#Glitterland

[iitsfantastiical]

just some new books to add to my collection. 😌👉🏻👈🏻

[gutterstargazing]

Oh great my hearts been broken by another gay romance novel I wont stop thinking about for the next year

[feywildfancypants]

Running Notes from Glitterland by Alexis Hall (from someone with bipolar)

Well that hit a little too close to home. So did that. Ah shit.

Cries, feeling seen

Cries, mad

Cries happy

[aplaceinme]

Some more relatable excerpts from Glitterland by Alexis Hall (which I'm loving btw):

“Shit. Fuck. Wank. I was going to have to leave the house. Interact with people.”

“I could cope fine, thank you, as long as I had time to prepare. As long as I knew where I was going, what I was doing, what would be expected of me, and how much energy it would take. I needed to plan. Assess the danger. Break the whole activity down into safe, manageable chunks so that the enormity and unpredictability of what lay ahead didn’t overwhelm me.”

“Self-pity. Such an attractive quality. But it was miserably unfair. Whatever I did, no matter how hard I tried to pretend otherwise, there was no respite from my limitations. I was my own cage. And I hated it. Hated myself.”

“And now I lived in a world so narrow and so colourless that getting out of bed in the morning was a victory. That not actively wanting to die was happiness.”

“I haven’t really recognised myself for a very long time.”

“Maybe it would not be so terrible, to disappear entirely, to drift away in fragments beneath the moon, like pieces of torn of lace. To cease to be.”

“I had never wanted death, merely cessation; unfortunately, sometimes, they seemed to be the same thing.”

“This is who I am.” I put my key to the lock. “I don’t need fixing.”

“It was strange—perhaps terrible—but somehow I found it easier to talk about wanting to die than wanting to live.”

I am Ash… Ash is me!

[smalltownfae]

"He catches my face between his hands, his painted fingernails twinkling like stars, and when he kisses me it feels a bit like fear and tastes a bit like tears, but it's as bright and sweet as sherbet, and I decide to call it joy."

- Glitterland by Alexis Hall

[justapayneaway]

This week I'm reviewing Glitterland by Alexis Hall 🪩

Follow me on IG at @ritasbookclub for more content!

[monomatica]

Type Maps for Glitterland by Alexis Hall

A portrait of Darian, Ash’s very own glitter pirate, with jacket by “my girl Chloe”. He brings some sparkles into Ash’s depressed life with the funniest Essex lingo, a confident spirit and the kindest heart. Hilarious, angsty and beautiful, this is one of my favorite Hall books.

Follow on Insta: @bookomatica Print Shop: bookomatica.com

[jaronbraide]

I loved this moment in Alexis Hall's Glitterland. The narrator Ash is a jaded, wealthy, overeducated writer who's rather self-conscious—and not always so kind. His boyfriend Darian is an undereducated man from Essex who is quite the opposite: down-to-earth, kind, a bit naive, and takes everything in life at face value. In this short passage, we see all of Ash: his self-consciousness, his education, his self-doubt, and how he recognizes Darian's ability to do so much with so much less effort. It's in this moment that we see how Darian's attributes make Ash fall for him. Lovely.

[lgbtally4ever]

I LOVED IT!

[bitesizebookreviews]

Glitterland

Glitterland

Alexis Hall

336 pages

Sourcebooks, 2013

There was little I feared more than happiness, that faithless whore who waited always between madness and emptiness. My moods, when they were not sodden with medication, could turn upon a tarnished penny; happiness was merely something else to lose.

Ash Winters, a writer living in London, is bipolar and often dependent on his best friend Niall when things get tough mentally. At the start of the book, Ash is having a panic attack after cutting out on a one night stand. But the thing is, this one night stand was with aspiring model, Darian Taylor. And when their paths cross again, there’s an undeniable spark. 

These men are as different as can be. Ash is well-educated and a little poshy. And his mental illness has left him fearful of living life. Darian on the other hand is from Essex and has the accent to go along with it. He’s confident and full of life and loves sparkly things. There’s no reason they should work together. Except, of course, that they just do. And when Ash nearly destroys that, he has to work through a lot of his own baggage to win Darian back. 

This book works in a lot of ways. The two main characters are believable, the mental illness appears to be well written and the couple of sex scenes are good and steamy. The worst part is that Darian’s Essex accent is written phonetically, which wasn’t a great choice by the author. (If you’re in the US, the idea of someone being from Essex is a little bit of a mystery, but through context I think it’s sort of equivalent to someone being from the Jersey Shore.)

