at times a bit of a slog, very confusing and a lot of characters. but the ending was good, and if anyone had told me there was a queer relationship at the centre of this story my god i would’ve read it way faster. only by finishing and performing a quick google search did i learn the wonderful news. may watch the movie next.

Things Fall Apart is undoubtedly a great book, but I have to be honest: I didn’t get much enjoyment out of reading it. The sheer number of names made it hard for me to keep track of characters, and I often struggled to follow the story as a result. I also found myself unsure of the relevance of certain digressions, like the several pages devoted to minor characters’ backstories that didn’t hold my interest. The novel is also unflinching in its depiction of violence and misogyny. One moment that stuck with me was Okonkwo’s admission that his one wish for Ezinma, his favorite child, was that she had been born a boy, a line that captures the rigid gender hierarchy running through the book. I read this for school so now will have to write an essay on it, wish me luck!

just soooo many characters i did enjoy it tho also just felt the ending was a little rushed and maybe one too many twists in there

i just feel like a lot of these nordic thrillers have the same type of characters like a middle aged man who gets involved with someone related to the case who has an issue with alcohol or smoking and a really skinny alternative leaning woman who’s like really clever and smart (see lisbeth salander) like it wasn’t bad but also just not that great either?

Girl can WRITE, I’ll give her that. Very interesting even to someone who doesn’t know much about the tech world. The Zuckerberg and Sandberg stuff alone is worth the price of admission, both funny and brutal in equal measure.

But I kept getting stuck on the fact that she stayed for like…eight? years. Watched all this stuff happen (genocide-adjacent policy calls! spying on teens!) and just… kept collecting the paycheck. The outrage feels very well-timed to line up with the book deal.

The harassment stuff is honestly awful and I felt horrible for her reading it all get brushed under the rug, but its a weird book because two different stories are stapled together: “I was mistreated and this industry protects predators” (true, upsetting, deserved to be written) and “I am horrified by the ethics of a company I stayed at for years and got very rich from” (convenient, and the timing does the talking).

Fun read, kinda gross vibes underneath it though.