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Forkle must have realized that Sophie would be Unmatchable. And he had to have known that would cause issues. Eventually, Sophie would likely want to sign up for the match but be unable to unless she revealed her parents' identities.

So why not warn her that she would be Unmatchable from the very beginning? Or just choose someone as a parent whose identify could be publicly revealed without causing complete chaos and upheaval to elvin society?There are plenty of female empaths in the elven world. Oralie seems like the worst choice Forkle could possibly make.

And Forkle seemed, at times, to be actively encouraging Sophie to build a bond with Fitz—the child of a family for whom being a bad match would be an especially big deal.

I almost wonder if that was intentional—perhaps to ensure that Sophie would side against the match.

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Keeper Of The Lost Cities: Never Ending ✨✨

I was soooo hopeful that we'd be getting the title in the next three days :(

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I will forever be bitter that I am unable to review Unraveled on Goodreads. 😞 Homophobes ruin everything.

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I hate some of y’all so much. I actually just saw someone on Threads say that Musk doing a Nazi salute had zero to do with Jews because he was a Neo-Nazi. (As if neo-nazism doesn’t STILL hate Jews and Musk doesn’t have a history of peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories.)

Then again, these are the same people throwing around the dog whistle of “Zionist agents”. Do you realize that Hitler stated that he wasn’t trying to rid the world of Jews, just “The Zionists”? It’s the equivalent of the right saying they don’t want to get rid of legal immigrants, just the “illegal aliens”.

People on the left have been using Nazi rhetoric for months now, so I’m not shocked their refusing to acknowledge the antisemitism Musk just displayed.

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This is about to be the worst 1,460 days ever. I’m genuinely terrified.

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What the fuck is this even a reference too? 😭

I don't gaf if my best friend died. I WILL NOT eat pineapple pizza to commemorate you (sorry @cecebookworm) That shit is disgusting and straight from hell and if you like it you're weird as hell.

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tbh out of all the main black swan crew it’s tam who gets the most mischaracterised. he’s seen as super emo (he’s a tad withdrawn with cool hair), sometimes aggressive (mostly he has banter with keefe) and suuper overprotective of linh (okay this is mostly used but it’s heavily exaggerated, to the point of mischaracterising linh too). tam has some of the funniest lines in the whole series and is far less mean and more introverted than people see him actually. in this essay I will-

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My Hero Academia really is fiction because ain’t no way the United States would ever allow a women to be the number one hero.

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“You will be visited by three spirits.”

The three spirits:

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The implication that creatures like the vasuki indicus and gorgonopsids are just chilling in the Lost Cities Sanctuary… Shannon Messenger, you have unintentionally made a horror story.

(I get that they’re supposed to have converted to be vegetarians but… 💀)

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ive said this once and i will say it again, grady is the most nuanced character in KOTLC. Purely from just how he is written in canon- there is so much we can draw from his character with little inference.

On the one hand, you have a walking tragedy: he manifested one of the rarest and most dangerous abilities in the lost cities at a young age, he lost his daughter to her fiance, (if we're talking theory, he may have been in the neverseen), you can't help but feel sympathy for him.

But then- you realize something terrifying.

Gisela and Vespera are right.

Grady is the most ruthless elf in the lost cities.

But he's also one of the kindest.

Despite the danger it poses, he and Edaline adopt the Moonlark, they put themselves at risk. Despite everything been through, they willingly give their love to a girl who needs it. That is one of the kindest acts someone can pull off.

However, as alluded to earlier, there's another side to him. Despite how concerned, kind, and thoughtful he is; he is also vengeful, impulsive, and distrusting.

Let's look at Everblaze again. Partially because it's the best example of his darker nature, partially because I have it on hand right now, partially because it is my favorite book in the series.

In Everblaze, Grady's vengeance and impulse is seen in full. Take King DImitar, for an example. Sophie was going to be taken away; and Grady jumped in. He believed it to be the right thing to do; and believe me it was, but there is a dark tone to it. A feeling of impulse; that he wasn't truly thinking at the moment. And he almost violated the treaty, if it wasn't for the Councillors coming to his defense.

This scene serves as subtle foreshadowing for later and sets up something very important about Grady:

He could kill someone if he wanted to. And he knows that.

But what could push him that far? Well, there is an answer to that, an answer we later find out:

Jolie's death.

When he finds out the true circumstances to Jolie's untimely demise, his sheer ruthlessness is demonstrated. There's a deeper level to this however, it is his underlying fear of being taken advantage of showing to its surface.

Brant took advantage of Grady and Edaline, and that is the biggest injustice to Grady. Because it's what he has been fearing, it's why he had closed himself off to the world.

That fear causes the sheer level of terror that is caused in Grady. Terror that builds into his impulses, which causes him to go out to find Brant, with intent to kill.

That's why he doesn't want Sophie to come with, he doesn't want his daughter to see the monster he was about to become.

The monster he believes himself to be.

It's not just Everblaze, but a feeling that permeates his character and his choices.

His distrust of Keefe stems from two things:

The similarities he sees between himself and Keefe (the sense of humor, the blond hair, and later in the books; the ability of control).

How that, in a way, is all Grady has ever known.

