in a blogpost

Limetown is a podcast about the fictional town “Limetown,” headed by reporter Lia Haddock who explores the mystery behind why all 300+ members of the town mysteriously disappeared in 2004 with no trace of anyone left in the town. I will be critiquing the entire first season of Limetown so here is a spoiler warning. Neither the second season, the TV show, or the prequel book will be referenced nor taken into account in this review as I have not nor will I read/watch/listen to them. (Epic warning my opinions are not positive) With that over with, let’s begin with…
Episode one, What We Know does a great job of giving a rundown of the premise of the podcast while introducing everything the listener needs to know. It does a great job of getting you invested in the story and has a great ending to the episode that gives interest in continuing the series. I have no real gripes on this episode. Episode two, Winona does a good job of building suspense and mystery, but it has a few issues that will become apparent in later episodes. I do like Winona’s name, which means firstborn daughter, this is a nice nod to how Winona is the first survivor we meet and her daughter as well. One thing that I feel takes away from the episode and future survivor episodes is the whole thing where they can only answer certain questions. It feels like a gimmick that doesn’t make a lot of sense in the story at all, nor is it ever explained. Winona also is not very interesting as a character to me. I also don’t know why she is the only one who has memory issues or why she is the only crazy one we meet, it is never explained why she is like this at all. After we meet her the only connection she has with the story after this is her daughter, who is only mentioned afterward in the final episode. She doesn’t feel like a real person to me, she feels like a robot programmed to only tell Lia some things and nothing else with very little relevance to the story. The whole of her seeing the 2 people drawing the same thing also makes little sense to me, as it is never explained. The implants had some effect clearly but their relation is never shown. Wouldn’t Winona have been able to just hear them if she had an implant? And how did she escape as well as hide away from the public? The ending of season one is already convoluted and explains very little while just waving away several inconsistencies, but if they just hid everyone away in 72 hours how did Winona get out if she escaped before the panic if she was mentally ill and had memory issues? Wouldn’t she have just gotten caught or found? These are among many inconsistencies that I have issues with that break the immersion for me. There is only so far suspension of disbelief can go before it actively harms the story. The ending makes little sense to me either, the guy is never explained and his body disappearing doesn’t make sense either. It’s another “mystery” that is never explained. If he was part of the group that is “after” the Limetown survivors and that same group is the group that took Lia then why did they not just grab her now instead of at the very end? This makes no logical sense. Minisode 2.5 is interesting and I do like it a lot, but I wish more and more like this was done. I will go more in-depth later.
Episode 3, Napoleon is where Limetown begins to decline. First of all, the name Napoleon is a nice nod to George Orwells Animal Farm, it is my favorite allusion in the series, though it somewhat doesn’t make sense as the only similarity between these 2 pieces of media is a pig(the pig in Limetown doesn’t even talk). I wish the whole concept with the pigs was explored more, it’s very suddenly introduced in this episode and then never referenced afterward. The format of this episode is interesting with Lia explaining that Warren was already dead and that’s why she was using his name, but why does she use the other survivor’s real names after this? Max and Deidre aren’t confirmed dead, especially Deidre, so why use their real names? Winona used a different name but none of the others? It doesn’t make much sense. The ending of this episode was not good at all either. It was trying to be scary but was just kinda cringe and made me laugh more than anything. The whole thing with her parents possibly knowing about the whole Limetown thing is also something that is brought up once and then never referenced or expanded on again.
Episodes 4 and 5 both have very similar issues so I will be talking about both simultaneously. These episodes embody my biggest gripe with the series. Every episode with a survivor feels like a lore dump being read off by a robot. The characters have very little time to introduce themselves as interesting characters before spending 70-80% of the episode talking about and explaining a bunch of stuff relating to Limetown. Show don’t tell is the golden rule of storytelling, and Limetown fails pretty hard with this. I will explain more in the end. Both Deidre and Max have some character to them, with a connection being present, but not enough is done to make either character feel real. The lore dumping is bad here too. It’s constant exposition with nothing else to it with characters that resemble real people but still feel like robots reading off a script. Episode 4.5 is easily the best instance of worldbuilding that Limetown tries to do, but it still leaves so much to be desired.
Episode 6, Cost-Benefit Analysis, is my least favorite episode for many reasons and sucks as the ending to this series. First of all, the “live stream” feels fake, it doesn’t add anything to the story and its inclusion doesn’t make sense. It’s hardly referenced at all and has no real impact either. Lenore is also just a bad character, embodying all the previous issues from the other survivors but at their worst. The “answers” she gives make no sense at all either. Lenore explaining how all residue and proof of people being gone takes so much away from the mystery. It makes no real sense how they removed every single possible thing in less than 3 days while getting all of the survivors with the implants out of Limetown and killing and disposing of the others. This was the most interesting part of the mystery behind Limetown, and it’s all waved away as them being “good at their jobs”, it feels incredibly lazy as an explanation for one of the biggest parts of the mystery. It even says in the episode itself that it was “practically impossible” and an “incomprehensible task.” The writers clearly knew how silly of a concept it was yet still made that the reason. The ending to the episode is lackluster as well, it’s stupid how nobody in the entire world would know where Lia is or see what is happening in a public setting where many people watch and listen to the podcast. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far until it actively harms the story. 6.5 does nothing but hint at a second season and thus I have nothing to say about it.
The concept of Limetown as a whole is great, and I wish I could get invested in the series, it’s a series that is full of potential that falls flat due to the limitations of the medium it is presented in combined with the plethora of plot holes and unrealistic events in the story. I think this series would have been much more engaging if it were a book, the lack of stuff between each episode hurts the series so much. Characters feel bland as they don’t have time to grow, as most just disappear after an episode or only have a few lines. None of the characters outside of Lia get any chance to let the listener get invested in or care about them as they disappear when their episode is done. Lia is also not the most intriguing character, with no time given to get invested in the journey of the main character of the podcast as we just jump from survivor to survivor. The lack of world-building makes it hard to get invested in the story, some of the minisodes (3.5 and 4.5) are good but aren’t enough to build anything. The idea of a podcast is interesting in concept but in practice, it limits the story a lot. Limetown has lots of potential but is limited by the format it is presented in in combination with the many smaller issues.

