#like the authors were supposed to write their books SPECIFICALLY for this reviewer and their preferences

[1eeminho]

book reviews are fucking vicious oh my god ive never read reviews on anything before except like. tumblr posts. and oh my god its like instagram comments in disguise

[gingiekittycat]

I miss the narrator

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I miss the narrator from Good Omens season 1.

I will admit, when I first watched the show it threw me a bit. Sure, the narrator's jokes were funny, but I thought that as a story-telling device it was distracting. There was just so much of it all the time, and it often felt out of place. And when I went to look up reviews online, it seemed a lot of people agreed: if there ever was a season 2, the narrator had to go.

But THEN.

THEN.

Then I read the book.

And I realized: the narrator is the footnotes. It's the little jokes in between the plot. In descriptions, in metaphors, in transitions. The narrator is what makes the magic of the novel.

The narrator is the authors.

More specifically, the narrator is Terry.

Terry's influence on the novel, on the story; Terry's influence in the way he and Neil wrote the book. Neil has said before somewhere (I will find the source eventually and add it) that he was writing in Terry's style when he co-wrote the novel. And it shows; to me, when I read Good Omens, I was reading a Terry Pratchett novel. At the time, I had no previous experience with reading Terry's work, and the only novel I'd read of Neil's was American Gods. And in my opinion, Good Omens reads nothing like American Gods.

In subsequently reading more of Terry's work, it became even clearer to me that the narrator in the show was Neil's way of keeping Terry in the story. And maybe it WAS clunky in a visual medium, maybe it WAS distracting, jarring. But it was also hilarious, and whimsical, and playful, and fun. And I don't see how Neil could have done without it and still stayed so true to the novel. The jokes, the metaphors, the descriptions, the footnotes; this is what makes Good Omens what it is.

There was no narrator in season 2.

I will say up front that, overall, I enjoyed season 2. It had so many funny moments, and so many thought-provoking, poignant moments too. It used some dialog from the first book (looking at you Resurrectionists minisode) to remind us why Good Omens is not just a romp between an angel and demon, but also a philosophical, thought-provoking piece of media. It had a lot of Pratchett-esque moments; the Job minisode stood out to me here. The end was, of course, emotional and gutting, but I like emotional and gutting (anyone who has read my fics knows this). But... I found myself missing the narrator. 

I missed Terry.

And maybe that was a good thing. Maybe it was even on purpose. Maybe the lack of narrator really is illustrating the fact that, when Terry died, he left a hole in the world that can never be filled. You can't make the same show you would have made had Terry been alive. You can't even try. You can make your own thing, you can make it amazing in its own right, but you can't make it the same. And, all said and done, I think that's a very important commentary on grief. When you lose something, or someone, you're not the same as you were before; and it hurts, but you change, you adapt, you grow. Eventually, you make something new.

So... do I want there to be a narrator in season 3?

That's a good question. I think I would accept both outcomes. However, knowing that season 3 is supposed to be the sequel Neil and Terry plotted, I think it would be appropriate to have a narrator this time around. True, we have no novel to base it off of; we don't have any of Terry's footnotes, his metaphors, his jokes. But we have Neil, whom Terry influenced while writing the original novel; we have Neil writing in Terry's style, putting himself in Terry's shoes for a moment (his hat, his scarf). We have Neil, who loved Terry, who has in part made this show as a labor of love, because he promised Terry he would, and he's going to keep that promise. We have Neil to remind us why we love Good Omens in the first place.

And I think having a narrator in season 3 would be a wonderful way to illustrate that. 

[lazywitchling]

Alright, here we go. My review for The Dabbler's Guide to Witchcraft by Fire Lyte

Final rating: ??/10 - it broke my numbers system.

TL;DR - I like the book. I'm angry at the author. It's great for new practitioners. If you're going to get it, please get it from the Spiral House Shop, get Alex Wrekk's two witchcraft zines to go with it, and go look at/reblog/contribute to the original Dabbler's Week project.

(Also I think this is the longest review I've written yet. I'm sorry.)

This book is very good. I'm mad about that. The author is an excellent writer. I'm mad about that. I want to dislike this book but I can't, and I'm mad about that.

So let's get into the breakdown of why.

First up, a housekeeping thing: "Fire Lyte" is a pen name that I don't believe the author uses anymore, so I will be referring to him as Don Martin, the name he is using on his current projects. I know he's on TikTok, formerly of Inciting a Riot podcast, now of Head on Fire podcast.

Second, some links relevant to the review-which-is-actually-just-a-rant:

The breakdown of things I found that were taken uncredited from Tumblr

I COULD be making this up and reading it in bad faith, but this bit about 'heteronormative marriage' has my alarm bells ringing

Why I hate the title of this book

The original Dabbler's Week project links

Anyway.

I picked this book up specifically because of the title. It's been 3 years since it was published, so it took me a while, but I remember looking at that title when it was first out and thinking "Hey... the timing of this... did this person just wholesale lift the 'Dabbler' idea from Tumblr?"

The answer is: Yes, probably!

(He also summarized the Malachite Dick post from February 2020, but he actually credited Tumblr along with relevant usernames, so that's good and also made me laugh.)

But... yeah. The fact that he's crediting Tumblr from something that specifically happened in February 2020, when the original Dabbler's Week was from late January 2020 and seems to have inspired his whole book? Don, would it have killed you to mention ANYTHING about that project and the people involved?

He's very big on talking about following trails of information, listening to podcasts, listening to the podcasts of people talked about on those podcasts, reading books talked about on those podcast, and so on. But if he doesn't start off by saying "Dabbler's Week was a project issued by asksecularwitch on Tumblr", then how is anyone supposed to follow THAT chain of information, hmm? If his whole advice on finding good witchcraft resources is to follow the chain of people who are sharing information from each other, but he makes no mention of where he got the whole idea for his book, then what?

Side rant: I'm real tired of how Tumblr information is simultaneously treated as too shitty to ever bother reading or mentioning, but good enough to screenshot, repost on other sites, recite word-for-word on tiktok, and apparently write a book about.

ANYWAY. I'm angry about it. I'm gonna be angry about it. Here, please look at these links to the shenanigans that began the original Dabbler's Week, because Don certainly won't tell you about this part.

Anyway.

Some bad things:

I mean, the plagiarism. I keep hesitating to use the word 'plagiarism', because to me that seems like wholesale lifting entire works and slapping your name on them, when all Don did was fail to credit a few Tumblr users he quoted. But then again, if I did that on a research paper in college, it would be called plagiarism, so.

This book is in fact not a great guide for 'dabblers'. The point of Dabbler's Week was that if someone didn't know if they wanted to commit to witchcraft but wanted to fuck around with casting some spells for a week to try it out, there were week-long guides on things someone could do to try that. This book is not for fucking around with magic, it's for people who are already sure that they want to make this a thing in their lives. It handles some heavier topics (e.g. vetting mentors and not getting sucked into a cult) that are very very important for someone who is BEGINNING, but may be too much for someone who just says one day "lol I think I'll cast a spell for fun". A far more accurate title would have been "The Beginner's Guide to Witchcraft", but then he'd lose that punchy and marketable and googleable term 'dabbler'. (Yes, I'm going to be petty about this.)

"Wow Jes, it sounds like you really hated this book."

NO I DIDN'T, AND I'M SO MAD ABOUT THAT!

