#gideons character development was so good in the books

[boookfreeak]

YES ESPECIALLY THE SECOND PART

I really didn't like the movie version, it was so much more dramatic and fun in the books

Also another point I'd like to add:

The scene in Ruby Red where Gwen sees a future self of herself kissing Gideon and they just never talked about it again in the movies?!? It was so fun reading Emerald Green, reaching that part and going "OOOH RIGHT that happened. Cool!"

two scenes that I would've loved to see in the e.merald green adaption:

the one with the family picnic in gwen's room, with her family + gideon & leslie. idk it was so cute & gwen was so happy to have most of the people she loves in a room together 🥺 also the gideon & leslie banter afterwards!!

the plot twist that it was gideon himself who knocked his younger self out in 1912 (in book 2) & him calling himself an idiot during that scene multiple times fudjdjdndjsjskz

[cairavende]

My wonderful girlfriend got me Gideon the Ninth for Christmas and I realized why should I just give Worm recaps? Let's read some Locked Tomb! (We'll see how this format works, maybe I'll adjust it. Specifically might break stuff down into smaller segments instead of full acts, but I didn't think of doing this until after I had read all of act 1.)

Gideon the Ninth Act 1 (chapter 1 through 8) thoughts:

This book is so gay oh my god

Like, it's gay in ways I can't even explain. I love it.

Harrow beats the shit out of Gideon in chapter 2 and I don't know if I've ever seen someone get beat up in a more gay way.

"Oh Griddle! But I don't even remember about you most of the time." ROLL A FUCKING DECEPTION CHECK HARROW! You are saying this standing in the middle of the field you spent all night burying bones in just to foil her escape in the most dramatic way. You can't stop remembering her.

Gideon is the most herbo of herbos. I fucking love her. I love reading her PoV. She just knows punch and stab with sword and if those don't work than she'll just do them harder.

Also Gideon is SO fucking gay. Dear god. Dulcinea faints and Gideon turns off all though. HELP PRETTY GIRL. Nothing else.

Ok I could just make this whole thing "EVERYTHING IS GAY" but there is technically more than that.

I love how weird everything is and how little explanation is given. I don't want pages of exposition, I want to learn the world as it comes at me! This is perfect.

And just the very nature of things that seem weird not being given more than a passing thought in the book is information. Something may seem wild to the reader but it's so normalized to the characters that they wouldn't even think about the idea of it being different.

Lack of explanation also helps really show how much of a meathead Gideon is. Do the readers get to learn details about this thing? Only if it is a weapon, has tits, or Gideon is forced to listen while Harrow explains it. Otherwise no, why the fuck would Gideon spend her precious few brain cells on thinking?

And even if Gideon is forced to listen as Harrow explains it, the readers might not learn much cause Gideon might stop listening. I love her.

Aiglamene is wonderful. Crux is fine but I like her more.

Poor Gideon just wants a big sword that she can swing hard. It's not like she can't use a rapier. But why when she can go big sword?

SO MUCH CATHOLICISM

As someone who once was Catholic and then realized I was actually not a straight man, but instead a lesbian, I am in deep.

And the fucking slang used! Or whatever would be the right term. The shit they say! I love it. Just the weird sci-fi far future space necromancer universe and then suddenly "Are you asking me to . . . throw her a bone?", "Gideon had always known that this would be how she went: gangbanged to death by skeletons.", "Don’t hypothetically shove stuff up my butt again, it never does any good.", "Lo! A destructed ass.", "Well we were developing common sense, she studied the blade.", "Double Bones with Doctor Skelebone."

House of the First appears to be Earth. I kinda assume the House of the Ninth is Pluto, even though things obviously aren't in order given that the Seventh and Sixth are closer to the sun. Of course, I'm kinda expecting this to not technically be this solar system at all.

Undying Emperor, King of Resurrection, I Have Ten-Thousand Titles, Boss First, etc etc hasn't been on "Earth" in over nine thousand years. I wanna know MORE.

And the fucking Ninth House has their own prayer! Everyone else has one that the Ninth didn't know and then the Ninth had one that no one else knows! GIMME MORE!!!!

Also again, so many Catholicism metaphors or comparisons or whatever!

I could go on forever but gonna end this one with OH MY GOD SHE FOUND SUNGLASSES I LOVE HER. Fucking "I came prepared, my sweet." and "But then you couldn't have admired . . . these!" as she whips on the sunglasses. God. I nearly died.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

⚔️⚔️ Sword gays showdown, grand finale ⚔️

*Camilla fanart by @friendamedes, used with permission

Propaganda:

For Camilla:

she prefers dual-wielding two short blades but can fight with pretty much anything. she's ambidextrous she's autistic she's even sex-repulsed ace. she sighs longingly when reunited with her weapons. she's from planet academia and dresses like an off-duty librarian. literally one of the most iconic moments of the entire series is when she gets challenged to a duel and absolutely wipes the floor with her opponent even though she doesn't even like rapiers that much. 'swords don't lie.' 

OK I’m sure you’re getting just about every character from The Locked Tomb but Cam is my favorite. She's a nerd AND a jock. She is in this deeply intense and loving and unhealthily codependent soulbond partnership with her best friend second cousin and prince. She is smart and deadpan snarky and fights like a grease fire and I have never been able to get that line out of my head.

For Gideon:

she's incredibly good w/ her two hander and less good with her rapier but she's still pretty good!! she is a horny lesbian who's taste in women seems to exclusively be "girls who have tried or are going to try to kill her". she's a redhead. i love her

Gideon’s a HUGE Butch lesbian and literally always wanted to use a broad sword. Specifically a broad sword. She said fuck rapiers. Uhhh literally dies to save the girl she cares for and the sword she uses then becomes like an altar for said girl. Gideon Nav Supremacy <3

oh she is the most badass swordswoman lesbian in media. she’s her gf’s cavalier, defends her in battle, she’s incredibly butch and buff

C'mon shes THE sword lesbian like... canonically 

Loves her broadsword more than anything on her home planet and practices whenever she can. Spoiler it’s possessed by her mom. Gave everything so her best enemy could eat her soul and become the new saint. The character of all time child of two separate threesomes, child of the god emperor, she’s dead, she’s butch, she’s a dork, she’s doomed by the narrative. She’s my favorite.

girlie is literally the swordswoman supreme. she’s the cavalier primary to her necromancer. she has a fuckoff huge longsword. she gets absorbed into another person SPECIFICALLY to swordfight for them. in a gay way too.

While everyone else was developing common sense, she studied the blade. This dyke's main weapon and true love is the long sword, but she's also passable with a rapier. The sword is, in her own estimation, pretty much all she's good for. That and her smoking hot bod and terribly charming sense of humor. 

"While we were developing common sense, she studied the blade." (Direct quote from the book). She's the most useless lesbian to ever exist, and she's obsessed with an absolute wet cat of a woman. Learned longsword mostly on her own and is such a genius with the sword she learned rapier in a few months (by personal experience, it's really really hard)

Most badass broadsword wielding lesbian easily slaying bone monsters and evil space wasps

The cavalier to her necromancer. very gay. in a complicated codependant lovehate relationship with the only other person her age she knew growing up.

For Xena:

It is HER! The OG woman with a blade! 

Her show was so iconic that any lesbian over the age of 30 knows her IMMEDIATELY because this show probably helped her have her awakening. Fandom foremothers and fathers rise up and get your gal a title.

An all around badass, bisexual woman, comfortable with many different bladed weapons. Her show was so much better than Hercules people forget his exists.

Xena is one of the OGs: once a baddie who turned good, she's a warrior who uses swords, daggers, and her trusty chakram to defeat evil and defend the innocent, while traveling with her kickass girlfriend Gabrielle. 

