Read them all.. Then read the Casteel series and My Sweet Audrina. Just do it!

i also just read november 9 and i was completely disgusted - Ben is a disgusting creep and the “plot twist” made me feel like throwing up. And Fallon apologizes to him at the end for “judging him right away because he set the fire” Colleen Hoover is a terrible writer

Yeah, he’s not deaf, but he is mute. He speaks sign and she either knows it or learns it during the book, I can’t recall which.

I probably didn’t use the best example with that statement, what I meant was… I was attempting to show that if he’s entirely dependent on her and can’t do anything for himself then the relationship would any healthy, I definitely didn’t say that very well.

Thank you clarifying a bit. I was mostly reacting to your following statement:

>If he can’t hold a conversation (ability to speak not relevant) then generally speaking he shouldn’t be having sex.

This reads, to me, that someone who cannot articulate or express themselves in some way (speech, sign, writing) during an extended back-and-forth interaction should be excluded from sexual pleasure.

Having minimal experience interacting with people could result in language deprivation, and an inability to form meaningful and healthy connections with others. This I imagine is the explanation for his codependency (many deaf individuals are codependent, usually as a result of language deprivation and longterm isolation—though I know now that Archer is hearing, I can see many parallels from what I’m gathering here).

So I do get a sense of realism here, insofar as language and psychology. (But again, I have not read this book.)

Unequal power dynamics are more understandable as issues, especially in romances. From your description, I’m getting a sort of Jane Eyre and Rochester vibe (the ending, specifically).

These reviews are fantastic, lol. Only reason I know anything about these books. They sound batshit.

https://foreveryoungadult.com/book-report/flowers-in-the-attic-v-c-andrews/

I feel like this take misses what a lot of people find compelling about true crime: not its gore or faux intimacy but its cultural weight as a modern day cautionary tale, like an urban legend with some amount of reality behind it. This woman got killed, what red flags might she have missed or what mistakes might she have made that I, the reader/listener, can learn to avoid so that I also avoid her outcome? This person survived a dangerous situation, what good choices did they make that I can put in my own tool box to also survive a similar situation?

That is to say, for a wide swath of its audience the emotion is not lust or even bloodlust but fear. Fear tamed or made smaller by the acquisition or feeling of acquisition of knowledge.

I loved both books and managed to enjoy both films (because I watxhed it long after I read the sequel). What is most interesting is the change in the endings because of the change in The Shining's film ending.

Thanks for the rec, will add to my to-read list!

Of course, and I don’t disagree with that at all, but during the book Archer is very codependent, he’s been an ‘outsider’ for years and has minimal experience interacting. The FMC is one of very few personal relationships he actually has, and it’s very obvious that he’s dependent on her in many ways.

None of that in particular would suggest he’s not suited to a relationship, it’s more the dynamics between them when you actually read the book.

It’s been a while since I read it (a few months maybe), so it’s not super fresh in my mind, but I’m not saying he could never have a romantic/sexual relationship, but I definitely believe he wasn’t ready for one at that point.

He relied on her for everything, literally.

As I said in my other comment (or at least I think I did), I’m autistic and considered mentally disabled by my government, I know plenty of other people with mental disabilities with varying support needs due to support groups and such, and I have no doubt that most of them, if not all, are very capable of making their own decisions in relationships.

I don’t think I’m articulating this very well, but to summarise, he was far too dependent on her and the power dynamics in the relationship are very one-sided, it’s very obvious that she has all the power in the relationship and I don’t think their relationship was very healthy at all, especially since they entered a long term commitment after a few weeks, and seeing as she’s (from what i recall) the only person to have shown him that kind of love and affection.

i really hope it's nothing like the film, because that film was a snooze fest for me... no offense

I never read the whole Flowers in the Attic series, but I did read a number of VC Andrews books when I was a teenager. I didn’t realize at the time how completely bonkers they were—they were just weird and entertaining and a little scandalous. Now as an adult I’m like….wtf? But I guess I have to sort of admire anyone who can write such off-the-wall stories with such fervor.

