#swampland

June 2026

Where the fairy tales live🍄

a quiet place

November 30, 2024:

This one gave me a LOT to think about, but a month later I'm still having trouble parsing my thoughts about it. The ending(s) really threw me for a loop, because the book is much more complex than I first gave it credit for (I was giving it credit to begin with!) The best non-spoiler way I can describe it is multifaceted: if I change my perspective by even a small degree, the whole view changes. That's fascinating.

The main highlight of the book is the povertycore aesthetics (even I'm upset at myself for writing that phrase, don't worry). The house where this family lives is DISMAL, everything is at least a little bit gross, the despair, the disrepair, the entrapment, the fighting, the awful acceptance-- that's the star of the show here. You could argue it's over the top at times. And if you've never glimpsed the psychology of Generational Dirt Poor, you'd straight up call it absurd.

You'd say "No one would ever--" You'd say "How could someone...?" You'd say "Why don't they just ___?"

If you want characters in horror to make sensible decisions in their own best interest, keep walking, this book will make you tear your hair out. Everyone here is doing just the worst thing for themselves, and they're doing the best they can. This is a tragedy, and the flavor of horror you've signed up for is Sad.

Fauna of the marshes.