She has many skills

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: sapphic romance for people who like Hannibal and Interwiev with the Vampire, aka fucked up and toxic

Enemies to lovers, lovers to enemies, fucked up power imbalances, manipulations, plain bad people doing bad things - if you like your sapphics a little bit dark check out these books!

Some of these end happily, some tragically, some are more will-they-won’t-they than full on romance, some focus on healing while others focus on Getting Worse, but they’re all very juicy.

For details on the books, continue under the readmore

Feel free to recommend more books in tags and comments!

Othe book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding

Really cool sci-fi worldbuilding

Mermaid books

Vampire books

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

Young Adult. tumblr classic back in the day! A trainer of sea monsters genetically engineered to protect ships from pirates is kidnapped by, you guessed it, pirates, one of whom happens to be very hot.

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

While my feelings on Escaping Exodus were mixed, it cannot be denied that the dynamic between the two leads and the way they go from childhood best friends to enemies on different sides of a class and power struggle is very delicious. It also features some really cool worldbuilding of living, alien generation spaceships and the human culture that has developed inside them.

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

This book fucked me up when I read it. It’s weird, it's gross, there’s So Much Viscera, there are literally no men, it has living spaceships and biotech but in the most horrific way imaginable. Had I to categorize it I would call it grimdark military sf. It’s an experience but not necessarily a pleasant one.

The Lumionus Dead by Caitlin Starling

Possibly one of the most unsettling books I've ever read, and definitely the most claustrophobic. Gyre, a caver on an alien planet, ventures into the dark and dangerous underground, guided only by a woman who has no compunctions on using and manipulating Gyre as she sees fit to obtain her secretive goals down in the caves.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

On the less toxic and fucked up side of the spectrum, but still pretty juicy. A princess held captive by her own brother, who wants to see her dead, tries to trick a servant into helping her escape, but with undeniable attraction growing between them and the servant having her own goals things quickly get complicated.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Listen, if you're on tumblr I probably don't need to explain this book to you. Trust me when I say it's exactly as good as people claim. There are indeed lesbian necromancers in space (quite a few of them, actually), but also incredible worldbuilding that keeps growing with every new installment, interesting political commentary, morally complex characters with fucked up dynamics, and well-thought out plot that keeps you guessing until the last.

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

Listen, sometimes you just want to read about a vicious bisexual lady professor who murders predatory men and falls for the woman trying to solve her crimes and that's okay.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

The source of not one but two movie adaptations, Fingersmith is a story of trickery and manipulation as a young conwoman works to gain the trust of a heiress. I don’t want to say much more because the twists are some of the best parts, but trust that it doesn’t take long for things to get real complicated between them.

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

Tourraine, who was stolen as a child and trained as a soldier for the empire that conquered her home, is recruited by Luka, the future leader of the conquering country to route out a rebellion. A game of twisted loyalties and attraction is soon to develop.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Again, if you're on tumblr (or twitter, apparently) you have in all likelihood already heard of this one, too. Just like GtN it lives up to all expectations. It features two women on different sides of the titular time war, who starts leaving letters for the other to find as they chase each other through time. A quick read, slightly surreal, and absolutely beautiful, I cannot recommend this enough. Pretty mild on the fucked-up-scale.

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

In a world where the rich drink blood to preserve their health, Marion applies to a position as bloodmaid in a notorious noble house far from home. Suddenly showered with luxuries and debauchery, Marion soon gains the interest and favor of Lisavet, countess of the house. A fresh take on the idea of vampires.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

A young pregnant woman flees a cult that left her body strange and changing in terrifying ways. Hidden from the world, she does her best to raise her children while trying to find out the truth of the cult and being pursued by a hunter in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. In no way a romance, but certainly has some fucked up sapphic shit going on.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

After her home was conquered by another land, Baru is determined to join their forces and climb the ladder until she’s in a position to free her people. To prove her loyalty, she’s sent to bring order and quell rebellion in another conqured region. Baru is set to succeed, but also has to struggle with her feelings for Tain Hu, a duchess of this region.

Ice Massacre (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai trilogy) by Tiana Warner

Young Adult. A small island is forced to defend itself against intruding forces of vicious mermaids. As all men trying to fight them get lured in by their siren song, a ship filled with warrior girls is sent instead. However one of them, Meela, had a complicated past with one of the mermaids, which is brought back to life when the two reunite on the battlefield. This one is also available as an ongoing webcomic!

Borderline (The Arcadia Project trilogy) by Mishell Baker

Urban fantasy mystery. Very much of the will-they-won’t-they variety, with a bisexual lead who has a male love interest as well as a female without falling into the typical pitfalls of a love triangle. Plays around with various fucked up power dynamics. A year after a failed suicide attempt that cost her both her legs, Millie is recruited by a secretive organisation that works to control traffic to and from Arcadia, the land of faries. Bear in mind that while the sapphic-ness is present throughout, it has a much smaller presence in book 1 than books 2 and 3.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

Ancient vampire is on the hunt for a new partner, none of which tend to last long.

Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings

Precursor of the famous Killing Eve tv series. While I don’t know much of the books, I did enough research to know this: their endings differ.

[mundanemoongirl]

I just finished Gideon the Ninth and I have THOUGHTS

I’ve seen people talk about this book for a while but never about the plot, so I pretty much went in blind. I wish I knew before reading it that there is a glossary at the end. I was so confused for most of the book and would have gotten invested a lot faster if I understood the terms. That one was on me. My bad.

Okay so obviously there are some issues—every book has their own. It took me over a hundred pages to really get into the book because I didn’t understand the world or plot. I think more can be explained at the beginning. It’s such a fascinating world; Muir should give us much more of it. My other main issue is that sometimes there are paragraphs after paragraphs of dialogue and each line has a dialogue tag. There’s only two people talking. You don’t have to keep telling me who they are.

For a book I thought I wouldn’t like for the longest time, I was pleasantly surprised. Like I love it so much that I got on here to share my thoughts, which isn’t something I usually do. It’s not my favorite, but it sure is unique and entertaining.

I love the different houses and how they interact with each other. I actually wish we learned more about them. We understand the Ninth House, but what is life like on the different houses. I at least liked the little bits I learned about the fourth with the child soldiers. I also like that each necromancer has a different title because each house serves a different function. But seriously, how are you gonna casually write about princesses and give no details about what they do on their planets?

This book has some of the best character development I have ever seen. Especially with Harrow. She and Camilla were my favorites so I’m glad they made it to the end. I also think it’s really funny how there’s all these fantasy names and then there’s Camilla.

I like when Gideon gets more depth too. She went from seeing the fourth as bad teens to trying to protect them. That was one of my favorite parts.

I can’t believe Gideon forgave Harrow. I’m glad she did because I love them, but I have held grudges over much less offenses. I like that Gideon comes off as abrasive at first but the more you learn about her you realize she’s really compassionate. It’s amazing considering the environment she grew up in. Such a great character.

I LOVE the trials. I just love when people slowly figure things out, and this is also when I started understanding necromancy so I was really into the learning. I also appreciated that even though Harrow and Gideon hated each other, they made such a good team and that without trying, Gideon made such a good cavalier.

I often say I like the idea of enemies to lovers and not the common execution of it, but this book embodies that idea perfectly. Gideon and Harrow never become lovers, but the emotional growth they go through and the passion they have for each other kinda represents that feeling. They don’t need to be lovers for this trope to work. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for instead of just an asshole male lead who was never actually going to kill the female lead and they’re both attracted to each other from the start. Nah, these two despised each other and still worked through it. Other authors need to take notes.

