#(jane doesn't watch stuff and misses out on their faves)

[pharawee]

Was anybody going to tell me that Boss Thawatchanin my beloved is in Naughty Babe or was I supposed to find out myself completely by chance from an unrelated post on my dashboard

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (27 Oct-2 Nov 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney #3) (Claudia Gray, author; Billie Fulford-Brown, narrator) - A really enjoyable cozy mystery in this austenverse. I did genuinely want to keep reading to find out the solution. However, I'm finding the will they/won't they/miscommunication/misunderstanding BS about Juliet & Jonathan's relationship is really starting to grate, even though the reasons for all the non/miscommunications are marginally reasonable & in character. But I was still quite annoyed with it, and I think I might be over this series for it. By the end at least J&J had talked and are on the same page about their feelings - now the obstacles are external at least, which gives me a bit more patience with it? probably my annoyance will be faded by the time the next one is published & I'll be happy to pick it up again.

😍 A Year in the Life of Sarge's Person (BlueSimplicity) - 189K, incredible post-WS recovery fic - loved how Bucky-focused this was (steve doesn't even appear until like 2/3 of the way thru the fic), loved his found family and of course I loved Sarge. Instant forever fave, stayed up until 2am reading which at my age is no small thing.

🙂 Specks of Silver (vanderloo) - 82K, lightly magical Suits fic- liked the 'small magic' style of this world

🥰 King & Queen (RELIC #3) (Maz Maddox, author; Kirt Graves, narrator) - dino shifters AND drag queens!!!! dino shifters AS drag queens! so much fun!

💖💖 +108K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

an outlier that should not be counted (dadvans) - 9-1-1: bucktommy, 7K - fluffy, cute, very 🥰

Conquest (the_deep_magic) - The Eagle of the Ninth: marcus/esca, 7K - 🔥🔥🔥

Let Me Be Your Porch Light, Baby (AidaRonan) - Stranger Things: steddie, 7K - fuck yes mothman! here for all the monsterfucking!

A Dream Through Open Eyes (neapeaikea) - 9-1-1: bucktommy, 16K - cute, cute, cute!!! love a teacher!Buck AU

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Would I Lie To You? - s8, e6; s16, e5,7

Insert Name Here - s3, e4

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown - s19, e3

Decoding the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Tombstones With Dr. Nicky Nielsen - Session Session 2: Making Stelae & The Offering Formula

Spirits, Saints, and Souls: The Secret History of Halloween With Lisa Morton - Session 3: Halloween As We Know It

Seas The Day: Life Lessons From Cephalopods With Dr. Sarah McAnulty - Session 3: 300 Ways to Be a Squid: A crash course in all the lifestyles squid have carved out over their long history

The Sam Sanders Show - From Indie Videos to Hollywood Hits: Alvarez & Koenig on "English Teacher"

Handsome - Abby Wambach asks about getting back to yourself

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #11

What We Do In The Shadows - s6, e1-3

Only Murders In The Building - s4, e9-10

D20: Misfits & Magic 2 - "Code Crimson" (s23, e6)

D20: Adventuring Party - "I'm A Good Boy" (s18, e6)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Re: Dracula - October 27: Souls and Memories

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Spooky Week: Elmer McCurdy’s Nine Lives

Re: Dracula - October 28: Awful Straits

Off Menu - Ep 268: Jessica Hynes

The Curious History of Your Home - Sheds

Persuasion by Jane Austen - Persuasion 9. | A Surprise Engagement

The Curious History of Your Home - Baths

Re: Dracula - October 29: Something is Going Out

The Fandom Show - Special Effects Makeup

Switched on Pop - Where are all the scary songs?

