#my messy review

[currymanganese]

[fettiowi]

i dont think im capable of giving a completely unbiased opinion on the SU movie anymore. That movie gives me levels of brainrot that nothing else can. Ask me to talk about it and for the first few minutes i will inevitably turn into a blabbering incoherent mess talking about my babygirl

[nebulathunderwave-art]

They're tired but they're safe like this in each other's arms

(Sweet and tender XiYao cuddles are my obsession)

[paubbq]

just finished my liberation notes and i dont think i will ever get over it (´-`) i started it thinking ill relate to mijeong but ended up feeling such a heavy resonance with her sister instead :0!! also i can talk about mijeong and mr gu’s relationship for hourssss i want to decipher everything but overall it was so good i wanted something similar with summer strike and this definitely was the one! #blabbering

[northern-passage]

one thing i find really difficult about navigating the IF space is the direct line of contact between readers and authors. we share the same space, and i think that plays a big part in this weird blurred line we have in this community and overall lack of boundaries.

for a lot of people this is a fun hobby and while i personally try to keep it... semi-professional most of the time, it's easy to get wrapped up in having fun on tumblr (or the forums, or reddit, wherever it is that you mainly post/interact) and have a lot of personal interactions with both readers and authors alike - which is fun! i like it more often than not, but i also think that's why a lot of comments in this space can end up being really entitled, over-familiar, and inappropriate.

it's no secret that most authors get really weird messages on here, and while this is also a problem on social media at large and not just specific to IF tumblr, it is still definitely a big problem in this community.

and to be clear i'm not saying that you can't be friendly with authors or readers (i've become friends with a handful of readers myself) and i definitely don't mean to imply that there needs to be a huge divide between us; that's silly - again, most authors are readers, most readers are authors, we’re just people on the internet sharing the same space. but all of us deserve to have our boundaries respected. this is my story, and we are strangers. as a general rule of thumb: if you wouldn't say it out loud to someone you just met, you probably shouldn't be saying it to a stranger online. especially anonymously.

[spaceratprodigy]

@darkfire1177 I decided I needed to make one important revision to my divorce chart

[miss-tribbiani]

Okay well I just watched Challengers😄😄😄😄

I wanna buy a racket,Im wet and I might be waaay to into gay corn🌽🌽

[arainmorn-art]

Just binged the whole thing

Omigosh. "My Adventures with Superman" was super ADORABLE.

Never understood the apeal of a 100% Lawful Good overpowered invincible protagonist before, but now I do. I haven't even watched anything Superman-related before. Clark is such a good boy. A gentle giant struggling with his non-human strength, he went to the chess club to minimize any chances he would hurt anyone by accident. A shy polite clumsy and nerdy good boy from a good loving family wanting to protect other people and a nice girl he loves. Oh gosh, can I keep him?

The way he's animated, the detailes of his whole body language, gosh, animators did wonders with Clark's character. I adore the first part of the show before the drama, because cheeses, I haven't seen such a cute romance progression in a long time, when they both obviously like each other and they also can see it in each other. Loved it! Giggled through their romance like a schoolgirl.

I liked Lois, how both tomboyish and very feminine she is. This was so friggin' refreshing to see an energetic independant girl who is also sweet, soft, vulnerable and contradicting herself, not girlbossing relatability and feelings the hell out of any interaction these characters might have. In one moment I was displeased with her decisions, when she was hurt that Clark didn't tell her he was a Superman and told him there won't be any relationship between them because of that, it was a big "COME ON" for me, but I liked that actualy it was a product of a very girly tangled way of thinking, "You lied to me! Does it mean you were pretending to have feelings for me too?!" while crying. Yes. Yes, thank you, it was a very brief moment, but as a regular girl I felt itXD I love when emotional girls are depicted rightly: saying one thing, implying another, thinking the third, crying inside and outside how hurt she is on several levels over an idiot who hasn't thought about her feelings properly. Great stuff, approve wholeheartedly. Maybe the battle against brick-faced toxic masculinity in a female wig, oh, excuse me, Holliwood feminist never-wrong-doing girlbosses will be won someday with smart writing and kind-hearted life observations. We have a great soldier here. She also reminded me a lot of Roxana from Megamind, and I loved that girl a lot.

