#ivy st james

[politemagic]

the boys are back 🖤 (the shitposts never left, though)

[multitaylorsversion]

sorry not sorry but ivy by taylor swift and valerie (amy winehouse cover) are celia st james and evelyn hugo’s songs!!

[offleetsfinest]

Tag Dump - Muses, pt 2

[silantryoo]

ENCHANTED ; nakamura kazuha

 idol! nakamura kazuha x fem! non-idol! reader

SYNOPSIS ;  instead of following yunjin's private account, kazuha accidentally follows some random person, someone who went by the name y/n. the idol thought nothing of it, that is until y/n accepted. it's a good thing that y/n was pretty... cool.

TAGS ; idol x non-idol! reader, reader goes to hanlim arts school, wlw, angst, fluff, idol au, strangers to lovers, slow burn

WARNINGS ; strong language, idol industry, film industry, overworking, east asian/south east asian school life, toxic school life, internalized homophobia, nepotism, invasion of privacy (from dispatch)

FEATURING ; le sserafim, newjean's minji, nmixx's bae and sullyoon, uap's jini, enhypen's jungwon, hanlim's jung hana (oc), appearances and mentions of other various idols

STATUS ; ONGOING!

UPDATE TIMES ; tues + thurs

PROFILES. #koreasbestperformers #theindustrystandard #other

CHAPTERS.

01. jesse st james

02. fcking idols man

03. DAMN???

04. moomin

05. a gut feeling

06. SAMYANG NIGHT

07. HOLD ON.

08. nice

09. EDATER???

written: in my dreams

10. infp

11. SHES PRETTY

12. zuha likes girls?

13. oh

written: hanlim

14. romeo and juliet

15. bad idea, right?

16. tryna do smthn?

17. GATEKEEPER

18. jini

19. quinn fabray core

written: a nice day

20. let her cook

21. clone

22. i see u thinking

23. asthma attack

24. VIVA LA REVOLUTION

25. no

more to come...

taglist (CLOSED)!

@sewiouslyz @ivy-aurora @wbgngrengnwrg @gfriendsapple @sserabey @zhivaxo @forever-in-the-sky2 @perfectsunlight @txtbrainrot @vaeeeel @hopeworld45 @jisooftme @lauxymy4 @nkahydnxo @haeyoui @uzumakioden @hyp3boy @meowrinz @sweet-dhrafts @marimo-anura @limbforalimb @awkwardtoafault @kyaitosz @eggomi @hyukasverse @cine-cult @mits-vi @staryujinnie @nicolecaye @edamboon @bzeus28 @woonie57 @lcv3lies @vvyuqi @dnzsnr @meifeikss @cosettesrants @sofakingwoso @pandafuriosa60 @xxsplatashaxx @cloud-sadness-05 @emphobics @brokeeyedrops123 @444yizhuo @blue4hour @junoswrlld @jihyostolemyheart @isanggayfrog @havex00 @thefirstonetoeverlikemeback

[iwanthermidnightz]

halietorris via Instagram: she was standing hollow-eyed… 👁️ ❤️‍🩹

My final painting of Celia St James to end the trilogy.

I hope you like her

Some of my favorite details are the cardigan in the corner... the scarlet mark, the ivy on the bricks and the Empire State Building in the background to connect to my "maroon" painting.

beautiful and amazing halie!✨

[ducktoonsfanart]

Darkwing Duck vs his villains - Darkwing Duck - Duckverse - My version

I haven't drawn just Darkwing Duck for a long time, as I've usually drawn him with Donald and his family for a long time. However, I decided to devote a little time to this favorite series of mine and one of the best that Disney has made. Also the new comics from Dynamite Entertainment aren't bad. Yes, I drew Darkwing Duck (Drake Mallard in a superhero costume as a parody of Shadow and Batman) with his Gas Gun clashing with his villains who were very much the star of his series and caused a lot of trouble for him, his family and St. Canard.

The main villains here in this drawing are Negaduck (created as a parody of Owlman, Reverse-Flash and Bizarro) from the Negaverse with his chainsaw, Megavolt (a parody of Electro), Quackerjack (a parody of The Joker and Toyman) with Mr Banana Brain, Dr. Reginald Bushroot (parody of Swamp Thing, Poison Ivy and Floronic Ma) with Spike, Liquidator (parody of Hydro-Man), Steelbeak (parody of Jaws from the James Bond series, and F.O.W.L. agent), Splatter Phoenix (an artist who has a magical and powerful brush to steal famous works of art), Taurus Bulba (as a Steerminator and a parody of The Kingpin from Marvel Comics), Tuskernini (a failed Hollywood movie director who steals movies along with his penguins), Ammonia Pine (half chicken and half owl who works for F.O.W.L. and constantly cleans and steals from cleaners), Professor Moliarity (a parody of The Mole Man from Fantastic Four) and finally Camille Chameleon (a duck who often changes her face and shape like a real chameleon). I wanted to add more villains, but not all of them would fit in one drawing, so I drew the most important and my favorite ones. Certainly not the first drawing I've done with Darkwing Duck villains, otherwise check out this drawing: https://ducktoonsfanart.tumblr.com/post/735208432464986112

I hope you like this drawing and you like Darkwing Duck and these villains, and feel free to like and reblog this, just don't use my same ideas, without mentioning me. Thank you! Let's Get Dangerous!

Also this is a gift for my friends who likes Darkwing Duck and I hope you like it dear @stormvanari, @imadisneyfan and @finallyimadeanaccount. And to others like you who love Darkwing Duck and these characters.

[1nconcievable]

The Jolly Good Show Caper (A British Retrospective) [Obviously Spoilers for that Episode]

As someone who is half British, has been to London, lived in England for a while, has studied History as part of my GCSEs (or high school if you're in America) and considering its November the 5th as of writing, I felt it was my obligation for me to look back on The Season 3 Episode 5 "The Jolly Good Show" and give my thoughts on it. (Don't worry its just me waffling about an episode and what I think. It's just for the fun of it. ALSO sorry if I got some things wrong)

(DISCLAIMER: I have not been to the Tower of London in person, I just did my own research. I am also not a professional when it comes to all history. So make sure you fact check and let me know in the comments)

So anyway, I tried to do it in order. Here we go:

Zack saying that they're driving on the wrong side of the road is probably not that surprising considering that roughly 30% of the world's countries and 35% of the world's population drive on the left which includes England.

Player describing the Tower of London as a fortress, prison etc is pretty spot on. I highly recommend going there yourself

Carmen saying that St Edwards Crown was used to crown all of the Kings and Queens since 1911 is half wrong. According to Wikipedia (I'M SORRY):

Versions of it have traditionally been used to crown English and British monarchs at their coronations since the 13th century

The original crown was a holy relic kept at Westminster Abbey, Edward the Confessor's burial place, until it was either sold or melted down when Parliament abolished the monarchy in 1649, during the English Civil War.

The crown used today was made for Charles II in 1661 to crown him. It's similar in weight and size to the original but its arches are Baroque.

The reason why Carmen may have said what she said was because the tradition of using St Edwards Crown to crown Kings and Queens was revived by George V in 1911

Player is right to say that there were attempts to steal the crown jewels. The most well known is Colonel Blood's attempt. Funnily enough, the guy got out scot free and still got his pension. https://youtu.be/iRmBE6B8F7I

Player also describing Bondfire night is pretty spot on. The Gunpowder Plot happened in Nov 5 1605 as a result of a group of Catholic men, led by Robert Catesby (not Guy Fawkes), trying to rebel against the Protestant King James 1 because Catholics back then weren't on the best of terms. Unfortunately the plot resulted in stricter laws against Catholics, don't worry the laws don't exist now.