The ending was so good. I loved Cytherea flirting with Gideon while fighting her. There’s something about evil characters having a soft spot for a character that is so appealing to me. I’m also an absolute sucker for characters from the far off past existing in the present. Give me this and I will love you forever.

Cytherea is actually a lot like the villain in my wip for the exact reasons I like her. The more I thought about it, the more surprised I was about how much my wip ressembled parts of Gideon the Ninth considering I wrote this stuff before reading the book. The houses are like my clans, the necromancy is similar to the spirits, and both sets of characters are shuttled off to a new location that is full of death. That’s probably like I like this book so much.

Also—the quote “And God said, ‘And I am not enough.’” is one of the best quotes I have ever read. It solely makes up for all the book’s flaws.

So that’s it. I hope Harrow the Ninth is just as good. I get scared to read sequels now because certain sequels are genuinely the worst things I’ve read. I also hope the next book goes more in depth with the worldbuilding. I’m excited to continue this series.

[reddishthesecond]

okay, i have to talk about the way the locked tomb handles it's relationships because it's so fucking good it makes me sick. tlt has some of the deepest, most fucked up character bonds i've seen in fiction. and a big part of it is due to how it develops them, by their absence. Gideon and Harrow, the two leads of these books, don't talk to each other in TWO OF THE THREE BOOKS (hoping for their wedding in Alecto). Harrow and Pal (referencing the post i rb'd earlier) do the same thing where they don't talk properly in 2 books. Cam and Pal don't interact properly for one and a half of them. Ianthe and Crown are the same.

All of these relationships are then defined by what the characters do in absence of them, by the yearning of the bond rather than the bond itself. Camila tears up at least twice while listening to the voice messages Palamedes leaves for her. They fuse together to preserve something out of the shambling ruins of both of themselves. Ianthe is hard to read, and i don't fully know her objectives, but it's crystal fucking clear that they don't mean anything to her (one of if not the most ambitios people in the saga) without Crown. Harrow fucking LOBOTOMIZES HERSELF TO HAVE A CHANCE AT KEEPING GIDEON'S SOUL ALIVE. Pyrra is so defined by these shadows that she wears her best friend's body throughout an entire book (two, most likely).

The locked tomb is about love and grief and by god it shows that in its bonds

[lemon-natalia]

Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Review

some final thoughts:

i have some (very) minor nitpicks that i want to get out the way first, simply because the rest of my opinions are really positive: i felt like there were some minor pacing issues, particularly near the beginning where the actual main plot took a pretty long time to get going - but overall it was a real whirlwind of a book and Muir is very good at dramatic cliffhangers that kept the energy up and made me want to read more. the big fight in the final chapter also felt a little repetitive at points, i think it could have been shortened down just a tad?

that out the way, overall i really loved it!! i’d heard good things and had high expectations to be fair, but it definitely lived up to them, this is probably one of my favourite books i’ve read in a while. it managed to be macabre and hilarious and heartbreaking all at once, and balanced the humour & horror elements well. the mystery aspects and plot twists also felt pretty well written, having both plenty of foreshadowing while not being immediately obvious.

another big strength is the remarkably compelling characters. despite there being a pretty large cast, and obviously some characters being more major than others, all of the Houses felt fleshed out and unique and had their own moments to shine. i also mentioned before reading I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of Gideon & Harrow’s relationship, but i ended up absolutely loving their complicated dynamic - it developed very naturally, and even when they came into conflict later in the book, it never felt contrived.

tldr; i cried a lot. amazing! 10/10. i think reading this has fundamentally altered my brain chemistry

(Fun fact: not including this post, i’ve written approximately 12,400 words about Gideon the Ninth in these liveblogs. that’s longer than the undergrad dissertation that I was supposed to be doing instead of this)

also thank you so much to everyone who's expressed interest and encouraged me in this liveblog - it was very unexpected but i’m glad people liked it! given i already have a copy of Harrow the Ninth, would people be interested in me continuing these liveblogs for that book?

[bb-enablefreebuild]

NTN opinions

so I haven't read NTN very recently (or the other locked tomb books) but its the most recent installment about Nona I think about a lot.

Muir said that she was splitting Alecto the Ninth into two parts, NTN and then ATN. She explained that Nona already had a complete story arc and could be its own separate book. Obviously there's nothing wrong with that.

But to be quite honest, I feel like most of NTN could have been cut. The most important parts of Nona are these:

More detail about the Blood of Eden

Nona's relationship with Varun the Eater

Her dreams of John Gaius

Now don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Nona going to school as a teachers aide and making friends! The problem is, the relationships she develops with the kids like Hot Sauce aren't...very important. I think it would have been better if Nona developed relationships with characters that she already knew, like Crown (Coronabeth) for example.

If Nona being friends with a group of kiddos is important, then maybe she should do it specifically with kids from the Blood of Eden. Out of all of Nona's friends, her relationship with Noodle the dog is the most important, and maybe Hot Sauce. She could be another niece of Wake, the same as Pash. It would explain why Hot Sauce is so suspicious of necromancers and why she shot up Nona in that one scene.

Also, If Nona is the secret weapon, why isn't she more involved with B.O.E? It's implied that the Blood of Eden is on the struggle bus. Wouldn't the inception have more depth if Nona was among their ranks right before their eyes, it'd be a major example of why they've failed for so long to stop Mr. Jod.

Cam and Palamedes could have gathered a few trust worthy relationships used to protect Nona too. Heck, the Blood of Eden could have a "school" of their own where they teach the kids of their soldiers propaganda, look at how Pash was raised!

I genuinely believe that all of the stuff that happened could have been condensed to a feasible first part. As an author, cutting things we're proud of writing is like shooting yourself in the head then doing it again. But I think if I was in Muir's shoes, I would've done it. I love Hot Sauce, Kevin and the other kiddos so much but they're just...not important enough for the over all plot :(

Lastly, and this is where I'm getting super nit picky, but I wish there was more world building. I 100% appreciate Muir's trust in the readers intelligence and for us to put the pieces together. I understood that Steles were used to travel far distances and "flip" planets to be colonized for necromancers. I VASTLY prefer this instead of five hundred pages of exposition (Fourth Wing) slammed into the beginning of the book.

That being said, a little bit of exposition is fine. Gideon The Ninth does this perfectly with explaining thanergy and other necromancer related info. We learn more in HTN as well. I think Muir was thinking that "Nona wouldn't know these things, so it can't be expressed in the book" which I totally get, but Nona has a canon excuse for just Having knowledge! Her uncanny reading of body language and understanding of different languages? Her ability to draw animals from Earth that were lost to public knowledge? Nona just casually absorbing information and thinking about it in her internal monologue is completely reasonable. I say this to point out that Muir was too vague with the world building in NTN. Yes, I could fill in the gaps but I would have loved more information about the colony planets outside of the House system! She's doing too much showing, which I think is precisely why NTN got much too long.

Anyway, PLEASE take all of this with a grain of salt. I love Nona the Ninth and I think the way it was written is digestible and good! It's just not how I would have done it. Please Tamsyn I'm begging you for lore I am BEGGING YOU FOR LORE.

