#perhaps i should read and try to understand a book written for a younger audience first 🥲

[yakam0z]

does everyone buy five versions of the same book?

[hamliet]

Girls Don’t Want Boys, Girls Want Monsters: Netflix’s The Witcher Review

Finally, the show we deserve. 

Men get all their superhero power fantasies of kicking villain ass. Finally there’s  a story that has that and includes women’s emotional power fantasies about falling in love with monsters who change. It doesn’t treat either as ridiculous or limited by gender, either, since Geralt falls for a monster too and women get to kick ass as well. 

Essentially, it’s a story about defeating monsters: often through integration with the shadow, sometimes involving love and connection, sometimes violence, but the violence is never glorified. It’s good. 

NB: I’m in the middle of reading the books (in the middle of Blood of Elves so far). I haven’t played the game since video games aren’t really a medium I enjoy. So I’ll make some comparisons since the show covered the two books I’ve read thus far, but please don’t put spoilers for the books below!

Let’s talk my favorite aspect of every story: characters. 

Renfri. 

Her story was somewhat sanitized from the books (it’s a lot more brutal what happened to Renfri) but well adapted. Both versions--the book and show--depict sincere empathy for our deconstructed Snow White. I loved her dialogue with Geralt, in which Geralt praises her for escaping the huntsman her stepmother hired to kill her, and she laughs and says that she didn’t. He let her go, but not before raping and robbing her. The story never directly answers if the prophecy was true or not; Geralt doesn’t believe it, but a lot of things Geralt doubts turn out to be true. Renfri was supposedly attacking animals as a child; however, the person reporting that is highly unlikely to be unbiased (Stregobor) so is this even true? Did Renfri become a killer because she was horribly abused and left with no other option? (That’s the option that I think seems most likely.) 

We can’t know. The Witcher isn’t interested in giving its audience palatable answers. It’s interested in provoking questions. The show gives more answers than do the books, again likely due to the medium, but it still lets these questions linger. 

Renfri’s story is not the first one in the books, but it is the first one the show adapts, and that’s a good decision imo. Her story embodies The Witcher’s themes and questions:

By acting the monster, we make monsters out of others. 

To defeat monsters, you must be a monster. 

What, then, can heal, especially in a world so broken?

Ciri.

Our deconstructed Rapunzel (yes, there are a lot of fairy tale references). As far as her story goes in its adaptation, the addition of Dara was well done. Sadly, no, Dara is not in the books, but his addition gave Ciri an arc beyond merely running in this story. 

That said, Ciri in the books is much younger than she is in the show. Which is okay, because Ciri is somewhat emblematic of the future: there’s a lot unknown about her powers, she needs to be protected from everyone trying to grab her and use her powers for themselves. She is Geralt’s destiny, and she is the future of the world of The Witcher. 

NB: I can’t discuss Ciri without shouting out to the casting director for casting Pavetta: how did they find an actress who looks so much like Ciri’s actress? It’s almost eerie. 

The episode where Geralt finds out about the Law of Surprise and his reaction to Pavetta’s pregnancy is perhaps the only story that I felt was better in the show than in the books (again, this isn’t inherently a quality thing but a medium preference). It added some much-needed hilarity (Geralt’s perfectly-timed “destiny can go f--” *Pavetta vomits* and all he can say is, “fuck”) and gave Geralt an arc. 

Geralt.

Mm. 

I liked how they handled his character and his struggles with what it means to be a Witcher and/or human. His struggles to understand himself are relatable, and fairly well set-up for future exploration. He’s a foil of Ciri, Yennefer, Jaskier, and Cahir so far, and I’m particularly intrigued by the monster theme and the foiling that is already set up thus with all of the above except Jaskier (who is no monster). Geralt was skeptical about saving the striga for her father, but managed to succeed, and I wonder if he will somehow be able to save himself from his own inner fears/monster by being a father. (Basically, I am curious as to how being Ciri’s de factor dad is going to challenge him.)

Jaskier.

Or, Dandelion, as he’s known in the books. The bard adds some much needed levity to the tale, and as @aspoonofsugar​ says, he’s pretty much Donkey from Shrek. But he is used fairly well within the story: he shows Geralt even before Ciri and Yennefer enter his life that he has a purpose beyond being a killing machine. In that sense he’s the foil of Renfri (Renfri accomplishes the same, but through violence) in that Geralt saves him and he clearly thinks highly of the Witcher. Jaskier is in some ways humanity in all its paradoxes and foibles, annoying and stupid, kind and clever, funny and truthful, deceptive and respectful. 

Cahir.

I’m a sucker for ravens as part of an aesthetic, as well as pretty, tormented bad boys. Yes, I know he’s a character I’m sure will arouse much handwringing and puritanical policing a la his other archetype brothers (Loki, Kylo Ren, Snape, etc). I don’t care. I do think the show made him much darker when compared to the books, but I still expect his arc to go in the same direction as the books. He’s a complicated, conflicted, complex character, and I’m not sorry for feeling empathy for him. 

But I am curious about his foiling with Geralt. Both are characters seeking Ciri to fulfill... something, and monstrous in a way (Cahir more for what he does, but there’s a humanity to him as well).

Yennefer.

Finally, my favorite, my baby murder daughter. 

Yennefer’s character was fascinating. I appreciated that she’s allowed to want deeply, her own wants, instead of attaching her wants to be whatever the male character desires. She wants to have children. She wants love. She wants to be beautiful. Her desires are traditionally feminine, and the show doesn’t put this down. And she also kicks ass and takes names, she fails, she’s allowed to be angry, to be mean often, to want to learn and to want to be the best. 

