Nate > Recent Status Updates

Doing a buddy read of this one and it’s thankfully markedly better than Gathering Prey, which seemed like on paper that it was gonna be fantastic but got bogged down in extremely long action sequences and too much time spent in the Juggalo subculture (gross.)

Okay, is it just me or is Sulla kind of the ancient world’s Thomas Ripley? Honestly, tell me if I’m wrong.

I know music and all the arts are completely objective and based on the individual experience of the person, but I really don’t get the concept of not liking “Mayor of Simpleton.”

It’s hardly gonna shake my faith in Colin as a Godlike Genius-level bass player, but it’s interesting that Andy was the one who wrote the lines on “Mayor of Simpleton” and “Vanishing Girl.”

I breathed a sigh of relief when they included at least one Dukes of Stratosphear tune. Also, I had to laugh at Andy’s story about reading the YouTube comments on “Dear God.”

The parts about the Colin/Terry breakup are honestly tragic. These dudes were obviously musical soulmates and only the most obnoxious boor would deny it.

They’re talking about Andy and Dave’s interplay and how ridiculously good it was—I had to breathe a sigh of relief when they mentioned “Love at First Sight” even though it was a Colin song...I dare ANYONE to name a song with better two-guitar action on it.

Feeling some jingoistic pain at the fact that “Statue of Liberty” was about Andy’s then-wife ironing clothes with her hair all fucked up rather than our giant French-given icon.

Reading this as kind of an antidote to the utterly macabre Shining Girls and it’s finally striking me that one of the things I enjoy the most about these books is how hedonistically focused on the senses they are—its all about food, beer, beautiful women, punching bad dudes in the face and that kind of thing.

So I’ve been really, really impressed with the author’s historical knowledge so far—but I can’t help but feel like she missed an opportunity in including Naked Raygun and not the almighty Big Black:

https://youtu.be/TKkUk7g0hR8

Ms. Beukes (or her editor) erroneously spells the American WW2 tank as “Stewart”, and because I’m a reasonable, even-keeled man without a trace of pedantry in his bloodstream I screamed, stood up and threw the book in the trash before setting it alight.

Harper is a well-adjusted, well-meaning, altruistic and gentle young man.

This is really stupid but every time I look at the title of this book this song plays in my head:

https://youtu.be/FDX-LLNoZEY

Uhh...was that a fucking Ellroy connection? This is getting weirder and weirder.

This is giving me horrible anxiety, both because it’s getting really tense and because I’m relatively concerned about Uncle Stephen sticking the landing...

This one’s gonna make me (manfully) weep, isn’t it guys.

‘He filled two mugs with whiskey, and I’d hate to guess how many times I had mixed the two—caffeine to enliven the mind, alcohol to silence the soul.’

Matt...just why, bro. That move made less sense than any you made when you were still liberally splashing Bushmill’s in your coffee.

So far no appearances from anyone even resembling the absolutely fucking heinous characters from the previous three novels which is kind of a relief. As much as I love a good villain Block really came up with remarkably vile people for a while there.

This one is more Scudder and his relationships than case so far, which would usually bother me with a mystery novel but I honestly don’t care when it comes to Block. It’s always gonna be obnoxiously great writing.

Reading this while the Corporate Ghost dvd plays in the background on loop ‘cause I’m neurotic and working from home. It’s honestly equally disappointing (read: Thurston) and revelatory. I love the stuff about Karen Carpenter and it makes watching the video for “Tunic” five times a day really moving.

I’m filming every shot in my head like Akira-san taught me to.

“Great book so far, Mr. Abercrombie—but I gotta say the cherry on top is you resurrecting the term ‘quim’!”

-No One Ever

There’s some long-running crime series I really love where I don’t really connect or care for when they’re doing relationship shit—for instance, I’ve never been moved by Bosch’s relationships. But Bosch is no Elvis Cole! His dynamic with Lucy is painful and real and meaningful.

Fucking WHAT??!

It’s honestly pornographic, uncouth, and grossly narcissistic to describe how I feel when I read these books.

Yeah, this is initially another Lunatic-Attacks-House-Davenport novel but it blossoms beautifully into a Sudden Prey Part II: Electric Boogaloo-type situation. The author himself can’t resist comparisons and I don’t blame him, even after the stillborn aforementioned story reboot from Wicked Prey.

Anyone else hate that stupid-ass fuckin’ Marilyn Monroe quote that Goodreads circulates? It’s unbelievably asinine and out of touch. My gods, the woman was beautiful but hardly an intellectual guiding light. She was in several utterly shit films, died grew infamous from her flagrant association with the Kennedys and suddenly she’s a fucking American light tower guiding us in from the cultural storm?

Reading this aforementionedly-vandalized copy of this novel is actually turning out to be kind of hilarious, like an edited-for-tv version of a Davenport novel for USA in the late 90s but with brutal murder. It’s very neurotic in a uniquely American fashion—cold graphic murders of man and beast are fine, but God forbid someone say “blowjob”.

FINALLY some grade-A psychos. We had plenty last book and the duo in this one are deliciously deranged. There’s a lot of Rich People Shit in this one but it’s forgivable because the plot is so juicy.