#escape incel island

[noahsbookhoard]

📚January 2025 Book Review (Part 2/2)📚

January is the month I've read the most comics and graphic novels since... middle school and my manga phase maybe? And I like it, I might read more of them this year

Part 1 here

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

What did I just read?

This was recommended to me by a book club friend, I had heard of it but never read it and she told me how much she loved thi book, how it inspired Disney's Encanto, that it wasn't as depressing as the title made it seems etc... Well she and I haven't read the same book because that wasn't what I was expecting from her description.

Nonetheless it was interesting: we follow 5 generations of the same family in their small village far in the jungle, with their struggle, their conflits, their violence sometimes. They live through natural disasters, revolutions, war, technological progress and political changes. And that's not mentioning how cruel the family members can setimes be with one another, they ruin each other's life, they rest their legacy apart, and yet somehow it always remains enough to be mended, rebuilt. They might leave but somehow they always come back home to Macondo.

I don't share my friends enthusiasm but It's a classic and I'm glad I read it.

Les serres sous le velours noir by Charlène Ferlay

Okay, I know, I thought the same thing when I saw that cover but hear me out!

Man that book is a banger. I would never have picked it up on coverart and backcover summary alone:

In a Renaissance Italy-like setting in which The Goddess and her Angels and Archangel intervene in every aspects of life, Francesca Sebastiani is coming to the merchant City of Alba. There, she must obey her father's orders, to marry a merchant from lower social class as hers and to find her brother Taddeo, whom she hates, to convince him to take his place as the family's heir, but all she wants is to find the murderer of Iacopo, her other brother.

... and I would have missed what will very probably be on my top 10 for this year. This is something of a historical fiction, something of a fantasy novel, something of a thriller and just a truly amazing story.

Francesca, our main character would be absolutely unsufferable as a real human being but as a character she felt even more relatable because she's so bitchy: she is a noble woman, recently widowed, who just lost her beloved older brother, and whose father wants to marry below her. And she is SO MAD about it. She looks down on anyone who isn't a patrician, she falls in love with all the wrong people, she accuses every one that upset her even a little of the horrible murder... It was a tight balance because a character like this could have been very annoying but her aspirations, her anger, her doubts but mostly her love and passion were driving and made me empathise with her a lot.

I loved the setting: it looks like a quite well researched Renaissance Italy: architecture, art and clothings are vivid and anchor us in the period but the fantasy setting allows the author to twist it out and add 1) badass angels and 2) so much homoerotic tension it's bursting out of the pages.

The plot itself is full of tension and I had to force myself to pause it because I wanted to make it last, but wow that was hard! The investigation is very well handled and the climax of it felt so satisfying! The romance subplot was compelling but never took too much place in the story but it adds so much stakes, it works great!

It came out on December last year and isn't available in English but if you read French go read this one, you won't regret it I swear.

What Manner of Man by St John Starling

These Deathless Bones by Cassandra Khaw

This is technically my second reading but this time was the revised edition and I can't believe it could get better, yet it did!

Father Victor Ardelian has been sent to St Silvan's Head Island for an exorcism, however as he spent more time with his host and the object of his investigation, Lost Alistair Vane, his duty as a priest and his own feeling start to tear at him.

This is an epistolary novel and I loved having Victor's voice with his restrain and propriety slowly sliping as his feeling changes. Also it was funny to see the dates disappear of the dairy and the letters to his sister become rarer the more he got entangled with Lord Vane, every little elements surrounding the text itself worked to create this atmosphere and this feeling of a man slowly losing his purpose.

The eroticism was even better for all the loops Father A was jumping through to not have to say it (both 1950's sensibility and priestly ones). Victor's struggle with his identity and his eventual acceptance were very satisfying.

That answer one question for me: I like queer romance and ask a new one: why is Catholicism so dramatic?

Anyway, the next project of @stjohnstarling is Frankenstein inspired and I can't wait to see how it goes!

Short but impactful: The relationship between a woman with bone magic and her bratty stepson, and how it only spiralled downward from the start.

I don't want to say too much because it would get into spoilers really quickly but it was thrilling and a little satisfying too to see the stepmother realise what is going on with the boy and put an end to it.

Escape Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy

Years ago, the government manage to trick incels into getting trapped on a deserted island and since the inmates are under heavy watch and had no outside contact except crates of weapons and supplies. Mankiller Jones and Dr Helena Morrison are sent to the island to retrieve sensitive information that the military left behind: they will have to face the inmates, uncover government secrets and one way or another, escape incel island.

This was fun, there's no big revolutionary insight on humanity to be found here, only Lord of the Flies if the boys had already hit puberty and spent all their free time on 4chan. The inmates have sort of organise and there's some good idea on what their society would look like. I loved Mankiller's point of view with her attitude and her no nonsense talk. The message about toxic masculinity isn't reallyvsubtle but if you want a nonbinary person shooting Nice GuysTM with a shotgun this is.

This story reminds me a lot of The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi: this isn't the greatest book I've ever read but damn was it cathartic!

The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms #3) by Tasha Suri

This is the third and final book in the Burning Kingdom Trilogy, and it is a great finally to of ofvmy new favorite series.

We start right after the end of book 2 (as in I had to reread the last 5 or so chapter to catch up with the story). There is everything I loved from book 1 and 2: ruthless politics, badass women, queer ships, the original fantasy empire of Parijatdvipa with its gods.

The story takes its sweet time building up but the climax was worth it. And I got to catch up with by faves! They were not doing great! We get to see more action from Rao and Bhumika in a good 2/3 of the book, which I am not complaining about.

As well as the political threat, the danger of gods and fanatic priest is ever more presents and to me felt even more frightening than in the two first books. It was to me the most interesting part of the conflict as it was a built up from the very beginning of the series and at some point the purely secular political intrigue was being repetitive. I was expecting something more dramatic for the end of the yaksa plot though.

I have one reservation and it is on some dialogues between Priya and Malini: there is a very thin line between toxic yuri and Exes With A Messy Divorce Who Have To Sit Together For Their Kid's School Gala. I'll forget it because the conclusion of their relationship was worth it.

It is a big hit for me, I need more fantasy like this.

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed

Shubeik Lubeik means Your wish is my command: In this universe wishes are real and are a whole industry. There're laws, international decrees and classification of wishes, from class 1 to class 3. The more powerful it is, the more reliable but also the most expensive and thr more regulated.

Shorky owns a little store in Cairo, for decades he had had three class 1 wishes he had never manage to sell: this is the story of those who will finally buy those wishes. And oh those stories are sad! Nour's especially hit me, a coleguw student put of their depth, plagued by anxiety. And that's the comic's strength: the characters are so real it hurts.

The worldbuilding is so clever: some of the informations are given by the characters but everything you need to know about wishes is explained between each part in infographics, as if the readers were handed out information pamphlets. It's simple, easy to follow and I never felt like the author was explaining this stuff to me out of the story. It reinforces what the characters already pointed out and adds informations to anchor it in the universe like dates and laws and advices for wish users.

This is the kind of books that makes me want to read more comics, I loved it.

Persephone's choice by Yihan Sim

Sophie has a simple life divided between her flower shop and the care for her mother who suffers from dementia. And then one day a stranger appears out of nowhere, saying he doesn't remember anything but his name: Hades. Sophie offers her help and somehow along the way she might not want him to repay his debt to her.