I'm also surprised how there were little to no of Twitter SJW-ness. Very nice. I also joked on the phone with my friend, that it felt very ironic, how there are more female villains (haven't count, but it seems like that), than male, and those angry bitches are fighting against the sweetest himbo on Earth, who is saving kittens, infants and grannies all day long. I don't think it was intentional, but in a current climate of English-speaking media - very nice.

Pacing wise, hm, with a purely comedic first part a really fast pacing was great, but on the second half with drama... eh. It felt very rushed. Also, well, as I don't know the lore behind Superman deeper than it is dispersed in the current pop-culture, I was confused with his alien origin, as it felt a lot like Invincible. I thought the whole schtick of Invincible was about, you know, the main twist, buuuuuuuuuut what's about Superman? I know it's kinda backwards to first watch Invincible then watch anything about Superman, but I had a big deja vu. Maybe I'll read some wiki about Clark, I was hella confused.

Overall great show, loved it. The strange, um, mad genius gay couple was something I wasn't expecting to laugh at so much today. And admiring anime Superman. Wow.

[encrucijada]

and again! i wanted to do one for evergreen lung because it's my one wip with more than 3 chapter titles lmao. if i make more of these look away

[ transcripts below! ]

Show Summary: Ezra Borja returns home after waking up in the local forest to find a significant amount of time has passed and everyone believed her to be dead.

Episode One - Creation Act: Ezra Borja wakes up in the local forest with no recollection of why or how, and she returns home to find she's been gone... a while.

Episode Two - Pressed Flowers: Ezra visits her best friend Raquel Hernández as step one on getting things back in order... but things aren't so simple.

Episode Three - Dead Heading: A look into the past and what Ezra's life was like before disappearing in the forest.

Episode Four - Nothing Beautiful: Ezra spends the day with her parents, trying to get a routine back.

Episode Five - Blink Twice: An old classmate hosts a Halloween party Ezra decides to attend to reconnect.

Playing Episode: [BIRD SONG], [EZRA] I'm not dead!

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Those Beyond The Wall

sequel/companion to The Space Between Worlds, set a decade later

character-focused sci-fi set in an area divided in two, the rich protected city on one side and everyone else in the post-apocalyptic desert

follows a woman who works under the Emperor in Ashtown, keeping the peace

when mangled bodies start showing up with seemingly no murderer, she’s tasked with finding the cause, and finds out that it’s the result of corruption spanning both cities and multiple worlds

explores oppression and messy revolution, police violence and apartheid

bi & polyamorous MC

[beaft]

reading the reviews for "detransition baby" and what i find really interesting ("interesting") about them is that all the transphobic ones - of which there are many - assume that there is functionally no boundary between character and author. that is: they believe that every time a character thinks or says something, it is a direct reflection of what the author thinks or wants to say. the protagonist becomes a political mouthpiece. every "problematic" thought she harbours is a damning self-indictment of the author, who was clearly far too stupid to realise how misogynistic she was accidentally being (the possibility that said protagonist was deliberately written as a woman dealing with internalised misogyny is, of course, never mentioned).

i've seen this cropping up a lot lately, and it is interesting ("interesting") how a lot of these TERF talking points are found in both right-wing and left-wing circles. (if you write a toxic character it means you yourself are toxic; if you enjoy dark fiction it means you must secretly want to cause harm; and so on.) there's "cringe culture" to be considered too - don't use those pronouns! no kink at pride! stop writing/drawing stuff i don't like! you're making the rest of us look bad!

more and more queer people are being forced to sanitise themselves in order to avoid scrutiny from both sides of the debate. meanwhile, terfs and right-wingers are eager to pounce on any scrap of evidence that "proves" trans people are all perverts, and we're so desperate not to give them that evidence that we end up erasing the complexity of our own lived experiences in a pathetic rolling-over-and-showing-our-bellies appeal to a group that - let's face it - was never going to respect us anyway, no matter how well we behaved.

