#i might do a more lighthearted sequel to this if you want it

[isaacarellanesismyhusband]

seems like deja vu to me p2

pair: Fred Weasley x reader

requested by anonymous

Please write a sequel for seems like deja vu to me I need to read about them ending up together

masterlist | navigation | p1

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The next few days at Grimmauld Place were no different—Fred was relentless, always finding new ways to show off or tease Y/N. But now, she found herself noticing more than she had before. His laugh wasn’t just loud and annoying; it was contagious. His constant jokes weren’t a bother—they made her smile when no one was looking. And the way his eyes gleamed whenever he tried to impress her? Well, maybe she liked that more than she let on.

One afternoon, Y/N was in the kitchen, reading quietly, when Fred strolled in, humming to himself. He didn’t notice her at first, but when he did, his face lit up like he’d found exactly what he was looking for.

“Y/N! Just the person I wanted to see.”

She raised an eyebrow, trying to hide her growing smile. “Oh, really? Why’s that?”

Fred leaned against the counter, crossing his arms, a playful smirk on his face. “I’ve been working on a new invention. Thought you might want to be the first to test it out.”

Y/N set her book down, feigning disinterest. “And why would I want to do that?”

Fred’s smirk didn’t falter. “Because, darling, I have a feeling you’ll be impressed. And I know you’ve been dying to admit that you’re impressed by me.”

Y/N rolled her eyes, but there was no hiding the way her lips twitched upwards. “Fred, you’re delusional.”

He took a step closer, lowering his voice in that cheeky, conspiratorial way of his. “Come on, just admit it. I’m starting to think you like me.”

Y/N snorted, shaking her head. “You think very highly of yourself, don’t you?”

Fred’s grin only grew wider, and he leaned in even closer, his breath warm against her ear as he whispered, “You have no idea.”

For the first time, Y/N didn’t pull away. Instead, she glanced up at him, meeting his eyes. “And what if I do?”

Fred blinked, surprised for a moment, before his grin turned into a full-on smile, the mischievous glint in his eyes softening just a bit. “Well then,” he said, voice still teasing, “I guess we’ll just have to do something about that, won’t we?”

Y/N’s heart raced, but she refused to let him see her falter. “Oh? And what exactly do you suggest?”

Before Fred could respond, someone cleared their throat from the doorway. Both of them whipped around to see Sirius standing there, arms crossed and a knowing smirk on his face. “Am I interrupting something?”

Y/N’s face flushed instantly, but Fred, of course, just shot Sirius a wink. “Not at all. Just talking about how Y/N here might have a soft spot for me.”

Sirius laughed, shaking his head. “Well, I guess James and Lily really have been reincarnated.”

Y/N groaned, burying her face in her hands as Fred chuckled beside her.

The teasing didn’t stop, but over the next few days, Y/N found herself spending more and more time with Fred. He toned down the jokes—just a little—and they started talking more. Really talking. She’d always known Fred was fun and lighthearted, but she hadn’t realized just how much depth he had. Beneath the constant teasing and jokes, there was someone who cared deeply for his family, for his friends—and, it seemed, for her.

One evening, they were alone again in the drawing room, the fire casting a soft glow over the room. Fred was sprawled out on the couch, and Y/N was sitting on the armchair, pretending to read.

“Hey,” Fred said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence.

Y/N looked up from her book. “Hmm?”

Fred sat up, his usual grin replaced with something a little more serious. “I wasn’t joking, you know.”

She frowned, confused. “About what?”

“About liking you.”

Her heart skipped a beat, and for once, she didn’t have a witty comeback ready. She just stared at him, trying to process the fact that Fred Weasley—Fred, the biggest goofball she knew—was being completely serious.

Fred rubbed the back of his neck, looking a little nervous for the first time since she’d met him. “I just… I know I’m a bit much sometimes. But I like you, Y/N. A lot. And I just thought… well, maybe you feel the same.”

Y/N closed her book, standing up and walking over to the couch. She sat down beside him, her heart pounding in her chest. “You’re not too much, Fred.”

Fred’s eyes flickered with surprise. “Really?”

She nodded, feeling a little shy herself now. “Yeah. And… I might like you too.”

Fred’s grin returned in full force, and before she could say another word, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “You know,” he said, his voice teasing again, “I always knew I’d win you over.”

Y/N laughed, resting her head on his shoulder. “You’re impossible.”

Fred chuckled, pressing a light kiss to her temple. “But you love it.”

She sighed, but she was smiling as she snuggled closer to him. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

And for the first time, Fred didn’t need to say anything. They just sat there, wrapped up in each other, with the fire crackling softly beside them.

Maybe Remus and Sirius had been right all along.

[rip-headphones-users]

My Headcannons for how Infected and Kasper operate

Buckle up, this is a long post. Thinking about how characters function in relation to the world around them is basically a hobby of mine, so expect more. (I have others planned for both lampert and unpleasant at the very least)

(Not ship related) (angst heavy sorry)

Kasper’s infection is a brain-rooted/cognito-hazardous parasite

He got it after purposely ignoring a chainmail curse, both as a sort of “fuck around and find out” as well as an outright form of self-harm/self-sabotage.

The parasite is the one that primarily controls all the conscious actions of infected, while kasper now acts sub-consciously.

Its less of a split-mind situation and more of a Venom + Eddie or Gundam + Pilot situation they are two separate entities inhabiting the same body that can potentially act at the same time

It just so happens that the parasite from the chainmail curse has VERY similar desires/interests/motivations to Kasper, so the host/parasite relationship actually works very well.

Infected accidentally makes Kasper lose a decent chunk of weight after it takes over, due to it not being able to feel when Kasper is hungry and forgetting to let him eat

Kasper and Infected can be addressed separately (Lampert, UnpleasantGradient, Folly and maybe a few others know this) and Kasper tends to choose not to respond due to his own apathy, instead opting to let Infected take the lead.

Being able to respawn/no permadeath on the regretevator is the reason why Kasper opted to infect himself, as he saw it as the next closest thing to death/suicide.

Allowing infected to enter his mind has radically reduced Kasper’s lifespan. (He’d be lucky if he made it to his late 30’s)

His nose bleeds when Kasper and infected try to act at the same time

Infected is only transferrable via chainmail

Infected doesn’t feel any of the bodily necessities that kasper has, so its not uncommon for him to collapse of exhaustion, dehydration, hunger, ect. If someone doesn’t remind him.

Infected doesnt feel pain either

Kasper feels it though. A lot.

In fact the whole process of infected entering his mind was incredibly painful as is.

Infected isn’t the reason why things in the elevator/on his own body suddenly lose their texture, neither of them know why that happens now.

They personally aren’t physically effected by it and both find it cool, so neither are bothered.

It’s probably just the result of infected’s malware (thats only technically supposed to effect machines) managing to attach itself to a human. Or maybe Kasper could do that and never previously knew. Who knows. ;)

Kasper/infected can phase through objects that are textureless, including parts of his own body. Anything else will collide as it normally would, and take damage.

Infected will always talk with full leetspeak, (L13k D1$) while Kasper will only have one letter/number substitution (L1ke Th1s)

UG unintentionally named infected that. Basically just looked at Kasper, who had just let a parasite into his mind, and looked at the chainmail virus on his computer, and it went “huh… Bro’s Infected”

Bro is, in fact, infected.

[littlebatgames]

Cowboys + Vampires = yes please

When I first started writing Vampire Therapist, this guy was the player character.

Andromachos is 3000 years old. He's experienced, strong, and intimidatingly good looking. When I started putting him in front of the game's therapy clients, I found that Andromachos was so wise, he sucked all the humor out of the room. Beyond that, I think his clients were a little afraid of disappointing him.

I recast him in the role of mentor, and as an experiment, I recast the therapist as a cowboy, doing a silly voice in my studio. But it stuck. It turns out that a cowboy was just what the Vampire Therapist story needed. Cowboys are more attuned to the earth -- they "touch grass." They're more folksy, much easier to approach than a character like Andromachos. I also needed a character that would learn along with the player, which is how I came up with Sam Walls.