The show doesn’t punish Yennefer for her ambition. Neither do the books. She experiences consequences, both positive and negative, for her every choice. The show reveals her backstory right away, whereas the books don’t, but again that’s a medium thing. I think both do excellently in setting up Yennefer for our empathy. It doesn’t apologize for her or her wants or actions; it lets her arc and the story itself do the talking. 

Yennefer’s not here to be your cautionary tale or your role model. She’s just there to be her and to live. 

That is, to an extent, perhaps the best kind of role model. 

That doesn’t mean the show did everything in Yennefer’s story justice. I wasn’t thrilled with the adaptation of her first meeting with Geralt--the orgy in the background isn’t in the books and is a very bizarre decision given context. While, I loved Tissaia’s character and her foiling with Yennefer: they are too alike to ever get along, I really didn’t understand the point of Tissaia turning the other girls into slugs in episode 2. It was unsettling and not in the books. It was a heavy-handed metaphor not explained until episode 7 (about treating people as expendable slugs) that didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about how the world and Dark!Hogwarts worked. If anything it made the school seem foolishly cackling-mustache evil instead of the true current of darkness within it: manipulation and utilitarianism. As part of effort to control things, that control itself can lead to chaos. 

I think the rest of the series set this precise dilemma of a precarious balance between self-control and manipulation/utilitarianism quite well, though (it goes hand-in-hand with the theme of a “lesser evil” to quote Renfri’s story). I’m excited to see this explored more. 

Other comments:

When comparing the show to the books as I’ve read so far, I think the show made some smart changes for adapting to a visual medium. For example, Foltest and Adda’s story was adapted as a mystery: what is the monster? Who is the father? Who is the curser? Can the monster be saved? Whereas the book doesn’t do that: you know immediately that the monster is a striga, Foltest is the father, and he wants the striga saved. The answer to who cursed Adda is never clear in the written story either, whereas the show declares it was Ostrit (the book leaves it very much up in the air as to whether it was Ostrit or Adda’s mother). However, the way this particular episode weaves Adda’s story of rebirth with Yennefer’s rebirth was beautifully done. (Foltest is a good dad. We need more good dads in stories; of course, if we had more good dads, we’d have far less stories.) (I’m jesting.) 

The dialogue is at times... well it’s not like it’s The Rise of Skywalker levels of “who wrote this???” but it’s not always stellar. Actually, I’d say the quality tends to swing wildly about between clever (episode 4) and just confusing (episode 5). But in general, I think the dialogue issue is representative of the show’s largest issue: it struggles to know when to trust its audience. When should it give details? When should it trust them? When is it spoonfeeding, and when is it just confusing? It tries to walk a fine line and stumbles a bit. It succeeds, however, with the characters as I mentioned earlier with Yennefer, Geralt, and Ciri. 

My advice for the show going forward (not that they should definitely listen to me) is to forget Game of Thrones. It’s pretty obvious that this show is a passion project made by people who love The Witcher. I really hope they lean into that aspect instead of into the GoT-replacement aspect (because there are definitely aspects of that, particularly in the mood/aesthetic, tone, and gratuitous nudity--which is not exploitative or disturbing, but it also wasn’t necessary, isn’t in the books, and so felt like pandering). 

However, the sheer love for the material still really shines  through. They made me care for the characters, they interested me in the world, and they have me hooked for season 2. The showrunners’ excitement for the story and adoration of its characters is contagious, and I hope the show lets this excitement spread. 

[emptymasks]

Let Me Please You

Pairing: Ich | Narrator/Mrs. Danvers (background Ich/Maxim)

Words: 2568

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Tags: no fics for this ship on ao3 so i had to make the tag myself | First Meetings | Possibly Unrequited Love | up to you whether danvers is just toying with ich or actually is gaining feelings | Crush at First Sight | Awkward Crush | Bi-Curiosity | Sexual Tension | Unresolved Sexual Tension | Older Woman/Younger Woman | Power Dynamics

Read on Ao3

Notes: Alternate title: Ich's gay awakening.

So I finally watched Rebecca last night and was curious how many fics there were for the musical and there's only 6 and none of them are Danvers/Ich so I wanted to fix that and I don't know I just suddenly wrote this without really meaning to. I know Ich/Narrator/I is normally written in first person, but I'm not that comfy writing in first person so stuck to third person. Writing two women in third person when one of them doesn't have a name isn't necessarily the easiest thing so I hope it makes sense.

I based them of Pia Douwes' Danvers, and Christina Patten's Ich, but hopefully you can still imagine this with other versions/portrayals of the characters.

Big thanks to @imdezembervorjahren / @need-not for making English subtitles for the musical, I based some of the dialogue off their translations. And also thank you to them and @thegirlisuedtobe​ for getting me into this ship.

She had always felt the urge to please people. It came from both a desire to be helpful and kind, and a fear of being a disappointment. A disappointment; That's all she had ever felt like growing up. Her father, lovely but saddened that she hadn't tried harder to do something worthwhile with her art, and her mother, barely there at all. She tried to remember her mother's smile. She could see it in profile, her long hair flowing over her shoulders, bouncing, as she spoke to her father, but as her mother's head turned to face her the smile always vanished.

She thought of this when she thought about Mrs. Danvers.

While the majority of the staff had stood upon the stairs, looking down on her, judging her, their white aprons and shirts gleaming in the soft copper light, she couldn't help but notice the figure in black. Not wanting to be rude, she hadn't looked at the figure until Maxim introduced her.

Black skirts skimmed against the floor as she approached, hiding her feet so that it looked as though she could be floating along. She raised her head and was met with cold blue, almost grey eyes.

She was transfixed.

