"I'd never given much thought to how I would die -- though I'd had reason enough in the last few months -- but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."
Calls James "the hunter" in order to maintain suspense.
James has dark eyes
"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to greive when it comes to an end."
Chapter 1: First Sight (T)
Bella's favorite shirt: sleeveless, white eyelet lace
FORKS: "small", "inconsequential", "my mother escaped with me", "compelled to spend a month", "put my foot down", "detested", "great horror",
PHIL: "bills would probably get paid", "someone to call when she got lost"
Bella is a bad liar, but Renee doesn't seem to notice
Renee is a bad liar, Bella notices
Four hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, an hour to Port Angeles, an hour to Forks
CHARLIE: "genuinely pleased", "already gotten me registered for high school", "awkward", asks about Renee, "I want you to be happy here", Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud.
Not one for omens
TRUCK: from Billy Black, he bought it in '84, it was new in the early 60s or late 50s, nicknamed: "the thing". Faded red, big, rounded, bulbous, smells of tabacco/gasoline/peppermint, roars, idles at top volume, antique radio works
Bella and Charlie look away when expressing emotion
Bella makes mild jokes: "I never looked a free truck in the mouth -- or engine." "My mother is part albino".
The house: two-bedroom, one small bathroom at the top of the stairs. (Kitchen) Dark panneled walls, bright yellow cabinets, white linoleum floor. (Family Room) Adjoining the kitchen, row of pictures over the fireplace (Charlie/Renee is LV getting married, all 3 in the hospital when Bella was born, all of Bella's school photos)
Bella's room: wooden floor, light blue walls, peaked ceiling, yellow lace curtains around the window, pine desk, secondhand computer, old rocking chair in the corner, faded quilt on the bed, pine dresser
Bella didn't share a bathroom with her mother/Phil possibly, considering her reaction to sharing with Charlie
Bella is able to put off crying to a more convenient time
357 kids at Forks High School
BELLA DESCRIPTION: Ivory-skinned, slender, soft (not an athlete), no hand-eye coordination. 5'4.
Constant discussion of how white Bella is (ok Steph)
Not like other girls -- not erlating to people her age/"people, period"
Couldn't fall asleep in the rain
Quiet breakfast with Charlie
High school: collection of matching houses built with maroon covered bricks, trees and shrubs, no chain-link fences. Lots of plants in plastic pots, cluttered, brightly colored, red-haired woman at the front desk.
Bella lived in a lower-income neighborhood in Paradise Valley District in Phoenix
Edward's car is the nicest, it's a shiny volvo
"No one was going to bite me."
Bella's read Bronte/Shakespeare/Chaucer/Faulkner
Bella is judgemental: "a gangly boy with skin problems and hair black as an oil slick"/"overly helpful, chess club type"
Bella thinks she's better than her peerage: she thinks the book list is boring and that a "few months of this and I'd forget how to use sarcasm." But at the same time, she stammers, trips, and blushes because she has to stand in the front of the class and introduce herself.
Jessica: Tiny, wildly curly dark hair, "prattled". 7 friends, she introduced them all. Eric isn't one. Sour grapes about Edward not wanting her.
THE CULLENS: 5 of them, as far as possible from Bella. Untouched food in front of them. Not looking at her like the others or talking. Pale, dark eyes, dark shadows (purple, bruiselike), straight/perfect/angular features. Apparently lived in Alaska.
EMMETT: muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair
JASPER: taller, leaner, still muscular, and honey blond
EDWARD: lanky, less bulky, with untidy bronze-colored hair. More boyish.
ROSALIE: tall, statuesque, beautiful figure (Sports Illustrated), gives hit to self-esteem by being around her, golden wavy hair that reaches mid-back.
ALICE: short, pixielike, extremely thin, small features, deep black hair, cropped short and pointing in every direction
Rosalie/Edward are the prettiest
Carlisle adopted Emmett/Alice/Edward, Rosalie and Jasper are Esme's foster kids/niblings
ANGELA: shy
Edward has coal black eyes the first time they meet
Bella likes strawberry shampoo
Bella cries when she's angry and finds it humiliating
MIKE: cute, baby-faced, pale blonde hair in orderly spikes, "helpful", "thrilled', chatterer, doesn't notice when Bella is lying
Bella's mood is reflected in how she views her surroundings. Edward doesn't like her: "damp green hole".
Chapter 1: First Sight (MS)
Considers high school "purgatory"
"atone for my sins" is right out of the gate
"tedium", "impossibly monotonous", "inert state"
Mind reading: "voices that babbled like the gush of a river inside my head."
ACTUAL opinion of Bella: ordinary human girl, pale heart-shaped face. Chocolate brown eyes.
ROSALIE: shallow pool with few surprises
EMMETT: poor loser, limited patience, never thought one thing he would not say aloud, lake with no shadows.
JASPER: Suffering. Very dangerous.
ALICE: spoke in their minds frequently, asks Edward to check on Jasper
VAMPIRE SHIT: I was used to the way that scent made mefeel - the dry ache in my throat, the hollow yearn in my stomach, the automatictightening of my muscles, the excess flow of venom in my mouth...
