#the lessons

What others called sad for me was magic‼️

Mark said to me once, "She's like God to you: she inexplicably calms inexplicable fears".

Our Share of the Night by Mariana Enríquez - The imagination of the readers falls in love with some tragedies, to others it remains completely indifferent. || 5/5

I have nightmares often enough without reading stuff like this but here we are.

a simple story hidden in a complex narrative, so full of digressions and references that at some point it starts to create its own context, while remaining strongly connected with reality. It's incredibly good in a way that requires an analysis to explain.

I'm still hanged up on the fact that the hangman didn't cast a shadow. (the pun was not intended but now it's there for good)

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman - All you ever are is a reflection of other people. With Jess you were loyal, with me you’re dissolute. What are you really? Nothing. You’re all shadows and mirrors. All you’ve got is the power to ingratiate yourself with whoever you’re around, to make them like you. || 3.5/5

it's really hard to review this without the context of the secret history and all other similar stories, because on its own it's very undeveloped, shallow in the sense that it touches on very interesting ideas and explores them in a very simplified and schematic way. it's just another way to deconstruct the eerie idyll donna tartt created in the first part of tsh, cleverly written, the narrator is very verbose in a pleasant way, but ultimately the message is only really visible when bounced off of that context.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh - It was a foulness that refused to surrender to cleansing decay. Year on year it endured, throwing off poison in all directions, waiting in the dark, coiling itself into the fabric of the wood. || 3/5

a charming skeleton of a story

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht - They strolled through the city square, passing beneath the statue of Hallandrette, God-Queen of the northern ocean. She was wreathed in seaweed and barnacles, her skeletal hands held aloft as if she were clawing her way towards the surface. Johann didn’t know any of the stories behind the statue, but he always found it strange that the Queen of the Sea should be carved to look as if she were drowning. || 3.5/5

"dandy" is my favourite english word now (also „bauble”)

Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei || 3/5