#lenskaya

[girlbloggerlenin]

leninito... (y krupskayita)

[wolfgirliosef]

lenin and krupskaya never had kids cause krupskaya was the one who topped

[airyfrasc]

The Mask of Mirrors, The Liar’s Knot (by M. A. Carrick)

A friend bought me the book The Mask of Mirrors for Christmas and I swear I didn’t emerge from it for three days straight. This is a SUMPTUOUS non-traditional European fantasy with some of the richest world building I’ve read in a while. The magic, the cultures, the history, the fashion, it all felt so tangible that I could mentally pop myself into Nadezhra pretty much from page one. It had the twisty-turny, political intrigue-y plot that really appeals to me - without the intense violence you might find in other series that often get recommended for their politically-driven plots. Secret identities, characters that make you feel things, a queer-norm society, truly detestable villains… I loved this book. So I had to draw the three main characters obv.

I was so shocked that I couldn’t find the sequel in stores anywhere! Had to order online, and gotta say, it was equally good or better than the first… The character moments in The Liar’s Knot felt like releasing a breath you’ve been holding for hours. You’ll know what I mean if you read it ☺️

Anyway, this series deserves way more hype than it has. I read a LOT of SFF and this one stood out to me as truly fantastic. If you love secret identities, slow (SLOW) burn romance, a puzzle-like plot, tarot, and general luxuriousness for your brain…. I beg you to pick up The Mask of Mirrors.

[keytoyourhearts]

Review of The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick (2021), 1st book of the Rook & Rose series

SYNOPSIS:

Ren goes by many names: Alta Renata Viraudax, Arenza Lenskaya, Renyi.  Though she wears many masks, the face of Ren below them all is the same: a con artist.  Her latest con is to infiltrate the noble House Traementis, posing as a long-lost cousin, to steal a cut of their fortune.  Fate has other plans for her, as she is swiftly swept up in the political intrigue of Nadezra, a city colonized and lorded over by the Laganti while the founding Vraszenians are left to fight over their scraps.  Along the way, she meets Derossi Vargo, a “reformed” crime lord; Grey Serrado, a Vraszenian Captain in the city Vigil; and the Rook, a masked vigilante fighting against the corruption that runs rampant among the city’s elite.  All is not what it seems, however, as an unknown force threatens it all, harnessing the power of dreams and nightmares.

See my full review and rating below the cut!

RATING: 5/5 STARS

MY THOUGHTS:

The Mask of Mirrors is an impressively and intricately woven tale of intrigue with many mysteries to be had.  The author team, made up of Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, had such a strong hold of my attention, I could barely put it down.  After I was able to tear myself away, I was so enraptured that I found myself puzzling through this novel even when I was not reading it!  I cannot wait to get my hands on the second one.

TAGS: fantasy, political/court intrigue, magic & alchemy

CW: graphic depiction of injury & death, violence, drug-use, drugging, colonialism, discrimination, rioting & police brutality, sexual content, pseudo-incest (fake cousins), mentions of SA, infantilization of someone with a disability

RECOMMENDATION: I would recommend this book to any reader with an interest in fantasy and intrigue who would like a solid introduction into something with more mystery.  This novel has it all; there’s even a little sprinkle of romance!

THE GOOD:

The mysteries strewn throughout the pages are numerous and interwoven in such a way that, while I had no issue keeping them straight, I found that I had the desire to stop and write out my thoughts and predictions regarding their solutions.  And I was pleasantly surprised to be incorrect with each one!  Looking back on them having finished reading, I distinctly remember small details that foreshadow revelations being sprinkled throughout.

The character of the Rook was just plain fun, and I loved every second of every scene they were a part of.  I found myself falling for each trick the authors used to lead me into guessing the identity of the Rook, and I knew that I was.  The reveal was a shock to me, but it made complete sense; the hints were all there.

The ending was so satisfying, everything was wrapped up in a neat bow…until the true source of conflict was revealed, effectively setting up the overarching plot for the remaining books in the series.

I also loved how the cadence of dialogue changed between accents and languages.  I found it to be a clever way to show the language had changed, without the actual text needing to (italicized, etc.).

THE BAD:

First, a small nitpick.  What day is it?  What time is it??  There was no explanation I could find for the calendar system until the glossary…at the end of the book.  Even then, I’m still not sure I completely understand it without it being in context.