[familyabolisher]

re: the other questions about books, this is probably impossible to answer but what does make a good book in your opinion? like what would you say a good book Does if that can be identified

lol yeah i mean that’s the question innit! i don’t really believe in “good” and “bad” as like metaphysical properties that one can kind of alchemise into being by using the Right combination of literary discourses in narrative construction, so i guess i can’t really then point to one fixed set of criteria by which a book becomes “good” or enjoyable to me. i think the closest approximation i can get here is like, a good book (to me) is one that has a clear and sophisticated discourse to it, but doesn’t just tell me its discourse; rather, it makes generous use of literary techniques in order to essentially chart the path by which i can trace that discourse (or trace one of many possible discourses) on my own. i like a book that takes its readership seriously rather than worrying that people won’t get it and need to be told what it’s about. more ambiguity please people!!!!!

one of the reasons i like locked tomb so much despite its many faults is that tazmuir is operating within a very developed discourse of sexual violence, imperialism, catholicism, and queerness/lesbian gender relations—but she’s not spelling this out for the reader on every other page. she’s making use of unreliable narration, multitudinous shifting perspectives, intertextuality (don quixote, the iliad, lolita, etc) to gradually map this discourse out on the good faith assumption that the reader will ask their own questions about what those references and allusions and shifts in perspective are doing. and it makes for something that i can talk about for days and days and days—like, you can follow a line of argument through about the significance of dulcinea’s name being dulcinea relative to ideas of chivalry in gtn, how those ideas of chivalry are linked to an internal system of imperialism enacted in-world, how imperialism is linked to death, how cytherea & gideon’s relationship as a Highly Questionable one feeds into these constellate ideas of death/imperialism/sexual violence/chivalry, how all of that then reconverges at our original point of entry (don quixote) with questions of shifting + unstable identities, doubles and doppelgangers (also a lolita thing), the extent to which falsely occupying a role is the same as ‘becoming’ or internalising it or if that difference even matters. (is don quixote a knight? is dulcinea del toboso a lady? is gideon a cavalier? is cytherea Her Lady?). all of that gets v effectively encoded in the naming of one (1) character and unpacking it is far more gratifying on my end than it would be had it all just been Explained on the page!

like—i like things that offer me thought trajectories i can follow through on and construct my own argument within; i hate books which just kind of … hand me what they want to say, often spelt out in quippable extracts. like, write a medium article! i want to think about this text—i don’t want to read it and have it be like “here’s what i think” and then have myself be like “here’s what the book thinks.” my only avenue for response then becomes responding to the book’s discourse—which can be interesting, but is nowhere near as fun as trying to locate it and build the case for my own reading in the first place.

i also just love a playful, original prose voice. i love a writer who understands that prose itself is a site of discourse, that prose can be used to communicate certain ideas and obscure others; i love writers with unique prose voices who don’t just imitate the elevated MFA voice that’s such a big deal right now. anything experimental, innovative, intricate, thoughtful, deliberate will scratch an itch for me. 

i think often this kind of question collapses into a tautology: a book is good when it’s good! i don’t really know how to answer this coherently. i like books that make me think about things that i find it satisfying to think about. i know the good ones when i see them; at the same time, my "good" is someone else's "very very bad" and my "fucking unreadable" is someone else's "favourite book ever" and neither position can really supercede the other without appeals to external intellectual hierarchies that i tend to reject. that’s probably the best i’ve got.

[dunno1234]

Gideon the Ninth review, I guess

So, Gideon the Ninth, huh? The darling of Tumblr, along with the rest of TLT. I read it. Finished yesterday. And now, for my first post ever on Tumblr, I'll also make my first full review of a book. It'll probably be long. I'll divide this in the following sections: Prose (yes, we're starting with it); characters; story; what I liked; and what I really wish had been done. Full spoilers for literally everything in the first book, and warning that I did not like the book much. It's like, 3 stars. But hey, that was a passing grade in college, and thus I'll also read the next book. Also, it will be extremely rambly. I did an editing pass, but to ramble is my nature.

Prose

This is the most relevant aspect to my experience, which is really sad, because I hated it. And it's really weird, because it's the first time I disliked a technically good prose (and I assure you, the prose is good in the technical aspect). The descriptions are very verbose (I learned 4 new words while reading it), but also, well, descriptive, and it has its own distinctive style, and theoretically I would've enjoyed it a lot. So, why did I not? Well, the quips. Oh boy, the quips. They were extremely prevalent throughout the story and I hated almost all of them (other than the Dr. Skelebone one. That one was great, specially how they committed to it), and they actively ruined my experience because I was always bracing myself for them. Another thing I heavily disliked was the use of parentheses to denote both thoughts and quips characters said (I think parentheticals do not belong in prose in any situation, and this book just reinforced that belief). And the funny thing is, it's not as if I'm against the idea of it. Pale Lights (which I absolutely recommend) is also in third-person limited and uses quips during the dialogue, but the main difference is, well, I like how it works in PL and not here, I guess. And it sucks, because, if I dislike the prose, I automatically dislike the entire book experience, since it is an always-present aspect of it. I would even have preferred aggressively mediocre prose, like anything written by Wildbow, over what I got here.

Characters

I loved Palamedes and Camilla.

I liked Harrow, and Gideon was well-written.

Coronabeth, Naberius, and Ianthe were somewhat interesting, or at least interesting ideas behind them (and Naberius had a parrying dagger, which is extremely hot). Would've been good if Coronabeth had existed after the Ianthe review, though. I assume the intention is that she becomes relevant in HtN?

Teacher was fun.

Silas Octakiseron (worst surname in a cast full of impressively bad surnames (although I don't think that they are actual surnames since Harrow's parents have different surnames than her)) is a good antagonist, I guess. Brother Asht had a cool scene.

I have run out of characters to say positive things about.

This is mean (and honestly most of this review will be mean), but yeah... I don't care about anyone else. Most of them are one note with barely any personality traits, and there are simply too many of them for the story's own good. Who cares about the Second House members, who are so irrelevant that I don't even know who is the cav and who is the necro. Magnus was kind to Gideon, but he was also obviously going to be sacced from the start, while his wife I don't even remember having dialogue. Both of the Fourth were developed literally the same chapter as they died, and while they were mildly amusing before, I never got to care about them. Dulcinea/Cytherea was a twist villain, and not a good one. Her cav was literally dead before arrival.

The main problem of the cast, I think, is how they all have to share screentime (or pagetime, I guess) with everyone else. I don't get to see Naberius's life history and training to be sad about his death, when I also have to get attached to Fourth Necro (I do not remember his name) for his death. As a result, none of them get the necessary focus, and they fall flat to me. The worst offenders are the Second, who are completely indistinct from each other and whose only impact in the story is killing teacher and calling Necrolord Prime, two actions that Cytherea could've done with barely any rewriting.

The romance between Harrow and Gideon also fell pretty flat. Gideon spends 90% of the story flirting with Coronabeth and Dulcinea, while Harrow is either not in the scene or emotionally distant, and then in the last couple chapters she gives The Reveal in the pool (which revealed barely anything) and in the penultimate chapter we see how much she actually loves Gideon.

Palademes and Camilla were cool as fuck, though.

Story

It started pretty good before they left Drearbuh (of whatever it's called), but as soon as they arrived in the First planet, it just meandered. I've seen some people who actually liked the book, and they also seemed to agree that it was slow, but I don't think it improved greatly later on. After Palamedes and Camilla first appeared and Gideon was finally allowed to speak it did pick up, and the tests she and Harrow did were fun, but soon after the story became about who has which keys, and I refuse to believe anyone was interested about that part.

Eventually, it had the plot twist that Ianthe is actually a fucking genius who is proving Palamedes wrong about him being the best necro of his generation (sadly) and she fights the Eighth and kills them and also apparently Dulcinea isn't Dulcinea and Palamedes kills himself to kill her but it doesn't work and the remaining characters take turns to kill her until Gideon sacrifices herself and Harrow kills her. And then we get an epilogue.