Some good things:

The author has a writing style that I enjoyed very much. This is a personal preference, but I like when books are either written so that the author is fully invisible (Bree Landwalker's books do this wonderfully), or the author is fully visible, like they're sitting at the table having a conversation with you (Kelly-Ann Maddox's 'Rebel Witch' comes to mind, as does Alex Wrekk's 'Brainscan 33: DIY Witchery'). Don Martin is the table conversation kind. That makes this book very easy to read, while also getting information across in an easily-understood sort of way.

This book fills a very necessary gap in modern witching books. It talks about the online community of witches, and a lot of the pitfalls that have come along with the bonuses of having so much witchcraft available at our social-media connected fingertips.

He gets very in depth with things like cultural appropriation. That's something that you can find in a lot of modern witch books, but Don actually spends the time breaking the concept down and explaining WHY it's harmful, HOW it affects people, and quotes people from the affected minority groups. I have seen the appropriation topic come up in a lot of the witch books I've read, but Don is the one who has covered the topic the best, imo.

He spends time on topics that I myself would have been dismissive of. The example that comes to mind is the chapter 'Can I Make Sh*t Up?' My knee jerk reaction was "Yes, you can make your own spells, you don't need to get someone else's permission. Next question." But Don goes through the full breakdown of yes you can make up your own spells, yes you can make your own correspondences, but no that doesn't mean you can just throw a water soluble crystal in your water bottle because you think it's good for cleansing.

Actually on that topic, he covers a lot of the why not just the what. It's not just 'appropriation is bad', it's 'and here's why'. It's not just 'research your herbs', it's 'here's some examples of things that can and have gone wrong.'

SPELL CANVASES! There are 11 'spell canvases' in this book, and they're pretty much all just kids/teens science experiments (e.g. dissolving an egg shell in vinegar, lighting a tea bag on fire so it flies, and using food dye to color a white flower). He does not give intentions for these spells, but gives a spell technique and then some examples of how you could apply your own purpose/intention to it as needed. It's actually pretty smart, and now I wish there was more stuff like this.

He actually explains what UPG means. Man, 'UPG' is one of those things that I keep seeing as a 'I don't know what that means and I'm to afraid to ask' blog post. When someone pops into the witchy social media circles, we can throw the term 'UPG' around as if everyone knows what it means, and forget to actually explain that it's Unverified Personal Gnosis and what that means. Don's got us covered. Good on you, Don.

The one throwaway line about why you don't have to buy fancy witch things. Tucked away in chapter 12 is this almost nothing-sentence mentioning why you shouldn't be "going broke hoping to buy your way into 'effective' magic" (pg. 161). I have seen, reblogged, probably written posts about 'No you don't need the fancy tools! You can just use whatever! But you CAN buy them if you want, you just don't NEED them.' And we've all seen those around, right? But damn, if Don didn't just get to the heart of it. You can't buy your way into skill. YES, Don, THAT!! THANK YOU.

Alright. I'm running out of words. This isn't a review, it's a rant. Holy shit. Let me shut up with a TL;DR

Almost without doubt, Don liked Tumblr's idea enough to write a book about it, but failed to give credit. But he's an excellent writer and covers a lot of topics that are not often written about in printed books, and to get those blogosphere-ideas onto bookshelves is invaluable. This is a good book for beginners starting out in witchcraft, but not for dabblers who just want to screw around with some spells. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Is it ethical to buy a book when the author gets royalties but the bloggers he got the idea from do not? I don't know. I can't tell you that. You'll have to weigh all this against your own moral compass and decide for yourself. My recommendation is that if you're going to buy it, please buy it from the Spiral House Shop, because if Don Martin's going to get paid for this book, Alex Wrekk should too. Buy Alex's zines. Reblog Sec's posts. Links are up at the top.

[lia-land]

A Court of Silver Flames

3/5 stars

Spoilers for A Court of Silver Flames*

How this book made it past an editor is beyond me.

I read a review where someone said that this book felt like reading smut about a cousin and I couldn’t agree more. I can’t connect with Nesta. She will always just be Feyre’s sister to me and not a main character as she was supposed to be in this book. I feel like we were set up to dislike her in the earlier books and that dislike was set in stone for me.

This was kind of like a long fan fiction and had the same vibe as A Court of Frost anf Starlight because there wasn’t a strong plot and it read like A Court of Nesta and Friends. What little plot exists was mainly there to set up for the sex scenes and Nesta’s redemption arc. When a book is over 600 pages, I expect a strong plot, not for things to conveniently happen solely for the purpose of Nesta and Cassian having sex and for her and Rhys to salvage their relationship. The pregnancy plot came across as nothing more than an excuse for Nesta to come in and save the day so that she can redeem herself. I also think we should have seen the pregnancy through Feyre and Rhys, rather than having it happen in a book where they are side characters. Especially since it involved the death pact backfiring. I have many issues with the death pact regardless and it was a plot point that was set up for failure, especially since it was thrown into the end of ACOWAR. In fairness, we did get a bonus chapter of them finding out she’s pregnant, but after three books of their relationship developing, this seemed like a big thing to leave out. Perhaps we’ll get a novella of it one day. Although, it doesn’t seem like Feyre was getting up to much in this book while she was pregnant, so maybe it would have been somewhat uneventful to read about her pregnancy from her POV. Then again, this book is over 600 pages of nothing particularly eventful, so it wouldn’t be out of the question.

As many other reviews have said, it makes little sense that Cassian’s guts were falling out in ACOWAR and he lived, but C-sections do not exist. As I said before, a lot of things were just too convenient for the ‘plot’ so that Rhys and Nesta could have an excuse to mend the relationship. And the whole thing at the end where Nesta quickly throws in that she changed her hips as well so that she can bear a winged baby?? That’s not the sort of execution I’d expect from an author who has published multiple series and has been writing for years. 

The stairs specifically don’t make sense because if Nesta is so tired from going down them, how does she make it back up the stairs every time? Surely going up is more effort than going down. This is a huge plot hole and I don’t understand how not one person picked up on it before the book was published. It’s stated that she is completely drained and doesn’t stop until the can’t take another step down, so it’s not like she’s strategically conserving enough energy to go back up. There’s one occasion where she goes down more than halfway, and then gets too tired so she goes back. Like… would it not have been easier to go down when you’re already halfway there… This bothered me the most out of everything else. The House of Wind in general is a plot hole because as far as I can recall, it’s never stated that there is another way to get in other than flying. So my question is why and how would they use it for their ‘official’ meetings and parties? Do Rhys and co go back and forth to fly all these people in? Especially during those weekly meetings Rhys and Feyre do with the citizens that was mentioned in ACOFAS, because I doubt everyone would be willing or able to go up those 10,000 steps while dressed for a party or meeting.

Also, how did Rhys and Feyre build the River House so quick? Hasn't it only been like 8 months or so since Rhys gifted her the land in ACOFAS? Has the rest of Velaris been rebuilt with this same speed since the Hybern attack? Are there still Velaris citizens living on the outskirts with their houses lying in rubble while their High Lord and High Lady built their fourth house (on the biggest plot in the city, I should add)? Let’s not forget Rhys only purchased the land because the house previously on it was ruined in the attack and the owner didn't want to rebuild. The timing is just in poor taste.

Then there’s the Valkyrie. How do Gywn and Emerie win the Rite after being dragged into it unprepared with a few months of training when we’ve been told multiple times that it is nearly impossible? Even for Illyrians who have trained their whole lives. I could maybe justify it by how it was implied that the Valkyrie had specific training methods and skills, but were those skills really that much more advanced than those of the Illyrian males? So much so that Gywn and Emerie won with only a few months of training? If so, this should have been made more clear, but I’d still find it unrealistic that said skills are so advanced that one could win the Rite with only a few months of training. If Nesta alone had won, I could maybe justify it and think about how her powers made her an exception.

