Read The Moth Diaries, by Rachel Klein, presumably following a recommendation in The Guardian or on Tor’s Reactor blog. This is a 2002 book, labelled as gothic horror by the review I read then. However, there is little horror in the novel and much more of a diffracted snapshot of a perturbed pupil at a US boarding school, traumatised by the suicide of her father. As the story is told through and only through the diary of that pupil, most facts being reported second-hand and not always coherently, it becomes quickly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, especially the veracity of another pupil being a vampire. Or just the new best friend of the narrator’s former best friend. Which makes the book much more interesting, if unsettling. (Especially regarding how a sexual assault by a teacher on the pupil is not reported by her as such.)
During a May 01 trip to Caen, if not for the half-marathon, next month!, I visited the nearby fish market in Courseulle, where I tasted fantastic, local, oysters, possibly at the height of their growth, despite the warning to avoid oysters in months without R’s! I also taught a restaurant waiter how to make affogato! And visited the amazing archaeological site of Aregenua, in the tiny village of Vieux, of which I had never heard. This Gallo-Roman city was the centre of local power in the early centuries, when Caen hardly existed, with 5000 inhabitants, temples, a forum and a theatre. All of which gradually vanished in the Dark Ages… The site is now protected from pilfering, but a large fraction remains un-escavated. (Too bad the museum boutique was not selling garum!)
Watched some episodes of The Night Agent (2), rather efficient copycat of the Bourne movies, but also requiring a huge suspension of belief in its accumulation of coincidences and the ability of the agents to operate in completely new environments. With a completely implausible reception at the Iranian Embassy. (And a DGSE agent with an awful French.) But the tension in the cat & mouse “game” is there, to the point I had to split episodes when it got too intense!
Xi'an's Og