#i also read a lot of the popular ya fantasy books that were coming out in the 2000s

[asklesbianonceler]

I miss my era of reading low commitment fantasy novels. I am unfortunately bad at keeping reading in my rotation of things but I think I'll make an effort again!

I was planning on going to the library tomorrow anyways.

So if anyone has any suggestions let me know! I haven't read all that many essentials either so really any recommendation is a good one.

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

“literally just reskinned from an all white One Direction fanfic about an alien invasion. Which itself borrowed liberally from Red Queen”

????????

Red Queen seems to be really influencing a lot of YA and adult romance these days but it was never that good…

Anyway, I have no basis for my prediction but books like Fourth Wing (YA style adult book with smut) will probably continue to drive the adults who were stuck reading YA to the increasing market for those types of books. So YA itself with no breakout titles and no clear trends may try to put out more experimental work. It would be nice to see that since they don’t have to pander to adults as much anymore.

Also, I think that publishers may not be open to the more “diverse” brown/black girl books because of mostly white audiences. The editors themselves are mostly white. Mafi’s new series did not do as well and she’s going back to writing in the Shatter Me world. I do think Legendborn brought something new but I mean, the two tropey white love interests obviously are a huge draw along with how Shadowhunter-y the story is. It’s familiar and self insert-y in a way that a more “diverse” book isn’t. Not sure what could be done about this because it keeps YA stale. Their goal is selling books no matter what.

Re: this post

So I was doing a deep dive through Molly Chang’s socials after I finished her book because I was so bewildered by it. Turns out she got her start writing One Direction fanfiction on Wattpad. Gaze Upon Wicked Gods started out as Harry Styles fanfiction where he’s the angsty prince of an invading alien race and the protagonist is like a contemporary human living in the U.S. or UK. I’ve forgotten but it was definitely a western environment. Her soon to be published vampire book is almost definitively her more popular Zayn Malik story which was also a very like white European fantasy setting

Anyway Red Queen was horrible when it came out! But enough worse books have come out since that I have to give it some props. It was pretty influential back in the day as well— iirc it was patient zero for the trend shift from dystopian to court fantasy. So I’m not particularly surprised that it still has impact on the genre

I’m not sure about your prediction tbh! I could see it happening, but also Romantasy rn is such a homogenous genre (it’s literally all ACOMAF carbon copies) that you still end up finding more variation in YA. And, perhaps ironically, more variety is how we got the YA boom, and the category as it exists now, in the first place.

Basically, for the longest time, genre romance was (and has been) leaving money on the table because of its adherence to very strict formula, and dated norms. Around the Twilight craze, and the slew of paranormal romance copycats, YA ended up getting the attention of adults who weren’t necessarily interested in the strictness of adult genre romance. Because it was putting out so many romance heavy books, but the plots typically had more going on, and tended to just play out in ways that genre romance did not allow.

Publishers realized that catering to these adults was way more lucrative, and also that they could apparently endlessly chase trends to keep the interest going. And that’s how we’ve ended up where we’re at.

The thing is, Romantasy right now, is attempting nearly what the original New Adult category was attempting back in the early 2010s. They did try to launch New Adult! Major publishers, and a fair bit of indie ones, figured that if adults were really into YA, then doing the same thing but explicitly aimed at a more mature audience, and therefore more explicit, would be a slam dunk. But in trying to codify the tropes and shape it into its own thing, it was basically… a lot of very similar books that just had a lot of sex scenes. At the time, the main YA trends were still mostly contemporary, and the Fifty Shades craze had just happened. So NA was primarily just a lot of college set books with a ton of interchangeable CW plots, and the occasional like stalker/kidnapper/serial killer romance. And it tanked! Because it was so homogenous!

The few successful titles ended up splintering off into indie Dark Romance. But otherwise the experiment was essentially scrapped and trad publishers went back to YA and decided to just cram it full of sex scenes too lol. Which is how we got Sarah J Maas.

Fourth Wing’s boutique publisher (can’t remember the name off the top of my head) is basically singlehandedly trying to revive New Adult as an industry term and category. But I don’t think it’s going to happen tbh. Readers may use the term, but it’s really not a thing anymore if you talk to anyone involved in sales, book acquisitions, or marketing.

Romantasy is the real current attempt at a successor that actually has a chance. That being said, I’m skeptical because of several reasons. First, it already has a narrow scope by definition, you only get books with romance A plots in a fantasy setting. Second, it inadvertently ended up snuffing out several existing adult subgenres: Fantasy Romance, which, I know it’s confusing, but I promise it’s something different lol. These were Fantasy first books, that either had strong romance subplots or(!) were structured according to genre romance rules. It was a bit of a mixed bag, but it was doing well from the 80s to the mid 2000s basically. The key difference is that like. the worldbuilding and the plot mattered a lot. And it was primarily occupied by like LOTR and Mists of Avalon type copycats. The second sub genre is like the Sabriel type books. These are the “girly” Fantasy books that were frequently romance optional but about female protagonists and primarily aimed at women. So already we’ve lost variety, in search of the next big thing. And SFF trad acquisitions are alarmingly few, so it is something of a zero sum game. More worldbuilding lite SJM copycat Romantasy does directly mean there’s less of the other stuff.

But then on top of that, the only thing they’re pursuing seems to be ACOMAF rip offs, or the odd Reylo court fantasy. It’s a very narrow set of parameters. I suspect, unless there’s a pivot soonish, that they’re going to end up hitting over saturation and crash and burn like OG New Adult.

And then those readers will go back to indie and YA books

[tildearrayy]

I'm noticing something VERY interesting [maybe only to me] about SJ/M's latest release, both from an author/personal standpoint and a reader/book standpoint. [saying this as someone who has followed her, and her work, for at least a decade now]

the anticipation for CC/3 is huge. her fans are frothing at the bit now that the ACO/TAR world has collided with it. everyone wants THEIR ship to sail, everyone wants to see the culmination of their theories unfold.

BUT throughout all of this, in the space between the books, people have been getting upset at her, too. the latest issue has been about fans coming to notice how much money blooms/bury is asking people to pay to see sj/m for for each live event, in addition to the purchase of a book.

this is also riding on the coattails of a larger discussion, seen all over publishing, about how there are 5 [more?] special editions with separate bonus material across several stores, and fans are BIG MAD about that.

so people want the book, but they're upset at the way the publisher is handling the release, and sj/m has been DISTANT herself for years.

on a personal standpoint, which i'm tempted to connect to the reader standpoint: she's MUCH more visible now than she's been in years.

suddenly, within the last 2 months, she's been posting more. teasers, to be fair, for a new release, so not surprising, but that's [i think] her trying to calm the crowd a bit.

midnight release parties? interviews? willfully interacting with fans? yes and yes and yes.

early release material on her website? yes.

people are connecting her current career trajectory with that of smey/er and twi/light because sj/m is so big now and has so much attention and hype.

i agree, but i don't think they're right in how.

it's only been, what? two days? three? people WHO ACTUALLY LIKE HER are already not so happy about what she produced. it's early, but i'm tempted to think it's getting something like break/ing da/wn attention. people who genuinely love her are calling this book sloppy. rushed. they're saying that everything in it is too easy.

i don't think sj/m's going to ride this high forever. i think she's doing some PR for more than just the book.

i also don't think she's going to flop as quickly, and as badly, as smey-er did. smey/er hadn't faced much criticism before, which she'd admitted as much at the time. sj/m has, which is why she distanced herself. where smey/er shot pretty much straight up from where she started, and then totally fumbled once she reached such heights, sj/m has fumbled before, but despite distancing herself, she's still popular, it's not yet totally in vogue to tear her down, if only because her online fan base has given her so much clout [deserved or not].

I don't see this as being the mess that smey/er faced. i think sj/m will hang on for longer, but based on the reactions to the book itself that i'm seeing, i don't think people will let her get away with as much. if she doesn't address the glaring issues the antis have pointed out, she's facing a healthy decline going forward.

