Anonymous
Post 05/07/2026 19:39     Subject: Re:Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:[twitter]
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why did she even marry him? I have a friend an immigrant from Eastern Europe. She married a trust funder and they have the opposite arrangement: her earnings are only hers and he pays rent/mortgage. She only marginally contributes to living expenses.
She’s a lawyer and already amassed a fortune, saving every year almost $200k and dumping it in stocks


Good arrangement, seems fair. Since Belle was the trustfund baby in this situation, that explains the pre-nup. Not going to cry for a woman who didn't work for years and has millions in real estate.


She had no idea when she signed the prenup that he would go on to make that much money. Always risks in that respect.


It’s unclear to me how big her trusts and inheritance actually are though …


At least $10m if she was able to buy him out of both houses.


What’s maddening is not him retaining his earnings it’s him pocketing the appreciation on houses and emptying her trusts (which are HIS kids trusts in the end). Where her lawyers were looking ? It’s a predatory prenup and they should have advised better to state that appreciation on whatever is funded with trust remains in trust


Who knows how it was reviewed? Belle has a BA from Harvard and a law degree from NYU, but she says she was "in love" and nothing else mattered at that point. Plus, if you've never had to worry about money in your life, it probably didn't register to her that one day she may need to worry when her husband fleeces her for all her assets.


I still wonder how the family office lawyers or any other lawyers involved in the prenup let this go.forward but this is the best explanation for her willful blindness I can see. She probably wasn't financially literate because she never had to be.


I know an extremely wealthy woman who never looks at prices. She just buys whatever she wants. She bought a hugely expensive cake for an event. Someone asked her how much it cost (rude question, I know) and she said "I have no idea." She really meant it. She didn't know. She just liked it, wanted it, and bought it. With her Daddy's money, of course.

Belle never had to know how much things cost before she got divorced. The prenup likely meant little to her, even though she is a lawyer. She may have known nothing about family law.
Anonymous
Post 05/07/2026 19:30     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:The prenup was a warning sign. Not that there was one, but that the terms were so tilted in his favor.


I know a divorce lawyer who says every marriage with a prenup ends in divorce. They don't trust each other. That's why they have a prenup.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 19:50     Subject: Re:Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

I heard an interview with her today, never heard of book prior to this.
Weird- her experience and mine are the same! I actually had texts from friends saying “is this really you under pseudonym?”
My husband did this. Out of the blue. Wanted no custody, kids were younger than hers. More than a sandwich, he continued to come for meals and tuck-ins daily until he had guts to tell the kids.
Anyway, it’s not that uncommon. Sometimes people just flake out. Best to plan B.

Anonymous
Post 04/17/2026 08:06     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Okay, I have to chime in here though I’m probably too late for anyone to read this.

I just read Strangers and I thought it was the biggest waste of paper I've ever read. I read it on the heels of “You could make this place beautiful” by Maggie Smith. Smith’s work was overly poetic, with drama and insufferable melodramatic language and repetition where none was called for. I thought maybe it was like a 6/10.

Then I read Strangers. I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this. She’s had more depth and introspection than this writer since kindergarten. Good god, the writing was awful. I liked that it was straightforward but it gave zero insight into what was going on in any human’s brain or life. Like, these are not fictional characters and yet you and your ex husband are STILL this one dimensional? Completely insufferable. Are all wealthy people like this? It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write.

I fully understand her ex is a narcissist, but that’s because I’m smart… not because she was able to come to that conclusion herself. She’s too busy being stupid and confused.

Am I going crazy here?! It was awful!


Sounds like jealousy to me to get so worked up. It’s one thing to criticize part of a book, it’s another to wildly trash it.

I’m not worked up. What am I jealous of?


Mmmkay.

"I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this."

"It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write."

roll:


she should smile more.

She’s being hysterical amirite??

Anonymous
Post 04/16/2026 20:17     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Okay, I have to chime in here though I’m probably too late for anyone to read this.

I just read Strangers and I thought it was the biggest waste of paper I've ever read. I read it on the heels of “You could make this place beautiful” by Maggie Smith. Smith’s work was overly poetic, with drama and insufferable melodramatic language and repetition where none was called for. I thought maybe it was like a 6/10.

Then I read Strangers. I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this. She’s had more depth and introspection than this writer since kindergarten. Good god, the writing was awful. I liked that it was straightforward but it gave zero insight into what was going on in any human’s brain or life. Like, these are not fictional characters and yet you and your ex husband are STILL this one dimensional? Completely insufferable. Are all wealthy people like this? It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write.

I fully understand her ex is a narcissist, but that’s because I’m smart… not because she was able to come to that conclusion herself. She’s too busy being stupid and confused.

Am I going crazy here?! It was awful!


Sounds like jealousy to me to get so worked up. It’s one thing to criticize part of a book, it’s another to wildly trash it.

I’m not worked up. What am I jealous of?


Mmmkay.

"I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this."

"It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write."

roll:
Anonymous
Post 04/16/2026 20:15     Subject: Re:Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, but by like the 100th time she said “a friend says every book begins with an unanswerable question” I started rolling my eyes. She thinks her thoughts are deeper than they are. She’s obviously more talented than Taylor Swift, but the book was giving those vibes.


I disagreed with your view on Strangers but this post just made me discount anything you have to say entirely. You don't have to like TSwift's music to recognize that she is extremely talented as a creative artist.

