#I like true crime novels for non-fiction

[portugalisinsa]

#going into the tags hoping i'd see some book reccs but its all discourse ;w;#well i'm not gonna claim these are all highly intellectual works but here's some of my fave adult fantasies#tainted cup by robert jackson bennett#the thief by megan whalen turner#winnowing flame trilogy by jen williams#locked tomb series by tamsym muir#goblin emperor and witness for the dead by katherine addison#a natural history of dragons by marie brennan#the mountain in the sea by Ray Naylor#god killer by hannah kaner#temeraire and scholomance by naomi novik#october daye by seanan mcguire#i'm also getting into t kingfisher books :)#gods of wyrdwood by r j barker was also good#i really need to find more books by non-white authors tho

No babe it’s so cool and hot that you always insist that fantasy books written to meet a 4th graders’ comprehension skills have more complex themes and a greater sense of praxis than anything written for adults

[winged-self-indulgence]

Why Do People Like Yanderes?

Hi everyone, my name is Diya, and this was going to be a YT video-essay-type-thing but I'm too poor to afford a mic and too busy with college to learn how to edit videos, so here's my vague exploration of the psychology behind why people like yanderes so much through the lens of my favourite Visual Novels.

TW for uh. yandere content. Mentions of sex, gore, and non-con, particularly in the last topic. This is more like the first draft of an academic paper so while it's not explicit, I do go into some detail.

Introduction

If you’re a fan of anime or visual novels, then you’re probably already aware of what a yandere is, or at the very least you’ve seen that one picture of Yuno Gasai. Still, for the sake of thoroughness, let’s take it from the tippy top. The term ‘yandere’ is a Japanese portmanteau of ‘yanderu’ – the progressive form of ‘yami’ – meaning ‘sick’, and ‘deredere’ which roughly translates to ‘loving’. Together, the word refers to someone who is – in short – extremely lovesick. Obsessive to the extreme, and with little morality to spare, the standard yandere is characterized by a dangerous fixation on a chosen target, often appearing shy and caring at first only to flip the script and become violently aggressive towards perceived threats (Kroon, 2010).

It should be noted that yanderes are not a strictly romantic or sexual trope. The Ancient Greeks classified at least six forms of love, from familial (storge) to guests (xenia). Modern psychologists may distinguish love as either Companionate or Passionate (Kim & Hatfield, 2004) or consisting of three dimensions of Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2018). Realistically, possessiveness shows up in a variety of relationships. However, people are generally primed to view certain dynamics as inherently amorous. Societal norms tend to encourage the idea that romantic bonds ought to rank above all others, and therefore if Person A is bizarrely fixated on Person B, then clearly there must be an element of sexual interest involved regardless of the actual relationship between the individuals in question.

Regardless, yanderes remain quite popular in fiction. Many dismiss it as a fetish, which it can be, but that isn’t the case for everyone. While there is nothing wrong with indulging in kinky fiction, not all of us get horny at the thought of being chained up in someone’s basement, no matter how hot our captor may be. So why is it so pervasive? Why is this trope so appealing that most writers cannot help but include at least a single line of dialogue implying that – if circumstances had been ever so slightly different – my wholesome shoujo romcom might have turned into a psychological horror?

Hybristophilia

‘Hybristophilia’, also known as Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome after the titular criminal couple, is a word is derived from the Greek word ‘hybridzein’ meaning ‘to commit an outrage against someone’ and ‘philo’ which means ‘a strong preference for’. Sexologist John Money reportedly defined it as a paraphilia in which an individual is sexually aroused by a partner who has a predatory history of hurting other people (Money, 1986, as cited in Matuszak, 2017). In his book, Serial Killer Groupies, true crime and crime fiction author RJ Parker distinguished two forms of hybristophilia: passive and aggressive. The former is when an individual contacts a criminal with the intention of striking up a relationship with them, allowing themselves to be seduced and manipulated but having no interest in committing a crime themselves. The latter are far more dangerous, as the individual not only derives sexual pleasure from their partner’s atrocities but are active participants in carrying out or covering up the crime. To quote Griffiths (2013, as cited in Pettigrew, 2019):

“[They] help out their lovers with their criminal agenda by luring victims, hiding bodies, covering crimes, or even committing crimes. They are attracted to their lovers because of their violent actions and want to receive love yet are unable to understand that their lovers are psychopaths who are manipulating them.”

In some ways, hybristophilia is the nearest thing we have to a realistic understanding of why people love yanderes. I mean, much of the fantasy surrounding such characters and their media tend to be filled with posts begging to be spat on or calling the rightfully terrified main character ungrateful for being a teeny bit upset about finding surveillance cameras in their ceiling. However, enjoying fictitious immoral activity does not predict real perpetration, so what does? There exists little consensus amongst psychologists as to what sparks this particular predilection, and that was strange to me. You would think there would be more studies into this topic, in spite of or perhaps because of its controversial nature. Heck, that one dude wouldn’t shut up about white women’s obsession with Bundy and Dahmer, and I assumed he had gotten that information from somewhere, but it turns out that was just him using modifiers to justify sexism.

However, I believe that we can hedge a few guesses, and over the course of my research, I’ve organized the main rationalizations under four umbrellas which I will explore through the lens of my favourite yandere-themed Visual Novels. Please keep in mind that most of these games are rated as mature due to sexual scenes and/or gore. Additionally, in the spirit of transparency, this ramble will be focused exclusively on male or masculine yanderes. So, without further ado:

Call Me Bob the Builder Because I Can Fix Them

If you’re familiar with DC Comic’s Batman, or just happen to have attended any costume event held over the span of the last 20+ years, you may be familiar with the character of Dr. Harleen Quinzel, better known as Harley Quinn. Initially created as the Joker’s one-off sidekick in Batman The Animated Series, she was so well-received by audiences that she became a recurring character in the cartoon and was eventually given a proper origin story in the form of a one-shot titled Mad Love.

Harley’s origin story has seen some alterations over the past decades, but the core aspects remain largely untouched. In the beginning, Harleen Quinzel was a promising young woman who wanted was a degree from the university’s prestigious psychology department, which she gained through…less than scrupulous means.

(Listen, I’m not sure if the authors were leaning on the Dumb Blonde stereotype, or if they simply thought that casting her as a genuinely bad student would make her later actions more believable. Either way, the idea of Harley as someone with a legitimate PhD came later)

After landing an internship at Arkham Asylum – a half-hospital and half-prison straight out of the 1870s that might as well be built out of one-ply tissue-paper soaked with gasoline and left next to a crate of fireworks – Harleen set her sights on the then incarcerated Joker. At the start, her fixation on the criminal wasn’t remotely sympathetic. She didn’t want to help him, she wanted to use him. Harleen Quinzel wanted piggyback off his infamy and write a tell-all tale detailing what sort of messed up childhood resulted in Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime. Yet the more she interacted with him, the more the Joker took advantage of her empathy. By the end of their sessions, Harley no longer saw him as a violent serial killer with a clown schtick, but as a “lost, injured child looking to make the world laugh at his antics.”

But Diya, you may be asking, what does this have to do with the video? The Joker never loved Harley, and it could even be argued – as Shehadeh did in a 2017 essay – that her obsession with the pasty-faced clown is more akin to Histrionic Personality Disorder. While that may be the case, I believe that Harley’s story provides one of the reasons yanderes are so popular: their backstory.

Whether they were abandoned by their family, bullied by their peers, experimented on by evil scientists, starved on the streets, died under mysterious circumstances and then trapped in a haunted VCR tape for decades, or are simply so impossibly inhuman that they frankly do not understand why it isn’t socially acceptable to imprison their crush in a pocket dimension made of meat and non-Euclidean geometry, yanderes often have fairly sympathetic or at least understandable explanations for why they are Like That. Your mileage may vary significantly depending on how much you sympathize with these motives, but the point is that yanderes always make sense to some degree. Their morality and priorities may be twisted or even completely incomprehensible, but the audience almost always knows the reason, and that can be comforting. In the real world, other people aren’t always straightforward, and we never really know what they’re thinking, but narrative coherence demands a semblance of internal consistency lest the audience end up frustrated and confused. So yanderes are not only easy to sympathize with, but also fairly predictable. In-universe they may be unhinged freaks with a blood fetish, but to you watching from behind the safety of the screen they’re just acting out the script written for them based on a prototype. And if you understand the why behind their loose gears, then you might just be able to put them back together again.

The concept of rescue romances or “I Can Fix Them” has been around in our stories for thousands of years. The Epic of Gilgamesh detailed how Shamhat essentially ‘civilized’ wild man Enkidu through ritual lovemaking, and a concerning number of religions push the idea that women are dutybound to save men from the follies of sin. Yet men are not exempt either, with one notable example being the German fairytale, King Thrushbeard. Call it what you will regardless: Knights in Shining Armour, the Florence Nightingale Effect, or a plain old case of Because You Were Nice to Me, studies have shown that human beings generally like helping [DA2] others, even when the reason doesn’t necessarily stem from pure altruism. I will delve deeper into this later, but care and compassion are deeply ingrained in human nature, and arising from those roots is the appeal of this mentality: You can save them. You can change them. You can make them better. You are special, and the way you treat this person carries a weight that has not and will never be matched by anyone else for the rest of their mortal or immortal existence.