ETA: i think a lot of why she's doing the interviews - on daytime TV no less, this is highly unusual for her - is because her numbers [how much fans are buying from her] are down, which is reflected in how upset the fans were about the 5+ special editions across 5 stores with 5 separate but RELEVANT TO THE STORY bonus chapters that blooms/bury wanted them to fight over.

i think sj/m is being told to appeal harder to the adult/middle aged market. she was the "queen of YA" for years, but her books are being challenged in schools and libraries, people online were furious about the highly adult book box that went around with references and/or links back to sj/m's work [and the book box was supposed to be geared towards younger readers? i think? which again, upset a lot of people because sj/m's work has intimate scenes that not everyone agrees on YA readers reading].

so blooms/bury put a fresh set of "older fantasy" and discreet covers on sj/m's books to get some fresh, not-YA eyes on them, she's going on talk shows to say "hey, i write books for adults who like spice," and they're going to push harder for the crowd with slightly more money [not really, but they need to sell books] who won't be totally offended by the spice, and who may not know about her.

the one issue i see right up front is: they DON'T always know about her. their KIDS might, but middle aged/older readers aren't necessarily the same rabid fanbase making tiktoks online that she currently has. her readers are AGING, for sure, and she's having to keep up with that fact, but we know for sure that Millenials and Gen Z aren't exactly rolling in money right now. so she's relying on the Gen X+ crowds to be as hungry for spice and fantasy mixes as the younger ones were...back when they could afford them.

this might pan out in her favor, but i don't see gen x and the older people lining up for midnight book releases. they might watch the show, depending on how well it's done, or they might decide the books are too young for them as older readers who lean more heavily towards GRRM's work. again, this may well be the start of sj/m's decline, but we'll have to see how much traction she gets with the older crowd AND if that reflects in future print runs - does the publisher do more special editions? do they demand twice the price for live events? or do things start to look more reasonable?

ETA 2: the obvious similarity between sj/m's career and smey/er's [besides having a huge fanbase, made mostly of female-identifying people, who want and enjoy romance] is also that sj/m has been in talks for an adaptation of her work, like smey/er got, which could definitely bring in new readers, not sure how i missed that in the rest of the post.

[msunitedstatesjames]

I felt a little bit bittersweet when this came in the mail the other day.

I came a little late to the Terry Pratchett fandom.

I first read one his books (Nation) probably around 2008 or 2009, when I was still in high school and saw it on the new YA shelf at my local library. I remember seeing his name on the cover and seeing that he was a "bestselling author," which apparently impressed me at the time, so I picked it up. I do remember liking it overall, though when I look back I have a feeling that I thought it was a little odd, and I didn't feel the distinct need to go out and search for his other works. Being a teen is weird, I was still developing my sense of humor and analysis skills and all that, so, like many books, I really should reread it now that I'm an adult. At the very least, it left some kind of an impression on me, because at the time I was in the reading frenzy of a girl who would shortly become an English major and eventually an English teacher. I've forgotten a lot of the titles and authors I read in those years, but for some reason I never forgot that one.

I really didn't think much more about Terry Pratchett for years. I remember seeing the news when he passed away, and I was like, "Oh, yeah, he's the guy that wrote Nation." But I'm an American, and though he clearly has lots of fans here, he didn't seem to have the kind of widespread devotion that he had overseas, so I don't think I realized until then that Terry had a hugely devoted fan base. I kept seeing more and more articles and posts about him, and I read some, and I remember thinking, "Wow, this really sucks. This guy was really loved. Maybe I'll have to look at more of his work some time." But at the time I was in grad school, and I was starting my career, and I didn't have time to read for fun as much as I had a few years before.

Another few years later, in my mid-twenties, I joined a couple of Facebook groups devoted to fantasy and sci-fi. I was still transitioning from reading lots of YA fantasy and sci-fi to more "adult" market fantasy and sci-fi, and I joined the groups to get some different recommendations. Terry Pratchett was one of those names that kept coming up over and over. When people asked about humorous books he was always mentioned, when people asked for all time favorite authors he was a popular choice, when people asked for favorite quotes his words featured prominently, when people asked for long series recommendations he was obviously recommended, when people argued about which of the Big 3 Terrys of fantasy were the best, he always won. You get the picture. And again I thought about reading more of his work, but I still didn't.

Finally, Good Omens season 1 came out. It must have been marketed pretty successfully because I really wasn't seeking it out. I love fantasy, but I've never really cared for the whole 'angels and demons' sub-genre. I didn't really have an opinion on David Tennant or Michael Sheen at this point (don't come at me, Tumblr), and I'd read a few Neil Gaiman books and enjoyed them, but I wouldn't have gone around shouting about him in the streets or anything (still don't come at me, Tumblr). But I'd seen the book recommended in my Facebook groups, and I kept seeing trailers for it and thinking it looked entertaining, so I decided to do what any book-snob English teacher would do and read the book before I watched the show. That didn't last very long, because I loved the book so much from page one that I immediately wanted to watch the show and see if it could possibly live up to the book. But I also didn't want to spoil the ending of the book, so I ended up having a pretty weird but ultimately interesting experience with Good Omens, where I would read a chunk of the book, then watch an episode of the show, hoping it would cover the chunk I'd just finished reading. It was awesome, and I'd go back and do it the same way all over again if I had the chance.

And Good Omens acheived what the rest of the world hadn't been able to do, which was convince me to read more Terry Pratchett. I did what everyone in my fantasy groups told me not to do, and decided to read Discworld in publication order. I loved book one so much that I couldn't believe it when everyone said it was perhaps the weakest book in the series, so I did what I almost never do and read eleven books by the same author over the course of the year. Since then, I've slowed down to only reading about four of his books a year, but I almost never read more than two books in a year from any other given author, so it's still pretty impressive. I've loved every one of them. I love the dry sense of humor, and the subtle and not so subtle social commentary, and every time I read one of his books I just think, "this dude must have been so intelligent." He parodies and satirizes everything, which is hard to do if you don't have a good understanding of the thing you're parodying first. This dude's over here making up parody fantasy versions of physics concepts, and I'm like, "this probably makes sense to a person who actually knows about science."

Anyway, he's now my second most read author (and he will be my most read author by this time next year), and he's become one of my go to authors when people ask me for my favorite writers. And the Good Omens fandom has become my favorite fandom ever since season 1 of the show came out.

I've been so grateful for rediscovering Terry Pratchett, but it all makes me a little sad, too. It makes me wish I'd read more of his work earlier. It would have been so cool to be a part of his fandom when there were still Discworld books coming out, and the fandom was full of nothing but hope and excitement for future books. It's sad to know that eventually I'll have read all of his books, and there won't be any new ones for me to pick up. I know I can always reread, but it'll still be sad. I'm happy at least that there are still so many cool people working on continuing his legacy in a variety of ways.

So, when I heard A Stroke of the Pen was coming out, probably late this past summer, I immediately knew I wanted it. At first, I thought it'd be a good book to put on my Christmas list. (Everyone in my family pretty much knows if they're stuck on what to buy me, books are always a win.) But then I thought about it, and I realized it would almost certainly be the only Terry Pratchett book I'd ever be able to say I bought when it was new. (Except the graphic novel version of Good Omens, which I'm eagerly anticipating.) So, I preordered it instead of waiting.

I probably won't read it anytime soon. I opened it up and read Neil Gaiman's foreword, and it made me tear up a little, so I set it aside, just like I did with Terry's biography when I got that for Christmas last year. But even though it's not the next Terry Pratchett book on my list, it's nice to know there will be another one waiting for me when I'm ready for it.

[panic-at-the-waffle-house]

I don’t like BookTok :)

I know the is isn’t the “hottest take” but I just don’t like it for a lot of reasons, one big one is that it spreads the idea of “you can’t read that book”.

Growing up, I always lived by the idea that you should read what you enjoy/makes you happy. Reading in general does wonders for the brain and creativity. This is coming from not only an avid reader, but someone whose mom was a reading teacher, albeit for elementary school. The growth of all of the students was amazing and they weren’t English speakers at all. She had students who could fluently speak it/read it to kids who knew nothing. I grew up in a VERY diverse town in the Midwest. Like white people were the MINORITY. So that also meant we had a lot of different cultures and different books/entertainment that was specific to that culture.

Anyway back to books lol.

The biggest critique I have with BookTok is that if there’s a book or series you like, someone is bound to nitpick it for some reason. I love criticism of a book, I think it’s great and being able to point out flaws leads to deep discussion. But a lot of the time, people like these books simply because THEY LIKE IT. You don’t have to like it, but they like it. Main examples are books by Colleen Hoover (I have my gripes with her, I can’t stand her books), but the people who read her books enjoy them so I’m not going to harass or bully them for something they enjoy. SJ Mass is another author who gets a lot of flame, again for reasonable reasons, but even I have enjoyed her books.

I really got into YA fantasy like early high school and late middle school. One of the first series I read was the Throne of Glass series which I picked up since my mom had the first book. I actually really enjoyed it and I was in like 7th grade at the time so some of the simplicity and common tropes were well worth it for me. But as I got older and tried to re-read the series, I couldn’t. I fell in love with the side characters more than the main ones. (Dorian was my number one boy and he still is. I was so excited whenever he appeared. Still my fav character.) I didn’t care for Aelin, Rowan, or some others simply because I just didn’t really care for them. They’re fine, just not my favs and I know some people love them which is valid.