Here’s another common critique: Ren is a Mary-Sue.  She has a tragic backstory, she is always being described as pretty and charismatic, she never seems to fail at anything, she is incredibly clever, and everyone seems to forgive her for everything so easily.  In all honesty, I did not mind it that much, but it was pretty blatant.

My biggest gripe with this book is the “cousins” romance plot.  Sure, Ren is not actually related to Leato and is only pretending, but everyone believes them to be cousins and even plays matchmaker between them.  It’s even stated that if two characters who swore a familial bond were to sleep together, it would be considered incestuous but not cousins?  What?

Lastly, a character dubbed as a “dawn child” was introduced briefly near the end.  From the context and physical description, I believe she is meant to be a girl with Down syndrome.  Unfortunately, she is immediately infantilized for it, and I believe it carries on into the next book, if not further.  In a book with such incredible diversity and representation throughout, I was disappointed to read this.

[winter-wise]

ren: okay, i know you're busy practising your fake crying right now, but i NEED to know what kind of eyeliner you use. you’ve been at it for an hour and it still hasn't smudged

vargo, still crying: it's sharpie

[kyndaris]

May I see the Face and not the Mask

While I don’t make perfect practiced poses, just like Isabella, there’s a lot that hides behind my smile. At the office and even among friends, I’ve adopted the role of being the one with all the jokes. The one that laughs the loudest even as I offer dark deadpan humour. In many ways it’s become my shtick and the way I deal with the challenges life has thrown us. And in this pandemic, if you aren’t laughing, you’re basically crying - either at the numbers that are dead and dying or because the human race is imbecilic. 

There’s a lot of pressure to pretend that everything is fine and that the world isn’t burning (somewhat ironic considering we had an electrical fire in the office not too long ago - I wasn’t there but gosh, it sounded so darn exciting). And that there is another song from Encanto that definitely that struck a chord with me. Surface Pressure. I may not have other siblings but I shoulder so many things and expectations that it’s a wonder I haven’t yet cracked from all the pressure.

In the workplace, I’m known as ol’ reliable. I help new staff that come through, answer questions and am trusted with all the hard work that no-one else can actually do even though they’ve already been there for years. And because I just don’t know how to say ‘no’ anymore, particularly now that I have to actually be an adult, I bend over backwards trying to get all my work done. All without the additional pay or privilege that comes with actually being a team leader or manager. 

That’s not to say that I want to be one. Oh no. The responsibility of actually managing people is terrifying. But I also hate that my kindness is being taken advantage of. Yes, I’m competent at what I do (and my talents are probably being wasted in an office job), there’s no denying that. And yet, to quote a song from the musical Six, ‘You must think that I’m crazy’ if I’m going to just allow people to steamroll right over me. ‘Sorry not sorry about what I said, I just wanted to have some fun. Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t lose your head. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.’

Why aren’t we training up the others in the team? Why aren’t we giving them more opportunities to upskill?

Honestly, there have been moments when I fantasise about how freeing it would be to just walk away. 

Maybe if I were to fake my own death and then pop up in the life of luxury or as a Twitch Streamer or a New York Times best-selling author. 

Sometimes I wonder if I’m just very good at masking my own needs and wants very well. I feel like a fraud every time I walk into the office with pep in my step and a saccharine smile on my face. Because, truth be told, I’m really just dying on the inside.

Anxiety and melancholy have always been my two best friends through life. Some people worry about performance issues with a partner in bed. I worry about if I’m hitting or even exceeding KPI. In the dark of the night, the things that send a trickle of fear down my back is how well I’ve been doing and the things that I might have forgotten to do in the office – like printing off a letter and sending it out.

And it shouldn’t be like that!

It’s for that very reason I wrote my short story Splintered. I am so sick of pretending at being just one aspect of who I really am. Of showing people the masks I wear to fit into society that I forget who I am on the inside. It’s tiring and draining and sometimes I just want to give up the fight.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. About how society keeps pushing and pushing and pushing when all I want to do is lie still and just simply be. Is it any wonder that people like to hide in their houses such as the hikikomori phenomenon in Japan?

Maybe that’s why I felt so drawn to Ren, the main protagonist in the Rook and Rose series of books. It always feels like I’m living a lie. When everyone else seems to be taking photos down next to the pool, I’m indoors trying to get through the next big blockbuster game or watching through an interesting documentary about a serial killer on Netflix.