[ombwarrior47]

Title: Glitterland Author: Alexis Hall Series: Spires #1 Number of Pages: 326 Genre:  LGBTQ+ Romance Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca Date of Original Publication: January 17, 2023 ISBN:  978-1728265285

I recently read Boyfriend Material and Husband Material by Alexis Hall. Was a fan of Boyfriend Material but not Husband Material and was hesitant to read another series by him. Glitterland seemed to be the most hyped by fans of him and seems to be one of his first works so I decided to give the Spires series a chance.

There are a lot of similarities between the London’s Calling series and the Spire series. It seems that Hall likes to write characters who are just naturally unlikeable. In this book Ash is a depressive writer who rarely makes it out of bed, until he meets Darian Taylor, a flashy model who is full of positivity. Naturally just like Lucien/Oliver in London’s calling, Ash is a very negative person and tends to have a mean nature.

The overall storyline was okay. The supporting characters weren’t well rounded so I expected an appearance in Waiting for the Flood but it doesn’t seem like Hall continued with the same characters. It would be interesting to see if he went back to adding them, specifically Neil / Max and what happens to them.

I would recommend it if you are looking for an LGBT romance.

★★★★

~

Up Next:  

-Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall (Spires #2)

-The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

-A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persophone #1)

Yearly Goal Markers:

Book Goal: 42/75  = 56 %

Page Goal:  15/15k = 100% (2024 goal achieved 7/5/24!)

Follow me on LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Amazon. Same handle: OMBWarrior47

[maud-blyth-wannabe]

I’m reading glitterland and here’s my thoughts (that no one asked for)

Darian is such a little sweetie I love him

I love Alexis as an author and I love that he made a love interest who was a little “cringe”. He’s got an “ugly” Essex accent and he’s orange as if he just washed up the jersey shore but he’s kind. He’s genuine. He’s perceived as “dumb” but he’s more understanding and empathetic and perceptive than anyone realizes

His friends are so kind to ash, even if they’re “dumb” compared to ash’s Oxbridge crew. And maybe that’s the point.

Oh my god Niall is just a horrible person? I’d like to see some redemption but?????

Like yes I do see his pain in the “why not me” scene but… girl you werent the best lover or friend. That’s why.

Knowing this was (I believe?) the first book Alexis wrote is interesting as a fan of his.

Because I see traces of Luc O’Donnel and an older Paris dailencort had his life been minutely different in Ash.

I also see bits of Brian and Rhys and some of the other comedic relief characters in the things Darian says

As a (vaguely recovering) S/H-er this was unique representation for cutting in adult romance. And it wasn’t anything cringe or corny. Darian is genuine, and kind, and calm about the reveal.

Hes so calm about Ash’s mental illness and shows an eagerness to learn and understand and support. Hes far more intelligent than anyone realizes.

Darian is so loving to everyone around him. Pure sunshine man

I wondering if ash was to any extent autobiographical, but that’s not my business to speculate.

Honestly this book grew on me. It’s sweet and heart and very funny and provides mental health rep in ways I never saw before

[cluelesskittenz]

Alexis Hall describes depression and anxiety so well it hurts.

^ I feel this so fucking hard rn...

Quotes from "Glitterland" which I binge-read in a single sitting yesterday. As I do with most of their work.

[eccentric-ocean]

Mid april/early may reading list

Beach Read Emily Henry

already mentioned here

Glitterland Alexis Hall

i enjoyed this gay contemporary romance. well, it's 10 years old, and i could tell. it's definitely about the flaws of the main character. who can be a jerk. he's struggling with a mental illness and finally learns to live with it. and be less of a jerk. definitely not cured by love or anything but love makes him want to be a better man. he figures out how to apologize and everything. i feel like i'm not selling it, but i liked it!

Waiting for the Flood / Alexis Hall

Already mentioned here and here.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots Cat Sebastian

Historical gay romance. It's kind of a friends-to-lovers. And I enjoyed it, except for some reason I thought the smut was a bit TOO graphic with this one. Might also have been the fact that Glitterland and the second novella from Waiting for the Flood also had lots of smut and I was overdosing. But still, this one felt a lot more graphic than other C. Sebastian books to me. What I love about her is how she writes her characters, and how funny they are, and the emotional journey she takes us on.

The Last Word Katy Birchall

Hetero enemies-to-lovers but not really. It's obvious early on that this isn't hate. And there's a silly (to me) reason why the characters fell apart, which could've made sense in the moment but in hindsight can't possibly hold up. I still finished the novel and gave it 4 stars so it wasn't bad. I enjoyed the writing. I was just frustrated with the MC there for a while. Right, and there was a scene in there that was like WHAT are we doing here and I'm gonna spoil it cuz I need to talk about it.