Player "So, he was considered a hero or a villain, depending on who you ask"

Well, I've talked with some people and although we understand that the Gunpowder Plot was done because of the prejudice and oppression of Catholics in 1605 England, we agreed that maybe they should have dealt their anger differently. Maybe a way that doesn't lead them to getting hung, drawn and quartered. Either way, it's a complicated question that's up for you to decide.

Speaking of Catholics, I did go to a Catholic school and they don't celebrate bondfire night. My history teacher did ask if they could do it but bc Guy Fawkes was a Catholic and as Player said... they burn him... Can you see the problem?

And Shadowsan calling Bondfire Night chaos?..... how - dare - you.

The whole "if the ravens leave the tower, the kingdom will fall" is an actual myth that the writers were spot on about. Charles II is thought to have been the first to insist that the ravens of the Tower be protected after he was warned that the crown and the Tower itself would fall if they left. That's why the raven's wings are carefully maintained and there's even a Raven Master.

Carmen saying "That's not the loo" is kinda on point. Normally they would also say "loo" or toilet. Also, Ik this is a cartoon, but I can assure you that the guards would be a little more suspicious if she got into a place she wasn't supposed to.

The entire Zack and Ivy fish and chips thing is on point. Although some places still use newspapers, we normally just use hard paper like newspaper to wrap it. Ivy also saying chips and crisps is also correct, glad she was paying attention.

Zack feeding fish to the ravens is not allowed. sniff sniff... He really is a criminal through and through. I'm so proud. (JK! It's a joke. Don't feed the ravens!)

The Troll says "London Bridge is falling down my fair lady". This was to communicate the death of the Queen to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and key personnel, setting Operation London Bridge in motion. So theoretically, does The Troll and VILE want Carmen (the Queen) dead? Jeez, why did I go that dark?

Fun fact: 1968 and 1971 the bridge's facing stone was dismantled and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.S. state of Arizona.

When The Troll says that Red Rat is ready for takeaway - there is a takeaway box (like take out in America) next to him... and it's even Chinese. Not gonna lie, I'd go for the Indian takeaway instead.

When Carmen gets "arrested", the police uniforms that some of them wear are based on The Bermuda Police Service and to be honest in November, the Metropolitan Police would be wearing yellow jackets. Seriously, how are these people not freezing!?! If this was real life, at least the police would search Carmen's coat and let her wear it if it's that cold!

When Roundabout steals the Crown Jewels (wow... never thought I'd say that), he doesn't wear gloves. This isn't a British thing but generally, why would he do this without gloves? Like, if you're being a professional criminal, you would know not to leave fingerprints anywhere. Honestly it feels like Carmen is the only one who follows this logic!

Funny that Roundabout (an Englishman) gives the jewels to Le Chevre (Frenchman). Sorry, there is a joke that England and France have been rivals for centuries and it still exists in rugby and football (or soccer). SORRY AGAIN!

Throughout the episode they refer the iconic bell tower as "Big Ben". In actuality the name of the tower is Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben is used as a name for the largest bell in the tower. Ironically, the Big Ben bell might be where Shadowsan picks up his weapon.

When Zari drives Devineaux, the seating inside the car is correct for British Standards of driving.

When Roundabout is about to stab Shadowsan, he says "Mind The Gap". I've used the Underground and the saying is commonly used as a visual and audio warning that you hear all the time.

When Roundabout says "you git", it's pretty mild to what most actually use. If it's casual we would use the b or c word (I'll give you a hint. The b rhymes with mastered and the c one rhymes with Brunt.) but I can't say it because I don't want any younger ones using it yet. ;)

Carmen :"Sorry mate"

Look, it's a cartoon... but that... that hurt my soul. THAT IS FAR FROM A CONVINCING ACCENT! British can tell from a mile away!

You could've said "Sorry, love" or "Sorry, you alright?"

AHAHSHegJHSGFFB.... Apologies.

Towards the end of the episode, Team Red are standing at Westminster Bridge.

The "God Save the Queen" in the credits is obviously outdated but it was fun to listen to.

My opinion:

Most British terms are used correctly.

Most of the facts are accurate according to what I looked up

Everyone involved needs to get thick jackets for November weather, especially in the evening.

Police uniforms for some are incorrect but some are right.

WORK ON YOUR ACCENT TEAM RED!

Back to accents, I feel like most of the British cast had the Queens accent like what most media portays. It would have been nice to see other accents like cockney, scouse etc.

I thought it was a good episode and the scene of Carmen getting arrested gave me chills.

Anyway, that's what I thought. Thanks for reading.

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER!

[charlotte-of-wales]

Happy 34th birthday to Princess Eugenie of York!

Born 23 March 1990, Eugenie Victoria Helena is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York, and a niece of King Charles III. At birth, she was 6th in the line of succession to the British throne and is now 11th.

Born in Portland Hospital, London, Eugenie attended St George's School and Marlborough College before studying at Newcastle University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English literature and history of art. Eugenie also works privately with a number of charitable organisations, including Children in Crisis and Anti-Slavery International.

The Duke of York's Office at Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on 22 January 2018. The couple had been dating for seven years, and were engaged on vacation in Nicaragua. In April 2018, the couple moved from St James's Palace and took up residence in Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace. The wedding took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 12 October 2018.

The Brooksbanks have two sons. The first, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, was born on 9 February 2021 at the Portland Hospital in London. Eugenie gave birth to a second son, Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank, on 30 May 2023.

[irisbleufic]

I haven’t been able to get my hands on Regents’ Park Honey since 2015. Most of the UK vendors that carry it didn’t ship to the US for the longest time. Last week, I discovered one of them now does.

Five perfect jars arrived today, so improbably fast. I opened one right away. Hellebore, ivy, rose. London as I remember it, fragile autumn sunlight in Regents’, St. James’s, as the latest summer’s crop is finally on the café shelves.

So often it hurts to remember what I’ve lost, but sometimes, sometimes I can find it again. Those parks, those flowers, this proof I ever lived there at all.

(I know what I’ve written is proof enough, but this, I can touch. I can taste.)

[critical-quoter]

February Books

I'm rocking out my reading goal this year. Friends have told me that I aimed too low with 365 books but if I blow it out of the water, I can pretend like I didn't plan that and I am the G.O.A.T.

The Burnt Heart - Mae Pierce ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rules of Our Own - J. Wilder ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rules We Break - J. Wilder ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fabric of Our Souls - K. M. Moronova ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Too Long - I. A. Dice ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Unsteady - Peyton Corinne ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fractured Vows - Montana Frye ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Viciously Yours - Jamie Applegate Hunter ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Never Have I Ever - Stephanie Alves ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Forbidden Skye - Alex Crane ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Flag on the Date - M. L. Chambers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Shucked - Kate Canterbary ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Love Honor Betray - L. Knight ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Loving Romeo - Laura Pavlov ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Waiting Game - G. A. Mazurka ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ See You Soon - Lexie Axelson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I Promise You - Lexie Axelson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fractured Vows - Alexa Michaels ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rule Number Five - J. Wilder ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Set Me Free, Cowboy - R. L. Atkinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Yours to Catch - Harloe Rae ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What are the Odds - Madi Leigh ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Scarlet Princess - Robin D. Mahle ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Breakaway Hearts - Nikki Lawson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Feathers and Blood - Ivy Black & Raven Scott ⭐️ Reckless Deal - Maxine Henri ⭐️⭐️⭐️ For Mist and Tar - Jinpher J. Hoffman ⭐️⭐️ A Real Adaptation - Chloe Maison ⭐️⭐️ Stand and Defend - Sloane St. James ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bad Wolf - Claire Ivy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Xaden POV: Fourth Wing - belle_beebee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Maiden and the Unseen - Alexis Rune & Jeanette Rose ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Mistress and the Renowned - Alexis Rune & Jeanette Rose ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Capturing His Heart - Regina Brownell ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pawn of Vengeance - Michaela Jackson ⭐️⭐️ One Last Play - Annah Conwell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pretty When You Lie - Anne Roman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Scars of Salt and Silver - Indiana Rose ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Ever Queen - L. J. Andrews ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Since Day One - R. L. Atkinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Better Hate than Never - Chloe Liese ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Tempting the Billionaire - J. A. Low ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Valkyrie's Bond - Lucy Roy ⭐️⭐️⭐️ It's Not Over - Kaylee Ryan & Lacey Black ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gentry Rules - Cora Brent ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Saving the Game - Susan Renee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Of Twisted Thorns - C. E. Young ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Rushing Into Love - Kara Kendrick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Empire of Sin - Rina Kent ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fighter's Second Chance - A. Rivers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nero - S. J. Tilly ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More Than Fine - Jenni Bars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Take Me to Hell - Sakura Black ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Villain - L. J. Shen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Book Lovers - Emily Henry ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dark Lover - J. R. Ward ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

56 total books read for February 2024.

