reading SOME DESPERATE GLORY by emily tesh, a book which many have said contains an 'extremely unlikable' main character. you're all cowards. i'm four chapters in and she hasn't even committed a war crime. skill issue.
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this story is clearly and transparently a redemption narrative about healing from fascism, to which i say: what are they doing to our beautiful evil women. at least let her break some geneva conventions before she heel turns to fight injustice or whatever.
sep 1, 2025, 2:05 am • 0 0 • view
this book about fascism, homophobia and forced breeding programs is really uninterested in showing me the horrors of said things, just informing me that they are bad. mc even had a moment of going 'does everybody i know dislike me?? bc i am a fascist????'
sep 1, 2025, 3:15 am • 0 0 • view
i guess i just feel like if you're not evoking horror with your depiction of [insert human rights violation], why are you writing it? i know it's bad. i can be told it's bad by anyone. but your book can make me FEEL that horror. why are you pulling your punch?
sep 1, 2025, 3:16 am • 0 0 • view
to be clear, i'm sure there are ways to write about these horrible things in a non-horror way. but often i find these subjects written in a way that doesn't evoke... anything. not horror, not horniness, not a secret third thing, just an acknowledgement that they are bad & that they happen(ed)
sep 1, 2025, 3:17 am • 0 0 • view
to which i say, write nonfiction then. write ya. write children's media about horrible topics so that children can experience them in a non horrifying way-- that's an important thing art can do. but i am an adult. take the training wheels off.
sep 1, 2025, 3:18 am • 2 0 • view
feeling normal about it. app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/3cf3...
sep 1, 2025, 7:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Sometimes I get the vibe that when people say a character is unlikable, they don't mean the character does things that are emotionally challenging and uncomfortable to read about. It means that the character is Problematic.
sep 1, 2025, 7:51 pm • 1 0 • view
100%. 'i would not like them in real life!' me neither that's why it's a BOOK
sep 1, 2025, 7:57 pm • 2 0 • view
For a lot of people reading is extremely performative and public and in that context, sure, I'd also want to reassure people that I'm reading The Turner Diaries out of morbid curiosity and historical interest and not because I like the protagonist and want to have a beer with him.
sep 1, 2025, 8:25 pm • 1 0 • view
There's many reasons I don't advertise what I watch and read, mostly because all of it is shit, but that's a big reason too. What am I reading? None of your business, cop.
sep 1, 2025, 8:25 pm • 1 0 • view
I heard the same thing and I just finished the book and WHAT THE HECK WAS UNLIKEABLE?!? She was in a fascist cult and needed to go through deprograming on her own. People either didn't read past the first few chapters or didn't read it at all. LOL My favorite read this year so far by far.
sep 2, 2025, 4:19 pm • 1 0 • view