Here are some of our earlier renderings of Sam. Since he's *been through it*, we wanted to show some world weariness and humanity.

He looks great! He's a very handsome fella, crushworthy in his own right. But the core of Vampire Therapist is in compassion and humor, so we needed to lighten up Sam some. If you've played the game, you know he's a pretty lighthearted fella!

These are some of @nomnomroko's first renderings of Sam. You can see her style coming through here, retaining Sam's humanity but with the harder line style that we use on Vampire Therapist to make characters extra characterful and expressive. We decided on a mix of C and D, and got to work on some of the first pose renderings.

You can see the benefits of the Vampire Therapist style coming through already in the highly expressive faces we needed to depict a truly compassionate therapist! Also, @nomnomroko's extraordinary hands.

Costume choices. This was feeling a little formal, and we thought we could play to our strengths even more by showing a bit more skin. After more tweaks and shading, we had our man.

It's incredibly gratifying to see players resonating with Sam's sweetness, patience, and compassion, and his character design really helps reinforce those characteristics. The most common word we get associated with him is "adorable," and although that might make him feel awkward, I guess one can't argue with reality.

Check out our Steam page to learn more about Vampire Therapist! We've made something fun and heartwarming and I'd love for you to wishlist it. If we do well, I've got some crazy ideas and characters planned for the sequel!

[serial-serializednovelreader]

What other novels to your inbox do you recommend? I have done Dracula Daily for years and I want to expand my horizon. War is pretty much the only thing that I don't like. Thanks

Hi!

So funny story, contrary to my username and bio…I have not been keeping up with the classic novels in my emails lately. BUT. That does not mean I don’t have some recommendations for you!

Also, since you did mention you don’t like war, I made sure not to recommend any novels that heavily involve war (War & Peace & Emails, for instance). However, I do know some characters in these recommendations have history with war (e.g. Watson was a war doctor) and I’ve made sure to make mention of that wherever possible. So, I apologize if that comes off as annoying or stating the obvious, I just want you to be fully informed before you read. I’m also listing general content warnings as a rule to inform anyone who might be interested in these Substacks. :)

On to the recommendations!

If you’re looking for mystery…

Learn about the greatest detective of all time from his faithful partner — that’s right! Read Letters from Watson to get the scoop on Sherlock and solve mysteries alongside the legendary duo. I thought this was such a cool concept and I wish I had been able to keep up with it. But it was very fun for the time I did. It goes through the entire chronology of Sherlock stories (which is a lot, by the way) and they just started going through the “more complex cases” (aka, the 4 Sherlock novels) back in January. So, it might be a good time to start! There isn’t war in these cases (at least as far as I know, each email does have a list of content warnings for specifics), but Watson was a war doctor and this does come up frequently, just as a heads up.

If you’re looking for epistolary stories…

Literary Letters takes obscure epistolary novels from the public domain and puts them into your inbox! Right now they’re reading The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is about a guy who’s in love with a girl who’s betrothed to another and writes very passionate letters on the subject.

For a content warning, I’ve included the publisher’s note on this one: “There are passages where the book discusses Werther’s depression, despair, rationalizations for suicide, and the suicide itself at length, so please take whatever precautions you need to read the book safely, which may include buddy reading, mental health breaks, or skipping it altogether.”

So with that being said, the reason I got into this email chain was actually for their first novel they emailed - The Lightning Conductor. I absolutely loved this novel and I heavily recommend going back into the archives to read it and its sequel if you can (that one is in the “Side Stories” archive). It’s a very lighthearted read and a romance, told in epistolary format! Basically, it’s about this smart (yet a bit scatterbrained — not judging, because, same) woman who goes to Europe for the first time and she ends up meeting a gentleman when her car breaks down. Said gentleman is mistaken for a chauffeur and he goes along with it, just because she’s dreamy and he’s already smitten with her. Then there’s her “best guy friend” and her mom trying to throw a wrench in their plans. It’s utter chaos and I love it. I could go on for hours about this novel, but I won’t! I do highly recommended reading it if you ever get the chance.

If you’re looking for a read in verse format…

Check out Divine Comedy Weekly! It’s telling Dante’s Divine Comedy every Tuesday and Thursday. There’s not much to say about this one because I dropped out pretty early in the game, unfortunately. For some reason, stories told in a lyrical/verse format don’t seem to be my thing, but maybe they’re your thing! I think it’s a great concept and for that reason, I will recommend this.

If you’re looking for an all-new read…

North and South by Jane Austen is coming to your inbox this June! It’s apparently a bit like Pride and Prejudice but with the Industrial Revolution and labor relations. I actually just subscribed to this one and I’m excited to see how I enjoy it!

If you’re looking for a long haul read…

Buckle in! It’s time for Whale Weekly! That’s right, you’re in for a THREE YEAR TRIP with this bad boy because Ishmael is emailing you the tale of Moby Dick. Life has gotten in the way and I’ve fallen behind (though this is motivating me to catch up again), but this is actually really good as an email read because this guy goes on so many tangents, it’s more fun for me to absorb his thoughts in spaced out emails, rather than if I tried to read the book.

The memes are very fun with this one, but please keep in mind there is racism and foul language in this, as well as other heavy topics I can’t remember off the top of my head. Also, this does not take place in a war setting, but I do believe some characters have been in war in the past, so that is probably something to keep in mind with this one!

This one is coming to an end fairly soon (I didn’t realize we were on chapter 113/135 OOF), so I don’t know if they’re going to do another round after this or leave it. I imagine it would probably be hard to catch up at this point, but I’m going to link it anyway because I typed all of this up before realizing how far along we were and I do still recommend the read in email format rather than a novel format.

If you’re looking for horror…

I would recommend “The Beetle Weekly”. I wasn’t able to finish this one because LifeTM got in the way, but it is, for sure, one of the reads of all time. Probably the best and worst thing you could read ever tbh. It’s not very enjoyable and I’m not pitching it well at all, but for some reason, I am legitimately recommending this because it is hilarious to read with Tumblr memes by your side. As a heads up, this book does include racism, gore, sexism, transphobia (iirc?) and likely more content warnings I can’t remember. The reason I’m recommending it at all is because it does carry some of the same themes as Dracula and the characters are interesting. Plus, love it or hate it, I reacted while reading this book - a lot. Did I mention I have a bug phobia? Also, fun fact: it was published at the same time as Dracula and was actually MORE POPULAR than Dracula for a while before fading into obscurity.

The only thing is, it did just end last April so you might have to wait until December for it to crawl back into your inbox if you’re interested.

If you’re looking for a thriller…

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly. I absolutely LOVED THIS ONE!!!! Very much vibes of Dracula Daily. Immaculate stuff right there. This one has a lot more comedy than you’d think and was very enjoyable. Content warnings for violence against a child (mentioned, not shown), body horror, and there is one more I can’t say without spoiling the book (feel free to DM me if you’re interested in knowing).

Again, this is pretty short and it’s not currently active; it runs November through January, so that’s when you can look out for it!

I was hoping to recommend some more via a masterlist, I know someone made a post waaay back in 2022 when this serialized email novel thing first got started, but it looks like it got deleted, so if there is a new one, I would love for anyone to share it just for future reference!

I do have a couple of honorable mentions I’ll link that I haven’t read and know next to nothing about, but just so you can have even more recommendations. Please feel free to share your favorites!