JESSICA STANLEY: bothered Edward, doesn't think Bella is pretty, vitriolic
MIKE NEWTON: oblivious to Jessica, likes Bella,
The Cullens disappear the moment anyone thinks they're a vampire
LAUREN MALLORY: jealous
Ashley Dowling, June Richardsaon
ANGELA WEBER: quiet, unusually kind, not obsessed with Bella
Edward felt a need to shield Bella from Jessica
Edward has 2 medicine degrees
VAMPIRE SHIT: Her scent hit me like wrecking ball, like a battering ram. There was no image violent enough to encapsulate the force of what happened to me in that moment. In that instant, I was nothing close to the human I'd once been; no trace of the shreds of humanity I'd managed to cloak myself in remained.
CARLISLE: "brightest day" to the blackest night, wisdom, compassion, patience. "Carlisle's kind eyes did not judge me. I knew that he would forgive me for this horrible act that I would do. Because he loved me. Because he thought I was better than I was. And he would still love me, even as I now proved him wrong."
I'm in the middle of creating this huge system of probability tables that would tell you EVERYTHING about your life as though you were a character in the Percy Jackson series.
I'm creating this massive project for almost no reason while I suffer from Covid and Pneumonia and I can pretty much guarantee that no one will ever use it, but I thought I'd post about it because I'm proud of it.
Current tables include:
Greek or Roman (only the Greek side is being developed rn)
Species (demigods, centaurs, cyclops, humans, nymphs, and saytrs are added but only demigods are being developed atm)
Legacy Generation (50%, 25%, or 12.5% godly blood)
Godly Parent (including big 3, Olympians, and 52 minor gods)
How strongly Lamia's curse would affect you
Whether you'd stay at camp year round (photo above)
What your aura would be (example: Nico has an aura of death)
Planned tables include:
Powers (or traits, if applicable) and their strength
Items/Weapons and your ability
Things you do at camp
Relationship with cabins/factions at camp
Your later life
And to use it, you'd sort of have to follow a "If you got A, go to B" sort of map.
The only real issue with the process is that I'm not sure how I would actually dish out the probabilities.
The most likely scenario is that I use a random number generator
ex:
1-7 is [option X]
8-12 is [option Y]
13-15 is [option Z]
I'd love to use a spinning pie chart wheel, but there are no websites that offer their services at this scale for free.
And I don't know how to code.
Anyway, if you read this far, would you use this? And do you have suggestions?
Hey students, here’s a pro tip: do not write an email to your prof while you’re seriously sick.
Signed, a person who somehow came up with “dear hello, I am sick and not sure if I’ll be alive to come tomorrow and I’m sorry, best slutantions, [name]”.
As someone who has taught college, please send those emails because 1) We WILL believe that; no one would write that on purpose and 2) we need a laugh sometimes.
On the other side of this, once after getting taken to the ER by ambulance, I got an email from the professor whose class I’d passed out in, and the message had no text, just the subject line “you good?”
Claritin makes me weird, but I have allergies so there’s about a month and a half block of time where I’m taking Claritin and am just weird most of the time.
Anyway, my last year of college, I got the flu or something in late March and was also taking Mucinex. I told my professor I couldn’t come to class one day by email except I couldnt think of what to say, so my medicated ass decided to make a Fry meme. I think it said something like “Not sure if I can go to class with a head the size of Texas, bottom text.” I didn’t think until the next day that it probably wasn’t socially-acceptable to tell your philosophy professor you weren’t coming to class via Tumblr style memes. When i got back to class, i found that she’d printed it out and taped it to the classroom bulletin board.
that moment when you contact me on an account i made specifically to avoid you contacting me after years of me blocking you & I block you again after not reading/deleting your message.
A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer — Chapters 11-15
Warning: Spoilers. I will be discussing my thoughts on each chapter and then predicting the future plot.
Chapter 11, Harper
Quotations
Grey stands in front of the hearth, feeding wood to the fire. (89)
I smell exposition.
Summary
Grey gives Harper new information while they play cards.
Review
In general, it's fine. This type of chapter has to have new information to be interesting, and it didn't. Everything was either told to us or alluded to, making it not very exciting.
5/10
Predictions
The crush on Grey continues to be unlikely.
Chapter 12, Rhen
Quotations
"Keep your voice down."
"I was not talking to you."
"I don't care. People are sleeping." (99, 100)
True love, truly.
She has the uncanny talent of pricking every nerve ending I have. (101)
This is physical, not emotional. He's saying it as though it's an annoyance, but he means that she pulls his attention. The nervous system makes your body aware of stimulus and he is pricking every nerve ending. Where stimulus is received.
Summary
Rhen finds Grey and Harper playing cards and orders Grey out into the snow to check on the horses because he is jealous. He then realizes that he's feeling something like jealousy and he doesn't like that. After Harper goes up to sleep in the room Rhen was in, Grey tells Rhen that he is being too calculated about their relationship.
