#i do not trust booktok

[lyranix1201]

I swear to god I'm never taking book recommendations from tiktok ever again. I was really bored yesterday and I saw this book recommendations, I don't really trust booktok but this book crossed my interest so I went online and read it for free as pdf, because I'm broke and I'm not wasting my money on something that might be ass.

Tell me why this book was actually ass. This book had to have come straight out of wattpad. This is the type of shit I would have read when I was 12-13. Ever time I read, I started having second-hand embarrassment for the author, not even the character, but for the author themself's. Ever second i read i had to laugh because what the fuck. The only thing i could think of was "who wrote this." read like 4 pages and than I had to deleted it, because i physically couldn't anymore.

The funniest thing is that a grown as adult was recommending this, what has our world come to.

I might do this again, just for the plot. Just so that I can laugh again.

Book was 2/10

Laugh was 8/10

Second hand embarrassment 9/10

In conclusion, I do not recommend book recommendations from tiktok

[spaceyraccoon]

Me: Oh, this book sounds like it could be interesting. (clicks on it)

Book: Goodreads Choice AND Best of BookTok!

Me:

[nerianasims]

“Love is messy. People are messy. Life is messy. No matter how hard Sophie cleans, more mess happens. We know when Howl's in love because he doesn't take hours in the bathroom to show up for her. And accepting that mess, accepting each other, is how we get to happy ever after.�� -- @penig (bolding mine) (This was at the end of a long chain which started with a screenshot of a TikTok booktuber. Everyone in the chain quite correctly disagreed with said TikTok booktuber, but just seeing the screenshot made my blood pressure go up a few notches so I don’t want to put it on my blog. I wanted to save and quote this though.)

[maxgicalgirl]

It is so very important to me that you realize that what some of you are calling “enemies to lovers” can be more accurately described by its cousin trope “rivals to lovers”

[rimouskis]

tried to read another romance book suggested to me on tiktok (bad decision). gave up and am now 20% through a nonfiction book about the 2011 tsunami in japan (it's very good. also a tiktok recommendation).

[tea-n-autumn]

I've been reading Bunny by Mona Awad. Gonna share my thoughts on it when I finish.

[tamayokny]

what is your automatic "no" or ick when you're searching for books to read? mine is when the author includes a playlist at the very start of the novel.

[whisp3roftheheart]

Ive been trying to find more book recommendations recently so I've resorted to booktok to see if I can find anything that peaks my interest and I have never seen so many bad takes on books in my whole life.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

If there's one take-away I want to make clear about ruining your career by pettily review-bombing other writers, it's that traditional publishing is not a competition you can win. You have no control over how well your sales do versus someone else's sales. No amount self-promotion, hard work, and social media is going to guarantee a viral tweet, a Booktok sensation, or rave reviews. Those are beyond your control.

In this, your fellow authors are not your rivals, but your peers. If you are not super rich or well-connected, you will be reliant on connections you have to communities that know and trust you, and this is far more important than anything you do on your own. The publishing world is quite small, and these relationships will be a boon in building your future opportunities as well as helping other writers. The industry, in fact, relies on selling books with similar themes at the same time, because they know readers who like one Greek-inspired fantasy will likely pick up another one. That's how publishing trends work!

Publishing is never going to be free from drama or interpersonal-driven conflict. Review-bombing is going to continue, driven by political or ideological agendas. But treating what should be a professional career as some sort of winner-takes-all Squid Game is going to blow up in your face the moment you're caught out, and it will ruin your career before it even begins.

[venusgirltarot]

What Would Your Person Think Of Your Fantasies (18+) — [♡]

Disclaimer: This reading is for entertainment purposes only. Tarot readings are about possibilities based on your current energy. Energy is forever changing and nothing is set in stone. Always remember, you have your own free will to make whatever decision you feel is best.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, envision the person you are thinking of and then choose the pile(s) you feel most drawn to.

This is an 18+ reading with sexual messages and mature themes. Please do not interact with this post if you are a minor or are uncomfortable with NSFW readings/messages!

