Life’s A Bitch, Now So Am I

i honestly thought that this was a really great adaptational use of the big scene in merrick wherein louis has merrick summon claudia's spirit and she gives him such a filthy read and is just full of boundless rage at both of them but louis specifically that he tries to commit suicide and that also brings in some of the language that she uses about manipulating and controlling him in her diary (explored in both QOTD and merrick, but very explicitly, in the books she saw him as her slave and her father and her companion and that makes things very complicated).

where i do think this scene is iffy is when she uses "nappy-headed" and calls him a slave a *second time*. i feel like the line about that being etched on his rib was both cruel enough and evocative of claudia's private thoughts in the novel. those were parts where i wonder if there could have been other cruel and cutting things for claudia to say instead, like let's keep it visceral ("black queen" was something i'll give them flowers for because of the cruelty) because she's raging and trapped alone in an endless void without madeleine but like idk about some of the phrasing.