chief-cook-and-librarian

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

Never getting over how differently howl's moving castle book and movie treat the scarecrow

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

suzanne collins coming back to make her point even more this time around bc people are still too ignorant to get it god i would die for this woman

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

SotR is a realisation. A realisation that the rebellion didn’t start with Katniss. That all the people we see supporting her or helping her have all been wanting to fight but they’ve been failing. That there weren’t merely “rumours” of a revolution but there were many active plans playing out and failing.

It’s a reminder that the perfect Hunger Games we saw in the first hg book was an illusion because we had Katniss as our narrator. We didn’t have Haymitch, hell, we didn’t even have someone like Peeta because these people played the games. Katniss didn’t.

Katniss was introduced to us as a mad, simple, naive girl who literally only survived because of others. She didn’t know how much her taking Prim’s place mattered because she didn’t realise what it meant to everyone who came before her. To everyone who had heard rumours of how the last District 12 victor actually fought his games. No, Katniss had just kept her head down, hunting and providing for her family.

See, she grew up way before the Games got to her. She’d already lived through her dad’s death and watched it destroy her once lively mom. Haymitch didn’t have to go through that. Lucy Gray didn’t have to go through that. They were both angry, yes, but at the Capitol. Katniss? She was first and foremost angry at her mom. At her dad. She knew who was to blame but she had too much to do and deal with to think about that. She was already jaded in a way that the Games couldn’t touch.

Peeta? He was Haymitch. He knew what he was getting into and realised he was just on a chess board with no control. So, he adapted. He played the knight, the rook, the king, the pawn. Katniss? She just… did. Changing directions, not playing the piece she was assigned because she didn’t realise that’s what was going on. Remember her surprise at the crown twisting into two after the Games?? She was so oblivious. Until Catching Fire where everything caught up to her. Where everything so many other people had been waiting and working for caught up to her.

SotR is a history book. Rewritten and edited and published as a piece of fact. SotR is a mirror and it’s a reflection of what actually happens vs what ends up being shown. SotR is the playbook of those in control of any and every kind of media that we come in touch with. SotR is a wake up call and I truly don’t know how many will see it as such.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

sunrise on the reaping raises an incredibly important ethical question: how many generations does it take to erase history, to the point of blind, unquestioning acceptance?

i fear the answer is far fewer than any of us are comfortable with.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

More actual things that happen in the 1897 Dracula novel without context, as people kept pointing out things I'd missed:

The entire plot happens because Dracula is a teaboo

A character proposes marriage with a scalpel in hand and keeps playing with it throughout the conversation

Dracula roasts a chicken

A vampire bat (not a vampire) somehow drinks enough of a horse's blood to cause the horse to collapse

Dracula gets smacked in the face with a shovel

After attributing nightmares to paprika consumption, a character eats more paprika for breakfast

The heroes hire a locksmith to make their home invasion look more respectable

To prepare for raiding a vampire's lair, one character brings three small dogs

A character laments being unable to wed multiple people at once

A therapist starts speculating about elephants' souls mid-session

An official cause of death is written as "misadventure in falling from bed"

Dracula has a Krampus-esque sack that he shoves children into

A character realizes that his host has no reflection but is more concerned with shaving than investigating that

A reporter brags about his running speed mid-article

Dracula, while trying to maintain a low profile, goes by the incredibly subtle alias "de Ville"

A character is misled by phonetic spelling

A character receives three marriage proposals in one day

The SPCA tries to adopt Dracula

A doctor refers to a patient as his "pet lunatic"

We are told vampires can be defeated by putting branches on their coffins

A character gets slashed at with a knife and loot splatters on the floor, like a video game NPC

Dracula is a horsegirl

A character brings anti-vampire flowers but doesn't tell anyone the purpose of said anti-vampire flowers, which leads to another character moving them and enabling a vampire attack

A character's hair turns from dark to white literally overnight

Twice in the novel, Dracula says "Bah!" The second time is his final line of dialogue

There's a deleted scene of Dracula lying on top of the protagonist and licking him for hours

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

illustration of irina and miryem from naomi novik's "spinning silver"! I read this book over the christmas period (appropriately, as it's a very wintry tale) and it reignited all my old love for eastern european folklore. i might do some more illustrations for it if the inspiration stays with me

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

✨🩸La belle dame sans merci but make it Little Thieves🩸✨

@what-eats-owls

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

I ordered a used hardcover of Little Thieves from Half Price Books because I only had it on Kindle, and it arrived today and came with the seven full color prints and an invitation to Gisele's wedding???? Sorry Vanja, Fortune is my godmother now

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

every update I see for the Murderbot show makes me think of this meme, so I decided to make it real.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

Illustration made for A Dança da Floresta (Wildwood Dancing) by Juliet Marillier. Hardcover book edition by Editora Wish. 2021.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

READ MY BOOKSHELF | wildwood dancing by juliet marillier

"You must learn to trust your instincts, or you are doomed to spend your life blinded by duty while beside you a wondrous tree sprouts and springs up and buds and blooms, and your heart takes no comfort from it, for you cannot raise your eyes to see it."

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

Illustration made for A Dança da Floresta (Wildwood Dancing) by Juliet Marillier. Hardcover book edition by Editora Wish. 2021.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

no i dont understand why you are in love with a vampire you have only met twice and how dare you compare your relationship with him to the relationship i have with my best friend, i dont care that hes a talking frog, we have been inseparable for the last nine years

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

"Not all were joyful tales; we needed to acknowledge that love was not just kisses, smiles, and fulfillment, but also sacrifice, compromise, and hard work."

Commissioned art of Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier 🧚🏻‍♀️ art by goldenmushroom_ (here) ✨

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

I had someone on insta point out to me that Gideon is described as being of Maori decent (which I appreciate them trying to be kind and also give that bit of info) So I decided to change up Gideon's nose and skin color.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

This is a portfolio project from last year! I'm interested in chapter book illustration jobs, so I mocked up the cover and first five chapters of a childhood favorite, Dealing with Dragons.

[chief-cook-and-librarian]

A non exhaustive list of things Tamora Pierce taught/influenced me on.

Periods exist

You don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) marry the first guy you date

Chickens are the stupidest birds (I know she’s backtracked/regretful about this but I can’t shake it)

A undead dinosaur army is literally the coolest concept ever

Crows are the best

Servants often make the best spies

Bullying is not just a “childhood” thing people grow out of, it can and does often does have serious consequences

Delegation/management is an actual skill that most people don’t have (I’m not sure why the clerks’ death in Lady Knight is the thing that always sets me off crying but it does)

There’s magic in everyday creativity

Forest fires are the most terrifying thing to experience

Except not really because actually the isolation from a wide spread disease is humanity’s worst nightmare (wish we hadn’t experienced this first hand 😭)

Respect sanitation workers

Friendships are more complicated as adults, but also sometimes the first step is realizing friends mostly likely won’t judge you as harshly as you judge yourself