It also didn’t fully sit right with me that Feyre essentially locked Nesta up in the House of Wind after what Tamlin did to her. I know it’s not the exact same situation, but it felt close enough. Even if it was truly and completely the last resort, which it seemed like it was, Feyre didn’t seem very bothered by the decision. I say this specifically because of the scene after the first meeting with Nesta, when Rhys has sent all the servants away so him and Feyre can have sex. Read the room. I get that they were both extra horny from the pregnancy, but I don’t think that scene was necessary. It felt more like SJM just being like 'don't worry! Your favorite couple from the original trilogy are still having lots of sex!' Although, I forget this is the same couple that got it on to ‘the distant cries of the injured and dying' in ACOWAR, so what do I know? At least their characters are consistent in that sense. Is there a situation they won’t fuck in? Now I’m curious about what the limit is for them to say ‘no, it’s inappropriate for us to fuck right now.’

The original trilogy made me want to read slower because I did not want the pages to end and I could read about that story forever. With this book, I ended up listening to the audiobook for 2/3 because I wanted to get it over with because I’d like to know what happens to the characters. I really only got through it because I wanted to read about Feyre and Rhys, but even they were out of character and not enjoyable. Feyre often seemed like she’d aged 30 years in the way she spoke and acted. Being High Lady and the things she went through would undoubtedly have made her more mature, but it’s only been like a year. It would have made far more sense if this book was set 50 or 100 years after the events of the last book. This didn’t feel at all like the badass and sometimes reckless Feyre who escaped the weaver, had water wolves, killed the Attor, and turned the Spring Court on each other—all of which happened approximately under two years before this book.

I would happily pretend that this book does not exist if SJM one day asked for it to be ignored so that certain plot lines could be rewritten. I didn’t like the direction of any character in this and it has not left me excited for the upcoming books in this series. In this case, I think the characters would have benefitted from having their story end in ACOWAR.

I did enjoy the dance scene between Eris and Nesta and I’m excited to read more about Eris and his side of the story. I don’t care much for Mor, though I wish Lucien made more appearances in this book.

Azriel Bonus chapter: Angry Rhys and the whole “My office. Now” is hot, but he was far too harsh with Azriel. He literally told him to go to a brothel if he’s that desperate for sex. I can see where Rhys was coming from, but he straight up threatened Azriel. Not sure how I feel about that, but maybe some justification from Rhy’s POV will help in the future. It's okay for Rhys to almost cause a war over Feyre, but Cauldron forbid Azriel even entertains the idea.

I find the Evil Rhys theory entertaining and this book made me happy in that regard, but nothing else.

The only thing this book somewhat attempted to do well is set up for another book in a different SJM series, which I will not delve into due to spoilers, but iykyk.

2.5 stars, really, but 3 because Azriel called Cassian out for the dining room. In saying all of this, I will absolutely be reading any upcoming books in this series because I love the characters and I’m invested in their stories, but this book was frustrating and slow.

[just-antithings]

I'm not saying adults insisting they only need to read YA books and watch children's cartoons is leading to this culture wide phobia of sex which in turn is becoming a useful vector for the increasing spread of fascism except that is exactly what I'm saying.

Im not that anon but want to expand on their thought, if they're saying what I think they are.

I thought of this more when seeing an old post of someone saying their English teacher should have let them write a report on Divergent instead making them read 1984. Someone commented supporting the OP, saying that they never read Divergent, but 1984 is problematic. Iirc, the commenter referred to Winston (I think that's the protag in 1984; sorry I haven't reread it in years) as a creep. I can't remember is this specific commenter called Winston a misogynist, but that's a common complaint I hear when people say they don't like 1984.

The screenshot of that post also had other screenshots, including the twt posts of YA authors saying that the classics were problematic. It's a sentiment I keep seeing around book twt before I deactivated my account but still on booktube as well, and it's always booktubers who also read and rant about Colleen Hoover, because they know her name gets clicks. Or booktubers that do those videos titled "I read [old/popular/controversial] series so you don't have to".

Sorry, sliding off topic a bit. Going back to what anon said, YA books tend to be more sanitized. They're supposed to be written for a 15-19 audience, so sex and gore aren't supposed to be explicit. There are YA books with sex scenes. 2 I read recently have sex scenes, but they aren't explicit. One uses mostly poetic language and infers to what's happening, and the other essentially fades to black after they get into bed, as they're touching and then picks up the next morning. (One of these YA books had a big controversy on booktube a few years ago for being problematic, though. Gee, wonder why /s)

But for the most part, often for people who enjoy urban fantasy or romances but not steamy scenes, they may go for YA, since it's usually more "PG". Unfortunately, some people get it in their head that this makes YA inherently "better", that adult books that are being more explicit are only doing it to get more sales, when YA tbh has a tighter hold on it marketing-wise.

Okay, I'm not published (yet), but I've been studying it when I need to take a break from writing to see what course is best for me and what I want to write. YA is becoming oversaturated in the market, so it's not as big a "money making genre" for debut authors as it might have been once (and I'd argue that even in the past when YA was smaller, you still had to be lucky, known, or connected to get that 6-figure check for a debut YA novel). YA is more likely to get scrutinized, considering its supposed to he for a younger audience, so a YA author wanting to push boundaries is going to receive more push-back than an adult lit author.

Now pushback happens in adult lit, too, like Ava Reid saying her editor or publisher (I forget who) told her that Juniper&Thorn might be too dark. (I've read it. Yes, it's dark, but bad reviews I saw for the book blew it way out of proportion. If you (gen) like lyrical/poetic narration and gothic horror, I highly suggest it).

But it feels like there's more of a push to keep YA books "clean". You can find some outliers, but like the YA I mentioned above, those outliers in YA that push boundaries can get wrapped in controversy and called problematic.

And for whatever reason, some people on booktube say this is a good thing and say "think of the children!"

They will say censorship is bad but then advocate for sanitized YA to be read instead of classics, because the classics are "bad" and "teach bad things" and "should be left in the past". They advocate for censorship without realizing they are advocating for censorship. It's exhausting, and as someone who wants to be published and does enjoy a lot of YA, it makes me feel discouraged. I don't think I'm "pushing boundaries" at all in my writing or saying anything new, but I'm very sure it's not sanitized enough for most publishers, especially if I wanted to try for one of the beg houses in the US.

Tl;dr One of the major problems in this anti-intellectualism is capitalism.

.

[coralhoneyrose]

Alrighty, ask meme! I'll have 4, 7, 14, and 38, if you please!

Ahhh, thank you so much for the ask! :D

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Not a *whole* lot, honestly! The only idea I am truly ‘nurturing’ (as in actively helping it to grow) is Half Orange. If you broaden that to also include stuff I have taken the time to make some sort of slapdash outline for, then there are four others. One I don’t think I’ve talked about on here before is a humorous, family fluff one-shot from the POV of Morgan when he is in his late teens and struggling to come to terms with how cringe and mushy and embarrassing his parents are about their love for each other once Robin returns post-sacrifice LOL

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

A memory strikes him suddenly, illuminated as if by a stray sunbeam, of huddling midst the shelves with his sisters, Emmeryn reading him and Lissa some old Ylissean fairytale while a storm pounded down overhead and lightning flashes made a glowing tapestry of the colored glass.

He doubts that they were in this particular row of books back then, but the view is the same. Today, tiny dust particles swim in the late spring sunshine, but he can still hear how the thunder made the window shiver; Emmeryn’s bell-clear voice, serene and unafraid. Sometimes he wonders if grieving a person in the same space you lived with them isn’t more of a cruelty than a comfort…but he can’t imagine choosing to give it up either.