The woman kept walking, as if she could walk straight though her, as if she were only an apparition, a lonely ghost seeking acceptance in a house full of the living who did not wish to know or understand her. She had stumbled back, the heel of her shoe sliding, and her gloves fell from her hands. They made a soft, padded sound as they hit the floor.

Mrs. Danvers still had her eyes on her, and she felt compelled to keep returning the gaze. But she was never good with prolonged eye contact, always glancing away, feeling suddenly silly and shy. There was something there in Mrs. Danvers' eyes. Something cold and hard and... painful.

She didn't know how the staff in houses like these worked, how they thought of their employers. She hoped they were treat well and in return they gave loyalty. Perhaps they would grieve their employers like a dear friend. Perhaps Mrs. Danvers had done that.

How awful, she thought. She noted no ring on Mrs. Danvers hand and she assumed a housekeeper would live on the premises.

Had she lost a husband? Was Mrs. Danvers as alone as she had been before meeting Maxim?

The gloves were still on the floor.

She started bending her knees and reaching out her hand. They were her gloves and she'd dropped them, so she was supposed to pick them up... right? It seemed a silly thing to get someone else to do. Her legs trembled as she realised she would have to lean back a little, as they were stood so close that her head would brush against Mrs. Danvers' dress.

She couldn't explain why she kept the eye contact as she bowed. There was something, she didn't know what, but something in the older woman that made her want to make a good impression. Well, more so than she normally did when meeting anyone. Mrs. Danvers raised an eyebrow, almost imperceptibly, and she froze.

Her heart thudded against her ribs and she straightened back up and then watched as Mrs. Danvers elegantly dropped to her knees.

Oh god, she felt flushed.

She was the one looking down as someone else picked up her mess and she could not shake the feeling that she wasn't in control here. Entranced, their eyes still connected, Mrs. Danvers rose and placed the glove over her hands, still uselessly outstretched. She might have imagined their fingers brushing.

"I'll have Clarice assist you, since your maid has not yet arrived," Mrs. Danvers voice was sharp and pristine. It was a little deeper than she'd expected and she found that she liked it.

"Oh, I don't have a maid," She smiled, trying to be friendly. It seemed a normal thing to say, but Mrs. Danvers face twisted and she was hit with that feeling of not belonging once again.

"I need to sort some business out, Mrs. Danvers will show you to your room, darling," Maxim's voice brought her back to her surroundings and her head moved slowly into him as he kissed her cheek before leaving the house.

She was now alone, in an unfamiliar house, surrounded by unfamiliar people who were all staring at her, taking her in, and, more than likely, trying to figure out why Maxim would want anything to do with her.

Mrs. Danvers uncoiled her arm, gesturing towards the staircase that loomed over them. She took a glance back to the front door, before resigning herself to walking up the stairs. Mrs. Danvers heels clicked behind her.

She had thought the house had seemed enormous from the outside, but somehow it seemed even bigger as she looked down through the banisters, the entrance hall so far away and lost.

She stopped awkwardly at the top of the stairs. Mrs. Danvers hadn't told her which way to go.

"The east wing would be that way," Mrs. Danvers turned her head to the right, speaking as though she should had obviously known that.

She felt a nervous smile form on her face and bit the inside of her lip. It would take time for Mrs. Danvers to get used to her, but whether or not people had liked her, they'd at least always gotten along with her... at least, to her face. But even if they thought she was weak, everyone had always at least agreed she was amiable.

The house was old, but kept in a beautiful state. The ornate windows let in pure streams of light, she couldn't see a speck of dust anywhere, and she felt as though she could see her reflection in the doors the wood was polished that thoroughly.

Should she compliment Mrs. Danvers? She was in charge of all the staff and she obviously worked hard, perhaps she would like the compliment. Or perhaps she'd be insulted? As if it implied she had expected the house to be dirty.

But everyone liked to be complimented, didn't they?

"Manderley is so beautiful, Mrs. Danvers. You and the others must work very hard," She looked to her left to find that Mrs. Danvers was now walking slightly ahead of her. She hadn't realised she'd been overtaken. She hadn't thought she'd slowed down, but Mrs. Danvers was a fair bit taller than her...

She hadn't really realised that before. Or, if she had, it hadn't struck her as it did now. Mrs. Danvers turned her head slightly, looking back at her. "How... kind of you, Madam."

Mrs. Danvers mouth grimaced around the words. Did she think she was being insincere? She had hoped her tone hadn't come across that way. Or maybe, oh what a shame, maybe Mrs. Danvers wasn't used to compliments? She was going to make sure that changed.

They stopped outside a set of double-doors at the end of the hallway.

"Clarice will be coming up with your belongings, let her know if you need anything."

"Thank you," She turned but Mrs. Danvers was already walking back down the hall.

The room was beyond lovely. She spun in slow circles, drinking it in, until she let herself sink into the bed, hands running through silk sheets. She sighed and let herself lay back and close her eyes. She could almost taste the salt water from the sea air, as the breeze fluttered in.

The cold air kissed her skin and her mind was drawn towards cold hands and colder eyes.

In the morning she resolved to try and get a mental map of the house, that way he could at least save herself the embarrassment of having to ask someone how to get back to her room.

She poked her head into the various rooms as she worked her way down the hall form what was now hers and Maxim's bedroom. There were drawing rooms and dining rooms, and a couple rooms full of furniture hidden under sheets. Maxim had mentioned their room was brand new for them, recently renovated, so she assumed that was the reason for these ghostly rooms.

She didn't spend too long in each room, taking in the art on the walls and being fascinated and delighted with the different things she could see out of each window, until she entered a room further down the hall, past the staircase.