Review
I like jealousy in these books. I like when someone can recognize it and deal with it within themselves and I particularly like when the love interest calls them out on it. When someone can be jealous and recognize that it's embarrassing and their problem, jealousy is cute.
8/10
Predictions
I dearly hope that Harper will tease him about being jealous.
Chapter 13, Harper
Quotations
n/a
Summary
After returning to the castle, Harper is put back in Rhen's sister's room. She relaxes, thinks about her family, and then leaves the room to explore. In one room, she finds a lot of blood and reacts appropriately by screaming. Rhen finds her, shirtless and mid-shave, then takes her to the kitchen. They talk for a bit and it's revealed that the blood was Rhen's.
Review
As someone that enjoys exposition a lot in books, I'm not really enjoying this. Character-driven scenes are fun, action is fun, but it seems like things slow down greatly when exposition is being given and I think it's because chapters are set aside for it. It should be littered through, confirmed every once in a while. Instead it isn't littered through, so instead of the exposition chapters being the long awaited answers to questions we have, they just stop the parts we wanted to keep going.
6/10
Predictions
Nothing new.
Chapter 14, Rhen
Quotations
"You won't be the first." (123)
How melancholy.
Summary
Rhen and Harper continue to talk in the kitchen. She learns about Lilith, the curse, who Rhen was, what he becomes, and what needs to happen. She refuses to fall in love with him.
Review
I genuinely believe that folding this into the previous chapter and showing that Harper has some insight into Rhen when he has none into her would have been a great way to spice this up. He's the one overthinking and yet he can't figure it out? I'd like that a lot more than having just exposition and no relationship development clues.
6/10
Predictions
Nothing new.
Chapter 15, Harper
Quotations
n/a
Summary
We go back to the inn to deliver food to the family there with Harper. She knocks a crate off a man's cart on the way and her pause to help him is all Rhen and Grey need to catch up to her. Rhen pays the man for his trouble and they continue on.
Review
This was very classic YA main character, giving food to the poor. It's on brand, on point, I don't mind it. And I liked Rhen's way of helping the man they stopped.
A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer — Chapters 6-10
Warning: Spoilers. I will be discussing my thoughts on each chapter and then predicting the future plot.
Chapter 6, Harper
Quotations
n/a
Summary
Harper is thinking about escape, but she doesn't get anywhere with her plan. She find out via her brother's phone that he's got a boyfriend that he's in love with. After a brief visit from Grey, in which she attacks him, he gives her a tip on holding the dagger she stole and tells her dinner is coming.
Review
The majority of the chapter was very boring. All of the exposition could have been put in different places, we didn't need to know it in a chunk like this. The book seems to dump Harper on us and spread Rhen's backstory out. The fight with Grey made it better.
6/10
Predictions
Will she have a crush on Grey or is that me?
Chapter 7, Rhen
Quotations
n/a
Summary
Rhen demands that Grey kills him in the event he fails with Harper.
Review
This was boring. It could have been folded into another chapter. Or it could have been mentioned as though it had already been argued about at length.
5/10
Predictions
Obviously, Grey won't kill him.
Chapter 8, Harper
Quotations
Another man yells, "Keep the girl, too! I like them young."
The girl is maybe seven. (59)
Death earned.
I force my leg to work... (61)
Not sure that's how Cerebral Palsy works.
They look furious. (62)
Not at all justified.
Summary
Harper is thinking about escape, but she doesn't get anywhere with her plan. She find out via her brother's phone that he's got a boyfriend that he's in love with. After a brief visit from Grey, in which she attacks him, he gives her a tip on holding the dagger she stole and tells her dinner is coming.
Review
After climbing (falling) down the trellis outside her window, Harper runs to the stables again. She escapes, finding more proof of magic in the meantime. When she is traveling through the snow, she finds a house being ransacked with a family about to be stolen. She runs her horse into a man and then is pulled off by her ankle, but she manages to stab and kill the guy. Before the rest of the attackers can kill her and the family, Rhen and Grey show up.
8/10
Predictions
Nothing new.
Chapter 9, Rhen
Quotations
In the darkness, together on the back of a horse, it's tempting to forget the curse and pretend my life doesn't exist outside this moment. (72)
That's the way to fall in love.
Summary
Rhen is convinced to help the family. He brings Harper to an inn with him on horseback so that they can make sure that the innkeeper will take in the family they saved. He gets all warm and fuzzy when she puts her arms around him.
Review
This was very sweet but also slow. And the "no other horses" part was very confusing on first read.
8/10
Predictions
Nothing new.
Chapter 10, Harper
Quotations
"That monster killed them all." (87)
This would have been so much cooler if she waited to use this line when he could say "I killed them all."
Summary
They meet the inkeeper, secure a room for the family, and lie about where Harper is from. The family is now under the impression that she is a princess from Disi and that she is going to marry and bring prosperity to the kingdom.
Review
This was awkward, but it was meant to be. They're clumsily falling in love already and I wish that had been pushed back a bit more, but that would lead to a much longer book. I think he needs to prove himself at least three times before she falls for him a little bit. But beyond that, it was pretty good for plot movement.
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