The illusion is a delicious one, especially if the person you’ve helped turns out to be a billionaire CEO with cash to burn, a super powerful ghost king willing to raze continents to dust for you, a demon having fun on a Friday night, or just your average hot creep with a knife. Moreover, different people have different ideas of what ‘fixing’ even means. Maybe you want to single-handedly rehabilitate your yandere into a functional member of society. Maybe you’re cool with the incessant stalking but would like them to stop slaughtering your friends, family, and local service workers. Maybe you want to make them much, much worse.

Not only do yanderes provide immediate proof that your actions have a tangible impact on the lives of others, but the fantasy also includes the desire of being seen as special. Of being admired and adored by someone whose life you inexplicably made better by virtue of simply being yourself, or an idealized version of yourself. In this fictional world, in this imaginary setting, the person you are is so uniquely, impossibly irreplaceable to someone. And if that’s the case then they can’t risk losing you, can they?

The Allure of Obsession, or ‘Til Death Do Us Part (Literally)

It shouldn’t be necessary, but here is my obligatory disclaimer anyway. Ahem: obsession is not a good thing in real life. Fixating on another human to the detriment of your own wellbeing and that of those around you is dangerous, as is encouraging someone else to obsess over you. You might think you are being worshiped, but real life is not a visual novel. The outside world doesn’t come with an age rating, the author’s guiding pen, and a convenient fade to credits sequence once you’ve reached an ending. The consequences will still be there in the morning, so don’t do it. Just don��t.

PSA out of the way, it’s natural to want to be wanted. Maslow’s Hierarchy places it just above physical safety, but I’d argue that it could easily be compared to baser drives. According to many psychological and anthropological studies, much of humanity’s continued survival and environmental dominance is largely attributed to our ability to form groups, cooperate with one another, and maintain complex interpersonal networks. Social support, intimacy, and a sense of belonging are linked to emotional and physical benefits, such as more optimistic health perceptions, higher subjective well-being, increased creativity and innovation, and greater self-efficacy (DeWall & Bushman, 2011; Harandi et al., 2017; Wang & Sha, 2018). Therefore, it’s perfectly understandable that rejection of any sort would be construed as a threat.

But if someone is obsessed with you, then you have no reason to worry about that, right? No more nights spent agonizing over how they feel about you, asking yourself whether your last text made you sound too desperate, or if you’re boring them because you spent the past hour info-dumping about Stardew Valley farm layouts. With a yandere, there will never be any doubt that they care about you. Sure, they might go about it in weird, manipulative, and insidious ways that violate your physical and mental autonomy, but you can’t deny their loyalty. They do love you in their own bizarre way. You are the sun around which they orbit. When you’re in the room, no one else exists. Every single messy flaw is just another bullet point on the mile-long list of why they adore you.

In essence, yanderes are not only attentive, but their love can be virtually unconditional. A yandere might know everything about you, and still revere you. It’s unhealthy as hell and you might genuinely question their taste, but it can be tempting to pretend that all of you, right down to the ugliest parts of yourself – the traits and choices that you would never share with another living soul even at gunpoint – are worthy of understanding, if not open praise and affection.   

Attractiveness, or Okay but Have You Considered That They’re Hot Though?

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I mean what am I supposed to say here? They’re hot, what do you want from me?

No, but in all seriousness, fictional media paints an idealized version of the world, and most yanderes are hot because they have the freedom of existing purely behind that screen; artfully arranged and edited to forever appear compelling to anyone who happens to enjoy their particular style. And there are a lot of styles to choose from. Whether you want them pretty faced and disarmingly cute, or scarred up and big enough to pin you like a butterfly, yanderes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes that are meant to pique your interest and draw you in like a naïve little fish being lured towards the mouth of an angler fish, unwilling to believe that anything bad might happen to us when the bait is this pretty.

This is often referred to as the Halo Effect, a form of cognitive bias referring to the tendency for people to assume that a single obvious positive trait must be associated with other positive traits. The go-to characteristic is typically physical attractiveness, but a nice voice, good humour, and cooking skills are also factors which serve to influence our perceptions.

So, conventional physical attractiveness is one thing, but that’s only skin deep. What about beyond that? After all, the yandere still has to talk to you before they enact their master plan of tying you up in their basement until Stockholm Syndrome kicks in.

When I showed my friend a picture of John Doe from the game John Doe, she told me that he looked like a creepy slob, and she’s far from the only person who’s ever thought so. Look at them. I feel like if I tried to comb that hair it would simply eat me, and some of the CGs really put the scopophobia in Scopophobia Studios. I love Doe, but he is not hot, and he doesn’t behave in a normally appealing way either. If the player chooses not to take a bath, Doe will immediately comment that you “smell good” before following you home, breaking into your house, and leaving a bloody organ on the floor for the player to trip over. Many yanderes can at least fake a veneer of normalcy, but from the get-go Doe doesn’t even bother to pretend he’s anything less than an otherworldly creature stuffed into a vaguely person-shaped meatsuit. In an effort to find out why so many people had latched on to Doe – including me – I shopped around social media and YouTube for answers, and what I found was a widely unanimous sentiment.

While some were drawn to his fun design and goofy personality, most simply thought that he wasn’t inherently malevolent, just very confused. In addition to being a supernatural being with a completely alien axis of morality, Doe’s meta-awareness and unbridled attempts at winning the player’s affection lends him quite a bit of support from the audience, especially if you yourself also happen to struggle with social cues and relate to his pure earnestness. In Ending 7 of the extended version, the player character has the option to tell Doe – who has altered himself to pass as more ‘normal’ – that they prefer who he truly is, at which point he grows visibly flustered and sports an adorable pair of literal heart-shaped pupils.

Whether they’re charismatic, seductive, cute, sweet, funny, nurturing, or generous, the best yanderes have engaging personalities. Even while they’re committing truly heinous crimes against God, man, and your guts, you still kinda want to hang out with them, and you want them to acknowledge you as being just as interesting. And this is all fine in fiction because you’re the one in charge, and if you ever get bored or uncomfortable or busy with something else, then you can simply close the tab or window with zero consequences, which brings us to the final and most important reason.     

Power Dynamics and Consent in Fantasy (I Couldn’t Think of a Joke Here Guys, This Is Kinda Serious)

Once again, I feel that I must preface this section just for the sake of my own peace of mind: sexual coercion and assault are vile and disgusting crimes that should never be emulated or tolerated in the real world. We are speaking purely of fictional media, specifically adult-oriented media in this case, so please be mindful.

In 2009, Bivoni and Critelli conducted a study on 355 undergraduate women with the goal of assessing the reasons behind fantasies of non-consent. At the time, there were two leading explanations of this phenomenon. One stated that women with high libidos but repressed views of sex used these imaginary scenarios to alleviate the guilt they had grown to associate with sex. Because the simulation was a purely mental exercise and they themselves were cast as helpless victims in the scenario, they were able to remain blameless while still finding sexual gratification. The second stated that these fantasies were an expression of liberation by women who were adventurous and comfortable enough with their own sexuality to engage with taboo ideas that they weren’t at all interested in performing in real life. Which do you think was more common?

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If you guessed the second option, you’d be right. The study found that of the 220 women who had experienced such fantasies, 45% found theirs erotic, 46% were mixed, and only 9% reported pure aversion. One justification for this outcome relies on psycho-biological theories, for example masochistic preferences or the unintended activation of the sympathetic nervous system and subsequent mis-attribution of arousal. Other reasons have to do with higher order thinking and are tied to the power dynamics within such fantasies. On the surface is the appeal of being so desirable to someone that they simply cannot control themselves, but then there is a deeper impulse, which the researchers referred to as Adversary Transformation. To quote the article: ���[fantasies] involve a struggle between an assailant and a potential victim in which it is relevant to consider who is the winner and who is the loser. At one level, it is a struggle over sex, but the woman's non-consent may be feigned or token. At another level, the woman may be seeking a victory that is not about whether sex occurs, but about what happens emotionally between the protagonists.”

Basically, the imaginary perpetrator may have ‘won’, but the self-character need not have ‘lost’.

Media provides an extra layer to the illusion, one that you as the viewer have absolute control over. If you are choosing to engage with a piece of media that explicitly labels itself as including R18+ yandere content, then you clearly have some expectations, and that background awareness goes a long way in reducing long-term discomfort and allowing audiences to make informed decisions. If you don’t like the plot, you can simply turn it off it with the click of a button, and when the screen goes dark it’s not like the yandere is going to punish you for saying no. Strade isn’t going to break into your house with a drill, there are no homicidal clown ghosts hiding in your TV, and no suspicious pink-haired hackers watching your webcam. They aren’t real, and the consequences aren’t real either. You have all the power here.

