#back when ya and booktok was good

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Turning YA book selection into purely romance and romantasy needs to be studied, as well as tiktokification of reading. Skipping paragraphs without dialogue, finding simple plots too difficult to understand, not even remotely analyzing the text, ignoring inconsistencies and blindly following trends and what author spoon-feeds the readers, etc. It essentially boils down to wanting to read just porn without saying you want to read porn. Nothing wrong with that, except instead of admitting it, people have turned to doubling down that these objectively bad books are the pinnacle of self-care, progress and being a girlboss.

I’ve seen booktokers on tiktok (before I deleted tiktok) say they “didn’t get” older booktok books like Cruel Prince, Six of Crows, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and other good books or had to DNF them because it was too “boring” and "too much politics, no smut”. People have been tiktokified or have never read a book that wasn't romance or YA to begin with, so please go read one. It's good for you to broaden your horizons. Besides, YA never has a lot of politics, it's YA. Not even when YA dystopian books were thriving did it have too much politics.

I'm not shaming anyone for wanting to read smut or smutty books but there is no need to turn YA into just a combination of tropes. YA is an age category, it doesn't need dumbing down or becoming more sexual. There are plenty of smut books in YA, new adult, adult, etc. There is no need to shit on and make good YA books unpopular. Writers are getting hurt because the publishing houses would rather publish same mediocre books over and over with slightly different plot and names than good ones. And teenagers in that age category need to have a variety of books to choose from. Instead, they have the same thing over and over, mediocre smut with problematic undertones. Y'all realize Wattpad exists for that and it's free, right?

[biromanticwritergal]

Thriftbooks currently has ALL of Julie Anne Peters' books. I bought three of them and wish listed a few more for later when I have more money.

[englishsub]

book rec by me

so you want to get back into reading books but have no idea where to start and disdain booktok (if you get me started on this however i will become an unskippable cutscene so that's for another day). understandable. there is so much out there and it is all so overwhelming and you don't even know what you like now that you've been a decade out of the game. again, understandable. it does not have to be scary. i will help you. below i have created some categories that can get you started.

i want to read Literature

literary fiction, with crossover from historical fiction and magical realism

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by melissa fu

THE VASTER WILDS by lauren groff

THE FAMILY CHAO by lan samantha chang

OUTER DARK by cormac mccarthy

SEVERANCE by ling ma

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by ryka aoki

IDENTITTI by mithu m. sanyal

PIRANESI by susanna clarke

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that won't break my brain

sci-fi and fantasy that is gentler on the brain cells. easier to grasp magic systems with multiple but not an overwhelming number of overlapping plotlines

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by heather fawcett

KINGS OF THE WYLD by nicholas eames

THE JASMINE THRONE by tasha suri

THE CITY OF BRASS by s.a. chakraborty

A RIVER ENCHANTED by rebecca ross

JUNIPER AND THORN by ava reid

BLACK SUN by rebecca roanhorse

THE FINAL STRIFE by saara el-arifi

THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that forces me to lock the fuck in

i would not recommend picking these up as your first foray back into books after many years of not reading recreationally, but i'm not your mom.

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jimenez

JADE CITY by fonda lee

THE FIFTH SEASON by n.k. jemisin

THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by evan winter

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by arkady martine

GIDEON THE NINTH by tamsyn muir

THE ART OF PROPHECY by wesley chu

THE GRACE OF KINGS by ken liu

horrify me!

there is far more to the horror literary canon than stephen king and dean koontz, i promise. consider looking up warnings for these.

TENDER IS THE FLESH by agustina bazterrica

THE RUINS by scott smith

CONFESSIONS by kanae minato

EPISODE THIRTEEN by craig dilouie

REPRIEVE by james han mattson

MARY by nat cassidy

DEAD SILENCE by s.a. barnes

AUDITION by ryu murakami

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by cassandra khaw

don't care, i want romance

some of these feature crossover genres, like fantasy and horror.

VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by isabel cañas

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by sue lynn tan

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by tia williams

HAPPY PLACE by emily henry

ONE DARK WINDOW by rachel gillig

i want QUEER romance

again, a mix of historical, fantasy, and contemporary crossover genres.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by cat sebastian

IN MEMORIAM by alice winn

MOST ARDENTLY by gabe cole novoa

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE by foz meadows

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by freya marske

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by justinian huang

SPELL BOUND by f.t. lukens

SORRY, BRO by taleen voskuni

ONE LAST STOP by casey mcquiston

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE by ashley herring blake

i haven't felt anything since i read percy jackson/the hunger games in middle school/high school

adventure is still out there.

SCYTHE by neil shusterman

WE HUNT THE FLAME by hafsah faizal

SIX OF CROWS by leigh bardugo

GEARBREAKERS by zoe hana mikuta

i'll read anything that's not straight or white

many books in the above categories fit this, but here's even more, across a variety of genres.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by malinda lo

BABEL by r.f. kuang

WHEN THE RECKONING COMES by latanya mcqueen

THE UNBROKEN by c.l. clark

IF YOU'LL HAVE ME (graphic novel) by eunnie

LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE by sher lee

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by shelley parker-chan

"all ya books suck"

like any other genre or book age group, there are duds and there are standouts. ya is not special in this regard. try some of these!

DIVINE RIVALS by rebecca ross

STRIKE THE ZITHER by joan he

THE RED PALACE by june hur

A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid

EMPIRE OF SAND by tasha suri

LEGENDBORN by tracy deonn

i check out and read a lot of these books for free via my local library by using the libby app (you can even add your friends' library cards to gain access to libraries in places you don't live). when i'm feeling like reading via audiobook, i use libro fm!

look, no one HAS TO read diversely. no one is going to be reverse fahrenheit 451'd and locked in a room with no fanfic and only books and not let out until they work their way through the entire literary canon. but reading, and reading widely, and reading diversely, is what teaches people to form their own opinions and question the things they are told. it's why they hang up stuff like "READ READ READ!!" in grade school classrooms.

we live under systems that increasingly benefit from going unquestioned. no, of course reading ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by robin hobb is not going to dismantle these systems tomorrow, nor probably even in our lifetimes. but doing it will help set up a world capable of doing it in the future. and until further notice, we are all part of this wretched world. might as well read a good story while we're here.

anyway, i'm reading THE WEST PASSAGE by jared pechaček and the new cmq book this week.

