#deaf girl rep

[fatallyaddictedtofiction]

perfect example of loving a ship i dont ship is samwena. it such a fucking good ship like there is so much potential and material to work with als i am a saileen shipper. the world is cruel

[darkwing-katy]

Okay, but imagine we got a season five of Evil. And then imagine this is an episode of it:

-Kristen and David are having a jolly good time in Rome. Ben misses them and is lowkey jealous of it all. Even though he’s making bank, he feels lonely and it’s because those two (and the Bouchard girls, of course) were such an integral part of his life, his joy. So he invites them to visit, but they seldom do because they’re so busy.

-something happens. Maybe Ben bonds with a coworker or something, and he finds out that the coworker is getting a cochlear implant (or has a deaf kid who’s getting one). This can be mentioned in an episode or two prior to this one so the surgery can already have taken place by now.

-CI person is struggling to adapt to the CI. Keeps hearing weird voices, things they shouldn’t be hearing. Doctors say this is normal, this is part of the process. The deaf person knows it isn’t normal but no one believes them. They get caught snapping at the voices by Ben, who asks them what’s up. The deaf character winds up explaining everything to Ben.

-Ben investigates because old habits die hard and it feels like he’s closer to his friends. Either he invites the two to visit and they actually accept, or they decide to spring in unannounced. Whatever the case, Ben explains what’s going on and that he cannot find an explanation for it.

-the trio works together. It’s awkward because they’re a bit out of sync with Ben. David and Kristen are still very much in sync, thank you very much, and Ben is more than a little bitter about it. But he’s missed them, so he pushes down his bitterness for the sake of old times.

-deaf person starts to hear more and more things through their CI, things that indicate they’re hearing demons chatting or sommat like that. But it’s nonstop and they keep having to take the CI off to get their silence back, which is making it harder to do their job and communicate with people (maybe they didn’t grow up using ASL so their family doesn’t use it; I dunno, but something something highlighting lack of accessibility and how people expect hearing aids/CIs to be magical fixes for deafness)

-something happens that escalates things. David gets a little desperate. He’s frustrated that things aren’t clicking like they used to, and maybe some of that darkness is still in him (maybe he’s spent previous episodes wondering about that, wondering if he’s getting more “evil”). So what can he do? Who is a demon expert he can talk to?

-he goes to the monastery. Sister Andrea tries to plead with him to not do it, but David, used to being a big bad Vatican dude and also wrestling with his darkness, ignores her and lets Leland out so they can talk. Leland is bound, naturally, and taunts David. David demands to know what the heck is up with this deaf individual. Leland claims he doesn’t know, that ever since his failure to murder Kristen that night, he’s been cut off from the rest of the 60. But he does let slip some helpful piece of information, and maybe he’s a bit intrigued that some random person can overhear what demons are saying.

-the episode ending is ambiguous as only Evil can be. The deaf person winds up not wearing their CI and taking ASL classes with their family (or maybe alone, I dunno). Was it actually demons? Or was it just the CI fucking up? Something something metaphor about D/deaf people not liking their CIs because it gives them hearing fatigue and makes weird noises and they prefer the silence, even if it makes life harder because they’re still in a hearing world.

-Kristen and David decide to stay a little longer because they missed Ben and they can see that he’s having a rough time on his own. Next episode has them still in the city.

-there can be a subplot somewhere about the girls being left in Rome. Lyla is much older and is capable of watching her sisters; plus her sisters are all older now, too. But for the last few episodes, Lexis has been noticing something going on with Timmy. Maybe he’s got sharp teeth. Maybe she sees a tail in his reflection. Maybe he reeeeeally likes raw meat. Something or lots of somethings, so she spends the episode trying to figure out wtf is going on with her little brother. Cue her noticing similarities between the two of them that make them a little different from the other Bouchard kids.

-an episode or two later, maybe more, they let Leland out for short periods of time. He’s been making himself semi-useful because he’s bored and bitter that the 60 have just…abandoned him. Not to mention that the 60 might come after him to replace him, since his successor would have to eat him to become a successor, and Leland has no intention of dying anytime soon. Also he’s still got that piece of David’s goodness in him and it’s giving him (unfortunate) moments of self-reflection. The first thing he does is finds the deaf person and asks them to put their CI back on so he can spy on the 60.

Look, am I biased because I am deaf and I want more D/deaf/HoH rep in media? Yes. Am I also amused at the idea of Leland having to interact pleasantly with someone who can just turn their ears off when he pisses them off because I love Leland and I like putting him in weird situations where maybe, just maybe, he might show some modicum of growth? Yes. Am I mad because I personally think this would be kinda cool to see and we are never gonna get anything like that? YES.

am I furious with myself for coming up with this while I was in the shower because now I might just have to write it? and I absolutely have no fucking time for that right now? You bet your ass I am.

[phagodyke]

reading this blurb made me realise this is possibly the first time ive ever seen my own life experiences shared by another person. damn

[wileys-russo]

Kyra cooney-cross "I don't know how you managed to make me your girlfriend" (in a funny way) london colney

kyra cooney-cross

if there was one key attribute that no one could ever deny you had, it was patience.

hell you had to in order to date kyra, the girl was like an energiser bunny on a slow day and didn't need any sort of substance to be bouncing off walls.

you'd grown up together and gone through the youth teams side by side, so overtime you'd learned exactly what it took to try and navigate being her girlfriend rather than her babysitter, though that wasn't to say there wasn't days where that line felt blurred.

today was one of those days.

with the weather outside set to storm all day the training program had been altered to mean no one needed to train outside, the flu making its way through london and a big game coming up on the weekend the the coaching staff weren't ready to take any risks.

most of you didn't mind the change, taking the opportunity for further strength training in stride.

one person who did not like the change however was kyra, whose pent up energy coupled with the shitty weather meant she was like a ticking time bomb, unpredictable and ready to go off at any second.

"ky, baby please stop that." you sighed, your girlfriend stood in front of you as you sat up on the weights bench, repeatedly punching the air in front of you, her fists mere millimeters from your nose.

"can't, i'm like rocky!" kyra puffed, making all sorts of strange noises as she continued, another sigh leaving your lips as you dropped down to your back and continued with your exercises, kyra reverting to now kicking the air.

"kyra! do your program!" kim yelled out from across the gym, the words falling on deaf ears as the captain gave up for the day, having been pushed to her very wits end by the young energetic aussie who seemed allergic to sitting still.

"ky, honey please do your weights." you sighed as you finished your reps, your girlfriend returning to her punches, again only millimetres of space between her hands and your nose.

"fine! spot me." kyra groaned as the two of you swapped, her laying down on the bench, your own program long finished as kyra wasn't even halfway through hers.

"babe, focus please." you reminded as the brunette chattered away mid chest press, the bar slipping slightly as you hurried to grab it but she assured it was fine and continued on her way.