You just discredited yourself. Swift is talentless. She’s bland, boring, does absolutely nothing unique and can neither sing nor dance. It’s fine. She’s only a step down from Janet Jackson who I love. She’s just not my cup of tea. She is so. freaking. boring. and one dimensional.
Anonymous
Post 04/15/2026 17:41     Subject: Re:Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Yeah, but by like the 100th time she said “a friend says every book begins with an unanswerable question” I started rolling my eyes. She thinks her thoughts are deeper than they are. She’s obviously more talented than Taylor Swift, but the book was giving those vibes.


I disagreed with your view on Strangers but this post just made me discount anything you have to say entirely. You don't have to like TSwift's music to recognize that she is extremely talented as a creative artist.
Anonymous
Post 04/15/2026 17:14     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Okay, I have to chime in here though I’m probably too late for anyone to read this.

I just read Strangers and I thought it was the biggest waste of paper I've ever read. I read it on the heels of “You could make this place beautiful” by Maggie Smith. Smith’s work was overly poetic, with drama and insufferable melodramatic language and repetition where none was called for. I thought maybe it was like a 6/10.

Then I read Strangers. I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this. She’s had more depth and introspection than this writer since kindergarten. Good god, the writing was awful. I liked that it was straightforward but it gave zero insight into what was going on in any human’s brain or life. Like, these are not fictional characters and yet you and your ex husband are STILL this one dimensional? Completely insufferable. Are all wealthy people like this? It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write.

I fully understand her ex is a narcissist, but that’s because I’m smart… not because she was able to come to that conclusion herself. She’s too busy being stupid and confused.

Am I going crazy here?! It was awful!


Sounds like jealousy to me to get so worked up. It’s one thing to criticize part of a book, it’s another to wildly trash it.

I’m not worked up. What am I jealous of?
I'm not pp but you definitely went on a crazy rant about this book. Did you identify with her in ways you don't want to admit to yourself?
Anonymous
Post 04/15/2026 14:56     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Okay, I have to chime in here though I’m probably too late for anyone to read this.

I just read Strangers and I thought it was the biggest waste of paper I've ever read. I read it on the heels of “You could make this place beautiful” by Maggie Smith. Smith’s work was overly poetic, with drama and insufferable melodramatic language and repetition where none was called for. I thought maybe it was like a 6/10.

Then I read Strangers. I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this. She’s had more depth and introspection than this writer since kindergarten. Good god, the writing was awful. I liked that it was straightforward but it gave zero insight into what was going on in any human’s brain or life. Like, these are not fictional characters and yet you and your ex husband are STILL this one dimensional? Completely insufferable. Are all wealthy people like this? It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write.

I fully understand her ex is a narcissist, but that’s because I’m smart… not because she was able to come to that conclusion herself. She’s too busy being stupid and confused.

Am I going crazy here?! It was awful!


Sounds like jealousy to me to get so worked up. It’s one thing to criticize part of a book, it’s another to wildly trash it.

I’m not worked up. What am I jealous of?
Anonymous
Post 04/15/2026 14:55     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Okay, I have to chime in here though I’m probably too late for anyone to read this.

I just read Strangers and I thought it was the biggest waste of paper I've ever read. I read it on the heels of “You could make this place beautiful” by Maggie Smith. Smith’s work was overly poetic, with drama and insufferable melodramatic language and repetition where none was called for. I thought maybe it was like a 6/10.

Then I read Strangers. I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this. She’s had more depth and introspection than this writer since kindergarten. Good god, the writing was awful. I liked that it was straightforward but it gave zero insight into what was going on in any human’s brain or life. Like, these are not fictional characters and yet you and your ex husband are STILL this one dimensional? Completely insufferable. Are all wealthy people like this? It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write.

I fully understand her ex is a narcissist, but that’s because I’m smart… not because she was able to come to that conclusion herself. She’s too busy being stupid and confused.

Am I going crazy here?! It was awful!


I read Maggie Smith’s book and loved it! She’s a poet and her cento poem was genius.

Yeah, but by like the 100th time she said “a friend says every book begins with an unanswerable question” I started rolling my eyes. She thinks her thoughts are deeper than they are. She’s obviously more talented than Taylor Swift, but the book was giving those vibes.
Anonymous
Post 04/15/2026 14:31     Subject: Belle Burden’s “Strangers”

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I have to chime in here though I’m probably too late for anyone to read this.

I just read Strangers and I thought it was the biggest waste of paper I've ever read. I read it on the heels of “You could make this place beautiful” by Maggie Smith. Smith’s work was overly poetic, with drama and insufferable melodramatic language and repetition where none was called for. I thought maybe it was like a 6/10.

Then I read Strangers. I am certain that my middle schooler could write a better book than this. She’s had more depth and introspection than this writer since kindergarten. Good god, the writing was awful. I liked that it was straightforward but it gave zero insight into what was going on in any human’s brain or life. Like, these are not fictional characters and yet you and your ex husband are STILL this one dimensional? Completely insufferable. Are all wealthy people like this? It was complete garbage, the reader could get no sense of who this woman was as a person (other than a milquetoast dullard), and even from her perspective she came off as shallow, unengaged mother. Good christ, she cannot write.

I fully understand her ex is a narcissist, but that’s because I’m smart… not because she was able to come to that conclusion herself. She’s too busy being stupid and confused.

Am I going crazy here?! It was awful!


I read Maggie Smith’s book and loved it! She’s a poet and her cento poem was genius.