[minimoniii]

and they’re boyfriends

[lastoneout]

not trying to judge anyone who genuinely loves film and wants to make movies but when I see people in the notes of that CinemaWins post saying they learned a lot about film and writing from watching CinemaSins I literally just go

[grapecaseschoices]

@dropout-if

two roommates and some dude: Hayden x Kai x Jean

Hayden x Kai

Hayden x J[ean]

[enchanted-reviews]

Haunting Adeline

The Manipulator and the Shadow. A deadly duet, a cat and mouse game.

Oh, where to begin. This is going to be messy.

❗️ SPOILERS AHEAD ❗️

18+ book, 18+ discussion. MDNI.

Addie

My copy of Haunting Adeline consisted of 605 pages, and I'd decided I didn't much care for Adeline herself by page 2. I went into this novel knowing the MC would be at least a little vapid—it’s a dark romance in which she tempts and teases her dangerous stalker right back after all, saying “come ON girl” is part of the territory—but Addie proved herself pretty insufferable right off the bat.

Our first real characterization of her is that she HATES her bitch mom, is insecure about her life choices? (as she uses the book’s very beginning to privately reaffirm how successful she is and why the path she’s chosen for herself is right), and that she really loves the old manor she’s just inherited from her nana.

When we get information on Addie’s dad much later in the novel, she states that he was around more or less, but ultimately faded into the background. It’s only Addie’s mom’s side of the family (specifically the women) with trauma that continues to affect Addie to this day. Look, I’m glad we didn’t go with the daddy issues trope, but it might have been cool to have a MC who’s into dark, kinky, fucked up shit just because she is. She loves horror movies as well, does that require a childhood examination? Why does trauma always have to be a connected factor to kink? This implication that it runs in the family is a little strange.

I actually don’t have TOO much beef with Addie. Sure, she’s annoying, and just self-aware enough to call out her own stupidity, but she falls as much a victim to bad writing as she is a victim to Zade’s “love.”

Oh—there is one line she gives on pg. 299, stating:

“He wouldn’t be a man without his cock.”

Which is just… pretty gross to find in a novel being heralded on 2024 BookTok.

Also, her DRINKING problem. Addie downs alcohol like a fish. Do we ever see her sip water? Whether she’s at home, a cafe, or out with friends, she’s throwing back shots and martinis every day, all the time. It’s a little concerning.

Zade

If a character deserves to have trauma, it’s Zade—at least to give him understandable motivation for targeting sex traffickers. There is no personal turning point spurring him down this dangerous road. He simply does it because he wants to.

His reasoning feels hollow. In his POV chapters throughout the novel, we get glimpses of his happy childhood, and later on he explains in depth to Addie how he grew up with loving parents. He states that the only traumatic experience he’s ever suffered was when his parents eventually died in a car crash; Zade obtains a degree in computer science and makes a decent living for himself as a self-taught hacker until he eventually forms Z, an organization designed to take down criminals of the government. He devotes his entire life to saving victims of human trafficking and frequently infiltrates dangerous hotspots, which is why he’s as physically strong and capable as he is mentally.

What’s the motivation for dedicating his entire life to something so dangerous, so emotionally draining? The idea that someone has to do it.

Nothing personal that pushes him onto this path.

Aside from this empty characterization, there are 2 things that prevent me from seeing Zade as the hero this book so desperately wants the reader to view him as.

1. He has the BIGGEST ego. He is, plain and simple, insufferable and deserves to get punched in the mouth—repeatedly— for some of the things he says.

2. His heroic actions as Z directly contradict his behavior towards Addie, a complete stranger who he decides to obsess over in a very scary way the moment he lays eyes on her in a bookstore. He stalks her, intimidates and makes threats when she acts in ways he doesn’t approve of (such as flirting and bringing boys home), and sexually assaults and harasses her on multiple occasions.