"whats next?" you held your hand out for her program as she tossed it to you, causing you to sigh and unravel the crumpled up ball, running your finger down the list. "bicep curls." you nodded for her to grab the hand weights.

"don't need those. i'm massive!" kyra stood up on the bench and began to pose, grunting and heaving as she flexed and moved like a body builder, rolling her sleeves up as you watched on unphased.

"wonderful, bicep curls please." you held up the hand weights as the brunette dropped back down with a huff. "you're no fun sometimes you know babe, like a wet blanket." your girlfriend accepted the weights as you chuckled.

"well you have enough fun for both of us, someones gotta keep you on the right track." you gestured for her to start, the girls around you watching on in wonder at the utter patience and the fact that kyra seemed to listen, able to work through the rest of her program with minimal interruptions.

"ky maybe thats not the best idea." you warned as she moved into the other section of the gym, grabbing the ropes and starting to pull herself up. "its fine! look im like a monkey." the brunette started to make noises as she swung herself back and forth and you took a seat.

"you've got twenty on the bike and ten on the rower and you're done. can we please get it done? then you've got free time and lunch." you tried to encourage, most of the other girls long finished as your words fell on deaf ears.

"you have the patience of a saint." steph sighed pulling herself up to sit beside you as kyra continued to swing. "just the practice of one is all." you chuckled, again try to coax kyra into finishing her program but to no avail.

"kyra i really don't think thats a good idea." steph warned as the girl dropped and started to try and wrap her ankles up to hang upside down from the hoops.

"sometimes you just need to let her do something dumb, its the best way she burns off energy and learns a valuable lesson." you shrugged as steph looked to you to continue her warnings.

and sure enough, your words rang true as kyra swung about upside down.

"im the king of the castle and you're all dirty rascals! oof." with a loud thud and a grunt she fell from the ropes to the floor with a groan, wincing as the ropes all fell down on top of her to complete the accident, the girls who were left in the gym all roaring with laughter.

with a sigh you hopped down and offered her a hand up, her face flushed bright red with embarrassment as you shook your head.

"ky baby some days i really don't know how you managed to make me your girfriend."

[queerliblib]

Happy July! There is so much great queer YA fiction with disability rep out there! Here are some of our recs, check them out from Queer Liberation Library on Libby 

Titles and rep:

Daniel, Deconstructed, by James Ramos (Autism/ASD);

Fresh, by Margot Wood (ADHD);

Full Disclosure, by Camryn Garrett (HIV+);

The Grimrose Girls, by Laura Pohl (Fibromyalgia);

Hell Followed with Us, by Andrew Joseph White (Autism/ASD);

Lakelore, by Anna-Marie McLemore (ADHD, Dyslexia);

The Luis Ortega Survival Club, by Sonora Reyes (Autism/ASD);

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor (Autism/ASD);

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl, by Sara Waxelbaum & Brianna R. Shrum (Autism/ASD);

Mooncakes, by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker (d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing);

The Secret Summer Promise, by Keah Brown (Cerebral Palsy);

Ziggy, Stardust, and Me, by James Brandon (Anxiety, Asthma)

[televised-uhhh-nerdistry]

Cartoon rec of the week:

Craig of the Creek

I haven't seen enough people talking about the show, so I'm mentioning it here. Absolute 10/10 cartoon. Just three kids, running 'round, making friends, running their own semi-sustainable community in the forest (there are some concerns about how much trash they leave there but ultimately they're better than most adults). Literally such a dream. they encourage each other to be emotionally healthy and they protect each other from "danger". Like they'll help each other achieve their dreams as they come (and new dreams show up pretty often because they're young kids).

And they're so funny! Like genuinely these kids are so earnest and intelligent and incredibly humorous and full of heart! They have full lives and they live them to the fullest out in nature after school, on the weekends, and in the summer. It's one of the best representations of found family I have ever seen in a cartoon, and I absolutely love it.

Also several of the writers behind the show are POC and queer (I think the head writers are all Black but I could be wrong), so you know that it was written well and the representation is awesome like I know that it should absolutely go without saying, but representation is much more than just showing BIPOC people on screen, and in terms of cartoons I haven't seen that many shows understanding that fact except maybe the Proud Family, Fat Albert, and a few others whose names will return to me once I've taken my ADHD meds. But the point is that Craig of the Creek gets it right. Most of the characters throughout the show (from what I've seen) are BIPOC, and you can tell that there are caring nods to BIPOC communities (primarily Black American communities), and more than that, that the writers know what they're talking about and are deeply familiar with and are a part of those communities. Craig, the titular character, is a young Black boy, and his family are middle class and ultimately very successful Black people. Kelsey (one of the main characters) is Jewish and Polish, and written with more complexity than having a one and done Hanukah celebration. The Creek's main business, a trading post, is run by Kit, a young Black girl with a love for economy and business. And many other characters are racial or ethnic minorities as well, and it warms my heart to see these characters done justice time and time again.

There's great subtle queer rep too, and you can tell it wasn't written just for the sake of representation, like it was thought out and intentional, and it worked beautifully. There are queer witches, and there are no labels applied to them, they're just allowed to exist with no explanations, happily in love with one another. There's a non-binary character later in the series (I'm only like 10 episodes in so I haven't met them yet but I've read amazing things about them). Kelsey also apparently identifies as a lesbian later in the series (I say "apparently" because I haven't done much reading so as to avoid spoilers, not because I am discounting her identity). On top of that, JP (one of the main characters) has a sister who is dating another girl.

There's also a significant amount of body positivity in the show, at least far than I've seen elsewhere. Not only do they openly say "all bodies are beautiful" and follow up on that by defending one another, there's also very little need to defend one another, because there's a very unspoken and deep respect in the Creek for things like body type, skin colour, disabilities, and so on. The kids of the creek, and their grown ups, are all different body types, and given their penchant for community and uplifting one another, it's no wonder they all seem confident in their bodies.

Not to mention the disability representation. There is a character later on in the series who is Black and deaf, and he not only speaks in Sign Language, but in Black American Sign Language. In addition, though unconfirmed, many of the kids in the creek embody aspects of various neurotypes. For example, the three main characters, Craig, Kelsey, and JP all come across as neurodivergent, with special interests, neurodivergent ways of thinking, and so on. Some have speculated that JP has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which is a disability often comorbid with ADHD. Not to mention that all the kids in the creek embody different special interests, most of which would be considered weird or frowned upon in everyday society, but that are given the opportunity to shine and flourish in the Creek's accepting culture.

Take the Horse Girls for example, a small clique of girls who roleplay as horses in a pasture near the Creek, and of course many of their behaviours are played as jokes, but ultimately they are accepted and involved in many adventures because of their unique interests and abilities which are ultimately how they aid the rest of the Creek. Every kid is a useful and accepted part of the Creek, with the exception of the ranger scout kids, who are essentially the same as cops, who are often exploitative, rude, and disruptive to the community as a whole.

Ultimately, the show is one of love, friendship, community, and acknowledging differences as a natural and helpful part of life. On top of that, it's not copaganda! What more could you want?