I couldn’t even finish ACOTAR. I got halfway through and DNF’d it. I don’t care for first person point of view in general and I didn’t like her characters or the plot. Roman e was never my thing—I love it as a side plot but if the entire book is about romance I find it boring. I barely made it through The Selection.

Before fantasy YA, I was big into dystopian. THG was my first real YA book and I loved it, with the Maze Runner after it. It’s my favorite YA fictional series to this day even though it has its flaws. The move from dystopian to fantasy was very much in a certain span of my life and now I see it being so popular in media which is great. Except for the people who don’t know how to respect OPINIONS. Not only that, but gatekeeping makes me mad.

All through my life I liked reading classics, classics of every region. My mom always had classic books lying around so I would pick them up and the ones from the different ethnic groups and cultures were always at the public library for me to read. That’s how I got books like

Crime and Punishment- Russian Literature

No Longer Human- Japanese Literature

The Iliad- Greek Literature

Dracula-Irish Literature

Journey to The West-Chinese Literature

The Idiot- Japanese Literature

Don Quixote-Spanish Literature

And so many others at an early age. Some of them are well known and some aren’t—which is normal. But when some people who read classics look down on others or say “you can’t read that because you’re doing it to be quirky”, it bothers me. I always wanted to talk to others about these books and damn it I was STRUGGLING to find people to talk to about The Great Gatsby who actually liked it in seventh grade. This is PROMINENT in the BSD fandom since the characters are named after famous classical authors and some people are stuck up, not wanting these books to be read.

It never made sense to me. Maybe I’m the stupid one.

Overall, there are very few people on BookTok who I enjoy watching or listening to. Each series has its highlights and its flaws, like humans do, so just let people enjoy a book damnit. And if people want to vent or explain why they DONT like a book let them damnit.

Anyway what’s a book that scarred you for like???? I read Where The Red Feen Grows at like 10 years old and am still traumatized by it. :D

[jovenshires]

🦚 for the queer ask game!

🦚 - Are there any queer books/shows/etc. that you would suggest?

oh my god YEAH absolutely. i used to be a queer media connoisseur (im no longer a romance girlie when i consume media bc i write so much of it but i still have love for the genre). i'll do one rec for each category up here but ill put some more under the cut!!

book: aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe. it's my favorite book i've gotta put it out there. literally changed my life when i was like 16 i love it so much

show: there's so many popular ones that i feel like if you're gay you've already seen them by now, so im gonna throw a curveball and go with crazy ex-girlfriend. they talk a LOT about lgbtq+ identities and explore dynamics with different couples, and if you love musicals, you absolutely must go watch it rn i fear

movie: moonlight. oh my god if you haven't seen moonlight go watch moonlight it's so so incredible 10/10. a drama that follows a black gay man from childhood to adulthood, explores the themes of masculinity, family, and friendship as well as romantic love. it's just an incredible movie it deserves all the hype tbh

music: once again there's so many popular queer musicians nowadays that i Do Not HAVE to rec (you know the ones they go hard), so im gonna rec chrissy chlapecka!! she just makes such incredible, sugary-sweet pop music about such amazing fucked up shit i love her

send me some gay asks!

okie doke as promised here's some more recs from yours truly bc i really, really love media and have a collection to rec atp NDNKFNKND ill try to order them by genre from least to most obscure LMAO

BE WARNED: i do read some graphic stuff - im an adult and my media taste reflects that. before you read anything i rec, look it up for trigger warnings!! i don't want anybody to be hurt by something i recommend. <3

books:

of course like. simon vs the homosapien agenda by becky albertalli is out there. this is one of those classics i was talking about KDNKFNFK it's very ya-gay-romance-romcom you can eat up ya know. the movie's also not too bad (people think it's 'cringey' nowadays but that was HUGE for me when i was like 19 and had my first girlfriend). anyway it's feel-good fluff if you like that kind of thing!!

red white and royal blue is obviously another classic and one i can't rec enough. i love the way its written, i love the characters, i love the plot. like it's everything, if you're into the romcom vibe this is a great one to check out. (and as a bonus this one also has a movie and it Slaps)

it's not like it's a secret by misa sigura is a pretty solid wlw coming-of-age novel that i highly rec if you're into the rom-com type book. it's also got some EXCELLENT poc representation!!

bloom by kevin panetta is a graphic novel and i love it. so so so much. truly i think i read this in a day and i am NOT a huge graphic novel reader. feel-good romcom, poc rep, body diversity, AND pretty pictures. what is there not to love. everyone should read bloom tbh

lies we tell ourselves by robin talley is Probably my favorite wlw book ever. it's historical fiction and it is Everything to me. and im actually a known historical fiction hater so take it from me - its Good.

carry on by rainbow rowell is i think a classic at this point and i love it. so so so much. you ever identify with a character a little too hard. yeah thats me and this book. i gave my best friend a copy for her graduation. it is an Excellent take on 'remember all the heroes you wanted to be gay when you were a kid. imagine if they were.' it's my beloved

a hero at the end of the world by erin claiborne is another great one in the same vein, with a punchy, dry humor twist. basically if you were a harry potter kid but you hate jkr. you'll love this one and carry on KSNDKDNFK

nimona by nd stevenson is another graphic novel!! it's another fantasy, so if that's your cup of tea, i highly recommend it. it's got an amazing queer love story, a genderfluid protag, and most importantly, found family. literally everything. (it also has a movie but i haven't seen it yet

the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater is HUGEEEE i love that series it reshaped me. it's. mystery/supernatural i would say? it has multiple of my fave queer characters of all time and honestly. everyone there is a little gay. one of my absolute faves <3

we are the ants by shaun david hutchinson is a sci-fi horror adventure story and this one. it stuck with me. the main character hit me so hard and his internal struggle is so SO interesting. if you're into this kind of shit. give it a shot!

every day by david levithan is not one of MY all-time faves, but i can still say it's super interesting and has great rep!! it has a genderfluid/agender main character (depending on how you look at it). i will say i think there are multiple books in the series (?) but i stopped at one bc. it made me too sad anyway. <3

the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky is not queer bc it's explicitly about a queer character or a queer love story, BUT. it still has one of my favorite lgbt characters of all time. patrick you will always be famous to me. as a bisexual girl in a catholic high school, saw a Lot of myself in patrick. (i do also have a special place in my heart for the movie bc it was my depression movie as a teen but patrick is played by ezra miller so be warned)

one of us is lying by karen mcmanus is another one that's not just. About a Gay Couple BUT it is one of my fave books (a murder mystery retelling of the breakfast club) and it has a gay main character!! his struggle with his sexuality is something he really struggles with and he has a boyfriend and i adore him.

shows:

i mean obviously like. heartstopper is incredible. like i said im not super into the romcom/young adult genre anymore but that show is just so beautiful and amazing and really healed my inner gay teen. it has a really diverse cast and representation for all kinds. i really recommend it!!!

everything sucks was gone before its time, but it is SUCH an amazing show. it has one of my fave on-screen wlw couples of all time. it's a feel-good, coming of age classic and i miss it deeply. (what did you just say??? 'katie rewatch it' oh my god you're onto something)

now if yall know me. glee is absolutely gonna be on this list. is it good? technically no. is it one of the greatest pieces of satire ever created? up until season three yes. i realized i was gay via santana lopez. THE gay character of all time. and all the love in my heart for all the other lgbt characters (kurt hummel you will always be famous to me......) some of it's a little dated (don't get me STARTED on unique) but it does genuinely have some great lgbt rep and if you watch it with a grain of salt it's a great comedy

julie and the phantoms made by kenny ortega (of THE high school musical and descendants fame) and it has a gay character i love!! (actually technically it has a few <3)

i'm a huge consumer of kids' media (i think phineas and ferb is a literal masterpiece and im not even kidding) so if you're like me and enjoy the disney/kid show beat i cannot rec andi mack enough. it's dramatic it's campy it's fun it's silly it's got a FANTASTIC gay character and a gay couple i deeply adore and not to mention!! so much representation!! it's like junior fosters tbh

we're gonna get into a little pocket here of like. normal romance but slightly niche - animes! sasaki to miyano is like my top lgbt anime rec. it is so, SO good. just absolute feel-good romcom goodness pls give it a shot

depending on interpretation, ouran high school host club arguably has a nonbinary character, some bi/gay characters, and a trans character! now. it IS hella dated do not get me wrong. BUT for the time? incredibly progressive and a wonderful watch. just brace yourself for some out of pocket shit

stars align has one of my favorite lgbt characters EVER, a nonbinary icon <3 and it's like. a PLOT. truly so rare to see something like that done on tv, let alone in anime. this is a sports anime - soft tennis my beloved - but it has So Much More To It than that.

