Scattered Shells #10
Pop songs, skincare finds, and learning to DNF
Scattered Shells is where all the half-thoughts and random life notes go to live their best life. Think current obsessions + brain dumps + stuff I’d text you.
1. Olivia Rodrigo remains alarmingly talented
Olivia Rodrigo has impressed me since “drivers license.” I had a very similar reaction to that song as I did the first time I heard “Royals” by Lorde: how on earth can someone so young already have this much wisdom and talent?
The way Rodrigo writes a song is frankly astounding to me. She manages to sound exactly her age while also expressing herself with the kind of perspective that usually comes years later, as though she’s experiencing girlhood and reflecting on it at the same time.
Her new album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, might be her best one yet. I may be literally twice her age, but I love her music and have spent an unreasonable amount of time yelling along to it in the car. I’m currently obsessed with “stupid song.” It’s a banger.
I was thrilled to secure tickets to see her when she comes to South Florida in November. I look forward to being one of the weird middle-aged women in the crowd singing along to every word.
2. A book that read my mind
Enough people had recommended Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake that I finally picked it up, expecting a fun little cannibalism horror novel.
And it is a fun little cannibalism horror novel. I highly recommend it on those grounds alone.
But while I was reading, I kept finding myself mentally saying yes, yes, YES EXACTLY, over and over again. The book is much more thoughtful than I expected. It raises questions about whether there is any such thing as a universal girlhood, what feminism looks like after the girlboss era, and how easily traditional gender roles can start to look comforting, even aspirational, once they’ve been packaged as a simpler way to live.
Then I read Blake’s acknowledgments. She calls out the “girl dinner” meme, clean girl makeup, coquette-core, tradwife content, and the way those threads began converging for her and eventually inspired the novel.
A lot of these same subjects have been bothering me for the past few years and have found their way into things I’ve written here on Shellshocked. Reading her acknowledgments explained why the book had spoken to me so strongly: Blake had taken concerns I’d also been thinking and writing about and put them inside a funny, dark novel about sorority cannibals.
I went into Girl Dinner expecting something entertaining. I got that—and so much more. This is satire done right, and for me, it was one of those rare reading experiences where a book engaged so directly with concerns I’ve been carrying around for years that I felt understood by it.
3. Entering my DNF era
I almost never DNF books. I have a very hard time leaving anything unfinished once I’ve started it, whether it’s a movie I don’t like, a TV series I’ve clearly grown out of, or a book that stopped working for me 200 pages ago.
I have forced myself through entire series I knew were not for me simply because I couldn’t stand the idea of leaving them incomplete. This is less about perseverance and more about my actual OCD, which makes it extremely difficult for me to let things remain undone.
(This also applies to unfinished to-do lists, unfolded laundry, dishes left in the sink, and objects sitting approximately three inches away from where they belong. Yes, I’m very tidy. No, I can never relax. Yes, I’ve seen a therapist.)
But as I’ve gotten deeper into Bookstagram, I’ve discovered so many new titles through other readers that my TBR has gotten completely out of control.
Knowing how much is out there has made it a little easier to put something down when I’m not enjoying it. I’m still not especially good at it, but while working on my midyear reading recap, I realized I’ve DNFed four books so far this year.
Four.
Quite frankly, this is a personal record.
What were they? Well, I’ll tell you.
I’ll Watch Your Baby by Neena Viel: I was really excited about this one. It’s a horror novel loosely inspired by the life of Linda Taylor, the woman Ronald Reagan made the face of the so-called “welfare queen” myth in the 1980s. I was looking forward to some scathing commentary on that idea mixed with some great speculative horror. Unfortunately, there were bugs. So many bugs. I simply could not deal. With all. The bugs.
The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky: This YA thriller sounded promising, but I made it about four pages in before realizing I was not going to be able to cope. I have a very low tolerance for books that lean too heavily on current pop culture references. It dates the story immediately and often feels like a shortcut to relatability instead of doing the work through character or theme. (I could rant about this for days. Please let me know if you’d like me to.) I’m not a Taylor Swift hater, but after the narrator referred to “listening to the latest Taylor single” more than once without ever using Swift’s last name, I had to tap out.
The Ruins by Scott Smith: I was reading this for a book club and was genuinely pumped because it’s one of those horror novels people are always calling a classic. I made it about 40% in, but by then it felt very clear where the story was going, every character was awful, and the whole thing was deeply unpleasant in a way that gave me nothing to hold onto. I can usually handle gross, but I need some reason to keep handling the gross. This had plenty of gore and repulsive imagery, yet I was somehow still bored. It also had that early Stephen King combination of unnecessary sex scenes and baked-in misogyny, which did not help.
The Potting Shed Murder by Paula Sutton: I picked this up as a palate cleanser between heavier books and immediately remembered that cozy mysteries are not, in fact, cleansing for me. This is the quintessential quirky murder mystery set in a charming small town, complete with eccentric characters and the general sense that everyone owns at least one very specific teapot. I was basically grinding my teeth the entire time. I’m sure it’s lovely for people who enjoy the genre, but I need to face the facts. I do not.
4. Widow’s Bay, please don’t leave me
I am still completely obsessed with Widow’s Bay. I am still talking about Widow’s Bay to anyone who will listen. I am still telling everyone I know to watch Widow’s Bay as though Apple TV+ has put me on commission.
The finale is coming up this week, and I am already mourning the loss of my new favorite show.
I also recently noticed that when you Google Widow’s Bay, this comes up:
Perfect. No notes.
5. Things currently making my skin behave
Want some completely random skincare recommendations? I know you do.
This completely random 60% urea foot care stick from an equally random Amazon seller: I bought this for some stubborn dry patches I get on my elbows and I’ve been using it every night for nearly two months. My elbows still get a little dry, because they remain elbows, but the weird patches are completely gone.
SOME BY MI AHA BHA PHA 30 Days Miracle Truecica Clear Pads: Yes, that is one hell of a product name. These are Korean exfoliating toner pads made with AHA, BHA, and PHA, plus centella to make them gentler on sensitive skin. Previously, I used the ZO Skin Health Complexion Renewal Pads, which cost about twice as much and regularly left my skin feeling dry. These are working much better for me as a chemical exfoliant and haven’t irritated my skin.
Prequel Skin Scar Solutions stick: I had a stubborn acne scar on my neck that made me crazy every time I looked at it. I’m already a big fan of Prequel, and I follow its founder, dermatologist Dr. Sam Ellis, religiously on YouTube, so I was willing to give the stick a try. I bought it in March and have used it every night since. At this point, the scar has nearly disappeared, and I no longer feel the need to cover it with makeup.
Tell me, friends: what are you obsessed with lately?
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I read The Ruins years ago, when it first came out and remember it scaring the shit out of me, but I also think that it has probably aged like milk? I'm fascinated by your DNF list; I don't keep track of books I abandon as a general rule unless I get pretty far into them (there are a lot of books I bail on after a few pages).
Stupid song is my fave on the album so far! And I think you’ve just convinced me to read Girl Dinner