Conclusion

In summary, Yanderes are appealing for a variety of reasons. Whether you want to save them, think they’re attractive, wish to indulge in a dream of being utterly coveted, or simply enjoy a bit of spice in your me-time, it’s obvious why the trope has persisted for so long and will likely continue to do so. If you enjoy yanderes but are worried that having a taste for the less wholesome side of things might imply something about who you are as a person, don’t be. The notion that fantasies and media preferences directly reflect subconscious desires is not only painfully out of date debunked nonsense but also indicative of restrictive ideologies wherein bad thoughts = sin. This isn’t 1984. You haven’t committed a thought-crime by having a weird kink. You aren't going to superhell for fantasizing. The human mind is hardly ever so mathematically rational, and the point of fiction is to allow us to safely engage with and explore various ideas, provided the everyone involved is mentally, chronologically, and emotionally mature enough to do so.

Thank you all for listening to me. If you learned something or were just a little bit entertained. If you're curious about knowing more, I've listed my sources below

REFERENCES

Bivona, J. M., & Critelli, J. W. (2009). The Nature of Women’s Rape Fantasies: An analysis of prevalence, frequency, and contents. Journal of Sex Research, 46(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490802624406

Critelli, J. W., & Bivona, J. M. (2008). Women’s Erotic Rape Fantasies: An Evaluation of Theory and research. Journal of Sex Research, 45(1), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490701808191

DeWall, C. N., & Bushman, B. J. (2011). Social acceptance and rejection. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), 256–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411417545

Flynn, F. J., Reagans, R., Amanatullah, E. T., & Ames, D. R. (2006). Helping one’s way to the top: Self-monitors achieve status by helping others and knowing who helps whom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1123–1137. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.6.1123

Harandi, T. F., Taghinasab, M. M., & Nayeri, T. D. (2017). The correlation of social support with mental health: A meta-analysis. Electronic Physician, 9(9), 5212–5222. https://doi.org/10.19082/5212

Hazen, H. (1983). Endless rapture: rape, romance, and the female imagination. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3161300M/Endless_rapture

Kroon, R. W. (2010). A/V A to z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms. McFarland.

Matuszak, M. (2017). Hybristophilia White Paper. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55dfd21ee4b0718764fb34cc/t/5cb7cabee5e5f00ab13be58b/1555548863275/Hybristophilia+White+Paper.pdf

Oarga, C., Stavrova, O., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2015). When and why is helping others good for well-being? The role of belief in reciprocity and conformity to society’s expectations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(2), 242–254. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2092

Parker, R. (2014). Serial killer groupies. RJ PARKER PUBLISHING, INC.

Wang, T., & Sha, H. (2018). The influence of social rejection on cognitive control. Psychology, 09(7), 1707–1719. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.97101

[ceilidho]

This is in no way of hating but i want to know why do you enjoy writing noncon/rape? When I first downloaded tumblr which was couple of months ago i was surprised by the amount of noncon fics here. I eventually came to enjoy them which makes me question myself. Whenever i read a noncon fic and enjoy it i feel like im betraying women who actually went through those traumatic events. Plus I actually don't really like dark romance books? I love cod dead dove and that is mainly because i really love the characters and the authors are so talented. I rambled so much and i hope you don't get this in the wrong way i don't mean to hate AT ALL i love the stuff you write. Maybe i shouldn't think too much and let myself enjoy what im reading lol

first of all, no worries! i wasn't sure about your tone/intentions at first, but by the end i was totally fine with the question.

i actually don't mind talking about this stuff - i just sometimes avoid it on main because i prefer chatting about it privately.

second, i'm no psychologist or sociologist, so i probably won't be able to give you the most satisfactory answer, but i think there are a lot of different reasons. i can only name a few. one thing i should mention right off the bat is that rape fantasies are very normal (and this is true whether you're a survivor of SA or not) and writing/reading fiction can be a safe way to process those thoughts/feelings.

one of prevailing reasons is, of course, that many survivors of SA use noncon/dubcon literature/art as a way of processing their experiences and taking ownership of their trauma.

and look, people are going to go back and forth on this point (i've seen it all before - many people refuse to believe that engaging with noncon lit/art is helpful, and in fairness, it's NOT helpful for everyone because every person is different), but at the end of the day, if a survivor tells you "writing/reading this was helpful in my recovery" then that's that!

additionally, for many women and non-binary folk (i can only speak as a cis woman, but i'm sure this is a shared lived experience across many different people), we're also taught from a very young age to suppress our sexual desires / that being open about our sexuality is morally reprehensible and shameful. and a lot of people carry that shame for years, impacting them well into adulthood. so dubcon/noncon fantasies can be a way of being able to enjoy sexual scenarios where you don't have to be the initiator, thus taking away some of the emotional weight and shame.

plus, at the end of the day (and im sure many people will disagree with this take, it's something that i'm still figuring out myself), there is a kind of weird underlying consent implicit in dark fics. like, you might be reading a fic or novel that's ostensibly noncon, but you're also actively seeking out that literature (hopefully it's not just sprung on you - i do very much agree with tagging to the fullest extent and my lukewarm take is that I think all books, even traditionally published ones, should come with content/trigger warnings too).

there are a medley of reasons why someone might write or read dark fiction/dark romance. again, i'm just one person and i can only speak from my own experience!

i think at the end of the day, the important thing to realize is that fiction is fake, and as long as the writer appropriately tags their work and ensures that the audience is aware of what they're getting into when they start reading, they're not coercing the reader into something they aren't prepared for.

and it's totally fine if you have limits (like, you can read and enjoy dubcon, but not noncon) or can't engage with the material at all, but it's also unfair to say that it reflects someone's real life values - the same way that we don't say that the people who enjoy crime fiction must love murder.

and the last thing i want to say because this got a bit out of hand lol, is that, yes, for some people dark fiction is genuinely harmful, whether or not they're a survivor. it's not for everyone and that's completely fine and i'm aware of that, which is why i agree that you should tag as much as possible (even if you feel like you're overdoing it sometimes), but someone else's discomfort doesn't give them the right to tell you how to process your own emotions/experiences/desires/etc.

as long as no one's getting hurt, there's no issue as far as i'm concerned. and sorry but, no one's getting hurt by reading a fic or a novel unless the author didn't give proper content warnings - if you "forgot" to read the tags or read anyway DESPITE being warned, im sorry but that's life.

[inawickedlittletown]

Handsome Little Bookworm (BuckTommy) - one-shot

Summary: In which Buck discovers how avid of a reader Tommy is.

BuckTommy Positivity Week Day 4: hobbies and dates

Rated: G

Words: 1.1k

@bucktommypositivityweek

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Read on Ao3

Buck realized fairly quickly that his boyfriend was a romantic. He didn’t seem to think that he deserved romance or that anyone would be willing to go to all that trouble for him, but he certainly loved to watch romcoms and he read more romance books than anyone that Buck had ever met. The first time he was invited over to Tommy’s house he’d zeroed in on the built in bookshelves that held both books and DVDs. He’d been interested right away, especially because of the insight that it might give him to Tommy. 

“This is quite the collection,” Buck had muttered as he perused the movies. “Chimney did say you were a big movie guy.” 

“When you grew up the way I did, escapism is all you really have, Evan.” 

Buck nodded. “I went with the route that kept me out of the house until I broke something. Usually my bones.”

“Evan,” Tommy said, exasperated.  

“I don’t do that anymore.” 

When he got to the book section of the bookshelf, Buck pulled out a dark blue book with white writing that read Boyfriend Material. 

“Is this a guide? Do I make the cut?” Buck asked. 

Tommy plucked the book from his hands and returned it to its spot. It brought him close enough that Buck could smell his cologne. It was earthy and warm and Buck wanted nothing more than to press himself up against him and maybe turn around and kiss him silly. 

“You are definitely boyfriend material,” Tommy responded and he took a step away from Buck. 

Buck knew he was blushing and thinking about how it hadn’t even a week since they had defined what they were doing. After not having had a boyfriend his whole life, it felt amazing to actually have one. Some might say it sounded a little juvenile, but Buck loved it. He loved that Tommy was his boyfriend. 

Buck ran his fingers over the spines of a few more books and slowly came to the conclusion that half the books Tommy owned were romance novels. It was a little unexpected, and Buck didn’t know what he had expected to find on Tommy’s shelves because Tommy had never struck him as someone that spent their time reading non-fiction or the thrillers that had become popular due to all the true crime podcasts. Maybe he just hadn’t expected Tommy to be very invested in reading. Romance books made sense, though. So did the mix of sci-fi/fantasy. 

“So which of these is your favorite?” Buck asked. 

“I don’t think I have a favorite,” Tommy admitted. 

Buck glared at him. “Which one have you read more than once?” 

“Not that many.” 

Buck perused the books himself, looking for one that might be a little more worn than the others. It was difficult entirely because Tommy seemed to take meticulous care of his books. But, of course he did. He had an entire section made up of classics whose titles Buck recognized from reading lists at school. Going up a few shelves, two books whose pages faced out caught his attention. Buck could understand putting the books that way on the shelf because the edges of the pages were pretty. He grabbed them both out. 

The books were by the same author, TJ Klune. The covers were cartoonish in a way. One featured a house at the end of a cliff and the other a house in the middle of a forest that looked entirely like it was ready to collapse. He looked at the back cover of one and then the other. 

“These sound interesting,” he offered. 

“They’re very good. Your favorite?” 

“Nope.”

