Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if one of us were Tana French.
That book was fun to read but ultimately unsatisfying. I guess that supports the OP.
I don't get it. Wouldn't the Lexie girl's friends notice that (impostor) Lexie was acting differently? And not recognizing them and stuff? I'm confused.
Sigh. It's like you've never even read The Prince and the Pauper.
I have a confession, Kraab: I can't read.
Obviously, Stanely, dead-Lexie had been leading a life similar to the one that Cassie, when she went by the name "Lexie", led or pretended to lead; thus, Cassie could assume the role again with no problem.
Also, she had just been stabbed and lost a lot of blood, so some eccentricities of behavior can be explained away easily, see?
6: Sigh. It's like you've never even seen Face/Off.
She and her undercover team spend a lot of time researching the real-life Lexie, reviewing home video of her, etc., before she goes in with the impersonation. It's implausible for sure, and I kept thinking that this implausible outcome would be explained in a reasonable way, but
***
spoiler
***
it never is. French's previous book, In the Woods, has a similar problem, where what seems to be a fundamental mystery (in that case, who killed Adam's friends and what happened during his lost hours in the woods) is left unresolved. Which, fine, life's greater questions often go unexplained, but that kind of verisimilitude is not what I'm after in a mystery novel.
That's exactly how her artistry undermines generic conventions.
I enjoyed them both, and will almost certainly read her latest at some point, but agree with jms's view of things.
I tried to do artistry to undermine geriatric conventions, but if you dig a hole beside a Marriott, the police come before you get deep enough.
a Twilight Zone version of the blog
The blog? What blog?
Also I keep reading "Frank Mackey, Cassie's former undercover boss" as "underwear boss."
16: I think to really get this post you have to read Standpipe's blog.
I don't get this post.
Lexie's Whitethorn House comrades are humanities graduate students who communicate almost solely by persiflage and badinage, for one thing. The house, where they go to escape from the world, was the setting of a brief, mythical golden period of comradeship and wit, to which people are always already harking back. And everyone has had group-dynamic-threatening sex with apostropher Rafe.
You'll have to be more specific.
You, Standpipe Bridgeplate. What are you doing.
srsly, Standpipe. I mean, I got it. I in fact might have read other and additional things into it!
It's good to see you, by the way. Also.
I'm sitting on the couch, half-listening to the World Series and putting comments in the comments.
Of all the places to put one's comments.
It's the comments made the trouble: the comments, the comments, put the comments in the comments. The comments in the comments made the comments obsolete! Obsolete!
I in fact might have read other and additional things into it!
I know, but you see, it's like, let me show you my pokemons.
This novel sounds like a mash-up of Laura and Shallow Grave. Two texts which did not need to be mashed-up, and which could hardly benefit from the process.
26: But you gotta know the territory!
But you gotta know the territory!
Worst comment ever.
My jacked live stream of the world series abruptly shifted into Spanish in the fifth inning. I'm beginning to accept that Spanish is the language of live sports streaming.
putting comments in the comments
This is treading dangerously close to truly awful meme territory. Also, I think 18 signals the death of the blog.
Why can't you watch the World Series on TV? I've always suspected you of being a communist. Is that why?
it's like, let me show you my pokemons
Yet that garners little more than a "Huh. Pokemons."
Huh. Is it really that bad around here? I mean, I don't say "the blog."
Also, I think 18 signals the death of the blog.
Look, the blog died a long time ago. We're just doing a plausible impersonation of it.
I would argue with 18 in any case, because.
This is treading dangerously close to truly awful meme territory
Hm, perhaps there are Internet traditions of which I am not aware. I'm sorry I almost… memed?
37: "Sup dawg, I heard you like comments so I put some comments in your comments so you can blog while you blog."
Leibniz -- I think it was Leibniz -- once dreamed of being able to take two parties in dispute, sit them down, and say, "Let us calculate". And then show them his pokemons.
30: Well, excuse me for living!
essear, that's awful. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I repent.
Indeed I do not understand this pokemon business whatsoever. It's like beanie babies, right? Or ceramic fish, also the object of intense interest for some.
42: Why don't you let a Pokemon in the bathroom with you?
I have no frikkin' idea. I barely know what they are.
OK, this is at least a little bit funny.
Everything I know about Pokemon came from playing way too much Smash Bros in college. We couldn't really tell what they called themselves so we just went with our best guess. I remember there was one we knew as "falafel".
Does 39, following 38, imply foreknowledge of 46? Or did two consecutive comments involving the meme and Leibniz cause a Leibnizian instantiation of the meme to spring up fully-formed elsewhere on the web, "Rule 34"-like?
I had no foreknowledge of 46. This is indeed a disturbing universe.
#45 is so stupid I laughed out loud.
I've never read anything Tana French wrote. But I like her name. It isn't as great as Galaxy Craze, but who can compete with a name like Galaxy Craze?
For those of you playing at home:
Rule 34. Producing Documents, Electronically Stored Information, and Tangible Things, or Entering onto Land, for Inspection and Other Purposes
"Other Purposes" is doing a lot of work there.
51: And apparently a real name. A friend was at college with her.
I have such a tiny-bopper crush on Tim Lincecum.
56: unlike the big bopper crush, the tiny bopper crush is very much alive.
Hold me closer, tiny bopper.
The hair is cute, and he just described the trophy as "shiny." Gotta appreciate the honesty.
Also, it is not allowed to have a crush on someone whose last name is a portmanteau of Linoleum and Coelacanth.
Actually, never mind, it kind of is allowed, and perhaps encouraged.
"Tiny Bopper Crush" sounds like some sort of WWF move employed by the overcompensating wrestler.
Much less someone whose last name is a portmanteau of "linoleum" and "caecum".
What with the spandex and what I've heard about the effects of steroids, you can see why it might be needed.
And showing Europe's understanding of baseball, the FAZ home page currently has 'Die wundersame Rückkehr der Texas Rangers'
After all these years, the corporeal existence of Standpipe Bridgeplate is such a vague notion that it seems wondrous to learn that ze has a couch.
I've actually touched standpipe bridgeplate. not, you know, touched touched, but.
I'm touching standpipe bridgeplate right now.
Let me be the first to say that Elvis and chocolate are totally overrated.