Reading Recap: August '25

 

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

I absolutely devoured this over the course of 48 hours on my annual camping trip. I knew the major themes of the book, but I managed to stay mostly spoiler free which I think is a big part of my rating. Flynn gracefully straddled the line of having her book be direct enough to zip through, yet vague enough that your imagination wanders. With such an unreliable narrator, who knows what really happened? Her descriptions are unexpectedly disgusting. I need to read it five more times.

    Another aspect Flynn killed (haha) was the reveal. I won't spoil it, but she did a great job of setting it up and still including something refreshing. Every character is written with empathy even if they seem cartoonishly evil at times. It feels a lot like the grown up version of V.C. Andrews, which is probably why I like it so much. / ★★★★½

Reading Recap: July '25

 

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

It's complicated: while the plot didn't pull me in like Tartt's other novels, Harriet is the protagonist I relate to the most. Tartt understands that the terror of childhood comes from a lack of autonomy—this is a horror story. She also does an amazing job of creating a character that's genuinely annoying while making the audience sympathize with her. Harriet sucks and there's no world where she doesn't because all 12-year-old outcasts locked in their childhood home-turned-crypt suck (not that I'm speaking from experience).

    The evolution of Tartt's writing style is strange. The Secret History and the Goldfinch have essentially the same format, with a male protagonist reflecting on his past and telling it to the reader as he sees fit. The Little Friend's narrator is everywhere and nowhere, presumably because Harriet is incapable of knowing everything happening, and that's not a good or bad thing about the book, it just is. I hope Tartt focuses more on female characters in her upcoming novel. There's a sense that she as the narrator looks down on them (or shuns them—Donna when are you transitioning) that makes her male protagonists misogynistic, but her female protagonists multidimensional. Weird women and girls make the world go round./ ★★★★

PotD #8: Music for Voice

Music for Voice
Kim Ok, 1923

Reading Recap: June '25

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

A problem I face with books I don't like is justifying their flaws as "stylistic." The pacing felt weird, but isn't that because Dylan admitted his childhood consumed everything that came after? It was derivative of Kavalier and Clay's Brooklyn comic book utopia and Toni Morrison's blend of metaphor and fantasy, but that's unfair to the book. Nothing is original.

    I think at a certain point, I have to admit that it didn't work for me, but I still appreciate what it's trying to do. My actual criticism is how clunky a lot of the sentences are. I caught upwards of a dozen typos and grammatical errors, and that's just sloppy. The alternating sidesteps and acknowledgements of racism and stereotypes seemed odd until I realized how much of the book is autobiographical. That doesn't fix all of the book's issues, but it explains some of the strange stances it takes and the weirdness he acquired (or had to already have) during his time at Bennington. Lethem is sharing his own childhood, so of course it's going to be biased and vague. Even if he hates where he came from, he can't stop loving it. / ★★

Essential Riverdale Edits

A couple of years ago I burned a DVD of all of the Riverdale edits I had reblogged at some point in my Riverdale career. A lot of great content has been made since then, and while mindlessly updating the edits folder on my hard drive, I got to thinking. Which edits are fundamental to my viewing of Riverdale?

 

This isn't me saying that these are the only good edits or these are my favorites. I have plenty of others that I watch over and over again. The edits I've chosen are special because they shaped the way I watch the show. If you want to see more edits I've enjoyed, visit my Tumblr, or, you know, spend the majority of your teenage years on the front lines like I did.

PotD #7: Obedience School

Obedience School
Jim Daniels, 2021

Reading Recap: April-May '25

 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Something I took for granted in the past was authors being able to create multiple distinct pieces of work. As much as I wish Tartt finished books quicker, it's worth it when the outcome is this iconic. Not only do the timeskips not anger me, I can see their worth in separating the moods of the books. There must have been an insane amount of research that went into this, from major plot points to minute background details, and you can tell. Theo Decker is a real person. I wish I had read this back in 2019 when Donna Tartt Mania was making its way around Tumblr, and I have a million thoughts about what the movie could've been, but at the end of the day this is a beautiful stand alone piece of writing that invites its audience to read between the lines. The book is only half the story. / ★★★★½

Reading Recap: January-March '25

 

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

For some reason, the beginning of the year struck me as the perfect opportunity to pick up reading again. I used to be the type of kid to go through a new book each day, but as I'm sure you've noticed, for the past few years all of my spare time has been dedicated to watching as many movies as possible. So it comes as no surprise that when I went to the book store, I singled out books that had been made into movies. I love the movie, but this type of story is made for print. You need to be able to flip back and forth to keep track of the one million characters. Chandler has an undeniable way with words, which was a breath of fresh air after the 70s misogynistic detective shlock I've dabbled in. I appreciate that it works as a standalone because at the end of the day, Chandler knows his place. He is perfecting the genre, not reinventing it. / ★★★★

Edit: I Still Have Everything You Gave Me

"I Still Have Everything You Gave Me"

Naomi Shihab Nye

 

Edit: A Poem is a Place

"A Poem is a Place"

Isabelle Correa