Every time she entered a room she looked up at the ceiling. She felt silly for it, but it was so foreign to her to see a ceiling that high. Why, back in Braithwell you could fit at least two, maybe even three, rooms stacked on top of one another in the same space. Her eyes trailed down to the wallpaper, a soft red with gold brocade-like pattern flowing across the room. The room was mostly bare, but her eyes were drawn towards the desk, clearly the focus of the room.

There wasn't anything on the desk, no papers, no books, and she couldn't imagine Maxim using this as an office... Perhaps this was Rebecca's then... Though, this room seemed cleaner than any of the other ones she'd been in (not that the other's had been dirty).

"Can I help you?" She jumped as the voice came out of nowhere. She put a hand on her chest as if that would calm her breathing and was just thankful she hadn't screamed.

Mrs. Danvers was stood partially behind a glass case, blending into its shadow. Her eyes shifted to the contents of the case. They seemed to be orchids, impossibly pretty, but strange to look at through the glass. An imprisoned beauty.

"Oh, no thank you. I just thought I would look around, try and get acquainted with the house. I wanted to try to get to know the rooms..." She trailed off, glancing up at Mrs. Danvers, inviting her to talk.

Mrs. Danvers took the bait, as her head raised.

"This is the morning room," There was pride in her voice and she felt pleased. Perhaps they were making some progress. "After she'd had breakfast, Mrs. de Winter finished her correspondence and phone calls in here."

Mrs. Danvers walked towards her again, stalked towards her, almost brushing against her as she walked past and she shivered. "This is her secretary," She felt enraptured as Mrs. Danvers spoke, as if she were imparting some intimate secrets with her. "Her guest book, her stationary, and in here, her phone book, business cards, and her calendar."

Mrs. Danvers smiled as she traced her hands over the wood and she followed the movement with her eyes. She looked so much younger when she smiled.

"Rebecca de Winter..." She murmured the words as she looked at the embossed 'R' gracing the front cover of all the books, swirling and coiling like ivy.

She looked over the desk. Mrs. Danvers had carefully placed each item down, so that none of them were touching. There was also a phone, a clock, and a small sculpture. She reached out her hand towards the sculpture, not touching it, just hovering her fingers over it. She could feel Mrs. Danvers walk back around the desk.

Mrs. Danvers was towering over her again. She could feel the thick, warm fabric of the black dress against her bare calves, tickling and caressing at the same time. A hand came around her and elegantly hovered over her own that still was floating over the sculpture.

She could feel breath on her neck.

"That is her cupid. The god of love. How she adored this little sculpture..." Mrs. Danvers voice trailed off, as if she was lost in her memories.

She drew hand back to her chest and held it in a fist at the base of her throat. She was hyper aware of her own breathing, and was keenly focused on not moving an inch as Mrs. Danvers was still right behind her. If she turned her head, her face would be right there...

What was she thinking? Why was she feeling hot? Was she ill? She couldn't be... Perhaps the journey to Cornwall had tired her out more than she'd thought. Yes. That had to be it. A perfectly normal explanation...

Mrs. Danvers still hadn't moved, her hand was gliding along the outline of the little angel.

She cleared her throat. "Have you been at Manderley long?" She squeaked out and winced.

Mrs. Danvers drew back and she tried to remember how to breathe.

"I came here with Mrs. De Winter when she married," Mrs. Danvers stood with her hands clasped in front of her, face neutral and passive, but her gaze flickered over her for a moment before she returned to speaking. "Since her childhood, I was always there for her..."

And just like that Mrs. Danvers' eyes went somewhere long ago and far away. She seemed to realise this time, eyes widening, before clenching her hands into fists at her sides and starting to walk out of the room.

"I meant it, yesterday, when I said how beautiful you make the house look. It was surely a lot of work to prepare for my arrival. I want you to know I really do appreciate it," She poured as much honestly into her words as she could and Mrs. Danvers froze.

"I only did as Mr. de Winter ordered," A tight-lipped smile formed on her face, as if the compliment hurt her, and continued to leave.

"I..." She willed her voice to be louder and wrung out her hands. "I hope that we can become friends. And, everything with the house can be as it was. You know much more about everything than I do, so I'm more than happy for you to continue to look after everything as you see fit."

That, for some reason, actually got Mrs. Danvers to turn and face her. "As you wish, Madam. Should you need anything else, that is the house telephone. I assume you'll want to write your letters now."

She didn't try to stop Mrs. Danvers leaving the room this time. She was... confused. A telephone in a house that called to another phone inside the same house? Was it really so hard to just... walk? And, letters? Was she supposed to write some? She didn't have family, she didn't have friends (unless she wanted to count Mrs. Van Hopper), and she didn't work. She wasn't a socialite, and she wasn't sure if she really wanted to become one.

That night, she laid in bed, alone. Maxim was busy writing something and had promised he would be up in an hour or so. She balled the sheets up in her hands and clutched them to her chest as she turned onto her side. When she closed her eyes she felt thick fabric against her back and a cold hand moving down over hers, soft for a moment, and then powerful and stern, clutching at her wrist and she wanted so badly to be pleasing, to be obedient, to be good, to be told that she was good, and pretty, and wanted.

She tried to shake away the images, but they kept coming back, until she ended up falling asleep, surrounded by a warm fog that left goosebumps along her skin, and dreamt of a smile.

[awed-frog]

When you say romance should be 18 and over do you mean the brand of romance we know today (aka toxic) or romance as a whole? If we wrote healthy romance aimed at younger crowds or presented unhealthy behaviour as unhealthy behaviour in regular romance (for older crowds) would that be a good solution?