So, 90% of the story is contained in the last 10% of it. This is not good. The pacing of this book sucks. The last 10% of it is pretty good, but that does not redeem the rest. There is also a lot of telling instead of showing. We only see Ianthe after she becomes a Lyctor; Palamedes's backstory is told by Camilla literally a chapter before the reveal; we never get to see the Second killing Teacher; we never see Silas grabbing Dulcinea's keys. Gideon as the PoV character doesn't really work, because she only becomes the central point of the story at the very end, and for the most part everyone else is doing their own things out of screen.

What I liked

I already said this, but Palamedes and Camilla were great. Harrow was very fun, and, while I did not enjoy Gideon, she was pretty well written.

The setting was very interesting, and felt much bigger than what we saw. I wish that the glossary had been at the start of the book, but it isn't that big of a problem. The necromancy was also fun, with all of the different styles, although I wish it were better explained (and I understand that it probably wasn't because Gideon knows dick about shit about it, but it doesn't really change me having a problem with it).

The last two chapters were easily the best in the book. Like, I genuinely liked them. This is mostly because Gideon wasn't the PoV, I'll admit, but the Necrolord Prime (I do not remember if he's actually called that or not, but I'll still call him that) was very fun in the like, three pages he was in.

What I Really Wish Had Been Done

So, I'll try to be as direct as possible. Have multiple PoVs. Preferably one for each House. This could solve literally every problem I denoted here. The Ianthe reveal came out of nowhere? Well, now we can properly set it up. The Palamedes backstory was explained through exposition two pages before it became relevant? Well, instead of Camilla giving it, we see him think about it. I hate the quips? Other characters won't have quips. The story meanders at the start? Go to characters who have stuff to do. And you can even use the skulls besides the chapter number with the Houses to signify which character is the PoV, and, at the epilogue, have it for the first time have the skull of the First. Wouldn't that be a cool usage of it? I am completely aware that this would require completely rewriting the book, but I think it'd be worth it.

Conclusion

I'll still read the next book, and I will probably enjoy it more due to not having constant quips and Ianthe presumably having focus, although I've heard from multiple people that it's confusing as fuck. So yeah, I'm decently hyped for Harrow the Ninth, and if I have was many thoughts about it I'll probably also write a review. Also, hey, Reddit!

[glapplebloom]

Is she a bad person or is there more?

So thanks to the Book of Bill, the Mabel situation has been brought back to life. There was a video when the series originally ended that highlighted what people thought was wrong with Mabel as a character. It has since been deleted because the guy did things I would not repeat and wish to move on. Cartonshi made a video discussing the hate and how his opinion is that she isn’t a terrible character while bringing up the arguments that she is. You could consider this a rebuttal but I wanted to bring up a video to show the two sides of people who dislike Mabel.

Mabel is 12 years old...

Yes she is. You know who else is 12 years old? Dipper and Pacifica. While you can definitely argue that Dipper is trying to grow up too fast for someone so young, you can’t really say the same thing about Pacifica. She was basically made to be a more selfish and bad person in comparison to Mabel and the audience is intended to see her as such until the story focused on developing her.

Since she’s the Antagonist to Mabel, she gets the comeuppance that those who dislike Mabel’s character wished she got. But we get to learn more about Pacifica. We see that she could be a good person in the end of the “Golf War" if given the chance. And then in “Northwest Mansion Mystery”, we finally see why she is as bad as she was. Basically she was raised to be such and treated like a dog when not following orders.

So while by the end of the series and the spinoff comic we see Pacifica go back to her old ways, we get to understand her better and why she would do so. After all, baby steps. You can’t just do a 180 on everything you are. You have to slowly develop and sometimes make mistakes, like accidentally mind controlling all your friends or accidentally getting your friends' faces stolen. 

How Selfish is she?

Using Cartonshi’s list of plot important good deeds, let’s see the reasons behind them...

Mermando - While she does eventually decide to bring him back to his family, it honestly takes a while for her to eventually get that mental note. Like after finding out about him being stuck there and not being able to go back, she tries for a kiss at their night visits and plays a game with him during the day. Like it had to click with her that he misses his family before she actually decides to help.

Boss Mabel - While she did take over because she feels like they should be treated better and with respect, it did begin as a bet. And while she did have some good intentions, you could argue this was an ego thing. Regardless, this is one of those times where she does get her comeuppance as despite her good intentions, in order to actually win the bet she had to be more like her Grunkle. 

Gideon - Honestly no one in their right mind would blame Mabel for this situation. Gideon gave off a “put the lotion on the skin” vibes and she’s been too pressured to keep it going. This is gas lighting.

Dipper’s Wingman - This I’m going to deny as in Into the Bunker despite still having feelings for Wendy he has decided to move on and focus on the Journals. Mabel decides not to do that and decides to put on the pressure. She at least apologizes and has a list of rebound girls. Still, pushing someone to admit feelings when anyone with a brain can tell it would never work out is still pretty bad.

Feud with Pacifica - Granted, she was feeling bad about making Pacifica feel bad before the Lilliputtians decided to go a step too far, but if they didn’t Dipper may have gotten through to her about wanting to win.

Helping Soos - Honestly, considering he was asking her for advice that’s cool.

Helping Robbie - This is basically the Wingman situation above. Sometimes it's best to let people be instead of trying to push them into something.

No Consequences/Sacrifices

What Cartonshi showed about her receiving consequences is indeed true. Those are definitely moments where she received consequences. Though then they say that Dipper is also selfish and his sacrifices aren’t as real sacrifices as you think they are. And the episodes being displayed...

Time Traveler’s Pig - Yep. Dipper is definitely being selfish about wanting to use time travel to win over Wendy. And while he does have no real chance, Mabel still helped him. She also helped him steal said time device so she can relive winning Waddles. You could say losing Waddles to help Dipper is a consequence. 

In the Deep End - Again, Dipper is being selfish. But so was Mabel. Just because her intentions were good meant she had the best reasons for it. Like I said, it takes a while for her to click to do the right thing. Just as it takes a click for Dipper to do so.

Sock Opera - This is indeed Mabel's big sacrifice for Dipper. But they’re pointing out that people bring up Mabel hesitating to give up the Journal to save Dipper. The thing is Sock Opera is about as much of a sacrifice as the two episodes above. She did all this hard work to impress a guy who honestly looked too old for her. So her giving it up for Dipper should be treated as much as Dipper’s sacrifices above.

Vs the Future - Mabel having a bad day and being 12 is honestly not an excuse. She spent the entire summer going on dangerous adventures. You’re telling me she hasn’t learned about the importance of the future after time traveling numerous times? Her world got shattered a bunch of times. Guys she likes turning out not to be what she thought they were. Thinking she’s good at match making when she isn’t. Having to lie and be not friendly to get things done. You could say this is a lack of character development. And other kid characters can be realistic yet still experience such growth. Bluey being a prime example, and she’s half the age.

Another thing is thinking the apprenticeship is not good. Yeah, he’s going to miss out on his teenage years but some of us wish we could. And while Stanford is indeed biased about the situation, he is extremely smart. I know Alex Hirsch based it off his own experience and he was right about not taking that internship, there is the importance of growing up on your own to be your own person. Tiny Toons Looniversity shows how strong of a bond twins can be and yet can still do their own things and live their own lives. Would Dipper be like McGucket if he took the offer? Maybe. Just as maybe he would decide on his own that it just wasn’t for him and request to no longer be part of it a year after participating in it.

Was Mabel Responsible for Weirdmageddon?

She did give the rift to Bill, but she was tricked. So that is understandable. But would this change if Stanford told the others about the Rift? Honestly, I don’t think so. Since Bill can read minds and only Stanford and Dipper got the protection from it, he could likely change the story to make it more appealing. Like something made up like “the Time Baby wishes to take the rift to prevent Bill from escaping”. So regardless if he told her or not, odds are she probably would have fallen for Bill’s trick regardless. Also, Weirdmageddon Part 2 is her trapped in a prison that’s designed to make her want to stay. Understandable. 