There’s this literary technique I have noticed some of my favorite writers use on occasion where a character’s wandering / idle thoughts while looking at something in the environment wind up being a means for insight into their characterization or mental state. I think it can be tricky to execute in a way that doesn’t feel disruptive, but I was reasonably happy with my attempt here. I also think grieving is a really complicated emotion, and it’s one I struggle a lot with capturing all the facets of while writing, but this was a rare instance where I felt like the words got across the feeling I wanted them to.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

If we are excluding the infamous old tumblr posts that convinced all of us you are never supposed to use the word ‘said’ and that you should invent as many epithets as possible to refer to characters, I would probably say “don’t use adverbs”. Obviously it’s very possible to overdo it, and I will admit my writing has a tendency towards clutter and that adverbs probably contribute. But some people really act like adverbs are the devil, and the idea that an entire part of speech has next to no place in writing is kind of absurd to me. I have also read books where clever and intentional use of adverbs was extremely effective in contributing to humor or tone setting and if those authors had followed that advice, I would have enjoyed their books a lot less.

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

Oh man, very hard to choose just one when this is true of like…virtually every review I have ever been lucky enough to receive. One specific one that comes to mind, though, was a comment on the accidental engagement fic where the commenter compared Chrom to one of those tropical birds doing a mating dance, and Robin just Not Getting It despite his best efforts. It was such a hilarious and strikingly accurate description of their dynamic in that fic and I got such a kick out of it. I subsequently mentioned the comment to Bustle, and she wound up linking this video, and for the rest of the day, I would just periodically start smiling really big or burst out laughing every time I thought about Chrom and Robin as these two birds. The narration absolutely kills me too.

[strangebiology]

Creatives: How much of your work is...the creative work?

A lot of people in the process of being an author, or who recently published, say they spend most of their time laying out pages, printing, asking for reviews, marketing, marketing, marketing...

Since I'm trad publishing, I'm not doing that stuff. I'm pretty much only responsible for the text (and the cover but only because I wanted to & I have some artists I'll be contacting when the time comes.)

Obviously, I'll be asking you all to buy my book Carcass when it comes out, and then again across all my other platforms, but I'm not gonna go to a book marketing conference or pay for ads or buy a storehouse to keep stock. Very glad that's not my job!

But I'm still spending less than half my writing time putting words on a page! If I were doing all that other stuff listed above, I'd probably be spending, maybe 10% of my time writing.

My last book milestone was securing a fact-checker and writing a contract for her. And now I've almost finished a review of my Culture chapter but it's FULL of [TK]* and [confirm with source] and [add interview here.] That's ok, I just find it funny, and that was the same when I was a staff writer. Not complaining.

It's tons of research! To the point where I almost feel like the research skill is more important for a nonfiction book than the writing skill, assuming the writing meets a decent bar.

But it's fun. I really love being able to write something that no one else has written about these specific topics from this perspective and put it together in this format. Then I'll have a fact-checker review it, and I'm supposed to have a science checker review it too, and my publisher has "peer review," although I'm not sure what that looks like yet. I really hope it's as accurate as humanly possible by publication time! *TK, sometimes expanded to TKTKTK etc, means "to come." I know it doesn't make sense.

[rruhlreviews]

Film Review - IT Parts 1 & 2 (2017 and 2019)

I have not read the book IT or watched the older movie adaptation, so my only point of reference for this story is the two films from 2017 and 2019. I suppose I should preface this review by saying I wasn’t a huge fan. In general, I’m not a horror movie watcher, despite writing horror and reading it. There’s something about the visual aspect that takes it to a different level from the written word, where the fear feels more imaginary because it really is all in your imagination; you can’t see it or hear it. Horror is a genre, like romance, in which personal boundaries and tastes play the utmost role in one’s enjoyment of a story. I’m not a fan of stories that involve kids getting hurt, so this was never going to be for me. The Shining was different, maybe because it was more focused on the adults and Danny was never hurt too bad. The casual ableism and homophobia, especially in Part 2, left a bad taste in my mouth with the escaped mental hospital killer and “bury your gays” tropes. Anyway, while this movie was not for me, clearly it was for a lot of people given the blockbuster success. I’ll say right away that Stephen King’s name was a significant player in the success of IT. He's such a well-known horror author that someone brand new to the genre is likely to pick up something by him first, and longtime fans are going to eat up anything that comes out with his name on it. Let’s focus on the story, though. In a character driven story, it is the strength of the characters and the compelling dynamics and motivations between them that turn IT into a popular tale.

People love an underdog story. The group call themselves “The Losers,” and you can’t get more underdog than that. In this unbelievable world with alien fear entities, the characters’ motivations are touching and perfect in their simplicity. Someone wants to know what happened with his little brother’s disappearance. Someone wants to escape her abusive father. Someone has hidden romantic feelings for someone else. I remember when IT Part 2 came out, I had a friend who was obsessed with the characters, specifically Richie and Eddie. They don’t get a happy ending, but there’s enough potential there to capture an audience’s imagination, especially an audience that wants to see more LGBT+ characters; 2019 wasn’t a long time ago, but still in 2024, there aren’t a lot to choose from. Catharsis is an appealing emotion for an audience to crave, and has been for all of human history. Tragedy is one of the oldest artforms, going all the way back to Ancient Greece, progressing through Shakespeare, and coming to our modern emotionally motivated genres. For an example on this timeline closer to IT, there’s Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes with the unsettling circus that preyed on a fear of aging. Compared to First Blood, IT has a pretty simple perspective on the good vs. evil theme, and it works wonderfully for the story being told. IT shows that you can have a book or movie with very popular, very old plot types and themes and still make it unique and appealing.

Even more basic than anything else mentioned before, down to the roots of the horror genre: IT is about people who want to confront a fear. The 21st century has been characterized by widespread anxiety. Economic downturns, climate crisis, wars across the world, censorship, backwards movement in human rights, and an entire plague. An audience seeks a safe environment to process fear and see it defeated in a tangible sense. The different ways Pennywise manifests in the film reflect our cultural fears: disease, hate crimes, loss of loved ones that we felt should have been preventable. And yes, the less abstract and existential ones like spiders and clowns. IT permeates our pop culture. I knew who Pennywise was long before delving into the movies. I wonder, were clowns a big fear before IT, or did it cause a surge in clown related fears? Does anyone remember the weird scary clown incidents from 2016?

There’s something interesting to be said about horror movies, which contain characters who are meant to be so grotesque and avoided at all costs, being turned into cute consumer goods. I was at the mall today and saw two different stores with displays with backpacks, shirts, and plushies of horror movie baddies like Jason, Chucky, and Pennywise. If you go online, you can find hundreds of results for smut with these creepy villains in less than one second. I am not shy to say I’m a monster enjoyer, but I can’t say I personally get the appeal of some of these more gruesome things like Pennywise. I never watched a horror movie like IT before and I don’t intend to again. I’m content with tamer shows like The Twilight Zone, and my Halloween decorations include classic monsters like skeletons, ghosts, and vampires. This all being said, I salute those with an interest in the creepy clowns and dolls and demons that I avoid, just like I’m sure there are others who like visceral horror but shy from the gothic tales and psychological thrills I prefer. Maybe preference doesn’t have to have an explanation. There doesn’t have to be deep literary analysis or audience psychology to study— “I just think it’s neat” is reason enough to enjoy a character or story! The horror genre is so varied, and it’s a wonderful thing. There’s a story for every fear that anyone is trying to confront, a story to excite anyone’s macabre fancies, and a special villain for every villain lover.