Buck hummed and put them back. He grabbed another book at random. Less. The cover featured a suited up guy falling backwards. 

Next he looked at a very thick white book with some kind of ship on the cover. And then The Hunger Games which Buck had actually read. A Sherlock Holmes story collection and a few books by Andy Weir. He recognized The Martian because he’d seen Hen reading it a few years back. 

“Have you read everything on here?” 

“Most of them,” Tommy said. 

“Hmm, I think I like knowing my boyfriend is well read,” Buck said as he put Good Omens back in its place. 

Tommy snorted. “If you count romance and speculative fiction well read.” 

“You read more than me.” 

“And I bet if we found a book in a topic you found interesting, you’d be in a deep dive,” Tommy said. 

Buck didn’t deny it. He did smirk at Tommy and pull him into a kiss. “How about we keep you my handsome little bookworm.” 

The rest of the tour of Tommy’s house resulted in Buck finding even more books. He hadn’t been looking, it was just that Tommy had books literally everywhere. He had another bookshelf in his bedroom and a small pile on his bedside table. He had cooking books in the kitchen, even. It was cute and Buck had no idea when Tommy made time for reading, but he did. He knew that he took a book to work with him for the downtime in between calls, but with everything else Tommy did, it was still shocking how many books he got through. 

In the months that followed, everytime he stayed the night, he found that Tommy had already finished the book he’d previously had on his bedside table and that it had been replaced with something entirely new. He liked looking at the current book and asking Tommy to tell him about it. 

As far as hobbies went, reading was not one that Buck had expected to find hot. Not like Muay Thai which involved tight shorts and a very sweaty and delicious looking Tommy, or even Tommy tinkering away at a car wearing a backwards cap and a tight tanktop that would invariably get covered in oil or grease stains. Buck just hadn’t known what it would do to him to know that Tommy wore reading glasses. 

He’d kissed him about it and begged him to keep the glasses on during sex that night. He had absolutely no regrets about it. 

Buck was also a little amazed by how much of Tommy’s mail consisted of books getting delivered to him. Or how whenever they went anywhere that had a local bookstore they had to make time to go inside and peruse the wares. Tommy always bought at least one book. 

Some of the best nights were the quiet nights where Buck had his headphones on and he watched a documentary or dived into his research and next to him, glasses perched on his nose and a book open in his hands was Tommy. Buck could picture them doing that for years. 

He could see it so well, the two of them a bit older sharing in each other’s space but doing their own thing. Occasionally sharing a smile or a kiss maybe with rings on each other’s fingers to top it all off.  

[creekwritersblood]

Today I would like to talk about the various kind of Authors that fits the category Writers.

Feature Writer: Usually is the one who write articles on magazines or newspapers.

Novelist: The one who writes Novels of any genre from Horror, to Romantic.

Poet: The one who writes poems about any topic in its mind.

Blogger: The one who writes Blogs.

Screenwriter: The one who writes the Screenplay for movies, TV Series, video games including acting instructions and scene directions.

Stage writer: The one who writes a Theatre play.

FanFiction writer: The one who writes about Fandoms.

Short Stories writer: The one who mainly write short stories.

Copywriter: The one who writes texts for advertisements or Publicity material.

Starting from this definitions, actually all of those can be considered Writers because to write each and every kind of thing like that Imagination, Knowledge, Studies and Research are needed. In whatever field you will write, you will always find those common elements and here’s why:

Imagination: Is needed because whatever you will write about, a True Crime or a Review of a certain book, you need to visualize the facts happened in a certain situation; if you cannot visualize those yourself, how your reader is suppose to? So this is fundamental, at least to me, I mean, if I read a True Crime article I need to know what happened and if I can see it in my head it can sort out a better reaction.

Knowledge: Know the topic you will write about. To start, write about things you know to have a better come-out.

Studies and Research: Glossaries will be your bestfriends on your travel in the topic you will talk about in your article/book. It doesn’t matter what you will write about, is always adviced to research a bit of words for the specific topic to be more precise and have a better know-how to explain certain things to your reader.

The sub-categories:

Feature Writer:

True Crime: disappearance, murder, or sexual assault, or the collective acts of a single criminal, such as a serial killer.

The first rule to apply to write about True Crime stories for Articles or Books is Do Not Lie on facts. True Crime Stories are something Serious and they MUST be Respected from head to toe. If you want to write about a True crime story, is it an article or an entire Novel, never forget to pay respect for the victims and respect the story itself without changing it. You must be the storyteller, the one who tells facts and keep the reader with you in the travel from the first letter to the last closing dot.

Lighter Topics: There are a lot of things you can write about.

You can write articles on food, writing, design, products to buy, products to NOT buy, everything you can think about, can be written down.

Specific Topics: You can write about specific topics like Medical issues, College issues, Hair styles, As for lighter topics, Everything you can think about can be written down.

Novelist:

Fiction: The one who writes about a non-real fact, or at least, takes inspiration on something really happen, but not related to reality.

Action and adventure, Fantasy: as the words say, they can be set in an unexisting World completely created from the Writer himself, or can take place in real places with fictional Creatures and Characters.

Comedy: Usually is a fiction full of fun, meant to entertain the reader itself and cause him a luaghter as the lines goes on. It can be part of other genres too like Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Parody and many others.

Crime and mystery: Usually Crimes and Mysteries created by the Writer himself.

Horror: Stories intended to pass a shiver to the reader, transporting him into a world, real or fictional, filled with monsters and Creatures that usually are the antagonists.

Sci-Fi: Stories placed into fictional worlds populated by extraterrestrial creatures and spieces.

Recipes: They can be created taking inspiration from the real world, creating fictional stories around those

Non Finction: The one who writes about real facts, existing things related to the real world.

True Crime: As for the Articles, a True Crime story is a tale where is told a real fact happened without changing the facts, with real people.

Recipes: Yes, Recipes, infact, also those kind of books can be novels, the writer can talk about plates and write about the creators of those.

Autobiography: Is a tale of the life the Writer himslef lived.

Poet:

Haiku: This kind of Poetry comes from the Western part of the world, Japan. Is usually very short (three lines) and the first and the third lines have five syllables, while the second has seven. They can be written to recall a mood or a moment.

Free verse: It is considered modern poetry, they do not follow a metrical rule and they do not have to rhyme necessarly.

Sonnet: This is a classic form of poetry, made famous mostly by William Shakespeare. Their origin is in Italy, created by Petrarch. Sonnets are typically following the scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Acrostic: This kind of Poem is different, because Each capital Letter of Each Line, in the end forms a Message.

Villanelle: Originated in France, it has to be composed by 19 lines, following the scheme; ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA, this type of poem only has two rhyming sounds. Plus, there is a lot of repetition throughout the villanelle. Line one will be repeated in lines six, 12 and 18; and line three will be repeated in lines nine, 15 and 19. So although this takes out the extra work of having to write 19 individual lines, the real challenge is to make meaning out of those repeated lines!

Limerick: Funy and sometimes also rude, were made popular by Edward Lear in the 19th century. They have a set rhyme scheme of AABBA, with lines one, two and five all being longer in length than lines three and four.

Ode: The ode is one of the oldest forms of poetry and believed to be born in ancient Greece. The Word ode comes from the greek word aedein wich means to sing or chant, originally were performed with musical instruments. It is written to praise a person or a Divinity, an event or a thing.

Elegy: It doesn’t have rules and have as a subject Death. Usually they are used to remember loved ones that has passed away.

Ballad: They are usually formed by four lines and follow the rhyme scheme ABAB or ABCB.

Blogger: A Blog can talk about everything you like and there is no genre to follow, let your fantasy go wild!

Screen writer and Stage writer: A play - written by the Stage Writer - is a performance while a film is a visual art.

Their main focus is Dialogue, but they differs when we start to talk about the mediums used for a play and a Screenplay; the first rely only on characters lines and is a bit more contained using only few sets, while the second use visuals and camera angles to deepen the story itself and is a bit more opened because of the use of Special effects and various sets.

FanFiction writer: FanFictions do not have rules of themselves, they give you the possibility to pull in an original Character and create a little story based on a yet affirmed fandom. Is a great exercise, because you can test your fantasy, pulling all the characters, or just one of your choice in a different AU that can be the real world, or another fandom, you can adjust those as you prefer.

This is the start of many writers and I must say is a great one.

We all have a dream in life and mine has always been become a writer, so I started writing fanfictions first and I still do at times not gonna lie -lol- I personally would advice those to initate, there are a lot of places to publish them and they can be a great opportunity to start making a name of your own.

Short Stories Writer: As the name itself, they can be written from a minimum of two pages on a maximum of ten, in my opinion, others consider a short story from a minimum of two pages to a maximum of fifty, Think each one has his own objective look on it. As for Novels they can be on everything you want Fictional or not.

Copywriter: This is something a bit different from the others, because, Copywriters usually write based on products they must sell and advertize, so there is no other genre apart the Non fiction one.

Whatever kind of Writer you want to be, don’t hold back and be it!

[live-love-be-unique]

I Am No Bird; And No Net Ensnares Me

Summary: Ghost finds himself starting an informal book club with the newest addition to the taskforce.