[the-empress-7]

Honestly, if Charles is so bent out of shape about having to pay for his freeloading relatives via Duchy of Lancaster funds, here’s a thought. Swing the hammer and cut them all loose!

Most of them can support themselves! Charge them an appropriate rent to live in royal properties but cut off the gravy train of allowances and stipends. It’ll free up a few hundred thousand pounds that Charles can spend on Camilla’s vacations.

And frankly, the only ones who’d be affected are the Kents, Gloucesters, and Yorks. Kents and Gloucesters will resolve soon enough with natural attrition. So it’s just Andrew and maybe Eugenie who’s the problem.

(Sussexes are irrelevant because they’re not working royals and don’t have royal lodging. Beatrice and Edo have an apartment in St. James’s Palace and I assume they’re paying rent of some kind. Eugenie might still have Ivy Cottage, but she really shouldn’t if the Brooksbankses are living in Portugal part-time as has been announced…and if they’re not living in Portugal anymore, that needs to be announced too and she can go sponge off Andrew in his giant lodge.)

The best part is that Charles knew how this all works, and has for decades. He knows better than anyone else how the Duchy of Lancaster works and who he'd be responsible for when the time came. No wonder he spent years talking about a slimmed down monarchy. The man is a cheap skate just like his second born son.

[scbrvght]

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ( starter call ) - I've been just seriously feeling supernatural au so ♡ for a starter for one of my muses with a supernatural verse listed below ! I used to have this whole au sn!verse option so we can use that or take things in another direction. will shoot you a message to clarify muses and things ! ♡

I've always had this lil sn!verse set in like a dark academia university for sn kind of thing... think wednesday or the witch school sabrina went to in caos vibes. I used to advertise this verse a lot more years ago & I miss it n' feel super musey for it.

if you're interested in supernatural things outside this setting I'm totally okay with that too !!

st. cuorem's university

hidden deep in a misty forest in oregon, st. cruorem’s university serves as a sanctuary of arcane knowledge and supernatural prowess. outwardly, it masquerades as an elite private school for the wealthy, but beneath this facade lies a realm steeped in dark academia and ancient secrets. its sprawling campus, a blend of gothic architecture and enchanted landscapes, boasts ivy-clad stone buildings, towering spires, and grand archways adorned with intricate carvings of mythical beings. the grounds, perpetually shrouded in twilight, hum with magical energy and the scent of pine. inside, dimly lit corridors resonate with the whispers of centuries-old incantations and the soft rustling of ancient tomes. flickering candlelight casts elongated shadows on walls adorned with portraits of past luminaries, their eyes seemingly alive with hidden knowledge. the library, an expansive labyrinth of texts, houses volumes from alchemical treatises to forbidden grimoires. the student body is a diverse assembly of supernatural beings, from vampires and witches to werewolves and more enigmatic creatures, each honing their unique abilities. rigorous training occurs in hidden chambers and expansive, enchanted arenas where students practice spellcasting, combat, and mastery of their inherent powers. st. cruorem’s is not just a school; it’s a who's who of the supernatural world. the social hierarchy here is fierce and competitive, with the elite vying for prominence in a world where power is everything. ancient lineages of vampire royalty, demon nobles, and other powerful entities create an environment of intense rivalry and elitism. secret societies and ancient orders vie for influence, their clandestine gatherings adding to the campus's air of mystery. for those who see beyond its facade, st. cruorem’s is a proving ground where alliances are forged, rivalries ignited, and the future leaders of the supernatural world are shaped.

participating muses

alice winsor ( fc: emily alyn lind ) - vampire royal

estella pierce ( fc: sabrina carpenter ) - succubus

cooper vincent ( fc: rudy pankow ) - succubus

xavier bloom ( fc: benjamin wadsworth ) - demon bastard son

nova lin ( fc: chase sui wonders ) - hellhound

serena anders ( fc: madelyn cline ) - witch

isabelle brooks ( fc: josephine langford ) - siren

monroe tate ( fc: madison bailey ) - werewolf

finley acosta ( fc: evan mock ) - vampire royal

ezra jones ( fc: felix mallard ) - werewolf

logan calloway ( fc: katie douglas ) - reaper

reid calloway ( fc: drew starkey ) - reaper

camron calloway ( fc: jeremy allen white ) - reaper

tinsleigh howe ( fc: kristine froseth ) - witch

elias howe ( fc: barry keoghan ) - warlock

arlo zimmerman ( fc: sean kaufman ) - werewolf

colby alira ( fc: thomas weatherall ) - vampire

lunara polat ( fc: derya pinar ak ) - cupid

max ortiz ( fc: gabriel guevara ) - warlock

elodie moreno ( fc: nicole wallace ) - witch

kalen asher ( fc:  jonathan daviss ) - warlock

river st. james ( fc: nicholas galitzine ) - vampire

dane amato ( fc: simone baldasseroni ) - demon prince

[drarryglobesficrecs]

Soulmates/Soulmarks - drarry fic recs pt. 2

Pt. 1

punch-drunk fingerprints by tamerofdarkstars(1k)

In a world where every touch of a soulmate leaves a temporary heat mark on bare skin, Draco Malfoy suddenly finds his life devolving into a massive cliche because the Boy Who Lived Twice has no idea how to respect the personal space bubble.

such a softer sin by therewascourfeyrac(15k)

After Draco meets Harry Potter, he's left with two tattoos, one on each wrist.

One for a soul mate, one for his enemy.

He's never known any one else who has the same name on both wrists.

Antlers and Ivy by violetclarity(19k)

The thing is, Draco has always known he wouldn’t be able to marry his soulmate. Finding out his soulmate is Harry Potter shouldn’t change anything.

Or: soulmarks, a masquerade ball, and gratuitous use of The Daily Prophet as a plot device.

What We've Been Missing by FlameHazel18(13k)

“I just don’t want a Soulmate,” Harry said, shrugging.

“Seriously?” Parvati asked, sounding incensed. “Doesn’t everyone want to meet their perfect match?”

“I’ve just had enough of feeling like I belong to someone else, and that my choices aren’t my own to make. I don’t want that anymore. I just want my life to be, you know… mine.”

Bloom for me by What_They_Call_Me(6k)

Hermione said nothing, just huffed slightly, she stormed into the classroom taking her seat in the front leaving Harry to trail behind. Harry knew that Hermione was only trying to help him, but he couldn’t deal with it.

Harry had lived his whole life as the Boy Who Lived, his whole life being special by circumstance of his parents death. He just wanted to be normal, to go to class and to keep his head down. No one ever seemed to understand that, Ron wanted Harry to use his fame for everything, and Hermione lived for mystery and adventure. But Harry just wished it would all end.