another gay sports anime is run with the wind, a recent fave of mine. and i don't mean gay in the way that most sports animes are kinda gay. i mean he literally says 'im in love with this guy.' it's an amazing watch if you like that kinda thing!!

if you want an aroace genderfluid protag. the disastrous life of saiki k is up there as one of my fave animes ever AND saiki (the main character) is my fave protag of all time. this silly lil show is supernatural (ish?) and comedy all wrapped into one fantastic show i highly recommend!!

segueing back into live action shows, buffy the vampire slayer is an AMAZING, iconic, female-led supernatural dramedy with some early and, for its time, incredible lesbian rep.

yellowjackets because i LOVE unhinged lesbians. i didn't even know there was gay people in this - i started watching because i love horror and girls' soccer DLNKFNFLN and it's amazing!! if you like tragic gay women i HIGHLY endorse yellowjackets.

in the flesh. look. here's my pitch for itf. do you love being sad. do you love catharsis. do you love zombies. you will LOVE in the flesh. please. i miss it so bad i've seen this show 4 times (and you're right i should also watch this one again!!!) and i never tire of it.

sense8 is a sci-fi show and IT IS EVERYTHING TO ME. truly the diversity is unparalleled. so many lgbt characters of so many different identities. polyamory, trans people, a neuro-link that's destroying peoples' lives. it literally has everything.

the get down is not just an lgbt show, BUT it has an incredible lgbt character/storyline that i adore. a musical show, a historical fiction piece (which means a lot coming from me), and almost every character is a poc. pls give it a shot it's everything

bodies is another one that isn't just about lgbt+ rep BUT. it's incredibly diverse, examining people facing discrimination throughout history (you've got a gay mc, a jewish mc, a muslim mc, AND a disabled mc) and it just has such amazing plot lines and representation. it's a murder mystery/sci-fi double whammy, so give it a shot if you're interested!!

movies:

alex strangelove is a good, underrated, coming of age classic. it follows a guy who struggles with his sexuality. very teen rom-com-dramedy core!!

i adored boy meets girl when i watched it. a very romcom-y movie about a trans woman from a small town dreaming of getting out....... friends to lovers.......... i adore it

happiest season is a christmas movie and it's very sweet. its been panned (there are some just criticisms on the plot tbf) BUT i do think it's really cute

to wong fu thanks for everything julie newmar is just. so so good. it's an underrated classic imo. three drag queens go on road trip, end up in a small town, and change it for the better. it's literally so amazing it's just feel good found family PLEASE give this one a shot

the birdcage is another classic i so genuinely enjoy. who doesn't want robin williams and nathan lane as their gay dads. at the end of the day it's all about found family, love, and old gay men.

handsome devil is a foreign film - irish to be exact! - and i love it so much. once again as a catholic school kid.......... yeah. YEAH. anyway go watch the og gay nicholas galitzine movie LKNDKFNKNLFNKLF

pride is a historical piece and an excellent movie. it's got its ups and downs but god it's just an overall good movie. another irish film, coincidentally!

the way he looks is also a foreign film, this time in spanish, BUTTTTT it's one of my faves i love it so much. it's very feel-good, sweet, romcom so if you feel like you could be into that - give it a shot!!

rent, if you're into musicals, has some of my fave musical characters ever. angel dumott schunard you will ALWAYS be the love of my life. it is deeply sad but. other than that. i live in denial.

the prom is a much more light-hearted and silly lgbt musical. people shat on that movie but i think it's SWEET and cute and has some bangers!!

i mean like. we can joke ab how hyped it is all we want but brokeback mountain is basically required gay watching. it is EXACTLY as amazing as everyone says it is. the chemistry..... oh my god we could never make that movie again it was like catching lightning in a bottle.

bodies, bodies, bodies is a fun and campy lgbt horror if you're into that kind of thing!! the ending was a bit not my fave but otherwise it's an incredible cast and got some great silly scares

on the topic of gay horror, jennifer's body is gay and again, exactly as good as everyone hypes it up to be. you want gay women who are terrible to each other? oh boy do i have the movie for you

and i promise ill wrap on gay horror with it chapters 1 & 2. reddie will unfortunately always be famous.

everything, everywhere, all at once is not Just a gay movie BUT. it has an incredible gay character and it factors so interestingly into the mother/daughter relationship. i love that movie i will always talk about it

music (these are all just people i personally listen to but there are SO many more. im not gonna expand on these ones too much just go check em out you'll get it):

lil nas x

troye sivan

kim petras

kesha

tegan and sara

brandi carlile

hayley kiyoko

rina sawayama

peach prc

renee rapp

adam lambert

scene queen

willow

halsey

clairo

cavetown

janelle monae

[write-lets-do-this]

All for the Game is a series that truly transformed my reading experience back in the summer of 2020 when I read it for the first time. I remember taking the trilogy with me on a week-long beach holiday with my parents and regretting not bringing any more books with me for how fast I tore through them. I managed to keep myself fairly occupied by my own fantasies of how the characters would have reacted had they materialised before me or happened to be playing on the beach as I walked past. I could go on forever about all the details that go into this series and the emotions that I felt upon reading that were captured just as vividly even on my second re-read, but I’ll keep this relatively short.

The second book, The Raven King, (not to be confused with the novel of the same name by Maggie Stiefvater) kicks up the gory side a lot. This is the point where I warn anyone who hasn’t read it yet, and might be planning to, to check the trigger warnings for some pretty upsetting content that appears in both this second book and the third one also with too much plot relevance to be easily skipped over. There’s some harsh language and questionable drug use from the first book too, but the latter two books are the most heavy-handed with the explicit depictions of some quite horrific events.

For a series that has been published independently, it holds up well in terms of its quality when compared to other popular staples in the YA genre. The fact that it has been independently published rather than through an agency somewhat serves to highlight and mirror the narrative of the PSU Foxes as they scrabble together a found family of sorts from a bunch of traumatised and troubled young adults. The rawness of the writing itself only highlights this, making it easy for any angsty YA reader to latch onto, which really isn’t a bad thing when it comes to this series. All for the Game truly does master the art of creating almost stupidly dramatic scenarios and making them feel relatable to anyone that’s ever experienced any feelings of anger or worthlessness.

This series is so close to my heart it’s rather difficult to write objectively, or with a particularly analytical mindset about it, but it really is done rather well. The pacing is kept throughout the series, climaxing towards the final instalment and allowing a fair (if very slightly excessive) conclusion to ensure the characters’ arcs have been fully tied up. None of the leaving-enough-knots-untied-to-potentially-squeeze-another-spinoff-out that seems to plague almost every form of media in the current age, it encapsulates the whole story of Neil Josten and the other Foxes within its several hundred pages.

Neil’s narration plays its own part, making him an excellent, and frequently hilarious, unreliable narrator. The way Sakavic uses this as a tool to convey Neil’s own opinions without overly clouding the reality of the events beyond the character’s perspective is a finely-balanced art. While he’s not always the most honest about his own feelings, Neil’s perceptiveness makes for a fascinating angle that really uplifts the whole story.

Overall

I’ve already told you how much I absolutely adore this series, for personal reasons probably a little more than technical writerly ones. But gosh does it pull on your heartstrings. If you have the nerve to tolerate the hefty trigger list All for the Game comes with, absolutely give it a read!