(Tw for dementia, emotional abuse and child death)

I will start with my one big and only complain: this is a Swiss gruyere of a book. Like, I liked it but there's plot holes everywhere!

Why is Hades amnesiac? Is he actually even amnesiac because I can't see what he has forgotten since he knew who he was all along? Why does The Rapture of Persephone exist as a children book if he has never met and loved Persephone before? Why is Hades immortal but not Demeter? What does the underworld look like to Hades, he never answered that question? Why is Sophie so chill about discovering Greek gods are real and part of her life? Seriously she has the best adaptation skills ever: The man who just fell from the sky is the Lord of the Underworld? Yeah, but does he want tea?

Nonetheless, this was a very low stake, switch-off-your-brain-and-enjoy-the-fluff kind of read. And I usually can't switch said brain off, ever, so this is saying something.

Sophie has the most AU fanfic shop ever (affectionate): it's both a flower shop and a tea shop in which she always have enough time to offer her regulars floral tea she creates herself and make unique compositions for each bouquet. And I love that for her. The relationship with Hades is so soft, too.

Conflict is minimal, it's mostly Demeter throwing wrenches in the work, which means the romance part is entirely this fluffy thing that slowly blooms and they just do heart eyes at each other for the 200 pages of the novel.

Honestly, the mythology retelling part is the least interesting. The love story would have worked just as well with all human characters. The supernatural explanation for the pandemic was interesting but that and the epilogue is all the god and goddess did for the plot. Still it made for some comedy, including Hermes' summoning ritual and teasing on fashion sense.

The book gets a bonus point for reassuring me that Cerberus is a good boy (of course he is) and the ending wraps it all in a woolen blanket with a nice cup of tea. Ovreall very cute, so I'm willing to forget the plot holes.

If you want a cute no brainer romance, Greek mythology retelling which does not fall into dark romance you might want to try this one.

Ruined by S. Vaughn, S. W. Searle & N. Smith

Catherine's reputation has been ruined and now she must marry Andrew Davener who she barely knows to save face. He needs her money, she needs to escape: neither of them require anything else out of this marriage but they both wanted more out of life. What if they get it anyway?

Or : What If I Freaked Out About Being In Love With My Own Spouse?

That's basically it, Catherine settles in her new home and slowly warms up to her husband, they grow closer but when she feels she herself fall she panics and runs away. While she is at her parents he realise he also fell for her (no actually that moment was cute, the bewilderment on his face was priceless) and scraps his brain for a way to win her back. Ok, I am not entirely fair here, there's a little bit more to the story overall but the backbone of the romance between Catherine and Andrew is this.

The plot mostly rest on the characters having No Communication Skills Whatsoever and a dynamic of Oblivious Man in love with Contrary Woman. There would be no story if they just talked about it like adults and some of the things they did but hid form the other makes for nice revelations, but at some other occasion Catherine just seem to keep Andrew away for no reason at all! But still the ending wad satisfying, Andrew's letter was adorable and the final pages are really nice. For me and my pickiness with romance this is more than good.

However, I was disappointed with the subplots in general: there's many of them, Andrew's sister Gemma being afraid to go out in society, Catherine's maid miss Lee who wants to be seen as the talented seamstress she is, Catherine's sister and her woman lover, not to mention Andrew and Catherine's respective past... and most of them fall short. Gemma especially was frustrating: she gets no character growth! She was so sad, I wanted her to feel better and it cuts just as she was making an attempt! I understand the main focus being Andrew and Catherine but at least Gemma's story deserved closure.

I am not giving my opinion again on the Bridgerton series, no sir, but if I had to compare this comic to Julia Quinn's novel it ranks higher than even the books I really liked in the series. It shares the same tropes and structure but with more diversity in the characters and minus the heterosexual romance tropes that are absolute red flag on any real human.

I wasn't too fond of the drawing style though but it's a matter of taste and the story is good. A nice moment.

[carriagelamp]

My favourite books from 2024! Another really strong year of books for me -- every year will have some stinkers and a bunch of middling reads, but the highs of this year were really high so I'm pretty content

As always, I give more detailed descriptions and opinions of the books in my month reviews, but here's a quick breakdown for anyone who's interested:

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

A non-fiction book that looks at how childhood has been “rewired”, focusing specifically on the increase of overprotective parenting, increase of tablet/social media usage, and decrease of unstructured, independent play. It was a fascinating read that really looked at how children need to be given lots of opportunities to play, take risks, and make mistakes in order to learn and grow and how a loss of that might be impacting people’s mental health. As someone right on the cusp of the age bracket that’s being focused on, it felt very exposing.

Apothecary Diaries v1-2 by Natsu Hyuuga

Maomao is kidnapped and sold as a servant to the imperial palace, where she serves as a general dogsbody in the rear palace, home of the emperor’s various consorts and concubines. She’s determined to keep her head down until her contract is up… until she helps solve a mystery and catches the eye of the powerful eunech Jinshi who soon learns about her in-depth knowledge of apothecary work and anything to do with poisons. Very funny premise, Maomao hates Jinshi soooo much and he is such a simp for it. She just wants to eat poisons and be left alone and he says “no<3” to both of those

Bury Your Gays (and Straight) by Chuck Tingle

Both of these are very explicitly queer horror novels. Straight is a novella that riffs on the format of a zombie story, but with straight people becoming inexplicably violent towards queer people one day a year. Bury Your Gays is about a Hollywood screenwriter who realises his horror creations are begin to stalk him in the real world. Both are very intentionally built around social commentary on queer issues, and despite have audacious premises they completely own their camp and end up producing really well thought out, insightful stories. I can’t say I liked either as much as Camp Damascus but either is worth a read.

Console Wars by Blake J. Harris (and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier)

Console Wars is a nonfiction book I’ve meant to read for years on my brother’s recommendation and I quite enjoyed it. It explores the history of the video game console market in North America, with a focus on how Nintendo revitalized it and how Sega then swooped in to upset the monopoly it held. The book is written in a very narrative, personable style and I found myself really rooting for the various people and companies being portrayed ahahaha. A shockingly fun read. I also read Blood, Sweat, and Pixels which wasn’t quite as narratively compelling but a related read that looked at games with complex development cycles.

Defekt by Nino Cipri

Technically the sequel to Finna which I also read this year, but Defekt works as a stand-alone and is, imho, the better of the two. Both deal with a surrealist horror Ikea setting, where the sheer density and liminal-space-ness of it all allows strange wormholes to open up between these stores from different dimensions. Finna deals with actual wormhole hopping, whereas Defekt focuses in on one employee who gets assigned to a very strange overnight inventory shift.

The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish v1-2 by Xue Shan Fei Hu

Fish isekai book. Is this a good book? No. Is it a really really fun book? Yes, in spades. In this book, Li Yu wakes up in a court drama novel… but not as a character but rather as the tyrannical prince’s pet fish. He is given the task to improve the prince and is stuck figuring out how the hell to do this as a fish. This book knows exactly how ridiculous it is and leans into it. Li Yu and Prince Jing are both idiots in very unique and exciting directions. No one knows what the fuck is happening.

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

A prequel to Every Heart a Doorway, though it works perfectly well as a standalone. Honestly I liked it more than the first. This book has deliciously gothic horror vibes, and it plays with all the tropes you would expect from gothic horror / fear of the sublime. It’s about sisters who find a strange chest that lets them descend to the sinister land of the Moors. This is where vampires rule, werewolves stalk, and mad scientist’s ply their craft. The girls end up separated on and very different trajectories as they grow and acclimatize to the brutal existence of the Moors.