NPR's Book of the Day - Al Pacino's memoir 'Sonny Boy' is a story of adventure, starting in the South Bronx

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Agatha All Along

The Allusionist - 202. Singlish Singlish

Re: Dracula - October 30: Council of War

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Spooky Week: Places That Give Us the Creeps

Morning Edition - After nearly 4 months, Shaboozey's 'A Bar Song (Tipsy)' drops from No. 1

Morning Edition - It's almost Halloween -- a good time to look at the science behind the sound of fear

⭐ 99% Invisible - How the World Ran Out of Everything

Shedunnit - Vanishing Corpses

The Curious History of Your Home - Lights

⭐ Song Exploder - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young "Our House"

Re: Dracula - October 31: Latest and Truest Thought

NPR's Book of the Day - 'American Scary' documents a cultural obsession with horror in the United States

Re: Dracula - November 1: Instinct with Resolution

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Tom Hanks' Movie Here And What's Making Us Happy

Dear Prudence - My Wife Won’t Stop Correcting My Grammar. Help!

Dear Prudence - Prudie Plus: A Celeb Died. My Friend’s Being A Ghoul.

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Spooky Week: The Story of the Mad Gasser with Colin Dickey

⭐ Wild Card - Kathryn Hahn feels more powerful than ever

Wild Card - Seth Meyers on waiting to propose and Kathryn Hahn's early career struggles

Welcome to Night Vale #257 - Traffic

Re: Dracula - November 2: Deadly Peril

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Brian Jordan Alvarez

Betwixt The Sheets - What Made You Ugly In The Ancient World

Fresh Air - Alex Van Halen On Eddie, Fire & 'Feeling It'

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Gordon Lightfoot

Presenting Reba McEntire

Machines of Loving Grace Radio • Popular

The Very Best Of Patsy Cline

Halloween Salsa

Sunshine Soul

Teenage Werewolf Rock

Classic Hard Rock Workout

[wetalkinboutbooks]

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

Summary:  The sequel to Dread Nation is a journey of revenge and salvation across a divided America.

After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother.

But nothing is easy when you're a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodemus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880's America.

What's more, this safe haven is not what it appears - as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her.

But she won't be in it alone.

Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene. But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by - and that Jane needs her, too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not.

Watching Jane's back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it's up to Katherine to keep hope alive - even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:  

 → Geena:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 → Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ x1000

Overall: A killer sequel to Dread Nation, you’re constantly on the edge of your seat and each chapter is a new layer of stress. There’s never a moment of rest and repose because Justina Ireland hooks you with the first chapter and doesn’t let go until you’ve turned the last page.

~ Check out the spoiler-full review/plot discussion below!

The Bad: 

→ Redjack and Redfern

Geena: We’re starting with the bad because as Kae said ‘So much bad happens before the good’ and that’s the best way to describe this book. Let’s start off with our fave rogue from Dread Nation who turns out to be a WHOLE BITCH!!! Once Jane and Katherine and Co. get out of Summerland and meet up with him to plan their next move, Jane and them want to go to Nicodemus (a safe town run by a black man and a council of freed slaves and indigenous ppl). Redjack is like ‘it’s an overpopulated place let’s not’ but Jane isn’t dumb and sniffs out that there’s something else, and after Katherine and Jane both needle him we find out that… THIS BITCH IS MARRIED… AND HAS BEEN FOR A WHILE?????? ALL THE WHILE HE WAS FLIRTING AND MACKING ON JANE HE WAS MARRIED????????????? This is the start of the downfall of men in this book, it only gets worse from here… Jane confronts him about being played and he’s basically like ‘Jane you’re fun and all but like you’d never settle down, I seen you fighting and stuff just because you want to… I need a home for Lily’... and like… ok.... Jane is immediately like ‘He wanted a doormat’ and I DIED… but karma works fast and he gets bit by a shambler literally the same night lmao… and guess who kills him? JANE.. though it’s quite emotional because she had feelings for him. 

Jane also steals one of his letters when she kills him and kjnsfdskj we find out his wife is preggers but who’s gonna tell her that Redjack is capital d DEAD...  

Kae: Alright. MF’n REDJACK. This man… With his cute ass… He was just TRASH. A real fuckboy and Geena summed him up perfectly. I was like, a lil sad to see him go? But good riddance to him for playing my Janey Jane. She may be a tough-ass, but she absolutely has feelings (THAT SHE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO COPE WITH) but still. She has feelings. 