So she's a celebrity journalist and there is a chapter in which she and the love interest help a celebrity birth a child in a taxi cab. And it's like, so weird. And the baby gets named after them. I was like, did we NEED this?

The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit

Some non-fiction! Great book, fantastic writing. I can't really say what it's about because it's about so many things: having to take care of your old/sick parent when they hurt you throughout your childhood, moving to iceland because you can, appreciating and making art, facing your own mortality, Che Guevara & leprosy, learning to let people in and let them take care of you, what a community is.... Highly recommend.

You Should Be So Lucky Cat Sebastian

Again, gay historical romance. Baseball player & journalist fall in love. The author is very good at what she does. What she writes about being forced to hide a part of your identity in the 1950s/1960s in the US makes me rethink about the rights of LGBT+ people then and now. Cause we obviously haven't "fixed" it for good.

But this is NOT a depressing read. It's funny, cute & just lovely. I just wish they could be husbands like they obviously want to. Right, there's also a huge part of this that's about grief/grieving someone you can't openly grieve. And about building a circle of gay friends.

Funny Story Emily Henry

So I read yet another romance (!!). MC falls in love with her ex-fiance's new fiance's ex-boyfriend. Makes sense right? No but really, it's good. It feels like reading a hollywood romcom tbh. One of the good ones. But they always end up a little too picture perfect for me. Like, if I were the writer, she'd never speak to her absent father again in her life. And probably wouldn't take her best friend back as a friend, all things considered. But it is what is! I might be a bit too cynical.

[aplaceinme]

Halfway through the book and... Wow, do I hate Niall!!! Like I understand that it's not easy but just wow! Hopefully, by the end of the book I will like him... we'll see...

I'm really enjoying the book so far!! And Ash is still so incredibly relatable!!!

[smalltownfae]

End-of-the-year book ask: 4 and 17?

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Not really and I am still upset about that. After some years of finding at least a new favourite author per year I was getting used to it so this year was a bit of a disappointment.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

A few. There are books I really enjoyed, but I was expecting to like them. These are the ones that I doubted would work for me but they did.

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

I didn't enjoy the first book in the Earthsea Cycle even though I loved the themes, but I still decided to continue the series since at least the themes and general ideas were good (plus, I like some of Le Guin's essays and her scifi books). The second book in this series is a fan favourite so I expected to like it much more. I did like this one and I found an improvement since the first book, but it was still just alright. Now, the third book was the one I enjoyed the most and the one that surprised me because no one seems to have it as their favourite in the series. So far, it is my favourite. There are still some weird choices in the execution, but I guess I enjoyed this one more because of the dynamic between the two main characters (the other two books focused on a single character) and because the plot with the magic being gone appeals to me in general besides the coming of age story. More details here.

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

I had read Boyfriend Material by this author before and I enjoyed it well enough, but romance (especially contemporary romance) isn't my preference. However, this book made me laugh so much and it also made me sad at times. It isn't perfect, but it worked really well for me and it was unique in comparison to the few contemporary romance books I tried. I also think this was a case of right book at the right time, which helped. I have a review here for more details.

Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green

Like the former, I believe this was the right book at the right time situation. This one besides being contemporary romance it's also YA. I found it pretty funny and it reminded me of a teen movie. Both this and the former book are gay romances btw. Review here.

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

I had tried this book twice in past years, but never got far into it. This time I forced myself to continue because it was picked for my friends reading group and after chapter 8 I had a much better time with it. It might have also been a case of right book at the right time since I handled it much better this year than my former attempts. Looking back I would give it 4 instead of 5 stars and I have fallen a bit out of love with the series because of some disappointments, but I still remember how much I was enjoying it for a while. This is the first book in the Nightrunner series. The writing is not the best and the plot and world might look a bit cliché, but I really liked the fact that there were women in positions of power and that there were two bisexual main characters and there was no focus on the romance. The first and second book must be read together because the first one leaves a lot of unfinished business and the characters go on a side quest for a while. The series fails to have a stance on adult/minor relationships though because it seems to forgive in one case and vilify in another one. It is a weird one and it will not be for everyone's taste. I am not even sure why I loved it so much, but I still really really enjoy the first four books and more or less half of the fifth, but that one also brings me a lot of pain with how badly handled a lot of things were. The sixth is just a reminder of how the series failed me. If that was a standalone it would work fine as a fun adventure, but after the buildup to a dark plot that went nowhere I was left very unsatisfied.

Sorry for the late reply and thank you for the ask :)