Now, again, I knew what I was getting into with this book. I fully expected noncon and dubcon elements, and that’s not at all what I’m frustrated with. My issue with these nonconsensual scenes is that, while Zade is a hypocritical rapist with a cocky hero complex, there is seemingly no meta awareness of this and the book treats him like a genuinely amazing, selfless, HOT man anyone would be lucky to catch the attention of. HE IS A DOUCHEBAG!!!

When he and his friend Jay are ribbing each other, here is Zade’s response to Jay joking that he likes his women willing:

“A wicked smile forms, though the heat in my eyes remain. ‘Sounds to me like you don’t understand a woman’s body well enough to know when it sings for you, even when her mouth tries to resist’” (549).

You see that? I’ve designated Zade with barf green.

Zade, who has dedicated his life to killing r4pists, proudly defending his own r4pes since Addie’s body was aroused. Yep, totally fine. This is the behavior I definitely expect from a “good guy” (as many reviewers have described Zade).

Zade’s POV throughout the book contains lines that are meant to build up his “dark feminist hero” persona (and come off as super obvious, cheap even), but they also contradict all that flimsy construction. For example:

Pg. 110, Zade waits for Arch to come find him:

“He hesitates on the doorstep, sensing the danger residing in the shadows. But after a few moments, he develops a vagina and charges out the door and down the porch steps.”

Siiiiigh. Such moments, it feels like Zade drops a cliche girlboss line about how women are actually tough, then turns and winks at the audience as if to say, “see? I’m on YOUR side.”

Compare this to a random thought he has later:

“Fucking women and their screeching” (458).

He’s not playing a role and saying this out loud to anyone, this is Zade himself in his own head, reacting to something inconsequential.

Although, let’s be real, everything feels inconsequential with Zade. He’s a superhero. He can apparently take “chunks of concrete” in his eyes while multiple guns shoot at him, and he only needs to grunt and rub his eyes for a second before taking down all his assailants without a problem (71). He’s apparently “the best” hacker (in the world?), otherworldly in combat, and can expertly fool and charm anyone he speaks to. It’s all just so… boring.

There’s lots of mentions of the dark web and red rooms, which apparently don’t exist the way they do in scary stories (according to people who actually use the dark web and articles on red rooms), and all the “Society” stuff (the p3do trafficking ring Zade goes undercover with) feels superficial, like the author didn’t do enough research to make this subplot—which is a GREAT DEAL of the book—feel properly weighed down and nuanced.

Zade continuously justifies his treatment towards Addie by stating that he knows what she wants better than she does, and it’s only a matter of time before she falls in love with him. Never once does he seem to actually wrestle with his hypocrisy, or how horrible he is being to this TOTAL STRANGER. How does he even know she’s into it? His obsession was at first glance. They’ve never spoken a single word. And what really frustrates me about all this (besides of course his being a total hypocrite and the fact that the trafficking subplot, along with his characterization, completely sinks as a result) is this:

Addie is a VERY successful novelist. She’s even called “The Manipulator” when switching to her POV, and her ability to play with people’s emotions is repeatedly teased. Do we actually see these incredible manipulation skills at work? No, not really. She’s a writer with social anxiety (which is said to be crippling but is shown to be normal nerves at the start of events that immediately go away) who’s able to fake smile in front of people when she needs to. She doesn’t earn the name of Manipulator at all. Moving on.

Does Zade read Addie’s books? No. I don’t remember it ever being mentioned even briefly. Does he get attached to her words, her talents, any part of her beyond how sexy she looks? No. If you wanted to sell me on someone stalking a beautiful girl because he fell in love with her writing, that’s a much more compelling plot than the entirety of Haunting Adeline. It would have been so easy to have him read some dark stories she’d penned and use that as reasoning for why he understands the way she ticks.