George and Lennie have both been with each-other for a very long time, same with Candy and his dog. They deeply care for each other. George sometimes gets angry at Lennie, blaming him for everything that happens to them, but in the end he will always stay with him. Candy is similar with his dog, raising his dog since it was a puppy. He cares deeply for his dog, though they differ with Candy giving up his dog to be shot after the other boys told him to.

I think Navidson will return to the house in one final exploration. He has shown a deep interest in the house and after many traumatizing experiences, he clearly is depressed, with him not talking with people much. I love everything about this book, from the characters to the story to the layout of the pages it’s all phenomenal. This is the best book I have ever read. I don’t think I have anything I dislike about this book, the unique pages sometimes are hard to read, but this is a part of the book that improves the story significantly. A connection with Limetown is the mysterious locations, they both take place in mysterious locations that have little know about them. Everything disappearing from inside the house is also similar to the vanishing of everyone from Limetown, though Limetown’s reason for stuff disappearing is stupid.

Belonging is when you are somewhere you feel like you should be, and feel happy about being there. People need to have somewhere they belong, whether it is a place with friends and family who care about them to a place they just like being at It is important for someone to have a place like this. Without a place where people feel like they belong, they will have nowhere to fall back upon if they are in hard times, or they won’t have a place to reassure themselves of their own importance.

A true friend will tell you the truth, even when you don’t want to hear it. 10. I feel like it should be a universally agreed-upon statement but it’s important nonetheless. Friends are there to support you through life as well as just, be friends. If you are having major issues ignoring, avoiding, or lying to yourself about the truth only ever makes things worse and friends who don’t help you with situations like these are not true friends.

When people are a victim of a crime, they should be able to take the law into their own hands. 1. While the justice system can and will be wrong sometimes, it is significantly more right than it is wrong. It exists because many people are stupid, and giving them the ability to “take the law into their own hands” is monumentally stupid. The reason the justice system exists is to cut out as much error and bias as possible, and having people do it themselves would do much more harm than good,

The definition of Hysteria, by the Merriam and Oxford dictionaries respectively, is behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess/exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement. Hysteria is the core of what caused The Panic in Limetown, being the result of the conflict between those who had and didn’t have the implant. Those who didn’t have implants thought that the ones with them were hiding things from them, causing them to distrust and despise them. After the inciting event of Deidre being caught with an implant, those without the implants rebelled against those with the implants, dragging them outside and beating them and eventually dragging Oscar totem outside and burning him alive. Hysteria is when people, usually multiple in a group, act irrationally, emotionally, and illogically. Those in Limetown were very intelligent and were not the group that would usually succumb to hysteria, but the effect of the rift in society caused those without the implant to feel immense hatred toward those with it. They bottled up this emotion, only letting it out after their anger all came out at once after the Deidre incident. When they would normally act logically, they acted out of pure emotion as they attacked those without the implants and eventually killed Oscar totem.

