent, but with more racism and a dash of antisemitism, all completely unexamined by both text and characters. Is this just another novel from a white author glorifying violence against black bodies?

This is such a quick read, but I'm still not sure if I'm going to finish it. Chapter 2 was less violent, but with more racism and a dash of antisemitism, all completely unexamined by both text and characters. Is this just another novel from a white author glorifying violence against black bodies?