#Muriel’s unnamed mother

[rattoenailclippings]

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO THE MOTHERS EVER!!!!!!

I dont know which one is supposed to be Muriel’s mother in the tapestry HELP

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/1-2/2023 - BLACK SUNDAY (1960), THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, NIGHTMARE CASTLE

“Don’t be deceived by her face, look at her body!”

So one of the things that dragged me off my usual Blogtober course this year was a major project on Michele Soavi's DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE (1994), whichis sort of a gift that keeps on giving because there are so many layers to it and so many available interpretations of what it contains. For this work I had to dig a lot deeper into the topic of doppelgängerism than I usually do; this is not a subject I've thought a lot about, maybe because it often breaks down into an Id vs Ego "duality of man" thing full of inevitable conclusions that I don't find that interesting to explore. I like the folkloric notion that if you encounter your own doppelgänger, it's a harbinger of your imminent demise, that's pretty scary. But most of the characters in DELLAMORTE are duplicates of other characters, to more and less obvious degrees--the clearest example of which is Anna Falchi as an unnamed woman who reappears in new incarnations throughout the movie. Because that movie is often identified as the Last Great Italian Horror Film, and is thus understood to survey historic achievements in the genre (while still maintaining its own incredible originality), I thought I should go back and look at the famous doppelgängers played by Barbara Steele in some of her early, influential roles. I mean let's be honest, it would be easy to just accuse Antonio Margheriti's THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964) and Mario Caiano's NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965) of riding the admittedly inviting jock of Mario Bava's indispensable classic BLACK SUNDAY (1960), but if we treat the continuous duplication of Barbara Steele as an archetypal fantasy worthy of address, that makes for a better conversation.

The superior BLACK SUNDAY concerns the 17th century vampire-witch Asa, who returns to life two hundred years later to usurp the life of her identical descendant Princess Katia. In THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, a 15th century woman is burned as a witch, and her daughter Helen (Steele) is killed for trying to expose the corrupt underpinnings of her mother's execution. Helen's young sister grows up the plaything of the evil regime whose reign of power is only interrupted when the mysterious Mary (also Steele) arrives at the castle to make trouble. I find the convoluted plot of this movie especially hard to repeat, so I hope I'm getting it right! NIGHTMARE CASTLE doesn't involve anything like reincarnation, which makes it slightly easier to discuss: An evil scientist murders his conniving wife Muriel (Steele) so he can take everything she has, only to discover that she left it all to her identical stepsister Jenny. His plot to drive the fragile Jenny insane and take over the estate is foiled by Muriel's ghost, naturally. In DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE, the self-replicating Anna Falchi signifies that the stunted protagonist is hopelessly deluded by his neurotic frustrations with women; he sees females as being "all the same" because he's blind to anything other than his personal projections, and he cyclically pursues the same drama with every woman he meets. One can't expect that level of psychoanalytic critique from these earlier films, of course, and while there is a lot one can say about the self-replicating Barbara Steele (including just how marketable she was), it's interesting to look at these stories in light of the tendency to identify mind with body.

Each of these movies has some great dialog that (at least in the english translation) has some very amusing things to say about the body and I tried to write them all down. The horror here may stem from the fact that while a woman's true value is in her physical appearance, that appearance can be a source of torment for presupposing men. NIGHTMARE CASTLE's Muriel makes the curiously-worded threat, “You can kill my body, but I’ll never leave you in peace!”, and in THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, Helen's mother uses similar language in her last words at the stake—"Your bodies will be tortured like mine has been tortured today!” At LONG HAIR's climax (spoiler alert I guess, but this won't make the movie less confusing to the new viewer) the mysterious Mary reveals that she is really Helen with this wonderful body-centric speech about the complicated scam she and her little sister Lisbeth have pulled on the corrupt royal family:

"That’s my body. Death can often reinstate life, but it’s not like that with Lisabeth as she is not yet dead. Now do you understand Kurt, this was planned by us to vindicate our mother... You went to the extreme—murder—all for the sake of possessing me. It’s a pity that you did everything for a body that’s dead. Well Kurt, look at that body. Look well at the body that is really me!”