House of Leaves is easily the best book I have ever read. The book does an amazing job of making characters feel like they are real people in an unnatural environment. Every character has depth and their personalities are explored and broken down when interacting with the house, showing their strengths and flaws. You get to explore the house with these characters, watching as their entire being is almost pulled apart and strewn for you to see as the house itself breaks them down until you can see who they truly are. Each character has a journey, whether it ends well or not, in this book.

House of Leaves has a very unique writing style, with almost half of the story being in annotations in the bottom parts of pages. An iconic part of the book is the fact that the word “house” is colored blue in every single instance it is used, even when it is in different languages. There are many instances of unique writing in this book, including but not limited to words being written upside down, in weird shapes, or struck out.

The book also contains many different images, letters (with one hiding a secret code if you would believe it), and many different poems. It has a writing style, unlike any other book I have read.

A quote the sticks out for me is when Navidson says, “Personally, I just want to create a cozy little outpost for me and my family.” Navidson is finally settling down with his family in a nice home on their own, and yet instead of describing it as his “home” he describes it as an outpost. This statement here at the beginning of the Navidson Record perfectly describes Navidons personality, he loves his family and wants to stay with them but he cannot escape his yearning for the unknown, unconsciously seeing his home as a temporary outpost instead of a home to live in for the rest of his life. This is but one example of many different moments of great character development in this book.

This book is very popular, inspiring many, many different creations like Myhouse.wad

This Doom mod has an absolutely insane amount of effort put into it, with it being regarded as one of the greatest Doom mods ever created, and I doubt another mod of its quality will be created in the near future. This mod takes heavy inspiration from House of Leaves, even replicating the coloring of the word house to blue in the description and extra material in the mod. The impact of this story is not to be ignored and its influence in many different forms of media is something that cannot be ignored.

House of Leaves is one of the best books ever written and should be read by more people, its quality and the effort put into writing this book is shown throughout the entire book and it is a truly amazing read.

I think technology goes too far when we start creating artificial beings with sapient and sentient thoughts. Ai or any other artificial being with this amount of intelligence would be both dangerous and immoral. We have enough media exploring how it could be dangerous (Like AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, Skynet from the Terminator movies, or Shodan from the System Shock games.) but I think it is incredibly immoral to create a being like this. most of society would not be able to see a being like this as an equal and would thus deem it as lesser simply due to the fact it was created by us. This would be a terrible existence for a being to always be seen as a lower being even if it’s equal in intelligence. I don’t think I would even be able to see it as an equal being, and dooming an intelligent being to this existence I think would be a greatly despicable act that should never happen.

While replacing human elements with technology (self-checkouts as an example) makes things much more efficient, the loss of human interaction is detrimental to society. without human interaction, we will not form meaningful connections with others, which will lead to us building an indifference to others. If we ever become indifferent to each other it will lead to a society of suffering.- (this one sucks)

i dunno. Zits’ father has this memory in the hospital as he is having a crisis within himself. He believed that he would end up like his own father if he chose to raise Zits and decided to run away from that possibility, scared. Zits’ father leaving him was traumatic for him, and Zits’ dad abusing him was traumatic for him. They have similar parallels of not having a supportive father figure and an absent(or dead) mom. the difference here is that Zits chooses to go his own path and to heal from this generational trauma instead of repeating the cycle.

I have read Demon Copperhead and Flight which I think have probably been challenged. I think the main reason that books are challenged/banned is because they contain offensive language or characters, push an unpopular agenda, or are written by a controversial author. Flights could be seen as controversial as it contains offensive words and doesn’t have a main protagonist who is morally “good.” I don’t see any issues in this book that could be issues for teens. Zits is a controversial character as he is morally grey. He is kind of a crappy person who drinks, gets into fights and commits many crimes, including him shooting up a bank. These are parts of his character that can make him unlikeable and may make readers not want to continue reading as they don’t want to support the main character’s journey. Shooting people is controversial.