ofmermaidsandbooks

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book character aesthetics: nancy whitman, every heart a doorway (seanan mcguire)

Nobody gets to tell me how my story ends but me, she thought, and the words were true enough that she repeated them aloud: “Nobody gets to tell me how my story ends but me.”

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Books Read 2024 (3/?): Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire

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A reminder from my favourite bookseller

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Wayward Children Moodboard: Sumi

“Are you a servant of the Queen of Cakes, here to punish me for my transgressions against the Countess of Candy Floss? Because I don’t feel like going to war right now.”

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click this..

then click your blog(s)

scroll all the way down and click this..

profit?

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Back when I was in high school, I had fellow students stare at me like I was crazy for: Reading for enjoyment and liking it.

OR

Being able to get through either multiple books in one day or one big fat book in one day. I grew up in a family of readers, reading for fun is second nature for me and I've always got a book of some sort on me. Several of my teachers loved the fact that I read and one of them told me that their first memory of me was of a teenage girl reading a big fat book.

The reason I like reading a book in one day is because I love watching people look at the size of the book in pure horror and then back at me like I just became terrifying in their eyes

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I used to think that mine would have been The Moors when we first got Jack and Jill''s adventure in Down Among the Sticks and Bones. And it was a nice place but didn't feel quite right for me, neither did Mariposa in Skeleton Song, though I did like it as well.

When I read the paragraph from Emily in Where the Drowned Girls Go, about her door, I cried and knew this was probably the one for me. Just one little paragraph and I felt seen. I hoe we get to see her adventure in full or hear more about it.

Forget what Hogwarts house you belong to. Which Wayward Children doorway would be yours…

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instagram au: jack and jill wolcott, down among the sticks and bones, of the wayward children series (seanan mcguire)

“Down, down, down they went, until they stepped off the final stair, into a small, round room with bones and roots embedded in the walls, with dim white lights on strings hanging around the edges of it, like Christmas had been declared early. Jacqueline looked at them and thought of mining lights, of dark places underground. Jillian looked at them and thought of haunted houses, of places that took more than they gave.“

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I will have the words "Abigail came to my house!" pop into my head every once in awhile and I haven't read the books in years, it's totally not just you. I've ordered the first book of that trilogy and am pretty sure I'll be rereading all three of them sooner or later. Man I missed this series, it may have been 90s teen pulp trash, but it was OUR 90s teen pulp trash...

I really loved the fear street saga tv show. And I love Goosebumps. But my god these books were amazing. Fear Street Saga: The Secret was my favourite. The rivalry between the Goodes and the Fiers. And the way Abigail died will haunt me forever. It was so merciless I was in awe. I think even now my brain can't comprehend.

Has anyone else read the books?

Did the words "Can Abigail come to my house?" be forever seared into your brain like it was mine? Or am I alone in this?

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another episode of "my coffee is perched precariously on my bed"

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Get up girls we have another day of obsessing over fictional characters to cope with reality ahead of us

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this blog is a friendly space for twitter and tiktok refugees

but I am literally begging y'all to switch your icons and write literally anything human-like in your bios, we have been at WAR with the spam bots and you're dressed like the enemy

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Listen, I know Dream winning his duel with Lucifer with hope is like... A BIG DEAL and super symbolic and beautiful, HOWEVER I have something that may not be better, but would definitely be FUNNIER. 

Dream loses. He's been locked in a bubble and had his hopes dashed again and again, even though he's still fighting and still hopeful, it's harder for him to reach that and it doesn't come to mind in time for him to win against Lucifer. He's to stay as a servant in Hell and there's no Endless or divine being that can or will come to his aid. He's trapped. Again. 

Only Matthew isn't Jessamy, Matthew knows when the best way to help is a tactical retreat to gather reinforcements. So that's what he does, going immediately to Luciene like, "Hey, so, uh..." And there has to be some way they can help him! Luciene makes it clear that none of the dreaming denizens can. None of the Endless can, no deity would be of any help there against Lucifer. There are Old Laws dictating that Dream lost fair and square and no one can interfere with that. And Matthew's like, "Well what about someone who can challenge Lucifer to win him back? Someone not bound by the Old Laws?" 

"The only beings not bound by the Old Laws are humans. There's no human--" 

Except there is. There's one. One human that Dream would go off once a century to meet, and it's a long shot, but-- 

That's how Hob Gadling finds himself being approached by a talking raven asking him to trek into hell to rescue his boss. "You know, Dream of the Endless? Lord Morpheus?" 

Hob doesn't know who the hell the bird is talking about until Matthew describes him. "Oh, my Stranger!"

"...He seriously didn't even tell you his name?" 

Now, the idea of setting foot into Hell itself to do battle with Lucifer Morningstar is, y'know... Not something he wants to do. He confirms over and over if Matthew is SURE he doesn't have to die to achieve this, because he's not ready to leave yet, and Matthew is like, "Yeah, buddy, shouldn't be a problem." He's lying. He has no idea if it's a problem. (It's not.) 

Hob is like, "Yeah, but... I can't FIGHT Satan himself and expect to win, I AM still human." 

And Matthew's like, "You don't actually have to fight her, it's like a game! But uh... Pretty sure you still feel all the pain and stuff." And he explains the rules, and like, okay, feeling the painful death of whatever kills whatever you decide to be in your round SUCKS, but Hob's been through that before. It's actually a pretty intriguing game, one he thinks he might win. 