So now, let’s talk about Redfern’s shady ass. I’ve always side-eyed Redfern. I didn’t trust him. I had a very hard time trusting him because how you gone help The White Man ™  help enslave black and other indigenous peoples for your own gain? Like, boy fuck you. Shady ass. He’s the one that transported Jane, Katherine, and Red Jack to Summerland in the first place. So it was definitely a shock to see his fool ass in Nicodemus as the damn SHERIFF. LIKE WHO TF?

Geena: RIGHT I WAS LIKE WHY IS HE EVERYWHERE? IS HE CLONING HIMSELF??

Kae: And like, he jails Jane because when her and the gang arrive, the surviving folks of Summerland blame her for the small settlement falling to the dead. Redfern is like “Look, Jane. I know you ain’t do that shit. But I gotta jail you so they can stfu. You’ll get a fair trial.” And Jane doesn’t trust this and neither do I. Because black people didn’t get a fair ANYTHING back then. (We still don't) BUT THAT’S ANOTHER STORY. ANYWAAAAAAAY. Jane catches Redfern shooting the breeze with Miss Duncan and they eventually set her free. All the while, Katherine, a few homies they met in Summerland, and a few homies from Miss Prestons, are planning to break Jane out and BOUNCE. When Jane and Katherine finally reunite, Katherine is like “JANE. MY BESTIE. I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU!” And Jane is like “Lol, yikes. We’re not even friends wtf?” Because again, Jane can’t handle feelings or people genuinely caring about her. That has a bit to do with mommy issues. NOW.  Jane has been trying to tell the council of Nicodemus that the horde of zombies will break down the wall that protects the city. But they’re like “HURR DURR SHUT UUUUP. We have machine guns. And that Gideon scientist boy has been keeping up gucci.” And Jane knows walls don’t hold forever. So she’s like we need to get TF up out of here. So she starts making a plan… And that’s when shit starts going south.

Geena: Like Kae said, Redfern is a traitor in all sense of the word… The only time he seems normal is when he’s hardcore crushing on Miss Duncan, but even then… He ends up telling Jane that he only cares about self-preservation and that’s why he’ll stab even his own mother in the back if it means he’ll be safe… OKAY HE DOESN’T SAY THAT BUT REDFERN 100% WOULD… Well kARMA GOT IT’S KISS FOR REDFERN TOO bc when Nicodemus falls, Miss Duncan also turns shambler so kjndsfkjsdfnsd

He ends up being a double agent near the end of the book, pretending to be Jane and Katherine’s ally, only to turn them over to the VILLAIN.. But then also helps them escape? A very morally questionable character and also another example of Deathless Divide saying ‘men aint shit’.

Kae: He triple crossed their asses. Triple agent mf 

→ The Fall of Nicodemus 

Kae: WHEWWWW. The fall of Nicodemus was something else. I knew it was going to happen, but damn, it was bad. So, we have bitchboy Gideon, who Jane has taken a bit of a liking to. And he wants her to convince the rest of the town to get a ‘Shambler Vaccine’ to protect them. She refuses because she has no idea if the vaccine really works. At least, not yet she does. So at some point, Gideon convinces all the people of Nicodemus to get vaccinated. But he vaccinates all of the original inhabitants of Nicodemus first, then the assholes from Summerland. But the thing is, he runs out of vaccines by the time he has to vaccinate the Summerland folk, and they’re being PISSY about it like “waaaaa, you vaccinated all the black folks before us, WAAA IM A FUCKIN BABY” so he hurries and makes a quick vaccine. Well, THIS QUICK BATCH TURNS THE FOLKS OF SUMMERLAND INTO ZOMBIES. THIS DUMBASS BITCHASS GIDEON TURNS THE DAMN PEOPLE. So he and Miss Duncan stuff them all in a barn or whatever, then DESTROYYYYYY the fence/wall in the back of the town to try to lead them out. Redfern helps too, I think. And then shit. Gets. Real. The machine gun they had isn’t holding them off and some damn zombies done came around the back entrance they created by destroying the fence, and they start CHOMPIN. 