----

Harry has one wish for his seventh year, he just wants for it to be normal, but of course he doesn't get what he wants. Because wherever Harry goes flowers sprout in his wake. It doesn't really become a problem until he starts coughing up these flowers.

Why can't he have one normal year?

Changing Fate by jamesilver(9k)

Draco stared down at his soul mark for the millionth time, looking at those two words that changed his life, two words that told him how his soulmate would die:

A Martyr.

He remembered the words that Harry had said to him on the train, that he would kill the Dark Lord or "die trying," and knew there was more truth to that than Harry had intended.

Harry James Potter would die trying to defeat Voldemort. And, successful or not, that would leave him a martyr.

Burying his face in his hands, Draco began to sob.

Beacon by Amelior8or, Andithiel, gameofdrarrymod, Kristinabird(7k)

Every year around Valentine's day Professor Potter is flooded with questions from love struck young girls about soulmates and soulmate bond lore, and every year, he gets through it as quickly as he can so he can return to his lessons. This year, however, his life is turned upside down when he encounters a mysterious object that lands him in St. Mungos, under the care of Draco Malfoy.

Paint Sunlight on the Side of a House by punk_rock_yuppie(2k)

Draco had never been all that enthralled with his soulmark.

Flowers On My Wrist and Love In My Heart by Satan_the_One_and_Only(9k)

When Harry wakes up one morning with beautiful drawings on his arm, he comes to realize that his soulmate is quite the artist.

Even though he has no clue who his soulmate is and his soulmate seems to not want to meet him...

The Ripples They Cause by p1013(9k)

As Draco's mind tries to process his next move, the air ripples around his wrist, and he freezes.

It's a subtle thing, as gentle and forgettable as an errant breeze. But it's one he's never felt before, a breath against his pulse, a fleeting touch from a stranger, the weight of eyes on his skin. All of those soft, tender, almost-not-there sensations, centered on the series of three numbers scrawled across his skin.

Everyone is born with a date on their wrist, the date of their soulmate’s death.

On Draco Malfoy’s wrist, it's 02.05.1998

With You, Always by acupforslytherin(14k)

All his life, Harry repeatedly hears one same calming tune in his dreams. No one seems to recognize the mysterious song, until one day, Harry catches Malfoy humming it when he thinks he's alone.

Harmonised Consciousness by Talizora(24k)

This time it's a spell gone wrong in Charms that will bring our two favourite boys together. Expect Mind-Magic Classic HD Clichés & Soul Mates

---

"Potter's spell is still active, but I can shield my thoughts from him. I've been stirring him up all afternoon! It's hysterical!"

Blaise gasped, "It's still active! But it's… Dinner time!"

"Yes, so?"

"S-so? That spell is supposed to cancel itself after an hour! It's been, almost four hours!"

Draco shrugged, "I'm not worried. It's probably due to Potters magic. I'm sure it'll time-out eventually."

Blaise frowned, "Draco I don't think this is a good idea. Maybe you should end the spell?"

"No way! Blaise! I can hear everything! Before, in Runes, Potter was ranting about how he wanted to kill Weasel and Trelawney! He's all over the place! I had no idea he had such homicidal tendencies!" Draco giggled.

One of Blaise's eyebrows rose, "…Draco? Did you just giggle?"

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

Mine by Craftybadger1234(3k)

You are born with your soulmate's first words to you written in black on your palm. They fade to silver when you hear them.

Draco's have been silver for as long as he can remember.

Stormy Grey Eyes by Midori_Fuse(5k)

Everyone has grey eyes. Well, at least, they look that way, to everyone but themselves and their soulmates. That’s when Draco, blessed with silver grey eyes, knew he was in trouble. Not that his soulmate would notice.

[unganseylike]

 Hi y’all! As promised, here’s my 2023 reading wrap-up – my reviews and thoughts about some of the books I read this year :) As a heads up, some of these reviews may contain very very vague and mild spoilers just because I personally feel like it’s impossible to give a good sense of my thoughts on media without that; so I’ll list the books I’m going to include in the order mentioned above the cut in case you want to 100% avoid any potential spoilers. Another disclaimer- these reviews are each quite different in content; my goal was to give a synopsis (except for a few I didn’t feel were worth my time), give my thoughts and mostly-non-spoilery takeaways, and connect to an overarching theme of this post. My initial goal was to write like 2 sentences for each book, but that definitely is not what happened. This is a long post. A long post where I gave into my inner booktuber and wrote like I was doing a video. I enjoyed writing this, but. It’s a lot. You might not enjoy reading it.

If you’ve read these books, I’d love to hear what you all thought…Since these are all books I read this year, I haven’t gotten to re-read any yet, and I’d love to have some new things to think about when I do! Please tell me if you check out these books after reading my list <3

Also…let me know if you have any books you’d recommend. I think this list might just give a sense of my picky taste. 

I’d like to give a shoutout the love of my life, Libby, for making this possible.

Books, in order of mention, with numerical ratings: 

What Moves the Dead- T. Kingfisher: 5/10

The Hollow Places- T. Kingfisher: 6.5/10

The Hacienda- Isabel Cañas: 9/10

The Honeys- Ryan La Sala: 7/10

I’m Thinking of Ending Things- Iain Reid: 7.5/10

The Ruins- Scott Smith: 3.5/10

The Cabin at the End of the World- Paul Tremblay: 4.5/10

The Beautiful Ones- Silvia Moreno-Garcia: 4/10

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau- Silvia Moreno-Garcia: 6/10

Where Ivy Dares to Grow- Marielle Thompson: 5/10

Beloved- Toni Morrison and The Turn of the Screw- Henry James (brief discussion, no ratings)

Paris Is a Party, Paris Is a Ghost- David Hoon Kim: 8.5/10

The Fragile Threads of Power- V.E. Schwab: 4/10

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue- V.E. Schwab: 4/10

When the Angels Left the Old Country- Sacha Lamb: 6.5/10

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes- Suzanne Collins: 8.5/10

Project Hail Mary- Andry Weir: no rating because didn’t finish (bad)

Station Eleven- Emily St. John Mandel: 7.5/10

Severance- Ling Ma: 9/10

Annihilation- Jeff VanderMeer: 9.5/10

The Archive of Alternate Endings: Lindsey Drager: 8/10

Ok, let’s kick this off with my first category: horror and/or I read this because I thought it was horror but it wasn’t. Over the last two years or so, I’ve gotten into reading horror–ish books, because I like the genre expectations, and it freaks me out less to read it than watch it.

Over the summer, I decided to check out T. Kingfisher. I’d heard good stuff about her as a horror author. I first read What Moves the Dead. This is an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Both this book and the new Netflix show are pretty different from the original and each other, but of the two adaptations, What Moves the Dead is probably closer in tone and setting (19th century countryside, gothic elements), but that’s mainly because the Netflix show has barely anything to do with the original (thanks Mike Flanagan!). Like the original, the plot kicks off with the narrator receiving a letter from the Ushers asking for help, leading them to travel to a crumbling manor. On the other hand, Kingfisher’s book does casually take place in what must be an alternate reality; it’s set in the fictional country Ruritania, and the narrator, Alex, is from another fictional country Gallicia. This world building mainly functions to normalize nonbinary identity and unique sets of pronouns. This does play into the plot, but I feel like it wasn’t necessary to create a fictional culture just for this, or otherwise it should’ve played more of a role in the story…like the narrator could’ve just said ka uses neopronouns and it would’ve been more straightforward than creating whole new countries. This worldbuilding aspect was probably my biggest issue with the book (though of course I love cool linguistic discussions about pronouns and gender!), maybe along with the random cameos by Eugenia Potter (as in, relative of thee Beatrix Potter, of Peter Rabbit fame). There are some great creepy bits with fungus, rot, rabbits, and corpses. There are some similarities to the fungal horror in Mexican Gothic (which T. Kingfisher actually discusses in the appendix), but it’s not quite the same – either way, we love the crossover between fungus and gothic lit! Overall, certainly a far better adaptation of Poe’s story than Mike Flanagan’s, but some of the original content seemed out of place, while other original aspects needed more fleshing out. 5/10. 

