Deep Conversations

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara:
★★1/2
I wanted to like this more than I did. I think I should have heeded the "One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" part of the title more, because I went into this expecting this book to be centered around the piece of shit himself, but, apart from the detailed descriptions of his attacks, this book is very much about Michelle McNamara herself and her own obsessive investigation... which didn't really lead anywhere, as far as I understand? (Apart from keeping a spotlight on the killer, which is obviously a great thing!)

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
★★★
I'm not gonna lie, I started out absolutely loving this book, but by the time I was halfway through, and it became clear that there was no real plot, I begun running out of steam. I don't mind books that are all vibes and no plot, but I get the feeling that, being a highly biographical book, Fitzgerald may have felt the narrative was more cohesive than it actually was. It just lost me. Which is a pity, because the writing is obviously fucking excellent.

Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates:
★★★★
Loved it. It was fucked up, it was masterfully written, it was cathartic. It was literally everything I've always looked for in "Dark Academia" books (and I NEVER FIND! >:(() and I just wish it had been... like three times longer.

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy:
★★★★1/2
I enjoyed every single page of this book. There is such an intense and omnipresent sense of awe and respect towards nature between these pages. The "love story" did nothing for me (but love stories rarely do, it's a me problem lol) and the ending felt like it kinda came out of nowhere, BUT those are the only flaws I can think of. Loved loved loved everything else.

The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst:
★★★★
Before picking a book to read, I sometimes go on goodreads and exclusively check all of the 1 or 2 star reviews, because they usually tell me more than the raving 5 star ones. Most of the time, if the complaints are dumb ("bad things happen in this book so this book is bad" or "the characters were unlikable >:(" being the prime suspects) it means that... well, they have nothing serious to complain about lol
The main complaint to this book was that the protagonist was annoying. I don't really wanna know what it says about me that, as I was reading, I thought: "Damn, this boy sometimes seriously reminds me of me as a kid!" lmao what can I say, I was also an anxious, overthinking, badly socialized little queer kid very possibly on the spectrum who, most of the time, had no fucking clue why society expected me to do whatever the fuck it expected me to do!