[artbyblastweave]

So on balance I generally do enjoy Mark Millar, and a big part of why I enjoy Mark Millar is that a lot of his superhero stuff demonstrates the same awareness about the genre that Worm does- the sense of an unstable equilibrium, that the center cannot hold in the superhero universe as typically presented. Jupiter's Legacy, Super Crooks, Old Man Logan, Wanted, The Ultimates. Arguably Civil War. I have a whole other post buried in my drafts about how that bleak throughline keeps cropping up in his cape work. Specifically in his cape work, also- the man has written a lot of lighthearted, at times almost cloyingly sincere and optimistic one-off miniseries in other genres. Starlight: The Return Of Duke McQueen, Huck, Chrononauts, Beyond. In tension with this cynicism about the capes is the fact that he also clearly believes that superheroes are really cool, and on some fundamental level a really deeply noble and empowering idea. Even Wanted, which is probably the most thoroughly tasteless thing of his that I've read all the way through, I recall as having had this interesting subtext of anger over the fact that there's an audience for a superhero work as cynical and grotesque as Wanted. ("Fine. We took all the whimsy and wonder and derring-do you claim to have outgrown out back and shot it. The corpse is cooling. Are you happy yet? Dark enough yet? Mature enough yet? This is what you wanted right?") Anyway, I think Kick-Ass the comic suffers gigantically from a failure to break in one direction or another, in regard to that tension. It gets very, very close to saying useful and interesting things about the genre at several points but keeps undercutting itself by transforming back into the object of its own attack. There's this initial line of questioning, right, which is, "what kind of person, in real life, might actually try this? How would it go?" And the comic has some compellingly miserable answers to that question! Everyone in costume is chasing the same power fantasy, clinging to the idea of being somebody. Dave is, in his own words, motivated by "the right combination of loneliness and despair," and he's not competent. He alternates between minor wins and brutal hospitalizations, the first two issues and change is just the world punishing him for being dumb enough to try this, and for the most part he's a LARPer, a self-identified asshole. Red Mist is a rich kid playing with his father's money. Big Daddy and Hit-girl are framed as the "real deal", genuinely competent in their ability to dish out violence, and the comic to some extent has the self-awareness to recognize that people who were actually any good at this would be even more horrifying than the LARPers. The Reveal that Big Daddy was an accountant- that he made up a tragic backstory and made his daughter a human weapon in order to pursue an escapist fantasy- genuinely lands like a meteor! But it fucks it up, because it also needs to be cool, cool enough to keep our attention, and so it pulls an about face. The horror of Hit-girl gets subsumed by the realization that she's also the coolest thing in the whole book, almost loadbearing in terms of having actually cool and interesting things happen on-panel, and so the end of the book turns into the exact kind of superviolent revenge story it was initially skewering as unrealistic and disconnected from the much more grounded grief and loss Dave is experiencing at the start of the book. Dave's costumed escapades goes from being an obviously stupid and egotistical attempt to claw back control of his life to... an actual method by which he claws back control of his life, and not in a way that feels terribly well-earned!

The sequels double down on this- alternating between "in real life this would be cheap and stupid and tinged with anticlimax" and "woooo! Let's ape Tarantino until something cool happens!" and honestly, that feels less worthy of analysis because what I'm pretty sure happened there is that the movie blew up and created A Demand For More Kick-Ass. In general what it feels like fundamentally happened here is that you ask, "what if superheroes were real," you land on the answer of "they'd look stupid, be stupid and die badly," but what does that leave you with? It's not like that wasn't the obvious answer already and it's definitely not eight issues of material. He can't pull the trigger on having everyone involved die badly in meanspirited ways to drive the point home, and he never quite threads the needle back to the reconstructive middle ground he badly wants the book to inhabit, the "real heroes work in soup kitchens and look out for their neighbors" area. Things just happen.

That said, the gag about the astroturfed swear-word "Tunk" is fantastic. 10/10, no notes

[scenetocause]

oooh, loving is enough? also the girl time snippet is SO good

(extremely fang-y lando smile) ah you have asked for the girloscar sequel finally

it's... much chewier than the original and a lot more about Having To Be Not A Man In Motorsport and that sort of thing bc it's from oscar's perspective so rather than the sweetly enjoyable revelation she's into pegging it's like oh there is someone who won't be a cunt to me about all this.

Everything counts, always. Especially for her. Put one wheel wrong and she’s washed, every woman in racing too. The only option is to try and never think about it, like Mark’s always told her to, except that her records aren’t only her own.

Every entry into the books isn’t just Oscar Piastri’s first points, best finish, first pole, first win, first podium, first time fucking her teammate. It’s a double-entry for the first woman. There was no sense of modesty that Lando had to win before her, she’d’ve fucking taken it if it’d been there, it’s just that shedding the nowins had to get done before the more complicated, irritating thinkpieces about her. 

Timely, Rachel Brookes is asking her about pretty much that. Not unkindly, Rachel knows what the deal is more than anyone.

“Not your day today, obviously, Oscar but does seeing Lando up there mean you’re confident you can get your first win?”

“Ah,” sometimes the words don’t come easily. At least, not in a way that’s not about to get her or Lando or probably both of them in trouble. “Not - well, it would have been, if Carlos hadn’t. Anyway. It’s good to see the team win, obviously, good to see Lando up there-

Fuck, why does she sound so jealous? Why can’t she shut it off, suddenly?

“I - I wanted him to win. I want to win.”

It’s too honest, too much, too revealing, for nine words, ten if you count her stutter. Oscar’s not very good at sincere, not with Rachel smiling encouragingly at her.

She swallows, hard.

“Obviously it’s, y’know, he’s my boyfriend and there’s a part of me that just loves seeing him get something he’s wanted so long. And for the team, it’s important - we know the car’s good enough, it’s been trying to put it all together and take those opportunities, so it’s a big dose, kind of, of confidence to have that all pay off. For me it’s probably more pressure, if anything, to make sure I’m up there too and I know I can be.”

It’s a bit. Lando’s more verbal-diarrhea-y than her, usually takes the hits on this sort of thing but he’s still in a press conference right now, probably saying god-knows-what.

“I hope you’ve got space for a lot of trophies at home,” Rachel says and it’s kind of a joke, lighthearted, trying to calm Oscar down probably but she knows her face does something profoundly stupid, heart lurching a bit at the thought. 

“Yeah. Might need to go to Ikea again, if we keep this up.” If she lies to herself really hard, she can pretend the soppy expression that’s probably about to be in about 10,000 TikToks is just how much she loves setting out all the bits and putting them together like a giant Lego kit.

She gets held around in the pen for a few foreign language interviews, which doesn’t exactly head off the weird feelings, always a little bit guilty she has to do them in English. It’d be nice to have seen Lando already, in the flesh, just so she can - what, check he’s the same guy as before he stood on the top step or something? 

[leng-m]

3, 4, 22, and 25 for the reading asks!

What were your top five books of the year? Ohh, I haven't thought too much about this yet, because I'm still holding out hope that I might read something really good over the holidays. But five books I really enjoyed this year are The Lightstruck by Sunya Mara, The Fire in the Glass by Jacquelyn Benson, All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry, The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, and Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani.

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year? Jacquelyn Benson! She's a self-pubbed author of historical fantasy. Her characters are endearing and her plots are tightly-woven. I was super impressed with Fire in the Glass, and the sequel, The Shadow of Water. So impressed, in fact, that I've decided to pause reading the rest of the series, because I'm just overwhelmed with feels! Lol, I mean, if you have more tolerance for self-sacrifice than I do, then you probably won't have the same issues I did. However, I don't often read historical fantasy, and this series kind of exemplifies why -- like, I feel that fantasy rooted in real historical events just doesn't have as much room for catharsis of punishment! You sorta have to be satisfied with the slap-on-the-wrist that, unfortunately, a lot of bad people get away with in the real world. Fortunately she's coming out with a lighthearted adventure series next year, so I'm eager to try that.

What's the longest book you read? Page-wise, probably The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. Sentiment-wise, probably Lirael by Garth Nix. Lemme tell you, two teens wallowing in self-pity doesn't make for the best paced novel.

What reading goals do you have for next year? I want to finish off the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've sorta been taking it easy by just trying to read one book a year. They're not exactly my cup of tea, but I wanted to know what the hype was about. The writing is exceptional and there are some valuable themes, even if I'm not super into the actual story. Likewise, I want to continue reading Narnia as well. This year I finally got around to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Finally, I say this every year but it's a tough goal to have: I want to read more Tagalog books. Sadly, there really just aren't many around, so while my personal demand is there, the supply is severely lacking.

Thank you for the asks!

