#like there are so many other authors and novels that deserve the hype

[foxfeast]

some of y’all are about to be real mad at me, but it must be said…….. mxtx is overhyped

[liaa--qb]

why sudden hate on darklinas if team green stans rha*nicent, rhaegon ? Atleast Darklina was meant to be canon

Oh God🤦🏻‍♀️ !!!!!! Who is hating darklinas... moreover just bcz I mentioned them once😭 ( btw it was hated enough by it's author herself🤣 I can very much say that after wasting my time grisha books. sorry not sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Before commenting anything some of u really need to read with open eyes n brain instead of ass.

I never hated darklinas or Darkling. I ship them too. Atleast book or whole story should be good enough to even hate or like any character first of all which it never had😑. Darklina is like very much any problematic random Ya bad guy and good girl silly ships u see on daily basis. Nothing more bad than any other Ya ships.

( LB n SJM are not even good writer. I don't like their work at all. Just over hyped to me. Honestly I still think how snb was not cancelled just after S1. If u have problem wf one of my post which wasn't even about them🤷🏻‍♀️ it's ur delulu headache buddy. I don't even involve with them much someone just asked me including Darkling's name that's y I replied... Btw I knew this would happen, bc If someone points one bad thing, all of them will cry their ass out.)

the point was something else n ur question is also wrong. Problematic has nothing to do with canon or non canon for ur info. Majority of YA canon ships are problematic but you can like whatever the f u want.

I never said that Rhaenicent is any healthy ship. Rhaenicent, Daemyra, alysmond , helaegon n majority of ships in hotd are problematic. It's just their Stans fighting is like one idiot jumping on another idiot.That's what I am always mentioning. That's just funny and extremely stupid to like one problematic ship or character n attacking on Stans of other problematic ships n characters.

Some of them shamelessly fight as if their life depends on it. It's really dumb honestly 😂. No one is stopping them btw they can do the heck they want to but also they should not even have problem if someone is pointing out their silliness that's it🤷🏻‍♀️. It's a free fandom ! Just bcz I mentioned some of TB Stans hyporcrisy once , idiots thought I am team green when I am srsly far away from this nursery kid color fight

Same way many of green stans also developed this stupid habit of making their characters as pure Angels just because of the changes done by the show itself which is rubbish instead of that they should really go for better storyline for every character. " Them saying no one should support TB after BnC is....😑" Like y ? Not saying that it was bad but bad things were done from both sides. Aemond n Daeron would have done way worse with Jace n strong boys if all their parents were dead honestly.

just like Alicent's anger on Aemond losing an eye was absolutely correct that same way Rhaenyra's anger was also justified, so would Helaena's anger as she and her children were having no fault in all of this

You can like the villian and their reasons for becoming the villain but I would not say they didn't deserve their death or punishment n I would not give any apology reasons ' like no he wasn't the bad guy or he wasn't a villian'. That's what I am always pointing but logic and GOT/FNB die hard Stans are never at same place 🤡

And regarding ur take one darkling or Darklina, I don't hate Darkling but ye he's not among my fav villians or any good written at all. Not only him, I don't like any single character from that book.

If I love Homelander, Klaus, soldier boy, Tom riddle, Rafe, Billy, Jerome, Roose bolton, Euron Greyjoy.., do you really think I would be anti Darkling or care fr him enough 😂 like these r just some tv screen villains I like but if I started talking about my actual favourite bad guys from Grim dark fantasy novels like Jorg ancrath n many more, Darkling would look like little twink infront of them😭

so pls think.. using your brain is not a big deal 🙏🏻

[fairys-book-reviews]

The 100: Homecoming - Kass Morgan (7/10)

Just as I write this, I realise I infact read the third book of the series, and not the first, or even the second.

No matter, though. While I don't know much about the events of the first and second book, this one adequately explained the important events.

I finished this book maybe a week ago, and I wrote up a review in my book directly after, I've simply been procrastinating typing it up (I'm an expert procrastinator...)

Either way, it may be because I havent read the other books in the series yet, but i don't think that this would be one of the books that sticks with me (to be fair, over the past 5 years only maybe 20 of probably around 500 have....), although I did enjoy it!

To my pre-written review, though.

I'd heard of the 100 many times in the past, although I'd never quite figured out the plot. Going into this movel, I'd assumed it was the first (quite wrongly) and when I'd realised, I couldnt particularly bother finding the first. And its not like this was a long read, finished it in just a few nights, with only an hour or so of reading each night.

Starting with the characters. I'll be honest, it wasnt too hard to figure out the main ones (as it switched between their perspectives). Bellamy, Wells, Clarke and Glass, but also Sasha and Luke, with Rhodes as the main villain.

This book opened from Glass' perspective, and it took me a while to gain my bearings (Likely because its the third book, and I havent read the first). Hers and Lukes side of the story seemed wholly unesscary to add in, and its not shown particularly often either. Mostly just flashes of her scared, confused, or acting in love with her boyfriend, Luke. Her prime motivator also appears to simply be Luke. I believe that her perspective was only added, as it was likely a main one in the other two stories...

Luke. In this book, he wasnt too fleshed out (potentially because they did that in the first book), but he seems like a nice moral and rule abiding guy.

Bellamy was probably my favourite. I found him a bit shallow in the start (although I had no background context), But he's funny, bold, loyal, and caring, although quite reckless. He's out of action and unable to fight for most of the story, due to one of the earlier events.

Clarke is said by Glass to be coldly professional, but if I'm being honest, I couldnt see that. She seems nice, seems to know her job, and in my opinion is really quite cool.

Wells seems cool too, and we definitely see parts of his past portrayed in his personality. He seemed quite a real and pretty good guy. Shame what happened to Sasha, though.

Sasha seemed like a sweet girl, she really didnt deserve her fate.

Rhodes. The novel really was quite good in portraying him as bad, and I'll be honest, I was quite disappointed by how they didnt kill him in the end, but i suppose it makes sense.

Now, onto the worldbuilding. I get the feeling that i probably missed most of that stuff, as itd have been in the first two books, but after a bit i did understand most of it fairly well.

The plot doesnt seem too original either. Group of teens, with the wrong authority figure, wishing to be able to control their own lives.... but either way it wasnt bad!

Overall, pretty good book. Its fame hyped it up a bit much, but eh. 7/10. Read if you wanna, it's interesting but not the type i'd fangirl about. Might read the first few books though, I'm interested in Bellamy.

[gemsofgreece]

Ancient Greece left a mark in myths and literature, but do you know any Byzantine stories that are worth being recognised? Also do you know any stories by modern Greek authors that deserve the same hype as the old ones?

Yes! The issue with Byzantine literature is that too little survives and even less survives in full, which is a result of both the relentless warring and invasions of the Byzantine Empire from west and east alike and the loud indifference regarding the preservation of anything Byzantine for the longest time, as opposed to the mania with Ancient Greek literature.