If you would like a personal reading from me, you can get one here!

Pile 1 ┊ ༑ ࿐ྂ。

oooo okay so there’s a lot of very deep intense energy here. You all may have a lot of Scorpio placements (specifically Scorpio Venus 👀) you may want your partner to be dominant and possessive and you could also be into kinkier things like bondage, choking and possibly even spit. It’s less of the act itself for you and more the way you’re giving this person all of the control and trusting them with your body in a way you wouldn’t trust anyone else.

Are you all on booktok? This gives me such spicy booktok vibes. Some of you may not even have a person in mind, you just wanted to check out the reading. You may have standards that are “too high” (I wrote it like that because I don’t believe in too high of expectations. Go get the booktok partner of your dreams and don’t let anyone stop you) do you like tattoos? I keep seeing a person with a sleeve. Maybe you also have a hand/arm kink. Boobs are so prevalent here so maybe you have larger boobs or just really nice/pretty ones and you like when they are payed attention to or the other way around, maybe you really like boobs and pay a lot of attention to them during sex.

Ok, Pile 1

This person has a HIGH drive and they will love your kinks/fantasies. They may not be familiar with all of them but are more than happy to learn. I heard “you always have something new for me” 😭 ooo girl (I mean that in a gender neutral way) this energy is INTENSE. I heard “they wanna be all in your business” and “they LOVE you” they could be a single parent for some of you. They’re very responsible and take a leader role in all areas of life and do have a very… I’m gonna be honest, I have no clue what I was going on about there because I just got a very detailed image of their ARM which is such a nice arm btw and they’re behind you doing it from the back but they have you like bent over the edge of the bed and they have a handful of your hair and they are VOCAL like not just dirty talk but a lot of moans/grunting. This scenario would be reversed depending on what parts your equipped with or what you’re into because I do feel like there’s going to be a few male or male identifying people that pick this pile! Also I just remembered that before this, I was about to say that they have a very “daddy/mommy” sort of vibe. I hope that makes sense.

I think as long as they have control or get to be more dominant and take care of you, they’re down for any kink you have. Like I said before, they’re very dominant and possessive. They may say “you’re mine” or “that (body part) is mine” ya know. I also just heard “as long as I get all of you” and aftercare is very important to them. In and out do the bedroom, they care for you a lot and want to take care of you and your needs.

Pile 2 ┊ ༑ ࿐ྂ。

Okay so I think this could be a more diverse pile. For some of you I think you like for your partner to worship you. To sort of treat you like a god/goddess in bed and you want them to he desperate to please you. You really like receiving oral and I think you like giving as well but you like very desperate/needy sex. You may like incorporating food or maybe you like to eat after sex. For others I think you may like having a submissive partner. You may be the type to listen to whimper audios. A large portion of people picking this like could be apart of the LGBTQ+ community. Some of you could like feet (no judgement, one in ten people actually like feet so you’re definitely not alone) you may like oil. I just heard that Cardi B quote “suck my sick and feed me grapes” 😭

This pile is so different so it’s hard to put it into words but I’ll start with the first category of people and then next I’ll go into the second category.

So first category, I don’t think you’re really a “dominant” person but you like being in control. You like telling your person how to please/touch you and you like when your person is desperate/needy or vocal. You like when your person makes their main priority please you and you especially love them giving you oral. You may have taught them exactly how you like it so they give it to you perfectly every time and oral seems especially important in the morning. You may like soft/gentle sex that’s very deep and passionate and you’re not done having sex until you’ve came and that’s equally important for both you and your partner. Some of you might like whips/collars but this could also be me picking up on the second category of people that picked this pile.

Your person loves this dynamic and they love pleasuring you. They specifically love your moans and the way your body moves when they go down on you. They may enjoy giving you massages and possibly giving you baths or having a bath ready for you. They love being inside you or you being inside them and they love how connected it makes them feel to you. They love kissing your body and they love how you look covered in oil (although they may get frustrated when it gets slippery or difficult) if you have boobs, they love massaging them and they really like kissing between your thighs. They LOVE when you give them oral and they think you’re very good at it but they wish you would do it more often. More than anything, they love the intensity and passion between the two of you.