Addie’s status as a writer bears no weight at all, so it feels like she is just the author’s self-insert (further evidenced by descriptions of Addie’s breathtaking beauty and sexy pornstar voice that everyone comments on, big natural tits, big shapely ass, and teeny flat stomach. Any time Addie’s stomach is mentioned, we must be reminded it’s a flat one).

Returning to the trafficking subplot and its implications in making Zade an untouchable hero (I did say this review would be messy):

1) Truly adore (sarcasm) the “true crime fanatic” vibe we’ve got going on here with the idea that any decent looking woman is a breath away from being snatched off the streets at all times. It feels like watching those tiktoks where women rent a hotel room and then carry out a complicated 20-step process in safety-proofing the room with tools they brought from home, with further instructions on how/when to walk to the car, what to do around the car before getting in, more steps after getting in the car, etc. Anyways, Addie is randomly targeted by this trafficking ring because she’s pretty and so the plot comes full circle, thus validating Zade’s initial stalking of Addie and turning it into something romantic and heroic since only he can keep her safe from truly evil forces.

2. More nit-picky but I thought some of Zade’s thoughts towards young girls were weird considering his passion towards saving the girls from creeps/violent tendencies in torturing said creeps.

When Zade saves a girl “no older than 8” from being sacrificed, he keeps commenting on her pretty eyes.

Later, when he runs into the doll (SUCH a random fucking character, this entire scene greatly aggravated me), we’re not given an age; however, she’s caught the attention of the p3dos nearby and is described to appear young and innocent, as well as acting out in childlike ways: “She’s a small thing, but the girl can fight … she snarls and stomps her foot like the child she’s dressed up to be” (456-457). Zade bizarrely notes how her nipples are visible through her thin nightgown, a detail that adds nothing to the scene. He also notices her cheeks flushing as she tortures the men they’ve rounded up together, and thinks: “I swear to God, if she gets off right in front of me, I’m leaving” (461). There was no sexual connotation until he took it there, and it feels gross with all the childlike descriptions of this “strange girl.”

Finally, there’s a scene RIGHT AFTER meeting the doll when Zade and Addie go all the way for the first time, and Zade keeps calling Addie “little girl” (which is a first) from start to finish, even making her repeat it and affirm she is his “good little girl” as she climaxes. I don’t mind this out of context, but with everything this story has established, it feels entirely inappropriate and even appalling.

Update: I was wrong, he calls her “little girl” on page 356… when they’re infiltrating a p3do party. Does he only do this when they’re in close proximity to people who abuse children??? 😧

Dialogue

(Addie’s mom) “Do something more with your life than waste away in that house like your grandmother did. I don’t want you to become worthless like her.”

A snarl overtakes my face, fury tearing through my chest. “Hey Mom?”

“Yes?”

“Fuck off.” (6)

Cue that one scene from Camp Rock—“Mom? Don’t.”

Also, why do I feel like I’m watching a subbed anime? Who talks like this?

>>ALL of page 13.<<

“Addie, you need to get laid.”

In response, I wrap my lips around my straw and slurp my blueberry martini as deeply as my mouth will allow … I think I need a bigger mouth. More alcohol would fit in it. I don’t say this out loud because I can bet my left ass cheek that her follow-up response would be to use it for a bigger dick instead”

Daya gives me a droll look. “You’re a hot twenty-six year old woman with freckles, a great pair of tits, and an ass to die for. The men are out here waiting.”

This entire interaction doesn’t feel like two platonic soulmates hanging out, it’s just space to inform the reader how sexy the MC is before Zade can.

The Murder Plot

Oh my god, this was so boring. I’m not even convinced Addie really wanted to figure out who murdered her great-grandmother. Sure, she tells us how badly she wants to close the case, but it doesn’t feel it when all she does is read Gigi’s journal entries (and blab to Mark later on, in true “WTF is wrong with you” fashion).