Escape From Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy

Exactly what it says on the tin. Completely insane book that is very worth the read if you feel like something that is patently insane. I strongly recommend treating this as a read aloud with a friend or loved one because I read it with my brother and couldn’t stop laughing. Top notch mercenary Mankiller Jones is sent to escort a computer scientist to Incel Island to retrieve lost governmental data. There they have to survive the hoards of Nice Guys, Volcels, Betas, and every other violent inhabitant of the island if they ever want to… escape from Incel Island.

Heaven Official’s Blessing v6-8 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

I finished the main series of Heaven Official’s Blessing (without reading the extras yet), and man what an ending! I could not have asked for a more epic or satisfying conclusion! The final battle and its various stages? The character reconciliation? The villain reveal? Perfect, no notes. The series itself follows Xie Lian, a prince who has ascended to godhood twice and been cursed and cast out from Heaven just as many times, giving him the title of the Laughingstock God. The story begins with him, to everyone’s dismay, ascending a third time.

Horrorstör (and Paperbacks from Hell, My Best Friend’s Exorcism) by Grady Hendrix

This book also deals with a Strange Alternate Ikea, but is the superior book. This was one of my top reads for 2024, and it was flawless horror. It is essentially a haunted house story set in an Ikea, that manages to be both chilling, disgusting, and a shockingly insightful critique of capitalism and retail. Very worth the read. 

After reading this I also read Paperbacks from Hell (a nonfiction book that does an analysis of horror fiction from the ‘70s and ‘80s, very good read) and My Best Friend’s Exorcism (which was decent but not my favourite of Hendrix’s since possession and exorcism isn’t my favourite brand of horror. The vaguely queer undertones and ending I found interesting, and it did some cool things throughout.)

Jeeves and Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse

I ended up listening to so many of the Jeeves and Wooster audiobooks this summer while I was travelling. There were some I really really loved and some that fell very flat for me. I think I listened to too many in a row by the end… These books are like popcorn, not deep but very fun, and follow the airheaded but good natured Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves who unfailing swoops in to solve all the strange and inane problems the Bertie gets involved in. They tend to be funny, light-hearted, and clever in their resolution of plot problems… though some of the issues do get rather repetitive. My favourites were: The Inimitable Jeeves, Very Good Jeeves, Right Ho Jeeves, and the Code of the Woosters.

Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Some excellent science fiction, especially for my Pacific Rim loving heart. This bordered on the cosy fantasy genre, while mixing in plenty of science, world-building and a good dash of excitement. During the Covid-19 lockdown, Jamie Gray is stuck trying to make ends meet as a food delivery driver… until he runs into an old acquaintance who suggests he might have a very different job offer for him. Jamie ends up joining this very secretive “animal rights group” and finds out just how massive, dangerous, and otherworldly these “animals” are by being risked to an entirely different dimension filled with giant, radioactive monsters.

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

One of my favourite books from this year! Tthis book managed to hit on very topical subjects with both tact and humour. Lula Dean has spearheaded a book banning crusade, managing to get a number of “problematic” books removed from the library and has made a show of setting up a Little Free Library in her yard full of “appropriate” books instead. When Beverly Underwood visits her mother and hears about this she’s so exasperated with it all that she quickly hatches a plan swapping out the dust jackets of some of the banned books with the ones in Lula Dean’s Little Free Library. The rest of the story is about various people in the town who borrow a book from Lula Dean’s library and how the book they got instead ends up impacting not just themselves but their town. The first story involves a penis cake. Can’t recommend it enough, starts out humour and quickly becomes something you want to rally around.

My Happy Marriage v1 by Akumi Agitogi

This was pure mindless fluff, it was honestly a delight. This is a low-fantasy, Cinderella-esque story set in the Taishō era. It focuses on Miyo Saimori who lives under the thumb of her cruel step-mother, haughty step-sister, and indifferent father. She’s resigned to being treated like a servant in her own home and ekeing out a strained existence, but her life takes a turn when she finds herself nominally engaged to the allegedly cold and cruel Kiyoka Kudou. It’s just absolutely overwhelmingly cute and I really enjoy the contrasting POVs.

A Series of Unfortunate Events and Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket

I’d never finished The Series of Unfortunate Events when it was originally coming out, so I finally sat down and did that, and honestly it was well worth the wait! It was a very interesting series to read as an adult, especially all in one go, because it really let me appreciate everything that Snicket was trying to say. It was a much more clever and philosophical read than I was anticipating, and The End was fucking superb. He absolutely stuck the landing, it completely blew me away. Poison For Breakfast was also a very interesting standalone novella that felt like surrealist philosophy. I might have even enjoyed it more than the basic TSOUE.

The Poison Squad (and The Poisoner’s Handbooks) by Deborah Blum

Poison Squad is a very compelling and topical nonfiction about the formation of the American Food and Drug act. The state of unregulated food processing in the late 19th century was, in a word, nightmarish. Don’t read this book if you have a weak stomach. But it’s completely fascinating to see how one person, Dr Harvey Wiley, made it a personal mission to scientifically prove what all these mysterious food additives were doing to people and put limits to what could be sold to consumers. I liked it so much I went to read Blum’s other book, The Poisoner’s Handbook which is set during Prohibition and explores the rise of forensic medicine and again exposes how people were being poisoned by simply living their standard lives.

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill

The real, true history of the New York City Pushcart War!! For real!!! This is a delightful underdog story that is really written in the style of a history textbook recounting the fictional Pushchart War. This war started in New York City as the roads get increasingly congested with traffic, the worst offenders being the increasingly massive and arrogant trucks. The trucking companies hatch a plan though: if they begin to push out the little pushcarts, framing them as the problem for the congestion, then how hard would it be to push out taxis next? Or buses? Or motorcars? How long until they can make the road a perfect habit for trucks and trucks alone? How can something as small and poor as a pushcart owner fight back?

Railsea (and This Census-Taker) by China Miéville

I heard Railsea described on tumblr and it sounded sufficiently insane that I had to read it for myself. This author is truly unrivaled when it comes to bizarre worldbuilding that feels both very, very grounded in reality while also being completely unexplained and impossible. Railsea is essentially a Moby Dick meets Treasure Island retelling but with trains instead of boats and giant, mutated, vicious moles instead of whales. Unhinged. Can’t recommend enough. I followed this up by reading his novella This Census-Taker which was not as much of a frolicking adventure but fucked with my brain just as much or more than Railsea did. Genuinely not sure I even know what happened in that story but I enjoyed the experience of being completely fucking baffled for some 200 pages.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Another book to ideally not read if you have a weak stomach. This novella is very big on unrelenting body horror. This is a twisted fairytale retelling in which a cannibalistic Little Mermaid meets a plague doctor Frankenstein. Both of them are walking away from cruel past lives, along a trail that’s soaked in blood and viscera. You feel how painfuly and disgustingly human this book is, while also being so wildly separate from anything that resembles human anatomy or morality. Superb.

Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System v1-4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

The last of MXTX’s three series I needed to read. It was the one I was most hesitant about, but I ended up having a really great time with it. It is simultaneously the most light-hearted and silly of the three series, while also the one that most gleefully dives into torture and sex. So you get a bit of everything with this, and as usual MXTX does a really good job of mixing the humour and series in a way that keeps things constantly interesting. The story is about Shen Yuan who dies our of pure, frothing fury after reading the shitty ending to the shitty, porny webnovel he’s been reading for hundreds of thousands of words. He dies cursing the lousy author and the lousy writing so he’s given a chance: step up and do it better! Which is easier said than done, when he finds himself waking up in the body of the series’ villain who is destined to be gruesomely tortured to death. Better get on that!