[lindasipsandspills]

#2 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

General Information:

Edition: I stumbled over the Simon & Schuster version of 2017 and picked it right up. It’s the paperback cover, since I decided to read it for fun. 

Author:  Taylor Jenkins Reid was born December 20th 1983, Maryland, U.S. Other well-known novels under her name include Daisy Jones & The Six as well as Malibu Rising.

Short synopsis (via goodreads): Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Page count: 385 paper pages (excluding the acknowledgments)

Representations: LGBTQ+, historical fiction from the 50s to the 90s, Showbiz

Initial thoughts post-read:

I had high expectations. I would’ve never imagined them to be overthrown. I was completely taken aback by Reid’s extremely enchanting writing style. I had to either read 50-70 pages in one sitting or not read at all. It was so easy to loose oneself in this world of show business and heartbreak that it simply felt like no time was used while reading this masterpiece. Yes, masterpiece. Eternally grateful to have had it recommended to me by so many of my friends, and I am even more excited to delve into further depths with this review. 

A short note: I decided to pick sections that could perhaps ensue a wider introspection of what these specifically mean, in general, but also for the book itself. There were many beautiful quotes of which I picked the ones that resonated most with me, so by far not everything I highlighted. Enjoy!

Sections that picked my interest & interpretations: 

I trust myself. Take, for instance, when I snapped at you earlier, back at the apartment, when you said what you did about my confessing sins. It wasn't a nice thing to do, and I'm not sure you deserved it. But I don't regret it. Because I know I have my reasons, and I did the best I could with every thought and feeling that led up to it."/ "You take umbrage with the word sin because it implies that you feel sorry." [...]/ "You can be sorry about something and not regret it," Evelyn says. (p. 25-26)

I suppose this specific line was what had me hooked when it comes to the book itself. She took apart a fleeting comment and made sure a message, as well as an underlying morale could be drawn from it. I was fascinated from here on out. 

Evelyn looks at me with purpose. “Do you understand what I'm telling you? When you're given an opportunity to change your life, be ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The world doesn't give things. You take things. If you learn one thing from me, it should probably be that.” (p. 35)

I have to agree with Evelyn, as nearly all instances in which she takes a step back from her narration about the past to underline a certain teaching she had gathered from these situations. If one doesn’t get on their feet and start working for what they want to achieve - they will never be granted the opportunity to do so in the first place. A paragraph filled with what it means to live in today’s society. 

Grown men were watching me walk down the street, and some of the girls in my building didn't want to hang out with me anymore. It was a lonely business. Motherless, with an abusive father, no friends, and a sexuality in my body that my mind wasn't ready for. (p. 43)

This made me feel nostalgic. Not specifically limited to my own experiences growing up in an over sexualized society, but reminiscing the old times of the locker rooms at school. How very weird it was, when the first girls in our class started developing breasts. How obscene we all thought of it, how very shameful. Back then I questioned my response, because I did grow up in an agonizingly conservative household matter of factly. Was it perhaps a thought planted inside my head by my mother? Or was it a common thought shared by everyone? I looked around. Everybody had kept staring at the poor girl. I wish I could tell her how sorry I was. We, girls, made her, a young woman, feel uncomfortable in what she was turning. I now know that this was simply a perfect example of internalized misogyny towards our own gender. But it doesn’t excuse what had happened, and it won’t erase the memory inside the girl’s head. I was positively surprised having read this paragraph and seeing an opening for a further discussion about this specific topic. 

If you've never been smacked across the face, let me tell you something, it is humiliating. Mostly because your eyes start to tear up, whether you mean to be crying or not. The shock of it and the sheer force of it stimulate your tear ducts./ There is no way to take a smack across the face and look stoic. All you can do is remain still and stare straight ahead, allowing your face to turn red and your eyes to bloom. (p. 77)

I’ve never read anything more accurate than this. I applaud you, Reid, because this makes me feel seen. It is the sheer agony of not being in control that makes a smack across the face so humiliating for the recipient. Not being able to do anything else other than letting emotions fly over your face and concentrating on keeping in any sounds you might utter. If the other passages wouldn’t have gotten me on this train, then this would’ve done the job. 

“If you are heartbroken right now, then I feel for you deeply,” Evelyn says. “That I have the utmost respect for. That's the sort of thing that can split a person in two. But I wasn't heartbroken when Don left me. I simply felt my marriage had failed. And those are very different things.”/ When Evelyn says this, I stop my pen in place. I look up at her. And I don't know why I needed Evelyn to tell me that./ I wonder why that sort of distinction has never crossed my mind before. (p. 141)

I feel for Monique and I was so taken aback by that simple difference. Because yes, feeling heartbroken is one of the few things you can account for actually feeling so deeply about another person that you can’t see a future without them in it. Feeling as if the air to breathe has been taken from you. But a marriage failing because there are instances that cannot be dealt with, and noticing that there might be a possibility of the people involved to be happier when apart… that is truly something that should be digested properly. I’ve never thought about it the way Evelyn described it to Monique. 

Chapter 28.

I had to specifically mention this chapter. This is my favorite inside the whole book. It was so well written - it could’ve been a stand-alone short story at this point. I loved the change of narration, the way the reader was suddenly put into the figure of a man pursuing a beautiful and alluring woman. How she played her cards. How everything worked so well faded into each other. This alone made me give the book 5 stars. 

I felt myself pulling back, trying to take it all in. It shouldn't have felt so scandalous, and yet it absolutely was. Women have sex for intimacy. Men have sex for pleasure. That's what culture tells us./ The idea that I'd be shown to enjoy my body, to desire the male form just as strongly as I was desired, to show a woman putting her own physical pleasure at the forefront… it felt daring. (p. 262)

This was such an obvious realization. So obvious, yet completely overlooked. Again, I applaud Reid for emphasizing this simple, yet crucial difference between sex for a man and sex for a woman. I’ve never realized how this is still carried onto movies and real life dynamics in today’s age. It honestly makes me feel taken aback. 

Evelyn shrugs slightly. “She always made sure the bad was outweighed by so much good. I… well, I didn't do that for her. I made it fifty-fifty. Which is about the cruelest thing you can do to someone you love. Give them just enough good to make them stick through a hell of a lot of bad. Of course, I realized all this when she left me. And I tried to fix it, but it was too late.” (p. 272)

This is important considering relationship dynamics as a whole. So very important. You shouldn’t disregard something so vital to a relationship because you are forcing your martyr stand-point onto the person that you’re supposedly having a relationship with. Having Hugo go completely beyond what is right and wrong by sleeping with a man in order to ‘save’ Celia and their relationship - it is too much. And above all, truly cruel. Again, marvelous way of demonstrating it and making sure it becomes a discussion topic. 

Or maybe Robert merely stumbled into something that worked for him, unsure what he wanted until he had it. Some people are lucky like that. Me, I've always gone after what I wanted with everything in me. Others fall into happiness. Sometimes I wish I was like them. I'm sure sometimes they wish they were like me. (p. 344)

This stands in a paradoxical relationship to the second quote I picked in this section. “Falling into happiness” and “going after what [one] wanted” pose parallels to the waiting of being given what one seeks and others going out of their way to take it. This is however a different context, and has to be considered with it being more abstract with Robert than it was with Evelyn marrying her first husband in order to get somewhere. Anyways, it was interesting to see such a parallel drawn, working the exact opposite way than she had advised Monique. 