Regarding Byzantine fiction in specific, which is what I think you are asking, I think three romance novels survive and an epic poetic one. That last one is the trademark of Byzantine literature:

Basil Digenés Akritas (Βασίλειος Διγενής Ακρίτας), 9 - 10th Century

This versed epic novel is the best known amongst the acritic songs. Those poems were about the exploits of the akrites, meaning the soldiers / guards living and protecting the borders of the Byzantine empire. Digenes Akritas was a hero coming from two different bloodlines, as also evident by his epithet "Digenes", his father was a Saracen emir and his mother was of Byzantine Greek noblility in Cappadocia. Digenes has essentially supernatural power - there are herculian parallels - and he is not infallible in his morals - the story narrates his bravery, manliness, exploits and romance(s), and his piety - in a paradoxical combo truly few could master as much as the Byzantines.

Erotókritos (Ερωτόκριτος), 16 - 17th Century

The monumental versed romance of post-Byzantine and very early Modern Greece is this classic of Cretan literature, composed by Vitsentzos Kornaros. Incidentally getting written the same time as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I will go fully on record saying it's better than Romeo and Juliet. The reason I make this comparison at all is because the general concept is similar, although it unfolds entirely differently in the process; the forbidden love between two young people and the fierce objection of the parents. And also, because I don't get the fuss around R&J. Anyway, apart from the concept, the story is different, it's a friends to lovers, not enemies to lovers, one is a royal, the other is not, and the main character is , again, a super skilled warrior on top of everything else. The story is also set in a fantastical multi-Greek world: it's officially set in Ancient Athens, but it has Byzantine, Cretan, Greek folk and Frankish elements. The lovestory of Erotokritos and Aretusa remains the ultimate Greek romance and the poem has turned into folk songs that are well known and loved by all of us. The Cretan literature of the time produced more notable works, such as Erophile, which is super morbid and dark as hell, but I don't know much about it yet so I can't recommend it.

As for Modern Greek literature, I am going to state another potentially surprising opinion. I do not consider myself an expert at it, however from the little I've read I like it wayyyy more than Ancient Greek literature, excluding the Homeric epics. Granted, it might have to do with how each can possibly resonate with us but it's also about the prose. This is subjective but I LOVE modern Greek prose and poetry. My mouth always threatens to drool when reading the Skiathitic dialect of Papadiamantis *shrug*.

You didn't ask about poetry but modern Greek poetry is 100% verified drool worthy. I don't know if you know Greek though, certainly translations aren't equal to the real thing. Still, I recommend the poetry of Odysseus Elytis, Giorgos Seferis, Constantine Cavafy, Giannis Ritsos, Nikos Kavvadias, Dionysios Solomos and so many more.

As for prose, I will start as a broken record once more, with the short novel "The Murderess" (Η Φόνισσα) by Alexandros Papadiamantis. You need no more description, that's all.

Here is a list of the 200 best modern Greek novels, as voted by readers. It's in Greek though. I didn't know it, but the Murderess is the most upvoted. I approve.

I will add nine more from this list to make a random Top 10 of classics:

Ματωμένα Χώματα (Bloody Earth) by Dido Sotiriou, 1962

Ένα παιδί μετράει τ' άστρα (A child counts the stars) by Menelaus Loudemis, 1956

Παραμύθι χωρίς όνομα (Fairytale without a name) by Penelope Delta, 1910

Η Μεγάλη Χίμαιρα (The Great Chimaera) by Manolis Karagatsis, 1953

Η Ζωή εν Τάφω (Life in the Grave) by Stratis Myrivilis, 1924

Ο Χριστός ξανασταυρώνεται (Christ, Recrucified) by Nikos Kazantzakis, 1948

Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά (Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas) by Nikos Kazantzakis, 1946 (also known as "Zorbas the Greek" abroad...)

Το Τρίτο Στεφάνι (The Third Marriage) by Kostas Tachtsis, 1962

Η Πάπι��σα Ιωάννα (Popess Johanna) by Emmanuel Roides, 1866

Το Νούμερο 31328 (Number 31328) by Ilias Venetis, 1931

[televinita]

Reading Triage

Well it's been almost a month since the last (library) one, so off we go; lots to be immediately excited about!

1. Hurricane Summer - Asha Bromfield: current read, roughly 50% in. It's painful how awful some of her relatives are, and I'm baffled that she gets so upset about her aunt calling her a slut for super innocent behaviors only to...immediately get frisky with the first boy who charms her?? Truly not beating the allegations here -- but it's also incredibly beautiful writing about a setting and culture I truly don't think I've read before (Jamaica, especially from the perspective of a Canadian citizen).

[edit: loved it]

2. Even If It Breaks Your Heart - Erin Hahn: 60% done but I've been working on this one for 3 solid weeks now, struggling thru first audio and then ebook on phone, then learned that county next door FINALLY bought a physical copy after all. Part of the struggle is formatting, but the rest is that it wants and deserves to be 4 stars so bad, but the You'd Be Mine-levels of jackhole in this love interest are dragging it down.

[edit: it did not get better but I finished]

3. Queen of Junk Island - Alexandra Mae Jones: so damned pretty that I'm reading it despite the fact that it's literally just a mid-2000s queer YA novel that had to wait until its author was old enough to publish it in 2022, in terms of both being set then and having its entire focus on becoming aware of/coming to terms with her non-straight sexuality. Which was absolutely never the kind of book I looked for. But I REALLY want the story of them cleaning up the family cottage from all the trash a previous renter left there. (side note: how did I manage to randomly pick two Canadian authors from my shelf browsing??).

[edit: worst book of the year with zero competition]

4. The Wishing Game - Meg Schaffer: I kicked it back unread last time but my request in the county next door has just come through. I really hope I love this one. Everyone I trust does, and it really seems up my alley, but I'm so terrified of reading this at the Wrong Time and it coming up short that I'm actually scared to start.

[edit: it was really lovely! glad I got to it]

5. Liar's Beach - Katie Cotugno: seems like a good summer YA thriller, and it has a sequel (companion book?) coming out in August.

[edit: I have read so many YA horror/thrillers this summer but I didn't quite get to this one. Later!]

6. The Dare - Natasha Preston: I'm expecting even less from this one than The Haunting, but it was available so what the hell. And at least this one actually takes place in summer.

[edit: least interesting of the 4 I've read from her, and an I Know What You Did Last Summer knockoff, but still worth it]

7. Between You, Me & the Honeybees - Amelia Diane Coombs: I don't like "our families are business rivals" stories, but I DO like stories about teens who would rather stay home and work for the family business than go to college, and this cover is so pretty that I'm ready to give it a shot.

[edit: the rivalry wasn't even an issue for me, and though I did have other things that weren't my favorite, this was an incredible YA contemporary]

8. The Spellshop - Sarah Beth Durst: releases in 2 days and will be bumped to IMMEDIATELY NEXT in the queue as soon as my library makes it available (I'm first in line). I'm trying to contain my excitement and moderate my hype levels but it's too pretty!!!!

[edit: five solid stars, everything I hoped for and more, one of the best books of the year]

9. (MAYBE) The Middle of the Night - Riley Sager: I don't think I'm high enough up in the request line to get this by the end of the month, but if it does happen to come in, this is the other book I'll drop everything for to read ASAP. My interest in this is mostly FOMO, and I'm kind of annoyed to have been caught up in it because EVERYONE reads his books immediately upon release, but I do generally enjoy them.

[edit: didn't arrive in time but definitely coming in August]

10. (MAYBE) Out On A Limb - Hannah Bonam-Young: I have read surprisingly little straightforward adult romance this year and I'm kind of missing it. I've had this hold paused for a bit but I might be ready to un-pause it soon.

