Mx Seek

the movie and the book are very different, but reading the book made me appreciate the brilliance of the movie and the brilliance of Patricia Highsmith's writing even more.

In the book, after Tom's first meeting with Dickie goes awry, he realizes he shouldn't have said Dickie's dad sent him, and should've made it a much more casual encounter. Much later on after he's killed Dickie, he's reflecting on that and how he wouldn't have had to murder Dickie if he had made a better first impression, and upon realizing he was getting ousted, didn't panic and drag Dickie to art galleries' or things he wasn't really interested in. He also blames Marge calling him a queer for Dickie's sudden coldness.

In the movie, he *does* play it like he just ran into Dickie randomly, and just goes along with everything Dickie says, Marge even likes Tom and she's much more involved with Dickie in the film version, she's even close friends with another gay man showing that she's probably an ally. She reassures Tom and supports him, and he *still* ends up getting ousted and murdering Dickie. (Though, it wasn't premeditated.)

It shows how, even if Tom had done "everything right" he was still a deeply unstable man. The movie also adds a double layer of tragedy with making Peter Smith-Kingsley a much bigger character. I don't doubt that in the original book he was intended to be queer-coded, knowing Patricia Highsmith, Peter inviting Tom to his Irish Castle was probably a (somewhat) discreet way of showing he was interested in Tom.

This book is a masterpiece, the film is a masterpiece as well, but in a different way.

A new all-time favorite for me.

I can see why easily it became a classic and how it inspired so much horror, and it was very well written, but some parts do drag quite a bit

I really really wish a proshot of this play existed, it deserves to be shared in it's stage form

but this is still an incredible read <3

eye-opening masterpiece of debunking hasbara, intensely personal while also never losing sight of the big picture

free palestine!

while good chunks of this have aged extremely, and I mean, *extremely* poorly, it's still a solidly written story with very good dream-like prose, and character descriptions that perfectly fit the character of a young woman going through puberty. The underlying tone of sexism, fatphobia, and the overlying tone of anti-Romani racism really drag this book down. This was progressive for the time, I'm not denying that; Cass lets her little brother sleepover with the Blackwells no problem, and is angry at people who suggest that it may be dangerous to let him, she hires the Blackwells to pick blueberries, and is determined to prove their innocence. However, there is also this inherent belief that, while the Blackwells are kind, they are inherently stupid, and inferior to white people. There's a part in the book where Cass and Adam are talking about them, and Adam says something to the affect of "it's a shame when they're going to be wiped out" and like. Jesus Fucking Christ.

I was so relieved when it turned out Jeff was like...Purposefully written to be a scumbag and it wasn't just another aspect of the book that had aged like milk

There's this weird undercurrent of sexism throughout, that Cass is an overemotional girl, and while she does turn out to be right about the Blackwells in the end, her judgement is clouded by "emotions". She's too "boyish" too "fat", all other women are rivals to her. Even during the last scene of the fucking book they specify that she gave herself a nonfattening snack but gave Adam a normal one, and that she's happy cause she's slender now and like...Just, fuck all the way off.

Adam physically assaults her in a scene, fucking yanks on her ponytail, and the narrative says that he was right to do so cause she was being "an idiot" it's just fucking inSANE.

this isn't the worst/most offensive book ever, it's not poorly written for the most part either (though, the thing about Adam's family is weirdly dropped, kinda thought there'd be more there but whatever) and it's not even the worst book I've ever read. It was very much written in the 50s, and it does accurately capture how big every little thing feels when you're going through puberty, there are many things to like about this book, but also a lot weighing it down.

I want to check out other stuff by the author at some point, cause her prose and the way each character has their own way of speaking is very very skilled, I love the way she describes peoples expressions and mannerisms. (Minus the way she describes the Blackwells .)