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

this might be weird to ask on a writing blog but do you have any manga recs?

yeah i got some recs! i'm gonna assume you mean less talked about titles rather than more well-known but quickfire popular recs i have are: chainsaw man, fullmetal alchemist, jjba, fruits basket, jjk and hell's paradise. but onto my other recs:

seinen

children of the sea**: a troubled teen named ruka embarks on the summer adventure of a lifetime after meeting two boys raised by dugongs at her dad's aquarium in the middle of a mysterious event taking place in the ocean.

the summer hikaru died: it's been months since yoshiki's childhood friend and secret crush, hikaru, went missing in the mountains for a week. hikaru's the same as usual, with his jokes and silly rambles and yet, yoshiki can't shake the feeling that whoever came back from that mountain, it wasn't hikaru. much to his horror, it wasn't. but rather than face reality and grief, yoshiki decides to play along with "hikaru's" act (body horror)

dorohedoro**: in a world where there are humans and magic users, humans have it rough being virtually treated as second class citizens. day after day, year after year, magic users come to the human realm to experiment on them with their magic. and after having his head turn into a caiman, kaiman, wants to get it back in blood and have his true form restored (body horror)

witch hat atelier*: in a world full of magic and witches, it's always been normal human girl coco's dream to be one. but after accidentally discovering a truth of this world and her mom getting caught up in the spell, coco becomes an apprentice of witch qifrey. (it was recently announced there's an anime in the works!)

skip & loafer**: desiring to become a government official to revitalize her hometown in the japanese countryside, iwakura mitsumi's first step to accomplish this goal is by going to a uni prep high school in tokyo. she's got a foolproof 10-step plan to boot! but of course, life hardly ever goes as plan, not even for a prodigy (mc's aunt has great trans rep)

jousei

sign of affection*: as someone deaf all her life, yuki has dealt with discrimination in both small and broad strokes. nor has she ever experienced romance. this all changes when she meets backpacker itsumi, a guy who goes to the same uni. just as he opens her world, she opens his

debu to love to ayamachi to***: after waking up in a hospital with no memories to her name, plus sized yumeko is told she is there after surviving a suicide attempt. the thing is, yumeko isn't sure why when she's just so beautiful! with a strong desire to live life to the fullest, yumeko decides to do everything the past her was to afraid to do. all the while it is revealed that her suicide attempt was more of an attempted murder... but who could have wanted to kill her?

my love story with yamada-kun at lv999**: nothing is worse than getting cheated on especially after akane invested a lot of time and energy into her shitty ex's gaming hobbies. but through gaming, not only does akane find herself healing, she managed to get herself a pretty cool boyfriend too

NANA**: 2 women, 2 different lives, 1 name shared. komatsu nana is quick to fall in love and after a series of less-than-lucky relationships, she finally has someone she thinks is the one. abandoned by her mother and her ex leaving her band, osaki nana hasn't had the easiest life. but on the same night, on the same train, these two women meet and their lives become deeply intertwined

shoujo

a condition called love*: when it comes to romance, hotaru's never experienced it besides stories of her friends relationships. but she soon finds herself about to experience the whirlwind of a lifetime when hananoi, the most popular boy in school, asks her to be his girlfriend

a bouquet for an ugly girl***: as her class' resident big girl, hana isn't expecting a blossoming spring in her high school career. and she's okay with that. she has everything she needsー otome games and gardening. but after her class' pretty boy catches her in the midst of changing the class flowers, their lives become a bit more intertwined

uruwashi no yoi no tsuki: yoi is quite popular at her school because of her neat short hair, beautiful face and overall princely appearance. in fact, it's gotten her dubbed 'prince' many times. but when the other prince of the school finally meets her, cupid's arrow quickly knocks him on his ass

shounen

frieren**: a manga that picks up after the journey has ended. the demon king has been defeated and the heroes have saved the day after 10 years of traveling together. 10 years? that's not even a 10th of elf mage frieren's life. but as her companions begin dying one by one of old age, she finds herself desiring to learn more about humans and the short yet impactful lives they still manage to have

dungeon meshi*: when a dungeon raid goes terribly wrong and laios' sister gets swallowed by a dragon, those that remain in his party decide to get it back in blood by saving laios' sister before she gets digested. in the mean time, there's nothing wrong with gordon ramsay-ing miscellaneous ingredients found in the dungeon along the way, right?

and if you like manhwa or would be down for some manhwa recs these are titles i don't see getting recommended enough

concubine walkthrough: a scifi & philosophical spin on the otome isekai genre that asks 'what is reality truly?', 'is your life any less real if you found out all your experiences were a simulation?' and 'what is reality to you?' where protagonist lee yona finds herself stuck in a VR edition of a game she only played once

a wicked tale of cinderella's stepmother: usually when someone wakes up in the body of a villainess, she's the same age as the protagonists. mildred, on the other hand, is stuck in the body of this story's cinderella's stepmother. with no husband and three daughters to take care of, there's only one thing she can really doー build up her daughters' sisterly bonds with one another and make sure they marry into good families (or that they can at least live lives they're happy with)

tricked into becoming the heroine's stepmother: at least mildred got the body of an important character, daisy on the other hand? she's in the body of an NPC you never even see in the story. bright side? this is a story she helped write and after meeting the presently six year old protagonist's father, she and father of the year decide to team up for the ultimate mission: making sure his daughter never meets any of the love interests

inso's law: ham dan-i is in a bit of a pickle when she wakes up and her new school uniform is completely different than the one her mom bought weeks ago. there's a drop dead gorgeous girl next door who claims to be her childhood best friend. even worse, like something straight out of a drama, there are four heavenly kings that rule her school. by the end of the day, dan-i has no other choice but to accept the fact........ her real life has somehow turned into a web novel. even worse, she's a side characterー the main character's best friend

webtoons

plum: in a world where fruit stacking is a major sport, little plum decides to be the very best like no one ever was and moves to the big city to compete in the fruit stacking games along with making some friends and rivals along the way

webtoons that are probably popular enough if they have hardcover copies at my local bookstore but i wanna talk about it anyway

cursed princess club: as the youngest princess of the pastel kingdom, gwendolyn loves her family. her protective papa, her oldest sister maria who often awakes to woodland creatures doing her hair. her older sister lorena who makes flowers bloom with her every step. and her younger brother jamie who's so pretty, he sparkles. and they adore her just as much. but things come to a very reality shattering halt when their father introduces maria, lorena and gwen to blaine, lance and frederick, the princes of the plaid kingdom and gwen overhears frederick call her ugly, something she's never heard in her entire life. somehow, gwen finds comfort in a club full of cursed princesses (and one prince) who teach her how to start loving herself again

key

*) receiving an anime adaptation

**) has an an anime series or movie

***) receiving an anime adaptation & contains a story with a plus-sized protagonist that doesn't involve weight loss

[luvfrommari]

——----𝐅a𝐄a𝐌a𝐈a𝐍a𝐄a𝐒a𝐒a𝐄a𝐍a𝐂a𝐄 —-——-——-——-—-——-——-—--𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 —-—𝑓𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 — 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑠.