"Look well at the body that is really me" is something I am tempted to say all the time now, but this is all topped by Asa's triumph over the identical Katia toward the end of BLACK SUNDAY:

“You did not know that you were born for this moment. You didn’t know that your life had been consecrated to me by Satan. But you sensed it, didn’t you? That’s why my portrait was a constant temptation to you, why it frightened you! You felt that your life and your body were mine. You felt like me because you were destined to become me! A useless body without life... Now you shall enjoy a beautiful life of evil and hate—in me!”

There's something interesting going on in all these cases about how personal essence, or at least a person's destiny, is tied inextricably to the body. And actually, another of my distracting October projects focused on Michele Soavi's THE SECT (1991), an exceptionally weird movie by anyone's standards that involves a cult that appropriates other people's faces. I discovered that the film is kind of an adaptation of Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel The Golem, which is a doppelgänger narrative par excellence, telling its disturbing tale from the point of view of a person who is himself a kind of doppelgänger. The narrator has a kind of transient consciousness that transplants itself into other people, but other doppelgängers exist as well: A lascivious young prostitute is said to be the child of a neighborhood predator, but as the story unfolds, it comes out that she is identical to her mother, who was identical to her mother before her, and there is no actual certainty about the paternity of any of these women. They form a collective, self-perpetuating threat whose weapon is a specific reoccurrant appearance. I don't know exactly what kind of conclusion I want to draw about this hydra-like archetype, but you may have guessed by now that my work on Soavi's filmography has caused me to start seeing doppelgängers everywhere I look, so you can bet this won't be the last time I talk about them!

[jknerd]

La Llorona

Age: 400+

Aliases: Maria (real name), The Weeping Woman, Wailing Mother

Family: Unnamed two sons (deceased), Founder of Town Amorojo (ex-husband)

Likes: Singing, her sons

Dislikes: Her ex-husband and his second wife, whoever stolen her sons’ corpse and sealed them

In the AUs where she appears, she is much more sympathetic than the other variations of stories. In the time of Spanish colony in Mexico, she was known as beautiful woman named Maria. One day, the wealthy man, who found the fictional town Amorojo, spotted her singing and fell in love with her at first sight. The man's father didn't approve of her because she was from poor family, but the pair got married and had two sons. When the man's father introduced a wealthier and beautiful woman for him to marry, he eventually abandoned Maria, forced her to kick out of house as her ex-husband got the custody over their sons. However, because the boys were illegitimate children, the man and his new wife lured the sons to the lake where they drowned the boys, killing them. When Maria returned with enough money to buy custody for children, the nobleman's wife cruelly taunted her, telling her the sons died. Horrified and guilt-stricken, Maria spent two years searching for the death bodies of her sons. However, she leaped into the river, drowning herself.

Learning too late that her sons were died because of her ex-husband and his wife, Maria become vengeful she drowned the victims who were involved with Amorojo town founder, or their descendants. Rumors of her spread through Mexico, gaining an infamous title of "La Llorona".

In Courage the Cowardly Girl AU: Courage and her family went to the trip to Mexico where Muriel and Eustace's friends reside. She grew suspicious of Muriel's friend Juanita prevented others to enter the basement. When Courage walked by the lake to take fresh air at the sunset and took a nap where she dreamt of a young mother playing with her sons. When she opened her eyes, it was dark and she was about to return until the weeping sound haunted the lake, frightening her. Encountering La Llorona, Courage believed she would be killed.... but instead the ghostly woman, in Spanish, begged for help. Seeing the woman's face, Courage knew she was the same woman appeared in her dream with two children. Next day, she attempted to find a way to soothe the spirit, however the townspeople were too scared to tell her about La Llorona. Eventually, Courage discovered the corpses of Maria's two sons were inside Juanita's basement all along. Fearing the reputation of Amorojo town founder clan tainted, Juanita and her husband take a chase after Courage who carried away the chest of cremated bones. When reaching to the lake, she freed the two spirits of Maria's sons as the mother reunited with them. Seeing Juanita and her husband on the verge to kill Courage in mad frenzy, La Llorona angrily dragged them into the lake, drowning them to death. In the end, when Courage left the mansion with her foster grandparents, she saw apparition of Maria and her sons waving to her goodbye.