[nyoomzz]

Thanks for answering my ask about why I suddenly love BL and GL more than het romance....I'm grateful to know that there is someone who also knew how I feel....

Do you mind if I ask your top 5 (or top 7) favorite BL and your top 3 (or top 5) favorite GL? And why do you love them? Sorry if you already answered them....Thanks again....

hiii no problem! sorry this took a while to answer im always bad at choosing top picks so this time i just went with my favorites that i consider still haven't seen talked about that much :D

(the titles with a star next to it are mature themes and/or has nsfw scenes, please don't read them if you're still below 18 years old)

yuri:

- *tsukiatte agete mo ii ka na (how do we relationship): i love how simply candid and honest it is at portraying messy relationships between not-quite-adults doing their best to grow. i really enjoy where the story is going because it's something you rarely see in manga!

- ohana holoholo: i wish there's more family-themed gl but im always happy we have this! it's painfully sincere and i love how we dive in into their lifes and see how they're involved with the bigger cast of characters

- shoujo manga protagonist x rival-san: a bit more of a lighthearted comedy, taking the standard trope of shoujo protagonist vs the love rival and putting a silly sapphic spin on it which is something that i absolutely need. its cute moments really shine through!

- yuri de naru ❤️ espoir (yuri espoir): my beloved that i can never shut up about. the cute artstyle takes you in a fun spin on meta commentary of yuri tropes only to slowly reveal that things might not be as sweet and happy as it seems... no one is doing it like them

- yuri to koe to kazo matoi: revolving around the feelings of women finding their place in the world, chasing for what they truly want. this is a bit of a spoiler but it centers around characters in the aromantic and asexual spectrum which makes it even more special to me!

bl:

- *iki dekinai no wa kimi no sei (breathless momentum): i love everything from the premise to how they grow to care about each other, it's hilarious and cute and their dynamic will always remain one of my favorites ever

- *tabun kore kara ai no hibi: the main theme about the joy and pain of creating just resonates so hard, the main characters' struggle portrays it very well and seeing the growth really made me happy!

- tonari ni: natsume ono's paneling and writing is just so special, there's this somber quality to it that absolutely draws me in. it complements very well the quiet yearning in the story

- *tenjite koi to iki: tbh this is just an excuse to talk about hayane dento's works, i always have a hard time choosing a favorite because they all have such great writing! i think about this one the most because of how melancholic it was paired with their beautiful storytelling

- boku no papa to papa no hanashi: ive read a lot of family-themed bl but this will always take the cake! the love this little family have for each other and how they grow together will always get to me

- *link and ring: just an absolutely loving relationship, you can see how much the main couple cares for each other it's just so sweet to read!

- achira kochira bokura: more slice of life than bl really and that's why it's so dear to me, it's a very natural depiction of two boys with opposite natures slowly being part of each other's lives. there's a sequel too!

[halfagone]

hi! i forgot to mention this in the update itself, but when the underlined text was an actual link that was an actual rick roll my only thought was “FINALLY!”

i have been checking so many lines formatted to look like a link by either hovering the mouse or tapping and holding them on mobile, and it felt like winning a lottery, first “is it or is it not an actual link?” then “rickroll or not?”, and then it was BOTH

that was just another silly little moment among many great and silly and intense and heartbreaking and wholesome and so much more moments, to remember lex luthor’s ascent by, which, by the way, you have a chapter estimate for now?! congratulations! (i am so late for that)

the ask was a mess what i wanted to say is you did great! thank you!!

I gotta throw in more fandom hyperlinks now if people are gonna go be hunting for rickrolls XD Maybe every third hyperlink will be a rickroll. As a treat <3

Awww, I am super glad you could appreciate the lighthearted moment thrown in there. It can definitely be difficult to balance a chapter with humor and emotion, but every once in a while I try to throw in little stuff- not always for the story itself (although I try to make it relevant somehow)- but for the readers. Like before I used to do shorter chapters if it was a heavy subject. You might have seen it with Chapter 55: Perspective. That one I cut short because boy was that chapter depressing. But now I have so much plot I can't really do that lol

But yes! lex luthor's ascent now has a chapter estimate! I am trying to be as firm as possible on 150 chapters, because that is still a lot of chapters to get to. That's over a third of the story left to get to, so I am trying to be a good bean and not go over it.

HOWEVER! I can say that I intend to leave it open for the possibility of a sequel? I probably wouldn't work on said sequel right away, but I thought this would be better than a firm ending when the scope of this story is so big. Even if I never actually got to write the sequel, I'll know that many other people could dream up whatever comes next and continue to enjoy the world that I've tried to build with the story.

But thank you for thinking I did great, I am certainly trying lol Thank you as well! Have a lovely day ;3

[swannposting]

What are some background facts/headcanons you want to tell about your fic "An Innocent Question"?

Ah!! ♡ Thank you for reading, that fic is my pride and joy and might be my favorite thing I've written.

First off, I should let you know that I am actually working on a sequel of sorts. I really want to expand on this ship because I think there's fun potential there. But as always I must apologize in advance for the slowness of my writing. Muse is a very fickle thing for me.

So-- I do have Elizabeth in that fic as being gender non-conforming both in presentation and identity. I wish I would have gone into more detail on that in An Innocent Question, but the focus of that fic was a lot more on the smut so I chose to leave it just at the mention of binding her chest for now.

Due to the historical nature of the canon, I don't think I'll ever write her as establishing her identity in the more definable terms that we use today, but I am very intrigued by the idea of having her use he/him pronouns at times. I plan on using her relationship with Scarlett as an avenue for Elizabeth to play with gender roles. I would love to have her replicate some of the courtship norms that were prevalent at the time from the male perspective, both as a way for her to explore her own relationship with gender, and as a way for her to reflect on the implied period of courtship she has with Will between CotBP and DMC. (Side note: I have been very inspired and enlightened by @elventhespian 's ongoing fic Best Laid Plans, which goes in-depth on what that span of time was like for Will and Elizabeth, with a ton of historical background. Check it out! ♡)

So, some background on the dynamics I had in mind while writing that fic-- as some of you may already know, I'm a big fan of poly relationships in fiction. So when I wrote An Innocent Question, I had already somewhat decided that I wanted Elizabeth and Will to have an open marriage. I chose that mostly because I wanted to keep the fic (and any potential sequels) as lighthearted as possible, and to give Elizabeth the opportunity to build relationships and explore sexuality with other characters, while still maintaining her canonical devotion to Will. Long story short, in my mind, Spillabeth (J/W/E) is pre-established in that fic, though I did not mention it in the text. I do plan on delving into that a bit in another installment, though the focus will still remain on her budding relationship with Scarlett.

As far as Scarlett-- I'm still mulling over ideas for further development of her character beyond the 2-D nature of her appearances in canon. The PotC films have a tragic lack of women, and I want to take the time to flesh her out more, even if it takes a few different works to fully figure out what that looks like. If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts about her, I would love to hear them!

That's all I've got for now. Again, thank you thank you thank you for reading my work, and thank you for the opportunity to yap about my blorbos! ♡

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

saw your post about the IF market being more saturated now compared to when t/w/c blew up! as someone who was pretty disappointed by book 2 and 3 but wants to get more into IF, do you have any recommendations?

IFs are difficult to recommend because they're like books, ya know? What are you looking for, what are you into, etc.

However, I am armed with links this time around so hopefully this will help.

First of all I think you can just take a look at the Choice of Games website, as they have demos of all their own games and their Hosted Games. The demos are usually like 2-3 chapters, so you get a decent feel for the stories.

Second, you can also check out the itch.io platform and look for interactive fiction on there. These IFs are usually based on Twine and not ChoiceScript, so they will look very different. They're also usually "true" indie, in that they're not published or hosted by anybody but the writer putting it on itch.io. These have demos usually, and are often WIPs, so I don't play many of these until they're finished, which can take years. But! They're often passion projects, so I'd say the better ones are generally on par with or better than most CoG games and much better than Hosted Games (in my subjective experience!!!).