Well - I see three questions here, all of them incredibly complex and beyond interesting: should art be political and is censorship ever a good idea and also is the romance genre okay? The answer to all of them, in my opinion, is ‘no but’.

1) Should art be political?

The stupid thing is, art is inherently political, whether you want it to or not, but art that’s deliberately political tends to be awful, and that’s a universal truth both for left-wing stuff and for right-wing stuff. When you willingly create political stuff, what you’re crafting is propaganda, and proganda is generally sad and bad. I guess there is propaganda that’s also good art - Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs comes to mind - but the problem is, not all of us are Victor Hugo. 

That said, since whatever we create is political (because man is a social animal) and will have some kind of moral message, yes - ideally we want more art with an ethically ‘good’ moral message than we want garbage, because art (and here I include everything: books, movies and so on) is perhaps the most effective and impactful mind-shaper ever. That’s why Disney is doing its very best to be a monopoly, after all. But: I don’t have a good solution for how to ensure art is nice. I think art is nice when artists are nice, and artists are nice when they grow up in good, healthy societies. So the more a society rots from the inside out, the more likely it is you’ll find art that’s also rotten. I mean, while romance as a genre was always a bit dodgy (see below), what that article was talking about - the rise of the possessive, violent boyfriend and domestic abuse as the great love story - is sort of a recent phenomenon, and goes hand in hand with the deterioration of women’s rights in (Western) society. 

(As an aside, I’m not sure I agree (young) women are necessarily misogynistic for reading crap like Fiftfy Shades: I think (young) women are exhausted. Fifty Shades is, more than anything, an ode to undeserved capitalism - the only kind that seems open as an option today. After all, we know trickle-down capitalism doesn’t work and most of us will toil and toil for very little; Christian Grey is the antidote to that, the guy who shows up, basically kidnaps you, and smothers you in a life of riches for which the only thing you must do in return is give up. Having someone else decide on your job, your car, your possessions and clothes, where you’ll live, what you’ll eat and when, whether you’ll take birth control (lol: obviously not), when you’ll see your friends and family plus when and how you’ll orgasm - what women tried to escape for generations is suddenly the dream for many of us - not because of any new political ideology, but because we’re beyond tired. Women, like men, are now crushed in a neverending cycle of bs, underpaid jobs, and are apparently fed up enough in taking responsibility for anything that not only romance and ‘superhuman’ characters are booming, but a very specific kind of subset of that: essentially, slave fics. 

Just give up your agency, and you’ll be taken care of and cherished - forever.

I understand a kink is not the same as your actual political opinion, but still - I’m not enthusiastic about this trend, and I’m even less enthusiastic when it gobbles up young women who haven’t had time to experience real life relationships.)

No, I think that in the end, the answer is - if you reverse the rotting of society, automatically - statistically - you’ll get healthier artists and a healthier audience. So, really, the fight is always the same: better paid jobs, better (and free) schools, more opportunities for continued education of any kind, more democracy and transparency, more green spaces and better living conditions.

2) Is censorship ever a good idea?

Sadly, no. You’d think the logical conclusion of what I just said would be, ‘In the meantime, let’s ban the most dangerous stuff’ or something, and while part of me is tempted to support that, censorship has a way of ending very badly no matter how good and noble your intentions are.

(Self-censorship should be more of a thing, though: not everything that goes through our minds deserves to be seen and shared.)

What sucks at the moment is that on the one hand, capitalism is operating its own censorship; and on the other, its desperate search for new markets has led to a disastrous disintegration of actual human interactions.

So, problem one is that we only publish and market what makes a lot of money, and while that’s normal, to an extent, the result today is that everything is ‘almost the same’ as the previous thing (think sequels, prequels, remakes, obnoxious book covers for books that are basically all the same). So if ‘asshole boyfriend who beats you up’ suddenly makes money, it becomes very hard to escape the trope, because what will be offered to you everywhere is exactly that. This was less of a thing back when our main sources of entertainment were shared (movie theaters, the one family TV, school libraries and so on); now, it’s an epidemic, and as we see with Youtube algorithms, a dangerous one, because this obsession with watching and rewatching ‘almost the same’ inevitably leads to more and more extreme stuff.

Meanwhile, problem two is that the more tailor-made our entertainment is, the less we connect to real people. I know I sound about 90 here, but when all family members are glued to a different screen - mom watching the 50th remake of Eat, Pray, Love, dad down the rabbithole of lizard conspiracy theories, big brother now exploring some milk&peanut butter weirdness on Youporn and younger sister 30 fics deep into Stucky high school AUs - what do they have in common? What do they talk about? What can they even learn from each other? Until recently, and for aeons, fiction was shared, and its primary goal was to form a connection between group members. Now, that’s gone. We destroyed it, without even realizing what we were doing, in the space of twenty years. And yeah - I know you can create new communities, but a) these communities are virtual (which means, for the most part: not real) and b) they tend to connect like with like, which is comforting, perhaps, but not very useful. The whole point here is that we need to learn how to feel empathy and trust for those who’re different, and build a community with them - instead, what the internet is doing is isolating us inside our little bubbles, so much so that any minor disagreement is now seen as good reason to break off contact.

Censorship, however, doesn’t solve any of this. For starters, we need more regulation on how big corporations can get, what social media companies can and can’t do and who can access what kind of material. And it’d be great if we could all unplug a little, but uh - fat chance of that.

3) Is the romance genre okay?