I don’t know when I started to suspect Frank (around the 200s? 300s?), but I wish more detail and attention had been given to these diary entries. Gigi includes the names of only 3 men in all of her entries: her husband, her stalker who she’s in a passionate affair with, and Frank, her husband’s best friend. Throughout the ENTIRE novel, any mention of the potential murderer pingpongs between “was it (husband)? Was it (stalker)?” and no one spares a single brain cell to the mere possibility it was Frank, who is always involved and who becomes increasingly more suspicious. I’m not a mystery girlie, I hate gathering evidence, but this was insane. There was simply too much going on in this novel and so everything felt lackluster.

So how did Addie finally solve the murder? Well, through her best friend, Daya.

It’s Daya who reverse images a picture to identify Mark’s father, Frank.

It’s Daya who finds information on the stalker’s death, down to the detail of “a broken heart” (537).

It’s Daya who gets the blood on the watch tested.

It’s Daya who matches Frank’s handwriting.

So what does Addie do? She finally searches just a BIT more in the attic she’s afraid of (and thus has been avoiding) to retrieve the evidence Daya then actually does something with.

The attic is haunted and filled with negative energy, which is why Addie stays away, but come ON. She loves horror. She loves thrills and being scared, as we’re reminded constantly. She flirts with danger when she’s being stalked by a deadly stranger. She continues to provoke said stalker when he cuts off the hands of a man who had touched her and delivers it to her. She insists on staying in this creepy haunted manor in which she is being stalked because she’s stubborn and refuses to give it up… but she can’t spend just a bit more time searching in the attic when she’s apparently so committed to solving this case? Get real.

The Corniness

“My body is just a vessel that my soul inhabits, attached to a shell that it’ll one day leave” (577).

This is the start to one of Zade’s random angsty rambles, and like, dude, she was just asking about your tattoos.

Overall, I thought I was being pretty forgiving towards most of the cheesy lines in the book constantly invoking Heaven and Hell, comparing Zade to the Devil in … creative… ways, and things of that nature. There’s a clear corruption kink threading throughout the novel that I expected and that seemed natural to what these cardboard characters are craving, so the presence of tumblr 2015-esque edginess didn’t bother me too much. Every once in a while, though, the cheese factor was just too much.

“And then to have the audacity to leave me a flower like a fucking weirdo? They may have made that rose powerless by clipping its thorns, but I will gladly show them a rose is still fucking deadly when it’s shoved down their throat” (38).

“A gentle, but firm knock vibrates my front door. It’s almost becoming an instinct for my heart to skip a few beats whenever I hear any noise in the manor. Surely, that can’t be healthy. Maybe I’ll eat some Cheerios. They say those are good for the heart, right?” (59)

There’s so much more, but I didn’t mark a lot as I was reading because 1) such a big book to get through and I didn’t want to spend more time on it, and 2) I had no intentions of starting a book review blog until this novel pushed me over the edge (so thanks for that, I guess?)

The Spicy Scenes

And now we arrive at the only element of this book I actually liked: the sex.

Like we came here for anything else.

I expected this book to be a lot more depraved if I’m being honest, but since the author was intent on trying to make Zade a “good guy” with questionable courting skills, along with bogging the rest of the story down with subplots that didn’t pay off, these scenes were good. Not great, not fantastic, just good. That said, I thought the gun scene was super hot.

He chuckles. “Little mouse, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” He then pulls my thong to the side, baring my pussy to him, and the arousal glistening from within. He mutters a curse under his breath as his eyes devour every inch of me …

“Suck,” he orders, his tone deepening with finality. Closing my eyes against more tears, I open my mouth and let him guide the gun between my teeth ... (213-214).

This happens 1/3 of the way into the novel and I’m thinking, Oh, finally. Maybe it does get good. Unfortunately, this scene—where predator and prey truly collide for the first time—remains the hottest scene in the book …

although the part where she’s on her knees with a belt around her neck (331) isn’t too far behind.

I liked that there was an attempt to keep each scene fresh, so Addie and Zade become increasingly more intimate in various locations.