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea

This is the written result of a number of interviews held between Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea and she discusses her time as a Shakespearean actress. It looks into what her time working with theatre companies was like, summarizes the plays she took part in, and delivers into some fascinating character analysis of the roles she played. An absolute treasure of a book for someone who enjoyed their Shakespeare and/or Judi Dench.

Singing Hills Cycle v1-5 by Nghi Vo

Probably my favourite series that I read this year, I can’t wait for the next book! This series follows Chih and her magical bird companion who come from the Singing Hills Monastery, an order that is devoted to keep recording tales and keeping a history of the land. Chih travels all over in these various novellas, collecting stories, memories, and histories that they come across. The first book has them entering the recently unwarded palace of the late Empress to learn about her marriage, imprisonment and rise in power. The second has them trapped by a pack of tigresses with nothing to do but frantically lure them into comparing stories. 

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ten year old Ada was born with a club foot and because of it has never been allowed to leave her apartment. She lives a hard life trying to care for her younger brother and suffer through the abuses of her mother. Things change though as the Second World War truly begins and London begins to evacuate children to the country. Ada is determined — she and her brother will evacuate, they will escape their mother’s house, even if it means her learning how to walk on her club foot. Even if it means facing how different life is for unwanted slum children in the country, and confronting how much she and her brother don’t know about life. This was a very touching book, it did a great job of balancing Ada’s justifiable pain and anger with an optimistic story. Queer elements are all subtext but there — they aren’t the main focus of this story.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

This book absolutely took my breath away, it was a next level literary experience. It’s very, very solidly magical realism, so don’t go into this expecting true fantasy, everything going on here is allegorical and a beautifully done allegory at that. This story is set during the 1950s, in a time surrounding an event known as “The Mass Dragoning” when thousands of women suddenly, spontaneously, transformed into dragons and flew away. The story follows Alex Green who was a child during this event. Her aunt transformed. Her mother didn’t. Both of these things have profound impacts on Alex as she grows up, and a woman’s role in society, a woman’s anger, her joy, her desire are all questioned and explored.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Escape from Incel Island | Author: Margaret Killjoy | Publisher: Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness (2023)

[tomegnome]

Read Harder Challenge #1: Escape From Incel Island! by Margaret KillJoy

"Alright," I said. We've got this." I put on my best "were not fucked, despite all available evidence" voice. I learned that voice from my public defender, who used it to prep me for my testimony right before she failed to get me off on manslaughter charges.

I was kind of leery that the premise couldn't couldn't sustain itself for a novella-length story, but the humor doesn't rely on lambasting incels for being pathetic and misogynistic (there's is some of that, but also insight and empathy and wit). It has a lot of laugh out loud moments, thanks to the sheer absurdity and camp of the characters and plot. It kind of reminded me a bit of the stories Daria would write. I've had The Lamb will slaughter the Lion on my TBR list forever, and I def want to check it out now!!

P.S. There's also an TTRPG based on it, which is very fun.

[mitchelldailygames]

2024 Book Round-Up

I’m doing this again! These are things I read this year, not books that came out this year. They’re not in any particular order.

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross I read this book and the next from this series (the Laundry Files) this year and kind of fell in love. It’s about an agent and IT guy from a secret British agency in charge of stopping demons and other monstrosities summoned by computers from destroying the world. The horror has a very cosmic/eldritch vibe. I also find it quite funny with almost Pratchett-like dry humor, though with a pitch black coat of paint on it. Office politics is also a big part of the stories, but resolved in much more grisly ways than hopefully you’d find in your workplace. There are a lot of books in this series, so I have a lot to look forward to.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert Just finished this one. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. A lot of the book happens inside Paul’s head or through political conversations, but I felt the story still moved along well and had interesting twists and turns. The weirdness of the Dune universe also takes a big step forward which I appreciated here. You could leave the first book still debating if Paul still fits in the typical white savior narrative, and this book shatters that really effectively.

Erasure by Percival Everett I think I heard about this one from an interview with the author on the On the Media podcast. The basic premise is a Black author is critically well-received but not commercially because he writes experimental fiction that publishers and distributors find to be not reflective enough of the African-American experience (something that he’s not trying to write about). He hits a point when he needs money after tragedy hits his family and is frustrated by the market and writes a book about a young man in the hood full of stereotypes that he intends as a scathing parody of other books that are selling well. Minor spoilers, people love the book and take it as an authentic look at the African-American experience. This was more experimental than I was expecting—the entirety of the terrible book the character writes is in this novel—but I found it really compelling. The tension in the last scene had my heart hammering.

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller Another book that landed on my list by way of podcast a long time ago, this book is part biography of ichthyologist David Starr Jordan, part memoir, and part critical examination of taxonomy, eugenics, and the western obsession with classification and hierarchy. It’s a pretty beautiful work that I find myself thinking about and referencing quite often.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Want a fantasy book that’s about all rogues? This is that book. It’s a crime/heist thriller in a really well-built world. There’s a great mix of high highs and low lows in this book (warning, it gets dark), and it uses tension really well. The heisting and scheming is all really fun, the magic and monsters of the world are really cool balancing an overall pretty harrowing story.

Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus OK, like most of these I heard about on a podcast. Jamie Loftus has been one of the most common voices coming through my speakers/headphones this year and she narrates the audiobook for her book. This book is about hot dogs, told through a cross country hotdog tour. It’s also about the meat industry, COVID, a relationship at its end, and America’s relationship with consumption. It’s very well written and a good encapsulation of what I love about Jamie’s brand of journalism and storytelling.

Escape from Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy Margaret Killjoy is another favorite person to listen to/read. This book is a pretty short, pulpy romp about a future where all of the incels get tricked by the government into getting trapped on an island and a woman and a non-binary mercenary who are sent to the island and then have to escape. It’s violent, sometimes scary, but doesn’t take that side of itself too seriously. Woven through are some really compassionate and poignant examinations of gender, masculinity, and the complexity of people.

Reading Now/On the Shelf I’m currently reading Lessons in Birdwatching by Honey Watson and loving it. It’s a really cool far-future sci-fi book about research students stationed on a planet where the residents appear to experience time nonlinearly. It will probably be the first book I finish in 2025 and will show up on this list next year.

Also on the shelf are The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy which is marketed as a young adult fantasy novel and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, the author of A Psalm for the Wild-Built which I read last year. I’m really looking forward to both!