ಇ. love, dean — d.w, where stanfordera!dean misses his best friend, his girl who was so unapologetically sweet and kind, everything he didn’t deserve, so here he was outside her door with a sign and an apology. maybe you were everything he needed all along.

ಇ. you before her — d.g, where he’s with barbara , but a part of him knew that it wasn’t going to work out with her. still, he liked the safety, the fact that it was something he wasn’t afraid of ruining, but you? his childhood best friend? he totally was, and now he might not come back from a mission and he had to confess to you how he really felt about you.

ಇ. serotonin smile — j.m, where jj needed someone who’d just let him relax, and who better than you? you, who was the one between pogues and kooks who nobody dared raise a hand or word against you, and he just finds you looking at the stars on the nearest beach, the picture of perfection and peace. not to mention, the fact that you were happy made him happy.

ಇ. these walls — j.t, who can’t stop thinking about his pretty, sweet neighbour next door, who he sometimes had to fix appliances for, but he really didn’t mind since it was just another excuse to see your pretty face. but now there was a date gone wrong and when he sees you in his doorway for your weekly self-established movie night, he knew he’d have a reason to smile.

ಇ. youthcharm — s.r, where you two are the babies of the bau, free of all hurt that other people have experienced, and it’s for the better, too. on a regular game night that happened to fall on valentine’s day, the team decided to not show up, leaving you and spencer to hopefully confess your rather obvious feelings to each other by the end of the night.

ಇ. featherlight — b.a, where barry would do anything for you, his childhood best friend, so when he got a text from you saying to urgently come over, he got there in a second thinking that you were in trouble. it was his surprise to find out that you weren’t hurt, only by a sad scene in a romance movie that you’d watched a million times with him. he’d seen this before.

ಇ. rose-tint — c.k, in which it’s valentine’s and spirits are running high. sure, he had a far-and-wide rep of being obsessed with lana, but he’d found that it’d always been you. his pretty, gorgeous, sweet, kind best friend, who only had one flaw in his mind. no matter how many times he dropped a hint that he wanted you to be his valentine, you never picked it up. what’s a guy gotta do?

ಇ. suburban legends — t.o, where tyler and you were the type of best friends who were practically a couple, but you weren’t about to realise it, not in fifty years. he did love you more than anything, the pretty girl who wore bows in her hair, the person who’d light up his day even if the sun had gone out. maybe this was a good thing, watching the sunset, admiring your beauty in it.

ಇ. bows ‘n’ smiles — d.g, and his girlfriend who wore bows on everything and loved to buy clothes like it too, mostly from his amex ‘cause he loved to spoil you. who wouldn’t? it all came to fruition — the many swipes of his card and the little ‘fashion shows’, because you presented him with the fresh view of a goddess every damn time.

ಇ. all the signs — c.k, with his neighbour who was deaf, and spoke in sign language. he learnt it all for you, so he could sit with you in the barn whenever you were around or do chores while you signed to him, telling him about your day. he didn’t mind, so long as he got to put a smile on your face, which was always there when you talked to him with the excited signing and light in your eyes.

ಇ. lace baby — a.d, and his girl, who he always bought lace for cause you loved it. actually, he stole ‘em most of the time, cause he didn’t have that much buck, but it sure came with a bang afterwards (figuratively, of course). but what he appreciates most about these little trips to get the pastel-coloured, bow-adorned pieces of lace… was when he saw it on you.

ಇ. ttyl — s.g.r, who had to get himself off his ass a year after the snap, because he needed to tell you that you occupied his brain most of the day, so here he was, at your door and tired of the ‘talk to you later’s that always ended with your conversation and clearly left with a thousand things unsaid. well, he just had to say it. hopefully you felt the same too. hopefully.

ಇ. boycrush — p.p, who was really into the girl who sat next to him in bio, and he didn’t know that you were really into him too. now midtown was doing a valentine’s celebration where you were matched with someone off a survey made by stanford students. your pair was with peter, and neither of you could be happier. or more awkward.

ಇ. femme amoureuse — c.x, who felt like a fairytale prince with how he treated you. even now, when you’d just had a class with students too hyped up for sports day, and he was trying to make you feel at least a bit better and apologise for their actions. even now, you couldn’t be more in love with him.

ಇ. ethereally — c.x, who thought you were the most beautiful, otherworldly thing on the planet— so beautiful he couldn’t take his eyes off you. especially when he joined you on an evening walk after seeing how peaceful you were through his bedroom window. he wanted a little of that slice of heaven, with you.

[mousathe14]

Forgot I had this sitting in my drafts from the Australian Olympics episode.

Time to finish it I guess.

These kids are desperately trying to make sure Fite or any agency can’t connect Cissie to the crimes of Arrowette.

How the hell do you have an “Island nation of only criminals” in this day and age? How is that even allowed? How is that governed? Can anybody just live there? What are the logistics of a place like that?

And there’s The Brain and Monsieur Mallah. A supervillainous brain in a box and his ape retainer.

The dude I thought was Ra’s Al Ghul just shares the same barber. It’s Green Arrow villain Merlyn which makes way more sense.

They’re here to pull a “Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat” by hurting America’s main and vain representative for archery they can frame it on Cissie or her mother.

It’s literally a direct reference to the incident which can best be described as “complicated” where figure skater Tonya Harding allegedly ordered her husband to have fellow figure skater Nancy Kerrigan injured. So her husband hired some guys to do it for him. References right down to the “Why me, why me,” part.

I say allegedly because the details are fuzzy on if Tonya asked her husband to do anything or if he did it because he thought he was taking initiative. I’m more inclined to believe the former than the latter mostly because Harding seemed good enough to not need the help and the main difference between Kerrigan and Harding was that Harding didn’t have much of a “traditional figure skater look” that seemed to hold her back in the eyes of judges.

But that’s just me. Anyhow, references aside, the villains keep trying to cheat and it’s really pathetic.

Young Justice solved the mystery so Cissie, no longer under investigation, can rep the USA agin.

Bonnie, Cissie’s abusive mother, notices the suspicious umbrella in the middle of summer on a clear blue sky and uses her ex-archery skills and chain smoking habit to nail the cheats and inadvertently hitting Merlyn in the process, basically losing their chances of winning.

Needless to say, Cissie was a gold medalist that day. Silver medalist was also team USA, a younger deaf girl she met on the flight.

So alls well that ends well and the villains didn’t get what they want.