#22. Ghost and Reader are in a book club for @glitterypirateduck Ghost Challenge.

Parings: Ghost x f reader

Warnings: angst, death and an unconfessed love

You’d been reading your book, when you looked up noticing him staring “you can borrow it if you want? Price says we’ll be sitting tight for a while”

You weren’t kidding, three days later and the exfil still hadn’t shown up. Ghost devoured your book in the meantime, it was actually pretty good, a story about two sisters that had been separated during German-occupied, war-torn France. A little too heartbreaking for his liking but still a good read. One quote amongst the many you had underlined in gray lead pencil had stuck with him: “if I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are."

Days later you’d been sitting on the break room sofa, talking with another female soldier and as he passed he dropped a novel onto your lap. Not a fiction story like you preferred, this one was a memoir of a retired Navy SEAL who was also a Guinness world record holder and an ultramarathon runner. He’d met the man once, respected the hell out of him, for an American. “Thought you’d enjoy this” he offered to your questioning glance as he passed.

It quickly become a habit between the two of you, packing a novel in amongst your supplies for missions to swap during to periods of waiting. Almost like a little unofficial book club. Sometimes, you’d find yourselves together in the break room decompressing after a long mission discussing the books you’d read over cups of tea. He’d learnt you preferred fantasy, dark romance and mystery while he enjoyed thriller, true crime and the odd biography.

He also learnt that you weren’t above the odd prank either, during one particular downtime, he was reading the book you’d brought along and, as he was invested in a pretty graphic sex scene involving a gun, Soap had spotted the book’s title, it also didn’t help that he had been imagining it was you underneath him in that same position. Once Gaz had caught onto what was happening he knew he’d been hearing about it for weeks. He caught sight of you giggling away behind his copy of the historical non-fiction he’d lent you about America's first considered serial killer.

He retaliated by bringing what he imagined you’d think was the most boring book in his collection, all 411 pages of a nautical historical fiction about a young naval lieutenant newly promoted to master and commander. He was right, you’d read the entire thing, under sufferance of course.

He found himself watching you as you read, the way you chewed on your lip as you concentrated, the way you smiled when you read something you enjoyed and frowned when you didn’t. He even learned to love the little notes and quips you left in the margins of his books when at first it annoyed him. He’d watch you, hoping to catch you glancing over at him, above the pages of your book, sending a soft smile his way.

The last mission had been a mistake, anything that could have gone wrong did, and you had born the brunt of it. You’d been raced to the medbay unconscious and barely breathing, they’d had to intubate you immediately and had moved you to a hospital off base for treatment. He hadn’t left your side since.

He spent his time devouring any medical textbooks he could find on your condition, so much so that Gaz was convinced, if allowed, he could perform your surgery.

Price had visited a few days later, citing mission reports as the reason for his delay, bringing with him a box of your belongings, “some comforts from home” he’d muttered. At the bottom of the box, buried underneath a well-worn sweatshirt and a teddy bear that was signed by friends and family from back home, his hands brushed against a small paperback.

The cover was tattered and pages dogeared and a little note on the inside cover from someone he could only guess at being your grandmother telling you how this was her favorite story as a young girl and how she hopes you love it as much as she did. It was clear that you loved it as much as she had hoped as his eyes trailed over sections you had underlined and the little notations you’d made in the margins, it was like a window into your soul as he found the first page a started to read aloud to you in that quite hospital room.

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.” His voice thick with exhaustion and emotion as he read. He read to you throughout the night and into the next day.

Your heart monitor flatlined just as the story ended and Jane and Mr Rochester were reunited. Even though the doctors and nurses said you probably hadn’t heard anything, he liked to think you’d held on long enough to hear him finally finish your favourite book.

Days later Ghost found himself standing at the front of the large crowd of mourners, surrounded by colleagues and friends alike as they lowered your coffin into the ground. He couldn’t move as the others dispersed, your younger brother clapping him on the shoulder as he passed by. Price had stayed with him, Gaz and Soap stood close behind, giving them a moment.

“Did you tell her?” Price had asked him.

“Tell her what?” He muttered, watching as they filled in your grave.

“That you loved her” Price murmured, chewing on the end of his cigar.

“No” he shook his head. “Didn’t get the chance”

“She knew, lad, she knew” Price sighed, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

She does now, he thought as he absentmindedly scratched at his chest. The sandiderm covering the fresh tattoo itched like crazy underneath his suit. The simple line-work done immediately after your passing, your favourite quote, directly over his heart: "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me”

List of books mentioned:

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

Haunting Adeline by H. D Carlton

Devil In The White City by Erik Larson

Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

[bethanydelleman]

do you have any book recommendations beyond classic lit + Jane Austen? Love your blog by the way!

Thanks! I read/have read a ton of books. My favourite genre as a child was fantasy, but I read almost everything except true crime*, thrillers, murder mysteries, self-help, and biography. But I do sometimes read those, my favourite thriller is Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney. I'm going to start with children's books because honestly, I find so much imagination in that genre.

Children's/YA Books: Gail Carson Levine, specifically The Princess Tales 1 & 2, and Ella Enchanted, among others Jean Little/Kit Pearson - these authors have the same vibe to me. Willow and Twig is a favourite from the first one, The Guests of War trilogy and Awake and Dreaming from the other. They both write coming of age novels for girls, both Canadian. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - I loved the whole trilogy (haven't watched the movie). The story being based around real antique trick photos is my favourite part The Echorium Sequence by Katherine Roberts - a trilogy of books about magical singers with blue hair and their interactions with half-human magical creatures Margaret Peterson Haddix, specifically Running Out of Time, the Shadow Children series, and Double Identity. Margaret Buffie, who writes stories about teenage girls and ghosts. Also Canadian, which I guess isn't that surprising. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Re-read it last summer and it's as good as I remembered. Roald Dahl, I really loved Matilda as a child, it's been fun to read some of these novels with my kids. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar - and it's sequels. Amazingly quirky and funny stories about a class of students in a weird school

Fantasy: Mercedes Lackey, specifically the Five Hundred Kingdoms series and The Obsidian universe. I also loved the Elvenbane series, but due to the death of Andre Norton it may never be finished. I would advise caution if sexual assault is triggering for you, the ones I like are mostly free of it but that can come up in her other works. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - obviously. Also loved The Hobbit, have not read further The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin - the book opens with the triggering of an apocalypse. The world contains people who can control earthquakes A Baroque Fable by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - this book is so hilarious but I don't know if anyone has heard about it Once Upon a Winter's Night by Dennis L. McKiernan - and it's sequels. This is a romance retold fairy tale series

Science Fiction: Michael Crichton - who spans a bunch of genres but I'll put him here. I've read everything he's written and I recommend most of it. State of Fear has not aged well. His books are very fast-paced and Timeline has one of the best enemies to lovers. Orson Scott Card - I am aware, but Ender's Game is a masterpiece. He also has this single novel called Magic Street that is a sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream. I also loved Memories of Earth but it's been a while since I read it. I, Robot by Issac Asimov - short stories about artificial intelligence and how it might go weird

Graphic novels: Astro City by Kurt Busiek - superhero, but more focused on how living in that world would affect normal people Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra - every male on earth dies, except for one, and his monkey Fables by Bill Willlingham - after being attacked by an army of wooden soldiers, fairy tale characters and creatures seek refuge in a non-magical world (ours) Nimona by ND Stevenson - a villain gains a shape-shifting sidekick, but she is not what she seems Scurry by Mac Smith - post-apocalyptic earth, the main characters are all surviving mice. Best artwork I've ever seen in a graphic novel American Vampire by Scott Snyder- vampires have different traits depending on their home country, this is about the new, American species. Asterix and Obelix by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - a small group of powerful Gauls defend themselves against the Romans using a magical potion

Non Fiction: Stephan Pinker, I've read both of his trilogies on language and the brain. Trying to get through his huge book about violence The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks - writen by a neurologist, fascinating book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick by Maya Dusenbery - what it says on the tin

Toddler/Young Child Books: The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone - I give you a 100% guarantee that if you read this book aloud, the kids will be fascinated. It is literally always a hit Robert Munsch - most of his books are amazing, but if you don't want to cry, DO NOT read the backstory of Love You Forever. The Paper Bag Princess was one of my favourites as a child. Little Critter - only the older ones, the new ones are religious for some reason. Just for You and I Was So Mad were favourites for my kids. Early lesson in unreliable narrators. Phoebe Gilman - Something From Nothing, the Jillian Jiggs series, The Balloon Tree... so many good ones! Really good illustrations too Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal - a book about a pea who hates eating candy. This book is fun to read and my kids loved it (I have the box set) The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak - kids love when adults have to do weird things I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen - perfect opportunity to do a lot of funny voices The Mitten by Jan Brett - a whole bunch of animals squeeze into a mitten. That's the whole thing. It's great. The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland - and the rest of the series. These are fun to read because they rhyme. Jonathan Stutzman - my kids LOVE Tiny T. Rex and the Llama series. We haven't read the others An Elephant & Piggie by Mo Willems - we have this entire series, they are a delight. An elephant and pig are very silly friends. Good drawings Dr. Seuss - be careful with him though, his books are quite long and can be hard to read, so I recommend waiting until your kids are a bit older. But The Lorax slaps and my personal favourite as a kid was The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins

Other: Still Alice by Lisa Genova - or any of her books really. She is a neuroscientist and her books are really interesting explorations of different disorders. Book is better than the movie Warm Bodies by Issac Marion - zombie Romeo and Juliet Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder - a novel that is also an intro to philosophy course Calvin and Hobbes - I own all of them, so excited for when my kids can understand them. I also love The Far Side, Zits, and the earlier Dilbert comics The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John - this book is absolutely charming. I saw the Netflix movie and then bought it right away.