Finally, you can check Dashingdon, which is a private site for hosting various ChoiceScript based demos. It's difficult to navigate and isn't really meant for browsing, more used as a way for authors to show demos and WIPs, but it does have some filters and most demos include blurbs as well. Biggest thing is probably finding out the status of a game, as there's no linking back to the author unless they include it in the demo.

From there, it's usually just about reading the blurb, trying out a demo and see if you like the writing style or not. That's generally how I find new things to read.

As for my personal recommended list, it's pretty short, because most IFs I've read aren't bad per se, but they're a bit forgettable, so even if someone else might enjoy them, I just can't remember anything about them lol. I've put a few of the ones I've liked in the past below the cut.

Finished

Heart of the House: Gothic horror romance with emphasis on the gothic horror. I don't think I managed to survive this even once? But it's good and I love Dev. Tally Ho: Silly goofy story where you play as a butler and have to juggle people being absolute idiots around you. Very funny and lighthearted but has a surprising amount of variation. Rory is bae I love kissing his dumb ass. Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale: Standalone sequel to Tally Ho, but now you're the thembo noble bumbling your way into success. I haven't actually finished it because it's a OVER MILLION WORDS, but I know it'll be a blast, and I even bought the DLCs for it. YEAH. INTERACTIVE FICTION DLC. Choice of Rebels: Uprising: I only played this once ages ago and it's the first in a series that never got a continuation? So it ends without a real conclusion and that sucks, but I remember thinking it was good and heavy in a way that felt refreshing for the time. An older CoG game, with actual simulation of leading a rebellion, so it's a bit more technical than the others. The Passenger: Finished as in it's complete, not that I finished it myself. I played this first when it was only a demo, and I remember enjoying it. You play as an eldritch horror. That is all. It was gross and spoopy and fun back when I played it, but I haven't gone back to see if it's as good as I remember it being.

WIPs

Guenevere: The IF that got me into IFs. It's SO good. It'd be considered limited by today's standards as you can only play as a woman who is a somewhat established character in folklore and romance only 3 (4?) people. But it's really well-written and dramatic and feels like an approproately epic tale. And you get to cuck the shit out of Arthur<3 Mind Blind: A friend recommended it to me and I enjoyed it! Don't know much else about it, though. It can be a bit heavy in spots, which I recall I found that it clashed a bit with the joking writing style, and you play as a deeply underpowered individual in a world of essentially superheroes, which can be a turnoff. I remember it having a great selection of ROs though. Speaker: Urban fantasy road trip type beat. I remember enjoying the writing style and the characters, plus the plot felt fresh and actually had a presense in the story, which isn't a guarantee in IFs. You play as one of two siblings who together can foretell the future (your sister sees visions, you're the only one who can interpret them) and you try to stop something horrible from happening. Pretty much all ROs are kissable winners. A Tale of Crowns: Middle Eastern high fantasy where you play as the new ruler of a kingdom. It's quite popular in the IF world and pretty good! I haven't played it in years because as I mentioned, I don't like playing and replaying WIPs every time a new update drops, but if you haven't played it before, it's good to go take a look. Very deep lore and it's clear the author has a Vision and isn't just faffing about smacking their Barbies together, which I always appreciate in an IF. One of the few times the PC feels like an actual character in the world. Also all ROs are hot as fuck so 10/10 GOTY.

[aurorawest]

Reading update

Once again Cat Sebastian took characters I actively disliked/didn't care about from a previous novel and made me love them. This one was lovely and the twist totally took me by surprise, even though it shouldn't have. A+ Cat Sebastian please write more books (I have totally already preordered her next book).

Who would think a book about living through the AIDS epidemic in NYC in the 80s would be as funny as this book is? It will also tear your heart out and stomp on it. Highly recommended. This was a 5 star read. Also takes place partly in Minneapolis (and is by a Minnesotan author) so it gets bonus stars for that.

Another delightful entry into Roan Parrish's Garnet Run series. This one was the most lighthearted. My only problem with this series is that I kind of don't want the old characters showing up as much as they do. I never like them as much when they're just side characters.

Neal Stephenson...you might want to consider taking a break from writing. Parts 1 and 2 were pretty good - typical Stephenson, though I wouldn't say he's at his best in this one. The science is super interesting (I have no idea if it's realistic) and it's an interesting doomsday scenario. Part 3, on the other hand, was unnecessary and simplistic (Cold War in space! Noble Savage! White Savior!). It was such poor payoff for the first 2/3 of the book that I repeatedly wished he hadn't bothered at all—and that I hadn't bothered reading the book.

Also it was almost 900 pages long.

I didn't LOVE love the first book in this series, but you know, it was good enough for me to pick up the sequel. I was actually enjoying this one more, but it fell apart for me during The Break Up. One of the main characters is basically allowed to get away with his bullshit because...I don't know, he's just Like That. It irritated me.

Despite the printing error, I was able to read this book. I love this series and am sad it's over. If you want a good space opera with a friends to lovers to enemies to lovers again, I highly recommend this one. It's also Very Gay! Plus great female characters.

This is a queer military series so if that's not your thing, you won't like this book haha. So far it's followed two guys serving on a submarine. It's pretty typical Annabeth Albert, and tbh the military stuff is pretty secondary (and in this one there is 0 time spent on a sub). This one has a single dad as the love interest, and while I'm always pretty eh about romances involving children, Albert does it pretty well.

Man was this one heavier than I thought it was going to be. Milo and Marcus both come from very conservative families and meet at Bible camp, where they room together and fall for each other, though neither of them acts on it. Milo decides he's going to tell Marcus how he feels, only for Marcus to disappear from camp. Three years later...Marcus moves to Daytona Beach and starts at Milo's high school! There is a lot of internalized homophobia in this one and a lot of Milo struggling with what he's been taught in church and by his parents, and at times it got hard to read. It was really good, though.

This is one that I kept almost buying because it's pretty, but then I'd read the summary (again) and think, eh. I ended up picking up a used copy at my local indie bookstore, and...eh. Definitely not a bad book. I loved the world, and I really like Lexos. Rhea was...not great. I realized after reading this that I really don't care for the current popular trope of the Unhinged Woman Who Doesn't Know What She Stands For. Like, she's got this thing that's ostensibly driving her, but that thing gets taken away, and now she's empty. I don't know that I've ever seen it pulled off in a way where I didn't go at the end, "Oh, so she actually was just a super flat character all along?" I was trying to think of examples of male characters who fit this trope. I'm sure they're out there but I couldn't think of any. Anyway, I'll probably read the sequel, because the world really was cool, and Lexos is poor little meow meow material (spent his whole life trying to earn his father's love and respect, never could).

Oh man this book was great. The first one had some horror elements, but this one was straight up horror for large portions of the book. Like, action-horror—think Army of Darkness. I love all the characters so much. The bond between Rune and Brand is *chef's kiss*. Male friendship done beautifully.

KJ Charles is like Cat Sebastian in that no one does historical romance like she does. I confirmed once more that I love the interwar period, especially when one of the mains is a Wounded Veteran of WWI. This book actually reminded me of Cat Sebastian's Hither, Page (which is post WWII) which I love, so I was pretty primed to also love this. I'd love to see the further adventures of Archie and Daniel, but considering it was written in 2015, I'm not sure that's going to happen.

I liked this book, but also the dialogue got very annoying at times. Is this how The Kids talk these days? Also rolled my eyes hard at the section devoted to the author getting up on his soapbox to share how he feels Call Me By Your Name is really problematic. But overall I enjoyed it, and the bi rep was top tier, as was the yearning.

Okay so while I enjoyed this book well enough, it would have been half the length if Pons had cut out all of the 'I've never felt so connected to another person in my life' paragraphs. I swear, the main character was constantly connecting with his boyfriend in a way he never had with anyone else ever. The book was very much about Will, but there was some heavy stuff introduced about Graham that I didn't think was really given the due it deserved. But it was a sweet love story, and a story about healing. Also I didn't see the twist coming.

So coincidentally, Call Me By Your Name was right there in my TBR pile as I was reading This is Why They Hate Us. I liked it a lot, though the weird racist interlude really threw me and I can't figure out what the metaphor was or what Acimen was trying to say.