Again, just my opinion, but personally, I mistrust it. There are no romance books for men? Instead, books for men feature a Main Character doing stuff and improving himself while accidentally meeting a Sexy Lamp he can go home to at the end of the story. And, well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but isn’t this a healthier way to look at life? While good relationships are very meaningful (or even the most meaningful) part of any human life, if your goal is to get them, they won’t grow right. You shouldn’t be hyperfocused on finding love; I think it’s much better to be like Main Character: you work on your drawing skills, try a new sport, read poetry, defeat evil Russians, thus developing inner happiness and self-confidence, thus leading you towards towards a partner who’ll fall in love with who you are - not a partner who was looking for some empty shell to fill with their own expectations and preferences.

And I know - romance books and movies are full of exciting non-romantic events and stuff - but still, the fact they’re classified and intended as romance does imply that finding a romantic partner is the ultimate goal. Which, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s healthy, and is a particularly inappropriate message for young women. After all, why is it okay that young men are encouraged to go on ghost hunts, study dinosaurs and save the world while young women are taught to wait around for a broken (possibly violent, but it’s not his fault) bad boy only they can fix? It’s messed up, is what it is, and I may be extreme here, but even the tamest, sweetest romance revolves around the same message: that you’re not complete on your own, and that you should focus on relationships as a way to become a better, happier human being. 

Now, as much as I love this quote -

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” — Oscar Wilde

- obviously there’s no direct cause-and-effect here - you don’t read one book and become a mindless Stepford wife - so I’m not saying, ‘no one should read romance ever’. It’s just - as I said in that other post, we should all enjoy diverse stuff. Read your romance novels, but also read the classics, read some philosophy, a random poem, a badly-written thriller - read Stephen King, read how the OED was written, or a Wikipedia article on the French resistance - anything and everything. Because of capitalism, because of this push towards personalized entertainment, we’re being forced and pigeonholing ourselves in smaller and smaller cages, and the worst thing is - we’re comfortable inside them, because this is the awful truth: cages are comfortable, and that’s why we need to get out before we forget what cages are for.

[As a final point: you say ‘if we wrote’, does it mean you’re an aspiring writer? If so, you shouldn’t worry about any of this. You write what you want, you write the stories you want to read. Just remember to get out of your cage as well - experience, discover, grow, read, dare - and then put all that into your books. I’m sure they’ll be great, whatever your favourite genre.]

[coffee-addict-writer]

But You’re a King and I’m a Lionheart

Pairing: Logince genre: angst written for: @mayflowers07 Warnings: death mentions, a sword fight gone wrong A/N: so this was the original idea i had when given this prompt, but as i wrote this i had many more ideas for what could happen after this fic, so let me know if anyone wants to see this continued, please! He looked every bit the king he was meant to be, kneeling there adorned in the deep red and sparkling gold, the colors he was born to wear. The simple fact of the matter was that he was born to rule. Logan had just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon. He watched silently as Roman stood, crown in place on his head. “Long live the king!” someone shouted starting the chorus that swept over the people watching. 

“Long live the King!” Logan shouted along with the rest of them. his voice should have been lost among the rest but Romans eyes found him anyways. “Long live the king” he shouted again, a hundred people speaking with one voice and Romans eyes were trained on his. “Long live the King” And Roman was scared, but no one would be able to tell through the smile he held. “Long live the king!” Logan could always tell.

After the last “Long live the king” logan turned and left the large room, hed go unnoticed, a person of his standing was never noticed. Roman would surely notice, but with a sea of noblemen between them there was little even the new king could do to get him to stay.

He picked his way through the castle, down the stairs, into the one place hed ever felt at home, the library, his father, the keeper of books, had raised him in this room. he knew every book by heart and he was meant to take over for his father. but now he had a new destiny. one he had chosen for himself.

“Father,” Logan called through the stacks of books.

“in the back kiddo!” his father's familiar voice did little to stop the shaking in logans hands as he navigated the stacks and tables. he rounded the corner to see his father seated with his younger brother in his lap, reading to him. Logan had never understood how his father could live in this world so free from the outside world.

“Father i... I’m not taking over your position.” Logan said, no point in beating around the bush. his father closed the book he’d been reading gently and smiled up at him.

“I didn’t think you would,” and that caught logan off guard, his father had raised him for this.

“How-”

“You think I don’t know my own son enough to know when he's sneaking out in the middle of the night?” and logan deflated. the last thing he wanted to do was disappoint his father. Logan looked down at his worn shoes. “you’ve gotten good with a bow and arrow,” his father said offhandedly as he set his brother down and whisper to him to go play. “but if it is your goal to be a knight, you have to start practicing with a sword to.” Logan looked up then in surprise, his eyes following his father who was moving to pull something out from behind a bookcase.

“You... you’re okay with this..?” Logan asked eyeing the large box that his father was laying over the table.

“honestly... no, but that’s just because you’re my son and I want to know that you’ll be safe. a bookkeeper is safe. but if it’s not what you want for your life, then you shouldn’t settle just because it would put me at ease kiddo. and I know your brand of stubbornness, son. once you've decided on something there is no changing your mind." He sighed "go ahead, open it," his father motioned to the box that now lay in front of him.

Logan looked the box over before glancing back at his father again, who only nodded. Logan lifted the lid off the box slowly and gasped seeing the sword laying in a bed of red material. the handle was mostly plain, easy to hold onto, but it was washed in gold and red and it reminded him instantly of roman standing alone in front of a sea of people.

Logan lifted it weighing it in his hands before pulling it out of its sheath. holding it out in front of him experimentally.

"this... I can't accept this.." Logan breathed but his eyes didn't leave the blade that looked sharp enough to cut air.

