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Suzanne Collin’s just said fuck you to everyone who’s ever critiqued the Hunger Games as being a “teen girl saves the day” story. She said oh, Mockingjay didn’t make it clear enough? Here’s a book about how people have been rebelling for decades only to have their efforts suppressed and propagandized. Rebellion takes time and it takes failure and Katniss may have been the spark that ignited the wildfire but she did so standing atop the doused flames of everyone who came before her.

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truly the most american thing is Big Drink. more than late stage capitalism, more than an unparalleled cultural focus on individualism, more than 9/11 jokes

what binds all americans together culturally is Big Drink

and you might be saying "is this fat shaming" or "but mayor bloomberg outlawed Big Drink in nyc" or "gays are so annoying about their iced coffee" or some other dumb comment but no open your minds, Big Drink isn't just sugary or caffeinated beverages

every day i see one of you hydration bitches (affectionate) on the train with a water bottle so big a toddler could drown in it. that too is Big Drink. we literally invented a bigger beer can (tall boy) in wisconsin in the 60s in the service of Big Drink

anyway i never feel more american then when i have Big Drink in my hands

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the way haymitch must have seen it as all his ghosts coming back to haunt him at once when katniss walked onto the train with the face of burdock and asterid, the pin of maysilee, the voice of lenore dove, and a background so devastatingly similar to his own. of course sweetheart slipped out. and of course he did everything he could to keep her alive

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dru being fat is so important to me actually. in fact more shadowhunters should be fat. where are the girlies who eat everything in the fridge after training the whole day. where are the ones bulking to be able to rip demons apart with their bare hands

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the people in the broader ya fantasy community online just do not understand tmi. also who do you think you are acting like youre too good for tmi when youre reading like The Throne of Blood and Ashes or the Court of Enemies and Lovers or whatever else the industry is churning out. this is the dumb formulaic garbage genre and you think youre above the incest series? you thought sarah j maas was the best thing to ever happen to literature and you think you have the right to make fun of whatever was happening in city of glass? get off your high horse

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— ‘lord of shadows’, cassandra clare.

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Shout out to people whose favorite book (or series) is one that doesn't have a fandom. People who found a random book somewhere and it changed your life and you love the characters and the story and the world but by nature of the sheer number of books that get published all the time forever, no one seems to have heard of it. Shout out to those who don't have fanart or fics or even people to talk to for their favorite book. I see you and I love you and huge mood someone else please read this so I can scream about it with you

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okay so I finished a gathering of shadows which was amazing 10 out of 10 would recommend.

And I thought of writing a whole review and then was like nah I'm just gonna say this.

VE Schwab really said "I'm going to make Kell an underappreciated eldest daughter and SUCCEED"

Like underappreciated eldest daughter clocking in here, and it was crazy reading about a man who acts like an underappreciated eldest daughter. it really was. Like a portrayal I would find almost offensive, except VE Schwab nailed it.

And what made it so fun to read is that Lila spends the entire book committing crime after crime and not a single real consequence. Like how often do we get this in media? A fleshed out woman gets to be flawed and cool and badass. She makes mistakes but *shrugs shoulders* And sure she was too smug, but it's freaking Delilah Bard. She waltzes in and anyone who is paying attention to the narrative knows that she is one of a kind and plays by her own rules. She's selfish. She's not supposed to be some sort of 'moral standard.' But she's also charming, and you root for her anyway. Or at least I did.

AND THEN THERE IS KELL. Depressed man can't get a break. He's constantly being emotionally flogged for his family member's mistakes. He's held to impossible standards. Standards that not even Lila is held up to. Or Rhy or anyone at all. He's somehow sibling, father, protector, key to the kingdom, most powerful magical person in their nation, and it's never enough. Kell isn't enough. Kell needs to do more and be better. He has a younger sibling to protect, and somewhere along the way he stops being the child of his parents and more of an extension of their ruling hand.

And all the while, Delilah Bard is out there living and free and extended grace time after time after time again, when she has really done nothing to deserve it.

I honestly didn't realize that Delilah Bard and Kell Maresh had done a complete role reversal [despite it being glaringly obvious] until Kell says the lines

"Why am I the only one in this fucking world to be held accountable for my actions?"

And that *mic drop* is what being an eldest daughter is all about. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

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This is my truth and then additionally they all kiss

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I finished A Darker Shade of Magic series! loved it!

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victor vale is the most jealous man to ever exist. because wdym you're jealous of GOD, victor?

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i love kell maresh so much. he is such a fucking loser. i would burn the world down for him.

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Sorry professor, I couldn’t hand in my assignment because Conor Aurelian and Lin Caster happened and I couldn’t get up for a week

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You can feel it when your parabatai dies—like there was a cord tying you to something and it has snapped, and now you're falling. — City of Lost Souls, Cassandra Clare

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Absolutely nothing worse than finding out that you share interests with someone you hate. Has you thinking things like fuck you I'm better at enjoying star wars than you are

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2023 books - a conjuring of light by v.e. schwab (reread)

It wasn’t a good-bye, not really. What was the word for parting? Anoshe. That was it. Until another day.