forever we try

I haven't been reading as much or finishing books as quickly for a couple different reasons (schoolwork, quarantine, working my way through Anna Karenina), and I'm trying not to let that be just another thing to stress about. On the bright side, I'm making good progress on Anna Karenina! Still nowhere near done, but I'm up to Part IV now. For the past week or so I've only had the energy to read the bare minimum I set for myself--one chapter a day--but I'm expecting that to change once the semester finishes. 

Today I finished Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist; I feel like I read this one in a couple big chunks spaced out over my more high-energy days. Which could or could not actually be true, since I'm hardly keeping track of the days anymore except for assignment deadlines, BUT I went from liking this book to loving it in its last quarter or so, where (for me, anyway) the plot finally picked up in a major way. The story and writing style both feel very Stephen-King-inspired: you've got your lonely kid from a broken home, your psychopathic bullies, your scattered side characters whose separate plot threads all eventually intersect, your gross-out gore, and your focus on intimate, gross and/or humiliating physical details. More than one characters gets so scared that they wet their pants; another character can't stop cutting into her veins and drinking her own blood after she's transformed into a vampire. There's also a weirdly heartwarming ending, which I always love capping off a Stephen King book and loved here, too. 

Reading

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, a reread I meant to do over the Halloween season and never got around to. The first time I read this I was in high school, maybe even middle school, so even though before diving back in I remembered the basic plot and the creepiness, I didn't remember most of the actual encounters with the ghosts--which are eclipsed in creepiness only by some of the conversations the narrator, a governess, has with the two kids in her charge, Miles and Flora. There's such a shivery, I-know-you-know-I-know vein of horror running under most of their interactions, especially her conversations with Miles. It's fantastic. 

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine--another reread! This doesn't quite nab the #1 spot as my favorite 12 Dancing Princesses retelling of all time (that would be Entwined by Heather Dixon: it has a lot less bite than Kingfisher Club, but it's sweeter, with a big ol' dash of Gothic horror). It comes in a very close second, though.  I love the setting (1920s New York! Flapper princesses! Dance halls and speakeasies!), the prickliness of all the sisters, and the fact that it's ultimately much more their story than the story of their romances--though there are romances, and those romances are handled in some unusual, interesting ways. 

Read

I finished Trick Mirror. 

The Mark of Cain by Lindsey Barraclough, the sequel to Long Lankin. It suffers a bit from not having the same sense of mystery, but it does have the same sense of oppressive atmosphere, and the ending wraps things up with a little more resolution for the characters, which is nice. 

Watched

Он – дракон | I Am Dragon, aka the big dumb Russian dragon movie I loved with all my heart. The story--a princess is kidnapped on her wedding day by a dragon who oh-so-conveniently can transform into a hot and sweet, if angsty dude; at first she's solely focused on getting back to her equally hot but much less sweet fiance, until of course dragon dude wins her over with his angst and sweetness--is more or less Beauty and the Beast, but with dragons, so there's never any doubt that Miroslava (the princess) will end up with Arman (the hot dragon dude). Instead, you can sit back and enjoy scenes like Princess Teaches Hot Dragon Dude How to Spruce up His Man Cave (I love that most of Miroslava's advice for living as a human boils down to "Get better at interior decorating; also wipe your feet,") and Hot Dragon Dude Teaches Princess How to Fly a Kite.

The scenery and costumes are both gorgeous, and the worldbuilding is a little thin, but satisfying; there are lots of cool details like a wedding ritual where the bride gets decked out in a gorgeous costume, lies down in a little gondola, and floats across the water to her groom. The whole thing reminds me of some of the Russian movies and soap operas I used to watch with my sisters and my mom, in that even when things get cheesy there's this genuine feeling and sweetness to them, which makes the cheesiness not just bearable but enjoyable.