[dootznbootz]

Can i be honest. I don't get it when people try to use Antigone as a feminist icon or something, or that "She literally died because she didn't listen to man! That's just like us!" Because it's not and we're not living in the 16th century.

And these people are acting like Creon wouldn't have killed her if he was a man. Or that Creon wouldn't have killed her if he was a woman. Like guys, I'm sorry but "Girlboss" feminism is soo annoying.

I saw a post where it's like "Greek mythology male characters: 'He seems chill... Oh he's being a douche to women. Female Greek mythology characters: 'She seem cool... Oh she's getting revenge on the men that wronged her. She's so cool!!"

And in the tags they were hating on Ody for killing the slave girl and calling Medea an icon. Even though Medea killed her two young children just because she was salty at Jason... double standards at their finest, people

Real.

Also people better be mad at Penelope as well if they're mad at Odysseus for the slave girls. She hated them just as much.

Wise Penelope heard his words and rebuked Melantho, saying: “You can be sure, you bold and brazen bitch, that I have seen your shameless acts. You’ll wipe away the stain with your own head. You clearly know full well, because you heard me say it—I’m planning to ask this stranger in my halls some questions about my husband, since I feel such grief.”

(Book 19, Johnston)

People just literally turn a blind eye when the woman also does violence against other women. (Same with Clytemnestra. like sure, she killed Agamemnon but she also screwed up her kids. (one a girl so a lot of these "girlboss" types ideals are contradictory))

And it's really really tough enjoying Medea only to see people "girlboss" her. I love the play. It made me feel so many things but NONE of them were GOOD feelings.

Old meme from a post I made a while back but it sums up my feelings lol.

I think it weirdly comes from this awful wave of "I hate children. Horrible beings. Hope they suffer. etc.etc." bullshit and the girlboss wave :'(

Also um, yeah, Creon would've killed ANYONE who would have buried Polyneices. I've always seen Antigone more as a story of honoring family and a family's love for one another, not so much of a "feminist story". As Creon is like, the opposite of Antigone in how he does not wish to honor his family no matter what and will even have family killed for honoring family.

I weirdly think there's this phenomenon of people seeing stories/myths that simply have women in them, especially if they are "center stage" and then decide that they're feminist regardless of the context.

Like I guess you could say that these stories simply having complex and driven women is feminist (I mean...moreso than most booktok/modern YA novels ;~; where many female leads are very...bland imo) which is very sad that feminism is just the bare minimum of "Hey a woman is a person who is complex."

But it's also like, these women and their meaningful and HUMAN stories are LOST because they're just painted as "girlboss".

I think Antigone would be more like "I mean...I was just trying to bury my brother because I care about him and didn't want to see him left to rot. I would have done it no matter WHAT told me not to." and less about "YASSSS queen SLAY!" shit.

[riddles-n-games]

So I've finally read through the excerpt of the six chapters of That Night in Prague. I love the character art at the start and good on to whoever guessed Pain at the Right Gun is an anagram. Now, my initial thoughts are that the set up is a great start to this scavenger hunt around Prague and Jameson and Avery are being the competitive couple they always are. However, that being said, the romance is faltering. Yes, there is clearly a show of hidden romantic Jamie and helpless romantic Avery from before but I think JLB has forgotten how to write romance between them.

She is definitely changing certain things and I wonder if that is because she herself or her publishing house is pushing her to cater to booktok trends or something even though her og trilogy already is a household name in YA mystery. As I said earlier, the romance isn't romancing. I know Avery and Jameson are two years now into their relationship but Avery sounds not quite herself. She sounds like Jameson did in TBH but also more different at the same time. I feel like JLB forgot how she wrote her own character in TFG just two years earlier and it doesn't coincide with this one now. She is still 18 here and Jameson 19. I understand the physical aspects of their relationship regarding touch and kissing but this is where the disconnect happens for me regarding how she wrote them just two years ago versus now.

The innuendos are frankly getting annoying in my opinion and it feels so forced. Like, sorry, it translates awkwardly after the way the first books were written and if JLB really wanted to experiment with this, it could have been in another series or book. Not changing the style after being already six books into this world which also makes me wonder why she's now throwing this into so many POVs, it makes it hard to distinguish the character voice. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a level of maturity but frankly, given the timeline, this sounds like a much older Avery, not the same 18 year old we are going back to.

When I remember what we were told regarding this book, "There is nothing frivolous about the way a Hawthorne man loves." I immediately thought of the loyal, vulnerable Jameson that came with his heart on his sleeve in THL, giving Avery the chance to choose who she wants to be with. I remember the way in her vulnerable moment when she wanted to be left alone after the discovery of her mother's postcards having hidden letters, he was the first to push aside the need for new answers. I'm not saying there weren't some moments like these already present but that's what I want to see.

I want flirty Jameson and Avery but I do not care for what I see currently. There doesn't seem like a proper bridge to that gap in their relationship which is saying something because the transition between THL and TFG regarding their romance was better than a gap that was smaller than that from TFG to now, just some months prior to the events of TBH. Call me a Debbie Downer, but since TBH, I've seen my expectations for proper integration of something new while respecting the old not being met as I thought.

Of course, as always, this is simply my opinion and if you agree, great. If you don't, well that's fine, too.

[full-on-sam]

I have been off tumblr for a while but popping back in for a second because I have angry Toughts about Books, especially booktok.

I am so tired. When I was a child and a teenager i used to read everyday multiple times a day, i found joy and escapism in literature. Now teens have... this? Really? It makes me fucking sad. I am sure there are also many new good books out there for teens and young adults, but chance is that the people they are aimed to haven't even seen them or don't know they exist. You go into a library or a bookstore and the first thing you see is a booktok shelf. You may not even go into a library anymore because what is glamorized today is how many books you buy each month or each week. This are the books that are marketed, that are talked about. If I wanted to read some YA that is different i have to just reread old books which sure, it can be great but why can I not have any other option?