Geena: AS KAE SAID… GIDEON AND DUMBITCH CO. MADE A WHOLE BACKDOOR FOR THE ZOMBIES IN AN ATTEMPT TO COVER UP HIS OWN MISTAKE… Reading about the fall was really sad, because this group of well meaning people WHO BTW AREN’T WHITE, that established a community where black and indigenous folk can find SOME SEMBLANCE of justice is overrun by zombies bc of a bitchass white boy’s hubris. So, the zombies get through the backdoor and as Jane and Katherine are slicing and dicing they stumble onto the group they traveled with.. Who also turned.. And Jane has to kill that little baby boy because he too, got turned into a zombie… Also, during the fall of Nicodemus Jane gets bit :( and separates from Katherine and Co. to die alone at the sheriff’s office… But then she doesn't… because back in book 1 when Gideon gave her a vaccine… it worked. So, Jane wakes up to Gideon… the last person she wants to see… who is basically gloating about his vaccine working and he’s making excuses for himself? Callie (a new friend) tries to kill Gideon, but he escapes and she ends up helping Jane instead… where Jane loses her arm :( 

Literally, a White Man’s ego can destroy a whole town built on the blood and sweat of freed slaves and indigenous people, JUST BECAUSE he thinks he knows better… 

Kae: So like, when Jane wakes up, she threatens to kill Gideon, even though she’s sick and basically puking the zombie virus out of her. While Gideon is gloating, Callie (Jane’s friend and future girlfriend) shoots towards Gideon, but misses. She then cuts off Jane’s bitten arm. The two of them spend a bit of time in the fallen Nicodemus, looking at all of the zombiefied townspeople and healing so they can leave. They both want to track down Gideon and KILL HIS ASS. Which I support. And now we venture into PART 2 OF THE BOOK BAYBEEEEE. 

The Ugly

→ Gideon

Kae: WE’RE GOING TO OFFICIALLY TALK ABOUT BITCHASS, SKANK-ASS GIDEON. Dawg, when I tell you I HAAATED this man, I mean it. I have never wanted a character to die more than I wanted Gideon to parish. This man caused the fall of not one, but MULTIPLE TOWNS AND THE WHOLE DAMN CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. 

After the fall of Nicodemus, Jane and Callie set out to track down Gideon. On their tracking adventures, Jane becomes a bounty hunter in order to make money so she can continue on her search for Gideon. Jane is like, a hundred times more badass now. She’s a one armed, zombie slaying, bounty hunter that kills people who have done immense wrong to others. She and Callie learn through their travels that Gideon escaped safely and went on to get funded by some rich folk. In Gideon’s own escapades, he has caused the fall of another small town. And guess how he did that? This IDIOT vaccinated another town and they all turned ‘Shambler’ (zombie). Then he fucks off and escapes so he can’t get in trouble. Jane and Callie make it to California, where Jane hopes to reunite with her mother. There, she kills a man, which pisses Callie off. So while they’re shacked up in a hotel, Callie leaves while Jane is sleeping. And Callie’s punk ass takes all of Jane’s money with her, leaving Jane without anything but the clothes on her back. 

Geena: We don’t stan Callie in this house. If she loved Jane that much she would’ve left her SOME money wtf

Kae: TRUE. SO FUCK, CALLIE. LIL BIIIEEETCH. But yeah, Callie dips tf out and leaves Jane with nothing. Callie DID give Jane the option to come with her and start a new life, but Jane is kind of being fueled by her revenge and it’s blinded her. I feel bad too because Jane is also being haunted by Redjack’s ghost. So there’s that. 