[author's note: but then I wasn't!]

BONUS: AUDIOBOOKS

The Hundred and One Dalmatians - Dodie Smith (it is so hard not to shorten the title to 101!): a reread of a book I remember surprisingly little from for something I put on my "Top 100 Books Of All Time" list at age 19, but still remember fondly, because I got desperate & squirrelly for something to help me fall asleep.

[edit: not sure it would still make the list now but still really enjoyed]

2. Marvel's What If... Loki Was Worthy - Madeleine Roux: library doesn't have a physical copy, which is annoying because I hate reading on my phone but I also don't know if I can tolerate an audiobook that doesn't have the Correct Voices (though I really liked the 5 minutes of sample I heard), so I've been having to juggle this one until I can get both formats at the same time on Libby, to switch between them.

TBQH, my excitement for this has died down a little since I found out about in December (didn't release until April), but at this point I've been waiting long enough that I just kind of Want To Know.

[edit: what a fun cracky time, recommended]

[crowtrobotx]

I didn’t know if you were comfortable having your last post reblogged or if it was personal but i just wanna say i absolutely agree. i find myself doing the same w comparing kudos and comments and hits with other works that have more ‘mainstream’ tags and pairings. and it sucks. not only since i don’t like comparing creative works but because those works also deserve appreciation. they just get a lot more attention than works with the same passion and dedication behind them that just. don’t fit the rest of the fandom’s very limited focus.

i’m not gonna put myself on that list bc i have a lot more practice to do when it comes to novel-style writing (i’m better w scripts or just crafting stories in general) but the amount of god tier fics (like your own) have so much genuine love put into them that get crumbs of praise of what they wholly deserve when compared with other stuff. IT SUCKS. i wish fandom would start encouraging people to explore different stories or just. like you said. find stuff past their comfort level. AND THEY MIGHT FIND SMTH THEY LIKE. either way they’ll make a less appreciated author really happy someone checked out their stuff.

also unrelated but people would have a much normal approach to fanfiction if they branched out. people have a very limited view on derivative fiction bc they don’t search past the occasional smut one shot.

Okay now that I am not dead and deceased I can formulate a response. 💀 but YES these are my exact thoughts! esp the last part!

Like I obviously don’t think folks who create for whatever’s popular in the moment are somehow Bad - and I completely understand why artists in particular who make a significant income on their comms/fan art have to stay abreast of the current hype trains, as sucky as it is - but I dunno. I see those posts go around from time to time like “let’s hear it for the under-appreciated works!” and they get SO many likes/reblogs and it’s like….. lmao okay but where are all you people on AO3/in the notes of the fics posted here???

I know I’ve been posting about the same game/old man for over two years now so me saying ‘maybe folks should branch out’ might sound hypocritical but truly, I do fear that the very narrow focus in some fans/fandoms, as you said, is pushing even professional creators to start making things that feed into those desires. Because it’s profitable and guaranteed to have reach, which in the end results not in art but a product.

I so appreciate your compliments btw and I am gritting my teeth trying to accept them without insisting that I am undeserving lol. Your fic is honestly so wonderful too and I want to run around holding it up to everyone I see like Patrick doing the “YOU LOOK AT IT” scene in SpongeBob. Ily thank you for always ranting with me in my inbox, our galaxy brains are truly not appreciated in our time.

[libraryofnika]

࿐ྂ 𝙰 𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚋𝚢 𝙰𝚜𝚑𝚕𝚎𝚢 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗 ʙᴏᴏᴋ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ ࿐ྂ

𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐚, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐭. 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝—𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫—𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭. 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬. 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐝. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞.

౨ৎ

This novel has been on my radar ever since I found this book and has been put on my radar/ anticipated releases of this year. I was really happy and satisfied to be finally reading it and understanding the hype around it, especially on booktwt once this was released 🫶

I was planning on posting my A Novel Love Story review tomorrow, but I'll just do it now since I seem to can't stay still 🤣

౨ৎ

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: 𝟺⭐️

I didn't know what to expect when I started this, but the premise that it's marketed, and that's that. However, this novel made me feel seen in many ways. The whole 'transported to your favorite book' premise is exactly what I've been dreaming and something I want or wish or pray for myself *cough *Sylus *cough. Other than that, I've been hit with heavy Emily Henry vibes but way lighter, especially when I read Beach Read. Another thing I love is that Eileen's voice is definitely prominent, or should I say notable, because of how relatable she is for me as a reader, especially in the whole plot for me and I really love that for this. Furthermore, the relationship with the characters, especially with Pru, I really appreciated it. The same goes for the other important characters. It was well executed, in my opinion. For Anderson and Eileen's romance, on the other hand, I don't think it was slow burn? I definitely felt and think that their chemistry department was lacking? Even if that's the case, I really did still enjoy the romance. I also think that I unconsciously have been aware of what's the twist is along the way and at the same time, and it is quite wrong and right in some aspects. Also, the shock when Liam appeared at the end almost made me feral BECAUSE WHY?? I'm already dealing with a heartbreak of Eileen leaving the town and thinking THIS WAS NOT HEA?? But our glorious author made it up to me and gave us that well-deserved HEA that every reader should have 🫶 Overall, I enjoyed this so much. I'm definitely reading more from this author, and PLEASE SOMEONE WRITE M0RE NOVELS LIKE THIS 😭

Adding also some of the highlights I made that really spoke to me on the last part of this post 🫶 I've also added 2 books from the same author on my Kindle: The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics 🩷 Highly recommended this novel to my romance readers 🩷

Bookstagram Booktwt Goodreads

[comicreliefmorlock]

I do read more than a book a week and I've been doing it for most of my life because I just... can't not read.

No, it has nothing to do with being Intelligent™ or the like. Books are just the most easily accessible and enjoyable form of entertainment for me, and my ADHD generously DOESN'T ruin reading for me. (If anything, it improves it because I can't stand around waiting for coffee if I'm not reading, I HAVE to be entertained CONSTANTLY.)

And I do actually enjoy all the reading I do! (Even if I end up hating some of the books and/or authors. Fuck you, Danielle Steel.) I can't say that I run across many 'groundbreaking' books because when you read a LOT, you're reading mostly 'eh, this was okay' fiction.

However, in this year alone I've found some really great books that I hadn't read before. (I only have first initials for authors b/c that's how I jotted 'em down, oops.)

Swordspoint - E. Kushner [I should've read this two decades ago] The High Crusade - P. Anderson [Fun!] The Bone Orchard - S. Mueller [Such a COOL concept!] Hell Followed With Us - A. White [AMAZING] Briar Rose - J. Yolen [I should've read this decades ago] Fairy Tale - S. King [I just enjoy Stephen King] The Library of Fates - A. Khorana [rich prose] Amygdala - S. Fennah [REALLY long but hella worldbuilding] A House with Good Bones - T. Kingfisher [AMAZING] Gideon the Ninth - T. Muir [This entire series took me by the throat] Blaze - S. King [I hadn't read this... it's so SAD] How to Sell a Haunted House - G. Hendrix [I will buy everything he writes] Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher [Same with this author, just SO good] Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher - B. Schillace [nonfiction] Lavinia - U. LeGuin [I shouldn't have to explain a LeGuin novel being good :D] Camp Damascus - C. Tingle [deserves every bit of hype] Dr. Mutter's Marvels - C. Aptowicz [nonfiction] {Also literally everything by Tanith Lee is amazing and I will never back down from that opinion.}

From January to September, those are the books that really stood out to me. I might have more by the end of the year because there's always just... SO many more books I haven't read yet.

