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"What she wanted now was to frighten him with her own flesh, with what he had rejected; to make him feel ashamed the way he made her feel ashamed."
Chosen for Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge - "an Oprah Book Club selection".
To set the scene: we're in the midwest United States, in the 1970s. Ellen, James and their two children move back in with James's parents after he loses his job. He seems content to stay there, oh, forever, and Ellen could not conceive of anything worse. Their relationship, which we come to find out was only pushed to such a permanent state due to the impropriety of being stuck overnight together in a car during a blizzard, is barely existent. Ellen is so desperately unhappy; her mother-in-law Mary-Margaret is frail and bitter and caustic, her father-in-law has an explosive temper and quick fists.
Ansay does her best to nudge you toward one view of Mary-Margaret (awful) through Ellen and her daughter's points-of-view, and then turns it around so we can get a glimpse of what it's like to be Mary-Margaret, with a Level Four Tragic Backstory. Don't get me wrong, it's terrible (child death and domestic abuse and marital rape), but I found it difficult to feel anything more than vague pity because she was still inflicting emotional pain onto others with her behavior in the present narrative.
Ellen is troubled and depressed and angry and apathetic, all of which comes in waves. She finally learns some Real Truths about her husband's family (see: Tragic Backstory) and this, in the end, is when she is finally able to come to a decision for her own family. It is a very bittersweet ending, with only the slightest bit of hope to cut through the bleakness of the overall tone of the novel. I didn't dislike it, but god, was I ever sad after it ended.
Chosen for Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge - "an Oprah Book Club selection".
To set the scene: we're in the midwest United States, in the 1970s. Ellen, James and their two children move back in with James's parents after he loses his job. He seems content to stay there, oh, forever, and Ellen could not conceive of anything worse. Their relationship, which we come to find out was only pushed to such a permanent state due to the impropriety of being stuck overnight together in a car during a blizzard, is barely existent. Ellen is so desperately unhappy; her mother-in-law Mary-Margaret is frail and bitter and caustic, her father-in-law has an explosive temper and quick fists.
Ansay does her best to nudge you toward one view of Mary-Margaret (awful) through Ellen and her daughter's points-of-view, and then turns it around so we can get a glimpse of what it's like to be Mary-Margaret, with a Level Four Tragic Backstory. Don't get me wrong, it's terrible (child death and domestic abuse and marital rape), but I found it difficult to feel anything more than vague pity because she was still inflicting emotional pain onto others with her behavior in the present narrative.
Ellen is troubled and depressed and angry and apathetic, all of which comes in waves. She finally learns some Real Truths about her husband's family (see: Tragic Backstory) and this, in the end, is when she is finally able to come to a decision for her own family. It is a very bittersweet ending, with only the slightest bit of hope to cut through the bleakness of the overall tone of the novel. I didn't dislike it, but god, was I ever sad after it ended.
The Devil in the White City (Abridged): Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Rounded up 3.75 stars.
Larson took his staggeringly huge bibliography and put it into very engaging terms; The Devil in the White City reads more like fiction than just another dry recounting of history. Unfortunately, for me, where he fell short was his enthusiasm to just add everything. It became meandering at times when I wanted a more straight-forward story, the story of the World's Fair of 1893 that happened concurrently with the activity of famed murderer H.H. Holmes.
What did I learn? That committees will run anything into the ground as long as there's a decision involved. That no one appreciates landscape architecture. That Chicago really was as gross as Upton Sinclair made it seem. And if you were born as Herman Webster Mudgett, you might as well become a serial killer. What a name.
The White City had drawn men and protected them; the Black City now welcomed them back, on the eve of winter, with filth, starvation and violence.Chosen for POPSUGAR's 2018 reading challenge - "true crime".
Larson took his staggeringly huge bibliography and put it into very engaging terms; The Devil in the White City reads more like fiction than just another dry recounting of history. Unfortunately, for me, where he fell short was his enthusiasm to just add everything. It became meandering at times when I wanted a more straight-forward story, the story of the World's Fair of 1893 that happened concurrently with the activity of famed murderer H.H. Holmes.
What did I learn? That committees will run anything into the ground as long as there's a decision involved. That no one appreciates landscape architecture. That Chicago really was as gross as Upton Sinclair made it seem. And if you were born as Herman Webster Mudgett, you might as well become a serial killer. What a name.
Down one half-star because I was rooting for a Ben/Chon/O poly situation. Loved it despite this lack.
"If you're going to be a criminal—know the fucking law, asshole."
I didn't expect this to be so funny.
"If you're going to be a criminal—know the fucking law, asshole."
I didn't expect this to be so funny.
This was a struggle.
Yalo/Daniel is very bad at being a person and it shows.
Yalo/Daniel is very bad at being a person and it shows.
Boy, he sure does hate poor people, huh? Really took the worst parts of his childhood equated it with the whole region's culture.
Alone, at midnight, is definitely the best way to experience Poe; his style evokes such an otherworldly creepiness. The literal and metaphorical fall of the House of Usher is gothic af.
The estate: "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime."
The last of the Ushers: "The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face."
The curtains: "The dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed."
Nothing is safe from a dramatic retelling.
The estate: "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime."
The last of the Ushers: "The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face."
The curtains: "The dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed."
Nothing is safe from a dramatic retelling.
Chosen for the POPSUGAR challenge "a book with an ugly cover". Graphically, it is ugly and Trump's face fills me with disgust on a visceral level. Perfect.
"The president fundamentally wants to be liked," was Katie Walsh's analysis. "He just fundamentally needs to be liked so badly that it's always ... everything is a struggle for him."
Review to come, once I can swallow my revulsion.
"The president fundamentally wants to be liked," was Katie Walsh's analysis. "He just fundamentally needs to be liked so badly that it's always ... everything is a struggle for him."
Review to come, once I can swallow my revulsion.
The best part was the portrait a little girl (who had visions of heaven) did of Jesus at age 8. It was beautiful; she is truly talented.
As for the book itself? Meandering and not particularly put together well. I wish that Mr. Burpo had found a better editor, because I feel like his message isn't as poignant as it could have been.
As for the book itself? Meandering and not particularly put together well. I wish that Mr. Burpo had found a better editor, because I feel like his message isn't as poignant as it could have been.
A man comes between two sisters who believed themselves fairly firmly "on the shelf". It does not end well.