In Grimm Adventures of Billie & Manny AU: La Llorona is portrayed as "Wailing Mother" with horrifying maternal instincts on children. Although Catrina, Grima and other Reapers told her numerous times she can't see her sons, she wanted to see them again. One time, two new students enrolled into Billie and Manny's school, named Dante and Felipe. Grima noticed La Llorona has been lurking around the boys and warned Billy and Manny to keep the boys accompanied and never leave their side until she finds out the reason. The grim reaper was surprised to learn from Sado that Dante and Felipe are reincarnations of La Llorona's sons. However, Sado coldly reminded that it is against the rules to let a ghost and humans interact, commanding Grima to drag La Llorona to underworld by force. La Llorona refused to leave them because the boys are in orphanage and has no one to look after them. When Sado tried to arrest her, Billie snapped at him, telling the head reaper that he is being like his own father; tear the parent and children apart. This outburst reminded Sado of his past.... hesitantly released her. At the end, La Llorona watched them sleep in their bed humming a song. When the Bogeyman was about to scare the boys, La Llorona angrily scared the dream monster away, warning him to never go near her sons.

[thecringefailintherye]

Melody (S.W.A.L.K) 1971 Livewatch

I have seen this movie. but not the whole thing (i got interupped the first time i watched it)... so here goes! 

movie load please

20 seconds of logos???

guitar song™

this movie is so nostalgic for no reason

Mark Lester and Jack Wild: did you mean, Oliver Twist and The Artful Dodger?

and tracy hyde shes here too

i love this movie sm wtf

can these credits end????

ok yes they can

70s film marching band scene

ornshaw drinking whiskey before band bc why not

danny is bby

mY mOtHeR dId It SiR

dannys mum is so annoying wtf

i really love tom ornshaw

run bitch run

The BB™

SET FIRE TO THE NEWSPAPER???

look at his lil face ❤

MELODY MY DAUGHTER

a gowdfish please

aww look at her 

“ive done all those things i wanna try something new” LIKE DRAWING TIDDIES? DANIEL

“ah a boy gave it to me at school” was it ornshaw, i bet it was ornshaw

BITCH YOU RIPPED DANNYS TITS DRAWING

melody girl you cant play that fucking recorder

this film has great cinematography wtf

Melody Perkins Deserves The World !!

the gang go to school

Ornshaw Gets Bullied

“the jewish boys may now leave for private study” what about the jewish girls?? there’s clearly girls in the class?? why do they have to listen to the bible

ornshaw’s porn bible

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHO JESUS WAS???

dont smoke at school kids

okay so shes peggy, why is she credited as maureen. who the fuck is maureen

hear me out, muriel is a lesbian. noone kisses for over five minutes unless youre proper horny and this bitch is like thirteen. she also says “i dont know, i never used to kiss boys”, because SHE DOESNT. shes lying because she doesnt kiss boys. shes closeted and thats whys she says she does. also, she got angry at peggy for saying she fancied a boy.

W I C

“saucy turtles make terrible bathmats, charley” okay okay jeez

ornshaws accent is everything

The Gang sneaking through the fence what will they do

uh oh danny

AWH YOURE BARMY

thats def gonna explode later

ornshaw gets kicked off the bus

but now hes on it

ornshaw and danny have such a wholesome friendship too bad melody ruins it oh wait

you’ve heared of ornshaw gets kicked off the bus now get ready for... ornshaw gets kicked out of the strip club!

you cant get a taxi!!! watch me hoe

where did ornshaw get the chewing gum from wtf

“shes always talking about people like you...” OH OKAY DANNYS MUM IS CLASSIST

“he could do with a heart attack!” WOAH OKAY

time skip to school

oh no danny’s seen melody

“we have three admirers of the dance!” ah shit

ah so maureen is the girl in green

why is ornshaw just standing there

FREE YOURSELVES

the girl gang is hilarious i love them

Muriel Kisses A Tombstone

uh oh dannys been found out

“HES A COWARD CMON”

ornshaw just yeeted his cat

i hate dannys mother sm

assembly time, an iconic part of british comprehensive school, since covid, i cant say i miss it

danny and melody !!