My sister has recently entered the -teens years. She doesn't read much but honestly? I cannot even fault her. If she was interested to the romance genre what should I tell her to read? This shit? Teach her abuse from an extremely young age because she is guilty of wanting to read? Honestly I feel like there aren't even books for teenagers that are actually for them. All of this YA genre is not for young adults it's for adults. Full stop.

(This also warrants a digression on how wide the ya age ange is. Google says 12 to 30, like excuse me? But my point still stands).

That's it. I hate the new book trends. I hate how to market something you have to boil it to insipid tropes, to a 20 seconds video where you slap a bunch of Pinterest images and some buzzwords. Where all the books are badly done version of themselves. As an author it makes me cry. They have so much potential and it is all wasted like this.

And that is also to say that if you do not agree with any of this, think booktok books are cool, you like authors such as SJM or Colleen Hoovers... get off my blog. Unsubscribe. This is not a space i want people like that in, thank you.

[libraryspectre]

This has been rolling around in my head awhile and i'm not sure how to articulate it but I'm just gonna try

It's good to always be learning and exposing yourself to new ideas. It's good to challenge yourself intellectually and develop your critical thinking. It's good to educate yourself and listen to people who's perspectives need to be heard. But you are under no obligation to do any of that by reading books.

Which I want to emphasize because I see a lot of push-back against anti-intellectualism in the form of telling people to read. And I get that reading is good and special and important! I love reading, this is a book blog. But if I'm being honest, I don't generally read (books) to educate myself. I read mostly for pleasure. I like to challenge myself intellectually through reading, but when I want to learn about an important topic, I tend to look for articles and podcasts.

And I'm sure there are people out there who like to challenge themselves intellectually, but not through reading. And that's fine! You can study theme and message and symbolism just as well through other media, like film or visual art. Some of those people may prefer to then learn about important topics in book form. Or not, that's also fine.

I just don't think anyone is morally obligated to engage with any particular medium. I've read a lot of important books, but there are a lot of similarly important movies I haven't seen. I don't necessarily think that's more valuable than someone who has the opposite experience.

I see people, for example, condescendingly telling others they should read more than YA or erotica or romance or whatever. The implication here is that 1) these are lesser art 2) these will not challenge you in ways that are important. The first point is false and the second I also disagree with somewhat - the text itself may not be challenging, but you can engage academically with ANYTHING if you choose to, and gain valuable insight. That's kind of a digression, though. Anyway, I often see the attitude that enjoying "light" and "unchallenging" books is fine as long as you're also reading more challenging stuff, but I don't really agree with that either. You could totally read nothing but fun, light books that you don't really turn on the critical thinking for, and still spend a lot of time challenging yourself intellectually with visual art or music. You can educate yourself on lots of topics through documentaries and journalism.

I'm not saying anti-intellectualism isn't a problem. And I know the booktok people we like to make fun of that skip long paragraphs aren't all making an effort to find intellectual stimulation elsewhere. But I want us to remember that the problem here isn't when people aren't reading significant, challenging books - it's when people aren't bothering to learn or challenge themselves at all.

[foxglovepng]

Random Headcannons 3 🌼🥀

Requested: naw

Characters: Scarabia + Pomefiore

A/N: I'm getting back into the writing mood yay I'll probably take requests in the future because I am slowly getting over writer's block. I looked up a word in Arabic and if the word is incorrectly translated incorrectly feel free to correct me.

If you liked reblogs and likes are appreciative <3

Kalim

Knock knock who's there? Autism br br br where the hoes at? not here

I love my Autistic headcanon for Kalim. I also saw a headcanon he has ADHD too. (I forgot the word for ADHD and Autism combined help)

When he's unmedicated Jamil is that one meme of Shinji his stress levels are high. He's practically lived with Kalim so he knows he can get hyper although he pushes through it being used to it.

I headcanon Kalim has sensory issues that mainly have to do with touch. (Mine are sound and taste :skull:)

Since he likes parties and is extremely sociable I feel like sometimes he can get overwhelmed he chills in his sensory swing. I also feel like since he plays the drums he does have backup headphones on hand in case it's too loud.

Jamil tends to calm him down with essential oils (Don't ask me what kind he likes I only know Rosemary, and Cherry blossom)

Jamil

Jamil drop the hair routine or I'll break your ankles Sangwoo style so you can't dance anymore. I will even report your music-listening account so you are no longer allowed to play hip hop DROP THE ROUTINE RN JAMIL

This is my no 2 pookie bear I love him sm ANYWAYS

I feel like in his alone time Jamil has his own hobbies he hides from Kalim and will go above and beyond just to have them to himself. One of those I feel like is reading romance books (Not the feral ones booktok gooners read) romance is one of the genres he reads I feel like he also reads fantasy. (He has read Pride and Prejudice)

He'd probably also go to art conventions on his spare time. He has a sketchbook and draws on occasion (I think he draws similar to Hyunjin's style)

Him and Kalim speak Arabic and English although I feel like when Jamil wants to cuss someone out or insult someone he will bring the Arabic out.

*Ace messes up a play*

Ace: so um great play

Jamil: اهبل (Google says this means stupid/idiot)

Ace: HUH?

Vil

*Throws my genderqueer headcannon at you Eminem style*

Gender queer Icon Vil.

If I am correct he is referred to as Queen by Rook?? so I believe Vil doesn't really care for pronouns and just simply exists. So Vil would use any pronouns interchangeably.

Also random headcannon but Vil's father is like..famous right? So I feel like he gets insulted and called a Nepo baby.

Peep Epel and Vil get into a fight and Epel calls him a Nepo baby. Oh all hell is breaking loose.

(I also headcannon he'd make an appearance in Eurovision)

Rook

I need Frenchie to become a slur so I can shout FRENCHIE at Rook 24/7

This man either has a really good memory or a diary in which he keeps info of students. (Their height, weight, UM, etc) its freaky ngl. AND NOT A GOOD FREAKY WAY.

I saw some art of him and Floyd in the bathroom and he was peeking over the urinal. BRO KEEP YA EYES ON YA JUNK.

I can imagine certain NRC students have a group chat dedicated to slandering Rook.

He probably knows about it :Skull:

Epel

Guys this my son <3

I am a firm believer he is an Amish hater.

"I hate the way you talk the way you walk" ahh beat.