I decided to try another book by T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places, which I had heard really good things about! This one’s an adaptation of the novella “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood, which features some sinister willows and cosmic horror (fun fact: I read the novella because Algernon Blackwood is where Martin Blackwood of TMA gets his last name) (fun fact 2: read “The Willows” it fucks. it’s free on project gutenberg). Unlike What Moves the Dead, Hollow Places takes place very much in the present, following a recently divorced woman who moves into her uncle’s museum of oddities. She and her GBF (okay, actually, he’s the eccentric middle aged neighbor who is a barista at the cafe the narrator goes to get wifi, but he does feel a bit gay best friend cliche to me) slip through a hole in reality to an in-between dimension full of willow-y islands…and hungry eldritch beings beyond their perception. Please appreciate that full sentence. I really liked the times while the duo was in this other place, but some of the moments in their own dimension felt a bit discordant; I honestly think it’s because their present was so modern. Like it felt weird to read them discussing memes after exploring a deadly pocket world. But maybe that’s the point of setting horror/fantasy in the modern world instead of a vague past. Despite this complaint, I actually think this a better adaptation in comparison to What Wakes the Dead, with original content nicely expanding on aspects of the novella. I did kinda hate the climax, but I’ll ignore that and rate this 6.5/10. When you fear getting torn apart by terrifying otherworldly beings, it really does put your ex-husband’s annoying texts into perspective. 

Before I get back to mid books, let’s talk about one I really liked: The Hacienda from Isabel Cañas. I actually wrote a few notes about this right when I read it because I knew I wanted to share something about it eventually. Those notes were: “cinematic, especially in flashbacks, not so typical final girl or just female protag period.” Which was not that helpful for writing this review because I don’t remember wtf I was talking about, but I’ll try to interpret past-Julia for you all. The book takes place after the Mexican War for Independence, during which the father of the main character, Beatriz, was executed. So, with her and her mother dependent on the goodwill of their cruel estranged family, Beatriz happily accepts a proposal from a hacienda owner and is ready to prove herself a capable homemaker. But, there’s something deeply wrong with the house, something that wants Beatriz dead. The only one that believes her is the priest Andrés, who has recently returned to the area, where his beloved grandmother had taught him witchcraft and had been a pillar of the community. He struggles to keep his witchcraft secret, while protecting Beatriz and trying to take on his grandmother’s mantle. I think I enjoyed nearly every moment of this book! I got a little stuck on the beginning, but once I got through the first few chapters, I was so invested in the story and was really following the ups and downs as Beatriz tries to solve the mystery and escape some evil shit. I loved the main characters, especially the women and Beatriz’s role as a gothic/horror heroine (hence the “not so typical final girl” note?), and I remember being surprised by the actions of characters I thought I was rooting for! Also, it must be said. Hot. Priest. I’m not generally a big fan of romances, but it worked for me lol. And, as I said in my notes, some scenes were so cinematic- I could picture exactly how they’d play out in a (good) movie. 9/10! I need to reread this, it was one of my favorite books I read this year! 

Around the same time, I read The Honeys by Ryan La Sala, and also had written down some terrible notes (adding some punctuation to make it semi-readable): “the horror of hypermasculinity, hyperfemininity, and the gender binary, bees, mean girl cliques, superorganisms like bees and aspen and rot. Actually very similar to midsommar in terms of grieving protag and sunlight horror and uhhhh joining a cult. Also I learned the term social horror.” I think that says it all…but I’ll give a more clear summary. When Mars’ twin sister dies terribly, he decides to attend her preppy summer camp in her place to reconnect with her memory and learn about her strange violent death. Mars is genderfluid and has always struggled in his political and public-facing family, thus resulting in his parents placing their hopes and confidence in his sister. But at Aspen Conservatory, Mars finds himself drawn away from the traditional gender roles of the camp and toward his sister’s elite and insular female friend group, the Honeys. They seem to accept Mars as one of their own, but what exactly does that mean? Overall, I really enjoyed the book, especially for all the creepy stuff that happens by daylight. It’s a great example of social horror; the gender binary sure is sinister in this book! I had a few complaints though. I thought Mars was a fun protagonist, but I didn’t always understand his motivations and occasionally he felt a bit annoying to me…but he is a teenager who has just witnessed his sister’s horrific death, so perhaps that behavior was intentional. I wasn’t a fan of the mystery reveal/conclusion, it felt a bit out-of-left-field to me, but maybe I just missed something. Also, it was a little too YA for me at this point in my life (though I wouldn’t actually classify it as strictly YA, if that makes sense), but I’m picky about genre, as you will see in these reviews. 7/10– after writing this review, I’m definitely considering rereading so I can see if I pick up on more foreshadowing!

I had a note saved for my next book I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid), but it’s a spoiler for the entire thing so I won’t share. All I’ll say is, it was a joke about final girls…you’ll get it if you read it. I read this after trying to watch the movie on Netflix and giving up because it was boring in a discomfiting way (the stilted conversation and repetition was all intentional but it was getting to me), but I still wanted to know what happened and figured the things that bothered me in a film media wouldn’t be problematic in a book. I honestly don’t know how to describe this because it’s super surrealist and very easy to spoil with any of my personal takeaways. Most basic summary of all time: a woman questioning her relationship with her new boyfriend decides to go on a road trip to meet his parents. I actually recommend watching the movie trailer to see whether you’d like the book, because it gives a good sense of the inexplicable weird and tense vibe and atmospheric horror. 7.5/10 because reading this made me feel itchy. It was supposed to make me uneasy, and it sure did the job.

Ok, next are two books I don’t feel like describing in depth because they were mid/bleh. The first is The Ruins, by Scott Smith. I just learned they made a movie of this? I was thinking that it would actually work better as a movie than a book, but apparently it did terribly in theaters. Quick summary- four young American tourists in Mexico explore Mayan ruins in search of a fellow traveler, but become trapped on a hill covered with man-eating vines. The official summary mentions “a creeping horror” and “the terrifying presence that lurks there,” so I want to explicitly say that the big bad is man-eating vines because I was expecting something a bit deeper based on the blurb. I’d classify this as survivalist/nature/psychological horror and want to note it’s pretty gory. I’d give 3.5/10. It’s fine, but not what I look for out of the horror genre. 

The second book is The Cabin at the End of the World (Paul Tremblay). I saw really good reviews for this (btw there’s also a movie, which I haven’t watched but apparently is very different), but it also wasn’t all that interesting to me. I honestly don’t remember the plot very well/don’t feel like I have anything to write about it, so you might be better off looking it up, sorry. I’d give 4.5/10 though. 

Next, we have a few books that fit under the “I read these thinking they’d be horror” umbrella. This is my own fault for assuming Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s other books would be similar to Mexican Gothic. I would say I mainly didn’t like these books because I thought they were going to be a different genre, so take my word with a grain of salt. I read Moreno-Garcia’s The Beautiful Ones and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau over the summer. The Beautiful Ones is what I learned is called a “novel of manners,” where the quirky main character must navigate elite society to search for a suitor. The twist is that this takes place in a historical fantasy universe– the main character and her love interest have telepathic powers. I wish that the fantasy elements were more smoothly incorporated; I think this book could’ve been much better as magical realism. Even if the author didn’t want magic to be the main focus but for it to still be included in the story, magical realism would make that possible! I’d give 4/10, but that’s partially because I’m not really interested in the genre; if you like romance or YA fantasy with a twist, this might be fun, but I unfortunately do not! 