[mxrmaid-poet]

bot drop: november 23, 2024

I’m still taking a bit of a break, I’ll work on bots but probably slowly so I might do these drops bi-weekly 🤔 but thank you all for the amazing requests!

requests ~

clavis lelouch

modern AU!!! they’re in high school; clavis is basically the class clown (like canon) and user is the class rep/president, who’s constantly scolding him.

william & victor

user (still kate) was a veteran prior to being a member of crown AND a delivery girl. In the prompt, user is having a PTSD attack, which the pair is helping her through.

ellis & jude

this is a cute curse idea btw!

user has a mad hatter-like curse. jude, ellis and user are being ambushed and instead of weapons… user is pulling everything BUT that out of her hat. jude is just unsure of what to say. ellis thinks it’s cute.

they’re so funny

silvio ricci

I got a request I completed last drop, and it was chevalier w deaf a Belle user. This is Silvio with her now. He don’t know how to act but he did have contacts with some of the best artisans who created hearing aids for user. he doesn’t care… of course… yeah

my own ~

gilbert von obsidian - this is basically paired with this one! user is Gilbert’s older sister, and is planning on marrying Chevalier. Obviously, Gilbert isn’t too happy about that 🤣

jin grandet- user just gave birth to his daughter , she’s premature and he feels a new sense of responsibility 🥹

(btw thank you to the person who sent me the link to all the chev images! thank youuuu!)

MASTERDOC

[loganwritesprobably]

Going back to my roots between writing my cross guild series and I'm gonna write some x reader shit

But I'm gonna do some that are like

Specifically a tall reader

Specifically a black reader

Specifically a plus size reader

Specifically a trans reader

Specifically a non-binary reader

Specifically a wheelchair bound reader

Fuck it more specific

Gender neutral reader with short hair

Gender neutral reader with curly hair

Gender neutral reader with glasses

Gender neutral reader who has no sense of smell

Gender neutral reader who is deaf

Get some rep in there! Not all readers are skinny white girls with long luscious hair

So anyway if anyone has some suggestions for characters they'd like to see this with from Teen Wolf or One Piece - I can't make promises but hey I can see what I can do

[dragynkeep]

Hey Luke thought I would recommend one of my favorite yuri manga. It's called "The moon on a rainy night". I'm recommending it because I seem to recall that you had a fondness of characters that are hard of hearing/deaf. And this story revolves around a young queer girl and her crush on her deaf friend and how their relationship grows. Now for caveats, I personally am not disabled in any way so I can't really say whether or not the representation is done well. But from what I've seen online it seems like other folks say that the rep is done well. So be aware of that. Also it was announced that the series is getting an anime adaptation at some point. Hope you enjoy this series as much as I have

👀

I will keep that in mind anon,,,,

[saffronapplemanga]

Recent Read Manga Recommendation Round Up (plus anime!) - Part 3

Manga/anime I’ve been enjoying recently! Links to part 1 and part 2.

Twitter link to this post here.

~Links to my other manga posts~ My personal favs/ones I super enjoyed will have a ✨ on them :)

PLEASE LOOK UP ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS!

CRIME, ACTION, DRAMA

✨GANGSTA. by Kohske

(8 volumes + chapters released past vol.8, hiatus)

Available in English

Please check out my dedicated post I linked for this series. I worked super hard on it!

If you take one recommendation from this list, let it be GANGSTA. I’m begging… This series is going in my all-time favs. I have a whole “Why You Should Check GANGSTA. Out” section in my dedicated post, so definitely take a look at that! But in short: Do you enjoy great character writing? A diverse, adult cast featuring different races and disability rep (deaf MC)? A gritty setting? A FOUND FAMILY OF DORKS?

I'm obsessed and I'm making it my mission to take as many of you down with me as possible...

TIME TRAVEL, SUPERNATURAL

Link Click directed by Li Haoling

(24 Episodes - Season 2 Coming Soon)

Link Click is a donghua from Studio LAN and streamed on Bilibili — the Chinese streaming service that I do some subs for, if you're unfamiliar with them — as well as Funimation. I enjoyed the art, animation, and atmosphere. The premise is that two guys working at a print shop time travel through photos to help their clients. And who doesn't love a trio of kids with a big-hearted jokester, the quiet, mature one, and a feisty girl who reins them in? I think this is my first donghua and I enjoyed it!

Plus, the opening and ending themes are pretty slick ->

Season 1 Opening Theme - Adding it to the playlist.

MECH, POLITICAL, SCHOOL

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury by Yatate Hajime

(12 Episodes + Prologue - Season 2 currently airing)

Let me tell you about me and Gundam.

I used to work at a translation company in Tokyo where I translated some Gundam figure commercials/interviews (which are currently privated on Youtube, unfortunately) amongst other things. I'm telling you guys, every time I walked into the office and saw an email from Bandai/TAMASHII NATIONS with a new Gundam translation request in my inbox, I would cry a lot little inside. I had never watched anything Gundam and didn't know what the heck was going on in the stuff I had to translate. There was this one interview with a figure designer where I was like, "Oh, you have to be a Gundam fan to understand what the heck he's talking about..." I remember me, another translator, and our editor staring at our screens exasperated. We managed, though. Big shoutout to the Gundam Wiki — not that I understood anything from it LOL.

If you told me back then that I would enjoy a Gundam thing, I would've laughed — but here I am, enjoying a Gundam thing. I'm not into mechs, even though I think robots/robot-adjacent stuff + space are cool. Still, I could never get into mechs for some reason. So if you're like me, try The Witch from Mercury. Our MCs are these two girls who end up engaged to each other in a rather hilarious way imo, with a colorful cast of supporting characters. The political themes I hear Gundam is known for really hooked me, and I LOVE how the kids handle a situation they end up in. I won't say more so as not to spoil it, but I think this is a great entry point for Gundam newbies!

Season 1 Opening Theme - Am I turning into a Gundam fan? Wild. Who would've thought the day would come? What if I start getting into Gunpla? A slippery slope, really.

SLICE OF LIFE, SCHOOL

✨Skip and Loafer by Takamatsu Misaki

(10 volumes, ongoing) + Season 1 Anime

Available in English

I remember seeing volume one of this series at the bookstore I frequented in Ikebukuro Station when it had just come out. Sooooo many times, I almost picked it up over the years. But I always passed because I was swamped with work, school, and current reads.

Now, I have a little more time on my hands, and the new anime adaptation has so much love put into it! A great coming-of-age story following young Mitsumi as she moves to the big city for school. This series is so wholesome, it's cavity-inducing.

This opening is the most delightful thing~

SLICE OF LIFE

Hotel Metsäpeuraan e Youkoso by Fukuta Seira

(5 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

In the mountains of Finland is a hotel run by two men. One day they see a young man outside in a snowstorm, and bring him inside. The men can tell that teenager Jun seems to have a heavy past and offer him a job and place to stay at the hotel.

Super cute, wholesome, and has great found family vibes!

SLICE OF LIFE, FOOD

Samenai Machi no Kisaten by Hasha

(2 volumes, complete)

JP only

A chill read with a touch of melancholy. At the end of each chapter is a recipe! The art is very cute and pleasing.

