as a neurodivergent woman, it's a bit scary how much of a mirror some of marie and sadie's traits are for my own childhood behaviours. i mean, we've got:

✅ befriending animals ✅ feeling sympathetic for inanimate objects ✅ wanting to wear the same thing everyday ✅ being very quiet and scaring people who didn't realise you were there ✅ reading huge books at a young age ✅ being a quick learner in some subjects but despising the subjects that don't come naturally ✅ preferring conversations with adults because you feel intellectually superior ✅ desiring praise ✅ being emotionally unpredictable

but THANKFULLY i can say the similarities end there, before we get into the habits of killing butterflies, hanging dolls with nooses and trustfalling off cliffs 😬

I'm loving the sparse writing style. The choppy syntax makes the reading experience a little bit off-kilter because it's different than we're used to in this type of literature. This discomfort then pushes the reader to have a heightened sensitivity to just how off-kilter these girls already are. It's a great example of how diction and syntax can influence the tone of a piece of writing! (sorry I just got really AP-Lit-teacher there for a minute 😅)

"I want to be the only one who knows how to love you. I want you to think that if you didn't have me to love, then you will be all alone in the world."

The toxicity dripping in this little girl's interactions with her stuffed animals is delicious foreshadowing...

Only on page 13, and the choppiness of the sentences is already getting to me. There’s this abrupt stop-start to it, and while it’s certainly interesting, it also feels very discordant. Going to try to give it at least a couple chapters before I’m a complete hater, but it feels like getting tugged in two separate directions as the reader.