I somehow made the same mistake with The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. Okay, actually this one might’ve been a result of requesting it on Libby months before, then forgetting what it was by the time I got the book. This one I liked a bit better because the story had more interesting political meaning and is sci-fi/historical fiction, but it still wasn’t 100% for me. It’s inspired by H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, which I haven’t read, so I can’t comment on this as an adaptation. It takes place at a hacienda in 19th century Yucatan, Mexico, where Dr. Moreau experiments making human/animal hybrids and cares for his sickly daughter, Carlota; beyond their estate, a Mayan rebellion is mounting. The plot kicks off as the Moreau’s resources dwindle, and they hope to resolve their financial troubles with a union between Carlota and their patron’s son…but, of course, things are not what they seem at the hacienda. I enjoyed reading the book, mainly for the commentary on connections between colonialism and patriarchy, and was definitely invested in the story, but I think it just wasn't my taste– all in all, though, 6/10.

One more book in this category, but this one’s not actually my fault. This one actually mentions Mexican Gothic in the description just to fuck with me I guess. Where the Ivy Dares to Grow (Marielle Thompson) does indeed intentionally use gothic tropes and subverts them, which I guess is cool, if you don’t carry a sense of betrayal about getting gothic lit baited :/ Saoirse travels with her fiance to his family’s ancestral manor as his mother reaches the end of her life, but his parents have nothing but contempt for Saoirse. Plus, the passion has long since cooled between her and her fiance, especially as he has grown exasperated with her mental illness that causes her to disconnect from reality. Though the manor seems unwelcoming at first, she eventually grows attuned to its idiosyncrasies, and begins to slip back in time to meet her fiance’s charming ancestor. While I found a lot of this book frustrating (not just because of the genre betrayal…), I did like the incorporation of a protagonist with a dissociative disorder (specifically, Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder) into a fantasy genre. I think many times with fantasy, characters will question their sanity, only to be reassured with the realization of the truth of their magical reality. Here, the fantasy setting doesn’t negate Saoirse's struggle with mental illness, or vice versa. I think the conclusion was well done in this vein, and it increased my perception of the whole book. Despite my bitterness. 5/10. 

Before we leave the horror genre, I want to mention 3 books I read during my ghost fixation this spring, which don’t 100% fit as horror, but y'know, ghosts. I read Beloved (Toni Morrison) for the first time ever! There’s a million things online/in literature about Beloved, it’s a classic, nothing unique I can say, other than it’s so so incredible and who am I to give it a rating. My class read The Turn of the Screw (Henry James), which is the 1898 novella that “Haunting of Bly Manor” is based on (once again, Mike Flanagan is out here making wild adaptations…). We discussed it through a queer theory lens, and I recommend reading it with attention to sexuality and innocence, and how interrogating these things can be deeply violating. 

I read an excerpt of David Hoon Kim’s Paris Is a Party, Paris Is a Ghost for that same class, and I liked it so much that I read the whole book. Fun fact- half of the title alludes to the poem “Ghost Q&A” by Anne Carson, which I actually used in a web weaving post (here’s the relevant line: “A: have you been to Paris; Q: no; A: Paris is a ghost; Q: no it’s not”).  It plays with nonlinear time, since ghosts classically disrupt the progression of time and the definition of a “present;” us trc folks are quite familiar with that… The book follows (in the most ghostly use of the word) Henrik, a Japanese adoptee raised by Danish parents, an expat living in Paris. To top off the layers of identity and belonging, Henrik begins working for a blind physicist (i.e., someone who can’t see and question his ethnic background) as a translator between English and French, neither of which is his first language. The book is divided into three parts across Henrik’s life; the first centers around the implications of his girlfriend’s hikikomori. The third part focuses on Henrik later in adulthood, which I personally found less engaging than the other two (which I REALLY liked), but that may just be me and my interests as a young person, and that was my only issue with the book. I’d say this book is for fans of nonlinear storytelling, ghosts (of course), interrogation of identity, language and the art of translation, ambiguity, and weird shit. 8.5/10. Also I have a pdf of the first chapter (from when I read it for class), so DM me if you want to read a sample. 

Finally, we are done with horror (or are we? More on that later).

Next is a category I call “YA/YA adjacent/adult fantasy/gave me YA vibes sorry I know this is a controversial classification but that’s how I think of it.” 

I’ve already made two petty posts about the two V.E. Schwab books I read this year , The Fragile Threads of Power and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (here’s one post, can’t find the other now). They were…fine. First, Fragile Threads– it’s a spinoff series (?) from A Darker Shade of Magic, which I read a while ago and liked but forgot the details, so I think I’m a pretty good objective reviewer here. This new book takes place seven years after the original series and follows the original main characters and a few new ones. I think it was a good choice to have this fairly hefty time skip. The original characters are now in their late 20s/early 30s, which is unusual in the genre (or often post-time skip, the characters’ issues will be suddenly all solved and they’re all comfortably settled into adult life and domesticity). On the other hand, the new main characters are both tween girls, which felt like a strange choice and made everything feel kinda disconnected. I would’ve liked to spend more time with the new characters; the older set had pretty disproportionate screen time (perhaps Schwab felt readers who are big fans of ADSOM would be unhappy otherwise?). The major plot beats felt really rushed and unearned (especially the resolution of one of the major conflicts offscreen…if you’ve read it you know what I mean). When the next books in this new series come out, I’ll check them out, but I’m not that invested. 4/10. Regarding Addie LaRue, yea it was mid and I don’t feel like delving into it. readwithcindy has a video about the whiteness of the book  and books like it, which is worth checking out. Also 4/10. I still don’t believe that every person in the world would feel compelled to COMMENT ON ADDIE’S FUCKING FRECKLES WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT HAVING SEVEN FRECKLES I DON’T GET IT??????? Anyway. 

As per many tumblr recommendations, I read When the Angels Left the Old Country (Sacha Lamb). It’s a queer Jewish immigrant story that follows an angel and demon who are chavrusas (Talmudic study partners); they leave their shtetl for America to find and help a girl from their village. Along the way and through their time in America, they explore things like free will, gender, names and identity, labor justice, and fucking up rich people. I felt like this was a good historical fantasy, and I’m always up for Jewish fantasy! I’m not super into the angel and/or demon thing I know tumblr people like, so fans of those tumblr posts that are like “an angel is actually high tension wires” would probably like this. 6.5/10 - not 100% my taste, but definitely a fun read and I can’t believe this is the only really Jewish book I read this year. Someone tell me about more Jewish books please. 

There’s a couple other books I read in this category, but I don’t feel strongly about commenting on them (and we definitely don’t need to discuss the fact I read two game of thrones books in like a week for no reason), so let’s move on to my next set, sci-fi/apocalypse-y/dystopia. 

I read A Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds early this year. Obviously lots of people have been discussing it recently because of the movie, so all I’ll say is that I was pleasantly surprised. I was nervous it might be another pointless spinoff about a villain’s backstory (and trying to justify their actions), but this is definitely not that. This book had shit to say, and it was really well done. 8.5/10. 