DYSTOPIAN, SCI-FI

✨Fool Night by Yasuda Kasumi

(8 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

In the future, the sky is blacked out, not allowing any sun through. To survive, technology has been developed to turn people into plants. The real horror is late stage capitalism though. I'm in love with the art and atmosphere of this series. I can't wait to read more!

ROMANCE

Gakusou by Tsurimaki Nodoka

(oneshot)

JP only

This is a super short one-chapter oneshot. Cute little read with lovely art! By the same author as 聖血の海獣/Seiketsu no Kemono, a 3-volume manga I've been meaning to read.

LGBTQ, DRAMA, COMEDY

To Strip The Flesh by Tooda Oto

(oneshot/anthology)

Available in English

An anthology that has some funny stories, and some that made me feel too seen...

DYSTOPIAN, SCI-FI, CRIME, ACTION, POLITICAL

✨PSYCHO-PASS by Urobuchi Gen

Check anilist for all content because the seasons, movies, manga, light novels, and watch order are a little all over the place.

The Psycho-Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami manga is available in English from publisher Dark Horse.

Set in the future, Japan has implemented a surveillance state that measures people's psyche and flags anyone with the potential to do crime, even if they have not done anything or will never have done anything.

I watched season one back when it first came out in 2012. Since then, I would see ads for new content at the train stations in Japan and thought I’d catch up. There’s a new movie, PSYCHO-PASS PROVIDENCE, releasing May 12, 2023.

I've been having a lot of dumb, edgy fun with this series and its on-the-nose political themes. It's kinda camp-y? I do wish it spent more time on character moments, though.

I love me a trio (which seems to be a theme in this round-up lol) and this series has a good trio! Akane is such a great character, and Shinya and MY BOY GINOZA NOBUCHIKA!!! have been thoroughly entertaining me.

I love him. I wanna bully him and stuff him into a locker...

[alessiasfreckles]

if my memory is not as bad as I think it is, you've recommended sapphic books before, right? I'm in desperate need to read some contemporary romance but I don't know what book to start now😭 I recently read the Bright Falls trilogy and I've just finished "Imogen, obviously"

i'm so sorry i'm only just replying to this now!! but you're right, I have :) here's some recommendations for you!

We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer - HORROR!!! about a young wlw couple who flip houses and they've moved into their newest place when a family knocks on the door, saying the dad used to live here, asking if he could show his kids around... but then they won't leave. (not very romance-y but I do like a book that happens to have a wlw as the main character)

Hearing Red by Nicole Maser - zombie apocalypse, kind of enemies to lovers, and one of the main characters is deaf!

Tryst Six Venom by Penelope Douglas - this is dark romance/enemies to lovers, very smutty. actual story was fine, as far as I remember? but the smut was gooood.

Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma Alban - like a crossover of bridgerton and the parent trap, but gay! two debutantes in 1857 Do Not want to find a husband, so they hatch a plan to get their parents (who seem to have a history) together instead, and, well, it's on my list of recommended sapphic books so you can see where this is going.

Hotshot by Clare Lydon - an american footballer joins a team in the uk, but when her life starts unravelling, the team's new sports psychiatrist (i think?? ngl i don't fully remember her role) helps her to pick up the pieces.

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner - oops, i slept with my roommate's hot mom (sweet and romantic but also good smut)

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner - assuming anyone seeing this list has read it bc let's be real, but in case you haven't: GO READ IT!!! rivals to lovers on the US women's national team (+ neurodivergent/disabled rep) (also very good mix of sweet, romantic, funny, smutty)

Catch and Cradle by Katia Rose - college lacrosse team with an unofficial rule that players shouldn't players... but then a new girl tries out and the captain is smitten (again, good mix of romance and smut)

Wilder Girls by Rory Power - a girls' school is put under quarantine, and now they're cut off from the world, stuck on the island they call home, not daring to go beyond the school's gates where a mysterious illness has taken over the woods. but when one of the girls goes missing, her friend will do anything she has to to find her.

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie (and its sequel, The Edge of the Abyss) - i think this one is so underrated!!! i never see it mentioned anywhere. this one's essentially a scifi pirate thing, where a trainer of sea monsters is taken captive by a pirate ship, and one of the pirates is ordered to take care of her. has alllll the classic tropes, handcuffed together, only one bed, etc.

sorry this list is so long and that it took me so long to reply!! i also have quite a few on my to read list, but since i haven't read them yet i didn't want to include them (in case they suck lol)

[hippo-pot]

American Sign Language media content for receptive skills practice

Made this list because I really could have used it earlier on! My rubric is that it needs to include Deaf people signing, and that SimCom doesn't count (it may be present, but it can't be all there is).

This only includes stuff I've actually seen (or partially seen). Also, I'm including some warnings about what you may *not* want to watch, because again, I really could have used those warnings myself.

Easy (i.e. has subtitles and/or voiceover available, IIRC)

Mostly speaking:

CODA (movie; comedy/drama; on AppleTV+)

Kinderfänger (scary movie. Note that it has a 3.7/10 on IMDb. I personally liked it fwiw. not sure if it's streaming anywhere)

CODA (short film; on Kanopy)

Master of None S2.E6: New York, I Love You (TV show episode, currently on Netflix)

Wild Prairie Rose (drama/romance, currently on Peacock)

Queer Eye S8E4: Protect the Nest (reality TV, on Netflix)

CSI S11E13: The Two Mrs. Grissoms (crime show, Hulu)

ANTM Season 22 (the one with Nyle, obviously. I had to get this from the library on a DVD that, get this, had NO captions available. Not impressed. (The ASL was voiceovered))

Running Wild with Bear Grylls the Challenge S2E4: Troy Kotsur in the Scottish Highlands (reality TV, on Hulu I think)

CSI NY S3E12: Silent Night (crime show, Hulu). I found this one pretty ableist/audist (but it's hard to explain why without spoiling the whole thing - here's the summary if you're fine with spoilers: https://csi.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Night) also the camera work sometimes seemed more interested in making the signing look artsy rather than making it legible lol

Sue Thomas, F. B. Eye (Peacock) - some episodes have lots of signing, some have none or close to it. Honestly it's pretty racist (the show came out 2002-2005. A lot of episodes are about terrorism, and they're constantly justifying racial profiling). If you can stomach that in exchange for surprisingly decent Deaf rep, here's a (probably incomplete) list of the ones with at least one non-Sue Deaf character, with a * if there are multiple: The Signing, The Heist*, He Said She Said, Girl Who Signed Wolf, Homeland Security, Bad Hair Day, Into Thin Air*, The Holocaust Survivor*, Elvis is in the Building*, Did She or Didn't She, The Fraternity*, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Troy Story*, Endings and Beginnings*. But yeah, I can't exactly recommend it, just trying to be honest about the pros and cons.