Rating: ★★★★★

-Olive Tree

[wolfreader]

august 2024 wrap-up - young adult fiction

this month i read four (4) young adult novels.

the lesbiana's guide to catholic school by sonora reyes 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

this isn't exactly what i go for when reading contemporary ya - typically when i read young adult fiction outside of fantasy it's historical fiction, or else far more serious, far more introspective work; while this certainly touches on heavy themes, it's far lighter in tone and far more romance-centric than what i normally gravitate toward.

that being said, i enjoyed it! sonora reyes definitely knows how modern teenagers speak and act far more than some other young adult authors i've read, i assume reyes either recently left high school or has a high school aged family member to speak to. also pretty accurately captured the culture of a catholic school, in my opinion. the catholic high school i attended was all-girls, unlike the school in this book, so there were some major differences to my experience, but some things are just catholic school specific in general.

there was one twist on expectations that i really enjoyed. i have to be really vague in order to not spoil it as this is a book i would recommend, but the majority of the book sets up the expectation that, if A happens, B will happen, and when thing A eventually happens the exact opposite of B happens.

a sky beyond the storm by sabaa tahir 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

finally finished this series! i finally understand why it's so popular and it's definitely become one of my favorite young adult fantasy series out there.

within minimal spoilers, there was a character who had made this magic deal with an ancient cosmic being, and this deal prevented them from ever truly interacting with the other characters again, beyond purely practical exchanges, and i wasn't 100% satisfied with how they got this character out of that deal. i think the solution came just a little bit out of left field.

overall, however, i think this was a great conclusion to a great series. i know the author is coming out with a spin-off series, and i don't know anything about it but i might look into things.

we set the dark on fire by tehlor kay mejia 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

this is a duology that i've heard a lot about from youtubers and bloggers recommending sapphic fantasy books, and i really enjoyed this first book!

i do think it could have potentially been more interesting if dani was just a little bit more truly devoted to medio and was so for just a little bit longer. like, she does kind of believe in the system at the beginning, but for the most part she's already disillusioned before the book even begins and only has a little bit she needs to learn and work through before she's fully committed to spying for the rebellion. i just think there could have been a little more to work with if she was more of a patriot, believing herself to be the exception to the rule in regards to medio's beliefs about people like her.

regardless i still enjoyed this and will for sure be picking up the second book.

a far wilder magic by allison saft 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

this is actually a reread! i first read this at the library either last year or very end of 2022, and i absolutely loved it! having now read all of allison saft's books currently out, i think it's safe to say i just love her writing. i especially love the absolutely gripping and unique atmosphere and setting she creates in every book. i feel completely sucked into the world she presents to the reader, and i'm super exited for her adult debut which, at the time of writing, comes out in just a few weeks!!

i love a far wilder magic, i think the two main characters are perfect for each other and are both really endearing to the reader in different ways. i remember when i read it for the first time the ending shocked me in a good way; the characters do something that i really wasn't expecting them to do but not in a way that felt out of left field.

[permanentreverie]

Hi! For the book asks, 3, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17!

3. what were your top 5 books of the year? choosing just 5 books is IMPOSSIBLE, but to narrow it down to *series* my favourites would be: the poppy war, a good girl’s guide to murder, beartown, we hunt the flame, and all for the game!

5. what genre did you read the most of? i read a lot of contemporary and fantasy ya!

11. what was your favourite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? i mean, i just read much ado about nothing on new year’s eve 🙈 i’d say that’s been out for a while! in all honesty, there are so many books it’s hard to choose just one

12. any books that disappointed you? i was very disappointed by better than the movies!! so many people loved it, thought it was soo cute, and i found it very … mid. nothing we haven’t seen before and the relationship was so boring! and i know tbosas is VERY popular, but im afraid it just wasn’t for me. also a study in drowning, masters of death, strange the dreamer, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, lost in the never woods … yeah there were a few books that i was disappointed by lol

13. what were your least favourite books of this year? a little life, slade house, twisted love, twisted lies, fourth wing, not here to be liked, all of the above list YIKES i could go on 😭

14. what book do you want to finish before the year ends? i hate not finishing a book before new years, so for 2023 i was really hoping to finish little women, a study in drowning, and shadow of night (all which i were in the middle of!)

16. what is the most over-hyped book you read this year? FOURTH WING. listen. i didn’t go in thinking i’d like it, but damn. it was so bad. it was so incredibly bad. every time i see a 5 star review on goodreads i feel a bit of my sanity slipping away.

17. did any books surprise you with how good they were? ninth house and hell bent! though i loved the soc duology, i VASTLY do not like laugh bardugo’s other books, so i was a bit testy going into this duology. however hell bent rearranged my brain chemistry and made me INSANE i cant wait till the third book comes out!!

end of year book asks

[edgepunk]

The Witcher Netflix Rant from your local frustrated Slav I cannot tell you how tired and frustrated I am by TWN and its treatment of Slavic people. An actual Polish man has pitched the show to Netflix, multiple other producers of Slavic descent have been alienated and felt like they didn't belong there because of how they have been treated, then ultimately left the production that has been handed over to a literal Karen that doesn't give a shit about it. The show has removed every instance of Slavic(mainly Polish)/other European (Germanic, Nordic) influences, cultural significance and turned it into an uninspired, boring, muddy fantasy. Hell, I have tons of criticisms about the games, but at least they kept the Central-Eastern European influences and, despite TW being a dark fantasy, weren't scared to make the games look bright and colorful. You'd think that Girlboss Lauren and her posse would put some effort into representing the cultural influences since the games pretty much got the series popular with the blend of different Central-Eastern European (mainly Polish, obviously) cultures and the usage of Slavic folk music thanks to Percival. A lot of the themes in the books draw from Poland's history, which also have been lost in the show (here is a post that's written by an actual Polish person and explains it better than I could since I'm not actually Polish, ya know). All of that has been lost, both the writing and aesthetics lack the cultural and historical significance that has influenced the world of The Witcher, because the showrunners are a bunch of Brits and USAmericans who aren't willing to put any effort into trying to understand the history and culture. They just want to make the next GoT, which,, huh? GoT ended up like it did, but to give them some credit, in the beginning the writers mostly stuck to the books instead of making a badly written Wattpad fanfiction from the get-go.

And it's possible for a western person to try to understand the circumstances, look at Craig Mazin, the man who directed HBO Chernobyl. Of course it's dramatized, of course they added some things that didn't actually happen and a few things were inconsistent. But you can clearly see in the production of the show that they put a lot of effort and interviewed people from Ukraine. Not sure if it's true, but I've seen somewhere (or was it a podcast?) that they gave the scripts to some Ukrainian people who were alive during the Soviet Union and asked them to correct the dialogues to make them sound more authentic, closer to how people adressed each other during the USSR (and how Eastern Slavs adress each other since it's a little different than western people do, including us Western Slavs, here is a nifty post explaining it if you're interested).

Can't speak for all Slavs, but the overall reaction has been positive from the people I talked to and my older family member. Note that a lot of "older" people here have been born pre '89 (that's when the USSR fell apart, the disaster happened in April '86), so the majority of them lived through the disaster. The biggest criticism people had that they turned Dyatlov into too much of a villain. when in reality he was way calmer during the night the disaster happened. Not to mention Mazin had it more difficult since he was adapting a story from real life that affected thousands upon thousands people. Mazin is a westener, he could've just shrugged it off and said "eh who cares about these filthy Eastern Euro people" but he and his team went out of their way to actually approach the victims, read several books written by people who actually lived through the disaster, that affected them and their families to make the story more authentic and respectful. Now, why can't Miss Lauren and her posse do it with a fantasy setting? Because they don't care. The only instance of "Slavic influence" (using that term very loosely) in the show is during the Striga episode when they mention a "vukodlak" which literally translates to "werewolf" so like,,, eh. It's still a werewolf, just a different version. I'm sure the writers were patting themselves on the back for including that word they found on the werewolf Wiki page. It would've been so nice to see a Slavic piece of media make it to Hollywood, but you see how that ended up. We barely get any recognition and if there is a Slavic character in a western production they're always: an assassin, gopnik, Seksi Female Spy that falls in love with the American, thief, mob boss, and I could go on. They never get the language right, because all Slavs speak botched Russian, right? All of us are named Anton, Ivan, Nikita, Natasha or Svetlana. And there are other mythical creatures besides Baba Yaga which Hollywood can't get right either. And it bleeds into the fandom too, all the modern AUs take place in the US or the UK. When other Slavic people criticize the show for its westernization they are told by westerners to shup up or they're "haters" (I do actually hate the show and the corpo bullshit Netflix is trying to pull here so,,, you can come at me all you want lol) tl;dr: The Witcher was the perfect opportunity for Slavs to have something positive in Hollywood, but it got doomed the moment it was handed to an USAmerican woman who doesn't understand the cultural influences and has zero interest in doing proper research. I probably would've forgiven her and her team if they actually tried, but they didn't. But seeing how other cultures that aren't USAmerican are being treated in movies and TV shows it shouldn't surprise me. Also I feel like I have to clarify - this has nothing to do with the actors, this is purely on the writers, the background and costume designers that put zero effort into researching the different cultures (not just Slavic, but I am Slavic so I wrote this from my perspective) that influenced The Witcher universe.

[unhealthyfanobsession]

Can we talk about the “Young Adult” genre for a minute?

I’ve always said that ACOTAR being promoted as YA is just a huge mistake given the themes it deals with, and especially the flippant way in which harmful language is used.

But the real problem I think is that genres need to be rethought entirely. Because young people, especially those who read recreationally, tend to outgrow the books in their age ground and end up reading at least a level or two up.

So while it may seem like say a 16/17 year old is old enough to engage with the themes in these books, a 12/13 year old just isn’t. And that is who often reads YA.

I was reading the Hunger Games and Divergent (the two most popular YA books of my time) at like 11/12. By 16 I had moved into adult books. And by that I mean actually adult books that deal with adult themes not just books with sex.