Geena: Gideon the perfect example why ~intellectual~ men don’t deserve ANY rights. He’s so obsessed with his own research and bullshit, he thinks that no one knows what’s best for humanity other than him, that he brings about death and destruction wherever he goes. He’s the reason Nicodemus falls, he’s also the reason that the West Coast (which is seen as shambler free because it’s protected by mountains) also falls… BECAUSE THIS BITCH CAUSES ANOTHER SHAMBLER OUTBREAK with a faulty vaccine. When Jane and Callie decided to hunt him down I was like LIVING!!! LIKE KILL THAT WHITE BOY!! Who cares for nothing other than being successful… Also, the fact that every boy Jane has thought to be cute was trash is killing me… Girl… needs better taste HONESTLY…

Also, while trying to make himself look like a Sad Boy he forcefully injects his vaccine into Katherine… WHICH ALMOST KILLS HER, but SIIIKKEE because Katherine ends up killing him instead 😎 I personally wanted his death to be WORSE and more PAINFUL for all the shit he’s done but Justina Ireland kept it SHORT and Sweet. 

The Good

→ Jane and Katherine

Geena: THE ONE… THE ONE GOOD THING THAT CAME OUT OF THIS DUOLOGY… JANE AND KATHERIN’S FRIENDSHIP… LITERAL RIDE OR DIES... BC JANE TECHNICALLY DIES AT ONE POINT LMAO

Like Kae mentioned earlier, Katherine has fully accepted Jane as a friend by the time they get to Nicodemus, but Jane is still unsure (kinda thinks she isn’t a friend type of person). Katherin reaffirms that she will be there for Jane, but Jane is like Sideyes… But, as the story progresses, after Jane “dies” Katherine spends the rest of the novel constantly thinking of Jane and wishing she had said more.  ALL THE WHILE JANE is killing her way to the West Coast.

When they do meet though it kinda hurt because Jane is essentially like ‘Sorry, the old Jane can’t come to the phone right now... because she’s dead’ and Katherine is like ?????????. Jane believes herself to be a monster, because um… she’s just been bounty hunting bad people and because she’s driven by her rage against Gideon - IMO I don’t think that would’ve made her heartless or a monster, but Callie reiterates that she doesn’t like Jane like that (as a killer)… obviously, her resolve was weaker than Jane’s but n e ways. Katherine is also like ‘omg Jane killed that dude without remorse’ (Jane kills a r*pist in front of her, but Katherine doesn’t know what he did). REGARDLESS, uNLIKE SOMEONE (Callie) Katherine doesn’t give up on Jane and accompanies her wherever Jane goes because she knows she can bring back the old Jane and… when I tell you a bitch was emotional :’) AND ALSO THE ENDING WAS BEAUTIFUL though bittersweet

Kae: Okay, let me just say, from the bottom of my heart, that I absolutely adore Jane and Katherine’s friendship. Jane thinks it was built on their shared experience of being kidnapped, but in reality, it was built on their respect for each other. When Kate first saw Jane, she was SHOOK. And Jane was like ‘oh fuck, be cool. Act like you don’t care.’ and so that happened, as Geena explained above. But Katherine stuck around because that’s her best friend and you never give up on your best friend when they’re going through something. 

Jane continues to be a meanass to Kate, but Katherine ignores it to the best of her ability and pulls her knickers up and keeps by Jane’s side. In this, Katherine notices that Jane calls her by her full name instead of just “Kate”, which was something Jane always did because she knew it annoyed Katherine. So when Jane starts to let down her guard, she slips up and calls her “Kate” and this takes Katherine to the moon! She’s so excited to see her Jane coming back! But Jane is like “whoops, I'm showing feelings. Can’t let that shit happen” and she hunkers back down. 

While Jane was off being dead and bounty hunting, Katherine was on a boat (but I don’t remember doing what) with Lily and Sue (Sue is from Miss Prestons and Nicodemus) and her new friend, a man named Carolina. When they get to California, they realize that it’s not as black friendly as they’d hoped, but it’s presumably safe so that’s what matters. Katherine here’s that San Francisco might offer them a better life, so she and her gang make the trip to get there. That’s when they run into Jane and all the above happens. 