Second category

For the second category, you enjoy being more dominant. You like when your partner is obedient and you really like your partners whimpers and the way their body moves. You may enjoy licking their body or teasing/edging them until they can’t handle it anymore and their eyes are watering. You either love being inside of them and how the inside of them feels or the other way around and you love them inside of you and how the inside of you feels or both. You may also really like face sitting/tongue riding and I keep seeing fingering. Similar to the first category, you may enjoy food or oil being incorporated. You may also like or want to get a sex swing and you may enjoy sex in the water or shower sex. You really love and want to worship and take your time with your person’s body.

Your person really loves this. Maybe they haven’t been properly loved or cared for in the past so the way you love them is very healing for them. They feel safe with you and you may be the first person they’ve ever been able to cum with. You’re very good at after care, as well and if you are interested in getting a sex swing, I definitely think they’d be up for it. They feel safe and comfortable with you so they’d be open to trying it and I think you both would really like it. I also keep seeing more fingering so that could be something you’re both really into or maybe the two of you recently had a very good experience with it or tried something new with it for the first time.

Pile 3 ┊ ༑ ࿐ྂ。

Okay pile 3, I think I’m getting both you and your person’s energy rn cause you’re very very in tune with each other and wanting the same thing in all aspects, not just sexual. This may be a new relationship or possibly a new beginning in your current relationship after a period of staleness or stagnancy. I keep getting shaky and nervous so maybe this is how you feel about this person.

You want someone who will take control and be more dominant but also that makes you feel safe and comfortable. You want someone that will make sure your wants and needs in the bedroom met. Maybe you’re not as experienced or are still figuring out your wants/needs so you want someone that will explore that with you and not make you feel bad about it. You may enjoy being spanked and you may like handcuffs. Maybe you’ve waited a long time for this or waited a long time for this person so you want this time spent with them to be worth the wait. I heard “everything I’ve wanted and more” you want deep and passionate sex, you want to feel like this persons is completely yours and vice versa. You want this person to explore and genuinely appreciate your body.

You may really want to give this person oral. You want to please them and hear what their moans sound like. You want to see them finish and know that you were the one that did that to them and you like knowing that you’re capable of doing that to them. You want to explore their body just as much as you want them to explore yours and you want to feel all of them. This feels somewhat sexual but also there’s so much this person wants with you. They want you to know that you’re the only person they ever think about, that nobody else compares.

They want to get to know every side of you and they want to get you alone really bad. Maybe you always see each other in public or in crowds of people so there’s no time to connect or get to know you on a deeper level but they want to so bad. They really like your sense of humor but wish they could see more of it. They want to see and appreciate your body. Even if they haven’t seen it, I heard “I know it looks beautiful” their idea of what you look like naked may actually be pretty accurate. They may masturbate to you often.

You may have very soft skin and they really like that. They think of running their hands all over your body. They think about giving you oral. I heard “I wonder how you’d take it” they may be very large down there or vice versa but they fantasize about how you’d take them or if you’d be able to take all of them. They want to be inside of you so bad (or vice versa, of course) more than anything, they want you.

They want you in a way they’ve never wanted anyone else and they want to know who you are at your core. They seem a little possessive on the sense that they want to know you in a way no one else gets to know you and understand every part of you in a way no one ever has. They may want to just cuddle naked or do something where they feel very bonded /connected to you. Possibly cock warming. Maybe that’s something you’re into that they’d be very happy to try. This is a very deep and passionate connection that I heard “will come into fruition” and “just give it time”

I also noticed that I said “so bad” so much during this reading so maybe that’s some sort of sign for someone!

