[spring] i didn't like selected unpublished blog posts of a mexican panda express employee very much, but i bought this as soon as i learned of its existence. the idea of liveblogging your life in order to force yourself to get your shit together is insane and yet i related to the neurotic, flawed concept so much i knew i would love this. and indeed, despite megan boyle being much quirkier than the types of female authors i like to read, this was such a rewarding experience. boyle's appeal as a writer is how immediate her style is, and by that i mean she sounds just like a current-day girl blogging about her life on dreamwidth or neocities, but she took the concept of blogging to its extreme as a blogger (and for the audience, as a voyeur) by writing as much as possible about her days.

the little details of life in the 2010s appealed to me very much as an elder zoomer who was fascinated with alt-lit and "indie sleaze" when i read it. most interesting is reading between the lines of boyle's agonized self-hatred, trying to figure out what's really going on with her. why is she such a mess? this question is never answered obviously but my mind reeled reading about the way her mind works. for example she kind of writes around her ex-boyfriend in a way where it is easy to glean he is a horrible person, but it seems like she doesn't even know she's being treated poorly. alongside this there is extensive talk of crazy drug use, sex, and the mysterious tao lin makes multiple cameos but what shines through is boyle's little interactions with strangers. i was sad when the book falls apart when she meets a guy who doesn't want to be written about, and surprise surprise it didn't work out, but this project could only go on for so long anyway.