The other stuff.

Honestly, it's not important. Mable teasing Dipper? They’re siblings. Last Mabelcorn could have called her out, but it's Quagmire calling out Brian deal. You want to agree, but the other guy is so much worse... Mabel never learns from her mistakes? You could just argue it’s bad writing. Supplementary Material. I do think it is fair to include them but it is understandable about not using it.

So does she deserve it?

Yes. Just as much as she deserves all the (proper kind of) love for her. Take it from someone who likes the Powerpuff 2016 series or Thundercats Roar: it is perfectly fine to like someone while knowing its flaws. Just as it is fine to not like something but also point out the positives it can give. She is a character on the show who could be a realistic depiction of a 12 year old girl but still a character who was written to be such. If you like how she’s sweet, kind, and beat up a unicorn because they deserve it, more power to you. If you don’t like her because she is written the way she was, more power to you.

For me, I don’t hate her. But she isn’t my favorite on the show. I like Dipper because even though he is trying to grow up fast, he has developed over the show. Trying to impress Wendy in Season 1 to knowing it won’t in 2. Willing to embarrass himself or take a beating to undo his mistakes. Calling out Pacifica for her actions when given the chance and not holding back even though the cliche is “I’ll say that to their face, turns out I won’t.” When Dipper thinks you’re the worst, he’ll call you out on it.

And he never really did for Mabel.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, final round of bracket three

Propaganda:

For Gideon:

she's incredibly good w/ her two hander and less good with her rapier but she's still pretty good!! she is a horny lesbian who's taste in women seems to exclusively be "girls who have tried or are going to try to kill her". she's a redhead. i love her

Gideon’s a HUGE Butch lesbian and literally always wanted to use a broad sword. Specifically a broad sword. She said fuck rapiers. Uhhh literally dies to save the girl she cares for and the sword she uses then becomes like an altar for said girl. Gideon Nav Supremacy <3

oh she is the most badass swordswoman lesbian in media. she’s her gf’s cavalier, defends her in battle, she’s incredibly butch and buff

C'mon shes THE sword lesbian like... canonically 

Loves her broadsword more than anything on her home planet and practices whenever she can. Spoiler it’s possessed by her mom. Gave everything so her best enemy could eat her soul and become the new saint. The character of all time child of two separate threesomes, child of the god emperor, she’s dead, she’s butch, she’s a dork, she’s doomed by the narrative. She’s my favorite.

girlie is literally the swordswoman supreme. she’s the cavalier primary to her necromancer. she has a fuckoff huge longsword. she gets absorbed into another person SPECIFICALLY to swordfight for them. in a gay way too.

While everyone else was developing common sense, she studied the blade. This dyke's main weapon and true love is the long sword, but she's also passable with a rapier. The sword is, in her own estimation, pretty much all she's good for. That and her smoking hot bod and terribly charming sense of humor. 

"While we were developing common sense, she studied the blade." (Direct quote from the book). She's the most useless lesbian to ever exist, and she's obsessed with an absolute wet cat of a woman. Learned longsword mostly on her own and is such a genius with the sword she learned rapier in a few months (by personal experience, it's really really hard)

Most badass broadsword wielding lesbian easily slaying bone monsters and evil space wasps

The cavalier to her necromancer. very gay. in a complicated codependant lovehate relationship with the only other person her age she knew growing up.

For Adora:

Finding the sword kicks off the whole show. She transforms into a giant magic lady and is now in charge of saving everyone from the  big bag guys (which she used to be a part of). A bunch of stuff happens, but eventually her identity is now tied to having the sword. She is fully convinced that w/o the sword (and therefore She-Ra) she’s worthless. This culminates in having to destroy the sword or the world ends. She’s super depressed bc her whole self worth was tied to the sword and being she-ra. On the way to save her gf, she turns into way cooler she-ra (her own version of it that is not controlled by the sword which was made by her colonialist ancestors). Her sword is now part of her identity instead of her identity revolving around the sword. 

lesbian chosen one who was given a sword that activated her powers and made her into a living weapon, but she destroyed the sword to save her planet - and then made her own sword with her magic and saved the entire universe

[empty-pizza]

thoughts on nona the ninth epilogue and thoughts on the book and series overall

Some of you might not have checked the blog today and will just, come back to this post to find that I decided to read 2/3 of the book today and finish it. It was good but it wasn't just because it was good, I kinda just felt like finishing. I'm kind of exhausted and I'm not sure how much my lack of understanding of what's going down at the end comes down to the book being confusing, and how much is me having no more energy.

anyway

alecto breaking out

oh great we talking all shakespeare like now, this is really making it easy to follow (i am just very sleepy)

which fuckin child is who

okay so harrow is awake now (the fuck was all that going on with the tower then)

alright from alecto's attempt to kiss

i can understand why the lyctors would have called her a monster

okay so the ninth is the line of anastasia

so alecto is swearing herself to harrow

and gideon called her a slut

as it should be, i suppose

damn and she just

went and said hi to john

and stabbed him and he said good morning

man what the FUCK does any of this imply

i do not have the brain power to process any of these layers

like, what the fuck did john plan on, or want to happen

the river is DEAD? the fuck does that mean

what the fuck is any of this shit

give me answers

j;aijdgoiahdhuipfuoifhnoanononho;oi;oi;hasdi

asid;uihadso;fpihaj[POUIAHNDSO['IGH

gadzoinks

DOUIUHGIOWEOG

Anyway yeah I'd say this was the best book in the series so far. I generally enjoyed Nona's character more than the prior two protagonists. I enjoy when childish, whimsical, naive personalities are expressed realistically through prose. I also enjoyed gradually learning more about how Nona thinks and just what she is.

The plot kept its momentum better than the second book, and followed through with a better climax than the first book. I've spoken about what I disliked about those aspects of the earlier books in prior posts. Here, the situation kept changing and developing enough that it didn't get too stale. Even without Nona driving most of the changes, it felt like she had an effect on the things around her.

I'm kind of hoping the next book begins right after we left off. We already did big timeskips twice in a row, and we haven't even answered everything that happened in the last one.

My brain is just muddled in so many questions about magic mechanics, character motivations, character history, et cetera et schmetera, that I don't even know how to put into words yet.

Part of my satisfaction here is that I think the pacing of reveals was really good in this book. It kept piling on more and more the closer it got to the end. But it really just slammed me with a bunch more questions by the ends. Reveals that raise more questions are great, and this is the right time for them considering it's the penultimate book in the series, but jeez, I am just brain strained right now. My brain has gone through one of those machines where you turn the crank and the dough goes through and comes out as spaghetti shaped. Except like, in reverse, because my brain is smoother now.

I think this has been an overall strong series, but it's somewhat unique in that the lore was the main thing I cared about. Or at least, I cared about it disproportionately to how much I usually do. That's not to say that there wasn't great character work here; I totally understand those who primarily love this series for the characters. I think I posted plenty about how interesting many of them are; hopefully that speaks for itself.

In general, it does tend to focus more on static characters. Not every character is like this, but a lot of them don't really change much (not during books), but instead only get tested at key moments to demonstrate their beliefs and conviction. Which is a totally fine approach, when the characters are interesting people, and you can instead drive things a bit more via learning more about them. When changes do occur, it's often offscreen entirely — just look at Corona and Gideon this book.

It kind of comes down to what drives you to read the next chapter. I almost always wanted to read more to learn about the lore. I often, but not always, was curious about where the plot would go next, how predicaments would be solved. And I was interested in how characters would grow or change... less than average, I'd say.