Six quotes I wanted to share

“So do yourself a favor and learn how to grab life by the balls, dear. Don't be so tied up trying to do the right thing when the smart thing is so painfully clear.” (p. 30)

People think that intimacy is about sex./ But intimacy is about truth./ When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is “You’re safe with me” - that's intimacy. (p. 112)

You wonder what it must be like to be a man, to be so confident that the final say is yours. (p. 180)

It's always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly. (p. 251)

There is a difference between sexuality and sex. I used sex to get what I wanted. Sex is just an act. Sexuality is a sincere expression of desire and pleasure. That I always kept for Celia. (p. 271)

And maybe one day I'll find someone I love the way Evelyn loved Celia. Or maybe I might just find someone I love the way my parents loved each other. Knowing to look for it, knowing there are all different types of great loves out there, is enough for me for now. (p. 380)

[ctlightner]

Book Review: The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

Grade: Solid A Category: YA Trigger warnings: Body horror, intense scenes, discussion of abuse toward women, murder of women, flaying skin

Back in November, I went to YAllFest and picked up a healthy bundle of ARCs. Their release dates are starting to come up, so I thought I'd finally get to them.

The Invocations follows a trio of three young women--Zara, Jude, and Emer--all of whom are turning to witchcraft, aka cursebreaking, to solve their current problems. The book is perfectly suited to its intended age category (YA), but I think it has a lot of crossover appeal with the adult category. It starts slow and builds up speed, but goes a little too breakneck into the hairpin turn of the ending. Besides some awkward pacing toward the end and a bit of lost character arc for one of them, this is an excellent book for the young horror enthusiast who also enjoys a witchy aesthetic.

This book releases on January 30th.

Further discussion and spoilers under the cut

I might have to look into more books by this author, as I really appreciate her pacing. Although I think the climax deviates very far from the more deliberate buildup of the first hundred pages, it's not so out there that it ruins the story. The majority of the book is a well-paced whodunnit that plays off the different class strata that the main three come from. It's dark, a little gruesome, but it ends in a positive place.

It is still YA, so please don't expect a lot of subtext that asks a lot of the reader. YA is supposed to be straightforward for the sake of the main demographic, but that doesn't mean it's inherently shallow. If anything, I'd say The Invocations avoids being a "head empty, no thoughts" vibes-only book by dint of it tackling such heavy subject matter.

I do think it can be read in a very gender essentialist way, though. At one point, Emer (the one who writes the spells; the only explicit witch, as it were) says that she's written spells/curses for transwomen, as it's the soul that matters, not the physical body. Likewise, the rules of the magic say that only women can write curses, which leaves it unclear where nonbinary people exist in this world, according to its metaphysical forces. This is bypassed by completely ignoring nonbinary people. I don't think that's the best route the author could have gone, but I also don't think the book would have been enhanced by diverting several hundred words to go into the specifics of how all genders work in this world with the magic.

If the author wanted to be wholly inclusive, then she probably needed to rewrite the magic from the ground up. Which would have necessitated rewriting the plot, as part of it hinges on them not immediately suspecting a guy as the killer.

Besides that, the book manages to do a good job with its horror. There are several terrifying scenes, including one that has the potential to keep people up at night. However, I would say most of the horror comes from body horror and grotesque descriptions of the dead rather than psychological horror. The book in general steadily becomes more of a mystery as it goes on, as well.

I wish that Zara's storyline had been done better, too. She feels like the odd duck out of the trio of main characters, often doing her own thing and having her own motivations separate from Emer and Jude, which don't necessarily wrap her back in step with the others. She also suffers a small mental break at the end of a chapter that is never repeated nor built upon and is sadly forgotten by the resolution. I thought for sure it foreshadowed her becoming a villain, or at least a temporary antagonist, but no. All of the young women have tragic backstories that are softened and glossed over a bit for the sake of pacing and the age category, but Zara's feels heavier due to how interior and secretive she is. The reader is privy to her complex feelings, but she tells comparatively little to her new friends.

Regardless of that, it's a very good book. If you can ignore the gender binary of it all, then I'd highly recommend it, and I would especially recommend it for the teen in your life who's frustrated with everything and just wants to burn everything down and then retire to a cottagecore hut out in the Irish countryside.

[jet-bradley]

i talked about it in the tags of a post the other day but it really is funny to me how many people are like "tron 2.0 really is a closer sequel to tron 1982 than tron legacy! however i hate it because i struggle with [game mechanic]" like at some point just set the fucking game to easy if youre there to bask in the lore, or cheat, or watch someone else play it, like i promise you it is worth it even if youre having skill issues

but it's also so frustrating because as much as yall like to laugh about tron having an FPS sequel, i really do think tron 2.0 is a glowing example of 1) how a game *was* the perfect medium for a tron sequel specifically, 2) that game sequels can even be good at ALL in ways that compare to films or books they're supposed to continue, and 3) how a game is another immersive storytelling medium just like an amusement ride, and how especially for a company like disney with ties to both the film and amusement & attractions industry, it can serve that same niche

to knock tron 2.0 off the pedestal i always put it on, i will say one review i've read pointed out that it came out in a transitional period in the fps genre, and that's where the clunkiness in the level design comes from. but that's another similarity it has to tron (1982) imo. tron's digital animation gets laughed at because it's so dated, but they were animating it on a supercomputer because dedicated graphics processors at a scale suitable for the film industry didn't exist yet. the glowing circuits were colored over black and white films, almost like a digital take on how old silents were colored frame by frame.

like, has anyone else noticed how when something in a newer art medium, like a movie, or a video game, is bad because of the period it was made in, we immediately just call it bad? people dismiss the work that went into silent cinematography because they don't make use of camera cuts the way modern films do, when those techniques didn't exist yet because the medium was new. they make fun of the acting in silent films because it's exaggerated, but early silent actors are stage actors because film acting suitable for a camera that can capture close up shots did not exist yet. we make fun of tron's digital animation like digital animation had even been done in the film industry on the scale of tron before tron. we have the instinct to do the same for old games...

when we struggle with old arcade games, i'm talking Discs of Tron, Tron arcade cabinet, and other old games, it's always that the controls are bad, it's never that we're bad. because we grew up with them, how could we be bad at them? there's no recognition for how we grew up with games that drew from the generations of games that came before them, just like with films. tron 2.0 plays awkwardly because it's an older game, sure. but does it feel awkward because it's an awkward game, or because we're used to games that rely on their players having a sense of how to play games that built off games like tron 2.0? and the games that built off the games that built off games like tron 2.0's generation of games?

compare that to how we talk about the writings of much older authors than the film industry. when you're in high school, your teachers get ANGRY if you say that you don't like the writing of authors from the 18th century, because it's hard to parse and there's tons of sentences long enough that if you wrote them, your teachers would call them run-on sentences and mark you down a grade. and there's a reason for that; not only does it help you learn how to read at that level, giving the struggle to read it merit, but it helps you appreciate how authors learn from each others' writing and written language evolves over time. to be clear: YOUR TEACHER IS RIGHT HERE. even if it's hard to read, it's worth the struggle to become a stronger reader and it helps you appreciate modern books more.

but why don't we give that same respect to more modern mediums? how come old movies are just "antiquated" and old games are just "clunky"? is it because games and movies are more popular forms of art, and less intellectual than plays or books? in that case, why don't we do more to teach people how to appreciate where the games and films they love came from? why don't we appreciate that the struggle to work through an old game is a part of learning how to play new ones? why don't we appreciate the work people went through with genuinely antiquated tools of their medium to forge the techniques people use to create with them in the present day? why do we only offer that patience to some mediums and not others?