Hello, lovelies! Thank you all so much for reading this PAC! I apologize for any typos, I haven’t proof read it all just yet. I hope you enjoyed the reading! Feel free to check out my past readings, here

As always, I hope you all are having a good day or night! Sending you so much love and light! ♡

࿐ྂ mara

[medusasstory]

NEW QUESTION—I've been asking questions lately. This one is about books, trying to cram as many options as I can into the poll:

[theglassesgirl]

I love how Penelope IS that girl like,

She’s the girl who has this mess of a man at her feet begging her to give him a chance after everything he’s done, and the thing is, this man is always the villian - on booktok he’s usually “misunderstood and morally grey” which makes him even less interesting than the fanfic girlies in the trenches shipping real villains and not sanitizing them at all which gives them even more opps because you have puritan antis telling them to kts and they have fake villain lovers insisting their UwU baby boy would never murder people even tho he does in canon ANYWAY

Odysseus himself considers his actions abhorrent no matter what led him to make those actions, he genuinely sees himself as the villain of his own odyssey (peep him referring his home being desecrated in the way he helped desecrate Troy!!!) so he can ONLY ask Pen is she MIGHT considering falling in love with the man he thinks he’s become, because he doesn’t feel like the man he was when he was with her

To which Pen replies I KNEW this is who you were when I fell in love with you. I KNEW what you were capable of. I TRUSTED that you would literally do anything and everything for me and our son because you told me once you would and I CHOOSE to love that about you instead of being scared of that. I’m not afraid of the things you’ve done, I’m sorry you HAD to do them, but I’m GRATEFUL you did because you’re here again, like you promised you would be, the same promise and the same man you were when you went to war.

She’s honestly the woman mainstream self-insert Mary Sue’s will NEVER be. A woman who looked into the eyes of a boyish man who said he loved her and realized oh this guy is SERIOUS to the point a weaker woman would cry and buckle about all the awful things that have happened, but no, not her, her husband said he was coming home no matter what and so he did.

You can walk away calling Odysseus an irredeemable monster but you will do so with his wife and son standing next to him because neither of them give a shit, the hands who committed those atrocities have also held them gently, and they will face this scrutiny together after two decades of being torn apart.

[decidedlygorgeous]

My brother doesn’t understand why a woman would cut her hair short when a creepy man told her he liked her long hair

My brother thinks it’s cringy when women repost the “we are the daughters of the witches you tried to burn”

My brother thinks I’m so cringy and lame for liking Taylor swift and enjoying Disneyland. He doesn’t understand that even though I get she’s a billionaire with different problems than me and she’s not perfect, her lyrics still speak to me. And I feel safe at Disneyland because it reminds me of my grandma who taught me to believe in magic and of my dad who loves hearing about the behind the scenes stuff and the stories of the cast members.

My brother is so forward in his thinking about other stuff that I struggle with him when I try to tell him that in a group of his friends I get cut off and ignored when I say something, and someone will repeat what I just said. He doesn’t believe me because he didn’t hear me, proving my point.

My brother, who does not know what happened to me, doesn’t understand why women would choose a bear over a man because HE would rather live. I would much rather die.

My brother scoffs at booktok and what “trash” women consume with written and audio smut when I know he watches porn.

My brother doesn’t understand why I was upset with the older man at the concert who wasn’t listening and kept talking over me, telling me I should move to the open spot so I could see better, when I was saying I was purposely standing right behind my dad so the lights wouldn’t hit me straight in the eyes and I didn’t really care about seeing the band anyways.

My brother is such a smart person and is so caring about a lot of stuff. He does copious amounts of research to back himself up so he knows what he’s talking about. But sometimes I fear that he gets so caught up in the facts that he forgets that people have feeling and they sometimes do matter in discussions.

He forgets that only he can tell when he’s joking and so when I ask him if he’s serious and he says yes, I’ll believe him because he’s my brother, and I’m supposed to trust him. Sometimes he forgets that jokes are also supposed to be funny to the person you’re telling them to and gaslighting is not a funny joke. And it makes me believe and trust him less.

My brother forgets that he was not the only person slighted by our mother and so when he’s ranting and telling me what happened and I say “I’m sorry, I understand how you feel” he scoffs and tells me to shut up and I’m the Favorite child who gets everything. I’m not and I don’t, that’s our second oldest brother. But me being the only girl I see why he would think that.