*I avoid true crime because I have heard that the genre causes harassment to victim's families

General Note: I am aware that some of these authors are now considered controversial, some for more serious reasons than others. Sometimes flawed people make really good art. I mean, flawed people make all art because nobody on earth is perfect.

[swiftiereaders]

📖MEET THE TEAM✨

@wineonmytshirt - HI! I'm Jen, I'm 30 years old and I'm from the USA. I go by she/her pronouns. My favorite authors are Stephen King, John Green, Dan Brown, & Anne Frank. My favorite books include Doctor Sleep, It, Atonement, The Lord of the Rings Series, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Devil in the White City, and The Hunger Games Series. I enjoy horror the most, but I really love non-fiction, historical fiction, memoirs, thrillers, fantasy, and romance. My favorite Taylor Swift song is Maroon!

@itolduthings - Hi everyone! I'm Cleo, and Im from India! Im 21 years old and my pronouns are he/him. I'm known for changing URLs quite frequently hehe. The first book (novel) I ever read was Chander Pahar (The mountain of the Moon) by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. I love reading fiction, mostly romance (young adult to be honest) but i do dabble into horror, fantasy and a bit of sci-fi here and there too!!! I became a swiftie in 2014 and my favourite song (at the moment) is Would've Could've Should've and the smallest man who ever lived :)

@parisbytaylorswift - Hiya! I'm Laci, I'm from California, in my 20s, and go by she/her pronouns. Some of my favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, and Ira Levin. I'm primarily a horror reader, but I love to explore various non-fiction topics and the occasional true crime or mystery. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin and the Flower in the Attic series by V. C. Andrews are some of my favorites, and I'm a self-proclaimed scholar of anything Alice in Wonderland related. My favorite Taylor Swift song at any given time is cowboy like me 🤎

@tolerateit - hihii, im meg (she/her) and apart from reading, i love coffee, giffing/editing, lamenting about my blorbos on this website and cats! I usually enjoy literary and contemporary fiction, occasionally dabble in mysteries and horror and have been trying to read more poetry and am ALWAYS open to both giving and receiving book recs!! although it is impossible to pick a single favorite, I'd say ours is one of my most beloved ts songs <3

@dearreader - hi hello! i’m kelly (she/they/he) and i’m from california. i was an english major in college and i love reading fantasy, sci fi, and graphic novels. a few of my favorite books are a far wilder magic, the invention of hugo cabert, the princess bride, the night circus, the reader, and Fullmetal Alchemist. i’ve been getting into poetry recently and my favorite poet current is e.e. cummings. i am always excited to analyze or discuss in any capacity, especially when it comes to taylor swift songs. my favorite taylor song is tis the damn season!! 🫶🏻

[dallasgallant]

 Career speculation |

These are just my personal thoughts on what I think each of them will do for a job or would have done for a job when they got older. I’m basing this off what we know about the characters, I don’t know if there’s anything Hinton has said herself or if that’d matter to what I think anyway.

Pony - part time author

I think most of the time he’ll work as a store manager (your choice) to keep the bills up but his true passion is writing. He’s started out with non fiction and personal stories but may branch out, maybe tough teen novels— he certainly has the knowledge. The guys will get onto him as it’s really nebulous if he’ll ever write another book or not. He uh, needs to use his head. If he really wants to do this he’s gotta get serious about it.

If they have enough money for it, they’d send him to college. I can see him as a language arts teacher.

Soda- Truck driver/Rodeo

His adult life would absolutely be marked by travel. He’d get into working with horses again, starting in the stables before riding again and he’s damn good at it. Just like the DX station he gets absolutely FLOCKED by all those who think he’s attractive, which is about everyone. He’d truck in the off season and before he got back into riding but his passion is horses and overtime he’s less part time and more full time.

Darry- Roofing or Banker

If you want me to be really honest… I don’t think he’ll get out of roofing and whatever his second job is. Sometimes you’re stuck where you are and that’s just how it is, once Soda and Pony are older he could drop the second job but idk. But if I want to be optimistic I can see him working as a bank teller, he’s good with math and logic. It certainly pays more and it’s steady and less straining, though as a physical man it bores him out of his mind sometimes. The guys try to bother him for a “loan” and he has to explain just because he works there doesn’t mean he just has money to hand out like candy.

Steve- Mechanic

He’d move away from the gas station to a full on auto repair shop, working his way up because he’s just that good with cars. No dress code, no office job, lesser rules- he’s all over it. He’s satisfied where he is.

Two bit- runs a corner store

In a tale of irony I can see him running one of the corner stores the guys like to swipe from all the time and teens like that never really go away even when he grows into needing a job. However, he can spot a kid trying to swipe from him a mile away- tries to teach them how not to get caught but also to do it to someone else etc. He likes spooking them by sounding like a cop. Being his own boss is both to his advantage and detriment.

—

Dally - (would have) taken over from buck

I can see him falling into the same patterns, it’s technically a career and legitimate but there’s some shady aspects to it all. He’d be groomed/trained into the position and not running blind. He’d run a party house/bar and would be the guy who can get anyone anything for the right price. He’d live on the edge of law and crime. Though unlike buck i think he’d step away from rigging races, seeing as it’s the only thing he did honestly.. sometimes he may ride with soda, when he’s got the time.

Johnny- (would be) Barber

I started this idea of him doing hair somewhat a joke but the more I thought about it the more it suited him. He’s a great listener, all the guys in the gang already confide in him all the time. That’s a major part in doing hair, sort of like being a bartender is the conversation and secret keeping. Also in this case he has proper training and isn’t just tugging on hair. Considering the side of the neighborhood, it’s a lot more styling than cutting anyway.

[spntoxicfemslashevent]

full prompt list

hey everyone! this is the full february prompt list for this event. we're going to have six prompts every day, so it's big! smaller versions containing only some of the prompts are forthcoming. ideally a piece submitted for a certain day should be inspired by at least one of the prompts for that day.

[conceptual prompts only] [pairing prompts only] [format/style prompts only] [prompts by date] [submission guidelines] [intro post]

conceptual prompts:

feb 1: manipulation || rot || political play

feb 2: tied up || burning flesh || jealousy

feb 3: suburbia || betrayal/judas kiss || doll

feb 4: blackmail || cannibalism || age gap

feb 5: blasphemy || executioner || genderless

feb 6: “...and it felt like a kiss” || on the rack || handmaiden-feudal lord

feb 7: sainthood || blood || isolation

feb 8: poison/drugging || barefoot and pregnant || murder suicide

feb 9: scars || heaven and/or hell || voyeurism

feb 10: shallow grave/midnight gardening || exes || serial killer(s)

feb 11: crossdressing || corpse || brat

feb 12: war/opposite sides || soulmates || guts/gore

feb 13: demonization || immortality || "forgive me father"

feb 14: unrequited || butch || imprisonment

feb 15: high school sweethearts || justifications || resurrection

feb 16: stabbing || masturbation || somnophilia

feb 17: turn the straight girl || kidnapping || ritual sacrifice

feb 18: stalking || substance use/abuse || comp het

feb 19: amnesia/mindwipe/lobotomy || flogging || forcefem

feb 20: vessel || make each other worse || gothic

feb 21: mistress || forced marriage || petplay

feb 22: demon deal || power imbalance || state of mind/dreams/confusion

feb 23: experiment || bastard child || what happened to her first husband/wife?