I want to start the rest of this category with a book I didn’t like before getting into books in this genre that I felt worked so much better, at least for me. My brother sent me a paragraph-long text with a glowing review of Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir). He’s not a big texter, so I figured I had to check it out- I joined the long long waiting list for the book. And, I couldn’t get through it. I really tried, but everything about it annoyed me so much, despite the fact I had liked The Martian which is a fairly similar style. First, the narrator exemplifies the worst of scientist characters; while reading this book, I posted several times to complain about this problem. If you haven’t seen my many personal posts about my life, I currently work in a microbiology lab and ultimately want to become a research scientist. I regularly interact with truly incredible scientists, people I aspire to be like one day. But if I asked my supervisor to calculate a star’s orbit in her head, I think she might slap me. I really don’t think you can write a realistic scientist who is an expert in every subject, and the weirdly humble and immature attitude of the book’s narrator pissed me off more because of this. The fact he claims to be a microbiologist but seems to do everything but microbiology is beyond the point…It would be much more interesting to me to have the narrator find himself so out of his depth in a time of crisis and/or when alone in space. Of course, this would require some more creativity to move the plot forward, but that could be really cool! My other major reason for not finishing was the actual apocalyptic conflict. This was more a personal thing for me than a book problem; the conflict is a bit convoluted, but not bad in itself. Honestly, reading about an all-consuming response to a planetary crisis was just overwhelming and some aspects of their stopgap solutions made me physically nauseous (I don’t want to give specific spoilers but uh. I think the idea of what happens with the Sahara and Antarctica were what actually made me finally stop reading). On the other hand, it made me so sad to think about a reality where such a crisis warrants the appropriate response. We have a real planetary threat on our hands, and we can’t even mobilize the bare minimum measures because of the same capitalist and exploitative motivations that have driven climate change this whole time. This second unrealistic aspect gave me a good dose of climate doom. I can’t rate the book because I didn’t finish, but I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this one, since I don’t understand why it has been so praised. 

I do think it’s possible to more realistically handle the idea of proportionate crisis response and normalcy/lack thereof in an apocalypse situation. We have all been living through a pandemic and have all personally experienced how quickly the definition of “life as normal” can change, as well as seen our world’s failure to raise a just and appropriate response when profit is in the picture. I’ve felt pretty sensitive to how fiction handles these topics, and I have a few broad  categories for pandemic media: pre-COVID and eerily accurate or pre-COVID and absolutely inaccurate; post-COVID and insensitive (it gives the audience a little elbow, like “hey we all remember THAT right, look, it’s been incorporated into this story lol!”) or post-COVID and tastefully incorporates some interesting insight or post-COVID and ignores the whole thing (though it’s a different question whether you can create something fully new without incorporating lived experience even subconsciously) (as another note, I want to add that before 2020, I was really into the science history of pandemics, but haven’t done much reading on that front since) (also, when I say post-COVID, I mean post-outbreak. COVID rates are soaring right now, let’s stop ignoring this. While we’re in a parenthetical, please get the new vaccine if it is accessible to you). 

Both Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel) and Severance (Ling Ma) were indeed published prior to 2019, and so they fit into category #1. Reading them this year actually felt really valuable and almost cathartic, rather than anxiety-inducing. Station Eleven loosely follows several people who are connected by their involvement in a production of King Lear immediately before the outbreak of a deadly flu. The fairly extensive glimpses into their lives prior to and after the outbreak round out really nicely. I like that we see such a range of ages of characters. One of the main characters was a young child when the flu started, and most of her screen time takes place twenty years after; only a small fraction of her life took place in what the older characters view as “normal” times. So what does that mean for people like her (or those born after the outbreak)? Should she be mourning something she experienced for just a few years? Her whole life has taken place during a period of apparent transition, but what is the world transitioning to? When does a transition end? After twenty years, there’s a sense of peace and predictivity to her reality- isn’t that a sort of normalcy? I also really liked the way all the characters were loosely connected to one another; there are lots of books with such setups, but I like that this connection doesn’t entail some great mystery or a climactic meet-up. Connection is just how the world works. 7.5/10; it left me with things to think about, but it was a bit of a slow read for me at some points.

While I read Station Eleven because I saw my lovely mutual posting about it, I read Severance because my coworker posted about it…but what are mutuals if not coworkers. It is similarly made up of pre- and post- outbreak scenes, but it follows only one character, Candace Chen (interesting quote from a New Yorker article about this choice: “...Ma flouts a trope of dystopian fiction, a genre that, with its fixation on the fate of civilization, has a tendency to produce protagonists meant to stand in for society at large. Rather than an Average Joe, Ma gives us a Specific Chen, conjuring an experience of the apocalypse through the lens of someone whose variegated identity is not an exotic distraction but part of the novel’s architecture”). These scenes of the past are less strictly cohesive flashbacks, and more snippets of Candace’s dispassionate existence. When the epidemic breaks out, she keeps working her corporate job in bible manufacturing in New York City, even as her superiors and coworkers leave or fall ill, even as the city’s infrastructure crumbles and she moves into her office, until she eventually is rescued by a band of survivors. Candace is a cog in a machine, otherwise adrift and lonely in late-stage capitalism. The Shen Fever isn’t a disease where the victims fall ill and die, leaving the sight of the narrative; the fevered linger, acting out loops of their daily/familiar routines until they finally wear themselves ragged and die. So, there definitely is more cutting, explicit criticism of consumerism and capitalist society in Severance than Station Eleven. It’s also more psychological (and ambiguous). While Station Eleven gave me a sense of peace and calm occasionally, I never felt that here, where the non-fictional aspects of life under late-stage capitalism is inseparable from the book’s fictional dystopian elements (perhaps the difference in tone between the two books is because Station Eleven is about connection, and Severance’s narrator exemplifies the disconnection wrought by capitalism). There’s not really a sense of urgency or stress, though. In my opinion, that’s because (as many of us have experienced) when crisis is happening all the time, people become exhausted and adjust their idea of normalcy to some level of tragedy. Between the symptoms of the fever and Candace’s commitment to work a pointless job through a pandemic, this book really did eerily reflect the world’s insistence on “life as normal” during the beginning of COVID. There is so much more to talk about with Severance (I was mainly focusing on how it compares in regard to a sense of normalcy in crisis, but there’s SO much interesting stuff in it- I didn’t mention at all, for example, the role of immigration), and I highly recommend checking it out if you don’t mind an uncomfortably realistic sense of impending capitalistic doom! 9/10.

These three apocalypse books all used scenes set before, during, and after the onset of a crisis, so it’s interesting to me that they have such different relationships with normalcy. I’d be super intrigued to hear what y’all think about these books (or other similar ones) and their very different treatment of the same themes.

Sorry for the mini book report there. It’s time for me to talk about one last sci-fi book, which was actually one of my top books of the year- Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer). I read this after I finished my last finals of my university career, and I finally had some time to myself. It was a strange and liminal sort of period for me, existing in this space for two weeks where I was just anticipating graduation and my move to a new city, a looming end to life as I had known it the last 4 years. I spent several evenings sitting on the quad, enjoying the nice May weather, and barely noticing as the sun set and it grew dark around me. I really expected nothing from Annihilation and couldn’t believe how much I loved it. For one, it gives me hope that scientist characters don’t have to be awful (unlike Project Hail Mary’s protagonist, the narrator here sticks within her field and even explicitly mentions being recently refreshed on the scientific topics relevant to the story). I don’t know what genre you would call this– it’s like 60% horror 40% sci-fi (but I couldn’t bear to add another book in the horror section, that’s why it’s in here, and also I wanted another jab at Project Hail Mary’s protagonist); it’s cosmic horror, where the incomprehensible thing is biology and the strange inhuman beauty of nature. The narrator is simply called The Biologist, a woman who is absolutely fascinated about the natural world; she’d be satisfied staring into a puddle in a parking lot for hours. I love her. She joins a mission, made up of women also referred to simply by their fields, to learn more about the mysterious environmental disaster zone called Area X. The movie’s description calls this a “mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply,” but I think the Biologist would say the exact opposite. The story, told through her field journal, records the team’s investigation into Area X and the terribly strange and beautiful things she encounters there; meanwhile, she reluctantly reveals her not-so-scientifically-objective motives for signing up for this doomed expedition. You’ve probably heard of the movie and/or seen gifs of its beautiful visuals; this is one of the cases where the movie is pretty good (and Oscar Isaac is there), but it’s really a completely different piece of media than the book- I recommend reading the book as a separate entity than the movie. This one is a 9.5/10! Once I reread and better understand the conclusion, I’d probably add that 0.5 points back. Has anyone read anything similar to Annihilation they recommend? I need more of a funky scientist interacting with surreal natural horror. 