[deadrayg2mf]

To Touch A Dragon: A Venys Needs Men Book (Tropical Dragons 1) by Naomi Lucas

Naomi Lucas is an author who I follow due to her Naga Brides Series (and I do recommend it and may review the latest book when it comes out). I enjoy her writing style in those books and was surprised to find it was a little different when it came to this Tropical Dragon book.

The world building is minimal with maximum effect. There is a map at the beginning of the book to help with geography and the mentions of the world's situation, though brief, give the reader the full insight into what they need to know pertaining to the story. Of course, I'm sure there is more world building later on as the Tropical Dragon's is a trilogy. Even though I noticed the slim amount of this I was not displeased by it.

The story follows Issa who is the future matriarch of her tribe who is currently escorting her younger brother to their neighboring tribe for him to take a bride. While there she learns a rumor regarding dragons and how a touch from a human can bring them to human form. There is also some stuff going on with a comet.Oh, also there's not a whole lot of men in the world (nice). I'll be honest, I am not sure if this was the actual first book of the series or if I may have jumped in somewhere in the middle... The Good Reads page says 6 of 10 so I am betting on the latter...

Anyways! Finding this rumor, and having heard the calls of a dragon during her travels, Issa decides to venture into the forbidden jungle and see if she can come across one who she can call her own. To her surprise, Issa is capsized as a giant earth/water dragon rises from the river to answer the calls of the femdragon (yeah... I may have cringed at that actual wording in the book) raging around the forest. Believing she is clinging to a tree; Issa finds herself hoisted from the water upon the dragons tail and after being tossed she watches the seriously painful sounding process of him turning into a human.

Let me be clear, that cover photo is exactly what we are working with (all hail the mightily hot cover photo with good photoshop). Kaos, the dragon man, is a serious case of whiplash. He is immediately furious that this human has stolen away his immortality, dragon form, and possibility to mate with another dragon. Like, supremely pissed that he is now bonded to a human. However, that lasts all of.. idk, a few hours? A day at most? He very quickly turns around to liking Issa... But then does somethings to seem like he hates her? But then likes her... He's a bit temperamental... He's probably going through a lot. He is also naked for a good while as they are walking through the jungle and the bit where she discusses him not hitting her in the back with his giant dick is very funny.

The smut is good, there isn't a ton of it, but I think it was definitely just the right amount. I really find that I was, frankly, more interested in the story than the smut. Which is a characteristic of Naomi Lucas' writing that I really enjoy. A lot of books I go into just because it's supposed to be righteously dirty, but I will gladly place Naomi in my top 5 monster fucker authors due to her ability to weave a fun and interesting story with some quality smut.

Overall, this story is interesting, I think I may find the correct order of books and dive into it. This one specifically is also an easy read (only 166 pages). I'm currently working on getting myself out of a burn out and I think this was the perfect read to pick up to get me back into the reviewing business. I didn't have to really work to get through it and I was able to idly enjoy it without getting frustrated by anything. 7/10

(Okay so there is actually one part at the beginning where I thought they were saying Tulia (Issa's sister) was the youngest but later on they said Issa was, but after going back I realize I just read the first part wrong, so this was the only thing I caught that I was like; hmmm... but it's actually fine)

Would I read again? Yeah

Would I recommend? Yes! I think it is quite enjoyable!

[blorbology]

The other day I was thinking about the fact that I've been told my longer fics are written in a fairly unique way. While I view this observation as neither negative nor positive (it is what it is), I thought it might be interesting to dig into that particular topic more.

I feel like writing style works similarly to artistic style: you tend to come into your own eventually after enough practice and work at your craft. I couldn't actually cite a specific writer as inspiration for my writing style (or "voice" I suppose), but I also tend to not want to mimic prose styles—not even the ones I like the most. Because of this, even my earliest "writing voice" would probably feel somewhat familiar to anyone used to my work.

It feels weird to say I've always had a stable writing voice, but that's more or less the truth for me. I've bettered it over the years (versus finding it the way some do), but I think I've always felt secure in what I had. It probably helped that the old days of FFN gave me hundreds of reviews on 'fics and a lot of encouragement.

A long time ago, I saw a piece of fanart I really liked, and sought to redraw it in real life. This was the early 2000s, maybe 2002 or 2003. It was an MLP fanart of...I want to say Glory and Baby Glory (from the 80s), and I redid it on a huge piece of paper I'd taken from my school's art room. I busted ass to replicate the piece. It was a great replica, actually, and I posted it online, eager to share my hard work. I'm sure you can imagine what happened! The community recognized the source immediately and was annoyed with me. They scolded me for copying an artist, explained why that wasn't a good idea, and I never did it again. (I felt stupid but I realized that day that nobody cared how well I could replicate someone else's hard work; people wanted to see my spin on the idea.)

After that, I always had my own very recognizable style of art and I didn't seek to recreate the work of others, even if I liked it a lot. I just started drawing what I wanted how I wanted to do it—in my own style.

While I found many things to like about the prose of friends and published authors, I never tried to mimic someone else's prose wholesale. I've never even been tempted by it; writing like someone else feels so incredibly unnatural; I'd sooner give up writing entirely than tell my stories the way someone else would.

That said, this post isn't really about writing "voice" so much as the specific way I tend to tell stories, though I do think actual writing style factors in here, and I'll get to that in a second.

My favorite genre of fiction for a good number of years was historical "inspirational" fiction. You may laugh if you wish, but I grew up in a very strict Christian household, and...frankly there wasn't much literature to choose from. My mom loved doing "daily devotions" and at some point, on the recommendation of someone else, she started reading us "Love Comes Softly" by Janette Oke. All four of us kids really loved it. We memed the hell out of it and to this day we have at least one in-joke based on it. It was part of a long book series, and eventually I read them all. This book tackled a surprising amount of issues, including domestic violence, and had a great trope that I still adore: a marriage of convenience.

I was obsessed with Janette Oke's books after that. Roses for Mama, The Bluebird and the Sparrow, A Bride for Donnigan, the four-book seasons series, and They Called Her Mrs. Doc. There were plenty more, but those were some of the most iconic to me.

If you didn't know, the very specific subgenre of Historical Inspirational Romance Fiction (can I call it HIRF?) tends to read similarly across the genre. Some novels play up the romance a little more, some the relationships between the characters, some the faith aspect, but generally speaking these books tend to have predictable elements. The male lead usually has a bestie he's emotionally vulnerable and open to. The female lead's friends, siblings, and/or other family members are important to her and play a role in the story. These stories tend to feature or utilize animals. There is almost always a focus on relationships overall, in every story. In Roses for Mama a family of four is orphaned and the oldest two siblings raise the youngest two and run the farm. The primary relationships are between the four siblings and their friend group(s). The challenges of "parenting" siblings are here. Kids tend to act like kids in these books too. There are huge varieties in the ages of characters and some young women have best friends who are decades older than they are. Some of these writers are very serious too about being accurate regarding the places they're writing about (coal towns full of immigrants who are mistreated by the coal companies for example).

The first book I loved was I'll Always Love You by Hans Wilhelm. The Velveteen Rabbit also holds a place in my heart.

Relationships are ALWAYS at the core of everything I write these days. I love exploring how people affect the world around them. I like to write about the complexities of sibling relationships and friendships over the years. I love history and how "the times" impacted the way relationships worked. HIRF was foundational to me as a reader and a lot of those elements are things I have chosen to carry with me. Everything I write is about a character journey more than it's about anything else.

Yes, I want to write about the blorbos in situations, but these situations are a means to an end. I want the situation to happen but I want to explore every facet of how it affects the blorbos.