From a farmer's perspective I don't think he's 100% vegan, but if you bribe him with bbq he will start foaming at the mouth.

Bro probably listens to Dixon Dallas good looking-

He's also a Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood fan.

I feel like with people he's close with especially the first years he lets his country accent loose and it will get even looser if someone (or Yuu) has a country accent as well. The rest of the first years will be like "They are speaking in tongues"

[knewknow]

My Year Of Rest And Relaxation

"Once again a phenomenally written novel about a main character with a twisted sense of self. Love, love, loved"

I think Ottessa Moshfegh is undoubtedly a literary genius. Her novels are like a breath of fresh air—so to speak, because I doubt any of her characters would actually smell good. This is the second novel of hers that I’ve picked up, and now I fully intend to read them all. Given her prominence in BookTok, Bookblr, and Bookstagram circles, I initially feared she might fall into the same category as Colleen Hoover or Sarah J. Maas—authors whose work leans into YA-coded romance with "spicy" elements designed for young women rediscovering reading for the first time since the Hunger Games craze. Yet, Moshfegh’s prose carries real heft. She isn’t interested in easy escapism; instead, she forces her readers into deeply uncomfortable headspaces—ones that, hopefully, no truly sane person could relate to firsthand.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation follows an unnamed narrator as she descends into experimental drug addiction, attempting to "turn her brain off and back on again." What begins as a desire to escape from the world and its stressors gradually spirals into paranoia, loneliness, and narcissism.

I found myself both liking and hating the protagonist. Moshfegh does an excellent job of humanizing someone dealing with trauma and depression, capturing how emotional numbness can turn a person into a shell of who they once were. At the same time, she highlights the privilege and frivolity that define the character’s life, even as she essentially hibernates for a year.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel was the protagonist’s relationship with Reva. They are like a warped, dysfunctional version of yin and yang—codependent, messy, and deeply flawed, yet bound together nonetheless. Watching the protagonist slowly come to realize that she truly loved her friend added a layer of humility to her character. A scene that stood out to me in particular was the description of Reva’s apartment—it revealed how someone can still show up for a person they love, even when they are neglecting themselves.

Moshfegh has a rare talent for exposing the ugliest parts of human nature with sharp wit and honesty. My Year of Rest and Relaxation isn’t a feel-good novel, nor does it offer a clean-cut redemption arc. But that’s precisely what makes it so compelling. It lingers with you, making you question what it truly means to escape, to heal, and to be alive.

[risingshards]

Blegh okay I thought about it and after rewatching some eps and reading this again, I kinda like my rambling thoughts on acolyte ep 6 so here goes

Preface: I'm a very very VERY easy to please sw fan and I don't like ragging on shows or movies or whatever this way much these days if I can avoid it with how internet fandom is, like especially with this show with all the hatred and vitriol it's gotten from the incels.

And I've been enjoying the show a ton so far, and ep 6 wasn't bad...just. blech. I have critiques.

TLDR: I was excited for a big thriller mystery in the High Republic era told with a queer lens, and instead I feel like I'm getting a Goodreads review of a scrubbed Reylo fic listing the tropes.

spoilers and me bitching after cut lol

I'm just like why is it reylo now????????

I figured with the mentor swap we'd be heading to Osha turning to the dark side and maybe Mae to the light, but the way it's being put out there feels lacking. Osha is turning so quickly that it felt like i was reading some enemies to lovers romantasy for my book club (at least it hasn't been as awful as the colonizer romance they had me read but that is a LOW bar to clear....). Like a lot of the romantasy books I've read, it feels like setup and taking time to build meaningful connections between characters is ignored for like "oh wow he took his shirt off...he's so jacked....what was i talking about again..." I saw a video with the audio descriptions for the ep and it literally sounded like a romantasy audiobook.

And to note: if you love the enemies to lovers romantasy booktok books, like more power to ya! For me it's like when you stare at one of those magic pictures and you can't get your eyes to cross to see the picture, like "I do NOT understand what I'm supposed to see here."

Str8 enemies to lovers just kind of blech me out, where the evil one commits various atrocities that make me want to see them get what's coming to them, and then minutes later the good one is like "whoa he's hot maybe he's not so bad..."

Osha being so Jedi-like in personality only to immediately falter at a hot naked dude just feels gross. Like can't we have any other reasons for women in Star Wars to get tempted to the dark side than a shirtless man gaslighting them? Probably unsurprisingly but I REALLY did not like Reylo (I was in a very bad relationship and I kinda put the headcanon onto TLJ about it being an escape from an abuser because it came out right after I got away from that, so that going any other way did not vibe right with me) so maybe it's just residual feelings from that.

Again more power to you if this is your thing I'm not coming at anyone for enjoying it!

I think another thing that's making me uncomfortable is seeing interviews with Hedlund about Qimir about his desire for freedom against those who want him gone being relatable in a queer sense, and like I get that, I feel that. But if that's the character with the metaphorical queer experience why are we doing mega straight reylo 2 with him? And that guy brutally kills one of the queer girls and calls her it immediately after??? It doesn't help that the show started off feeling really queer, and now like 80% of the queer characters are dead and we're doing reylo 2. The "oh fuck yeah REYLOOOO" interviews I've read this week are NOT reassuring in this regard.

There's just something my pea brain doesn't get when it comes to stories with more shades of gray in series that are typically pretty black and white with morality. When a character crosses that threshold so far into villainy, I want to see them face some blow back for it, not immediately start going all "uwu they're torn and hurt aren't they?" about it. In Star Wars generally speaking I want the antagonist to BE the antagonist, not get thrown into this space between protagonist and antagonist that just has me all crossed up. I know there are plenty of redemptions in Star Wars for the villains, but I like it better when it's more mythical about the hardships of trying to save a villain's soul like Luke and Vader than "the lightsaber represents kylo's dick" reylo stuff.

I get that like the morality is probably supposed to be muddled in this show, and we're not supposed to feel good about Osha and Qimir getting closer smash cutting to Jecki's fresh corpse, but again, the execution feels messy when you have the gleeful "OH YEAH WE'RE DOING ENEMIES TO LOVERS BABY REYLO SLAYYYYYYY" interviews. Again I'm a VERY easy to please sw fan, and I've been really enjoying seeing the High Republic era in live action, seeing cortosis and wild lightsaber duels, all the expanded universe pulls, it feels really fresh in that regard. And all the performances are stellar, and having such a diverse cast is incredible.