I feel like the publishing industry is just willfully ignorant of the realities of the demographics of each genre and I think it’s really harmful to present books like this as books for “teenagers” knowing that younger people will inevitably read it and adults wonts question it because other YA books are essentially meant for that age range.

It’s the same way high school TV shows are not actually for High schoolers. It’s generally younger people looking up to the characters and fantasizing about the future.

Of course there are exception to all of this, but on the whole I think it’s a real problem. Especially when you add the internet to it, and that is where I often find myself saying that I think the really militant fans of specifically certain relationships and characters are VERY young.

Coming into ask boxes on anonymous and telling people to K*** themselves, commenting inflammatory nonsense, purposefully going into the wrong tags to get into a fight is all very classic young person yelling for attention behaviour.

Most of the people I interact with on this app are in their 20’s or older and that feels like an age where rational conversations about complex and nuanced topics (and how poorly they are being handled) can occur. But really young people are just solely focused on the characters they love and believing they have no flaws.

It’s exhausting, to be honest. And it’s turning a lot of people away from online interaction which I think is a major loss as someone who enjoys having real conversations about real issues even if they are coming up because of a dumb fantasy book.

But my ultimate point is that I don’t think it is these kids’ fault. These books were purposefully marketed to them because it’s a demographic that drives profit and, when the show comes out, it will be those young kids who watch it. Because they want to see the CW pretty people do magic. And that’s fine, but if the publisher wanted to cash in on young people, there should have been some thought to that with regards to the content of these books.

And full stop ACOSF should not have been allowed as it is. I really believe that. I think it is asking for problems to connect a book with those themes to a series marketed as Young Adult. Sure, they said ACOSF was adult, but come on. Everyone knows no one will heed that.

It ultimately leads to children reading books not only with graphic sexual content, which can be damaging to their development and understanding of healthy sexual expression, but also exposes them, purposefully to turn a profit, to a very poor and callous handling of major themes like suicide, sexual assault, racism, sexism, toxic relationships, and the muddied grey area of ends justifying the means mentality.

[digimonandpokemon]

YESS we can, I've never seen anything but good reviews for this book, and by reviews I meant a bunch of tropes listed that don't actually tell me nothing about the plot so, please, please share with us about your reading experience thank <3

Aksjdmdkzkjdd alright alright I shall share my reading experience of this book through the lense of an asexual person who really likes fantasy novels because I think world building is really cool and could only read like a few chapters before getting so frustrated with it, it is hiding in the back of my book shelves :)

Spoilers obvs ajdhkdkd

Number one, there is very little world building. The author kind of explains things but it is obviously not the authors main focus cause most of the world building we get is "There's elves :) and they have magic :0 and won't you know it, they hate humans !!!" We also learn that all of elves are cursed to wear masquerade masks for their entire lives which is explained to us with the emotional depth of that one scene in trolls.

Number two, the elves hate the humans except this very mysterious handsome elven prince that has taken an interest in this one main character because he just "see something in her 😊" we learn that the elves live excluded from the rest of the world, divided off by a giant wall. The book obviously makes you feel like the main character is going to be the key to making the elves and the humans live in harmony again. Because duh.

Number three, do not take this as a stab towards the main character. I personally think she's a great main character who's head strong and does what she needs to to survive. She's make the perfect main character for any fantasy novel but since I personally don't like romance novels and I always see romance as "pulling the main character down into a love interest" it just doesn't do it for me. I mean she was a little a bland but I think that's just how the writing is. Which leads me into

Number 4, the writing is very one dimensional. I feel like the author was trying to make the writing interesting and powerful but they fell short and it was just kinda meh. For example after the main character kills a wolf and sells the hide we are lead to belive its a fay. So the author brings in this bad ass huntress who is covered in battle scars and has seen horrors beyond the compression of our mortal minds. The main character sells the wolf hide to her and asks if its a fey after the huntress gives some ominous warning that the elves were beginning to grow a lot more brave, getting closer and closer to towns. She's like "hmm it doesn't look like to be a fey hide but it is an impressive game :]" and you're like great! No author would purposefully mislead us like that after bringing in a clearly experienced character that seems to know what their talking about. Because if they did that would just be a waste of a scene a waste of a character and a waste of my time because that is just sloppy writing. I mean come on hahahaha

Oh fucking wait it was an elf this entire time! Haha! The author sure did trick you! Hahaha! And there other small details that are super inconsistent that I do not want to get into.

I was recommended this book multiple times and it's really popular so obviously there must be a reason and I personally didn't get very far into the book. My judgment just might not be fully flushed out and I may eventually go back and try to read more. It just doesn't do it for me.

However, if you want a YA fantasy series that I 100% recommend you should definitely give Odin's Child a try!!

I read the book in 2 days I couldn't put it down. It's got a good female protagonist with a a really well written out slow burn in it (so good that I even vibe with it which is hard for me to do) and this series kind of pulls a reverse on you. The world its describing is considered normal, yet OUR world is considered strange and hell like. There a three books in total and I'm only the second, but if the other two are like the first one I have no doubts it'll be good. The writing is really well thought out, the world building is so so good. It builds off of classic troupes and flips it right on its head.

I won't spoil anything just in case lmaoo

Anyways I'm done ranting and it is time for me to sleep :) gn

[sscoutregimentss]

i know we as a collective society believe in gamer! eren supremacy. and yes, this is a good take. however, may i introduce to you: normie/fuckboy/jock eren with gamer/nerd gf. thoughts under the cut (safe for work, pg-13, also slight snk spoilers for season 3 and up!)

see, eren isnt necessarily a fuckboy. in fact, hes very loyal! he doesnt really think that way about any girls or guys except you. but hes popular romantically and had a reputation for sleeping around before he met you (not that theres anything wrong with that but ya know word travels fast across campus). plus, cmon the dude is in a frat, super hot and has a tongue piercing. he cant blame anyone for thinking he is a fuckboy bc he exudes the energy.

you are kind of the complete opposite. you dont really enjoy parties and you keep to yourself. you're a total wreck when it comes to flirting and your kinda oblivious to whenever people like you. you dont have many friends and are a bigger fan of 2d people than 3d.

either way eren finds you so so so cute. he first approached you at one of his frat parties. your roommates convinced you to come after she said that someone (read: connie) had a dance dance revolution mat, but you kinda just stuck around in a corner staring at your cup once you lost them. he looks you up and down-- your outfit was pretty cute, a short plaid orange pleated skirt, dress shirt, orange cardigan and black beret laying neatly upon your head. and your face... he couldn't help himself but try to talk to you. you were really anxious because wahhh scary sports guy you dont know but he was kinda instantly comforting? in a way? and he was freaking pretty. he looked like a final fantasy character--long haired characters were your type. the rest was kind of history.

a lot of people are shocked when they find out your dating bc you two are so different (some people are surprise eren “dates” at all) but no one dares question your relationship when they see how much eren dotes on you. he has so many polaroids of you in his wallet-- from the many arcade dates you bring him on where you decimate him at almost every game, you awkwardly posing in the hentai section of bookstores, or just candids of you being intensely focused on a puzzle in a game. whenever you guys go out to eat and somethings wrong with your meal, he'll send it back (in a polite way, of course, but hes still assertive.) or if you buy like a figurine and its misisng something hes marching up to the cashier stand for you. he always has an arm around your waist or is holding is hand in yours. sometimes you just cling onto his arm and rest your head on it (hes comfy!!!!! and you are always tired) your both pretty clingy, but you get kinda awkward when you two are around people you know so he just kinda subtly holds you as to not make a scene. its nice. hes comfy.

youve got dual monitors, a pc you made yourself, rgb keyboard, the whole nine yards. all your consoles are up to date and you keep a handheld system on you at all times. you spend most your weekends watching anime and movies and tv shows and your shelves are piled high with books and comic books. eren literally does not understand any of it. when you told him you built your pc he goes "you made all those microchippy things? youre soooo smart babe". when you talk about some of your weirder or more complicated animes he nods along but honestly he gets so lost ("so like, lemme get this straight, the kids dad's wife ate his mom?" "yeah but like she was turned into a titan so she didn't realllllly know it was the dads wife, but like she literally walks past this titan shifter so i think she knew." "thats crazy.") and he will never understand the point of otome games when hes literally right there. he actually has a really bad habit of getting jealous of characters you have a crush on but you just find it funny. sometimes he gets an ego boost when they look like him because even if they look like him he is actually real so they can suck it.