Though, the line between lore and learning more about who characters are was often blurred. I'm just not sure how much it will appeal to me personally once I already know everything about them. Maybe it'll work great on reread someday, maybe it won't.

I think I'd call this one a strong 8/10. Definitely gonna develop my thoughts on this more in the coming days but I really need to get to sleep soon.

I kind of wonder in what ways these stories will stick with me, when my experience was so lore driven. I feel like my opinion on book 2 has gone down slightly since I finished it, as the high of the reveals wore off and I felt kind of dissatisfied a few other aspects. I definitely liked the plot/characters in this book more, but I still just need to see how I settle on feeling about it all in retrospect. I mean the thing is, when you're that driven by lore, I prefer when it sticks the landing. If I don't personally like the answers in the final book I might lose a little love for the series as a whole.

Edit: To clarify this point a little, it's really that there's two kinds of reveals. There's the ones that are actual reveals, which tended to be really interesting. And there's the ones that mostly engaged me on the basis of "this tiny detail could be implying really insane things later." Some of which paid off, some of which still haven't. It's a fun feeling to engage with while reading, but for me it relies not just on the reveals paying off, but me being left with an overall feeling that engaging with the narrative in that way was worthwhile. If the series ends up not really caring about rewarding readers for paying attention that much (which I'm not saying will happen, it's just always a possibility) then that takes away a lot of my enjoyment retroactively.

Of course, it's also possible that if I did a reread, I'd end up appreciating the character work a lot more than the first read, and end up caring about the lore a lot less! This is just what I engaged with on this read and my present experience. I definitely can't say I understand everything about the characters, so there might even be whole layers to how they grow and change that I just didn't pick up on here.

Fun series and I really enjoyed liveblogging it! I hope you don't mind me kind of just, rushing through the final book today. Trust me, that was out of enjoyment primarily (also the library has kind of wanted these back for a while). I appreciate everyone who enjoyed my posts and commented things, and I'll definitely be sticking around and reading more comments as I try to make sense of all the shit I just read. I hope you enjoyed my first-timer thoughts.

[edwinspaynes]

About your post on how TID/TLH Tessa and modern-day Tessa are different characters. I had to come and give you my two cents, because Tessa is my girl, my favourite FMC in TSC, and I love her, and if I have the opportunity to talk about her, I do it. I hope you don't mind me rambling about my favourite FMC of all time. Tessa has a special place in my heart.

From my reading and rereading of the series, and short stories, I don’t see a lot of change in her character, and I read her character development as a natural continuation. For me 2015 Tessa is the same as 1903 Tessa, BUT with more confidence and maturity.

We start with TID Tessa. She’s 16, a baby, orphaned, and has no family except her ass of a brother/cousin/whatever Nate was. We see a girl who is a product of her time (weirded by Charlotte fighting), but also, someone ready and willing to learn more/adapt. I mean, two chapters in, and she’s ready to go on a mission with Magnus and Will. Throughout the series, we see that she is very smart and willing to help, but what differentiates her from 2010 YA FMC is that he does not reject what is traditionally seen as feminine. Tessa likes clothes and pretty dresses (that scene in CA when she doesn’t want to dirty her dress), she buys pretty hats that match her dresses, etc. She is a very curious girl, who likes to know everything, likes to gossip (her chitchats with Sophie), and likes match-making people (her trying to match Sophie with different men).

She is very courageous, but also very protective of the people she loves. We see that with Nate when he arrives at the institute, and he is giving texte books ass whole, and two thousand red flags. She does that because he is her brother and because she is a product of her time, always giving chances to men, and she'll do anything to make him safe. However, she also does it to Will, even though she does not know him well in the beginning, and he already annoyed her at least 5 times since she arrived. Ex: when they meet Gabriel for the 1st time, and he insults Jem, and Will starts fighting with him):

“ You heard me. Telling someone you wouldn’t be sorry if they died! It’s inexcusable!” She took hold of Will by the sleeve. “Come along, Will. This—this person—obviously isn’t worth wasting your time on.”

Will looked hugely entertained. “So true.”

“You—you—” Gabriel, stammering slightly, looked at Tessa in an alarmed sort of way. “You haven’t the slightest idea of the things he’s done—”

“And I don’t care, either. You’re all Nephilim, aren’t you? Well, aren’t you? You’re supposed to be on the same side.” Tessa frowned at Gabriel. “I think you owe Will an apology.”

Now, she does not know Will well, yet she takes his defence because she has been living with them. He is the one who got her out of prison and saved her etc. I always thought Tessa was a good character reader, and once she gives her trust, she becomes protective of them. She is literally telling Gabriel, that Will is her people, and nobody touches her people. We see this side of her, the protective side show up throughout the series, with Will, Jem, and when Sophie starts going out with Gideon. When she tells her to be careful, because she attended the Lightwood ball, and it was a mess, and she does not want her friend to be hurt again.

Now, going on to TLH. She is still the same protective woman and becomes maternal too. Tessa likes to fight and go on missions, but I feel like she only does them when she is asked to. Contrary to the other FMC in TSC, like Isabelle, Clary and Emma who literally want to be a great warrior and become the next Jace. I feel like, Tessa does it because it’s her duty, but only when she has to.

We also discover that she likes to help run the institute with her husband, and goes on missions with him when needed, but she's definitely not the head. That is Will. We don't see her arguing or taking Clave decisions during those meetings. It's always Will. I know this is because the Clave doesn't accept her and doesn't want to give her a chance, but at the same time, I don't read her as someone who wants to do bureaucratic stuff either. On the other hand, we see her doing a lot of domestic things, like throwing balls and parties and decorating the institute. She is someone who likes to be in a cosy room, reading books, talking about them with her husband, and children, travelling, having some adventures, and gossiping with her friends. When she gives advice, it is always a wise one, but it also comes from her protective, and maternal side. Even though she matures in TLH, by becoming a mother, and taking responsibilities as an adult, she is still very sheltered. We know the Herondales keep to themselves because the Clave sucks, and have prejudices against her and her children. She is still very protected and still has her community. Nobody will do anything to her, because Charlotte, Will and all her friends will protect her, and they are enough for her. She has a husband, kids, and eventually grandkids, her friends and their children, she has a community to count on.

Now, after Will’s death, and all her friends are dying one after another, and later her children, she is confronted with what it means to be immortal, and not having her usual support and community. She goes to live with Magnus, and he introduces her to all his Downworlder friends. She becomes friend with Catarina, Malcolm and Ragnor, and start to learn how to be a warlock. And later starts befriending Raphael and so on. This era in her life, where the only person she knows from her old life is Magnus (I don’t count Zachariah, he can’t do much), is the era where she learns and discovers to be herself. She learns how to be a warlock, goes on adventures by herself, or with friends, and learns how to assert herself, but at the same time still keeps her protective/maternal side. We see that in The Last Stand of the New York Institute. Her speech to Jocelyn is very harsh, but she is still willing to help her and goes all the way to do that in secret.

However, we know that Warlocks are not really into staying together. Magnus says it himself. Warlocks can go for decades before contacting each other. And I think this is something that affects her a lot, and why she stays for a long time in the Spiral Labyrinth, and only comes back at the end of CoHF, once Jem is back. 

 In the epilogue, she is dreading Jem telling her he is going back to an institute: 

“But—after today? Where will you go? To Idris?”

He looked, for a moment, honestly bewildered—and despite how old she knew him to be, so young. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never had a lifetime to plan for before.”

“Then … to another Institute?” Don’t go, Tessa wanted to say. Stay. Please.”