If we had more than thirty minutes and more than 8 episodes to build to all this it'd feel a lot better. The character development feels like it's on roller coaster speed, but with Knife to Throat and other tropey scenes also seen in a bajillion enemies to lovers romance books nowadays thrown our way to fill the gaps. These scripts feel like they needed an editor to really go over the scene to scene motivations and logic and character work and dialogue, instead of mashing booktok trope buttons, which is also how I feel about most romantasy books I read...

Counterpoint to myself is that Star Wars is built on tropes and archetypes so this is like taking some tropes and archetypes of the current day's fiction and playing with them.

But idk.

Like am I really supposed to care about any of what I'm seeing or is it just gonna be booktok and fanfic tropes thrown my way now to a bunch of characters with muddled personalities and motivations clashing? We don't necessarily need someone to root for, and I'm probably being unfair to a lot of this, but after how thrilling Ep 5 felt, 6 has me wondering what the bigger picture of this show is, because it went from feeling like a fascinating if a bit messy story to one that might just be "Look here's enemies to lovers, knife to throat, corruption, oh and here's one bed!" without as much under the surface of that character and plot wise as I would have hoped.

[humanitysstrongestsoldier1]

About Me

Hi ppl! So I decided to make an about me page so ppl can get an idea of what fandoms i'm in and what questions they can ask me and etc. I'm getting more active on tumblr because AO3 has been kinda dead recently in the fandoms i'm active in so it's good to be back here and staying. (she/her)

🇺🇸 (ethnically 🇮🇳)

Why I Chose My Names/Meanings Behind Them:

I chose the username humanitysstrongestsoldier1 because of Levi from AOT; not just for his strength, but for his rage, his refusal to break even when the world burns. I relate to that. I crave strength, of body and will. The kind of strength that doesn’t beg for mercy, that doesn’t bend to gods or fate.

The Bane of God stems from my constant heretical and iconoclastic mindset. I’ve always questioned divinity, challenged dogma, and pushed against imposed beliefs. It reflects my inner rebellion, the desire to unmake gods and re-mold truths.

As for my pen name—Simurgh—that’s how I wish to be addressed. The Simurgh is a mythical creature from Persian folklore, wise and ancient, often seen as a symbol of collective consciousness and realisation. I chose it from one of my favourite works by Attar of Nishapur, The Conference of the Birds. In the story, the birds of the world—each representing a different human flaw or virtue—gather and decide they need a king. They embark on a journey to find the legendary Simurgh, crossing seven perilous valleys: Quest, Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unity, Bewilderment, and finally, Annihilation. Many fall behind. Only thirty birds reach the end. But when they arrive, they find no external ruler waiting for them. Instead, they see themselves reflected—scarred, weathered, transformed. They are the Simurgh. The name itself is a play on words in Persian—‘si’ meaning thirty, and ‘murgh’ meaning birds. It’s a powerful metaphor: the divine, the answer, the strength they were searching for was within them all along. That idea resonates deeply with me—of searching, suffering, and ultimately discovering that the power we seek lies in self-awareness, in introspection. The Simurgh isn’t just a creature. It’s a mirror into yourself...

☀︎☀︎☀���

House: Slytherin 🐍

Cabin: Zeus ⚡️

Patronus: Raven/Dragon 🐦‍⬛ 🐉

Wand: Black Walnut Wood, Dragon Heartstring Core, 13”, Unyielding Flexibility 🪄

Faction: Erudite 👁️

District: 1 💎

Noble House: Targaryen/Martell 🐉 ☀️

Court: Autumn/Night 🍁 🌌

Sign: Sagittarius ♐︎

♦︎♦︎♦︎

MBTI: INTP

Enneagram: 5w4 “The Iconoclast”

Tritype: 548

Temperament: Choleric-Melancholic or Melancholic-Phlegmatic (honestly idk)

Socionics: ILI-INTp

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Instinctual Variant: Sp/Sx

Global Five: RCOEI or RCUEI (idk)

Attitudinal Psyche: LVEF or LVFE (idk)

⚙︎⚙︎⚙︎

Fandoms:

EVERY SINGLE ANIME FANDOM OUT THERE!! My list is over 200 animes, i promise ik what you are talking about.

Games/Childhood: Assassin's Creed, COD, DBH, RDR, TLOU, TGOS, Minecraft, FNAF, Resident Evil, Creepypasta, Mandela Catalogue, gaming youtubers, classic genZ childhood

GOT, LOTR, Narnia, Dune every major movie adaptation from books

Books: YA, NA, Adult (read almost everything on booktok, part of booktok before it was weird btw) classical literature, philosophy, sci-fi, high fantasy, romance, political allegories

Marvel & DC, Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, ATLA etc. movies and tv shows (srsly i'm everywhere bro)

Absolute STEM nerd; astrophysics, particle, theoretical, classical, quantum, engineering, coding, algebra, biology, chemistry, medical, psychology GIVE IT ALL TO ME 😫💪🏽

KPOP MULTISTAN! (but my ults are BTS (since 2017) & ATEEZ (since 2018), i have been supporting GOT7, EXO, MonstaX, NCT, Stray Kids, SVT as well but they just aren't my ults)

ARSENAL GIRL! NORTH LONDON FOREVERRR ❤️🤍

that's mostly it lol i just spammed my nerdiness here welp, that was fun....

[itmeblog]

My obsession with "clean" books: an explanation

My obsession with books that self-ID as clean has to do with the fact that I think there's some language fuckery going on right now. And I mostly started to suspect this when I started clicking through like the accounts of books that do this because like

THIS is sorta weird. A sizeable part of the feed's like this. And in the two videos I don't circle it's literally just the screen shot, when you click the first thing you're greeted with is "Clean Fantasy" AND THERE ARE A LOT OF ACCOUNTS LIKE THIS. (At least a lot of accounts in the corner of Youtube I've been thrust into)

But in most literature clean is defined as

Clean reads are stories without graphic violence, explicit sexuality, or strong profanity. They may or may not also have religious content.