DANNY PLAYS CELLO THIS IS IMPORTANT INFO

melody and her friend are there because plot

melody sweetie baby i love you but you cant play the recorder

THEYRE PLAYING IN HARMONY DKDJSKDJSJKK 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

this is cute as fuck

melody is babey

oh explosives time??

i just dubbed these kids ornshaw and the pyrotechnics crew and it fits

dannys parents are annoying

i quite literally hate them

DANNY SPILT HIS COKE ITS SUCH A SIN

“neviw”

melody girl are you okay

melody are you lying about getting raped

oh time skip to school

we’ve hardly seen ornshaws home life so when will we properly meet him??

god i fucking love ornshaw its mad

oh this is an iconic scene if there ever was one

“go on tom dance with her” oh the ONE TIME ornshaw is called by his first name

youre mad !!

“girls are a load of snotty nose little so and sos” ornshaw aro king

is ornshaw.. scared of women

whatddya mean i dont dance very well!?

is it bad i lowkey crackship peggy and ornshaw now

YOU DANCE STUPID!

no one:

ornshaw: kicks peggy in the shin because he cant dance

“you big fat fool” yikes

danny u ok

ALL ORNSHAW AND HIS MATES DO IS CREATE EXPLOSIVES DJDKJSKt

oh it worked for once

i feel so fucking sorry for melody wtf

bb 🥺

im at the bit where melody is crying while putting on her mothers makeup 

SWEETIE ITS OKAY 

OH TIME SKIP TO SPORTS DAY! 

this film is so fast were already an hour in!

ornshaw giving actually solid life advice?? are you sure this is the same movie

“you youre gonna be bloody useless!”

i literally love ornshaw so much 

FUCK DANNYS MUM

GO ON DANNY 

YES MY BOY

time skip to school 3982903843290

wtf is a young latin scholars book

lahtimah

not ass latimer, arse

i hate the latin teacher

ornshaw every second: right uh erm um uh so yes sir oh uh mhm

*ornshaw and danny shoving pillows up their underwear*

“dont worry about it!!” dude hes getting spanked by the latin teacher ofc hes gonna worry about it

ornshaw and latimah

“vacate your mouth”

“because its a silly out of date language sir!!!” hes not wrong

uh oh 

what will slapping ornshaw’s ass with a dap even gonna do???

oh hi melody forgot about you

AWH DANNY SWEETHEART

“cmon danny dont let her see you cry!” i want a friend like ornshaw man

melody is just STANDING THERE LIKE GIRL LEAVE

“you can buzz off now love, tara, tooduhloo” have i said i love ornshaw? because i love ornshaw

danny dont abandon ornshaw !!

oh this is sad

danny? danny?? danny!!!??? DANNY!!?? 🥺🥺🥺

ORNSHAW RIGHTS MAN

ive felt sorry for literally all three of these kids now

ah fuck now ornshaws having a mental breakdown in the school halls

danny and melody’s relationship is so innocent and wholesome 

this is literally so bittersweet, like we’re seeing danny and melody being all cute and happy but we know that back in school ornshaw is literally having a breakdown over them

im tearing up over a movie about schoolchildren in puppy love

“will you love me that long?” “of course! ive loved you a whole week already!”

“hes come to tea! his name is daniel!” melody hes not your pet

melodys dad seems so cool why was he arrested

donald????

i genuinely love melody’s dad 

melody dramatically eats toast

time skip to school AGAIN

OH GOD I’M ACTUALLY CRYING

melody and danny are out on a date having fun and its the same song playing as the scene earlier on when danny and ornshaw went off somewhere at the start of the movie, melody has quite literally replaced ornshaw

i have real tears rn 

they skipped school to go to weymouth

danny and melody are literally adorable man

“shall we get married?” arent yall like 12????

oh back to school they got in trouble for skipping

apparently the poor cast got spanked for real and like yikes

we want to get married :D

ITS NOT MENT TO BE FUNNY!!

leave danny alone!

leave melody alone!

ornshaw please stop

ornshaw stop taunting him this is gonna end shittily

OH SHIT 

THEYRE STRAIGHT UP FIGHTING 

ORNSHAW AND DANNY ARE MF WRESTLING EACHOTHER TO THE GROUND

okay now ornshaw is literally beating him up okay

danny this is your fault for ditching him for melody sorry

top ten best anime fight scenes

latin man is back because plot

DID ORNSHAW GIVE HIM A BLOODY NOSE

i’m sorry danny 😭😭

ORNSHAW. DESERVES. THE. FUCKING. WORLD. AND. MORE.

let melody and danny get married!

wait so if 20 is twice as old as her then shes.. ten?? i think

melody ily

“all i want to do is be happy” BABY

OH FUCK YOU MRS LATIMER

oooh

THEYRE GOING TO GET MARRIED BY THE RAILWAY 

ornshaws unnamed friend is the true hero of this movie

is this the movie climax???

run! ornshaws unnamed friend! run!

