there's a really interesting juxtaposition by the author in the way the memories are told. first that the memories feel like the way we remember things; in snapshots and vignettes and centered on random minute details that stick with us over the years. and in this way she's also resisting the urge to give us any sort of moral synthesis to her story

the way it's written gives it such a complex feeling. sometimes her writing feels fond, but the childlike tone mixed with the retrospective clarity of adulthood makes it feel almost clinical in an interesting way

i'm struck by the section before this, in which Jeannette has a genuinely sweet memory with her father under the stars, then in this section throwing us headfirst into a verbally and phsically abusive altercation between her father and mother

that whiplash of memory, in which Jeannette refuses to either let the tenderness be poisoned by the abuse OR let the abuse be absolved or redeemed by the moments of tenderness. it's a really stark depiction of how abuse tends to actually function and feel

like, it would be too easy to write off her childhood as entirely bad and abusive and dark, but it would be too easy to write it with rose-colored glasses and imply that it all served some greater purpose. it's just this eerie feeling that i think a lot of us, whether we grew up in a troubled home or not, can relate to. that there were good times and bad times, scary times and joyful times, and neither one negates the other, but they all exist in this weird coagulation of childhood that feels impossible to pick apart

it also points to how children experience these things. reading this as an adult, who knows what a healthy childhood should look like, there are certain passages that are legitimately horrifying. but as a child, when you don't know any better, when all you have to reference is your own experience, they don't often register that way

like a sort of fogginess that comes with being a child affected by neglect and abuse. when she's been deprived of healthy boundaries, healthy emotional regulation, healthy models of behavior, Jeannette doesn't even know that she should be scared, because how could she know when she doesn't know what normal is?

Tooting my own horn a bit because today I earned the Sapphire badge - and I didn’t even KNOW that Sapphire badges exist!! (30+ books read in a Quest)

I thought the highest you could get was a Gold badge, but no, keep on reading! 🎉

To prevent this post from being “all about me”, here are some of my favorite movie adaptations (where I liked the movie EQUALLY or MORE than the book!) 😍🤩

Are You There God It’s Me Margaret The Cider House Rules Crazy in Alabama Everything Everything Fried Green Tomatoes The Green Mile How to Make an American Quilt Love Simon Marley and Me The Pelican Brief The Rainmaker The Shawshank Redemption Shutter Island Stand By Me Waking the Dead What’s Eating Gilbert Grape Where The Heart Is White Oleander

I wouldn't call this stalking, per se, but I definitely like scrolling through my feed and especially look at what people are saying about the books I've read.

One thing I've noticed, though, is that other than popular books (HP, PJO, THG, TOG), I see a lot of classics being discussed: Pride and Prejuice, Animal Farm, 1984. It's so disproportionate that it makes me wonder, you know?

So I post this question to you, friends of Pagebound. Do you see a pattern in what books get more posts from those you've read? Or do you not look through these in your feed and go on with your day like a normal person?

I love adding book recommendations and have been doing it since I joined. I am a cataloger in my own library, I believe in the importance of the feature and just enjoy doing it in general. I stopped receiving points for adding book recommendations onto each book page since yesterday. Can I check if there was a change or some sort of mechanism that I should be aware of?

I don’t usually track the number of points I have, but I noticed it and thought I’d check. Lots of love to everyone.