My brother is NOT a villain and he’s certainly not my villain. He’s a complicated person I love that sometimes hurts me. And I have no doubt that I’ve hurt him, I am no victim after all.

[caramelcuppaccino]

lunlun’s reading challenge

hi everyone! it’s been a looong time since i created a challenge. with work, my german course and just simply life, i noticed that i can’t read as much as i’d like to. so, i, very suddenly, decided to create this challenge to help myself read more and by sharing it with you, to help you read more :] i think participating in a challenge is much more motivating and helps me do what i’m doing in a more disciplined way. to participate you only need to reblog this post and use this tag: #readingwithlunlun 

note: there’s no specific starting date for the challenge. you can reblog it anytime and start it for yourself :]

here are the questions/prompts: 

day 1: welcome! what are you currently reading right now? 

day 2: how many books would you like to finish throughout this challenge? 

day 3: describe your favorite book in three words. 

day 4: who is your ultimate favorite book character?

day 5: what would you like to say to your comfort character?

day 6: what is your favorite book from your childhood? 

day 7: what is a book cover that you think is very pretty?

day 8: which book made you cry the most? 

day 9: which book made you laugh the most? 

day 10: it’s been ten days! how’s the challenge going for you? 

day 11: what’s your most disliked book from 2024 so far?

day 12: who is your favorite author and why? 

day 13: what are your favorite book tropes? 

day 14: if you could go back and talk to a deceased author, who would you choose and why? 

day 15: what are the best books written in the 21st century according to you? 

day 16: what trait makes you like a character immediately? 

day 17: what trait makes you hate a character immediately? 

day 18: what’s a genre you always read? 

day 19: what’s a genre no matter what you’ll never, ever read? 

day 20: which book universe would you definitely want to live? 

day 21: which book universe would you definitely not survive? 

day 22: what’s your favorite fantasy creature? 

day 23: would you like to be a vampire or a werewolf? why? 

day 24: let’s talk about booktok. what are your thoughts? do you trust their recommendations? 

day 25: which book do you think everyone must read once in their lives? 

day 26: share a playlist to listen to while reading.

day 27: what will make you a buy a book immediately? 

day 28: do you buy books online or from bookstores? 

day 29: grab the nearest book around you, open page 12 and share the first sentence with us. 

day 30: the last day! i hope you enjoyed the challenge. how was it for you? 

[nikethestatue]

I don’t want to assume yours or anyone else here’s politics but apparently a very large group of the booktok girls have expressed happiness at the outcome of the presidential election. Suddenly the lack of reading comprehension, the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, the love of abusers, and the overall hatred of fcs is making a whole lot more sense…

I am not surprised by that as I wasn't surprised by the results of the election. I think plenty of women, while not admitting it, were very much pro Trump. The whole tradwife movement is driven by women. The endless 'homemaking' content that you see everywhere is made by and for women. The biggest hit of 2024 is I need a man in finance, 6"5, trust fund, blue eyes. And hauk tua. I am sorry, but none of this screams feminism to me.

I think that there are way more conservative, traditional women than people assume. Young women too. Well-off women. Educated women. I think it's very wrong to assume that everyone who voted for Trump are some uneducated hillbillies. Or women who just do what their husbands tell them.

No. It's the same readers who make literally endless posts about how Lucien suffered too much and needs a break and his mate. And women who make fun of Feyre, her capabilities, and her 'worthiness'. Women who hate Nesta because she is a slut who doesn't treat Cassian well.

The biggest Gwynriel fandom comes from Brazil--and boy, are some of the views coming from there totally messed up.

And I am sorry, but the extreme proliferation of the Azriel x Reader fanfics that have THOUSANDS of reads/hits tells you that a woman doesn't even have to have a name. A personality. She doesn't have to be anything other than a hole. And who gobbles those up--young women.

it's funny--I guess my lack of surprise actually partially comes from being in this fandom and seeing it for the past 4 years and seeing the attitudes of so many (younger) women.