[I started keeping track of books I'd read because it's a lot easier to tell someone 'oh I read this amazing book in April' if I can flip through my 'books read' notebook and find the title/author and how I coded it. ADHD = memory issues so ... writing it down helps!]

And sometimes I can't tell books apart (especially masses of thrillers because the mid-level 'eh they're fine to pass the time' thrillers are very formulaic) which is also why I write them down. That way if I see a title is vaguely familiar, I can check my list and be like "okay I read that author's OTHER book in March, that's why the NAME is familiar, let's give this a shot."

[astrophyta]

Reading rambles?

so uh I’ve been among other things catching up on a very long to-read list of fiction that’s sitting in my apartment cluttering my space up and I do kinda want to just talk about some of the reads to the void instead of on a platform like goodreads so that’s what this tag will be for, I suppose? my reading speed is pretty slow so these won’t be frequent

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

This book has a pretty bad rep for being preachy about climate change amongst a lot of reviews I’ve seen, but tbh with the exception of maybe one scene I read last night where Ovid has an Ecology Professor Meltdown in front of a newsreporter who felt more like a caricature the second time around than in her first appearance, I have to say I disagree, and the aforementioned scene is probably my biggest gripe with the book so far (with less than 40 pages to go, though).

A lot of people do not like Dellarobia either. She is emotionally cheating on her husband for the majority of the work, the novel opening with her attempt to flee her family life to go be with some younger guy she doesn’t seem to know very well. No one has to like a character, even when their flaws are addressed and fleshed out and the author makes no excuses for them, but for me Dellarobia’s response to her lot in life makes perfect sense even if it isn’t pretty or likable. She was smart and curious enough to have gone to college, something unheard of in her small hometown, but she got knocked up by her now-husband and failed her ACT. Her parents are both dead and had very little money to their name despite her mother (iirc) running a successful business of making and mending clothes in town. Her husband’s family are farmers. Until meeting Dr. Byron, she is a stay-at-home mom pinching and scraping pennies to feed her family and literally keep the lights on. It is due to an ecological disaster that she is given her first job, one that pays more than what her husband makes - serving as a lab technician for a make-shift research group operating out of her family’s barn, the best spot in town to be close to an unusual phenomenon of a monarch butterfly migration wintering in tennessee when they would normally be in mexico.

Dellarobia loves her children. she tries her best to love her husband. she plays wife, daughter-in-law, and mother as best as she can, but she knows her life is also the result of a mistake she made as a teenager and that it might not have been so hard if she hadn’t made that mistake. you can come to love another person despite these truths, but this is not enough to surmount the chasm between her and Cub. so, her eye wanders, and she indulges in her delusions of these feelings being reciprocated, not because she truly knows these men well enough to love them but because it is a distraction from the disappointment she feels from her own life. it’s not pretty, it’s unlikable, but I find Kingsolver’s portrayal of Dellarobia to be very honest, and I appreciate when authors are not too afraid to write women like her.

I also feel like there’s so many ways that you can write about Dellarobia that this brief summary feels so grossly inadequate to convey all of the different roles and expectations she deals with in her community and from outside of it. Kingsolver handles these tensions beautifully. She is a celebrated and accomplished author who I had honestly never heard of before picking up this book from a neighborhood little library box while on a pandemic walk three years ago. I consider it serendipitous.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Now this book is highly acclaimed, and despite a rough start for me initially, I consider myself no exception to the hype. It is well-deserved.

I’m reading this as an audiobook and still have about half the book to go, so it’s not yet time to write at-length about it, but Zevin already accomplishes so much in the first half that I’m on my toes thinking about how long she will keep us with Sadie, Marks, and Sam. Also, I am convinced that it is not possible to read this book and not get an itch to delve into game development yourself. I’ve seen a couple of tutorials for creating very very simple games with python on freecodecamp’s youtube channel, and I was interested in those before even touching this book but now I’m like…is it too late for me? Maybe I’ll make a game too when I’m 60 and retired.

Misc. other reads

I started a third genshin account for a lore post I wanted to make (my zhongli sq 2 screenshots are lacking, also just need an interactive refresher) and so I’ve been passing the time grinding by listening to audiobooks. I listened to Broadband: the Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans, which was wonderful and illuminating. I also listened to Life in Code: A Personal History by my programming idol Ellen Ullman. She has the most compelling argument against AI and machines as analogous to the biological (and vice-versa) that I’ve seen, of course illustrated through a history of her domestic companion Sadie, her cat. I was making my way through Artificial Intelligence by Melanie Mitchell, but the book lends itself better to reading a physical copy rather than passively listening while playing a video game. It utilizes a lot of diagrams to illustrate its points, and it expects you to view these diagrams as supplemental pdf’s delivered with the book as you listen to it. Nope, not for me. But I was thoroughly enjoying it before deciding to put it on-hold.

[kay-frost]

so let’s chat about IRON WIDOW

We interrupt our regularly scheduled aesthetic posting with a special message about the upcoming science-fiction YA novel IRON WIDOW by non-binary cosplayer, history buff, and YouTube sensation Xiran Jay Zhao (links to their website in the next post)

I have a longer, more formal “review” of this book scheduled for the release date (September 21st, 2021) but I really, really want to hype this book up as much as possible as early as possible to encourage people to pre-order it. I haven’t been this excited about a YA book in quite a while. Let me tell you why!

- It was pitched as PACIFIC RIM meets THE HANDMAID’S TALE in a world inspired by Chinese folklore and history, where boy-girl teams pilot giant mecha to fight alien monsters -- but the psychic strain usually kills the girls. But only the girls....hmmm...something fishy is going on here...

- The main character is a reimagining of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor of China, who decides she’s going to assassinate the boy who murdered her older sister by volunteering to be his next co-pilot. She assassinates him so well that she kills him through their psychic link and becomes a dreaded IRON WIDOW!

- This makes her very interesting to the government, which would really prefer to make her disappear, but can’t afford to waste that kind of psychic power -- so they pair her up with a ~dangerous criminal~ to pilot a new mecha, confident that he will be psychically strong enough to overpower her

- This backfires spectacularly, and suddenly Wu Zetian and her co-pilot have to manipulate both pop culture and the government just to stay alive.

- Plot ensues.

Why should you read this book?

Go back and re-read that plot summary until you understand why  BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!!

- We have a polyamorous F/M/M mutual relationship, I repeat, we PRE-EMPTIVELY SOLVE a LOVE TRIANGLE with POLYAMORY

- Wu Zetian is an amazing anti-hero and I mean that with all my heart. She is constantly doing stuff in this book that made me go, “Wait, can you do that?”  She WILL cut a bitch. Also, she uses a cane or wheelchair because she has bound feet, and you can tell that Xiran really went the extra mile to think about how to portray this and how it affects the character. A lot of YA protagonists can start to feel “same-y” after a while to me, but Wu Zetian REALLY stands out.

