#and was meh about the first book

[destinationtoast]

How much of The Locked Tomb series would you say one needs to read before one can determine whether the series is Not For One?

[garrettwrites]

I am so tired of how Quotev/Wattpad level fanfiction, written by what reads as a 15 year old getting into their first fandom, gets pushed up the book ratings in the gay romance genre (m/m). Why is Red White and Royal Blue always at the top. Why is Boyfriend Material. Why must I suffer. Where are the standards. Why is a 30/40 year old recommending me, a grown adult man, stories that feel like they were written for highschoolers who don't like to read so they pick up the trashiest, most easily digestible shit in order to have the bare minimum of fun while doing their reading interpretation project for class.

This is coming from someone who had fun reading goddamn Twilight by the way. I'm not a book snob. I can enjoy objectively bad media if it's fun. My favourite book series with LGBT main characters is All For The Game, and that's a shitshow! But at least there's passion in it! There's fun!

I am going insane!!!!!

[themyscirah]

Reading shit comics kind of sucks but at least I get the satisfaction of proving my own point w this

[capinejghafa]

Reading People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry after reading a short kind of meh novella that was kind of forgettable. The bar is still pretty low because I can't go in with high expectations right now.

[transannabeth]

i think you're a fan of solving live triangles by having all three people date each other. do you think that goes for twilight as well? i think it would be perfect! jacob and edward have a special connection and bella apparently loves them both. everyone wins

hilariously when you sent this the other day, i was actually in the middle of a conversation about twilight

i'll fully admit that while i do love poly ships, this isn't always where my mind goes to. sometimes i just don't like one of the love interests much, or alternatively: i don't care for the person the two others are fighting for and think the two love interests should leave that person high and dry and date each other

in twilight i think both of them honestly stink and should stay far away from bella. i can't remember them interacting all that much where they aren't fighting (pre renesmee) but i have seen some fun edward/jacob fan content that's doing its own thing

and i mean i personally don't think edward/bella/jacob would be winning i think it would be so wildly messy and disastrous but like. i do love a messy polycule. so,

mandatory "read the truth vs twilight page from the burke museum and the quileute tribe right now" and "consider helping the quileute tribe continue their move to higher ground" note. thank you!

[duncan-rohanne]

so wait a fucking minute v.e. schwab is gay, all the main characters are bi and WE ARE STILL STUCK ON A GENERIC STRAIGHT LOVE TRIANGLE???? HOW????

[pigeonclaw]

I forgot to make a post about it til now, but in Onestar's Confession, Tallstar going to the Moonstone to confirm Crowpaw's story and being told by StarClan "yeah he's right, you'll never get your home back so you need to leave" makes me even more exasperated at the plot of Midnight. Already that book baffles me in hindsight because I misremembered it for years — I believed that the journey to Midnight was to not only strengthen bonds between cats of each Clan to help everyone work together, but also to point them in the right direction of a new home because the lake was so far outside StarClan's sight that the Clans needed an outside source of information.

Turns out I was wrong. The whole journey was just so Midnight could tell them to leave their home, and they had to figure out where to go entirely on their own. (Sure they had a shooting star help them out but it's not like StarClan couldn't have predicted that too.) But if we have confirmation by this point (also confirmed in Shadowstar's Life) that StarClan already knew they had to leave, then what was the point of all that??? All they really accomplished was stalling the great journey for multiple books and letting a bunch of cats suffer and die needlessly. I don't agree with the idea a lot of people have that StarClan and all these characters should simply (and uncharacteristically) work together and flawlessly avoid conflict, I like conflict, but I want a reason for it. The case of Midnight is just so unfortunate. It's such a mess that could have so easily been streamlined into something that makes more sense, but it just... wasn't.

[pineisnotanapple]

I feel like online book communities (not including booklr) have gotten out of hand like why am I seeing the same 4 books in every post, I get that it's popular or has gone viral but really this just makes me want to read it less, I've read some of the more popular/viral books over the past year and can confidently say never again at least

They were entertaining, sure, but was it worth my time? No way and if it's a series, will I read more? No. I read it, I don't need more of it personally.

I'm incredibly happy people have found joy in these books but I find them unappealing to me personally and just can't seem to really find any value in it for me. Side note, I also am not a big fan of any of these characters. And now I am also a very big not-fan of any of these authors. I don't need a formulaic fantasy romance gimme something actually interesting please.

