I picked up a cozy mystery to get some lighter audiobooks going since 2020 is quite a stressful time to be alive. Death by Pumpkin Spice by Alex Erickson was light, fluffy, and a little silly. But some aspects of it needled me.
At some point, the part of my brain that was supposed to be anxious and insecure said “This is too much work” and switched off. It was always defective to begin with so this wasn’t a huge leap. The older I’ve gotten, the less I care.
Crazy shit happens and you roll with it. The opinions of 99% of people you’ll ever meet don’t matter. If I don’t respect you, I actively do not care what you think.
I’m not sure if Krissy’s anxiety and insecurity is an accurate representation of the ‘typical’ female brain. It seems vaguely representative of the low grade anxiety a lot of people talk about on social media.
The insecurity and negative self-talk feel pretty on track. I was a Designated Ugly Fat Friend for a while. Krissy also had relationship baggage from a cheating ex.
I’d feel better about these musings if I figured out if Alex was a man or a woman. Given the fairly standard gender representation, a third option did not seem likely.
He’s a cis het white man as far as I can tell. His socials give nothing away about his political leanings or general stance as a person.
Grady Hendrix’s stance on writing women is to write them like people. It’s part of why I like his characters so much. I’m not sure Erickson is doing that. Is he writing women how he thinks they should be? Is he basing it on his wife? Sisters, if he has them?
I’ve been watching The Good Place with Hubs so I feel like I’m pulling a Chidi, over analyzing this instead of enjoying it.
I enjoyed Pumpkin Spice enough I went back to the beginning of the series. I need a light distraction. Other little things have popped up that annoy me irrelevant from the higher nonsense.
Krissy had a hard time with ‘anaphylactic shock’ and other big words but helps her mystery writer father and owns a bookstore cafe. This just felt like bad writing.
I work with cats enough to know some basics. Her cat hates his litter box but Krissy seems like a first class idiot in dealing with it. Use a special spray to clean messes and change the litter. He hates sand? We have a client who uses weird pellet things. Another found crushed walnut shell litter. Some cats can be toilet trained.
Should I quit and try to find another cozy series by a woman? I feel like all this ‘pulling a Chidi’ is not a good sign.
JesseJaneReads 