- The world is really, really cool? There is SO MUCH going on with the aliens and the mecha and the world they’re living in which I cannot spoil except to say that your primary emotion through the third act will be “?!!!?!!?!!?!!!” AND even outside of the meta plot, there is so much thought and detail put into the rest of the setting, it is so beautiful and it feels like you’re really there. Plus every character is a reimagining/reference to a historical or folklore figure and it was really neat to go on a little scavenger hunt of “Oh! I recognize that name!”

- IRON WIDOW will do for YA sci-fi what CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE did for YA fantasy -- if it gets support. Xiran has talked about how they couldn’t get an American publisher to even consider publishing this book because publishers didn’t think American audiences would be interested in Chinese folklore or idol culture or a story about giant mecha, which?? Have they MET the internet?? They were also told that schools and libraries will be reluctant to stock IRON WIDOW because of the polyamorous romance. BUT that is why I really hope people show up for this book because it is SO DESERVING OF SUCCESS and it could open so many doors for other writers and for the whole YA landscape

- Xiran Jay Zhao is a really cool non-binary author and their writing is as charismatic and entertaining as their other content. I just think they’re neat!

- And one more thing? The cover looks like this:

[beeblackburn]

Top 5 Books to Read This Year

Tagged by the excellent @xserpx​ (much appreciated!) 😘

1. The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg - SO. Funny story about this book: I first found out about it during a nonfiction sale period at my bookstore and I asked my The First Law server about nonfictions to read, and one particular member gave me this idiosyncratic recommendation that I had little idea of the magnitude of until she sold me on it on the basis of  Menocchio’s life being a microhistory of larger cultural/mental histories at work.

But the biggest draws, for me, personally? Was that she said the books excellently illuminated an entirely different time period of mindset, how alien and different it was from our current one, but with enough humanity and curiosity to retain what recognizably made them similar to us and that Menocchio was treated like he was the main character. This educated lowborn peasant not only had a working mind as a given, but that he had a fascinating belief system that led him to be declared a heretic by the Inquisition and a historian thought he deserved enough merit to write a whole book on. 

And the more I dug into the premise of this book, the more I realized this was tailor-made to be precisely my kind of shit. So many fantasy novels lack the interiority or agency of the lowborn peasantry, so a nonfiction that peeled at the layers of a lowborn man, treated his mind and beliefs as worthy of consideration and genuine theological thought... gods, it’s an amazing rec. Checking around, it seems like it’s a one-of-a-kind sort of historical text,  so I truly hope it lives up to the hype I was given.

2. Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot - The amusing irony to me is that, despite me having recced Eliot’s Middlemarch to two other people in the The First Law server we share, and gotten them invested enough to finish, and finish hard enough to say that they loved it, I haven’t cracked open a single George Eliot book (at this point, not from lack of having, I bought both the Oxford edition and the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition of Middlemarch alone).

That’s not from lack of accolades, a teacher twitter whose reading tastes I trust recced it to me as the best novel he’s ever read, and from what I heard of its themes and how it balances the why of a communication with the how being just as important, the smaller domestic touches to it, and the sheer scope of characterization it promises (I’ve got an interesting vantage point with Middlemarch, I have recced it, and thus I am told of its virtues by people I know and trust). But I don’t want to start off with Eliot’s best work. I want to start off with her shorter-form works first, hence, Scenes of Clerical Life, then her other works that I own, so I can build up to the swell of Middlemarch.

(It also doesn’t hurt that Scenes of Clerical Life focuses on religion and clergymen, and the countryside and smaller lives in the scope of greater events, considering my fantasy veers towards attending the little people more and my Croatian-inspired story deals with questions of faith as well, so three birds with one stone.)

3. The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni was a book that became more than the first foot in the door of a phase of fantasy for me that primarily consisted of domestic fantasies after Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings’ moments of slice-of-life. I checked it out from a list of more domestic/mundane fantasies list and I dearly loved the meandering, patient pace of it, how much Chava and Ahmad’s struggles were that of connection and how to deal with inhumane loneliness against the backdrop of so much humanity. That the narrative preoccupied itself with Chava and Ahmad interacting with their communities, rather than needing to be railroaded into action or a plot, was something I hope the author never gives up on, for it’s a sorely missing part of fantasy (in fact, when the book did railroad into a confrontation with an asshole, I enjoyed it less).

So the sequel’s virtues are self-evident to me, the reviews even suggested it was better than the prior book, the pace just as meandering and slow, if not slower, and the author not skipping a step in terms of focusing on the interpersonal relationships rather than action. But, now, I have different reasons for checking it out, beyond being a fan of this series: to scratch at the itch of humanity through the eyes of inhumanity, considering I’m working with a dragon character and despite their inherited knowledge and memories, still having the innocence and questions of why humanity does this or that, just like Chava and Ahmad both had in the first book. How the inhumane interact with humans has become a fascinating stretch of theme for me via writing dragons, and I’m looking forward to this book to study ways to improve my writing there.

It’s slow, it’s got non-humans treated with complexity, it’s a series of books that deals with the immigrant experience and diaspora, both of the supernatural and the Jewish nature, it interacts with questions of community and how we treat our fellow people, it’s full of slice-of-life passages, which is something I also want to depict in my fantasy, and the interpersonal relationships are first and foremost the important aspects of them. It’s very much comfortable and what I want out of my fantasy.

4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - same teacher twitter as the above really dug this book, and someone else I know is reading it, but if The Golem and the Jinni was a comfort read, this feels more geared towards a bracing punch of a book, especially given our current COVID-19 pandemic. I’m not going to mince words: a good chunk of world’s, especially the US, reaction to COVID-19 has been several mixtures of fatal embarrassment and part of that is the bitter realization that most people, both in charge and on the ground, don’t see responsibility towards their fellow person as an inherent quality. Have I grown more cynical through that? I was already pretty cynical, so not more so, but also because there are also plenty of people who do see connections to their fellow people as an inherent duty and condition for our humanity. Thus, why I want to read this book: survival is insufficient, because if we live for ourselves, if we are bereft of others, what are we? Oh, as the book is quoted as saying: Hell is the absence of the people you long for.

A quieter apocalypse feels more like my vibe, especially in the sense that I feel most people, in the wake of an apocalypse, wouldn’t go with the worst-case scenario that post-apocalyptic fiction has taught us about barbaric rapists, petty warlords, and thieves by gunpoint. Those are the worst case lessons, the people fiction endeavors to teach us to avoid being, the thunder and boom and villains of genre fiction. But what happens if our focus isn’t on external human terrors, but more existential questions and concerns after the mortal deaths of so many? Station Eleven seems to be a novel that seems interested in questioning how our humanity endures, how we do not die spiritually past our mortal deaths, how our memories remain resilient, how our works survive past pandemic and societal collapse.

It’s been in my library for quite a while now, and Station Eleven is one of those books that I wish to tackle outside my cozy fantasy wheelhouse. I have not read this, not because the existence of COVID-19 made it too real, but because I now want a post-apocalypse book that refuses to revel in the dark and naked nihilism of its barren genre landscape, choosing to highlight human connections and meaning past our mass-destruction.

5. Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski - So. Another anecdote: I just bought Witcher 3 a few days ago. Really, all three games. Now, granted, I haven’t been living under a rock. I’ve watched clips, scenes, and know the broad scope of the game’s plot and was interested in it, but digging deeper, what interested me was the Polish influence with the series. Sapkowski does not strike me an unintelligent writer at all, he clearly knows what he’s trying to do and subvert and comment on. Which is to say, when I say I haven’t bought a single Witcher book at all, it says something about what I’ve heard of its translation issues and Sapkowski’s feelings on his Witcher series (though I doubt he’d be much happier that I prefer to read his Hussite Trilogy first as much as I gave him money to begin with. You do you, Sapkowski).

Now, I didn’t follow his works enough to know about the Hussite Trilogy’s existence until @autoapocrypha recced it to me, but from what I’ve researched myself, it really seems like Sapkowski poured a ton of details and love and thought into this world than his Witcher world. It’s a historical fantasy world, full of religious extremism, war being utter hell, costs of violence, and supernatural creatures lurking in the corners, and thus, is perfect research fodder for my Croatian-inspired The Folk Devils of Hrvatska, which incidentally slots into similar themes and setting that the Hussite Trilogy seems to play with. That, and I really do want to get into the fuss of Sapkowski in the brass tacks and such. 

There’s an amazing amount of thematic and unique history to be studied from the Eastern European portion of the world, the infighting, the nationalism, the religious extremism and near-constant strife of war littering the land, full of colonial bastards trying to pull a game of musical chairs with the little people underfoot being stomped on with every pissing contest between rulers. It’s an idiosyncratic space of land I absolutely want to study and want even more of in the general fantasy landscape, given where Sapkowski’s interests lie.

Honorable mentions, because I couldn’t localize to top 5 books (this list was originally over ten!!!):

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune - Found family with supernatural characters? Domestic peace? All living in the same area with no clear-cut bad guy to railroad the plot? Yes, please.

Independent People by Halldór Laxness - Excellent research fodder for the interiority and struggles of the lowborn farmers and trying to carve out a living beyond serving masters with no romanticism at all.

The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant - Another slice-of-life book that pays attentions to the connections that we share with others, especially in the same proximity of space.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Clarke’s leaner and potentially better novel over her debut one? One that @books-and-doodles described as having a protagonist similar to Fitz? INJECT THIS INTO MY VEINS.

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang - slight research fodder (more to do with pacing and forefronting YA elements before whamming readers into the brutal stuff), but also non-European and woman-written grimdark? 👍

Tagging: @vera-dauriac, @autoapocrypha, @insecticidalfeminism, @doublehex​, @xillionart, @random-jot, @jumpydr4gon, @bloody-wonder, and @mytly4 and whoever else that is following me and wishes to do this tag (I’d like to read your posts, so please tag me! :D)

[groundcontrol21]

2 for the ask game! And... could I hear your 7 opinions on Aramis?

2. what in your fiction has turned out differently than you expected when you began? what has always remained the same?

Well, since this came from the general section of the questions, I’ll answer more broadly: I never expected to be writing solely for fun. I started writing as a kid/preteen for fun, yes, but always with the goal of being a published author very firmly in the back (or front) of my mind. When I won my first national contest at 14, that was just enough to make it seem like this goal could actually be a reality, and to ensure that for the next four years, I almost never wrote anything purely for fun again. I tailored everything I wrote to what I thought other people wanted to see, and in large part it worked: I won contest after contest, won money for what I wrote, got pieces published in magazines and even wrote a whole novel that got published through a small indie publisher. But because I was writing purely for external validation, I began to view it as a chore, as something I had to do bc I was “the star writer”, and that’s all.

Now whether you all think any of those accolades were deserved based on the quality of writing I share here is another story 😂 but also please know that I do not share that type of writing here. I agonized over every word and plot point, edited and edited again to the point where many times I was an inch away from deleting the whole thing and starting from scratch. Not all of this obsession with perfection was bad; I learned very valuable techniques and style choices that I still use to this day, but crucially, I can now use them in a way that satisfies me and no one else. Obviously I still plan and edit my work that I share here bc I take pride in it, but the process is so more relaxed. I have found a joy and freedom in creating (both on here and on vanilla fanfic) that I don’t even think I had when I started writing as a wee child.

Maybe one day I’ll write something and have it published again, but I’ve gotten to the point that I can honestly say I’m fine if I never do. That’s what’s changed, and for the better. I take pride in my writing, that part has stayed the same through it all, but the source of it has changed from how others value my work to how I value it.

(oops kinda deep for a snz blog)

7. do you have a favourite scene of theirs in canon, or in your own work? what scene have you always wanted to see or write for them?

Psh, “can you hear my opinions on Aramis”. I will give my opinions on Aramis whether they are prompted or not! (though thank you so much for asking ofc, and hyping up my obsession). So favorites, bc in my mind there are 3 subtly different versions of the guy that I love:

Book: The mf dropped-handkerchief-intro-scene, for obvious reasons (may have a bit of a handkerchief fetish on top of it all) but also since the little verbal sparring match he gets into with D’Artagnan here contains, in my opinion, some of the funniest lines in the book. Also love the part where he gets shot and tries to be brave about it but can’t carry on

Movie musical: the part where he sings and sniffs the damn handkerchief, my god, you absolutely insane man.

BBC show: The absolute whump-filled angst fest that is episode 4, because I am a terrible person.

In terms of my writing, though, I really love him in”A Routine Occurrence”, being a good friend but not being at all happy about it. Especially when he says he thinks he’s getting a fever 😈

In terms of what I’d like to see, though perhaps not write myself bc I’d be so out of my depth, would be what I’ve sort of danced around in my fics: him in bed with his mistress, getting a little spicy only to have to put it all on hold bc he’s dreadfully ill. Or, him picking up a cold from a lady who swears she’s recovered but really isn’t after all (but of course it’s all worth it to him, the daft man).

[nextonmy-tbr]

Book Review: King of Scars (Nikolai Duology #1)

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Genre: Fantasy

A country with a young, charming king who has demon residing in him, a young general who spend her entire life rebuilding the Grisha army and her country and a young spy penetrating into the biggest enemy of the nation. Can they risk it all to save the broken country? Too many secrets, too many enemies, too many lies and too many threats. They have to fight against all odds to protect this country. Will the king be able to do this along with fighting his own demons? Maybe sometimes they are supposed to be fought against. To know what happens next, read the book to find out…

My thoughts: -

Diving into the world of Grishaverse is always fun and this book proved it again. This book made me enjoy the characters way more than the plot. Though I have to admit this book kind of felt like a filler chapter and some plot brewing orchestrated to pave way for all the major stuff that will be happening in the next book. But Leigh never fails to amaze you and this book surely didn’t.

Plot: -

“Hope was the wind that came from nowhere to fill your sails and carry you home.”

The plot’s major focus is Ravka and protecting Ravka from enemies beyond the boundaries and within. Also another focus was Nikolai’s demon. It was interesting to see the power politics play into the picture and how much it goes into governing a country. Now, I haven’t read the Grisha trilogy so I can’t compare how much this book is similar or different from the trilogy but I think the plot twist served in this book certainly feels like a repetitive threat in the book. I mean surely there can be something else that can harm Ravka that can be used as the major villain to carry another book series right? This is the only thing that kind of felt off to me in this book. Other than that, things with the demon, Nikolai, Zoya and Nina were fun.