And she is happy when he tells her he can’t go back because he doesn’t know how to be a shadowhunter without a parabatai. And what does Tessa do, she starts living with Jem, and she goes on adventures, and missions with him (saving Kit, and helping Alec and Rafael), and eventually goes back to her ideal life. Having a house, a husband, being a mother, reading books, protecting her kids, having dinners with her friends and their kids (Well mostly Magnus and Alec), learning about her magic, and sometimes going on missions when needed.

I always read Tessa as a domestic FMC, and I love her for that. She is incredibly strong and becomes wise with time and life experiences, but at the same time, always true to herself. A woman who loves fashion, books and gossiping. And that’s why for me, her character is still the same, and very continuous. Her character development makes sense to me. She is ready to discover new horizons, but always coming back to a tranquil life.

Sorry, this is very long, but I just love her.

I don't really have anything to add to this, but this is generally 100% correct and I adore it. Tessa is one of my all-time favourite characters too, particularly TID/TLH Tessa - the only characters ever I prefer are Matthew and Alastair and maybe Thomas. Definitely my favourite girl/FMC.

I think that a lot of her traits do feel cohesive and carry on from series to series, but I think that a lot of her fire and spirit are gone in the modern content, if that makes sense. There are probably a lot of reasons for this - Will brought those things out in her and he's dead, and also just the cycles of trauma and grief that she's been through have changed her a lot.

But for me, that sarcasm and that sass and that brightly-burning essence and that love for life and rashness and impulsiveness are traits that I loved in Tessa. They're traits that made her interesting and relatable and even flawed when they went too far. And also her independence. I feel like she's lost a lot of that "she was too much herself to belong to anyone else" after, honestly, getting back together with Jem (I'm sorry, I'm trying to keep this minimal on Jessa criticism, but her relationship with Jem/the way that it's written is so tied to the Changes in Tessa I Don't Like.)

I really wish we could see the Tessa/Ragnor/Raphael gossip circle, lol. I do feel like I see a bit of the old Tessa when she's with Magnus, who as you acknowledged is the only person who knew her in her former life. We also know that she's still a funny prankster since Ragnor thought that Alec was her in disguise, which I love. The thing is, we see none of that on page. We see her essentially become a boring, muted housewife, and I think this is actually what makes her relationship with Jem and her presence in post-TLH content so hard for me to stomach.

I also read her as domestic - but only to a point. Like, yeah, she loves clothes, but she's also not afraid in TID to ruin a wedding dress in battle. She decorates the Institute in TLH and adds balconies because that's where, pardon my assumptions and my French, she and Will fuck. Shadowhunter coats of arms hang up with weaponry by bookshelves and ballrooms, and I love that for her, but where is that fire and where are those contradictions now?

I'm sorry that these ramblings are out of order, but I really think we need to see more of her between TLH and TMI in order to understand her as cohesive. Like, as you mentioned, her time in the Spiral Labyrinth - what happened there? We only saw the Spiral Labyrinth once in a story about Jem, which obviously makes so much sense because Jem's a character that belongs in the Spiral Labyrinth 🥴 I want to see Tessa there and talking to other warlocks. What was her job there? What did she do? What the hell do warlocks do there, anyway?

I think we can divide Tessa's life into 3 stages: the Will stage as a Shadowhunter, the warlock stage with her friends, and the Jem stage as a housewife. Unfortunately, we see so little of the EXTREMELY COMPELLING second stage that the latter is jarring and a little painful to watch for me.

[axel-mania]

It's so hard to find good lesbian books. I'm starting to think that I might just have to accept mostly not reading them. There's the industry romance fiction, which lacks interesting characters. The YA scifi fantasy, which is usually poorly written instalove. (Gideon at least is a slow burn but dear god the Homestuck writing style.) And then there's the literary fiction, which either doesn't focus much on the lesbian relationship or treats lesbian attraction as a mark of abjection and insanity. Fanfiction is also hard to find because I dislike most big femslash fandoms, but there is at least the fairytales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and The Devil Wears Prada. The last lesbian book I really enjoyed was Our Wives Under the Sea, which I'd say is literary horror. It's such an intimate look at a marriage and all the little moments that make up its identity. Then you get to watch that marriage fall apart. You're completely gripped with dread. Before that I would say my favorite was Otherside Picnic, a horror light novel series. It isn't very scary but has really fun adventure and dysfunctional relationship development. Some of the adult scifi fantasy with lesbians are quite good, like Texicaalan and She Who Became the Sun, but there romance is extremely not the focus. They're more enjoyable for seeing morally grey and powerful women. I think next I'll probably try the vintage literary fiction like The Price of Salt and Sweet Days of Discipline.

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco

Genre: gothic fantasy romance

If you like: polyam romance, vampire hunter x vampire(s), enemies to lovers, angst, Castlevania(idk what this is but apparently they are similar), Gideon the Ninth's sense of humour

Content warnings: blood, violence, (past) statutory rape, sexual coercion, body horror, semi-explicit sexual content(they get it on a lot, but there's no description of genitals and its mostly skimmed over)

Overall rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

Synopsis

Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne, an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost.

When a terrifying new breed of vampire is sighted outside of the city, Remy prepares to investigate alone. But then he encounters the shockingly warmhearted vampire heiress Xiaodan Song and her infuriatingly arrogant fiancé, vampire lord Zidan Malekh, who may hold the key to defeating the creatures. When he’s offered a spot alongside them to find the truth about the mutating virus Rot that’s plaguing the kingdom, Remy faces a choice—one he’s certain he’ll regret.

But as the three face dangerous hardships during their journey, Remy develops fond and complicated feelings for the couple. He begins to question what he holds true about vampires, as well as the story behind his own family legacy. As the Rot continues to spread across the kingdom, Remy must decide where his loyalties lie: with his father and the kingdom he’s been trained all his life to defend or the vampires who might just be the death of him.

Review

I genuinely can't remember the last time I had this much fun reading!

This book starts off with a whole fight scene, which was so brilliantly executed. Not just because it was cool as hell, but also because it introduces Remy in such a way that readers can get a sense of who his character is and his place in the story right off the bat. His ostracization from most of his fellow humans, his position and reputation as a Reaper; as well as his character: his determination to do what's right, his kindness, his stubbornness and impulsivity.

And I love how Remy's first meetings with each of his love interests perfectly sets up the dynamic for their relationship. Like, Remy and Malekh fighting from the very first time they meet, with Malekh goading him and Remy refusing to back down + Remy's immediate acceptance of Xiaodan and their easy banter, establishes the tone of their relationship from the jump, which is maintained throughout the book, while still allowing them to grow closer as they learn more about each other.

Remy also serves as an excellent narrator. Although he's slower on the uptake than Xiaodan and Malekh, he's still observant and intelligent, and has a snarky sense of humour, never failing to snark at the worst possible moments.

The action scenes were all so fun, and I think the way Remy holds his own against the stronger and faster vampires makes sense. Also the sex scenes ate (sometimes literally lmao).

I have a few nitpicks that keeps this book from being perfect for me, which aren't a problems, its just my personal tastes. I couldn't completely get behind Malekh, because I don't really enjoy brood-y, super-serious, edgy type characters. Which, he has good reasons for being so, given his backstory, but some of his lines which were probably meant to come off as cool and sexy, made me scoff a little and take him less seriously. Other people would probably find him appealing, this is really just a case of "its not you, its me".

Another thing that took me out of the story was some of the names. I mentioned it here, and I do think its fun, but it removed me from the narrative a bit. Singing Waters is a cool-sounding name in english, but Changge Shui in mandarin sounds kind of dumb, and being named Yingyue would get you made fun of by Chinese people.