Switched at Birth - I really don't recommend this one either. I understand some people like it, but I have to give my disclaimer that if you watch a couple episodes and think "Well, I didn't like that, but maybe it will get better," lose that hope right now. To me, it only got worse. There is soooo much SimCom (yes, even later in the show when everyone should have learned to sign. Do NOT think there will be more or better signing later on). Daphne's actress has Meniere's disease; in a Reddit AMA, she said, quote, "Technically I am not deaf," so I really question why she was cast as the main Deaf character. Regardless of how she identifies, she is playing an experience she has not had; she isn't a native signer (she started learning in high school, not at age 3 like her character), and when she speaks in the show, she FAKES a "deaf accent". Also, this show is not as lighthearted as it looks, there are some truly disturbing plotlines that just get brushed over. Maybe you love this kind of drama - power to you. I'm just asking that if you watch a couple episodes and don't care for it, quit. Read some episode summaries on the wiki if you need to satisfy your curiosity, but don't hold out hope and watch almost 2 seasons' worth while feeling worse and worse about it l like I did. Moving on:

All or mostly signing:

Deaf U (reality show, on Netflix)

WHAT? (movie; comedy, silent movie; on Prime)

Blue Apple (creepy short film) https://media.gallaudet.edu/media/Blue+Apple+%281994%29/1_wke1swj2 also like. click around on the website. Gallaudet has soooooo much media available (plays, films, etc)

Scarecrow (creepy short film), also a Gallaudet production https://ssl.gallaudet.edu/videolibrary/?embed=16500 tbh there's not a ton of dialogue in this one, so maybe don't watch it if you don't like slow pacing

Don't Shoot the Messenger (raunchy YouTube series about an interpreter)

Barbie in ASL (On Max. It's the movie Barbie, but with a Deaf interpreter in the corner). There are a couple other ones on Max too I think, including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

PBS also has some stuff with ASL interpretation. I didn't check everything so I don't know if they're all done by Deaf interpreters, but I recognized Jeremy Lee Stone as the interpreter for (at least some of) the Arthur episodes, and Lisa McBee for (at least some of) the Daniel Tiger ones https://pbskids.org/videos/american-sign-language-full-episodes

speaking of Jeremy Lee Stone, his Youtube channel is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9HZ1JdV1Us

as are Nathie Marbury's storytelling videos https://www.youtube.com/@dawnsignpress/search?query=nathie

other kids' stories and resources for kids: https://www.youtube.com/@RMDSCO from Rocky Mountain Deaf School and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhbEjnwOPpyIHotZrGLu68OGeEZlTuvbg from Texas School for the Deaf (some of these are captioned or follow along with a book that they show on screen, but some aren't)

a few nonfiction Youtube series: Daily Moth (general news), Atomic Hands (STEM education), Quantum ASL (STEM education - just a couple longer videos, the rest are basically dictionary entries), BEHEARDDC (prison abolition), Joel West Barish (travel), Rogan Shannon (queer topics), Melmira (interviews)

Sign with Robert (available for free on both Kanopy and Tubi): this is mostly just general ASL teaching, but there are some episodes specifically labeled receptive practice where he tells jokes and stories (25, 26, and 29 - for 26 and 29 they play the stories twice, with captions the second time so you can see what you missed, it's actually super nice haha)

her specific channel doesn't have much, but you can just look up Melanie McKay-Cody, who does research about Indigenous sign languages (she is herself Cherokee). Lots of videos from her all over Youtube

SoCal Stories (interviews with folks including Marlee Matlin, CJ Jones, Bernard Bragg...): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8T937th3Qg&list=PLwR2tgM-4_AYjBRvj3GWqWRjjMiZz_w8u this is part of the Youtube channel Convo Communications, which has tons of other stuff I haven't explored

ASL music videos: this list was curated by a Deaf person so I trust it https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx1wHz1f-8J_xKVdU7DGa5RWIwWzRWNVt

Deafies in Drag (Youtube comedy series)

Reverie (short film, drama. Heavy themes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFWE6Mtpu0

Perfect Match (short film, drama / sci fi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxE65yzMgyE

The Witnesses (short film, satire) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u9iQ_hjXDg

4 translations of MLK's I Have a Dream speech: Richard Bailey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H2-3O-NJFg (no captions or voiceover), JC Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmdM965Si8 , Takiyah Harris (rough video quality on this one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiyG_h1tnZE , Missouri School for the Deaf students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mmxJByigac

jooux (sexual wellness resource): https://www.youtube.com/@jooux/videos

Intermediate

Mostly Speaking:

Sound of Metal (movie; drama; on Prime) (the late-deafened characters are not played by Deaf actors, but there's still a lot of Deaf actors. Most of the signing is mid-movie, and if I remember correctly, some is not subtitled, while some is)

Children of a Lesser God (movie; available on Kanopy). The signing isn't subtitled (it's mostly voice-interpreted by another character) and also it was very hard to understand - I gather it leaned more toward SEE? So that's why it's in intermediate.

Star Trek TNG S2E5: Loud as a Whisper (on Paramount+): no subtitles; most of the signing is voice interpreted, but not all. All the ASL is in the 2nd half but there's still a good amount, I thought

All or mostly signing:

look up Gallaudet Theatre Arts on Youtube. There's actually a variety of levels here (of the two I've watched, Bunnicula has voiceover, but Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't. The audio/video quality isn't great on any of it). I'm listing it as Intermediate because for e.g. Shakespeare you can just look up the script of the play and have it in another tab to check what's going on.

Sign (short film; some sexual content) https://vimeo.com/157890479 I was able to understand most of this, which means it's a loooot easier than the Shakespeare, but yeah, no subtitles, no voiceover, no help

The Deaf Family (YouTube sitcom) (don't be fooled, only the first episode has subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1uuntQOPnw&list=PLx1wHz1f-8J9KzkK5lLO3z0wk64eUzo3Y

Deaf Traditions: Storytelling and Poetry https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIpW9QfUw6zwGKJ0N_HGH_8PnF8g7FSmg these range from easy to hard, I would say. No subtitles

Bonus warning categories:

Doesn't have as much signing as you'd think

(ranked roughly from most signing to least signing)

The Circle, Season 5 (reality show on Netflix. I did really enjoy the Deaf contestant but I definitely wanted more)

Fargo, season 1-ish (show; horror? On Hulu) I only watched a few episodes but Russell was only getting like 5 min screen time per episode and i wasn't enjoying the show otherwise, so it wasn't worth it for me personally

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist S1E9: Zoey's Extraordinary Silence (jukebox musical TV show. On Peacock)

Only Murders in the Building (mystery show on Hulu) - through the 4 seasons of the show, the Deaf character (Theo Dimas) is in 4 episodes, then 2, then 1, then 0. 🤷‍♀️

The Family Stone (I did enjoy the movie though tbh. on Hulu)

Curb Your Enthusiasm S12E3: Vertical Drop, Horizontal Tug (TV comedy, on Max) Troy only gets like 5 min of screentime 😭 he's an Academy Award winner...

