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When she was just a child, the witch locked her away in a tower that had neither doors nor stairs.

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Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022) | dir. Matthew Warchus 

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Starfire doodle💕💕

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Jane Seymour as Marguerite St Just

The Scarlet Pimpernel 1982

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OMG SASSY ASH HOW IVE MISSED YOU

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King Daphnes~

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Althea Vestrit

The Liveship Traders (7/8)

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An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Aster is a healer and a scientist, splitting her time between working food production in the field decks, producing medicine and providing medical services among her fellow low- and mid-deckers, and serving as medical assistant to the Surgeon, a white-passing doctor heralded as a genius on the wealthy upper decks. She lives and works on the Matilda, a generational ship that fled Earth 300 years ago as it faced a now-forgotten calamity, its course set for the Promised Land. But the lower decks of Matilda have begun to face blackouts and power cuts reminiscent of the events of 25 years prior — the year Aster was born, as well as the year her mother killed herself. As Aster searches for the truth behind her mother's suicide, she finds connections not only to the technical difficulties plaguing the ship but also to the recent illness of the Sovereign, the ruler of Matilda. As her situation grows ever more precarious, Aster is determined to stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it means ripping the only life she's ever known to pieces.

This book was incredible. I've never met a protagonist quite like Aster: queer, neurodivergent, sharp in both manner and intelligence, and scarred by a lifetime of trauma but hell-bent on getting her way. The rest of the cast didn't disappoint either, with a varied collection of complexly-written and -motivated characters comprising both the heroic and villainous casts. Theo was an incredible supporting character. Again, complicated and frustrating at times, but I was so glad we got to meet him and even spend a chapter in his head. I would have liked to hear more from his point of view in fact, though I admit it wouldn't have served the plot any better. I just want more Theo, and I want him to be happy. It's a purely selfish desire. And no, there's nothing on AO3. I checked.

Anyway. There were a lot of ways this book could have gone wrong. The concept of "antebellum slavery recreated aboard a generation ship in transit" was ambitious, and I can think of few other authors who could have done it justice — N.K. Jemisin, perhaps? Jemisin wouldn't have done the character work in the same way though, so it would have been a very different book. I thought the level of scientific crunch was perfect for the story Solomon was trying to tell. The science seemed mostly sound to my layman's understanding(with the exception of the siluminium), but rather than taking on a starring role it formed the backbone that supported the main point of the story, which was about the society that relied on that science to survive.

My only complaint about this book is that the pacing gets a little weird in the last third. A lot of time passes, but the plot remains urgent, so there's some very weird time skips that leave the narrative feeling disjointed, even rushed at times. But this only brings the overall score down to maybe a 4.75, so I rounded it up. If you're someone who likes your sci-fi with science that at least puts up a pretense of being grounded in fact, but who still prefers a focus on character and society over hard scientific crunch, the style of this book would probably appeal to you. Just be mindful of the content warnings, as there's quite a lot of them and Solomon pulls no punches. I'll definitely be looking for more of their work in the future, as soon as space opens up on my TBR…

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💌📢✌️

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She angy

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Kotlc Calla fanart

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x x x x x x x x x

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With the speed of a cheetah

Support CamLeeComics on Patreon!

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Episode 2 of Gekiranger

like or reblog if you use or enjoy! :)

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a portrait of momoka and her unhinged pet frog

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