Fam, I am finally reading Dark Rise. It is not gay yet, but I'm only up to page 100. I really didn't know what it was about and only picked it up because Pacat wrote it, so the plot has surprised me so far. Very different from Captive Prince.

[seyaryminamoto]

Your entries for the sokkla saturdays are always so good. It makes me wonder: which one is your favorite entry for each of the last three years you participated?

Haha, I was actually thinking about this for the last Fic-to-Art I did. I kind of picked my favorite stories in order to draw them as the representatives from each... anthology? Compendium? Whatever the right name for it might be xD

Anyway... here we go. The full list of Seyary's favorite stories of my Sokkla Saturday entries, starting in 2020:

Matching Heartbeats (2020)

It's difficult to really rank this one fairly because I admit, at the start I had no idea what I was doing. It was meant to be a week-to-week concept and I definitely started very lighthearted, but by week 3 I was going a little crazy with stories and I suddenly found myself building huge stuff I absolutely wasn't trying to go for at first x'D sooo... unfortunately the first two stories, which were the ones I was most easygoing with, wouldn't be at the top here even if I don't think they're bad, actually. They're just not as thoroughly fleshed out, I'd say. So anyway, ranking the whole thing now...

Yakuza AU (Azula and Sokka are in rival Yakuza clans)

"I melt in your hands" (Azula captured by the Gaang AU)

Making a deal (Azula and Sokka work together to stop an assassin in Ba Sing Se's Palace)

Loyalty (Dark Ursa AU)

Sokkla is painful for Zuko (Zuko is enlightened by a dream that convinces him that Sokka and Azula are the perfect match for each other)

Arranged Marriage-Touch (War ends 20-ish years earlier AU)

Lost in a forest and feelings (Sokka and Azula reconnect over a trip to find Space Sword)

"As if that would ever happen" (A scene of Azula and Sokka talking briefly before the birth of their second child)

"I lost my clothes and need to borrow yours" (Sokka and Azula start a somewhat-secret relationship in Republic City)

Boy that was not easy xD I actually feel like 5-7 are all tied, to a fault. They're all pretty fun to revisit whenever I want to, but I guess the four at the top win for me. Yakuza AU is definitely my absolute favorite from 2020, though. It just never gets old for me.

Underneath Starlit Skies (2021)

Now, this time I was ambitious purposefully... and I paid for it through making even bigger stories than before :'D to be fair, I was already writing Gladiator Part 3 at the time and Underneath Starlit Skies really helped me regain my mojo so I could energize myself and keep going with my big fic. So! What shall my ranking look like now...?

Wounded (Yakuza AU sequel)

Happy Family (... Yeah, well, I'm just gonna whistle innocently now...)

Body Swap AU (... self explanatory?)

Each other's punishment (Antarctica AU)

Jealousy (Band AU)

Prince Sokka, Peasant Azula (Dragon Age: Origins AU)

TDOBS: Sokkla happens (Azula captured by the Gaang AU sequel)

Pregnancy (Dark Ursa AU sequel)

Meeting the in-laws (War ends 20-ish years earlier AU sequel)

I admit, the sequels from this year were a lot of fun to write but the new ideas I had for stories just took over me, big time...

... 'cept for Yakuza AU because that one just drives me crazy. I admit I think it's possibly the strongest AU in all of my Sokkla Saturdays entries, though I can't pretend to be objective enough to say for certain, haha. Anyway, I liked the sequel even more than I liked the original and that's saying a lot, considering the first entry for Yakuza AU is my favorite for 2020 :'D And yeah, the Happy Family situation was way too entertaining to write, all those family dynamics were a thrill to explore when I finally had a chance to. Then, the body swap AU was such a strange way to get out of my comfort zone, but it worked fairly well and I really enjoyed it because of that. Very introspective even in all its ridiculousness, haha.

Leap of Faith (2022)

Oh, boy. I really wanted to make more sequels this year. Which might look like a weird thing to say considering how I haven't ranked my sequels all that high, but I really did want to. It's kinda sad to me that I could only do it with two stories when there were so many that required them... but let's hope the prompts are better for sequels in the future, huh?

Alright, and so...

Toph matchmaking Sokkla (Sokka and Azula work together to stop a conspiracy to kill Zuko... in a rather unconventional way)

"Blue looks good on you" (Sokka and Azula are agents of the White Lotus)

College AU (D&D AU)

Each other's firsts (Childhood friends/basketball AU)

Caught off-guard (... ehem. Again, I'll just whistle innocently here...)

Academic rivals (Azula and Sokka attend Ba Sing Se University)

Sokka dresses Azula (Dragon Age: Inquisition AU, sequel to Dragon Age: Origins AU)

Falling in love (Ursa doesn't erase her memories but changes her face anyway and comes back to the Palace as a servant AU)

Flustered Azula (Antarctica AU sequel)

... I admit this one feels a little deceptive X'D some of the lower rated ones were actually pretty solid entries but I have no idea what the hell was going on with my emotional state at the time. Even upon revisiting them, I wound up thinking the story had turned out to be a looot better than I thought it was upon writing it, and yet something about how I felt while writing those chapters just didn't feel entirely smooth, somehow.

ANYWAY! Doesn't change the fact that Toph matchmaking Sokkla has ended up becoming one hell of a favorite for me. Even then, it's kind of difficult to argue that it's my absolute favorite because "Blue looks good on you" absolutely took over my life and ran away with me. And College AU makes me laugh like such an idiot every time I revisit it, too. So while I thought I might not have that much to offer this year because the prompts reeeeally didn't allow me to work with a lot of sequels, I ended up finding some ideas I wound up obsessed with X'D so I really can't complain about what I managed to make this year.

Anyway, this is my personal ranking for all my stories since 2020. I really don't think I was majorly dissatisfied with any entry because, if I had been, I outright wouldn't have posted them :'D I do think my first two entries for 2020 are the weakest of the lot since I really hadn't committed to coming up with major stories at the time, and I really thought I'd take this event easy... :'D oh, what a summer child I was. Fast forward a few weeks later and I was possessed by the wild need to tell the Yakuza AU as best as I could and mourning the fact that it had ended too soon x'D

If you have your own favorites, feel free to share too! It's always great fun to know about the impact my stories have had on readers, especially the rarer ones that seem to fly under the radar. I learned about two years ago that some readers reeeally loved my White Lotus International Games story, and I actually had thought that one had just gone completely unnoticed, and this year, a lot of people were thrilled to see an artwork depicting The Love Advisor's scene of Azula and Sokka reading their tragic romance book together xD so yeah, if you want to talk about the stories you liked, feel free to share your thoughts! :D

[wolfreader]

july 2024 wrap-up - adult fiction

this month i read eight (8) adult novels and one (1) adult novella.

do androids dream of electric sheep? by phillip k dick 📖 🌟🌟🌟

picked this up because i loved blade runner, and i was interested in seeing how the book compared. know that i was fully aware that blade runner is only loosely based on do androids dream of electric sheep?, so i wasn't expecting something similar to the movie, just something interesting.

and it was interesting! i was very intrigued to read and see how ridley scott adapted the androids (the replicants in the film) to the screen; there were parts where i felt that the book versions were far more sympathetic than their film counterparts, and parts where i felt the opposite was true.

there were many things i didn't quite understand, many of those things having to do with the ending. i feel that this is a book that will need a reread later down the line. perhaps i'll like it more or even less after reading it a second time, when i'm familiar with the writing style and know enough about the basic lore that i'm not as confused.

the water outlaws by s l huang 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

a heartwarming story about a liberal who learns to be a leftist.

consider this a low four star. if i gave half stars, i might have given this a three and a half. my only real criticism is that i think there were too many characters for the amount of pages. if this were slightly longer or perhaps even split into a duology, the number of characters would have been perfectly fine. but as it is, i think that a small handful of minor characters could have been cut. i also didn't quite understand the magic system until very late in the book, but i got it eventually.