"You can, and you will, it was meant to be your birthday present. but I figured with the young king taking his throne already, you wouldn't want to wait." Logan sucked in a breath. he would never stop being surprised by this man who'd taken him in when Logan was just a baby. tears were gathering in logans eyes and he quickly slid the sword back in its sheath, laying it down carefully before throwing his arms around him.  "im proud of you logan. I've always been proud of you." Patton whispered hugging him back tightly.  "but I think perhaps you should train, you only have a week" his father reminded pulling away from the hug and handing him the sword.

Logan nodded and left the library. his father was right, he had very little time until the tournament held in Romans honor, where his protector would be decided.  the only ones allowed to participate were meant to be the knights already in service to the throne. But Logan had read enough he was sure he could sneak his way in on a technicality. now he just needed to make sure he could win.

Logan didn't see Roman once in the week that followed. He'd trained in the abanded parts of the castle only he knew. and he'd trained in the open at night. he left the castle walls to take on bandits and thieves until he was confident with his sword. until he was confident he was ready. and on the morning of the tournament, he signed his name on the roster, argued his case in that he had served the throne for his entire life. the entered him under the name bookkeeper and took bets amongst each other on how long he'd last before hed even finished signing in.

His first glimpses of Roman were from so far away Logan could just make out red and gold, but it was enough for him to feel determined all over again.

The first day Logan knew he would be okay.

The announcer stumbled over 'bookkeeper' the audience mumbled confusion and Logan squared his shoulders stepping into the arena with his sword on his back. his first opponent was a big man compared to Logans own scrawny frame.

Amongst all the commotion Logan felt sure he could hear Roman gasp. but Logan didn't look up until he had the other guy on the ground with his sword pressed against the man's throat.

When he did look up Romans eyes were wide and his fists were white. Logan pushed the guy backward and swung his sword to rest over his shoulder, he walked out of the arena to "Bookkeeper has won the round and advances to the next day" Some had actually cheered for him. most didn't. he didn't care. he was here to stay, to protect his king. it was his only option.

The Next day went much the same as the first. Logan stayed in his tent at night as per the rules. he sharpened his sword and continued to win. yeah, he got hurt, cuts and bruises and the like, but none of it seemed to really matter, day after day he won. until it was only him and four others left. they called the five of them champions. but only one of them would survive the next day.

Logan's tent fell open sometime in the middle of the night.

"You have to withdraw" He was met with Romans voice and Logan hadn't realized until that moment how much he missed it he sat up from his straw mattress and looked at roman, the king, and he'd never seen him look so small. Logan stood up carefully, having to slouch in the small space.

"I can't withdraw Roman," he said finally.

"And why not? as the *king* I order you to withdraw!"

"Hush, unless you want half the world to know you're breaking the rules by visiting me?" Logan said raising an eyebrow at him.

"You... You cant talk to me that way." Roman huffed crossing his arms over his chest. and Logan couldn't help but grin. even as his heart broke. "Logan, the fight tomorrow is to the death," Roman whispered and Logan closed his eyes.

"I know." He whispered "I'm still not withdrawing"

"Why not?"

"Because this is the only way, Roman," Logan whispered angerly. "Because you're the king now and that changes everything and I can never be to you what I want to be but this way I can at least make sure you're safe!"

the silence that stretched between them burned logans eyes and he had to look away.

"Lo," and roman was taking a step towards him and Logan wanted to let him. but he couldn't, Logan backed away holding his hand out to stop Roman advancing.

"no roman. I understand what I have to do. and I will keep you safe, or I will die trying. now go, before anyone sees you and they cut off my head" and with that logan fell back into his bed, facing away from Roman until he heard the flutter of the tent flaps falling back closed.

Five men fight to the death. the winner is appointed the Kings Gaurd. the names are announced each followed by the applause of the audience, except fo course for his. no one liked it when their traditions were trampled, which was what Logan was doing. standing in one of the five entrances to the arena. his sword held tight in his hand. he would survive this.

He would survive this.

He would survive this.

The gates were lifted. he stepped through. and he fought. with everything he had. he had he fought for Roman.

The rules were to the death.

And Logan fought until he was the last one standing, bloody and beaten, but the last one alive save for the man on the other end of his sword.

Logan glanced at Roman, who was nodding furiously at him, seeming to forget where he was and who he was and Logan couldn't help that his lips twitched upward.

He didn't feel the sword go through his side. He didn't hear the gasp of the audience. he didn't see Romans face fall. He will survive this

Logan pushed his own sword forward. ending the man’s life and stumbling back.

He was the last one standing. and the crowd cheered even as he looked down at the sword still in him.

He will survive this

He was the last one standing. and people were rushing into the arena.

He was the last one standing until he fell to his knees, his ears were ringing and he couldn't make out the voices coming at him.

He will survive this

He was the last one kneeling and someone was pulling the sword out of him there were voices and shouting and his ears were ringing.

He was the last one breathing as he was laid back and he felt hands all over him

He was the last one alive

He will survive this

He will survive this

And the world blacked out around him. He had to survive this.

[macbetha]

Predictions for Free! Season 3: NatsuNao + Getting the High Speed! Starting Days gang back together

So hi! Happy Season 3! This is basically just one giant hot mess of a conspiracy theory, but these are my predictions on what might happen in Natsuya and Nao’s characters in Free! Season 3, following their arcs from Starting Days through what was mentioned of them in Bonds, Promises, and Take Your Marks. There aren’t many summaries of the movies available to read yet - I have watched Starting Days, but as far as the other movies, there are only a few written summaries at this time, so if I get something wrong or something was misinterpreted or I miss a big plot point, I’m very sorry! I tried really hard to get as much accurate information as possible and put it all together.  Again, this is all just personal speculation with a dash of hopes and dreams for what’s to come in Free!, primarily for NatsuNao. All good fun and hype. But be warned, there are major spoilers ahead for the movies if you haven’t seen them or read summaries yet! 