Characters: -

“I like to bet on myself whenever I can. But usually with other people’s money.”

To be honest I didn’t get the hype Nikolai had until I read this book. Now, I just think I get it, that guy deserves all of it. He is a charming, witty, funny and handsome character. That are totally good traits for a main character. But the most important is that he is totally whipped and goner for Zoya and he doesn’t even know it yet. Nikolai’s humor makes the book interesting and fun. Of course, his demon and struggles with him adds more character to him. Nikolai definitely makes to my list of top fav characters.  

“Blessing and Curse are different words for the same thing.”

I think I have expressed this n number of times how much I love an all-powerful female character.  Zoya is one of those that can conquer the whole world. She is a mystery to most of the characters in the books and likes to keep her feeling to herself. Other than being an obvious closeted person who likes to pretend she doesn’t get hurt but is the most sensitive, she can kill you by the look of an eye. A relatable thing about her is that she is blunt and hates human interactions.  

"Call me Grisha. Call me zowa. Call me death, if you like.”

After meeting the food-loving and ever bubbly Nina Zenik in the Six of Crows duology we meet her again in this series, but she is not the same anymore. She is sad, grieving, and is currently working as a spy in the enemy country, yes you guessed it right she is in Fierda. With her powers altered and magnified she is ready to take on Fierda and change the future for Grisha.

Other characters in this book that I loved reading were Genya and David. They are definitely a very important part of this book. Hanne was a new character introduced in this novel and was a representation for those women who refuse to be led through gender norms. Her story is something that you will adore reading.

If you enjoy the country politics, Grisha verse, traumatised characters trying to move on with their lives and fantasy then this book should certainly be a part of your bookshelf. So, let me know what are your thoughts on this book. You can also recommend some books to read or to write reviews on.

[princessofbookaholics]

MID YEAR BOOK FREAK OUT TAG 2021

It’s the first day of July (where has the year gone?!) and it's time to check in on those reading goals! My reading has been amazing this year except for June because work was busy and I anticipate it to be busier so I'm gonna be reading even less now so I'm glad I've already reached my goal for the year. As always I have multiple answers for everything so here goes:

1. How many books have you read so far?

I’ve read 106 books so far woohoo (out of which 4 were rereads)

2. What genres have you read?

Here are the genres by stats:

28 mystery/thriller books

18 romance books

17 fantasy/sci-fi books

15 contemporary books

12 graphic novel/manga

6 non fiction

4 historical fiction

2 anthologies

2 poetry/in-verse books

2 classics

3. Best book you’ve read so far in 2020

I read The Midnight Library at the perfect time and it just made me feel, You Deserve Each Other was a perfect romance book more people should read, The Traveling Cat Chronicles was the sweetest story and I balled my eyes out, The Decagon House Murders was based on And Then There Were None which is one of my favorite books and it exceeded my expectations!

4. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2020

Obsidio was amazing and I finally finished this series, Rule of Wolves was a whole RIDE, Death Note was an amazing series as a whole and I enjoyed it, The Box in the Woods had all the summer camp murder vibes

5. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

Ace of Spades just sounds amazing and the rest are by authors I've loved before so I want to get to their new releases ASAP

6. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I love Riley Sager so im obviously excited about his new book, Quan is finally getting his story in The Heart Principle and I'm freaking out, we needed Here's to Us, like, yesterday, and You've Reached Sam just sounds like it's a hard hitting book that's going to make me cry and I'm here for it

7. Biggest disappointment

I hyped these up too much in my head which ended up with some average reads:

8. Biggest surprise

I didn't expect to love these as much as I did:

9. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

I haven't read enough from these authors but I would surely like to read everything they write:

Sarah Hogle

Sophie Gonzales

Gillian Flynn

Ichigo Takano

10. Underrated gems

Not enough people have read these books:

11. Newest fictional crush

Alex from People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry was so sweet!

12. Newest favorite character

Kakeru from the Orange manga series!! I would like to give him all the happiness in the world 😭

13. Book that made you cry

These made me cry (in a sad as well as happy way):

14. Book that made you happy

You wanna smile then read these:

15. Most beautiful book cover of a book you’ve read so far this year

Going for some sparkly floral vibes here

16. How are you doing with your year's goals?

So my year's goals were:

Read a total of 100 books (done)

Read an Agatha Christie every month (on track)

Read an Indian author every month (on track)

Read the books from my TBR Buster Challenge (14/25 books done)

17. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

The only books I have planned to complete by the end of this year are in my TBR Buster Challenge!

[notbecauseofvictories]

oh I'm interested in the tag novel on how fan spaces becoming more meat spacey benefits the producers!! also happy Halloween! 🖤🧡🖤🧡

It’s not a particularly academic argument---I don’t have sources to back this up, I haven’t done research. I’m also wary of painting a picture of “fandom” as anything more than a lot of weasels in a trenchcoat, because that word means a lot of things to a lot of different people, some of whom hate each other. But as long as everybody understands that this is the ethnographical equivalent of drunkenly throwing darts at a copy of the AJS...sure.

[under a cut because it’s long and baseless, and also I had a lot of thoughts and feelings. Sorry.]

My basic premise is that fandom occupies “fanspace.” Fanspace is not solely online, since fanzines and conventions are fanspace too, but since the 90s it has become increasingly and primarily internet based. While some websites are designated fanspace (e.g., AO3, ff.net, stand-alone fansites) fanspace is not necessarily contiguous with a hosting site (e.g., there is fanspace on tumblr, but tumblr is not a fanspace). Fanspace is really just those urls, message boards, threads, blogs, accounts, etc. designated for fandom and/or where fannish activity takes place.

Its deeply-rooted internet presence has allowed fanspace and what I call “meatspace” to operate on different rules. Meatspace has always informed fan spaces, of course---disclaimers on fic to ward off accusations of copyright infringement, for example, or asking readers to attest that they’re over 13 before reading an R-rated fic. But traditionally, fandom has accepted as norm things that don’t apply to meatspace: fake names and anonymous posts, pictures of someone else’s characters, lengthy self-published stories featuring violence, explicit sex, sometimes even gay people. Fanspace is in many ways an artificial carve out from meatspace, where fewer of its rules apply; fanspace supplements these with its own norms.

The division between fanspace and meatspace is not and has never been a clear, settled line, however. Debates on how much meatspace should inform fan spaces have been raging for as long as I’ve been on the internet, and to be fair to meatspace, it has made good points. (I’m not sure if “don’t be racist,” counts as a meatspace rule given...racism, but fandom frequently reacts to it like a meatspace intrusion so I think it should count.)

However, what used to be intra-fandom conversations have become increasingly more public, for a few reasons:

Part of this is just the natural development of the internet---it’s not like fanspace was ever hidden, but there just weren’t as many people online, and stuff was harder to find in a pre-google, pre-algorithmic promotion world.

Part of it is the changing architecture of fanspace---websites shutting down, Strikethrough, and the tumblr porn ban have all, in their own ways, served to alter fanspace and move towards more and more public-facing sites.

But part of it---and this is the biggest factor, I think---is that over the last two decades, we’ve seen content-producers** increasingly willing to engage with fandom. 

On its face, this sounds good! After all, fans like people who make things, people who make things want fans. What could possibly be wrong about both sides recognizing their mutualism?