[wastemanjohnmain]

i'm so disgusted with a certain subset of british society.

what's being lost here is that three little girls - children with ages in the single fucking digits - are dead because of a sick individual who was born in cardiff and happens to be of rwandan descent.

which is entirely irrelevant. what is relevant is the southport stabbing was an attack on - very, very specifically - children.

the quiet part that's not being said out loud is that it was primarily an attack on female children.

but that gets lost, doesn't it?

it gets lost when someone decides that this welsh born man is a Muslim immigrant (which is untrue but still irrelevant even if he was). it gets lost when blatant disinformation is being spread by many many dodgy sources but dave the gammon willfully decides to take it as gospel anyway. it gets lost even when the suspect's name and identifying information is released, despite him being a minor, in the public interest, to stop this misinformation being spread.

it gets lost when dave the gammon has an "excuse" to take to the streets. it gets lost when dave the gammon starts parroting "stop the boats" (he doesn't know what it means) and "we want our country back" (because this ailing island belongs to him personally). it gets lost when dave the gammon gets to unleas all that misplaced and hatred fuelled anger by throwing a brick at a mosque or two. because in dave the gammon's mind - something's given him an excuse to tell us who he is.

it's given him an excuse to attack the Muslim community who are just trying to live their lives. to attack the refugees who are escaping horrors that dave the gammon is lucky enough to never be able to imagine.

how the FUCK are we twisting this violent, senseless and misogynistic act to make it about immigration?? how the FUCK can these people be so cruel to the families left behind who are going through unimaginable pain already?

how the FUCK has it come to this?

violence against women and girls has - finally - been declared a national emergency in the uk. i don't see any of these "protestors" even acknowledging that. i didn't see anyone rioting last month after the bushey attack which was fucking horrific. because the perpetrator was a white british man perhaps?

were there violent riots when white british incel jake davison killed five people including his own mother and a three year old girl in 2021?

dave the gammon doesn't care about the female victims of violence in this country. he "wants his country back." he wants the "foreigners to stop taking our jobs." he kisses his posters of nigel farage and andrew tate every night with tongue.

dave the gammon catcalls women on the streets. dave the gammon asks what she was wearing. dave the gammon finds rape jokes hilarious. dave the gammon asks what she did to deserve it.

dave the gammon drives all the hatred in this country. towards refugees. towards the Muslim community. towards women.

dave the gammon can't see that he's the problem.

of course we should be angry. but that anger needs to be directed at a society that enables and permits hatred and violence towards women and girls. towards refugees and immigrants. towards ethnic and religious minorities. towards sexual and gender minorities.

i am angry. i have never been so angry in my life. you should be too.

RIP Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice Dasilva Aguiar. please don't forget the names of these innocent little girls in all of this.

[greatwyrmgold]

The Shonen Jump app just* posted a few Tatsuki Fujimoto one-shots. Irreverent thoughts:

*as of when I queued this, probably a couple weeks ago by the time you see it

I appreciate this cop's honesty.

Jokes aside, "A Couple Chickens were Clucking in the Schoolyard" is definitely a weird one. It's a story about a world invaded by human-eating aliens, which ends with one of the main characters escaping to a survivor encampment despite this typical policeman...and epilogue narration noting that humanity went extinct soon anyways. It's more bittersweet than it sounds, focusing on how human and alien briefly coexisted, but it's still fkin bleak.

I wonder if Fujimoto deliberately picked two of the three* Olympians who couldn't care less about doki-dokis.

*Both of them, if you don't count Hestia as an Olympian, which some sources didn't.

Anyways, this one-shots has an incel school shooter as its antagonist. I'm not even exaggerating.

This one has a more unambiguously happy ending, probably the happiest in any Fujimoto manga. That's what I thought, until I read...

I wonder whether Kaguya-sama: Love Is War had any influence on Love Is Blind. The sheer intensity of this student council president trying to confess his love to his right-hand woman definitely feels Kaguya-sama, even though the obstacles are completely different.

Aside from the alien announcing Earth's demolition for the purpose of building a galactic highway. That, um. That feels like a plot point from a different nerdy comedy series written on an island.

Anyways, the love confession makes the alien demolitionist feel awkward and leave, so I guess the day is saved.

And the fourth one is Shikaku, which I've already read and posted about. Though I do have a couple new thoughts about the heroine.

First, her backstory, where she struggles to understand social conventions and others' expectations for her (and gets punished for that failure), feels...familiar. She grows up to be an awkward hitwoman who plucks out people's eyes for leering at her, and the first thing we see her do is tear the legs off a spider, so it seems like that callousness is being attributed to the neurodivergence rather than the abuse, but...there's something there that a different, longer story could build on.

Anyways, my second point is that she looks like a young Makima.

She does, right? It's not just me?

[dire-straits-fn8ic]

love my cousin and i’m appreciative of his DMing in DnD but he’s never been a player and he really loves fantasy and loves storytelling but doesn’t much care for deeper meaning in a story. he’s passionate that a major flaw in Lord of the Rings is that Frodo shouldn’t be the main character because he’s not getting more powerful like he should as per the Hero’s Journey.

and it feels like we’ve been dropped into a world with the objective of “be a hero and save the world”. and the world is plagued by a series of eviler and eviler evildoers and we’re on our third alternate dimension and everyone wants to kill us and get back to the main world and take it over

and it’s a pretty cool world he’s made but i don’t think he knows what to do with it. 

in our first session some corpses around town were reanimating and attacking the town, and we were working with the mayor who wanted us to check it out and its relation to the weird purple magic that was emerging from the island that the queen had taken an army to a couple years prior and she and the army had never been seen again. and the mayor is continually a dick and deliberately pushing the buttons that should anger my character. we have a scuffle and he throws us in the arena. we escape and steal a boat

after a bunch of island hopping and fighting some pirates and some saving the day we make it to the island with the magic storm, defeat the corpse of the queen at the top of the mountain, and a portal opens up

next arc we go through the portal and end up in an alternate version of the world. the ruler in this world is a nobody from the queen’s army, he’s got an artifact that can do anything he wants but it doesn’t have any effect that can last into the main world. he wants to take over the main world.

after some more island hopping, some dimension hopping, defeating a demogorgon, etc, the Ascended One wants to be our friend and rule the world together. he seems like almost a nice guy but also totally sucks and will not change his ways or anything. we just want to let him live and make him not be a terrible incel dictator but he insists and fights us to the death and we use the artifact to destroy the artifact. end up back in the main world.

at this point i want to make a new character because i made a one dimensional character about 9 months prior and was ready to retire her. and he said No but i convinced him to at least try to kill her off. he never got close.

arc 3 back in the main world we’re now being magically tracked, by the annoying mayor’s nearly invincible crony. we try to hide away but cant. the mayor is colluding with dark forces to take over the world. we defeat him and he transports us to the first layer of hell

arc 4 we’re in hell and everyone we encounter is terrible. child murderers with fucked up senses of retribution. rapists. my character is a tiefling from hell and a core part of her characterization is that she is opposed to oppressors but apparently everyone else in hell is just waiting their turn to be the oppressor. the Ascended one is here. he works for a different queen now and she wants to go back to the main world and take it over and be evil. it’s unclear what the mayor is doing but he was working with this queen and it’s unclear if he ended up here too. not really being given any new plot hooks or railroading but we ended up wandering towards the queen’s lair looking for clues and we fought the Ascended One and killed him again

[czolgusszy]

Escape from Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy - almost a short story and not a novella. It felt at the same time like a low budget, hi-octane 80's action movie and like a Saturday morning cartoon. Honestly that's exactly the vibe I want from books forever, now that I know it's possible. I'm a big fan of the protagonist who felt like Arnold Schwartzeneggar if he was a nonbinary feminist, and the supporting characters all felt like people you might meet online, who just happened to be stuck on an island full of sci fi weapons and CHUDs. It was silly and entertaining schlock, right up until the last two heartbreaking pages. Suffice to say, as spoiler-free as I can, that not everybody managed to "Escape from Incel Island."