IM SORRY THE’RE LITERALLLY GETTING MARRIED I’M 😭

“we are gathered here today to join this man and woman in holy matrimony.. shaddup”

ITS NOT FUNNY ITS SERIOUS

IS ORNSHAW STRAIGHT UP MARRYING THESE TWO IS HE THEIR VICAR

HE IS AS WELL

“DICKS IS COMING!!!” as soon as they were getting the rings

RUN !!!!

ornshaw just threw the bible at his re teacher from the re scene at the start i love him

DANNYS MUM HAD IT COMING

name a more iconic trio than melody perkins, danny latimer, and tom ornshaw, i’ll wait

GO PEGGY!

ORNSHAWS UNNAMED FRIEND IS GONNA FINALLY GET HIS BOMB WORKING!

YES

GO ORNSHAWS UNNAMED FRIEND

“i’ll get you ornshaw!” dude how is this his fault its yours for unterupting the wedding latin man

again ouf is the true movie hero

wait latin man is dicks??? whos wannabe remus lupin then????

this just in: ouf is actually named stacey

oh god thats actually such a bittersweet ending

melody and danny trolleying off into the sunset

im actually crying like a baby rn

god that was such a good movie

[brynwrites]

For Fact for Fact: In Wilting Roses, Ava-Clara is close to her older sister, Honey. The sisters, along with their mother and Honey's husband, live in the arctic rainforest of the story's universe (unnamed at the moment), where they await the birth of Honey's first child. Ava-Clara loves her sister's cooking and can't wait to be an aunt.

I’m so sorry, this one got lost in my inbox! They sound like such a lovely family

I have a lot of crazy family dynamics going on in my wips, but the one family who has stable, strong relationships is Dejean, his adopted sister Murielle, and their mother (while she was alive.) They had an adorable little house near the harbor.

[dillydedalus]

november reading

so with lockdown #2, my master’s thesis done & handed in etc, i just had absolutely nothing going on so this month so... lots of books. featuring Houses full of statues and birds, an AU of weimar berlin, and... the plague?

someone who will love you in all your damaged glory, raphael bob-waksberg (audio) actually listened to this last month! anyway even tho i forgot about it, i actually really liked it! it’s a collection of short stories, all about love in some way, most with a strange twist - a couple wants a small wedding but the MIL insists they have to at least sacrifice 5 goats to the stone god and have a shrieking chorus, or it’s hardly a real wedding, right? that kind of thing. i really liked these stories; they were fun, hopeful without being cheesy (mostly), and the audio production, with lots of actors reading the different stories was fun. 4/5

the driver’s seat, muriel spark man this novella is nasty, but in a good way - sharp, vicious, mean but so well executed. it’s also pretty hard to discuss without spoiling it & i do think one should go into this unspoiled. but it’s certainly a classic of the unhinged women genre, showing lise seemingly making herself as noticeable, irritating and off-putting as she can on a trip to an unnamed (probably italian) city. 3.5/5

the empress of salt and fortune, nghi vo (singing hills cycle #1) a lovely novella set in an asian-inspired fantasy empire, which shows young cleric chih and their speaking hoopoe almost brilliant learn the story of a previous empress, a northerner who rose from exile as an cast-aside wife to power and of her servant, a peasant girl called rabbit. enjoyed the setting and the way this story unfolded through objects and rabbit’s retelling, and will definitely read the sequel novella which comes out in december. 3.5/5

pine, francine toon (audio) this is a crime/thriller type book with some horror elements about a young girl whose mother has disappeared mysteriously when she was very small. she lives with her dad in the scottish highlands close to a giant forest. the beginning is pretty cool & creepy, but then like 80% of it is just the girl being sad & wanting to know what happened to her mother & the dad being an alcoholic mess. and then most of the plot happens in the last 10% & isn’t great. disappointing. 2/5