See, the way he sees it, it's a combination of the "times infinity" type of game (I love you, I love you more, I love you times two, I love you times a thousand, I love you times a million-- so on and so on) with that counting game where you either say one or two numbers, back and forth with someone, and whoever says 21 loses. Basically, there's one logical conclusion the game is going to reach. Someone is going to bust out the "times infinity" or in this case, "heat death of the universe" or some other completely life-ending thing. And like with the counting game, if you can get your opponent to say specific numbers on the way to 21, you can make sure they're forced to say it. 

There's a strategy if you think ahead enough, and he has an entire walk through Hell to plan it. 

(It SUCKS. He sees Robyn there. It breaks his heart. It's meant to, it's meant to keep him from reaching the palace, seeing his son in Hell, but they don't know Hob. They don't know the grief he's had to overcome in order for him to say, with absolute certainty, that he still wants to live even though it hurts. He reaches that citadel.)

Dream is, of course, horrified to see Hob there. Hob meanwhile is like a jilted exe all, "Yeah, yeah, we're not friends, you stood me up, but I'm still here for you because I'm the bigger person and I fucking care." 

He challenges Lucifer for Dream's helm and their safe passage out of Hell. Lucifer is... Intrigued. She just beat Dream of the Endless, and this human thinks he can beat her when humanity's collective unconsciousness couldn't? His immortality has made him cocky, clearly. So she accepts, and bargains that if Hob loses, he has to give up his immortality. 

There's a good minute where Hob pauses at that and has to really think about whether his arrogant, condescending not-friend is really worth that but yeah, yeah he is. Meanwhile Dream is off to the side. "Don't do this, Hob Gadling. It is not your responsibility to fix my missteps." Basically his version of pleading for Hob to leave and not risk this up until Lucifer is like enough out of you and shuts him up. 

They play. Lucifer starts out with the wolf again, because it's a good starting point to see what direction her opponent plans to take, to get a glimpse into Hob's mindset entering this game. Her plan is, of course, to cause pain enough that Hob will have a hard time thinking, but Hob makes that really fucking hard from the get-go and throws everyone in the room for a loop when his answer is...

"I am the over hunting of the local deer population. Ecosystem destabilizing, predator killing."

Well. Okay. Yeah, sure. Fucking fine. It's hard to kill that painfully. Lucifer manages to come up with, "I am hunting restrictions, nature preserving, ecosystem balancing." 

Hob, by that point, is like, I got this, actually. This might be fun. "I am the expansion of civilization. Forest destroying, hunting law nullifying." 

Matthew, who had been feeling pretty iffy about calling this guy in to help, is no longer questioning that choice. Dream is a little starry-eyed. 

Eventually Hob is the head of the Home Owner's Association. Lucifer is a bear, scrap hunting, person killing. Hob is family, revenge-seeking, bear euthanizing. Lucifer is Pride, argument starter, family destroying. Hob is friendship, blood covenant, thicker than womb water. Lucifer is jealousy, friendship rending, relationship ruining. Hob is personal growth, jealousy ending, apology giving. Lucifer is relapse, progress destroying, confidence killing. Hob is perseverance, step taking, progress rebuilding. On and on until finally Lucifer decides to end this the way she did with Dream and Hob leads her along until it reaches that natural conclusion, the death of all. 

Now there's some temptation there to go with the obvious, since he can't die even if the universe was destroyed. At least he doesn't think so. But he had already decided that it was an obvious choice to go for and he could think of a few clever ways Lucifer might get around that. So instead, Hob goes the far better choice and personal insult of being God, universe creator, life giver. He's very proud of himself when the demons erupt into boos and Lucifer looks about ready to rip his fucking throat out with her teeth. 

The way he sees it, there are two choices for her there, unless she really pulls something unexpected out of her ass. Option one is the whole "what's a god to an atheist" thing in which Hob would have then been a miracle, faith affirming, god-proving. Not much can destroy a miracle. 

But Lucifer, livid and prideful, goes with option two. "I am Lucifer Morningstar, God defying, His Kingdom ripped sunder!" 

And Hob has the absolute glee to grin and go, "I am Hob Gadling, clever, death defying, and triumphant over Lucifer Morningstar."

He and Dream are promptly kicked out of Hell on their asses, Dream's helm is thrown at his head with a force strong enough to break the sound barrier, and the gates are slammed shut behind them. The whole thing is so humiliating that Lucifer has to change their gender and moves to LA to open a nightclub.

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For the first time in my life, a non filthy thought in the shower:

Think about all the fan fiction you’ve read — all the hours of entertainment, or something to ease your boredom or to soothe your sleepless night.

All you’ve learned from it — either a writing skill, a new vocabulary word, a new structure or something about interpersonal relationships, or how to deal with hard times in your life.

And all the fic that you remember — your very favorite, some that you still recall scenes from, some that still make you smile or make you ache.

All the fic you have saved on your phone to reread over and over again.

Writers: YOU write that. YOU DO. You write something so extraordinary, something so real but also something so filthy and fun and the perfect way to soothe a frayed mind or just enjoy for pure pleasure — YOU WRITE THAT.

Isn’t that incredible to think of your stories being those above things for someone?

Because they are (for me, for one, but others too) — and we are so lucky you share it with us.

Also — how amazing it is to know that all the things you cherish about fic, you’ve given as a gift to others? ❤️

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Writing hard.

But writing fun.

But writing also hard.

But writing also very rewarding.

But