[wetleavesandfeathers]

Books I Read in 2023

Nonfiction:

"Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller

"Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble" by Daniel Lyons

"Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us" by Daniel Lyons

"Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington" by James Kirchick

"Token Black Girl" by Danielle Prescod

"The Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler

"Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II" by Liza Mundy

"The Devian's War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America" by Eric Cervini

"The Family Next Door: The Heartbreaking Imprisonment of the Thirteen Turpin Siblings and their Extraordinary Rescue" by John Glatt

"Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation" by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

"Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them" by Max Cutler

"Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs" by Jamie Loftus

"The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything" by Ruth Goodman

"How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England" by Ruth Goodman

"What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat" by Aubrey Gordon

"'You Just Need to Lose Weight' and 19 Other Myths About Fat People" by Aubrey Gordon

"Hollywood's Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era" by Diana Serra Cary

"Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult" by Bruce Handy

"The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" by Cory Doctorow

Fiction

"What Moves the Dead" by T Kingfisher

"Illuminations" by T Kingfisher

"Can't Spell Treason Without Tea" by Rebecca Thorne

"Coffee, Milk and Spider Silk" by Coyote JM Edwards

"Legends & Lattes" by Travis Baldree

"Unbury the Bones" by Coyote JM Edwards

"Chase: The Boy Who Hid" by Z Jeffries

"Encore in Death" by J. D. Robb

"Escape from Incel Island" by Margaret Killjoy

"The Bookshop and the Barbarian" by Morgan Stang

"A House With Good Bones" by T Kingfisher

"Sorcery & Scones" by S. R. Meadows

"Humans Wanted" edited by Vivian Caethe

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler

"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle

"Boneless" by Coyote JM Edwards

"Red White and Royal Blue" by Casey McQuiston

"Toad Words" by T Kingfisher

"Camp Damascus" by Chuck Tingle

"The Halcyon Fairy Book" by T Kingfisher

"Jackalope Wives and Other Stories" by T Kingfisher

"A Killer's Game" by Isabella Maldonado

"Payback in Death" by J. D. Robb

[aliciavance4228]

You guys might think that this is just me pissing off Apollo Stans by offending their favourite cutie patootie, but if you actually think about it:

Hephaestus ended up being married with Aglaea, with whom he has four daughters according to the Orphic Rhapsodies. Not to forget Hesiod's Theogony, where she is mentioned as his first and only wife.

Meanwhile, Apollo not only that was rejected by way more women than him, but he didn't hesitate to punish them for that either. When Ocyrrhoe tried to left her island with a boat in order to escape from him, he turned the boat to stone and the skipper into a pilot-fish. When Casandra refused to sleep with him he cursed her. When a prophetess of Kumai refused to sleep with him too he cursed her as well. Daphne literally turned herself into a tree while running from him, and the list can continue. He also has more rape attempts than Hephaestus (some of them being succesful) and he had a hard time finding a stable relationship so far.

Another aspect which characterizes incels is their tendency to blame their lack of romantic experiences on their physical appearance, when in reality it's rather because of their personality and personal beliefs. Hephaestus was actually marginalized due to his disability, whereas the women who tried to escape from Apollo clearly didn't do that because he looks like a Discord Mod.

Conclusion: Stop putting modern labels on deities that were worshipped thousands of years ago.

How am I going to explain to people who consider Hephaestus to be an Incel that Apollo falls into more Incel stereotypes than him?

[noahsbookhoard]

📚 Hi! I'm Noah avid reader since age 6 and always happy to discuss books! 📚

I read almost all genre with sweet tooth for fantasy and sci-fi. I also have a growing interest in murder mystery and horror. Lots of queer fiction. I'm also catching up on my classics.

Mostly adult and some young adult but I have enjoy middle grade from time to time.

I read in both english and french, english not being my first language but I'm pretty much fluent.

Yearly book count : 25

Last finished reading

Mangez le si vous voulez by Jean Teulé

Reading in progress

Porcelaine sous les ruines by Ada Vivalda

Carmilla by J Sheridan LeFanu

Already read this year (in reverse chronological order)

Persephone's Choice by Yihan Sim

The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes (Hunger Games #0) by Suzanne Collins

Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Sauter des gratte-ciel by Julia Von Lucadou

Peau d'homme (Man's Skin) by Hubert and Zanzim

Ruined by S Vaughn, S W Searle and N Smith

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed

The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms #3) by Tasha Suri

Escape Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy

These Deathless Bones by Cassandra Khaw

What Matter of Man by St John Starling

Les serres sous le velours noir by Charlène Ferlay

Cent ans de solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Les chants de Nüying by Émilie Querbalec

The Unwanted Guest (The Locked Tomb's short story) by Tamsyn Muir

Cent millions d'années et un jour by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

Yellowface by R F Kuang

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Les Guerriers de l'hiver by Olivier Norek

You Look Like Death, Tales From the Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way

Le Crime de l'Orient-Express by Agatha Christie

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Les Fourneaux de Crachemort by Raphaël Bardas

[carriagelamp]

By and large I was very satisfied with my books from this month. Read some books that were Goofy As Fuck (affectionate) this month, as well as some excellent nonfiction

Beware of Chicken

I get to kick this month off by being a hater. I was really disappointed in this book. A friend completely loves the series and was convinced it was right up my alley, so I'd gotten it on really high recommendation. The concept is right up my alley (protagonist lives in a cultivation setting, decides he actually hates all the violence and fighting involved in cultivation and instead fucks off to become a farmer… however his rooster then becomes a cultivator in his stead, hilarity ensues!) but the execution… woof. This is the sort of parody that rubs me the wrong way, the sort that comes across as lazy and clumsy and too mean-spirited to be appealing. 

The main character is isekai’d (another trope I don’t love as a rule) and he is just… unpleasant. He is a very Standard OP Main Character where everything he does goes well and everyone loves and reveres him with no actual work put in. The way female characters are handled sucks. The only bits I really enjoyed was the rooster’s POV and even that began to feel repetitive pretty quickly. I did not finish this book, there are better options out there.

The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish v1

Now, speaking of better books that lightly parody cultivation and isekai stories: tada! This series is ridiculous. It is very very very stupid. The writing is nothing to (hurr hurr) write home about. And I have definitely fallen in love with it, it’s good-hearted and silly in a way that feels perfect right now.

The main character, Li Yu, wakes up in a webnovel setting but rather than in the body of a character he is… a fish. The mission he’s given is to become the “tyrannical” fifth prince’s beloved pet and help him become a better person than he was in the canonical story. This whole book is some Saturday morning TV slapstick nonsense and it rocks. Li Yu is trying to be Very Sneaky And Cunning and fails it at every possible step. He is very obviously Not A Fish... however it just so happens that his new master knows so little about fish or pets that he’s just shrugging and going along with things. I’m very much looking forward to continuing the series.

Escape from Incel Island

I was in a independent book store and this was sitting out on a shelf. I was physically incapable of walking by this and not buying it. So here we are. This is the most deranged little novella you could possibly ask for, and I read it out loud with my girlfriend (while waiting in traffic) and later with my brother. It’s impossible not to laugh.

This story follows Manslaughter Jones, ruthless mercenary, and Dr Morrison who have been sent to the notorious Incel Island to retrieve lost government data. Along the way they team up with a group of Nice Guys, need to fight their way through dangerous forests and hordes of enemies while surrounded by a continual and extravagant spray of blood. What sort of people who were lured to an island prison with the promise of their very own woman upon arrival? You'll soon find out! This is obviously a parody of online incel culture and guns-blazing action movies, with just enough societal commentary to make it feel worth reading.

