š«
you are an astute reader of plotless, postmodern literary fiction. your tastes are erudite, intellectual, far above genre drivel that hits the nyt best sellers listāWRONG!!! iām hitting an imaginary buzzer and the floor drops from under you and you are now stuck in a SAW style torture chamber with nothing but a copy of The Likeness by Tana French. i am forcing you to read until you are ready to admit that thereās nothing quite like an irish detective novelāitās dark and twisty but perfectly paced, the suggestion of magic lightly touches each book, not the magic of fantasy but a magic of history carved into a lush landscape, of dark corners, of old manor houses and small stone cottages, of inherited feuds, and of prickly, strange and special characters. you will love tana french or iām never letting u outta this fucking cage okay
Apr 15, 2024
Related Recs
š
Evocative Irish settings, multi-dimensional character portraits, mystery, and lyrical storytellingā¦ happy October.
Oct 2, 2024
š
An ex-Chicago cop, Cal, decides to retire in some unknown town in Ireland where he can escape from his life in the US, and finally take a deep breath, drink some beers on his porch, and stare out into nothingness for the rest of his life. Needless to say things donāt go as planned, and you end up with a half mystery, half meandering tale about growing old and moving on from what has overtaken the charactersā lives. This was an awesome read, it was sometimes nail-bitingly stressful, and at other times relaxing and vibe-y.
Nov 12, 2020
š
I'm ridiculously behind and everyone has probably already read it. But I finished Gone Girl a couple weeks ago and absolutely loved it. The suspense, dual unreliable narrators, and strange intimacy you sense between them...phenomenal. You start by thinking Nick (the husband) doesn't know his wife at all and that he has just projected all his self-loathing onto her. Then you realize he wasn't entirely wrong and you didn't know Amy either. You don't know them but you do. They don't know each other but they do they do they do. The titular theme that you can never really know someone (yet you also can) summarized in these lines from the first page:
What areĀ youĀ thinking? How areĀ youĀ feeling? Who areĀ you? What have ... What haveĀ weĀ done toĀ each other?Ā What will we do?
*funny note 1: this was my 3rd attempt at reading Gone Girl over the past 4 years. every time i tried to read it i could never get to Amy's part because i just haaaaatedddd Nick so much i couldn't bear to be in his head any longer.
*funny note 2: my boyfriend was extra cautious around me and even a little anxious while i was reading LMAO
*sidenote: the movie was fine. i thought the pacing was a little fast, but understandable. what i didn't like was you didn't see any of Nick's internal monologue, so he just seems like a regular bum kind of a dick. when really he's like a huge piece of shit.
Jan 26, 2024
Top Recs from @booknotesblog
reading aloud to a friend or husband or partner is truly one of lifeās little joys. swapping chapters back and forth is the perfect activity for a day in the park, a rainy afternoon on the couch, before dinner after a long hike on a camping trip, or in bed. i particularly recommend doing this with something silly, like a 1970s pulp fantasy novel or 1950s teen romance from the discount bin of a used book store.
Apr 8, 2024
š
itās fun and youāll probably fall in love!!!!!
Apr 10, 2024
āļø
how exactly do you live on two different coasts? that sounds unreal expensive. two rents? two electric bills? flights back and forth all year? how much money do you make? jkāhow much did you inherit? listen, iām also embarrassed to be a media type in brooklyn, but the fact that i spend christmas and easter visiting my childhood home does not mean i āliveā in louisiana. be for real!
Apr 7, 2024