But like he instantly compares it to PERCY GODDAMN JACKSON. PERCY JACKSON!!

PERCY WHO IN LIKE THE FIRST 2 CHAPTERS STABS A WOMAN IN THE HEART! (And Harry Potter which also violent! Avatar the Last Airbender also violent! Straight up murder on screen!! Zuko hitting Aang with that lightening bolt is a core memory of my childhood)

So I started reading reviews and it's not just this guy, but several of the books that try to self-categorize like this contain a lot of violence varying from explicit to extremely graphic and I'm sitting here like...

Why are these authors using this category specifically? Why are they pushing so hard to indicate that a YA book (the ones I've come across tend to be YA) doesn't have sex? And like a considerable portion is pushing it to the point of absurdity?? Uh, for example, I've come across something that roughly went like this:

Author: Do you want to read my YA fantasy about how a boy and his autistic brother survive the apocalypse together? (I do not suggest this book from the reviews it's sorta giving Autism Speaks vibes) BookTok Reader: Does it have spice (sex scenes)? Author: Well , no but- BookTok Reader: Then I'm not interested!

And like in what fucking world would someone hear about a book about 2 brothers and immediately ask if there's a sex scene?? LIKE BETWEEN WHO?? THE BROTHERS???

So not only are they pushing that their books have no smut, but they're doing it in increasingly like straw man heavy ways?? So obviously, I've become obsessed.

That's when I started wondering if there was something else going on. Why make a straw man to fit a category where you will almost primarily pride yourself on defining your book on what it doesn't offer while sorta simultaneously disparaging books that do have smut.

Like I've followed other authors! I see how they sell books! Iron Widow's author right now is real obsessed with pegging but that's not all their feed is about, they also talk about the world, their inspirations, their successes, their process, their regrets, their experience in the industry, they make jokes and do behind the scenes things. Dainsdreth's Assassin's author follows something similar (moderately devout) but she's more interested in talking about world building and tropes and research (and very occasionally faith)!

But then I went further and started reading more reviews, I realized while not all of these authors fall into the category a Good Strong Portion of them are Christian! Christian authors!! Writing moderately violent fantasy and labeling them as clean!

So now my hypothesis is that this is a new sort of identifier! It's a way to signal to others in the know that you are indeed a good reputable Christian Author and perhaps your piece is somehow related to God and his teachings in a fantasy setting! BUT what's happening is that a lot of people are also tired of smut violence.

For a variety of reasons! Parents are wary, there's been a lot of push back against "deviant" behaviors in terms of LGBTQ+ stuff, and politically aware books. A lot of those BookTok books are straight up bad (looking at you 4th wing and Chasing Adeline). There's a purity culture wave going through America right now!

So what might be happening is that people (mostly YA readers but also some parents) looking for age appropriate books that are clean in the traditional way or parents trying to coax their kids to read, are stumbling on this specific definition of clean on BookTok and BookTube and are knowingly/unknowingly exposing themselves/or their children to radicalized christian/purity culture talking points! And honestly? This can happen to anyone trying to find "clean/sex-free" books if the terminology has been co-opted! It could happen to adults who favor romance!

And there's nothing specifically anything wrong with this (I mean... there's the whole tithe thing but I sorta forgot about that... sooo, like just know if you buy a book by like Brandon Sanderson a portion of his proceeds will likely go to the Mormon church because he is a full fledged member and it's sort of a requirement) if you are aware of what you're reading and know how to interact with it. I just know that at YA age I didn't and I wasn't and boy oh boy was I reading a lot of Mormon fantasy books and losing a fucking battle with purity culture like you wouldn't believe. Like I have receipts in my own fantasy writing and it is baaaaaddd.

(Disclaimer: Sometimes someone who loves the church just writes a book, okay? Not all authors who are aligned with Christianity are trying to do something, but if they're using straw man arguments and shit to prove a point about some sort of perceived purity or seem a little too obsessed with the fact that their underage characters aren't banging sloppy on the page, you might want to think about which brand of Christianity they're preaching)

[zmediaoutlet]

I would love to hear you elaborate re: queer publishing, if you have the time! (Feel free to answer this privately to avoid discourse lol)

lol, I think we'll be good on the discourse -- and it's not about queer publishing, it's about how godawful "queer recs" are. (This is re: that poll from uh last night?)

A bunch of people are already saying basically my sentiment on the whole thing in tags, but like -- "queer" means absolutely nothing, as a recommendation, except that in giving that as the only recommendation the implication is a) that being "queer" is the only thing needed to recommend the text, and b) that the recommender themself has no taste. But this is part of the general YA-style booktokification of how people talk about texts in general, which is something very much to lament. Texts are not (should not be) checklists to flick down because all that's required is the presence of something, not how it's done. "Queer" means dickall; what actual themes are explored, how are they explored, what is the vibe and mood of the text with the implications that has on intended audience, etc etc etc? A recommendation being a bulleted list of tropes is a strong indication to me that the thing itself isn't really delivering much beyond presence of those tropes. Like an ostensible kinkfic that only has the presence of e.g. spanking, but zero exploration of what the spanking actually means for the characters. It's nothing. It's like a cow's opinion; it's moo.

To give an example of some of the worst fucking recs for books I've ever seen, a screencap from this shitty site that was so eager to list "queer" sci-fi and fantasy:

Yes. I need a significant fucking amount more than that. Jesus christ. But if you can rely on an obedient-enough number of people to buy it truly based on that thinnnnnn level of recommendation then -- hey, grift complete. I'm sure someone will give it a rave review on booktok.

Anyway: that's why the answer to Is the recommendation “it’s queer!” compelling to you when it comes to media?, for me, is "absolutely fucking not." If there were something real to recommend it, you would've mentioned it. If all you got is Gay then I'm going back to my adult books, lol.

[t0xic-r0ses]

January Finished List

As it is the last day of January I get to post my first monthly wrapped!

In January I read a total of 21 books. I had 2 DNF. 9 were audiobooks and the rest were ebooks through either libby or kindle unlimited

Here is my rapid short reviews of each book I read this month:

Foe by Iain Reid: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you like black mirror and want something short but engaging; read this.