Honestly, if you want a book that jumps the shark from page one and is unapologetic about it, it's a very fun read. Highly recommend finding someone with a sense of humour to read it aloud with.

The God & the Flightless Messenger

A cute little manga that I was gifted. It’s set on a mountain where gods come and go, inhabiting the various peaks. They’re cared for by winged messengers, who tend to their needs and ensure they aren’t contaminated with chaos. Shin is a messenger whose wings never grew in properly, who can’t fly and doesn’t have a god to serve — until now. He’s sent down to the lowest mountain peak where a strange, new furball-of-a-god has appeared, one that seems to not just attract chaos to it but which seeks it out…

An Illustrated History of Urban Legends

A very chill nonfiction book about different aspects of urban legends, from ghost stories to cryptids to aliens. Written for a younger audience in mind, this is mainly just an introduction to the concept, but it’s well-written with a reasonably skeptical bend that points out conspiracy theories plainly. As an adult I found it worth reading just to enjoy the art that fills every page!

Old Wounds

This novel was… fine. Erin and Max, two trans teens, are determined to drive west to California, where they can attend college and live a more open life than they do in their small hometown. Things begin to go wrong though when they find themselves stranded in rural America, surrounded by not just small town bigots but potentially something much more deadly in the woods.

This is billed as a fairly classic “townsfolk sacrifice outsiders to the local monster” type of story, which I enjoy, but it fell short on the actual horror elements. There was no point where I was actually scared or worried for their well-being — it was fairly obvious that these two were safely shrouded in plot armour. However the story itself wasn’t bad. If you’re interested more in an interpersonal drama with a dash of light peril and horror elements on the side, you might enjoy this. If you want something that’s actually scary, try something else.

The Poison Squad

Absolutely phenomenal nonfiction, contender for my favourite book this month. This book delves into the history of the American FDA, and looks at the absolutely nightmarish landscape that existed when companies were allowed to put whatever the fuck they wanted into food completely indiscriminately and without telling anyone about it. All those people who want unpasteurized milk? Wanna know how they used to preserve it long enough to ship to the cities? Fill it with formaldehyde and some chalk powder to make it look white. Enjoy!! There was something very satisfying about watching such a dedicated fight for stricter regulations and consumer protection, mixed with just enough horror at what was being shoved into foods.

It has since been making me side-eye both a) food, and b) absolutely anything that tries to weaken governmental food regulations. Considering the political landscape, it really just makes this book all the more worth reading. On top of the fascinating topic, Deborah Blum has a very enjoyable, narrative writing style that makes it a very easy and enjoyable read (coming from me, who isn’t overly fond of nonfiction in general).

The Poisoner’s Handbook

After finishing Poison Squad I wanted to read more by Deborah Blum and found this. You can definitely see how Poison Squad grew out of the initial research that must have gone into The Poisoner’s Handbook. This nonfiction book is set during the Jazz Age, all around the time of Prohibition, and follows Charles Norris who becomes New York’s first appointed Chief Medical Examiner who pioneers the field of forensic medicine. He plays a pivotal roll in showing how rigorous scientific testing can be used to discern toxicity in humans, solve crimes, protect innocent people from wrongful accusations, and campaign for better safety regulations of poisonous substances. Not quite as well-written as Poison Squad imo, but a very compelling topic.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Read in honour of Rememberance Day. This is a book I vaguely remembered reading in elementary school, and decided to revisit. It’s just a tiny little chapter book, about a twenty minute read if even, but it hits hard. I remember sobbing as I read it as a kid, and I didn’t fare much better as an adult. It’s a fictionalized account of a real Japanese girl, Sadako, who was born just after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It follows her eventual diagnosis with leukemia and the slow death that follows. A very powerful anti-war story, superb if you want to traumatize any young children in your life ♥

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System v4

The final book of the Scum Villain Self-Saving System series, though the main story concluded in book 3. This book was entirely filled with additional “bonus stories” and honestly it’s just convinced me that more series should do this. There was something really fantastic about getting to neatly wrap up the series in book 3, but then still having some extra adventures, both pre-, mid-, and post-canon. Some of my favourites included the story that focused on side characters Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun and how their relationship evolved over the course of the series, some additional lore for my boy Zhuzhi-Lang, as well as a very amusing “de-age” story in which Luo Binghe finds himself in a child’s body though with all his usual memories and feelings. Shen Qingqiu has to deal with a pseudo-toddler who is capable of wholesale destruction — one who Is Not Happy about being mistaken for Shen Qingqiu’s child, and who wants people to stop propositioning this “single father” already, he is right here!!! These stories were mostly fun and silly with a few heart-wrenching ones mixed in for good measure.

The Swiss Family Robinson

A children’s classic that I’ve always meant to get around to. It was published in 1812??? I had no idea it was actually that old! Though man, once you start reading it You Can Tell...

For those who somehow don’t know the premise, The Swiss Family Robinson is about a (Swiss) family (named Robinson) who are shipwrecked near a deserted island. They then have to make their way to shore and figure out a way to survive. You see them meet all sorts of animals, scavenge for supplies, and build up a home on their island paradise.

Now, as far as it coming out in 1812… I can see why this would appeal to people at the time. It was a power-fantasy set during a time when sea exploration was The Hot Thing. There were all sorts of exotic animals! It tried to offer up what was probably New And Exciting Science! Unfortunately, from a 2024 lens, it is all completely insane and wrong. Kangaroos, buffalos, ostriches, jackals, elephants, vultures, anacondas… the entire world is condensed onto this singular island! Don’t even get started on the plantlife! And every single animal here is destined to be hunted and shot. We are very gun-happy in this book. 

My other main condemnation of the book (because let’s be honest, the science can be forgiven when the time period is taken into account) is that it is profoundly boring. There are no big problems. There is no difficulty. If a problem arises, it’s easily and perfectly solved by the father within the same paragraph. It makes for a slightly surreal reading experience and not one I'm eager to repeat. I've heard the Disney version at least includes pirates so I might try watching that, just so this boring as fuck colonialist narrative can get spiced up a little...

When Women Were Dragons

Hands down the best written book I’ve read this month which I was not expecting. I’ve seen this book’s name get bandied about, but always with pretty mixed reviews. Well, after finishing the book and diving into the goodreads comments to see what the heck people are going on about, I’ve concluded that the reading comprehension on this site is worse than I imagined.

So, from the top, let me make it abundantly clear: this is not a fantasy adventure. It will not read like a fantasy adventure. It is, arguably, not even fantasy! Despite the dragons! This book is 100% an example of pure, uncut magical realism and it has to be read allegorically. If you are reading this literally, I’m sorry but you are reading it wrong and I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t enjoy it.

This story is set during the 1950s, in a time surrounding an event known as “The Mass Dragoning” when thousands of women suddenly, spontaneously, transformed into dragons and flew away. The story follows Alex Green who was a child during this event. Her aunt transformed. Her mother didn’t. Both of these things have profound impacts on Alex as she grows up, and a woman’s role in society, a woman’s anger, her joy, her desire are all questioned and explored. What does it mean for someone to stay, for someone to leave, and for someone to be left behind? What does the transition between first and second wave feminism look like? It is a heavy book but beautifully written and incredibly poignant. So many times I was left in speechless awe. This is really a masterpiece, and if you like dissecting literary works I can’t recommend it enough.