where the wild ladies are, aoko matsuda (tr. from japanese by polly barton) a collection of short stories retelling japanese folklore stories about female ghosts/monsters with a feminist twist. on the whole, i liked these stories, but also found them a lot more light in tone than i expected; i guess i thought this would be more on the wild & raw side, so i ended up finding them a bit underwhelming. might also be a problem with lacking cultural context. will say tho that tilted axis press is great & i will seek out more of their books. 2.5/5

piranesi, susanna clarke (audio) god this was so good! so delightful! the House with its many rooms full of tides and clouds and birds and statues is a wonderful, magical yet melancholy setting, the narrator is kind & gentle & earnest, full of wonder and curiosity at the House and its mysteries (the contrast between the narrator’s and the Other’s attitude to the House... yes), the slow building up to the numerous reveals are just. very well done. the writing is lovely (did i almost cry about the albatross? yes) and chiwetel ejiofor is a great audio narrator. just all around lovely & the ending hits just right. 4.5/5

doomsday book, connie willis reading this book during lockdown #2.... a galaxy brain move i wouldn’t necessarily recommend. anyway this is set in a near future where time travel is used for historical research; oxford university is sending the young historian kivrin on the first mission to the middle ages (1320, which is perfectly safe, as far as medieval years go), but things go wrong and soon modern day oxford is under quarantine (ha. how wild. can you imagine.) and kivrin notices that some things are a bit off about where she is (spoiler it’s actually 1348 and y’all know what that means right... PLAGUE TIME). lots of people on goodreads found this slow and boring and while it is pretty damn slow (and for a world with time travel way too many plot points hinge on being unable to contact people by telephone), i found it riveting and uh dread-inducing throughout, but also really warm and immersive. adored this, was devastated at the end. even almost a month later i’m still in my feelings about it. 4.5/5

too loud a solitude, bohumil hrabal (tr. from czech by michael henry heim) a novella i intellectually appreciated but didn’t really love - the narrator works as a paper compactor in a nightmarish basement full of mice (that also get crushed by the hundreds) from where he imagines rat wars in the sewers but from where he also saves hundreds of books. it’s fascinating & well-written but as soon as it gets away from the nightmare paper-crushing basement, it just loses its appeal, especially when the narrator reminisces about his relationships to women (how to simultaneously put women on a pedestal and smear shit on them!!!). 3/5

i’m thinking of ending things, iain reid literary horror/thriller type book with a really intriguing first half, as a young woman is visiting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time while thinking of ending the relationship and things increasingly feel off (the parents are weird, there’s a picture on the wall that the boyfriend claims is him as a child, but is actually her, she gets weird voicemails from her own number). great sense of vague unease, very scary. then the second half kind of blows up the whole story in a way that i should theoretically find interesting but just found kind of underwhelming and not scary, especially since the ending then feels the need to spell it all out for you. 2/5

passing, nella larsen (reread) ugh this is brilliant and i almost don’t have anything to say about it so i’ll just summarise it i guess. it’s a novella about two black women in 1920s america, who knew each other as teenagers and who run into each other in a rooftop bar, where both of them are passing as white. irene finds out that clare is passing full-time, married to a white man who does not know that she is black, and although she strongly disapproves, she can’t help but be seduced (the queer subtext is strong here) into renewing their friendship, which begins to threaten her sense of stability and control. this book is pretty much pitch-perfect, has a lot of things to say about race, loyalty, what happens when categories we live by are threatened or destabilised, and is also just tight and elegantly written and. ugh. brilliant. 5/5

ring shout, p. djèlí clark an alternative history/fantasy book where the ku klux klan gets possessed by demons from another dimension and a group of black (and other marginalised) women (some men too) who are able to see these demons have to fight them from gaining more power through a showing of birth of a nation. note: the klan is still already evil without the demons, but their evil makes it easier for the demons to possess them. very cool concept, very cool setting, but i found the main character and some of the plot progression a little boring. 3/5