Insatiable by Leigh Rivers: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 I went into this strictly for the smut and it delivered plot, smut, and characters I fell in love with??

DNF Voracious by Leigh Rivers at 20%: I loved these characters but I could not take the abuse porn it turned into. Feels like the plot became how badly can we fuck up our MC's with the same repetitive abuse.

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ this was an intense lit fic about family and the consequences of choices made, for better or for worse. Does have some slow parts but still a great read.

Deaths Obsession by Avina St. Graves: ⭐️⭐️.5 novella about fucking the grim reaper. Would I throw it back for him? Yes. Was this a good book? Debatable. Almost nothing made sense.

A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is literally the first book but told from cas’ perspective. I loved the first book and I love cas so I loved this. However this was a cash grab and should not have been included in the series itself. (cas will always be book daddy number 1 idc idc)

The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another heavy lit fic with themes of racism, homophobia, and religious prejudice. This was so impactful and made me cry a lot.

Confessions by Kanae Minato: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 This book asks the question what if everyone at a middle school had mommy issues and a penchant for violence and revenge.

Skyshade by Alex Aster: ⭐️⭐️.5 I really thought this was a trilogy and it’s not but it is for me now. This book was boring and repetitive. (I think this was my last straw with this series)

For the Fans by Nyla K: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Step brothers make an onlyfans and I didn’t know I was going to be as invested in these boys as I was but man it was cheesy but worth it

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker: ⭐️.5 if your book requires a 20 page glossary to explain the world it’s not good world building. This world was not well fleshed out the writing was overly flowery and the MCs were both insufferable. (this was my last straw with booktok recs cause wtf)

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I still miss cardan and Jude. The best enemies to lovers imo.

The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I wanted to rate this lower because of how horribly gruesome it was but it was well written and compelling

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ this one felt like it had a lot of plot holes and was predictable. Even for YA read extra juvenile and gave more children’s book.

The Body Papers by Grace Talusan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I hesitate to rate anyone’s memoir less than 5 stars. It wasn’t for me I felt like we ended where we started but isn’t that life.

The Ritual by Shantel Tessier⭐️.75 the potential was there but that’s where it starts and stops. This was a bad soap opera and gave me the ick (I did continue the series cause I’m a glutton for punishment)

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister ⭐️⭐️.75 this was a fine psych thriller. Kind of felt like reading a criminal minds episode in both a bad and good way?

Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a beautiful end to a beautiful and heartbreaking story.

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ this is one that hits a little too close to home with the current political situation.

No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️This is a basics of IFS therapy. I think it is something everyone should read esp helping professions and witches.

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier ⭐️⭐️.75 Better than the first one but not by much. Still very soap opera-y and repetitive which made it drag.

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I missed Jude and Cardan so I loved coming back to this world. Fun little novella, wish it gave more to their relationship.

DNF The Sweetest Oblivion by Danielle Lori at 22% I don't even know what it was but both the MC's gave me the ick.

January was such a good reading month with some lovely books but I think my top three will be:

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent

A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout

So romantasy was the vibe. On to month 2 of 2025!

✨

[togaki-kun]

Any books/movies/tv shows you’ve read/watched recently that you would recommend?

Oh, let’s see! For books, I recently read Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu. It’s an action-packed YA book where one MC is a world-famous superstar and the other is a spy. BookTok will market it as an “enemies to lovers” romance, but the romance is a little more lean on this one, and it’s definitely not an “enemies” to lovers scenario—maybe more of begrudging coworkers to ??? lovers? 🤔 😂 Either way, I enjoyed it! It has a sequel, but I felt satisfied with just the first book, so you can read it as a standalone!

As for shows—I’ve been taking a dive into Fall 2024’s anime line up!

1. Let This Grieving Soul Rest (Crunchyroll)

This one hits a lot of Isekai beats without actually being Isekai. It’s about an MC who’s the leader of this insanely overpowered guild with his childhood friends—and the kicker is, everybody thinks he’s an OP dude himself, but the man is just barely surviving 😂 Often by buying these expensive-ass relics that will save his skin. Others around him tend to misconstrue his actions and think that he actually has some “grand plan” going on under the surface—but there are no thoughts in that man’s silly brain, just pure terror. It’s a fun watch!

2. Blue Box (Netflix)

A very sweet coming-of-age show! I read the manga a few years ago and fell in love with it, but sadly didn’t keep up with it. Now that it’s been adapted into an anime by Studio Wit though, I find myself re-enjoying all the parts that made me love it in the first place! MC is a badminton player who has a crush on his senpai from the basketball team. When certain circumstances force her to live with his family to finish out the remainder of her high school years in Japan, the two begin to bond! This anime has a really refreshing take on romance and sports and goals in life—in that it’s more about self-improvement and friendships rather than trying to get the girl. (Though I don’t doubt that also happens later on lol.)

3. TsumaSho (Crunchyroll)

This one is… contentious among people who just give it a glance, to say the least lol. A guy who loses his wife to an accident a decade ago suddenly finds her reincarnated as an elementary schooler. Because the wife comes back in the body of an elementary school girl (and the dude is still very much in love with her and not over her death), this has squicked a lot of people. But it’s actually a story about grief and letting go. The couple have a grown daughter too, so it’s about the entire family being able to finally process what happened, getting that closure, and hopefully move on with their lives. I ended up bingeing the manga after the first few episodes of this show dropped—and I think it does a pretty good job at exploring grief through a fairly unique lens!

4. How I Attended an All-Guys’ Mixer (HiDive)

I’ve seen others describe this show as the “straight” yaoi—and they’re kinda right 😂 The whole premise is that this dude gets asked by a girl in his college class to a mixer, and when he shows up, with his friends in tow, they find all the girls in cross dress! And they’re HOT IKEMEN! Very amusing, very funny antics, very “so much questioning of sexuality but typically just from this one guy character who insists he’s straight (but prob isn’t).” If you want something fun to watch, then I definitely recommend this!!

That’s all I have for now! If you end up reading/watching any of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for the ask!

Edit: Correction! Blue Box is not animated by Wit Studio, it's by Telecom Animation Film (a sister studio of TMS Entertainment). Thank you, anon, for correcting me! I was watching an ep recently and saw Studio Wit in the credits so my mind just somehow associated that as their main studio.