hes rlly supportive tho. erens a rlly passionate person and he loves you a lot so he pours a lot of passion into what you do. if you are into esports/fps games hes cheers you on all the time and does all the raging for you ("BABE THAT GUY IS STREAM SNIPING! HES STREAM SNIPING YOU HEY ASSHOLE STOP CHEATING OFF MY GIRLFRIEND" "eren he cant stream snipe me because i dont stream" "oh i thought that just meant cheating"/"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL HER?" "eren its okay i can just report him" "NO NO LET ME AT HIM IF HE WANTS TO CALL YOU A BITCH I CAN CALL HIM MUCH WORSE" "um guys im gonna mute my mic for a second if you need me text chat") if youre into cozy games he likes to watch you play and gives you ideas on where to put things. like in minecraft he makes you put a second bed for him even though he doesnt play and he helps you name all your pets. you get a little less intense with cozy games so you sit on his lap and he lets his hair down puts his head on your shoulder and points at where you should place stuff. he still rages though? this is eren jaeger we are talking about. ("aw, she wont move to my island." "WHAT? who does that little ugly squirrel think she is? you think youre too good for MY y/n's island? i'll shave your unibrow off. then we'll see what island will want you" "leave hazel alone! shes cute!"/"dude that hamster guy with the glasses looks like armin" "graham? what? armin doesnt even wear glasses" "no no look at it more" "oh shit youre right") rpgs/otome games are kinda a wild card with how he acts. if its an otome game and the character looks like him he is more into helping you out because it reaffirms to him that you find him good looking but otherwise he is just sulking and calling them annoying ("princess y/n... i know im just a servant, but i want to be with you forever!" "pft. get a load of this guy. clingy much?" "its romantic! youre jealous.")

one of his favorite things to do with you is cuddle and watch anime. usually he lies his face on your thighs or chest while watching and you play with his hair or he holds you in his chest and you play with one of his hands while the other goes behind his head. he grew up on some of the classics like naruto sailor moon one piece pokemon and dbz but he never got super into it until he started dating you. you put him on to soooo many good shows (cartoons, anime, and live action) hes both a crier and he is a get-angrier(?). he gets mad on characters behalfs and you have to pause the show so he can rant about how annoying someone is or he feels so bad for someone so he has to take a minute because hes tearing up. he likes slice of life anime because the friendships <3 theyre so wholesome and they remind him of him armin and mikasa but he also likes shounen because it is entertaining to watch fights. he gets really into them actually. he also has this really bad habit of whenever there is a character with no parents or a dead mom he goes "oh same" or "welcome to the club buddy" under his breath. when theres a cute couple in an anime you both like guys get matching keychains of them unless one of them dies because he thinks its bad luck. his favorite animes are haikyuu, your lie in april and code geass.

you are equally supportive of erens volleyball career. you know all the rules because sports anime and you actually find yourself really liking it in 3d as well (it is lacking in bromance and screaming but you let it slide). you go to all his games and he always texts you before his practices. has a habit of kissing you before games and one day after he kisses you go "gg ez win" as a JOKE but then they like decimate their long time rival marley university and get into nationals (is that a thing for volleyball idk sports) so hes convinced its because you did your "gamer magic". now every time after getting his good luck kiss he interlocks your pinkies and you go "gg ez win" and he goes “yes.” because to this day he doesnt know what it means (he thinks googling it is like breaking the magic)

okay im gonna stop while im ahead BECAUSE I COULD TALK ABOUT THIS ALL DAY I MIGHT JUST GO AHEAD AND WRITE SOME ONESHOTS....

[its-cunt-dracula]

Objection. Nuance?

I don’t wanna come off as if I disagree with everything you’re saying because I’m not. People should try and branch out as much as possible when reading. Find new perspectives, different writing styles, etc. It’s not good for adults to read exclusively YA or fanfic.

However acting like cookie cutter romance and ya fantasy and fanfic are rotting women’s brains is… not cool? Saying these books are making people dumber is simply not true. You’re implying that you’d be better off – nay smarter! – by not reading entirely. I know you’re not encouraging women to stop reading but to orient themselves towards a more diverse bookshelf, but you are indirectly implying:

Read serious books for adults

Not read

Real silly books for silly kids/ romance/ fanfic

Reading these books is not optimal, but it’s not making young women dumber. It's a start.

On that note, I’m honestly sick of the face of anti-intellectualism being young women reading ‘sub par’ books and not… people who don’t fucking read at all? Especially men. And they’re proud of it too! I vividly remember reading in a bar when I was 16 (my mom worked there and I was waiting for her so we can leave together) and a group of men saw me and started praising me for reading and talking about how many kids my age don’t read, yadda yadda, I hear this constantly – and then they started proudly proclaiming that they haven’t read a book since high school. Like these men were in their late 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and they were bragging about being dumb. There are also adult women who just don't read at all but the problem is people reading books I don't consider up to standard.

Truth is there are a lot more women and girls reading than there are men/boys and girls and women reading is a good thing. Saying ‘it doesn’t count because the books they are reading are actively making them stupider’ is misogyny.

Also there are shitty formulaic books men read too but, again they’re not as popular because men don’t read as much so they don’t receive as much criticism. Mystery novels that are super formulaic, dunnit type mysteries, shitty horror novels. Have you ever heard of the SAS series? No? They were my dad’s favorites and they’re fucking trash. There’s like fifty of them (update I looked it up and there’s 200) in total hard to distinguish from one another with sexy femmes fatales on the covers and bad fucking writing. But nobody’s blaming those books for the fall of literature. God, they have the worst sex scenes in existence but oh no! the women are reading cliche erotica.

It feels like we’re criticizing women and girls for reading more.

Phone addiction is melting people’s brain and it’s making reading harder, definitely. I know I have that problem. I recently deleted tiktok and I’m currently trying to get back into being able to read for hours on end but it’s so fucking hard when you have a dopamine vending machine in your back pocket. And considering how many of these 'bad books' got popular on tiktok - the app that's famous to kill people's attention span, it starts to really make sense. The books are a symptom of a bigger problem.

The point is easy to read and kinda shallow mass market books have always existed and will always exist. They’re not new and if they haven’t rotted people’s brains so far I don’t see how it would do it now. Your gradma was reading clinch covers and dime novels and she turned out ok. Yeah, remember dime novels? When they first appeared people were also calling them slop that makes you stupider. But some of them are classics now so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There’s something to be said about women’s self-confidence and the way many of them don’t think they can read a ‘serious’ book. That they’re not smart enough. And that’s on the patriarchal society we live in. I just think there’s a better way to go about encouraging young women and girls to read stuff that’s challenging. I do think that if we want to make a positive change saying ‘hey, you should read this because it’s good for you’ and not ‘stop reading that! It’s bad for you!’. Shaming people for liking certain things doesn’t yield good results in my experience.

I guess if you’re just looking to vent you don’t have to take into consideration other people’s feeling. But if you’re looking to actually make a change, I know that I would have gotten real offended back when I was reading exclusively YA if I saw a post like this. It wouldn’t have made me want to change, just not openly talk about the books I liked.

Also some older women are at the begging of their reading journey. They weren’t into books as kids or teens for some reason (didn’t have access to books, weren’t eased into reading, thought books were for nerds) and they can’t really discern what a good book is yet. Yes Colleen Hoover sucks but if you’re just getting into reading it’s normal to love books that suck. In a few years if you keep reading you’ll develop a better taste. But you have to start somewhere.

I think there’s a boom in new readers because of booktok and that’s why so many ‘bad books’ end up blowing up and being read by so many new readers who don’t know a good book if it fell on their heads in the library. I believe many of them will outgrow this phase like twilight teens outgrew theirs. So many people started reading because of Twilight and they look back on it and can say “Yeah, Twilight sucks. But it got me into reading and I can’t complain about that.” And Twilight for all of its flaws really awoke interest in books in many teenagers

These bad, mass market, cliché, cookie cutter books are keeping the industry afloat and book seller in business so they can sell you the less popular, deeper, more thought provoking books. Those books will never be popular because the average person just isn’t interested in them. But that doesn’t mean no one is reading them. Most books are losing money, expect for the big juggernauts: romance, self-help books and celebrity memoirs. They have a place in the ecosystem.

I feel like I could go about this subject forever so I’m gonna end it here before this post becomes too long. If I didn’t make sense somewhere, sorry but english is my second language. If it seems like I’m jumping from point to point, I have ADHD and I tent to do that. If you want clarification on something, don’t hesitate to ask. I really hope I’m not coming off as mean or angry, I’m just passionate about books and nuance.

p.s. i only saw like one tiktok of a girl saying she skips long paragraphs and then 20 tiktok of people criticising her or straight up making fun of her. it's not a wide spread phenomenon, just a few bad apples.

