The Meh and the Yay

[lunabee34]

1. Apparently BPAL stuff takes forever to ship. *cries* LOL

2. I bought some stevia to try. It tastes exactly like a Sweet-n-Low packet. Bleck. My little foray down the sugar substitute aisle also reminded me that I don't like agave as a sweetener. Boo and also hiss.

3. I finished the final book in the Newsflesh trilogy.



I think the second book is my favorite, but I really liked this concluding book.

I loved how resourceful clone!Georgia is. I love that she is able to accept that she isn't quite Georgia and think about how to move on from that. And holy Flowers in the Attic, Batman, was that kiss with Shaun exactly what I've been waiting for. I wondered if the writer would have the balls to make Georgia/Shaun unmistakable and explicitly stated, and she did! Yay!!!!!!

The moment where Shaun reflects that clone!Georgia isn't really Georgia but she's good enough is very bittersweet.

I also really appreciated the treatment of the Mason parents. The interactions we got with them in this book is what I have wanted all along. Clearly the people are flawed. Clearly they were not good parents. But that moment when Shaun wonders if his parents see the ghost of their dead son or hear his voice or look around at their house like it's a grave--that kicked me in the gut. Because it's something he never could have come close to understanding without losing Georgia first. It doesn't excuse anything the Masons have done, but it was nice to see Shaun develop some empathy there.

I cannot believe that Becks died. *sniffle*

I am so glad that Rick and President Ryman were ultimately not bad guys, and I liked the explanation the book gave for the global game.

Of course, I also am a fan of Shaun and Georgia riding off into the sunset where they can be left alone, just the two of them--no parents, no public, no cameras. Just the most gloriously co-dependent ending this book could have had. LOL


I wholeheartedly recommend reading this series to everyone!

Comments

[the_rck]

I've heard that the taste of stevia depends on the brand one gets. I've been using the Whole Foods house brand. It doesn't seem to have the bitter aftertaste I've heard that some brands have. It does have a definite flavor, though.

I'm trying stevia because I can't have aspartame or sucralose and need something no to low cal.

[lunabee34]

Ah, okay.

*goes to check*

I got the Truvia brand. It makes sense there would be variations.

[cathexys]

I do think it's taste buds though as well. I love Truvia (I think it smells like cotton candy :) and definitely like it better than Splenda, but Ryan can taste it out of anything (I just made diabetic chocolate mousse and he hated it...)

[lunabee34]

I think you're right that it comes down to taste buds.

warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[umadoshi]

I love clone!Georgia with all my heart and soul. I love her dealing with her identity issues, and that edge of vulnerability the original Georgia never had. (And with all aspects of those things, I love that the book never really tries to answer what extent the differences are due to the "97%" thing or the fact that the clone has the experiences of dying, of being separated from Shaun and her entire support network, and being isolated/tormented/experimented on.)

My default phrasing is along the lines of "I love that she's too throughly Georgia Mason to ever quite accept herself as Georgia Mason".

Quite a lot of people literally don't notice the Georgia/Shaun thing UNTIL THEY KISS. Which I can't understand, but can intellectually accept...unless they then turn around complain that Seanan threw it in for shock value, with no buildup. a) Seanan tried hard not to have them sleeping together (to which G&S were basically like "...ha ha, you're funny. Give us a call when you come to terms with it, and we can get back to the story"), and b) ...I have no words for the "no buildup" notion. Just. What? I know someone who noticed by about chapter 4 of Feed--like, was really sure that they were actually sleeping together, not just finding that she shipped them.

(Side note: Seanan talks about her characters talking to her; it's not me extrapolating. ^^;)

Shaun and Becks' visit to the Masons is one of my favorite things in the entire series, because the whole family dynamic is such an utter mess and so broken but so horribly plausible to me. I sympathize deeply with the elder Masons' damage, but I also hate them intensely. >.> Seanan has said they did try with the kids, initially--and there's the simple fact of Shaun's middle name being Phillip, which I don't believe they would have done if they'd adopted the kids for purely strategic reasons.

There are a lot of details for why I can't cope with them, despite Shaun's realization that there was still some degree of actual love there. But the two most awful ones for me are the image of Georgia spending so much of her life desperately trying to make Michael proud of her, even on top of wanting their parents to love her and Shaun, and just battering herself against that impossibility...and the way Stacy talks about her to Shaun when he and Becks visit. That was the thing that cemented my suspicion that the Masons did know the kids were sleeping together (which I verified with Seanan later, and her explanation makes it EVEN WORSE than I'd thought, which is impressive--I'll dig the link out), and it just... It makes me fucking sick. Literally. She so very, very precisely and deliberately talks about her dead daughter in a vile way, explicitly to manipulate her only living child. It physically revolts me.