[therubyreader]

My Review of What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

See a full list of my book reviews here

*Disclaimer: there will be spoilers later on in the review*

Review Word Count, non-spoiler: 779 Review Word Count Total: 1,408

BookTok has once again gotten me to read another book, which honestly, I’m a little upset it’s this easy to get me but we’re here now. One of my unofficial reading goals this year was to read more books by Latinx authors, since I’m Latina and it's disappointing how little of my “catalogue” is occupied by authors with my background, so now I’m here.  

What the River Knows takes us back to the 1880s in the height of European tourism to Egypt after the British takeover. Inez lives in Argentina, she’s the daughter of two Egyptologists who have mysteriously died while out in the desert prompting her to go to Egypt to try and solve the mystery of their deaths and unwittingly gets involved in the hunt for Cleopatra’s tomb alongside her uncle who’s hiding secrets of his own. Inez must tread carefully as she balances solving two mysteries without knowing who to trust while fighting her burgeoning feelings for her uncle’s assistant.  

I’m going to be honest with you all and say that this, the book was good, it wasn’t great, it was entertaining for sure, but I did feel the writing style was a bit lacking. Now this isn’t a dig at the author or anything, I picked up a YA book so honestly, I should’ve excepted YA style writing, which I wouldn’t normally be mad about it but the last fourth of the book was written so well that it made me question what was going on for the rest of it. The fact that there was great writing and potential there plus the cliffhanger ending (which if anyone wants to know my theories let me know) is what is going to get me to read the second book. I honestly have high hopes for the sequel so I will be very impatiently waiting for it to come out in November.  

I think my biggest complaint with this book is the love interest, Whit, and like there is nothing particularly wrong as a character, I just didn’t really like him, like I don’t hate him, but he was just there. This guy is the most basic love interest, he’s literally the same man as all other YA men: white, tall, brooding, flirts to mask his true feelings, has “touch her you die” energy, soft only for her, and is always smirking. And like, I’m not shaming you if you like when the love interest checks most/all those boxes but I’m begging authors to please write something else, I’m tired of this. Why does this man have to be over six feet tall? He literally at one point mentions how Inez doesn’t even reach his shoulder, and I don’t get why that was necessary when the average height for men in the UK at the time was about 5’6” (yes, I did Google this), there was no need for him to be abnormally tall, he could’ve been 5’10” and nothing would change. Maybe I’m too unnecessarily upset and annoyed about this but really tall male love interests with small and petite female main characters a personal pet peeve of mine. 

Another pet peeve I had was the whole “forgetting to switch between languages” thing that Inez was doing the whole book. Though I do get the fact that she primarily speaks Spanish so switching to speaking English regularly was a bit of a learning curve but her constantly going “gracias, I mean, thank you” made me want to rip my hair out. And I’m saying this as a Spanish/English bilingual, this doesn’t happen, more often than not I just forget a word entirely and I don’t forget to switch between languages because that’s not a thing!! It’s giving 2010s cringe, you all know the posts on here that I’m talking about, it made me angry and was honestly a thing that made me have to put the book down a couple of times and take a breath before I continued.  

My complaining aside, I do think this is a good read, it’s fairly easy to follow once you get over the repetitiveness of the first half of the book, once you get to the halfway point it really does start to become more than a basic YA book and you get wrapped up in the mystery of it all. I know I’m not doing a super good job of selling it but trust me, this is a fun read to pick up if you’re in between books and its plot is something that is very unlike anything else on the market right now. I give it a fun with lots of potential for greatness out of ten.  

Spoilers!! 

I honestly don’t know where to start with this, there’s just so much that I want to talk about. I'll just do a good old rapid fire: Whit is weird, he’s such an odd man, what do you mean you’re a lord, the fuck? I didn’t trust Inez’s mom from the beginning, she had weird vibes and so did Inez’s uncle, they’re both strange, the magic system they had going on was super cool and creative, I cannot wait to see how it expands in the second book.  

Something that has been bugging me this whole time, and I don’t know if I’m thinking about it too hard, but how was it that Inez and Elvira were told they looked like twins when it’s stated multiple times that Inez looked just like her mother, but Elvira is related to Inez through her father so they shouldn’t look anything alike. I get the whole bamboozle business with the dress and causing her to get kidnapped but like, Inez was going around telling strangers her name was Elvira so when Elvira eventually got to Egypt and introduced herself, she wouldn’t have known that Inez was using her name. Also, when Inez first got to the hotel and was talking to Mr. Burton shouldn’t he have been able to clock she’s her mother’s daughter based on the whole “they look the same” thing? I don’t know that part of the plot was strange, I feel like there were some glaring inconsistencies that if I thought about too hard wouldn’t add up, maybe it’s just me though. I do think that Elvira died unnecessarily, and it was quite evil of Inez’s mom to set her up like that.  

Something I did love, which I will say nice things now so I’m not being completely negative all the time, is how immersed I felt in the location. As I was reading, I did genuinely feel like I was in Cairo and exploring these ancient ruins with Inez, the way that the story was written shows how the author did her research. Every location was described so beautifully, which added to the ambience of the story on top of the couple of drawings thrown in of certain locations and objects just added another level of understanding to the book.  

I do want to take a moment and talk about how much I liked Inez as a character, though she does fit some stereotypes of female leads, she felt like a real person throughout the course of the book. Yes, she is stubborn, but she is stubborn to a fault, the way she was so determined to get on her uncle’s expedition to find out what happened to her parents ended up backfiring on her when she accidentally betrayed them by helping her mother steal artifacts. She knows about ancient Egyptian history but isn’t an expert so there are times when she has to have help from her uncle or Whit as to what is going on. She is such a real person that it really adds to the narrative and though there are times she may feel annoying or unlikeable you cannot help but sympathize with her as she juggles her grief with this new environment and new people.  

I honestly cannot wait for the second book to come out later this year, I have high hopes as to what is going to happen and how the story is going to end. Let me know if you want a full post on my thoughts on the whole Whit thing from the end, that was honestly such a good plot twist, and it has some historical accuracy if it is what I’m thinking it is. I do recommend it to everyone, diversify your reading friends.