#galaxy stern

[james-farrow-did-nothing-wrong]

Leigh Bardugo said today at an event that all the diverse characters she portrays come naturally at her because the world is diverse. She's not looking for a black character, a disabled one nor a queer one, they are just part of the world so they are part of the worlds she creates. She also said that what is not normal is having a story full of white hetero and abled people, reality is diverse and so are her stories.

When she was explaining this she had to stop a few times because the auditorium kept cheering at her. Hope she felt all the love the audience was trying to show.

[twobitzz]

i love when authors write women who engage in self destructive behavior to claw their way to esteem in an elitist environment when they already have twice the character and skill than those around them

[rosiethorns88]

Dropping the latest Sketch-a-Wish, voted on by my lovely Patreon members for January! Featuring a tense scene from Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo!

Spoilers for Hell Bent below!

This is one of the few examples of me putting in the WORK for the background, only because it's such a character itself. Il Bastone is a real world setting from Ninth House / Hell Bent, and even though they are scant, there were luckily a few interior photos available for me to reference to create the Virgil bedroom, where Alex and Darlington are having a tense conversation in this scene. I took some liberties on the design but a lot of the structures, accents and patterns were either pulled from the interiors or exterior facade of the Anderson Mansion. (especially the stained glass windows and painted tile fireplace!).

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the painting over the fireplace to capture a small world-building segment from Hell Bent that I think has a modest symbolism of Alex's and Darlington's new relationship here. A fun little puzzle for those who want to try to research it!

[i-read-and-then-i-draw]

“He’d told himself he was giving her a chance, being fair to this girl who had washed up on his shore. But he’d let himself think of her as someone who had made all of the wrong choices and stumbled down the wrong path.

It hadn’t occurred to him that she was being chased.”

another year, another reread of Ninth House

[academtits]

Darlingstern moments that play in a ceaseless loop in my head, Vol. I

The fact that Alex was sweaty as fuck the first time they met and made Darlington roll up her sleeve to check for track marks

Darlingtons prudish shock when Alex takes her shirt off in front of him

The fact that they got shitfaced and broke a bunch of Lethe glassware??? Like she got Mr. Lethe to be like “fuck the rules”? And they passed out in the parlor???

Alex’s foot/hand/arm fetish

When Darlington complimented her Queen Mab costume, then said “didn’t someone say love is a shared delusion?” And “two people reciting the same spell”

Darlington getting annoyed when some guy hits on her

The “incident”

His heart hurting for the wanting of someone

The fact that Alex literally has constant imaginary conversations with him and everything reminds her of him and she always assesses how he would feel about her actions

[breathofstorm]

This is where you belong. This is where you were meant to bloom. Don't roll your eyes, Galaxy. Not every flower belongs in every garden.

— Leigh Bardugo, Ninth House.

[slightlysadfilter]

There is something so comforting about Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, despite the abundance of trauma, gore and eerie stuff.

Take Il Bastone; the existence itself of a sentient house that worries about you, in a world where magic is grotesque and raw.

Dawes's warming meals.

The architecture! The beauty of New Haven, the art.

For how fucked it is, you never see Alex complaining because she has met worse. Because even among demons, and bloody rituals, and uptight professors, she's at least surrounded by beauty and comfort. That same feeling passes unto the readers, it truly is magical to read Ninth House.

[heartofwolves]

Ninth House, page 152

Hell Bent, page 462

[remusfinglupin]

Alex: We all have our demons.

Alex, grabbing Darlington: This one’s mine.

[flashbastardsramblings]

Hell Bent posed a very important question which is “Is Darlington still fuckable now that he's part demon?” To which the answer is, of course, yes.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

“How was Spain?” “Hotter than expected”

Oh this man, I love this man

[bogwitchbooks]

Everything is serious until Darlington’s glowing demon dick makes an appearance

[wingedshadowfan]

um. hell bent (ninth house sequel) spoilers ahead.

darlington has implied anger issues, alcohol problems, a dirty mind, insatiable curiosity, a hyperfixation on the arcane, he's a murderer and he doesn't regret it - he's basically always sinned. he's always been a little bad.

it's not that only now that he's part-demon he has to wrestle with this ominous darker being that's lurking inside him. it's always been a part of him (part of every human being i'd like to argue), he's just been able to shut it out, control it better, compartmentalize (as one does), and now he has no choice but to let it free, free himself from his own inhibitions

But as he was not quite human any longer, he supposed a more flexible approach to morality was called for.

he's intelligent enough to realize he basically has to learn to deal with the fact that he's now powerless to the urges of his own demons, pun intended

this is what i want to see in a future book, not him struggling to hold back or trying to school himself into an image of goodness and perfection, because he's always done that! i want him to let go, absolutely lose it and be unapologetically unhinged and sinister, kind of like how alex is but worse

[a-library-ghost]

“I’m the Wheelwalker. You have no idea what I can do.”

feral hell bent galaxy stern doodle

[caprifiles]

she’d thought of herself as a survivor, but she’d been no better than a beaten dog, snapping and snarling in any attempt to stay alive.

[academtits]

Darlington, Daniel Tabor Arlington V, Danny, Virgil, gentleman of Lethe, golden boy of Lethe, shepherd, knight, gentleman demon, glowstick, just a man, servant with a sword in his hand,