feb 24: curses || possession || infidelity

feb 25: controlling || temptation || "i ran into a door"

feb 26: victim || right hand || true crime

feb 27: humiliation || dubious consent || brainwashing

feb 28: family || true form || obsession

feb 29: closeted || sins of the father || not passing the bechdel test

pairing prompts:

feb 1: rowena mcleod/billie

feb 2: linda tran/ofc

feb 3: hannah/naomi

feb 4: rowena mcleod/alicia banes

feb 5: raphael/billie

feb 6: amelia novak/naomi

feb 7: abaddon/colette mullen

feb 8: ruby/astaroth

feb 9: cassie robinson/fem!dean winchester

feb 10: linda tran/mary winchester

feb 11: cassie robinson/meg masters

feb 12: linda tran/abaddon

feb 13: risa (endverse)/meg masters

feb 14: kelly kline/dagon

feb 15: linda tran/tasha banes

feb 16: billie/amara/the empty (meg)

feb 17: meg masters/jo harvelle

feb 18: patience turner/claire novak

feb 19: mary winchester/antonia bevell

feb 20: lily sunder/claire novak

feb 21: bela talbot/ruby

feb 22: patience turner/magda peterson

feb 23: fem!castiel/fem!crowley

feb 24: missouri moseley/ellen harvelle

feb 25: jody mills/donna hanscum

feb 26: lily baker/lilith

feb 27: hannah/caroline johnson

feb 28: raphael/naomi

feb 29: eileen leahy/mary winchester

format/style prompts:

day 1: canon divergent || drabble (exactly 100 words)

day 2: canon character/oc || traditional art

day 3: scifi au || non-traditional art medium

day 4: post-canon || gifset

day 5: canon compliant || metered poetry

day 6: reverse!verse/roleswap || sketch

day 7: epistolary || flash fiction

day 8: episode rewrite || fanmix

day 9: gender changes - het to femslash || script format

day 10: canon a little to the left || headcanon

day 11: outsider pov || fancam

day 12: 5 + 1 || exquisite corpse/round robin

day 13: for want of a nail || sequel

day 14: dark fluff || webweave

day 15: vignettes/fragments || fansong

day 16: polyamory || abstract

day 17: unreliable narrator || screencap edit

day 18: meta plot/metafandom/carver edlund novels || non-song based fanvid

day 19: crossover/fusion || multimedia

day 20: trans headcanon || podfic

day 21: humor || amv

day 22: au || fiber arts

day 23: gender changes - slash to femslash || comic

day 24: pre-canon || digital art

day 25: omegaverse || sentence fics

day 26: mundane au || photography

day 27: selfcest || freeverse poetry

feb 28: character study || fanwork-of-a-fanwork

feb 29: rashomon style || fic rec list

[heich0e]

hewwo liv i think you mentioned you read nonfiction so i was wondering if you had any recs? i'm trying to widen my repertoire a bit more and start reading more nonfiction (as much as i love fiction i think my brain has started regressing a little), but the only nonfic ive ever dipped into are my econ textbooks haha

also i hope you're having a good day !!!!!

HI GUY!! i think one of the best parts abt non-fiction is how nondescript that classification is, and consequently how enormous and diverse your options are within it. i think it's easy for people to generalize non-fiction as being boring retellings of fact or history, because most people's first introductions to non-fiction reading are academic. but in reality there are so many different types of nonfiction, and so many different styles of presenting it in writing. (for the sake of simplicity i'm gonna just limit this convo to narrative nonfiction, but if u wanna read something expository like a text book or instruction manual power to ya.)

my recommendation would be to start with something like a biography or memoir. to me, reading a really good biography doesn't feel very different from reading a novel. you're still following someone's story, they're just a real person and not a character. from where i'm sitting right now i can see trevor noah's biography 'born a crime' on my bookshelf, and i remember really loving that one the first time i read it. having been a fan of his comedy, his narrative voice felt authentic and familiar throughout the book. setting aside his demonstrated talent for storytelling, it's also just a very interesting look into life in south africa under apartheid, along with its lasting impact, and as a mixed race child, noah's personal perspective is extremely compelling.

(keep in mind, i read that book as someone who was already a fan of trevor noah's so i immediately had a personal connection/interest to the story. if you have any comedians/musicians/actors/artists you really enjoy, maybe see if they've done any writing—that could help find something you connect with! i also recently read david mitchell's 'unruly' and i really enjoyed that one too—but i find him funny, and like learning about the history of monarchies. 'crying in h mart' by michelle zauner is also great.)

true crime is another popular non-fiction genre that i find people have an easier time getting into. i'm not a huge true-crime reader myself, but i've read a few interesting ones! i tend to go for ones that are more local to me, so i won't necessarily give any recs for this one.

i also had a weird phase where i was reading a lot of books about boats and shipwrecks. not sure what that was about. i read walter lord's 'a night to remember' when i was like 10 and i think that really is what it can all be traced back to. 'the wager' by david grann was fantastic (he also wrote killers of the flower moon which was very good, and not about a boat) but i recognize this is a very niche area of interest that u probably do not care about.

i also really like essay collections!! they tend to sort of cross or blur a lot of lines when it comes to genres, because while some would consider 'essay collection' a genre in and of itself, the essays themselves usually as collected around a particular topic or theme. another added benefit of essay collections are u can kind of leisurely pick away at them, or jump around in the book, since you usually aren't beholden to reading them cover to cover and following a single narrative thread. less pressure!!

a couple other recommendations, though at this point i'm sure you've given up on me (fair):

'the patriarchs' by angela saini

'i want to die but i want to eat tteokbokki' baek sahee

'persepolis' by marjane satrapi

ok i'll shut up now!! i don't even think this was helpful!! my advice to you would be to think about something you're already passionate about/interested in, and find a book about it!! or think about something you'd like to know more about or be better educated/informed on. it's out there i promise <3

[alexanderwales]

I finished Austin Grossman's Fight Me a week ago and I've been letting it marinate, but my final verdict is that I didn't like it very much. Some non-specific spoilers follow.

There were a lot of things that I liked in it, and the prose was good, but it never really felt like it came together. We open with the death of Michael Ferris and the members of a former teenage super team all being thrust back together by having been brought low, and I think my issue is that this is mostly just cause for meditation on the past.

I mean, that does seem to be what the novel is about, the idea of wanting to become someone, to seize some impossible destiny that seems like it might be yours, and to find that it's just not going to happen, that the future you were promised is maybe just something you need to make on your own.

As a message ... fine, sure, I agree. I feel that too. Growing up it felt like there was, somehow, a plan, and of course there is no plan.

Narratively, it sucks the fat one. I don't think you need to have a grand conclusion that ties everything together and fires off all the chekov's guns, but you need something. Instead, it felt like a sputtering anticlimax, and I just did not enjoy it very much, even if I have a little appreciation of it as an artistically consistent theme.

I guess if I had to sum it up, this is superhero fiction that has a grim realism to its characters but not anything else. The realism is not in the powers, in the worldbuilding, or anything like that, it's just flawed characters who nonetheless dress up in spandex and fight crime. The whole kitchen sink is there, we've got cyberpunk supersoldiers, we've got faeries, we've got mad scientists and magicians and all kinds of other stuff, but it's mostly about not achieving your dreams, or even really understanding what your dreams are.

(I am a worldbuilding nerd, and I wanted more worldbuilding, but I think this is a me problem, because it is very clearly not what this novel is interested in, much to my disappointment. From what we do see, there's too much government authority in play, in a way that rankles me and goes against the spirit of the superhero genre.)

If I had to pinpoint when I stopped enjoying it as much, it would be about three quarters of the way through. The story is told with long flashback sections, and I was getting the feeling that I would have liked it better if it were arranged more conventionally. On reflection, I don't think that's actually true, but it's when I was starting to have these feelings that there was just no resolution, just a non-ending on the horizon, that the scenes we were being shown weren't really building to anything, they were instead building to nothing.

And I have other quibbles with the book, but they're more to do with individual plot points or questionable thematic elements. I don't think it's earned that kind of engagement from me, and I have no enthusiasm to talk about the book with anyone. Give me six months and I'll probably not have given it another thought.

[jdeowrites]

Announcing my next book!

It's true! I finally get to tell you, I've got another book coming!

See above the formal deal announcement. The way I pitched it to friends, however, was, “Think YA Breaking Bad but Walter White is a teenage mathlete and instead of cooking meth, she becomes the bookkeeper for a gang to help her friend pay off his debts.” And I can’t wait to share it in fall 2025! 

REASONS WE BREAK is a standalone YA rom-drama. However, for those who’ve read TJ POWAR HAS SOMETHING TO PROVE, it’s also a spinoff, and you’ll find several familiar faces in it. Including the two main characters… because yes, it’s Simran and Rajan’s story!

If you’re one of the people who’ve asked me about these two, I hope you’re at least half as delighted about this news as I am. :) But for those who need their memory jogged, Simran is TJ Powar’s straight-A, “good-girl” cousin; Rajan is the resident troublemaker-slacker of their class. I first had the idea that I wanted to write a book about them while writing TJ POWAR’s earliest drafts in 2019. I had stuck them in a scene together for convenience’s sake, and something clicked, chemistry-wise. So naturally I wanted to get into their heads.

Fast forward to 2020, when I was on submission to editors with TJ POWAR. I didn’t know if that book was going to sell, but I’d already decided that either way, I wanted to write a book about Simran and Rajan. By summer of 2021, the plot had taken shape. I wrote several more drafts feverishly through the rest of 2021. And it turned out to be a different sort of story. 

Although it’s a bit darker and ended up sold to another publisher, I still like to think of REASONS WE BREAK as TJ POWAR’s cousin. I mean, it literally is about TJ Powar’s cousin, but also thematically. Asides from the familiar characters, it also deals with plenty of coming-of-age issues, this time including: second gen immigrant guilt, grappling with your parents’ mortality, figuring out romance when you feel “behind” your peers in that realm, and the many ways in which gangs target vulnerable teens. The gang aspect in particular will be recognizable to Canadian readers, as it has a very non-fictional inspiration: the bloody history of Indo-Canadian organized crime, with young South Asians often its greatest victims. It’s a very nuanced topic that I could never hope to fully capture, but I at least attempted to explore one facet: how and why this specific group of immigrant kids, many of whom come from seemingly “normal”, stable families, get targeted and recruited into a life that attempts to destroy them. 