I feel like many adult women are making themselves functionally illiterate by refusing to read anything but YA and very simple, straightforward romance. Basically for books what McDonald's is for food. Already digested and regurgitated to make it as unchallenging as possible. And it IS women, it's almost only women both writing and reading this shit! It's women making a whole social media persona about being a "reader" but skipping whole paragraphs because they don't contain spoken lines and it's too boring and too long. The market is fucking flooded with absolute garbage. To me this looks like female anti-intellectualism.

[libertyreads]

Underhyped Books--

These are some of the books on my shelves that I think are under-hyped on the Book-ternet as some people call it. I think a lot of these standalones or series are under represented in the book community online. (Going from top to bottom, left to right.)

1. The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes-- Maybe I’m biased because this is one of my favorite authors. I discovered her a year or two ago and have become obsessed. The latest series of hers is going to be an all time favorite for me. Or at least the first one was. This book came out this past fall so I know that’s probably part of the reason for the under representation. But, for the love of all things spooky and puzzle-y, read this damn book.

2. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig-- This is a 12 dancing princesses retelling that has some turns no one expects. It has a gothic/horror/mystery/thriller element in a creepy mansion. What’s not to love? It’s so perfect for the fall. I have seen a couple of people talk about this one, but it’s not getting the love it truly deserves.

3. The One by John Marrs-- I only read this one this past month so maybe I’m the person who’s late to the party here. But I just need people to read this and love it as much as I do. I was literally gasping out loud and saying things like, “No. No, they wouldn’t do that. Oh. My. God. They did that.” Thankfully there is a Netflix adaptation coming out on March 12th.

4. In the Hall with the Knife by Diana Peterfreund-- This one got me hooked so fast. I blame the 1000 times I watched Clue (1985 with Tim Curry) as a kid. This is a take on Clue that involves a boarding school in an isolated Maine town. It’s probably the fact that this is so easy to read and is probably on the middle end of the YA age range that keeps this from being so popular. But I cannot tell you how much I loved this book when I read it this past fall. It’s the perfect late fall/early winter read.

5. Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young-- A YA Viking Fantasy story about two rival tribes. The way it felt like this book dropped you into this world and you didn’t come up for air until the book was over? Amazing. I think I’ve only heard about it in passing which is a damn shame.

6. The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross-- This was one of those books that sat on my shelf for years before I found the time for it and afterward regretted not reading it sooner. This is a YA Fantasy that includes a fallen kingdom that is overtaken and must find the strength to stand up to their oppressors. It’s only a duology so this series was so quick for me to read.

7.  Old Magic by Marianne Curley-- A backlist Fantasy novel from 2000. This is probably the oldest book on this list and so the nostalgia is a big factor here. But this is about a girl going back in time to prevent an evil wizard from putting a curse on her friend’s family bloodline. This does a good job of pulling the reader into the setting as well.

8. Fable by Adrienne Young-- This is a more recent release so I understand that a lot of people may not have gotten around to it yet, but I wish they would. I need someone to talk to about this book. This is a YA Fantasy novel about a girl who gets dropped on a deserted island after her mother is killed in a storm on the sea. Her only goal for the next four years is to find a way off the island and back to her father who is the biggest trader in the Narrows. The setting is great, very pirate-y, and a classic found family trope. As a whole, I just think Adrienne Young is a really underrated writer.

9. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green-- Being a fan of John Green’s has been a bit of a roller coaster ride as he got more and more popular only to plummet as people started picking his work apart. But I think this book is him being truly vulnerable as writer. He suffers from OCD similar to the OCD the main character suffers in this novel. And as someone who has been diagnosed with OCD I found this to be pretty haunting to read. I know that this book isn’t a beloved John Green book and I think that’s a real shame.

10. Written in Red by Anne Bishop-- This series is a bit weird for me since this isn’t my usual genre. This is an Adult Urban Fantasy about a blood seer who runs away from the institution she’s been kept in and finds her way to the local group of mythological creatures who hold a lot of power influence over the local government. There are werewolves, shifters, vampires...etc. who take up a huge section of this city and there are a ton of politics throughout the series. But the thing that I loved the most about it is that every story has a section that is so slice of life before the big action happens and those moments were so warm and cozy. The big action at the end of the novels all work to bring the main characters closer. There’s a romance between the human seer and the alpha werewolf which I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. Also, I read most of this series while I was stuck in bed sick with covid so I think the distraction added another level of fondness from me.

11. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton-- Where. Are. My. YA. Fantasy. People. AT?! Why is no one talking about this series?! This a YA Desert Fantasy with some amazing characters and a rebellion hiding out in the desert from the people in power. Found family tropes. Magic. Mystery. Stop sleeping on this series already! My only real complaint is that I wish I had the original cover because that one is so beautiful.

12. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody-- I originally got the first book in this series in a subscription box but held off reading it because I hadn’t heard of this series before then. But it’s one of those series that you wish you had read as soon as you had gotten it. This is a YA Fantasy novel set in a fictional town that looks/feels like a combination of 1920s-ish New York and Las Vegas. The Shadow Game series is about a girl going to the big city to find her adoptive mother who’s gone missing while there for work. But she’s spent her whole life learning how to be a proper lady and in the City of Sin anything can happen. The magic system here is so, so well done. It’s something I haven’t seen before or since which is refreshing when the main thing you read is Fantasy.

[kallypsowrites]

Young Adult Tropes: The Immortal and the Teenager

Soooo, I was motivated to post this meta today, cause I keep seeing this argument pop up throughout the Shadow and Bones fandom which is decrying Alina and the Darkling because of the age gap. Cause, ya know, she’s seventeen to eighteen (and who knows what they’ve made her in the show) and he’s hundreds of years old.

I assume that these people haven’t read that many YA fantasy novels, because this particular trope is so common that you can’t throw a stone in the Barnes and Noble YA fantasy section without hitting one. And it is popular for a very simple reason: Teens want to imagine themselves with the hot, immortal, fantasy creature.

Vampires, angels, demons, Fae, magicians, witches, aliens, ghosts, straight up gods--there are a lot of love interests in YA fiction that have been around for 100 + years. And now they’re taking interest in the teenage protagonist (Usually 17 or 18). Why is the protagonist a teenager? Cause that’s the target audience. Now, usually, the love interest still LOOKS young. They died or were turned or present themselves as close to the age of the protagonist. But obviously that doesn’t change the fact that they’re not.

So is this problematic? Is this giving a BAD lesson to teenagers? Is it pedophilia?

Short answer? No. Long answer: No! It’s not giving a bad lesson because guess what? Not a single teenager is gonna get asked out by an immortal entity. They are NEVER going to be faced with this dilemma of meeting a hot guy who looks there age but is actually centuries (or sometimes millenia) old. I certainly never got asked to prom by a vampire or a demon. It’s a problem that simply does not exist.

It’s wish fulfillment in the paranormal romance genre. Teenagers want to imagine joining a magic society of some sort. Getting into a romance with some otherworldly guy. And yeah, occasionally the protagonist will end up with the human love interest closer to their age, but for every one of those there's one when she like...becomes a vampire queen or ascends to godhood or whatever.

To spotlight a teenager x immortal ship I don’t personally like--I don’t vibe with Edward and Bella. But while I make fun of the ridiculous concept of a vampire wanting to go to high school again, it’s not the age gap that matters to me at the end of the day. That’s standard fair for YA paranormal romance. It’s that I don’t like a lot of his behavior toward her. And that’s fine. I don’t have to jump to the age gap to defend my positions.

My point is there are a LOT of reasons to criticize Darklina as toxic. Age gap aside, he wants to use her for her power in book one. He hurts and kills a bunch of her friends.These are very good reasons to not like Darklina and I’m not gonna fight anyone who doesn’t like them (so long as they aren’t clowning in the tags). People who don’t like hero x villain ships aren’t going to like them and that’s chill.

But lets not bring the moralizing ‘the age gap is toxic’ stuff into the game because, again: This is just a trope of YA. And don’t worry. We’re never going to meet anyone like the Darkling in real life. The cool shadow wizard isn’t going to come to my house. Very tragic, but it’s true.

Also, even worse, people who talk about the fourteen year age gap between the actors?? Jessie is 25. A full grown adult by several years with her brain fully finished developing. She’s my age. Ben being fourteen years older is just not the problem you think it is, especially when they are ACTORS doing a JOB. Hell, the age difference between the actors who played Geralt and Yennefer in the Witcher was only one year less and she was younger at the time she played it. Didn’t see people complaining about THAT being toxic. And it wasn’t. Cause they are adults and professionals.

You can dislike a ship without having to get all high and mighty about it. It is possible. And when I see you picking at this particular thing, I just think you haven’t read a lot in the YA genre.