Ig what I meant to say is I don't feel like I can tell whether or not I enjoyed those stories, bc they weren't finished so I can't know. I did in fact review the two traditionally published ones, and I transcribed parts of those reviews in this comment https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/119gk8k/what_do_you_generally_expect_of_published_books/j9mbjuu?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

I just wish that they'd actually been fully edited and finished projects, so I could judge whether or not I actually enjoyed them

The subject matter doesn’t really offend me, I just don’t think she’s a skilled or talented writer. I don’t know why people who really enjoy reading books are bothering with her stuff. It seems like her work is better suited to those who just want to consume something mindless and “thrilling” (but without any actual thrill.)

I DNFed at 100 pages. It was the densest novel I ever attempted to read.

I don’t understand the bit about not reviewing a book.

If a book that has been published is such poor quality that you think it should not have been published, surely you are entitled to give the book a bad review.

I really appreciate when people take the time to write a negative review - I only get to read ~20 books per year, so wasting a slot on a bad book is tragic.

My great grandfathers biography Nú brosir nóttin is a good book but sadly has not been translated yet

I agree, excellent book.

I haven’t read this yet, though it’s on my TBR list because to my understanding there’s a deaf character.

If it’s the case that Archer behaves like a child, it may be a symptom of language deprivation. People who did not have full access to language as children struggle to not only express themselves, but understand themselves and others. There’s a lot of literature about this in the field of deaf studies, which (if you’re interested) you might peruse Gallaudet University Press’s books.

As for mentally disabled or underdeveloped people having sex, I would point you to Alison Kafer’s chapter, “At the Same Time, Out of Time: Ashley X,” in her book Feminist, Queer, Crip. It deals with a very similar topic, whether a disabled person should be denied physical pleasure because abled people perceive it as a loss (or exploitation) of innocence.

EDIT: Just looked it up to be sure and as it turns out, there’s no deaf character. Removing it from my list.

But since I still don’t know the circumstances behind his disability and needs, I’ll leave my previous statements. If, for example, he doesn’t speak because he was abandoned in the woods as a baby and raised by deer, it would be language deprivation. (Unlikely, but you get the point, I’m sure.)

I’ll emphasize Kafer’s essay again. Whether due to a physical, mental, or developmental disability, people still have needs and desires, even if they cannot express themselves in the same way others can, etc.

one thing that really sped up my reading was a different mindset. learning to accept that i don't have to actually look at every word to understand what i'm reading took my speeds to a whole new level. i started with something i already knew and just flew over the sentences. think almost skim reading. pretty soon i started realizing that i am indeed grasping everything at noticeable higher speeds. and if not you can always go back.

not advised for authors with complicated structures or very involved prose.

I have not read The Passenger, but I've read ~5 other McCarthy books and enjoyed all of them and I'm always excited about McCarthy that I haven't read! How does it compare to his other works that you've read?

Hi there. This subject has been very popular in the past. Please use reddit search and/or check the /r/books/wiki/faq.

I really loved it, although I get why some readers and critics are put off. Definitely get those Pynchon / Delillo type conspiracy notes, although it does have some moments that are classic McCarthy prose: > They simply thought that the world had ended. It hardly even occurred to them that it had anything to do with the war. They carried their skin bundled up in their arms before them like wash that it not drag in the rubble and ash and they passed one another mindlessly on their mindless journeyings over the smoking afterground, the sighted no better served than the blind. The news of all this did not even leave the city for two days. Those who survived would often remember these horrors with a certain aesthetic to them. In that mycoidal phantom blooming in the dawn like an evil lotus and in the melting of solids not heretofore known to do so stood a truth that would silence poetry a thousand years. Like an immense bladder, they would say. Like some sea thing. Wobbling slightly on the near horizon. Then the unspeakable noise. They saw birds in the dawn sky ignite and explode soundlessly and fall in long arcs earthward like burning party favors.

Enjoy Stella Maris, it’s good reading too!

Sometimes I feel this way, because there are so many promising books in my TBR list. But it’s impossible. I tell myself I can put anything on my TBR list that I want and then read at the rate I read.

Oh you know what that makes a lot of sense, like we are so starved for stories that publishing houses are rushing things out bc they know it'll sell. And I feel like I've read some older stuff that's better (Song of Achilles, They Both Die at the End, The Fifth Season) but a lot of the more recent stuff is falling flat.

That's not an issue of speed, but of FOMO. Spend less time looking for new books to read and it'll die down a little (but never fully go away)