amberlough, lara elena donnelly (amberlough dossier #1) this is really just the nazi takeover of weimar berlin in an alternate world (literally... the denizens of the city of amberlough are amberlinians... the two epigraphs are from le carre and cabaret...), told thru an amberlinian spy (cyril) forced to work for the nazi-equivalent (the ospies), his secret cabaret mc/smuggling kingpin boyfriend (aristide), and rough-and-tumble sally bowles (cordelia). as such, it’s extremely my shit, although i will say that donnelly makes it a bit easy on herself by making the nazi parallel so very overt; the ospies’ ideology is not particularly detailed beyond ‘real fashy’ and wanting to unite four loosely federated states. it’s just.... a bit weaksauce, and while she does include an ethnic minority for the ospies to hate, this also doesn’t feel as fundamental to their ideology as it should. also cyril sucks. but these issues may be solved in the sequels & it was a lot of fun. also.... amazing cover. 3/5

the vanishing half, brit bennett very much in conversation with larsen’s passing, this is a 2020 historical novel about passing, colorism, and identity, in which desiree and stella, very light-skinned african american twins who grow up in a black town that values lightness very much, become separated when stella chooses to pass for white and marry a white man. the book is very immersive and engaging, and stella and desiree are interesting characters, but (i felt unfortunately) much of the book is focused on their daughters, whose chance meeting might expose stella/reunite the sisters/etc etc, but who weren’t as interesting. the plot also relies on coincidences a lot which is a bit annoying. still an interesting and entertaining read. 3/5

die stadt der anderen, anthology printed version of an art project where three pairs of authors were sent on trips through berlin, which each person writing about what the other person showed them and how they experienced the city through the other. there was nothing earth-shaking in this, but reading it during lockdown was lovely. in conclusion i love berlin... would love to experience it again some time. 3/5

the fire this time, edited by jesmyn ward collection of essays on anti-black racism in america, many in response to the beginning of the black lives matter movement. i don’t have much to say about it, but it is very good and i would recommend. as is often the case with essay anthologies about serious topics i don’t really think i can rate it.

intimations, zadie smith a very short collection of essays written during early lockdown. smith is always smart and fun but i wish these had been a little more focused on politics and less on personal experience, but like, you can’t really criticise a book for not being what you wanted it to be. ‘contempt as a virus’ was very good. 

superior: the return of race science, angela saini really solid, engaging and accessible discussion of race science and why... it’s bad & dangerous, both looking at race science in the past and the invention of race, and how it is returning and regaining influence (not to say that race science ever completely disappeared, but as saini explains, it moved into a more marginal space in the sciences after ww2). 3.5/5

the hive, camilo josé cela (tr. from spanish by j.m. cohen & arturo barea) spanish modern classic set in madrid during the last few years of ww2. told thru short fragmentary snippets with a huge rotating cast of characters, mostly lower and middle class, going about their days, with the theme tying them together being “the city, that tomb, that greased pole, that hive”, which is a very sexy line, but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. the tone is v dispassionate and in combination with the huge cast it just made me profoundly unengaged. it also has the weird habit of changing scene in the middle of a paragraph, which i found rather confusing. 2.5/5 slave old man, patrick chamoiseau (tr. from french by linda coverdale) absolutely amazing short novel from the creolité movement aabout an old slave, seemingly resigned to his position, suddenly escaping and being pursued by the slavemaster’s terrifying monstrous mastiff through the forests of martinique, but really also about selfhood, relearning humanity, trauma and nature. the language is at turns sparse and lush and always gorgeous and the translation from french/creole uses endnotes (we love an endnote) and a strategy of doubling to retain some of the original language, which was really cool to read. so yeah this is brilliant. 4/5

mexican gothic, silvia moreno-garcia gothic horror novel about young mexican socialite noemí visiting her recently-married cousin in her new (english) family’s isolated, creepy and dilapidated mansion after said cousin sent a disturbing and strange letter calling for help. gothic horror shenanigans involving vivid dreams, family secrets and eugenics ensue. after a slow start, i absolutely devoured the second half in one afternoon bc once it gets going it REALLY gets going. not super-scary, but a nice creepy atmosphere & reveal. also loved how it combines the clear yellow wallpaper inspo (the cousin’s letter involves people in the wallpaper) and the focus on the english family’s eugenic ideology (not a fun fact but charlotte perkins gilman was a eugenicist), and the vain & flighty but also smart & stubborn protagonist. had a lot of fun with this. 3.5/5

i’m also still reading a tale of love and darkness by amos oz which is really good but which is taking me forfuckingever.