I think this works when the most interaction you could expect with a creator was showing up a bookstore to ask Tamora Pierce a question, or writing fanmail to Paul Gross. But it falls apart when you consider just how public-facing fanspaces have become, and just how much interest content-producers have taken in cultivating the fannish audience. Content-producers engaging directly with fandom are a thumb on the scales of mutualism, and a heavy one. After all, one side of the relationship is a loosely collected anarchic cult, migrating along a series of websites they mostly don’t control, making do with nothing but ongoing wank and general obsessive tendencies. 

The other side has D*sney, Harper Collins, and Comcast.

That thumb on the scale has paid off, more than I think even the content-producers could have anticipated. Fandom is good at loving what it loves and talking loudly about it, but capitalism is way better at doing what it does---turning everything into profit. So now people pay $100 a pop to go to Harry Potter World. Conventions are well-produced extensions of their parent companies, raking in money and providing a blitz of publicity---directly to the source most likely to take your messaging and amplify it. Make a superhero movie and the minute the trailer drops you conjure up thousands of online fans will be your de facto, unpaid publicists---generating interest via fan art, fic, and controversy with minimal corporate effort.  Of course fic writers who have established online presence are the darlings of the publishing world---what publisher wouldn’t want a built-in hype machine for a new author? 

And, just coincidentally, of course, fanspace and meatspace are drawn closer together, that line further blurred by this new and very, very interested third party.

I’m not saying this is some big conspiracy. No tv exec is out there rubbing their hands together and cackling evilly about how they’re going ruin fandom. But in exchange for meatspace validation and an endless stream of new content, I think fandom has ceded important ground. And I think it’s changing fanspaces, even now:

One of the founding rules of fanspace is that it does not generate money---you risk real copyright infringement that way. (This isn’t to say that money hasn’t been involved in a few massive fandom scandals, but it’s not typical.) Increasingly, however, the grumblings about getting paid for fan art and fic have gotten louder, probably due to meatspace’s general emphasis on the side-hustle, and seeing content-producers churn out more and more fan-like things for a profit.

(It seems unimaginable now, but once upon a time the HP Lexicon was an invaluable resource, a rare unicorn in a pre-wikipedia age. Now, D*sney wouldn’t even think of releasing a tentpole movie without a novelization, a picture dictionary, and a tie-in novel.)

Also, those calls for fan art that “might be featured” by a content-producer are (rightfully) scorned for asking for work pro bono. But the takeaway seems to be “we deserve to be paid for our fan art!” rather than “how dare the content-producer intrude on our fanspace and its activities!”

Fanspaces have never expected or required legal ID, permitting anonymous or pseudonymous activity in order to protect individual privacy. And while there’s still no expectation you link your legal ID with your online/fan ID, the norm has shifted---it’s no longer considered gauche to go by your legal ID, even necessary when turning mutuals and followers into an “audience.” We’re not anonymous fans, engaged in our mutual hobby anymore---some people are doing that, and others are potential content-creators.

I’d argue that even purity wank if an example of this new blurring, classic “don’t like don’t read” arguments taking on new life now that meatspace is so nearby---we wouldn’t want to offend the neighbors!

Even these things benefit the content-producers: the more fan-like stuff they churn out, the less fanspaces will create on their own; the more fanspaces that emphasize linking legal ID to online ID, the less people will be able to engage in fan activities privately; the more meatspace rules assert themselves on fanspaces, the less fanspace we’ll have.

Now, maybe this is just...evolution. As I said before, there is a porous and shifting border between fanspace and meatspace. I remember angry threads about whether m/m fics should be rated higher than a het equivalent; I remember the tagging debates, the incredible resistance to accurately describing what happens in your fic. Maybe in a few years, my longing to return to a more separate fanspace will seem equally as embarrassing, incorrect, and unnecessary. 

But right now, it feels more like an erosion---one fandom is about as willing or able to resist as the tide.

.

** “Content maker” is a term that’s come to mean “anyone who makes something” which is sheer nonsense. There’s a difference between publishers/television producers/movie studios and someone recording a podcast in their bathroom. There’s even a difference between D*sney, a vast undead creative monopoly animated by copyright protections, and someone like James Patterson, who uses a stable of ghostwriters to churn out “his” works. We shouldn’t be scrutinizing all these things them the same way, it’s lazy, and intellectually dishonest.

[edourado]

Tagged by royalty, aka @ejunkiet. I love these, and was thinking about making one for myself, so, hoping that the author of these questions will excuse me, I'll add some of my own at the end.

Thank you, darling ♥

favorite color: Lavender, lilac, and a VERY pastel blue and green.

currently reading: Sense and Sensibility, for what seems like YEARS, because I only pick it up when sitting on a bench while my dog judges our neighbors;

last song: Vibing hard to miss Olivia Rodrigo's Sour. "favorite crime" and "happier" are my faves;

last movie: "I Confess!", by Alfred Hitchcock. Anne Baxter was fabulous, but Montgomery Clift was abismal. Sorry;

last series:  The Flight Attendant. Loved it, and I'm curious about the novel that inspired it;

sweet, savoury or spicy?: Yes;

craving: Decadent chocolate cake (I'll probably get up and make one after this);

tea or coffee: Daily, it's tea, but I'm the cringy/basic bitch with my lattes and PSLs whenever I can;

currently working on: Trying to not be so cruel to myself and, at the same time, hold myself accountable for the things happening in my own life. Also sitting in front of my computer not writing at all because my brain cannot find words. It just does not know how to stitch a sentence together anymore. Also reading more and being on the internet less.

And now, for my own:

unpopular movie/TV show opinion: I think the whole Snider Cut thing was over hyped. It was 4 hours of intense soundtrack for a mediocre problem;

a movie you liked and everyone else hated: Elizabeth Banks' "Charlie's Angels". I think it's awesome. Never seen Kristen Stewart so at ease. It motivates me to work out, and I hatehatehate working out;

a movie you hated and everyone else liked: La La Land. Fuck right off;

a movie you think deserved to be more famous: Before We Go, which is Chris Evan's directorial debut. It's so, so, so good;

a show you would sacrifice many others in order to save: Sense8. I don't care. I'd kill the whole of the world's streaming catalogues if it meant saving it;

a fun fact about youself that don't come up in conversations: I'm a pretty good singer, but due to anxiety, I only sing when I'm by myself;

celebrity crush: Chris Evans IS my husband. He just is. Jon is a given. Ben Barnes came back full force with Shadow and Bone. Danai Gurira, because duh. Rachel Brosnahan won my heart with her Mrs. Maisel. I'm forgetting people, which will kill me later;

something you love about where you live: I think Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The nature here is breath taking. Also has the combo of beach and mountains, which I adore;

something you can't do but wish you could: Play piano and speak many, many languages. Also paint and draw;

One thing the pandemic made you miss, that wasn't even your thing before: partying. I spent years being perfectly content in staying in. Now I cannot wait to just jump and dance around with a bunch of strangers.

Tagging @ejunkiet again, because new questions, @abunnypirate (you changed your name and almost gave me a heart attack because I couldn't find you), @carry-the-sky, @ninzied, @lpdwillwrite4coffee, @myletternevercame, @kteague, @fortysevenswrites and literally - LITERALLY - anyone that feels inclined to answer, just please tag me because I'd love to read them ;)