It’s a slight departure from the very lighthearted contemporary that my debut novel was but I hope you’ll come along for the ride. Initially, I actually did try to write a story that was more tonally similar—but I had to let go of that. My instincts told me to let these characters take me wherever they wanted to go. And Simran and Rajan really begged me to let them spread their wings and show me the most complex parts of themselves. After all, everyone you know growing up is struggling with different problems. Sometimes, very different problems. For example, you could be worrying about whether you missed a spot shaving while the kid sitting in the desk next to you is wondering whether they’ll make it alive to next week (totally RANDOM examples here obviously). Although both experiences are completely real and valid, this story is an ode to the latter. The kids who grow up too fast. The ones who endure horrors and shoulder burdens that even many adults could barely comprehend. 

How could I deny Simran and Rajan the opportunity to tell that story? A story that gave *me* just as much growth as it gave them? I COULD NOT. Which is why, even though it made it a bit harder to publish, you’re getting this story exactly as it was intended—and for that, I could not be happier.

Add Reasons We Break to StoryGraph!

[duskkodesh]

What are your thoughts on the Lisa Trusiani run of Morbius The Living Vampire and what are some of your favourite and least favourite moments of the run.

I'll have you know I went back and reread these issues just so I could give them a fair shake. When I was younger I could recall page numbers things happened on, now I'm lucky if I recall breakfast. I'm going to try to make a compliment sandwich. I think her writing tried a lot of bold things. None of them fit the character. Insert 2nd good thing here. I feel like... she wanted to write a crime novel and kind of got shoehorned into a hero title, and I'm in this weird position because Morbius in the 90's went VERY heavy on the melodrama with very little comic camp. It was the era of 'edgy' unironically. But even with that knowledge Morb feels like this weird stand in of his former self. Like he stepped into someone's really weird RP and doesn't fit at all. There are things, facets that strike true to the character occasionally but the writing and pacing are just weird. Every single damn scene with a woman it feels like a creepy dude hits on her. Jack loses all his brain cells. Martine doesn't have emotions supposedly yet goes full aggressive bitch. And do not get me started on Lena who has very little depth or personality somehow despite the writer's best efforts. Facts change between pages. A patient is stable, a patient is bleeding out. Character is conscious, now he's not. Things like that. It's slapdash. Sidenote: If these are the only issues you ever read of Morbius he would be highly intolerable as a character and spends most of his time drooling over Lena for... some reason? And it's not like he doesn't get full stupid over women, but usually they come onto him. It's almost a requirement. This time he spends the run mostly simping. (Do we still say simping?) The rest of the time he's talking outside his normal verbal style, treating friends like shit, treating Martine like shit, running out on patients, and generally being dishonest but not in his usual lying to himself way. Weird enough that the only other writing Trusiani ever did for Marvel was for Barbie comics, and she also did a bunch of non-fiction kids books about the founding fathers of the US. I feel like they knew the comic was dying, and wanted a fast wrap up maybe with key points the Marvel heads planned ahead so they moved her in, but the writing has the air of someone who didn't know the character even from the earlier comics in that run. 3/10 Don't ask me about the art. I've made my feelings on that very clear and my eyes hurt from issues 31-32. Have mercy on me.

[nancywheeeler]

PLEASE share some of your favourite books!!! of all time And ones that you discovered this year!! (also only just noticed your header… i love those two <3)

omg anon i would love nothing more!

books of all-time: the secret history & the goldfinch by donna tartt, the haunting of hill house & we've always lived in the castle by shirley jackson, the night circus by erin morgenstern, the immortalists by chloe benjamin, lincoln highway by amor towles, say nothing by patrick radden keefe, the collector by john fowles, never let me go by kazuo ishiguro, tell the wolves i'm home by carol rifka brunt, the night tiger by yangsze choo, the shadow of the wind by carlos ruiz zafon, in the woods & the likeness by tana french, and the bell by iris murdoch.

i'm sure there are some i'm forgetting; i'm sorry to those books!

i try to read a broad range of genres & sub-genres, but my soft spots are magical realism, the promise of an ambiguous and bittersweet resolution, family sagas (or a codependent pair of siblings who are all the other has in the world), novels strongly influenced by classic literature, and unconventional murder mysteries.

and this year, i have favorites for all of the above!

magical realism: the house of the spirits by isabelle allende; ashamed i had not read this classic before, but i arrived at the party and i never wanted to leave.

also recommend: the light pirate by lily brooks-dalton

bittersweet: the memory police by yoko ogawa; more like bittersweet from beginning to end, and haunting. so very haunting.

also recommend: we all want impossible things by catherine newman (if you read the blurb, you'll understand why this is bittersweet, but it is also the funniest book i read all year)

family saga: tom lake by ann patchett; my book of the year, a beautiful exploration of mothers and daughters, our town by thornton wilder, first loves, and the summer stock theater scene.

classic influence: the historian by elizabeth kostova; brilliant take on dracula and vampiric folklore.

also recommend: state of wonder by ann patchett (a heart of darkness, but with women in the amazon!); demon copperhead by barbara kingsolver (tbh i felt it follows david copperfield a bit too closely, but her writing! oh her writing!)

unconventional murder mystery: i have some questions for you by rebecca makkai; not too unconventional, but it has some great takes on the true crime industry.

and since those are all fiction, i'll also add, for non-fiction, that i really loved the wager by david grann, the extraordinary life of an ordinary man by paul newman, and the premonition by michael lewis (great for anyone interested in what america's pandemic response was supposed to be, how it was developed, and why it went so wrong in 2020)

alright wow, this got so long—i'm so sorry! i'd love to hear what everyone else's favorite books they read this year are!

[letteredlettered]

I'm conflicted about whether to encourage you to read the MDZS novel or not. On the one hand, it's revolutionary for danmei in many ways (to the hatred and love of many), and reading it would be akin to reading Jin Yong one day. On the other hand, if you love Wei Wuxian and find some actions in the show "unforgivable," you will be severely disappointed with him. For the sake of censorship, many of the "crimes/sins" he committed were passed onto Jin Guangyao so that the idea of "good" and "evil" are more clearly distinguished. In recent years, China has even censored some of its most popular works like Empresses in the Palace, Story of Yanxi Palace, for having heroines that were too morally grey. And of course, there were some actions too heinous to even be passed onto another character. Plus, consent is a little grey in the novel, and first times were simultaneously great and awful, prompting a sudden confession in dramatic areas.

But, I think even a bit more laden with the evils of this world... I still really loved Wei Wuxian of the novel. He tried. And failed. And maybe made things a lot worse. But as Lan Wangji said, his heart was in the right place. And... I think you'll feel a lot more for the Wen in the novel. They-- just the idea of continuous sacrifice and gratitude. I cried so much for them.

Sorry, you might regret it a bit, but I think it'll also make you feel fulfilled to read the novel.

Anyway, I hope your day is going well!

I'm already reading it! So you don't have to feel conflicted about whether to recommend it. :)

I don't think that liking it or not liking it will affect my interest in CQL or the fandom. I've been in many fandoms with multiple versions of canon; I find it's best to pick the versions that work for me and stick to them. Sometimes it can be frustrating when you love one version and hate the other version and it feels like everyone is disparaging the one you think is good in favor of the one that gives you moral hives, but I haven't really seen those kinds of comparisons going around, and this isn't Star Trek, so I'll probably be fine.

I'm a little flummoxed by this word "unforgivable." First of all, I find most things forgivable; I'm a forgiving person. Second of all, these are fictional characters; if someone does something unforgivable it doesn't make them uninteresting or unrelatable.

I don't dislike JGY because he does bad things. I am uninterested in JGY because his personality is boring to me and not something I find relatable.

I'm also a little flummoxed by the idea of not liking something because it is morally gray. I know I stomp around on tumblr.com a lot yelling about morality, but my basic moral philosophy boils down to "try your very best to cause no harm," which is something that is extremely gray, because there are no absolutes. There is no good and evil. There is only the effort to be kind and help each other, and it is shocking how fuzzy and unclear that can be.

I have hesitated to read the novels partly because I'm aware of the consent issues. I think it is important to have fiction that has non-con, including fiction that has very sexy unproblematized non-con that allows people to indulge in fantasies that would be unsafe and harmful in the real world. That said, I don't like it. At all. Not for moral reasons but because I find it singularly unsexy.

I'll conclude by saying that it's very true that I tend not to be drawn to villains as characters. It's less because I find them morally repugnant, and more because they are often uninteresting to me. I think possibly the thing that draws me to a character the most is effort, especially an effort to do and be good--but this is a personal preference, not a moral one. I identify with characters who try to be good, and this makes me like them. I enjoy them the most when they fail a lot while trying their absolutely little best. Personally, I've heard mixed reviews about WWX in MDZS canon; some report, as you do, that he tries a lot and fails; others report that he's pretty careless in ways that make me feel a lot less interested in him. Since I'm already reading it, I'll find out, but the main thing I've taken away so far is that these novels are hilarious. I can't believe how funny it is. What a delight.