Dumping a baby on Raine in Break Open the Sky was a way to explore a character trying to do the right thing but feeling completely overwhelmed by it. It was about breaking cycles and doing better for the next generation. It was about choices, about how difficult they can be to make even when they're selfish. And it was about learning to trust and love while finally having a place and the safety to begin healing from trauma. The baby was the means to that end—a plot vehicle, yes, but hopefully she didn't feel that way because she had her own needs and impacted the story right to the very end.

I think my particular writing style, my "voice" if you will, lends itself well to this particular type of slow-burn character-study-esque storytelling. I try to hit a middle ground with descriptions and write a lot of engaging dialogue. I try to write people being people without being too sparse or detailed. Both sparse and detailed writing have their places and genres they do really well in, but in the very weird subgenre of writing I've nestled into I do think my voice tells the story to satisfaction.

As to what subgenre I'm writing in... I honestly don't know what to call it. It's like HIRF in spirit, but I tend to substitute more "adult" themes for the romance and have less or no focus on religious faith (though it depends on the characters). I don't actually think there's a name for it, though of course if someone has a name for it, I'd be happy to learn what it is. In the meantime I'll just consider what I write to be HIRF-adjacent.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Title: Anathem

Author: Neal Stephenson

Rating: 5/5 stars

Here I was thinking about starting another Stephenson reading, but I've been so charmed by this one that I decided to just make an immediate post instead.

First, I'd want to emphasize what a weird combination this one is. Stephenson's fiction writing tends to have at least some serious content and some light entertainment, and that's the way it's often framed -- as "light reading with a premise and a punchline." But Anathem has very few of the former and a lot of the latter: it's more like "light reading with an premise, and a punchline," in the sense that it's full of funny one-liners (often ones with no connection to what went before or what follows) and full of serious moments (often ones with no connection to either). A good example, although by no means the only one, is this opening paragraph:

In a certain sense, all ideas were like butterflies: they came into being out of pure necessity. That is, they came from nowhere -- and once they had appeared, you could never get rid of them.

Most of Stephenson's fiction is just like this -- I don't think he's written a book that contains the sentence, "A certain man," without an example that follows immediately after. (If you have to search for it, you will find it.) A lot of Stephenson's fiction is kind of like this; not every book but enough, I'd say, that his whole oeuvre has this sort of thing.

So Anathem has a pretty specific thing it's doing and, unfortunately, it really doesn't seem like a good fit with a lot of Stephenson readers who like his more serious work.

Anyway, Anathem was interesting enough that I enjoyed reading it and I wanted to write a review about it, so it's gotten its own post instead of being buried in a pile. It's now a "read more" link.

Anathem is, without any doubt or exaggeration, my favorite novel. I don't know what Stephenson was thinking with this book. I have no idea how much Anathem is supposed to be about anything or if it's supposed to be a joke. I don't think it is intended as a parody of any book, in fact I suspect Stephenson himself has never read anything like Anathem, so I can't imagine it's meant to be a satire. It's a kind of fiction that doesn't make any sense at all without having absorbed all kinds of other Stephenson fiction first. Stephenson is writing a book in a style which seems perfectly suited for his other novels, without any real reference to either (I'm writing this on a Kindle and I can't see the references to any of his other works in Anathem). Anathem may be meant as a parody, but then again, it may not be. It may be the kind of thing you might write if you wanted to poke fun at someone's specific set of interests and opinions, and weren't really sure if you could make a work of art out of that. Anathem is a little like someone trying to write a book in an over-complicated version of the style of Stephenson's novels, and not quite sure what to do with that premise. But what's so amazing is the idea of anyone writing anything like Anathem in earnest. The idea that there's a novel (one of many) written this way in the world, just waiting to be found. It's a wild, disconcerting, exhilarating concept, and it's so clearly Stephenson's work that it somehow manages to be startling in a way that's like no other fiction has ever done.

[readingqueerbooks]

[“there were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.”]

a little life — hanya yanagihara [ 4/5 ★ ]

god where do i start. i have a lot of thoughts after finishing this book — it was loooooong. a little too long, maybe? i feel like it still could have gotten its point across had it been a little shorter. the writing style is also a little unconventional and took me a few chapters to really appreciate, but that being said, it was still arguably very well-written. i have highlights and tabs and annotations on nearly every page.

one thing i will say before i really get into anything else is PLEASE take the trigger warnings seriously. this book is basically just trauma after trauma after trauma and it’s all very graphic (more so than i was expecting even after reading multiple reviews). there are like two happy moments in the whole book lmao.

but the CHARACTERS. oh my god the characters. specifically jude and willem. they were absolutely wonderful. incredibly well-rounded (which i suppose you’d expect with a book of 800+ pages but still) and written so beautifully — you really feel for them. jude’s point of view especially hits hard. his perspective is so sad and extremely traumatic but he is such a beautiful character, you can’t help but love him immediately. not gonna lie, i cried several times reading about jude and his experiences throughout the book (i love him… So much).

however, i don’t know if i would necessarily suggest this book to anyone. it was honestly very hard to read at some points, albeit being a beautifully written book. if you do read it (and if you like audiobooks) i would highly suggest the audiobook. i’m not usually a fan of audiobooks myself, but i grew very attached to the narrator and his way of telling the story and especially his portrayal of the characters. it was probably my favourite audiobook i’ve ever listened to. all in all, this book was undeniably an a piece of literary genius and my kudos go to the author for creating something so heartbreakingly beautiful.

synopsis:

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

[187days]

Day Fifty-Three

I gained a large amount of followers over the long weekend, so, assuming at least some of y’all aren’t bots, hi people! Welcome to a new week in my teaching world!

It snowed this morning. It was just a flurry, but it was still jarring after days of unseasonably warm weather. My seniors kept looking out the windows and shaking their heads because it was also bright and sunny. One of them said the weather was as disorganized as they were, which is fair on an early Monday morning. And then I made them discuss economic policy. KABOOM.

I did bring donuts, and, really, all I was doing was reviewing stuff they’d read last week to make sure they understood it. Like, they read that the Fed tries to control inflation by raising interest rates, I asked them to explain how that worked (and, when no one spoke up, I helped them figure it out). I got some good questions about supply and demand, and more specifically about the policies the government enacted during the pandemic (since they read an article about that). My big thing was making sure they could see who the policymakers were, how they interacted, how that related to course concepts (ie- delegated discretionary authority). Then we tackled natsec policy, which was nice and spicy since my real world examples are the trade war with China and our involvement in the war in Ukraine. More on that tomorrow. 

My World students were supposed to finish reading their books by today (most did) and come in ready to write papers. I started by going over the instructions with them. Then we read an example paper, and I asked students to tell me what kind of information was in each part of the paper, so we could build an outline. We read a second paper, too, so they could see that there are some variations in the structure, but that the basic information within it stays the same. And then they started writing, and I feel confident that they’re set up for success.

Fun thing: the students in Block 3 desperately want a movie day, and they want to watch Kung Fu Panda. I gave them a chance to earn this by turning in some paperwork I needed at the start of the quarter, but I required a 100% turn in rate, which they did not achieve. So today, one of them jokingly tried to bribe me with a dollar. Then she suggested that the class should get the movie day if she got an A on her paper, and I said, “You’re a brilliant writer. Of course you’re going to get an A” because this particular student needs the confidence boost. But then another student proposed a movie day if everyone in the class gets an A (then amended it to A or B), and his classmates instantly got on board with that. I may prefer intrinsic motivation to extrinsic, but sometimes the best thing to do when a class unites behind a plan is to say yes. 

So I did.

We’ll see what they can do!