i love whatever’s wrong with rosencrantz and guildenstern

okay if i’m going to be honest, this is starting to drag. when i first started great big beautiful life i was excited and i genuinely felt motivation to read it! i had hopes and expectations. now i’m 50% in and it’s really not giving what i want it to.

i think my main issue is the fact that it feels like nothing is happening. i don’t know anything new about margaret, the relationship between hayden and alice feels stilted, and i still have no idea what’s the problem between alice and her mother. i’m at the fifty percent point and i’m starting to care less and less about the characters. and that sucks because i love the plot they’re all participating in.

i don’t know, i’m debating if i want to push through or not. does it get any better? is there only one way to find that out?

imagining daniel day-lewis as hamlet is making this experience better tbh

i honestly picked this up at the perfect time. i had no idea this would be a good companion read with my marion davies biography but it is! reading about a fictional newspaper tycoon (clearly based on citizen kane and w.r. hearst) after reading about the real (alleged) charles foster kane fits right in. it’s like i’m rewatching the film and relearning the history i already knew. clearly the relationship between gerald and nina is different but w.r. and marion davies fell in love the same way. i don’t know, i just think it’s kind of neat that i unintentionally read two related books!

although i’m enjoying what i’ve read from this book so far, i only have one true complaint (if you can even call it that), the mystery surrounding tucker’s character is starting to get a little excessive.

we’re 100+ pages in and all i can get from his character is “i told myself i’d never come back here. i have so much history here. in this place. where i lived. i will keep my past to myself and not even the reader will know.” it’s like... come on! i know i’ll inevitably get his backstory as i read more (and i understand the intended slow-burn) but he keeps alluding to his past and i feel indifferent. i want to understand tucker but the writing isn’t giving me anything. it’s frustrating, which, again, is probably maggie stiefvater’s intention but still.