BECKS. ;_; I love Becks so very much, and her death is so awful and so well done. (Shaun writes such good eulogies. ;_; I love what he writes about Buffy, and then about Becks, but the fact that he ends it with "Good night, Becks" is a punch right in the throat.)

I'm glad to know that Shaun and Georgia are off living a peaceful life somewhere (even Seanan doesn't know where, other than "Canada"), but oh, I miss them SO MUCH. Until sometime last year Seanan was absolutely adamant that she'd never write them again, because they basically told her to fuck off and walked out on her the very second it was possible to do so (leaving poor Mahir to finish the book, literally) and have refused to tell her much at all about anything that's happened since. And I still don't think it's likely that she'll write them again, but it sounds like they've at least given her a tiny glimpse of how they are, even if not enough to hang a story on.

All three of the novellas are well worth reading. "Countdown" and "San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats" both take place during the Rising, and I enjoyed them, but then last year Seanan released "How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea", in which Mahir goes to Australia a few years after the trilogy ends, and I love it to pieces. (He talks about Georgia, which helps. *g* But I would love it anyway. I adore Mahir.)

BOOKS OF MY HEART. I'm so happy that you loved them! *^^*

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[umadoshi]

And now a couple of links for things I mentioned in my main comment!

I asked Seanan a few questions during an AMA last year, and her answer to #2 is what managed to make me even more furious with the elder Masons than I had been. (I had assumed they knew, but that it was sort of a [mostly?] unspoken agreement that they'd all pretend it wasn't happening. But no.)

And I'll just link to this post I made in November, in which I recorded a few very relevant quotes from Seanan that made me unspeakably happy. *^^*

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[lunabee34]

Oh cool. thanks for the links!

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[lunabee34]

Oh, I 100% got the impression that Mom Mason knew he and Georgia had been sleeping together.

And how shippy is that reunion between Shaun and Georgia? I mean--you were my first, second, and third boyfriend. Wow.

I wonder if one of the reasons that Georgia is so physically and emotionally reserved with everyone but Shaun is because they spent their whole lives hiding their relationship. You don't go for genetic testing at 16 if you're not getting ready to have sex. So they have spent pretty much their entire lives in a romantic relationship in which they can be physically affectionate around no one. At first their home is full of cameras and they're constantly being recorded and then their jobs have their lives stuffed with cameras. I wonder if the lifetime of stifling a natural urge to sling an arm around Shaun or snuggle into him or kiss him goodbye or half a dozen of the other things many couples routinely do make her just be so careful about that that it extended to everyone?

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[umadoshi]

When I was first theorizing at people, a surprising number of them were either skeptical of the idea that Stacy and Michael knew, or had never thought about it one way or the other, so I found it very reassuring the first time or two that someone else was like "well, obviously!" There are so many nods to it scattered here and there. (One that particularly interests me is Georgia writing in Feed that she and Shaun would have still been sharing a bedroom "if they'd let us".)

Everything about the reunion makes my heart overflow. Everything. All the places where it's awkward and uncertain, and the places where it's like nothing's changed. My favorite may be the ride back to the hotel from the CDC, when she just climbs into his arms and snuggles down and falls into instant, perfect sleep, and then when he threatens her awake. *^^*

*nods* I imagine that at the very least, constantly hiding a major aspect of their relationship would have contributed to how reserved she is. Shaun does mention when head!George cuddles up with him that she hid physical affection from their parents even when they were kids, but having it become a need for secrecy as well as a desire for privacy can't have helped with her keeping her distance. (Although on the flip side, Shaun's still very tactile with her in front of people and cameras.)

And because this reminded me of a thing that delights me, I'm gratuitously pasting in a bit of an email that wildpear wrote to me when she started rereading Feed a while ago. *g* She said, "Okay, and I actually noticed this the first time, but "Shaun grudgingly slid his other arm around my waist and linked his hands at the pit of my stomach" is just unsettlingly physical if you're thinking 'siblings'. I remember reading that and going "huh, wait? . . . ." and then just deciding it was awkward writing, because obviously he had to put his hands there and what was my problem. But he didn't have to do it like THAT, and she didn't have to notice so graphically, did she? Yes, yes she did. I also like, immediately afterwards, "as he settled." Because that is so very much what Shaun does. He haz a George, and he's not busy poking things? He just settles in and makes himself cozy."

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[lunabee34]

Oh yeah. Now that I've read the entire series, I can definitely look back and see hints throughout. I think this is 100% one of those reads that just gets better and better with re-reading.

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[umadoshi]

It really, really is. It's such comfort reading for me now, even with all the heartrending parts.

I think the quote in this icon will always be my favorite answer to people who think that Feed flat-out contained no indication that Georgia and Shaun were sleeping together. *g*

Re: warning: ALL THE NEWSFLESH SPOILERS (and chatter)

[lunabee34]

Ha! I love it. :)