One of my favourite parts is Carolina not liking Jane because his first introduction is killing a man without hesitation. But Katherine is like “Pfffft, oh that’s just Jane! It’s FINE!” all the while internally she’s like ‘omgomgomg wtf’. And that’s when Katherine agrees to help Jane kill Gidon and also find her mother. 

In the end, they kill Gideon’s horrible ass and end up finding Jane’s mother safe and sound in a small settlement in the mountains called New Haven. Jane’s mother is happy to see Jane, but is totally dismissive of Jane's experience and all she had to do to get to her mother again. I felt really bad for Jane because she did EVERYTHING to get back to her mother and her mom was a DICK. Anyway, Jane leaves with Redfern so they can find a new place (as reluctant homies, not as a couple) and Katherine is like “AYO, YOU JUST GONE LEAVE ME WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE, BITCH? I SAID I’M YOUR BEST FRIEND SO WHERE WE GOIN!?” And then all three of them prance off into the sunset with a new goal of finding a better life and man, a bitch (aka me and Geena) were CRYIIIIING because it was so sweet and we just love two best friends who are down for one another.  

Geena: YEEEEEEESSSSSSS, the ending was bittersweet because like Kae mentioned, Jane had been searching for her mother and her Aunt Aggie hoping to find comfort in their arms. But.. when she got to New Haven, the old life she had been desperately longing for was no longer there. Aunt Aggie was dead and her mother had remarried, and like Kae said, she ignored everything Jane had been through- not wanting to share in her daughter’s sorrows. Jane quickly realized that this wasn’t the place for her, and up and leaves, and this is where the sweetness comes in because the whole scene of Katherine running after Jane 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 Like I had been so scared Justina Ireland wouldn’t give them a happy ending, because how can a zombie story end happily, but this was A LOT better than what I had expected… a bitch (Kae and I SDJKFNSD) teared up.. Just wanna thank Kae for hyping up this sequel before I read it because wow… IT REALLY LIVED UP TO THE HYPE 

Conclusion

Geena: Like I said before, this is one of the best sequels I’ve read. Usually, books end up falling flat when you get to the second but Justina Ireland didn’t fall into the same trap. We finally get Katherine’s POV and get to learn why she insists on wearing a corset, and that she’s not as perfect as Jane believed. There’s heart-stopping action and Jane kicking major ass and truly being The Devil’s Bride. Overall, once I finished this I was like Head Empty because I couldn’t read anything afterwards because I had to take time to digest the wild ride the book had been. Also, one of the biggest takeaways (other than ‘white ppl ain’t shit’) was ‘Men don’t deserve rights’ and honestly? Same.  

Kae: So there we have it! The story ended beautifully and I really, really enjoyed it. I still haven’t been able to read anything after finishing it because it was just THAT GOOD. It’s been about a month since I finished it and I’m still reeling from how beautifully written it was. It was really refreshing to read about two black women who had FEELINGS and were able to express them to the reader (because they had a hard time expressing them to each other lmao) and it was just really nice. Katherine’s backstory was great about how she was born in a brothel house and her mother tried to teach her that if she found the right man, she’d be fine. But Katherine didn’t want that. She wanted a life where she could provide for herself and be independent. What she brought with her from her old life was her corset and she wore because she basically felt it would hold her together and suppress her anxiety. 

Geena: Also, reading about the corset again can I say one of my fave details was Sue helping Katherine loosen it whenever they were in a fight… like the moment Jane disappeared Sue was there to help Katherine and support her …. Sue… the most underrated character AND THE FACT SHE GOT HER HAPPY ENDING MARRIED TO A MANS!!!!  

Kae: Jane learned, unfortunately, that not all things are golden. Her old life that she so desperately wanted a taste of, had gone sour. Her mother was no help to Jane and couldn’t even give her the smallest of sympathies. Those two things were initially what kept Jane going (along with her Aunt Aggie), until Gideon showed up and started doing dumb shit. What Jane also learned though, was that people do care about her and even though Katherine wasn’t blood, she was her family and truly loved Jane for who she was, flaws and all. 

