With The Secret History, I Think The First Time You Read It, You Shouldn’t Analysis It At All. You

"Well, of course I’ve tried lavender. And pulling my memory out, ribbonlike and dripping. And shrieking into my pillow. And writing the poems. And making more friends. And baking warm brown cookies. And therapy. And intimacy. And pictures of rainbows. And all of the movies about lovers and the terrible things they do to each other. And watching the ones in other languages. And leaving the subtitles off. And listening to the language. And forgetting my name. And feeling the dirt on my skin. And screaming in the shower. And changing my shampoo. And living alone. And cutting my hair. And buying a turtle. And petting the cat. And traveling. And writing more poems. And touching a different body. And digging a grave. And digging a grave. Of course, I’ve tried it. Of course I have."

– Yasmin Belkhyr

I hate the phrase 'romanticising life' and 'figuring out your twenties' and 'its fine to be confused' because i have realized that these phrases are a privilege. I am not allowed to be confused. I am not allowed to continue to figure out my twenties. i should have it already figured out. It doesn't matter if i am only twenty and not even a graduate. i should know what i want for my future and stick to it. I am not allowed to romanticize my life because there is nothing to romanticize except for stress and tension.

So I noticed something about the stories in Sweet Sorrows.

The first and the last are about the pirate and the girl, the ancient love story (Once, very long ago…Time fell in love with Fate). Then there’s the Acolyte. The Zachary, the son of the fortune-teller, and the main narrator when the book is in the present (and the only one for this section of it). Then the dollhouse (something someone else mentioned was a little like a constantly growing Harbor itself, and which comes back when the bees do.). Then the Guardian story, which includes Dorian. Then our introduction to Elenore, then the inhabitants of Harbors (people like and including Allegra), then the Keepers (Now there is only one), then Simon, the man lost in time.

Introducing us to the main players. So I wonder, what if the Acolyte who sang the full month was Rhyme?

"And you became like the coffee, in the deliciousness, and the bitterness and the addiction".

-Mahmoud Darwish

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

- the picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

You belonged in the library, as much as any book.

- The Sorcery of Thorns

Sue Zhao

TW: Rape, Abuse

Photo Link: Echo Wang

Why I dislike Colleen Hoover : The decline of reading critically

Colleen Hoover is an American author who rose to fame after her books got popular on “Book Tok.” Book Tok is a “side” of tik tok that reads and reviews books. Her most popular novels are November 9, Ugly Love, Verity and It ends with us. Personally I’ve only read It ends with us, but from excerpts of her novels I don’t plan on reading them. 

Anna Todd is a popular fanfic author who wrote the infamous After series. So popular it got picked up for…. How many movies? Too many. (4) Anna and Colleen both have two things in common. Both terrible popular writers who romanticize and write hard topics beyond their writing skills. 

Even though my dislike for her is strong, there are a few things that I think she has accomplished. She became a popular known-romance author. Her novels are easily accessible because of the simplicity of them. I can admit that! I believe that readers of Colleen Hoover should develop better reading comprehension skills. 

I feel so strongly about my dislike of Colleen Hoover because I’ve read many, many romances. I’m a very picky romance reader. I can’t stand abusive, toxic, possessive men. Why would I want to surround myself around men like that? Now my preference strongly influences my dislike but not fully. Colleen Hoover doesn’t believe in Trigger warnings. Trigger warnings aren’t new, but to the modern political world people don’t need them! But here's the thing, Colleen Hoover doesn’t use them! Despite her constant use of rape, abuse, violence in almost all of her novels. Now this is debatable, why would this be bad? Because she believes it “Spoils” the story. Telling me that she uses these real life traumas solely on plot twists. If you look at most of her reviews from stans most will say they LOVED the plot twists. That is what Collen Hoover is, a “Romance” writer who writes rape as a plot twists. These characters do have “Happy Endings.” Spoiler for november 9 : She gets with the guy who burned her house down. Caused the burn damage on her skin and killed her mother in the fire. If that’s not a meet cute, I don’t know what is. 

Colleen Hoover also included a rape scene in her novel November 9. Later apologizing and having it removed from the novel. She later deleted her apology from facebook and never spoke about it again. Now this is relevant to Colleen Hoover’s character. When a girl online spoke about the sexual assault against her son, Colleen Hoover blocked the girl and continued to defend her son. Now of course not everything on the internet is true, but with the way she writes men makes me wonder how she views men. She also markets her novels as romance. 

Is simplistic writing bad? Of course not, simple language is what gets people reading. Most people wouldn’t read if they started with Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I don’t hate Colleen Hoover fans, or the younger teenage girls for enjoying it. I just wish that the romance genre, although dominated by women, was less misogynistic and saw female characters as true, fleshed out characters. I believe that Colleen Hoover could improve the quality of her craft and her writing, by not calling her novels “Romance” and picking up a dictionary once in a while. 

I think the moral of this story is that not all popular writers are good, some just get lucky.  

mentally, i am sitting in a forest and reading my favourite books and listening to music while laying on the grass

“she ruined an innocent guy’s life!” yes, but have you considered that she was very sad about it afterwards? have you considered that i love her?