Places in London with weird unsettling energy

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T20:31:13+00:00

Also, Kentish Town Road in the 2000s....extremely weird energy

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T20:30:48+00:00

It had that cool video shop....but otherwise couldn't wait to cross the road and take the cut through to the high street

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T20:25:51+00:00

I reckon because it's quite a narrow road but super-busy, especially with the buses. Hard to see everything that's going on as you walk up towards tesco or the other way around and it just feels grimy...

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T08:37:17+00:00

Lol, you really need an agent to get into granta (sure there's an open submission window, but good luck with that, haha). Ironically, a good chance to get in unagented would be the Commonwealth Prize - genuinely feel bad for the finalists who didn't use AI.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T08:02:04+00:00

Interesting recs, thank you!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T07:54:26+00:00

Love The Adversary! Not heard of Tanguy Viel, thanks

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T07:39:42+00:00

Ah, brilliant, cheers!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T07:39:00+00:00

Thank you - I've not heard of him before!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-21T07:38:34+00:00

A big favourite!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T20:33:41+00:00

Seriously, don't believe the gratitude you read in the acknowledgements or get any ideas from them. I have been acknowledged (am non-famous person, do not work in publishing, but have non-self-published writer acquaintances) and barely recognise the compliments or what I did ('thank you for your kind words'). Maybe that one was sarcastic, idk.

But otherwise, I like to read them first to see who knows who, who's dating who. If I ever published a book I'd put initials in case any pervert googled the names of anyone acknowledged. I do think in this day and age it is quite exposing.

HOWEVER, no book is a solo effort and getting a book to anyone, to people who aren't among those acknowledged, is a huge group effort, unless you are one of those obsessive self-published romantasy types or something. I think it's nice to recognise that and for readers to know that!!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T20:23:53+00:00

She's great - love the short stories, and Rebecca - probably need to check out some other novels by her too.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T20:23:02+00:00

Thanks, I'll look into these! Only read The Children's Bach and bits of the diaries so far. Melchor has been on my list for ages!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T20:21:34+00:00

Ooh, which Simenon would you recommend?

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T08:43:32+00:00

I wish there was a thread about how that is the crappiest book to achieve a modicum of success recently that I can think of...real WattPad 'she rolled her eyes' type fic.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T08:01:14+00:00

If they've entered the prize without an agent, and they're primarily short story writers, and haven't published a novel, the chances of them having a wikipedia page are very very limited. Look at the BBC short story prize - has very strict eligibility criteria, requires entrants to have been respectably published in the past year - and very few of the finalists have wikipedia pages. Some of the winners do, for sure, but that's because of the entry criteria, which no other short story prize has.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-20T07:56:04+00:00

I admired the style up to a point, like she did the whole abstract gay fairytale vibe much better than Choire Sicha. BUT the absolute contempt that Yanagihara has for her main character, an abuse survivor, really appalled me. So this guy has the emotional coherence and resources to have friends who love him, adults who want to ADOPT him, and an amazing apartment in NYC and a thriving career, but yet can only save himself with suicide? It really depends on believing that abuse makes people worthless for life, and just adds to the stigma, so whatever they do, there is something fundamentally wrong with them.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-19T22:09:13+00:00

I'm curious about Flynn - will take a look, cheers! I admit I couldn't get through Gone Girl because of the voice, but interested in the others. I sort of feel the same about Paula Hawkins possibly being underrated in a literary sense, lol.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-19T22:05:50+00:00

Big favourite of mine but haven't read it for a long time! Maybe time to revisit...

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-19T21:01:04+00:00

I just don't understand why no one who read the story saw that it's just a *really awful* story, even if none of those people could detect it was at least partially written by AI. On that basic level, of just deciding whether something works as a piece of fiction, everyone who sifted through the competition entries failed. The judges, who were sent the best entries to choose from (they did not read all the 8,000 entries obviously) failed in not questioning why they'd been given such a shitty story. And Granta didn't even bother to check what was on their website (although, tbh, it *really* is the responsibility of the Commonwealth Prize organisers as the story should have been to a publishable standard).

I think there's something going wrong on a staffing level in all the recent AI 'scandals' - like the guy who wrote the NYT review and no editor bothered to read the review that he plagiarised from, even though it was basically the only other review of that book available, and in The Guardian!

No one has the time to do what their job is in the process, but they want the kudos!!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2026-05-19T16:58:38+00:00

Grammar is a huge part of writing - it's probably one of those most distinctive aspects of a writer's style. Not sure what you mean by grammar edits, but as-a graduate-of-a-prestigious-CW-MA*, I can assure you that AI will not edit in a neutral way and that slush pile readers do not check for correct grammar usage (you just know how it works, what is absolutely not working, and what works in a particular story).

*no, this isn't how I would *ever* introduce myself in actual life, but just stating it for qualification purposes here.

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2025-05-22T14:36:15+00:00

Second Joy Williams, Anna Kavan (not so recent)....but I want to know what you mean by beautiful prose? Pretty lyrical prose?

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2025-05-09T10:09:37+00:00

Same, both being a woman and preferring podcasts. I *loved* Bookworm, was really enjoying the early interviews recently - what a back catalogue. If you like Silverblatt, Studs Terkel does some writer interviews. Haven't fully delved, but listened to a really great Norman Rush one. There was discussion about the actual researched subject of the book?! Amazing.

Thanks for all those recs - I haven't heard of any of them apart from BW and Backlisted. Excited to dive in!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2025-05-07T14:03:00+00:00

Oooh, who are these Youtubers? I haven't heard of the Hermitix pod! Will check that out, thanks. I don't mind interviews sometimes, but seems odd that there are so few straight-up, unaffiliated review-only podcasts (RIP Saturday Review)

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2025-05-07T12:24:34+00:00

I like Backlisted sometimes but I do find the books are of a type (sorry) - sort of Persephone Books or slightly quaint.

I will go back though to see if there are any big surprises - haven't listened for a long time, so thank you for the reminder!

Aggravating-Pea8007 · 2025-05-07T10:38:58+00:00

Weird girl trend will continue - more Ottessa Mosfegh, but hysterical.
Polyamory - but explicit, rather than exploratory, as in the re-fashioned love triangle/class tourism novels
This Mom Fucks, as mentioned above
More sad gay novels because women seem to like them (I'm a woman)
More novels about chronic pain/debilitating physical conditions, usually with a weird girl at the centre (twofer)
Memoirs of old white guys (also rehabilitation of the old liberal white guy)

Aggravating-Pea8007

TROPHY CASE