i really liked the diversity of viewpoints represented by the characters that got a chance to be fleshed out. none of them have the same starting point and none of them have the same end point in terms of what they believe, even if they're united by the same goal, and i liked seeing that progression. there are two pretty major characters who almost switch ideologies by the end.

the infighting and differing ideals among the liangshan bandits especially made them feel very real; the members all had different backgrounds and different reasons for being in the group, so it makes logical sense that they all have different visions of what the liangshian should be. there are a couple of factions who are all pulling the liangshan in different directions, and it made for a very compelling read.

the warden by daniel m ford 📖 🌟🌟🌟

i will admit that it took some time for me to get invested. it wasn't difficult to get through (it's only ~300 pages and the writing style is very easy to read) but it felt very plotless. while there was certainly a lot happening, it was largely disconnected, one- or two-chapter events. it took until slightly over the halfway point for me to get the sense that there was an overarching narrative and this wasn't just a series of slice-of-fantasy-life short stories bound together and marketed as a complete novel. then, at the very end, i felt that the book ended in a very strange place. the main antagonist is defeated, loose ends are neatly tied, and a sequel is properly set up, and then there are still about five chapters left. in general, the warden's main issue is one of pacing.

all that being said, once the main story actually picked up and revealed itself, retroactively making a few of those seemingly-disconnected events part of the larger narrative, i really enjoyed this. i already mentioned that this book is short with a very easy to read writing style, and for the most part its very lighthearted; all this made for a very calm, fun reading experience. it's not cozy fantasy, per se (there's too much violence for it to be considered such) but it's definitely a lighter fantasy read if you enjoy the trappings of high / epic fantasy but want something with a smaller scale and page count to give your brain a break.

consider this a very high three stars. i typically don't continue with series if i rate a book under four stars, but i liked this one enough and have faith enough in the author to rectify some of his missteps with pacing in the next installment, so i will likely be picking up the sequel when it comes out in paperback next year.

words of radiance by brandon sanderson 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

finally got around to this! very excited, and very excited to continue with the series once i've mentally prepared myself to read another ~1000 page book. i actually finished this one faster than i expected, as i had a day off from work and ended up reading ~600 pages in one day.

because this is the second in a series that i very strongly recommend, i don't want to give too much away, but there was a pretty huge change in the status quo of this book at the end here. the first book, the way of kings, felt like a lot of (really really good) set up, and this is where things begin to kick off. secrets are revealed, more secrets are left hidden, characters meet and form relationships with each other, multiple characters die. much to think about.

while, as i said, i'll be taking a very long break before reading oathbringer, i am very enthusiastic about the series. i hope to finish the next two books before the fifth comes out in paperback, but i have plenty of time to do that seeing as the hardback doesn't even come out until december.

the city of brass by s a chakraborty 📚 🌟🌟🌟🌟

a very promising start to the trilogy! it took a while for me to get into it, but once i did it was very easy and engaging to read.

i really like nahri as a protagonist thus far. you can tell that she's very practical and pragmatic but she's not completely emotionless. even when she makes a questionable choice, you're in her head and can see exactly why she's doing it and what she hopes to achieve, and you the conflict in her as well.

i have to say that i found dara, the main love interest, to be completely insufferable. he's incredibly controlling, xenophobic, and also outright bigoted against the shafit (of which nahri is one). however, he showed some promise at the end of the book and i've never heard anything about his behavior as a criticism of the series, so i'm going to assume that he undergoes some growth. and hopefully he does because i cannot stand two more books of him as the love interest if he keeps acting like he did in this one.

yellowface by r f kuang 📚 🌟🌟🌟

was going to be a four star until the ending...

the pros:

this is very engaging. i read it all in one day, which i hadn't planned to do. given that it's about 300 pages, i meant to read 150 in the evening, sleep, and read the last half in the morning before work, but i was so hooked that i stayed up late to read it.

it was really interesting to see the publishing industry from an author, someone's who's seen it from the inside. like many reading enthusiasts, i perhaps know more about publishing than the average person does, but no matter how much i learn about it i will never know the publishing industry like someone like r f kuang knows the publishing industry. i enjoyed reading about steps in the publishing process that i knew about in theory, but had never really thought about with any sort of depth before.

i will admit that this was a struggle to get through because of the (very intentionally, i'm aware) main character. typically when i read books with an unreliable, unlikeable narrator it's in a fantasy setting, where the horrible things they do and say are tailored to the fantastical or pseudo-historical setting, so it's easier to stomach because i'm unlikely to ever encounter a person or situation like this in the real world. meanwhile, this is a literary novel taking place in the real world, and the horrible things june hayward does and says and thinks are very real. there were moments when i had to stop reading because i was so in shock at what she had said. and on that front, well done rebecca kuang! because i know that my shock and horror at how unbelievably and yet how casually racist the protagonist is.

the cons:

i watched youtuber withcindy's review of yellowface right when she released the video, but i wanted to read it for myself anyway. but... i ended up agreeing with basically all of what she said 😬. it's very off putting to read this knowing that a non-zero amount of the things june hayward thinks and says about athena liu are real life criticisms that r f kuang has recieved, only now they're in the jealousy-fueled mouth of a racist white woman. i know that the reader is not meant to come away from yellowface viewing athena as a saint, but the focus is more on how she treated people in her personal life rather than the things that kuang has been criticized for; those aspects are treated as inconsequential by the narrative.

in addition, the ending felt a little... lifetime-esque. i understand that the entire book was a satire. it's a hightened reality. and for the vast majority of the book, it was really working for me. but the ending felt a little too hightened; it didn't fit with the tone the rest of the novel had taken, and the rest of the novel was already a slightly exaggerated view of real life.

the pariah by anthony ryan 📚 🌟🌟🌟

this is on my "24 books to read in 2024", the author has blurbed some of my favorite fantasy series and vice versa, and also my dad recommended this and he's the one who got me into brandon sanderson, so i had high expectations!

i was a litte disappointed 😬 i don't think this book is bad, but it just felt very plotless. it felt like a lot was happening but also nothing was happening. a lot of events were occuring but none of those events were moving the story forward in any meaningful way.

that being said... i really liked the main character, and my dad agrees that the first book is weak says that it gets better and a lot more focused as the series goes on, so i probably am going to continue the series at some point. it's just not a priority, and i'm very glad i decided to pick it up at the library instead of buying it for myself.

persuasion by jane austen 📖 🌟🌟🌟

i liked this one less than some of the other austen i've read :-(. don't get me wrong i definitely enjoyed it, but unlike other jane austen novels where i connected with the lead and the love interest, i feel like i didn't really have the opportunity to care about captain wentworth beyond the fact that anne elliot cares about captain wentworth.

i get that the miscommication and the fact that anne and wentworth are prevented from really interacting by propriety is part of the point of persuasion, but personallly i think it prevented me from connecting with wentworth as a character for most of the book. at the very end, like the last couple of chapters, when we really got to see a lot from wentworth, i really liked him and though he and anne were sweet, but that was at the end of the book.

even though i knew the end by c. l. polk 📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟

this was $5 with another purchase, and it's also a novella (less than 200 pages) so i picked it up on a whim, and ended up really enjoying it!

i didn't adore the ending. my exact problems with it would require simply explaining the entire ending which i don't want to do so the short, vague version is that there was a sequence of events that felt very cheap to me. if you've ever played or watch a playthrough of gotham knights, the video game, i had almost the exact same problem with the ending of that game.

but other than that i thought it was pretty good. i loved the tone and the noir / fantasy combination worked really well for me; it reminded me a lot of the penumbra podcast actually.