This Months Notable Absentee:

Whoops, I was doing Dracula Daily and completely forgot about it during the long slow section after the October whammy, so I did not end up finishing it on time.... 🫠 expect that on Decembers book round up!

[jonasgoonface]

FINALLY I CAN SHOW OFF THE COOLEST BOOK COVER I’VE EVER DONE!

Preorder for Margaret Killjoy’s newest novella is up at the Stangers in a Tangled Wilderness website! All preorders come with a free limited color poster of the cover THAT I DID with my own two dirty hands! The preorder lasts until February 1st when the book is released. 

[writingsofwesteros]

rockstar Daemon! Part 2 please!!

Maybe instead of returning reader, Daemon takes her with him on his World Tour! The two always fucking in different places and getting caught by the paps! Viserys seeing the pics and news but helpless since his daughter is just too enamored and cock crazy for Daemon! Some hints of incel!Cole (she had rejected him cause she wanted to become a nun or something. And Daemon changed that in one night lol), fanatic Alicent and Otto! Plzzzz part 2!! More the innocent reader, more the fun!!!

AN: Hi, I hope you like it x

Added request: "Mindbreak: Loves watching you completely loose it as he draws orgasm after orgasm from you. He'll leave you with a toy strapped to your pussy whilst he does his show." please?

NSFW

You have lost count of the amount of times you had cum or how long it had been since Daemon had left you in the hotel room. The large suit was spacious but you knew the sheets underneath you were ruined. Your legs shook at the intense pleasure building inside you once more as the toy sat on its highest setting.

He had passionately captured your lips with a dark chuckle before leaving you alone in the pleasure. Your mind was completely softening and you wondered why you had thought being a nun was a good idea. Gods, you would have missed out on so much, you thought to yourself as your hands clutched at the headboard; your wrists tied up with a silk tie.

You missed the unlocking of the door and the soft footsteps of Daemon returning back to you. Gods, and what a sight you were, he thought to himself as he watched you close in on a release. You squirted around the toy whilst crying out without care. He had ruined you so perfectly.

“Look at you.” Daemon purred and watched how you could hardly react. A soft gasp escaped you at the pleasure at sight of him in front of you. “What a gift to come home to.” He continued as he slowly moved the toy from your soaked pussy. You still twitched and your pussy clamped around nothing. 

“Fucking beautiful.” He tapped your sensitive clit again and again whilst watching you twitch. “No, Daemon…” You babbled out, surprising yourself that you could still speak as you watched with wide eyes as he tugged on his pants. “Oh, you did not think this was over, did you?” He hummed.

“Such a selfish whore I’ve made of you.” He purred as you tugged on the ties. Daemon slowly moved until he was hovering over you. His fat, hard cock brushed against your weeping pussy had you nearly howling. It was all too much, you couldn’t…oh, “Oh, gods…oh” He slowly began to push inside.

“Good girl, taking me so well.” You should have seen this coming. Daemon was always full of energy after a show and he needed to take it out on something. That something being you now. “Fuck, so wet..and tight, how are you still this tight?” He was babbling in your ear now as his fierce thrusts continued. 

You couldn’t reply back to him. Your face was screwed up in pleasure as you stared nearly blankly at him. He pinched your clit just to hear your squealing whilst his thrusts continued. Your wetness had him slipping in and out with ease as the sound of skin slapping together echoed around the room.

His hands moved to your tied up wrists and untied you. “Good girl.” Daemon whispered his praises before leaning in and passionately capturing your soft lips. All you could do was moan and whine. Your body was shaking as he took you. His thick cock had your walls clamping down easily.

Daemon chuckled into your ear as he felt you approaching your climax. “Already?” He purred into your ear whilst you only blushed madly. Your fingers tugged on his locks as you fell apart under him. His hand moved to your hip and pushed you down whilst his thrusts only quickened; fucking you through your orgasm.

The rest of the evening was a complete blur as Daemon continued to take you through the night even as you moved in and out of consciousness. He took you from behind whilst placing you over the kitchen island. He’d already flooded your soaked, sensitive pussy but his stamina continued.

“Dae…” You whimpered out. Your legs shaking as he pounded away. “Fuck, so good.” He hummed. His hand palming at your arse; spreading your cheeks apart to watch you take him so well. You were both a complete mess as your release coated his cock that was ringed with cream.

~

The passionate love affair that keeps on giving…too much.

Daemon and the now named, Y/N Targaryen seen last night in the throws of passion. Click the link to see more.

“Gods, what is she doing?” Viserys whispered in disgust as he tried to fight off the images coming his way. “What happened to her?” He continued as the rest of the room was in silence. Criston continued to look at his phone; zooming into your face as your orgasm ripped through you.

“I should cut her off the money.” Criston was hardly listening as he only grew harder. This should have been him, he thought to himself. “That would not be a good idea, my love. She would only have Daemon then.” Alicent tried to bring calm back into the room whilst she still judged.

Viserys sighed; those were good points, he thought to himself whilst placing his head in his hands. Criston only scowled and pocketed his phone. You were such a whore now and he would have you soon. The trio watched as Viserys slowly moved from the chair and left the room silently.

“Always knew she was a whore.” Criston couldn’t stop himself whilst Alicent hummed in agreement. “Her prudish nature was a cover.” The bodyguard continued whilst Otto silently watched the film; enjoying it more than he should.

~

“Daemon..I can’t…” You whimpered breathlessly into his ear as your bare body cuddled into his side. His hand was snaked around you; toying at your too sensitive, weeping pussy as he flicked at your clit. You whined into his ear once more whilst he only hummed; scrolling through his feed.

“Shh, good girl.” Daemon hummed; circling your clit slowly as a smirk tugged on his lips at the video playing in front of him. Gently, he removed his fingers from you and hotly began to suck on them. “Here you go.” He purred as his hand moved to the back of your neck and pushed you down onto his cock. 

Your moans vibrated against him as his hips jolted for a moment before he had you do all the work. You completely missed his recording of this as he rested his head back against the headboard; completely relaxing as you warmed his cock. Gods, how had he gotten so lucky, he thought to himself.

[robinplayspokemon]

pokemon anime 1x19 "the ghost of maiden's peak" & 1x20 "bye bye butterfree"

... I'M NOT CRYING, YOU'RE CRYING.

although our heroes escaped from filler island, they still find themselves traveling through filler town on their way to saffron city.

the first episode of this little filler extension is super not one of my favorites. i mean, leaving aside the fact that it expects me to put up with brock's increasingly cringe incel bullshit for a full episode, it also expects me to believe that james is a heterosexual? honey, no. bad show! very bad.

anyway the only noteworthy thing about this episode is that it gives us the pokedex entry for gastly, one of the best pokemon. (i hate the way gastly is portrayed in this episode, though!) this is one of the most skippable episodes ever. d-rank

the second episode is decidedly not filler even though it doesn't relate to a plot point or location in the 1st gen games. this episode sees ash realizing the time has come for him to release butterfree, the first pokemon he ever caught & raised through two evolutions. the show has done a really good job of establishing just how much ash loves his butterfree up until this point, so seeing him say goodbye is a truly tearjerking moment.

... why'd she have to be pink, though??? none of the other butterfree couples are color-coded. why is ash's the only one the show felt a need to give a patronizing case of the not-gays?

seriously, though, i'm willing to shrug this off because this is one of the best episodes of the show. s-rank