Queer as Folk S1E4: F*ck Disabled People (on Peacock) (Nyle is in it but I don't think he even ever talks to anyone else who can sign? He's mostly communicating via writing)

Not Worth It

What the Bleep Do We Know: attempted to watch this "doc" without realizing beforehand that it was all pseudoscience. Honestly, I'm not even sure there was signing in it? I think there was a little

Wonderstruck (2017). There are multiple Deaf actors on the roster. But not one of them gets to sign *anything* as far as I could tell. (One plays a character who hasn't learned to sign, I think at least two were playing hearing people (I do support Deaf actors taking hearing roles, but not if you're gonna take that as an excuse to do the reverse.... which this movie did.....), and some must have had barely any screentime). Two hearing actors get to sign (also the signing doesn't start til like the last 20 min of the movie), and two other hearing actors briefly fingerspell. 👎

Intentionally Didn't Watch (the summary was that bad)

These included Deaf people despite not really wanting them to exist!!!! (think along the lines of forcing ppl to get cochlear implants)

Scrubs S6E16, "My Words of Wisdom" https://scrubs.fandom.com/wiki/My_Words_of_Wisdom someone described this episode to me in a bit more detail than the summary here, and yeah. not good

House S5E22, "House Divided" https://house.fandom.com/wiki/House_Divided legit infuriating

[audikatia]

10, 13, and 17 for the end of year book asks. 💕

Thanks, Kellie!!!! ❤️

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

Henry Henry by Allen Britton

I don't know if I would recommend this overall to everyone because it is definitely a very Specific Sort Of Book, but god. A modern, queer retelling of the Henriad? I didn't know I needed this. This killed me, this revitalized me. I cannot stop thinking about it and I read it months ago. This is going to stay with me forever. Most of the books I read, I get from the library because I do not have the money or space in my apartment for all the books I read, but this... this I had to get a copy of it. I need to analyze it, I need to memorize it.

I knew the broad strokes of how it would go because, well, the Henriad has been around for hundreds of years. But the way it went? The liberations it took? It was exactly what I want from a tragedy where I can see the ending and I know the ending and I want so badly for the characters to break out of the Tragedy, but they never can. Beautifully executed.

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?

This is going to get long and ranty, sorry lol

Honestly, it was a year with a lot of low-rated books for me. It was not a good reading year overall, which is a shame. I have organized my lowest rated books into sub-categories because my complaints tend to be the same by genre.

Queer romances

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (horrendous, I will never read anything by her again)

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (so aggravating, I am mad when I think about this book)

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings (this made me want to not read sapphic fiction anymore, I was so fucking done)

If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales

Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle Gonzalez Rose

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (this made me realize I am so fucking done with Casey McQuiston as an author. I have hated all of their books except Red White and Royal Blue and I just need to call it quits. )

Time to Shine by Rachel Reid

Big Swiss by Jen Beggin (disappointing because this was so hyped up as a Genuinely Well Written book and the writing mostly was good, but the characters and execution just fell apart)

I don't careeeeeeee I just don't fucking careeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee atttttt allllllllllllllll. To be fair, I am not a big romance fan in general, but I do tend to like queer romance most of the time since there is like a genuine hurdle for why people can't be together rather than just bad miscommunication. But these just fucking sucked (in my own opinion, other people might have loved them and that's totally fine). A lot of the authors (I'm looking at you especially, Ashley Herring Blake) had some of the most tone-deaf ways of writing about characters of color or nonbinary characters, specifically writing afab nonbinary characters as though they were women and ignoring that amab nonbinary people exist. Totally tone deaf while also including so much virtue signaling I felt like I was watching fucking Dora the Explorer remind the audience that stealing is bad. The neurodivergent rep was just fucking horrible. I'm sorry, it was. Also, bad writing (minus Big Swiss, that was genuinely good writing), bad plots, bad characters, etc. Some of these characters are like 30+ years old and acting like entitled 12 year old brats. It was painful to read.

Also, Meryl Wilsner, girl, wtf. Watch TikToks about ADHD is not "medical research," jfc. And the word "queer" is not fucking linked with TERF-rhetoric. Are you fucking kidding me?

Thrillers/Mysteries

The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger

The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian (this should have been like 200 pages less and then maybe it would have been great)

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson (this was baffling how bad it was. I like other books by this author. She's normally really good at plotting out a story that is a shakily plausible but mostly acceptable within the framework of mystery conventions, but this?? Wtf happened?)

Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell (I read this expecting it to be trash and was still surprised by how bad it was)

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin (This book could have been a tweet)

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead by Jenny Hollander (compelling premise, stupid as fuck execution)

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon

Ughhhhhhhh noooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I love thrillers, but these didn't make sense? They just went for vibes and no actual substance. The plots were terrible, the twists were done only to have twists rather than to serve an actual purpose. Some of them had random 10 year time skips that were mentioned in a single sentence and it was so off putting? So many of them felt like the author copy/pasted twitter threads about social commentary into the book and made it monologues. It was terrible. None of these were compelling, none of these made me give a shit about the events unfolding. Just bland and unimaginative the whole way through, even if the premise itself sounded promising.

Contemporary Literary Fiction

Piglet by Lottie Hazel (I read a few books about EDs this year, but this had nothing else to really offer except Commentary. Actually, I think the issue was that it wasn't written like a real ED? It was written like ED as a metaphor, which just sucked. Although, admittedly, the food was described beautifully. I liked her writing style and will probably read more by her, but this plot and this MC did not work for me)

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

Overall, I hate the term "chick lit" and find it to be extremely derogatory. But damn. These books were not making a good case for why that's a bad term. These books really were just "wow, women have it rough and we should be poetic about it" without any additional substance.

Superhero Genre

Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell

I understand that they wanted a big name in the mystery/thriller genre to write this Jessica Jones novel, but I wish they had gotten someone who was actually familiar with the source material or at least willing to research it before writing.

I like Jewell's books and writing style, so this wasn't a bad novel on its own. But it was a horrible depiction of Jessica Jones's character and ultimately a bummer of a read. Jewell basically ignored every aspect of Jones's personality and also didn't seem to feel like writing about any of her powers, so she just... ignored them? Ignored their entire existence? And she also just sort of passed over Jessica Jones's entire history about her family being killed and being held hostage and repeatedly raped for over a year. Like, I get that Jewell didn't really want to write about the ramifications of all that, but then don't write a book with a main character who went through all of that. I don't know what to tell you.

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

Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson (I knew this was going to rip my heart out for personal reasons, but I also think it would have destroyed me even if I wasn't as emotionally connected to the plot.)

My Murder by Katie Williams (Amazing premise with fantastic follow-through)

The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul by Eleanor Herman (I like non-fiction, but I am always pleasantly surprised when the author manages to present it almost conversationally. This was in-depth without being condescending or overinflated and was genuinely fun to read)

Emma Southon's books (Basically the same comment as above. I expected something a little dry but educational, but I got educational and very cheeky!)

Bless anyone who actually read any of that lol