[crushed-starlight]

UPDATE TIME YOU NEED SO MANY UPDATES FROM ME IT HAS BEEN ONE MILLION YEARS !!!!!!!!!

ok so . yknow how the main original point of this blog was for me to rant about my feelings for meadow? and then i slowly realized that this might not be the healthiest thing to pursue? WELL IT GOT WORSE.

over the winter break p much everyone went home to wherever they lived before uni. during that time, meadow hung out with their 2 friends from before and very quickly and chaotically fell in love with one of them ,, we'll call him wells 2, the sequel to wells in terms of people that meadow has liked that aren't me !!

over winter they got ,, very intimate very fast (it didn't help that wells 2 had just gotten out of a pretty long term relationship lmao) and i got to hear all about it in excruciating detail from meadow .. it was at some point around this time that i decided i desperately needed to stop crushing on them. i decided to just will it out of existence bc i was so tired of the pining and it had become painfully obvious that my feelings weren't reciprocated and i didn't feel like getting the hanahaki any worse.

thinking back on meadow as a person i noticed a lot of stuff that didn't occur to me originally because of the Big Feelings,, i also talked it over with fish and jiji (separately) which helped me realize what was going on a lot better. so here's some Things About Meadow that i Do Not Like !!

they rushed so fast into commitment with wells 2 in a way that i don't think i'd be comfortable with even if it were me..

there were ,, multiple omens. i'm not super spiritual anymore but i do believe in signs from the world and there were a few that i missed, specifically in terms of fictional parallels that showed up in really convenient times, like the world was trying to warn me by showing me mistakes that i could've made. those came in the form of felix love and lucy gray baird, the latter of which meadow literally introduced me to (we saw her movie together, i heavily related to her and meadow didn't like her for all the same reasons)

they don't match my energy !! they make me nervous !! even if it's in a lighthearted way, their teasing of my interests and stims and everything makes it harder to unmask (which i've been trying rly hard to learn) and ultimately makes me even more tired after spending a day with them

doesn't like snowball fights !! reddest flag i've ever seen

basically, meadow likes me, but he doesn't understand me. this'll sound self-obsessed, but my overall energetic optimistic outward personality is basically a product of coping strategies and adhd. i need someone who understands that, and values it as much as i do, if not more. meadow sees what's happening, i've explained it, but i don't think they have the capacity to fully understand since they cope so differently from me

in other news, chipi. i know he's into me, but the flirting died down a lot over the past few months...................... until it didn't !! over winter break, we spent tons of time on call with an online friend of mine ,, we'll call him cala. i did a little doodle of my roommates as weezer last night since i shared a reel of a different friend group doing the same thing, and chipi started asking which one he was because he 'wanted to know how i perceive him', so naturally i recreated the reel in post-it note sketch form. well literally just now as i was writing this post, i checked discord to double check cala's pronouns and saw that chipi had made the doodle his profile picture ............. wHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS INFORMATION ??????

i'm not attracted to him, and i really don't want to lead him on. i literally sent him a valentines meme that said 'i LIKE you. as a friend ONLY' like i have been so so obvious about it and yet he persists.. i CAN'T date him , for one we're roommates so a breakup could get really ugly, and also there's about a million red flags. i think he feels understood by me in a way he hasn't experienced much before, which i don't want to take away !!

i haven't actively told him to stop flirting with me, since honestly i do like the attention. it's a huge confidence boost to know i'm even capable of being desired in this way.. he's so funny and likes me so much that it's really easy and so entertaining to spend time with him, plus i get flustered super easily and i know he enjoys it too, but i'm scared to accidentally lead him on because i know first hand how much that hurts, even when it's made abundantly clear. hell, i just watched it happen with myself and meadow, but now i'm on the other side.

i think i just need to trust him to look after his own emotional health through his crush on me, just like i did with meadow, and i hope that at the end of it we can still be friends!! i should probably tell cala about all this, since he's witnessed most of it first hand and is super understanding about every other emotional thing i've brought up so far. shit's wild over here

in other news i sang karaoke with odie and he's so cool if he weren't dating jiji i'd definitely be in love with him by now lmao

ok i think that's everything !! sorry i was gone for so long, i can't promise i'll stay but i hope these updates can be entertaining for someone :)

TL;DR for anyone following my lore ,, i needed to will my crush on meadow out of existence and just as i was doing that, chipi caught even bigger feelings for me and idk what to do about it lmao

[rebeccadumaurier]

November 2022 Reading Review

i’m trying to be more reflective about what i read in a more organized manner, so this is my first monthly reading review. no star ratings because they don’t come anywhere close to getting across how i feel or think. listed (roughly) in the order i read them.

books read this month

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life, George Saunders

i read this for book club! not normally the sort of thing i’d seek out, but some useful thoughts on writing as a craft and reading as a skill. i like that instead of trying to be prescriptive about how to write, it focuses more on finding your own voice and getting a sense of what sort of literature you, as a reader and writer, enjoy.

2. Cain, José Saramago

my first saramago! i wasn’t sure whether i’d like him (i’ve known of him for years), but i did. i’ve been skeptical of christianity for a long time and the ideas in here aren’t that new, but given the environment/time saramago grew up in, i get why it was so controversial. i do love choosing to focus on cain’s story. would consider reading more of him in the future if the premise catches my eye - maybe Blindness

3. World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, Aimee Nezhukumatathil

a fun, lighthearted book of brief memoir-ish essays about nature, only about 170 pages. it’d be fun to read this while going on a hike. it’s a book which makes you want to go outside.

4. Woman, Eating, Claire Kohda

cool premise (depressed malaysian-japanese-british vampire who tries to blend into human society and doesn’t drink human blood because colonialism, basically), but it read like a cliche of the self-loathing sad girl literary fiction genre, except she’s a vampire. prose is quite unmemorable, as is characterization. did not execute the premise in any interesting way, unfortunately

5. Design Is Storytelling, Ellen Lupton

a quick intro (<200 pages) to human-centered design principles, color theory, etc. basic stuff you’d pick up in your first design class or two. didn’t really learn anything new, but it’s accessible and i liked the cute illustrations! will check out more lupton books in the future, they look cool

6. The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson

excellent. it would drive me crazy if i let it. i’m too busy having locked tomb series brainrot right now to form other obsessions, but this might be another one once i’ve read the sequels. examination of empire, colonialism, lesbianism, and a wonderfully unhinged female protagonist. one of the endings of all time

7. We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice, Mariame Kaba

an introduction to prison abolition principles! very accessible read. i like that it takes an ultimately hopeful tone rather than doom and gloom about our society. i’m a fan of the “hope is a discipline” idea, as well as “abolition is not about your fucking feelings.”

8. Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica

prose was mid, and characters are really more the author’s ideas of certain types of people rather than living breathing human beings. but the execution of the rather horrific premise was certainly done with detail and thought, and it gave me stuff to think about, so ultimately i gave it 4 stars. quite graphic, and not for the faint of heart. this and sayaka murata’s earthlings are both about horrifying acts of cannibalism but they are thematically nearly the polar opposite - would love to compare them (i liked earthlings better, though).

i’ve seen complaints about the ending, but i thought it was quite good—it fits into the theme that not only is no one in this book a good person, but this is a society where it’s not possible to be good, where people don’t even really know what goodness is.

9. Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente (favorite of the month)

i fear what this book would have done to my underdeveloped teenage brain, when i was equally as obsessed with unhealthy relationships in media but much worse at critically evaluating them. gorgeous prose, innovative experimentation, truly a marvel of genre blending between mythological retelling and historical fiction. i can’t remember the last time i was this desperate for an m/f couple to be endgame.

but seriously, they are SO dysfunctional and awful—an interesting examination of power dynamics and codependency and role reversals in relationships. reminds me of that quote from Gone Girl that’s like “why do you want to be together? yes, we loved each other and all we did was control each other and cause each other pain” and amy’s reply: “that’s marriage.”

thoughts

wow, that’s a lot of nonfiction this month (4/9)! i don’t normally read much nonfiction, but i’m happy to branch out. if only i had this much will to read design/tech books LOL

however i would like to read more litfic + fantasy next…mostly just because reading deathless reminded me how much i love that stuff.

also god woman, eating and tender is the flesh this month made me miss horror novels with really good prose (not that woman, eating is really a horror novel. i wish it was). god once again telling me to read more shirley jackson + oyeyemi

goals for next month

my only goal is to finish reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. it’s 1K pages and i’m currently on page 100, so…if i can just finish that one book, i will be happy. i’ve been trying to pace myself at 2 chapters/day, but i suck at consistency.