If you have any book recs lemme know

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Am thinking of DNF-ing The Troop. I read about 30% of it today (like. 182 pages. Not insignificant) and I like the writing but a) don't like most of the boys and I'm one of those people who needs the balance of likeable to dislikeable to be in favor of likeable and b) don't find this particular body horror compelling, I don't hate it but it isn't working for me, and c) my one big thing I hate and find terrifying in a bad bad way is zombies and I am suspecting it's less the zombie part and more the contagion and compulsive consumption part which this has and I can't tell where the line is between "this is fine" and "this was a horrible triggering mistake" when it comes to The Troop, which is not a zombie novel but has the elements that bother me. So I'm about 60% convinced to DNF it but again, I like the writing itself and also it's such a well established horror novel in the circles I run in and I kind of want to know where I stand on it, especially since it is pretty readable even though it's long. So. :/

[magpiesbones]

honestly pretty fun for spill zone to create a hell zone and be like ‘this is Art. it’s magic and it’s dangerous and it’s real and it changes you forever.’ And then also be like ‘ALSO it’s Radioactive and Illegal’ because like right on both counts I guess.

the other fun trick with it is that it never ACTUALLY explains anything for real. Yeah that’s the Laundry Twister it’s just like that. This is The Wolf King. This is The Guy That Eats You. These are the Flesh Husks That Scream.

like fun tension between ‘rich people will pay to view other people’s pain’ and ‘art is for Thinking about and it changes you forever’ and ‘hey what if a creepy doll’

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread    

The Battle Drum

sequel to The Final Strife, a queer Ghanian/Arabian high fantasy world where people are divided by blood colour

the nightly hurricanes are getting more deadly, and Sylah travels to unknown lands to discover the truth and find help

meanwhile Anoor is trying to manage her new political position while framed for a murder she didn’t commit

[cultivating-wildflowers]

"I should have thought," said Fanny, after a pause of recollection and exertion, "that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man's not being approved, not being loved by some one of her sex, at least, let him be ever so generally agreeable. Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain, that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself."

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

[cicadagaze]

yayy finally back to the reread. pinestar's choice done 👍

[jennynext]

hi! can i ask what your url is from? (i have an idea what it might be referencing but i'm still curious)

hi sorry i totally missed this so no clue when you actually asked it!!

my url is a reference to the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, some of my favorite books-- Jenny is the protagonist Thursday's daughter, except that she doesn't actually exist. it's a whole thing.

great books, starting with The Eyre Affair-- i highly recommend them if you haven't read 'em!!

[talaraleya]

Hm. Worth the sleep deprivation but still... Hm. I need to think about it.

[separatist-apologist]

Okay your post about people hating female main characters made me think about this… but before I dive in please know that I am NOT trying to start drama, this is purely friendly debate, and please don’t feel the need to answer if you think it’s gonna start shit.

Now to my question.. what is it that you hate about Aelin, then?

I will say that I understand your hatred for Bryce. I think she and Aelin have a lot of similar characteristics, but I hate Bryce so much meanwhile Aelin is like the loml.

Reflecting on it, I think it’s because those characteristics don’t make sense for Bryce. Her being all secretive and not looping her friends in doesn’t make sense based on her backstory.

Meanwhile, while I understand that those parts of Aelin annoy people, I think they make so much sense for her. She was orphaned at a young age, groomed to become an assassin, finally let someone in to her plans (Sam) only to have him die immediately. Then she also trusted Nehemiah who also then died. I think it makes total sense that she would keep everything to herself moving forward out of fear that her loved ones could be hurt, or that she’ll let them down. Kind of like Rhys and the pregnancy plot. Was it the right choice? No probably not, but it makes sense based on what we know of that characters trauma.

Also I think a lot of people get annoyed that Aelin thinks she’s hot shit, but I’ll say personally I found it kind of nice to have a fmc who was confident and girly. I feel like so often they start out thinking they’re ugly and like no one could ever be into them. And idk I thought it was nice to see someone who knew she was hot. And also like a girl who can rough it but also enjoys the finer things in life and likes dressing up and shopping but like will also murder you, ya know?

Anyway there’s my defense of Aelin. Again, only sending this for funzies not to start fights or anything. You don’t have to agree with me! That’s the fun of fandom, we can all have different opinions and enjoy talking to eachother about this (side eyeing other people in your askbox). I come in peace!

Anyway ily hope you’re having a lovely weekend ❤️

So in the interest of this debate that you brought to me, I guess I'd start by asking where I ever said I hated Aelin and then turned around and lamented not getting a FMC who had all her same traits or stanning a MMC who had all her traits while lambasting her for all those same things? Because you can hate a FMC for not being the vibe- I never argued that people shouldn't hate women simply because they're women.

I kind of resent this ask under the assumption that I'd like Aelin if she was a man, which, again, was the whole crux of my argument assuming you're coming from the post that reads, "Its so funny to me when people will decide they don't like a character, commonly a female main character, then start giving their 'preferred' character all of that MC's traits & symbolism like babe...the call is coming from inside the house."

I would, I guess, invite you to point to where I've done that with Aelin? I don't like almost any of the TOG characters minus Chaol and occasionally Dorian pre whatever book has them on the boat. And I've certainly never assigned all Aelin's symbolism and traits to Chaol. I was really enjoying TOG until, what Queen of Shadows? When all the character development regressed backward to make room for a plot I am convinced was never the original intention of the books and cheapened everything that happened to Caelana, Dorian, and Chaol while living under Evil Dorian Sr whatever his name was.

Anyway, I'm happy to have a conversation about what I do/don't like about the entirety of the TOG series, because it's not just Aelin I don't like. I don't like the series past Queen of Storms (I think, whatever book that ends with spoiler Dorians dad dying). I've never finished it, I just skimmed the last book to see how it ends and I think reading all 800 pages of "and then this secret army we never heard about arrived!) I'd lose my mind.