Ok, one last book that I would consider miscellaneous to my categories here, but theoretically could be scifi? 

I read The Archive of Alternate Endings (Lindsey Drager) after seeing a quote from it in a tumblr post. In fact, you might’ve seen the post I recently made with a different excerpt from it. I finished it just before the new year so that I could fit it in here and give it the honorary place of the last book :) Archive combines a lot of things I know y’all like: the circularity of time, folktales, web weaving, siblings, tragedy, nautilus shells, etc. Since we’re at the end of this post, I’ll give a better go of describing an experimental book: a natural history of storytelling, as traced through the tale of “Hansel and Gretel” and Halley’s comet. Not sure if that makes sense, but essentially, Archive reveals the human connections at each 74 year interval of the comet’s orbit, from 1378 to 2365, through revisiting the meaning of “Hansel and Gretel” to different pairs of siblings. Compared to other works that attempt to do the grand connections across time and space thing, Archive does this very well, probably because this structure is not an afterthought and it’s not a tool to build anticipation of the characters meeting- it’s the thesis statement. One thing I did have trouble with was the incorporation of real historical figures into this piece, especially considering its structure. I was able to more easily digest some of the historical liberties taken than others; I didn’t mind the historical figures and original nameless characters separately, but it was strange to see Ruth Coker Burks (though she’s not named explicitly) interact with a pair of fictional siblings. 8/10. Other than that issue, I think this book worked well and was a great last read for 2023!

I said that was the last book, right? Sorry.

I realized I’ve never posted here about one of my favorite books, and I want to use this as the chance to talk about it, if anyone’s still reading at this point. 

I read A Tale for the Time Being (Ruth Ozeki) in the spring of 2022. I learned about this book because someone had left it in a classroom I was teaching in, and I thought the title was great, so I took a picture of the cover and eventually searched for it at the library. How’s that for fate? Here’s a brief summary. A novelist with writer’s block finds a journal that has washed ashore. Alongside the novelist’s annotations, we read the words of Nao, a Japanese teenager. Nao has decided to kill herself, but first she wants to do something that’ll matter: write about the incredible life of her great-grandmother, a hundred year old Buddhist nun. Despite her best attempts to focus on her grandmother, Nao ends up using the journal as a diary, documenting the events of her own life that have led her to plan a suicide. While Nao’s life and her intentions are obviously extremely bleak, she writes with a delightfully bright and peppy voice that makes her journal both a pleasure to read and that much more devastating, as we quickly begin to care deeply for Nao. The novelist’s parts of the book are objectively weaker than Nao’s, but her role as helplessly studying the journal years in the future is definitely necessary for the book to work (plus she’s the framing device). I do want to note content warnings for Tale; suicide, of course, but also I was surprised by brutality of Nao’s bullying (I’d loosely define some of it as torture) and the escalation of events toward the end. So adding some less obvious CWs in case people wanna check it out: graphic depictions of bullying; sexual assault; racist fetishization of Japanese women; child neglect; and lots of discussion of suicide. Beyond that, I’d add that this book is just absolutely packed full of everything, which can make it seem occasionally a bit all over the place, but it’s all connected, so it’s worth it to try to follow the various threads. From reviews I see online, some people LOVE this book, others hate it, so it might be an acquired taste…but personally, I recall it as one of the best books I’ve read and am going to take this as motivation to finally reread it. 

Right, now we are done. So what are the takeaways of this ridiculously long post ? Here are few bits of wisdom I learned from my 2023 reading: You have got to read the originals that adaptations are based on because Mike Flanagan and co will fuck around with the source material, but also because knowledge of the source material can add a lot to your understanding of an adaptation you enjoy (and there’s usually a reason someone found them worthwhile of adaptation). Screwing with time can work incredibly well in any genre, but it will come off as cheap if the author doesn’t get the implications of non-linear time and just wants an excuse for excessive flashbacks. There is good pandemic fiction out there, you just have to avoid cringey COVID-derivative material. Stop making your scientist characters be experts in everything, and start making them obsessed weirdos. And take better notes than a string of adjectives if you want to write in-depth book reviews. 

Thanks for bearing with me through this post! Let me know what you think! Did you read these books? Agree with me or disagree with every word? Do you have any recommendations for me? Read something good with a ghost in it? Or do you want to share books from this year you hated? And should I channel my inner booktuber and do more posts like this?

Happy New Year!

Julia

[silantryoo]

ENCHANTED — 1. jesse st james

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[emmashouldbewriting]

I went digging about E&B's living situation and this is all I could find:

Eugenie and Beatrice shared a 4 bedroom apartment at St James’s. Bea got the apartment when she started uni in London and lived rent-free until 2012, when Andrew had to start paying rent, £20k a year (commercial rates were between £100-150k/yr). Ahead of Euge's wedding to Jack, they moved to Ivy Cottage at KP grounds. Bea stayed at SJ, Edo moved in, they bought a house in Cotswolds in 2021 and moved there in November 2022. It’s possible they still have some London place since Bea is often papped in London. 

Euge and Jack moved to Royal Lodge around Covid, in Summer 2020 went back to Ivy Cottage and in late 2020 moved to Frogmore Cottage and stayed there only for 6 few weeks. Allegedly H&M wanted E&J to pay them rent and pro-Sussex source said they wanted to extend the lease so the family knew they weren’t going to disappear. This is an interesting H&M quote from May 2022 btw: „by agreeing to extend the lease, and with Jack and Eugenie focusing on Portugal, they have a firm presence smack-bang in the middle of Windsor Court where it’s all happening. They can now come and go any time they please. The coming year could be one of the most tumultuous in royal history and the Sussexes are making sure they have a foothold in Windsor.”

After moving out of FC in January 2021, E&J went back to RL and 2021 is when things get murky, I couldn’t find any reports, there were some articles that said they lived at FC again until 2022, who knows. 

Early May 2022 is when things get interesting again, there are first reports of then-Cambridges moving to Adelaide Cottage and York sources come out saying that Euge and Andrew tried to secure the cottage for her and would have if it wasn’t for Andrew’s scandals. Then the same month it’s announced that E&J will move to Portugal for Jack’s work and will use Ivy Cottage again as their UK base. 

Now we’re in 2023 and according to OK! Magazine, so I’m going to take it with a grain of salt, tho some parts are quite interesting. E&J moved back to FC in February and H&M couldn’t be happier that they took it over, Andrew is also happy that Euge got it, E&J packed up H&M’s items and when they visited, also in February, they brought small personal belongings, E&J want their kids to be brought up in England but also want to split time between England and California and will be staying in Montecito with H&M. 

Anon, you are a little investigative genius! Thanks so much for all this. I think that if Eug had Frogmore, it would have come out for sure around the leaks about the lease ending. All we got was Andrew instead, and it feels like Andrew would get it over her, to be honest. I can see her packing up their stuff, but we've heard so much about Eug's living situation.

Like I said earlier, anyone who isn't paying market rent now, soon will be. Charles is cleaning house.

As for this: "The coming year could be one of the most tumultuous in royal history" - boy were the Sux right, but it seems to be moreso for them than anyone else!!