Towards the end of the novel, there’s a scene in which Zade chases her through the woods while it’s raining. The primal play could have been fun—it’s what their relationship has been hurtling towards all this time—if they hadn’t actively been having sex before in her bed, with Zade suddenly telling her to “run” and making her jump off his dick and take off. The transition felt more comical than ~ohhhhh so dark and thrilling~.

The two of them having a sudden intense (yet necessary) argument AFTER he catches and pins her down, though, felt jarring. Especially since Addie receives some horrifying news and a terrifying wakeup call in this moment, just to be pulled into rough sex on the cold ground. There’s a time and a place for everything, Zade, my guy.

Final Thoughts

I started reading Butcher & Blackbird in the same day after finishing Haunting Adeline, and I kid you not, I breathed a sigh of relief on page 12 and made a note on my phone: “the main characters already have more chemistry than Zade and Addie did over 600 pages.” So nice to remember what natural-sounding dialogue and organic sexual attraction actually reads like.

Nevertheless!

Haunting Adeline is such a long book and sets itself up for future works (I honestly don’t know if it’s just a sequel or more). Over 605 pages it tackles so many different ideas and plot points, it’s hard to gather all my thoughts and articulate them in a neat way. Harder still is the fact that this remains a dark romance book, with problematic kinks and actions.

I’m here for dark fiction. I don’t need every character I read about to be an upstanding person, or a secret vigilante taking down trafficking rings in a major city. Sometimes it’s healthy for us (adults!) to engage in fiction that is just intended to scandalize and tantalize, noncon and unhealthy attraction and all.

What I don’t appreciate is the hardcore attempts to paint the perpetrator of those actions as a “good guy.” Someone who only seems dangerous in the beginning until, surprise!, it turns out he’s protecting the MC from even more dangerous enemies. The lengthy, beat-you-over-the-head-till-you’re-sick-from-it justifications of why he’s actually sexy and desirable for assaulting her, for stalking her, for bringing blood and violence to her door—why we should actually root for these two to end up together as a couple in love.

Maybe it’s impossible to create a truly “dark” romance novel for a mainstream audience, in much the same way the kink community should be gatekept from people who don’t seek it out. The nuances of consent and navigating dark desires in a healthy, productive way will go straight over people’s heads if they’ve had no reason to deliberate over these concepts and practice them in their own life. As a result, a novel like Haunting Adeline that raises up a stalker-r4pist as a romantic hero will no doubt be misinterpreted by many. I’m not saying it’ll have a detrimental effect on their lives, and I will never advocate for book censorship—only that this book is a frustrating heap of disappointment to the people who are most likely to pick it up, and a scandalous treat for those who may not engage with its themes as meaningfully as one would hope.

Zade tells us a million times why he’s the sexiest man around while showing through his actions it’s all false, meanwhile 5-star reviews pile up saying “yesssss Zade, yes you ARE!”

I need to give my brain a good scrub after 7 hours reading this shit.

Rating

⭐️⭐️ 2 / 5 stars

[eurovision-del]

The results are in, and Aiko will be representing Czechia this year with Pedestal! Personally, I’m not too enthused with this result. Even as a studio cut, I wasn’t overly impressed by Pedestal as a song. The pop rock sound is kind of up my street, and I like the overall energy, but it’s also nothing I haven’t heard before. The chanting chorus doesn’t work for me, even recorded it sounds shouty, and live it was really rough. Aiko really needs to work on her breath control before May, but that wasn’t the only thing going wrong with her performance vocally. Changing the choreography would definitely help, personally I think they should just scrap everything from the ESCZ performance and rework staging from the ground up at Eurovision. You can’t rule anything out, especially this early in the season, but if Aiko delivers a performance anything like the one we saw last week, Czechia will really struggle to qualify.

It was a shame to see such a huge gap between the international and Czech votes. Unless I feel particularly strongly about the song, I prefer it when the artist who wins the local vote wins overall, and between the two I liked Elly’s song more, although I wasn’t all that fussed by either. Maybe Pedestal will grow on me over the coming months, but I’m not expecting much.