Renata Sancken

I didn't know much about this book when I picked it up-I was just like, “Oh, new Kristin Cashore book? I'm IN” and then I was like “WHOA it's set in my backyard!” and then I was like “uh oh it's set in 2020??” And skimming through the GR reviews I saw a bunch of people like, “I don't want to read about 2020, it was bad” and like. Yeah. It was bad. But this is such a good emotional time capsule of things that were not that long ago but I'd already forgotten stuff like, when everyone was taking 6 feet apart really seriously and like going for a walk and putting your mask on if another person approached, and just the deep anxiety of feeling the slightest potential symptom of anything.

And then the dread of the election, and the days before it was announced, and how unseasonably hot it was that day (in the Boston area anyway)... yes, this is how it was. I mean I didn't have any magical realism encounters with talking birds or anything, myself, but other than that, that's how it was.

And adding in the teen-ness of it all and how extra awful it must have been to miss out on those high school/college times...oof! Powerful.

And I loved the non-linear narrative and getting to see Wilhelmina's past moments.

Just a really powerful coming of age, coming of COVID story. Not going to be everyone's cup of tea but whew. I have to imagine it will especially mean a lot to young adults who were in high school during COVID.

I checked this out from the library twice (had to return it bc of the waitlist) and never made it beyond like chapter 6 because reading it made me feel SUCH secondhand embarrassment that I wanted to claw my eyes out. Which I do feel like is the intended effect and well done to Miranda July for achieving it but when I remembered that I simply did not have to finish reading this I felt SUCH relief.

oh fuck this was so good but so scary!!!! i didn't know it was going to be so scary!!!! ahh!!!

I understand that some people like scary things??? but it just kind of gives me a stomachache. But I loved all the characters and the mystery and the historical detail so much that I stuck it out through the GENUINE TERROR.

the audiobook is phenomenal too, great voices for all the characters. Highly recommended for your next 15-hour drive.

I also love the diversity, taking full advantage of the 1920s NYC setting–not just white flappers but also the Harlem Renaissance, and how those worlds do and don't interact. And also ghosts ahhhh

Also for me I thought the use of 20s slang was like, just enough, but not so much to be annoying. The cat's particulars!

I really wish I had read this book in school, or at least that I had an annotated edition. I feel like I was definitely missing out on some shit. But I'm glad I read it; Rushdie's prose is wonderful and I'm still thinking about the book after finishing it. Plus any book that earns the author a death sentence deserves to be read by me. I'd definitely like to revisit it again armed with some supplemental material.