I first read this in the early 2000s and loved it then, though I'm not sure I understood everything that went on. To my credit, like Kiernan 's subsequent work, this debut novel thrives on ambiguity. Kiernan became one of my favourite authors from that point onwards, and though it was hard, I was able to buy most of her mass-market releases and even a few limited-edition small-press titles.

I understood it a whole lot more during this rereading, though like I said, parts that are supposed to be ambiguous remain so. But I now see that this IS a mature novel whose characterisation is carefully constellated around the links between the characters rather than just each one individually. From these interactions, the plot unfolds organically—web-like, even, which fits the whole spider figure that runs through the whole book in every sort of way imaginable.

The last thing I will say here is that this isn't intended to be a review of Silk.

My Bookrastinating account was meant to cover just the books I bought in Melbourne this year. (This is why I didn't port my entire Goodreads library, not even the one other book in 2022 that I didn't buy in Australia.) I wanted to do book previews and reading progress reports for an public accountability purposes. I gave myself a clean slate, with the goal of spending 2023 reading all 35 2022 acquisitions.

That said, it's entirely fitting for a bookrastinator to be distracted from one book (This is What It Sounds Like) by picking up an older book by chance. That this book was one I reread in December 2021, misplaced, and then found again now—this is just a textbook example of why I bookrastinate.

I can't wait to get back now to my 2022 books, except that I'm also tempted to reread Murder of Angels, a later novel that revisits some of Silk's characters.

Stay tuned and see whether I succumb and end up reading fiction instead of something for my thesis!