There’s a ton of labels out there in the world today. And there are so many people that just want to pigeonhole themselves into a role because it makes the world more understandable. This may not be politically correct, but you can be all those things AND MORE. There’s no need to limit your interests and hobbies to what is typical of a given label. Nor do you really need to label yourself just to feel that you belong to a particular group.

But maybe I’m just angry that I’ve been trying to find a place to call my own and I keep failing to make those connections to people I think I have the most in common with. Maybe I am just jealous of the closeness others display that make me wonder what if I had been the one to make the first move.

I have a ton of regrets and I’m not entirely sure where my life might lead. In desperation, I even downloaded Hinge as an experiment. The men I’ve chatted with have been nice, but there hasn’t been anyone I’ve clicked with just yet. I’ve tried matching with some of the women and non-binary individuals on the app, but so far…nothing.

Probably because I’m just another one of the ‘pick me’/ ‘not like other girls’ stereotypes that seem to rankle their sensibilities. A woman that hates wearing dresses? Plays video games? God, could she be trying any harder?

But really, the only reason I’ve liked them is because I just want tips. Like where to get their suits/ tuxedos, how they’ve managed to find the best guy-like shoes that are made for women, and if someone will GOSH DARN PLAY DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS WITH ME! I live with my grandmother and mother. One of whom doesn’t speak a lick of English! And the other is obsessed with reading Chinese isekai stories!

I also have no-one in my immediate vicinity of friends that seems to care about Critical Role! Can someone please just discuss how awesome Fearne Calloway and Laudna are? Or maybe we can chat about GameTheory and the hundred other things that seem solely to have piqued my interest but no-one else.

Why does it feel like every day that I have to hide all these things about me, smile and laugh when people talk about the weather, and why couldn’t I have made friends with the cool people in the grade below/ in another school/ somewhere halfway across the world/ only exist on the television that also SHARE THE THINGS THAT I LOVE!

Okay. That was my scream into the universe done for the day. I’m just going to find some dark corner to curl up in now and read trash fanfiction until I die.

[tigirl-and-co]

🌻 :3c

:DDDDD Well I WAS gonna talk about the only shark I don’t stan, but the kitty face is making me feel like giving u a happy fact instead of a terrifying one!

A while back, an almost perfectly preserved foal of an extinct horse breed, the Lenskaya, was excavated. Starting last year, there are attempts to bring it back into existence, and if that proves successful, it will be a major jump forward into cloning mammoths!

Like, when I say well-preserved, I mean muscles, fur, blood - the whole shebang! 

I haven’t heard any updates though, so idk what’s up since last year. 

[portraitsalone]

Elizaveta Lenskaya

[everythingdragons]

MY EGG HATCHED!!! Thank you @pangur-and-grim for this beautiful pin, it’s gorgeous! And I’m glad I could help with the chickens in my small way 🥰

[pangur-and-grim]

THE ICE IS MELTING, AND THE LICHES ARE WAKING UP

December’s egg pins are based on real life ice mummies, more of which are being uncovered as global warming melts the permafrost

 in order of appearance: Dogor, a 18,000 year old puppy (possibly a transitional link between wolves and dogs), Boris, a 50,000 year old cave lion cub, and Lenskaya, a prehistoric foal

I haven’t done egg pins since September, so here’s a refresher! you pick an egg at greerstothers.storenvy.com, and after some time to manufacture incubate, the egg will hatch and an enamel pin baby will be shipped to your home

the fun is the surprise, but if you’re desperate to know then send an ask my way and I will (privately) reveal the designs 

[keryahoraculi]

Ksenniya Lenskaya photography

@lenskayapotfolio

[girlbloggerlenin]

a letter from krupskaya to maria alexandrovna (lenin's mother) written in 17 January, 1899 during lenin's and krupskaya's exile in shushenkoye.

[lynxmuse]

Nick “Dapper Fox” Wilde... :D

by Alenea Lenskaya

[tempo1991]

¡Club de niños de Tararam! El mejor lugar para una fiesta infantil 🎉 Sala de juegos para niños de 0 a 10 años Lenskaya, 14,

https://www.instagram.com/tararam.club/

[worldofwarcraftart]

Jaina Proudmoore by Anastasia Lenskaya Source: http://bit.ly/2UnC3Yv New news website for furry fans: http://awoonews.com

[winter-wise]

Ren: Do you take constructive criticism, Vargo?

Vargo: I only take cash or credit.