It’s a beautiful story about two black women finding themselves and forming an unbreakable friendship. It’s more than fighting zombies and more than surviving. It’s about LIVING and finding a way to deal with all of the problems and anxieties they face along the way. It's a great story and I urge everyone to read it. Yes, it’s fictional history about zombies. BUT, it is very telling of the time period it takes place in and Justina didn’t sugar coat any of the prejudices Black people and Indigenous peoples went through back then and I appreciated that. Deathless Divide is beautiful and poetic and heartwarming in the best of way. <3 

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (9-15 Jun 2024)

actually me this week. week full of office meetings. did not like.

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 Murder on the French Riviera (Miss Underhay Mystery #16) (Helena Dixon, author; Karen Cass, narrator) - Kitty & Matt do a bit of off the books espionage on the French Riviera. I find this series relaxing - it's entertaining, predictable, charming & superficial.

🥰 the warmth of your doorways (cicer) - 00Q, 384K (WIP) - fake marriage that starts as a QPP, fairly quickly becomes romantic, eventual even sexual as they both heal trauma & become domesticated; great slow burn journey to get there, never got bogged down, just took its time. Loved being in JB's POV as he slowly becomes domesticated, realizes he doesn't hate it, grapples with that, realizes he's actually in love with his husband, starts working thru & healing trauma. WIP (possibly abandoned) but honestly where it currently ends makes for a reasonably satisfactory stopping point. I liked that the author was very clear upfront that QPP aren't inferior in any way but that this is the story they wanted to tell about these characters.

💖💖 +15K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

You Were a Kindness When I Was a Stranger (DevilDoll) - TW: Sterek, 8K - another forever fave reread; a bdsm arrangement-to-lovers

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Romancing the Rainbow (with Alyssa Cole, Dominic Lim, Cat Sebastian & Rebekah Weatherspoon) [author panel hosted by Wade County Public Library]

Girls5eva - s1, e3

Thousandaires - s1, e2

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Desert Island Discs - Greg Davies, comedian

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Am I OK? is a coming-out movie for adults

Short Wave - Illegal Wildlife Trade Is Booming. What Does That Mean For The Confiscated Animals?

The Allusionist - 196. Word Play 6: Beeing

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Secret Nazi Weather Station Named Kurt

The Sporkful - Book Tour 2: How’d You Get So Good At Failure?

WikiHole - Renaissance Faires (with Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney-Silver and Michael Ian Black)

Here & Now Anytime - Diddy's downfall: 'Vibe Check' weighs in

Persuasion by Jane Austen - Persuasion 5. | Behind the Hedgerow

Persuasion by Jane Austen - Persuasion 6. | Lyme

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our favorite graduation moments in pop culture

Short Wave - From The Physics Of G-Force To Weightlessness: How It Feels To Launch Into Space

⭐ Switched on Pop - Freaking out about songwriting with Nile Rodgers

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Black Cultural Archives

Persuasion by Jane Austen - Persuasion 7. | Lady Russell Returns

99% Invisible - The Los Angeles Leaf Blower Wars

Today, Explained - Was that antisemitic?

Vibe Check - We Have Different Gay Voices

Worlds Beyond Number - WWW #16: Everything

Dinner’s on Me - Sarah Paulson

⭐ Slow Burn - Gays Against Briggs | Bonus Interview: Silvana & Larry

⭐ Wild Card - A rare dive into David Lynch's mind

Wild Card - David Lynch on the afterlife + Bowen Yang's childhood memento

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - Fireside Chat for WWW ep16 "Everything"

Song Exploder - Crowded House "Don't Dream It's Over"

Clean Water Works - Dam Removals and the Cuyahoga's Comeback

Dear Prudence - I’m Sick of Feeling Like I’m Always the One Doing All The Work in Dating. Help!

Endless Thread - Looking for a Man, Finding a Record Deal

It's Been a Minute - Conservatives want to burn flags too; plus, the power of a singing POTUS

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Inside Out 2 And What's Making Us Happy

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