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Reckless Eyeballing - 2.25 stars

Not usually a fan of audiobooks, but I thought it might be something to try when walking and taking public transit, and this particular one was both free and not available any other way.

The beginning is a little slow but it's starting to get good right around this point.

"In Prane, bloodmaids were regarded as symbols of opulence and depravity in almost equal measure. They were said to spend their days as the cosseted charges of their noble, northern masters—strumming harps, powdering their upturned noses, studying arts and languages, stuffing their cheeks with frosted tea cakes and chocolates and other delightful confections to sweeten their blood to the taste."

Yo, sign me up.

"Where would poor Cousin Mary go if her sister turned her out?" Charles asked Jonas, who listened quietly. "What would poor Cousin Mary do if Constance and Charles didn't love her?"

Charles gonna get himself murdered by a little girl.

"I found a nest of baby snakes near the creek and killed them all; I dislike snakes and Constance had never asked me not to."

girl, you got problems

"I always thought about rot when I came toward the row of stores; I thought about burning black painful rot that ate away from inside, hurting dreadfully. I wished it on the village."

Can't imagine why everyone in the village hates you. 😐

"The people of the village have always hated us."

😐

Reading this with the Shudder Discord Boo-k Club!

"I think it's relatively easy for people to accept something like telepathy or precognition or teleplasm because their willingness to believe doesn't cost them anything. It doesn't keep them awake nights. But the idea that the evil that men do lives after them is more unsettling."

Starting my first proper King horror novel, and reading with the Shudder Discord Boo-k Club again!

Figured out why this book feels weird to me - I don't think I like third-person present tense.

Not surprised they were the first to die tbh, though it's gotta suck to die before the person who had to have their legs amputated with a knife and rock.

"What was his old name again, he wondered, back when he, too, was an ordinary boy who went to school like the other kids? Jeong-ho? That was it. Choi Jeong-ho. He murmured his real name to himself as he slowly headed back to the hillside slum."

😟

Kinda hoping Amy is the first to die, her inner monologue is the most annoying.

"The vine had wound itself around his left leg, climbing all the way to his groin. 'His sperm,' Stacy thought, remembering the hand job she'd given him the night before. 'It was drawn to his sperm.' Because it was true: the vine had wrapped itself not only around Eric's leg but also his penis, his testicles."

Yeah, nice job, Stacy.

Also, this book has a lot more penis scenes than I was expecting.

"Stacy thought of his lungs, wondered what was happening inside him, the crises that were building, the systems failing. She stared at him dreamily, not really focusing, and several minutes passed before she noticed his legs in the darkness, his crotch, exposed. She had the momentary impulse–absurd and inappropriate and quickly repressed–to reach forward and touch his penis."

Stacy, seriously wtf.

"It doesn't have to be urine," he said finally. "We could cut the vine, too. Place it in the hole. The heat will suck the moisture right out of it."

Ah yes, drinking killer vine juice when just touching the sap causes intense burns. Great idea!

I'm not really sure this is the time to jerk your boyfriend off, Stacy.

Oh, dude didn't die. But still being annoying by screaming for multiple pages 🙄