Elves manifest young. Meaning that he has spent a majority of his life being distrusted by his peers, as well as distrusting the world and fearing someone would take advantage of him.

So when there's a talented but terrified young kid that needs his helps; whether through adoption or through training, he obligies.

Why?

Because he sees himself so much in that situation. Because of that deep feeling of kinship, he feels a need to take care of people in that situation.

Grady's empathy trumps his distrust.

And that's why he starts helping Keefe. That's why he adopts Sophie.

tl;dr: grady's character absolutely FUCKS why does no one talk about this???

also he is hotter than hell and i will fight people on this

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Anybody else desperately need 2025 to start? I’m not saying it’s going to be good (especially as an American) but I also need the hellscape that is 2024 to be over.

This year has sucked for me on all fronts and I’d like for my luck to turn around even a tiny bit. (Please?)

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i genuinely love shannon so much, I try to avoid idolizing people, but she's been handling her hell fandom so well, it's honestly kind of admirable??? like knowing you have a huge conservative fan base and still going forward with what you want to do, introducing LGBTQ plus representation because you know that's important to do, even if you might lose money. that is genuinely some hero shit and i admire her for it.

i joke a lot but i genuinley adore shannon messenger. shes so like. idk. normal? shes seem like such a geneuinley good person and shes made this incredible series AND shes added lgbtq rep. knowing about the haters. i respect her a lot.

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I am kinda weirded out by Alvar getting a redemption arc, honestly. And Keefe not spending a little more time considering the fact that he's teaming up with someone who knowingly participated in kidnapping and torturing Keefe's friends, and then later calmly pretended to be on their side with no sign of remorse. Especially given that that was really recent. Like...a couple years ago?

He forgave and forgot a little too fast.

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I finished Unraveled a few hours ago and here are my intial thoughts. Spoilers obviously:

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SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

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- I really loved it. Keefe’s internal monologue was surprisingly not obnoxious (I love him but he can be low key exhausting) and I was impressed by the more overall mature tone of the book.

- The twists were insane in a way that felt like they should have been obvious. I’m not including the Alvar reveal considering we all more or less figured the guy in the cover was either Alvar or Gethen, but the twists involving him were intriguing.

- I feel like Shannon is setting him up to be redeemed in the sense that he’ll die in some heroic death saving Fitz in the final book. He comments so many times in this how much he loves Keefe but hates Fitz and I just don’t believe it.

- I was sick reading this book and the vibes of the book were so immaculately cozy it made me feel better whenever I read it.

- There were TWO QUEER CHARACTERS (a gay man who helps Keefe in London and a sapphic women in Australia who help trick Keefe and Alvar [Good for her]) and apparently that was enough for people to be furious about “liberal propaganda”??????? Bruh, just say your feelings some feelings you don’t want to talk about. 🙄

- Though the notable thing about this is that the way that Keefe and Alvar talk about it implies that homosexuality has not happened publicly in the Lost Cities because of matchmaking (which makes a whole lot of sense because matchmaking is basically eugenics.) I wonder if Shannon will bring this up when the matchmaking system inevitably topples in the final book. (Marelinh 👉👈?)

- The twist with Lord Cassius had me face palming to myself. Tell me why my dumbass heard Cass and my first thought was, “Is Keefe gonna meet an old granny and actually feels some parental love? 🥹” Um no, Shannon Messenger can not let him be happy for two minutes.

- I really loved all the discussions about mental health in this book. The way Keefe had to navigate the complicated feelings about his mother, his life, what has happened to him because he finally HAD the time to deal with it was really well done.

*though I’m unconvinced that Alvar didn’t get a therapy license while in the Forbidden Cities.

- SPEAKING OF ALVAR’S TIME IN THE FORBIDDEN CITIES; I don’t know how, but I guessed he was in Seoul by the way Keefe talked about the library where they met. I thought the description matched a library I’ve seen on Instagram a lot and low and behold when Alvar talked about hotteoks I realized he had in fact been in South Korea! Oh the joys of spending a lot of time obsessing about leaving the country and finding landmarks from it.

- Eleanor’s story is stressing me OUT. WHO showed up at your door after your father’s death?!?!?! (My bet is on Kenric and Prentice. Zero evidence, pure gut feeling) WHAT are you hiding?!?!?! (Please God let it be extra crystals.) WILL YOU BE RETURNING?!?! (Come on girly, we both know you can’t resist getting back at Gisela for being a psycho.)

- Anyway, all of this book explained Keefe’s odd behavior in Stellarlune so I find that interesting. Honestly, after rereading a few of the last chapters I don’t think this was a cash grab. Shannon REALLY couldn’t have conveyed a lot of this from Keefe just telling a story back to Sophie. She did the right thing.

- This book has officially become my emotional crush until May.

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UNRAVELED SPOILERS BELOW!

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WARNING WARNING WARNING

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

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Page 170… dear God, Shannon has spent more time lurking around the fandom than I realized.

“So he’d drawn the front of the box (Ritz Crackers) in his sketchbook— then drawn it again as ‘Fitz Vackers’ with Fitz’s grinning face on each cracker.”

I’VE SEEN THIS EXACT IMAGE ON PINTEREST HUNDREDS OF TIMES! 💀💀💀💀

Oh yeah, Unraveled is gonna be a comfort book for me. I can tell already.