1. Where are they now?

Note: This is all under the assumption that Season 3 will be a forwarding timeline, as in, it won’t be new scenes from previous episodes in which it’s revealed that the Starting Days crew was present at several races and we just didn’t see them. I’m assuming Season 3 will be forward-moving, since in the poster, Haruka seems to be wearing a jacket that is very similar to the Japanese national swimming team. Plus, Take Your Marks ended with the message “See You Next Stage,” which I assumed to mean “next stage of life.” College, professional swimming, that sort of thing. 

So, this question of where are Natsuya and Nao now was pretty much answered in Take Your Marks - Natsuya and his swimming team are at the onsen where Rin, Sousuke, Nitori, and Momotarou are visiting, and the apartment Haruka rents in Tokyo previously belonged to Nao. I’m predicting that NatsuNao’s current situations will lead them back to the Iwatobi boys maybe in the form of:

 Haruka finding something of Nao’s left in the apartment.  - In Take Your Marks, Nao accidentally leaves his cell phone at the Shigino Real Estate agency - him picking it up was his big reveal, but neither Haruka and Makoto were not present. What’s the significance of having Nao be the previous tenant if Haruka isn’t going to find out about it some other way?

Haruka could hear about Nao’s reputation as a coach from the neighbors. - Also in Take Your Marks, while exploring the exterior of the apartment, Haruka and Makoto are approached by a young boy who asks if they know the swimming coach who lives in the apartment. The coach’s name is not given, but if someone’s occupation is widely known, their name is (obviously) sure to follow.

The young boy lets the audience know that Nao is still a swimming coach, which is a very important bit of information and leads to:

2. How have they changed as individuals and together since Starting Days?

So, as of Take Your Marks, we know that Natsuya is still a swim captain and Nao is still coaching. Let’s reflect on Nao’s choice first, going back to at the end of Starting Days, when he was suddenly put in the hospital near the end of the movie. 

(Also, this is probably just exciting to me, but notice those flowers by Nao’s bedside?)

 I WONDER WHO GAVE THEM TO HIM *EYES EMOJI*

Anyway, in this scene in Starting Days, Nao is in the hospital for retinal detachment. 

He reveals to Haruka, Makoto, Ikuya and Asahi that Natsuya forced him into swimming “in the beginning,” but he really got into it in the end. In his own quiet way, for a brief pause, he honestly seems devastated that he will not be able to swim in middle school anymore due to retinal detachment, yet he quickly reassures the team that he will be able to swim again in high school.  Even when Nao is in the hospital, about to have major surgery, he’s still thinking about swimming, as we can tell by the book he’s reading when the boys barge into his hospital room. 

Let’s take a second to realize just how scared Nao probably was, getting surgery. On his eye. And what’s the comfort he turns to? Swimming. Not the physical aspect of it, but by reading about it to improve his coaching. Swimming clearly means a lot to him, which is a strong indicator why he continued coaching in his later teen years. Now, in theory, Nao is telling the truth to the team when he says he’ll continue swimming in high school - he should only be out of the water for maybe four weeks after retinal surgery, so obviously, that’s not years.  HOWEVER, apparently, without rapid surgical intervention (within 8 - 15 days), the retina could have permanent problems. Nao tells the boys that he started noticing changes in his vision last fall, and he admits that ignoring his weakening vision is what forced him to have surgery. Since he waited too long for the procedure, there’s a possibility he could have some sort of cataract with rapid progression. Another surgery could be required 1-2 years down the road after this one at the end of Starting Days. 

Nao is wearing glasses in the credits of Starting Days:

And he’s still wearing them when he’s older.

That could, presumably, be the “injury” Natsuya tells Sousuke that a “friend” of his has when they talk at the onsen in Take Your Marks. It’d be a little odd that they spent so much screen-time on Nao’s eye damage in Starting Days, only for him to have another injury preventing him from swimming in Take Your Marks? Unlikely.  Also, I’m fully aware I’m reaching way too far here, but notice in both versions of Natsuya and Nao as older boys, Natsuya stands on Nao’s right side? You know, the side his bad eye is on? 

Yes, I know, reaching, but let me live ok

This is a good transition into how Natsuya has perhaps changed since Starting Days. 

Honestly, it doesn’t seem like much has changed at this point - he’s still a swim captain. BUT that choice in itself results in a change between him and Nao. 

According to the summaries I’ve read, at the onsen in Take Your Marks, Natsuya notices Sousuke wearing a shoulder brace and asks him if it’s a swimming injury. Sousuke confirms this, which leads Natsuya to having a sudden heart-to-heart with Sousuke. 

He tells Sousuke something along the lines that he has a close friend who suffered an injury, and that he prays his friend can recover and swim with Natsuya in the future. This goes back to one of the last things Natsuya says to Nao in Starting Days:

“I’ll be waiting for you.”

This conversation at the onsen was crucially supposed to happen specifically between Natsuya and Sousuke because it’s a parallel with the scene where Rin confronts Sousuke about his injury at the end of Eternal Summer.

This is when Rin said: "Where did you get the idea that your shoulder can't be fixed? You’re closing the door on your dreams before you even try.”

“I'll be waiting for you.”

So, Natsuya’s choice to continue swimming when Nao cannot leads to my next question.

3. What if they have drifted apart?

I don’t mean they’re not speaking - I’ve heard that in the intro of Take Your Marks, Natsuya and Nao are seen at a cafe together. I’m not saying this one thing of Nao not being able to swim has driven them apart completely, given how close they were in Starting Days. 

It will be interesting to see if their dynamic has changed, since it seems like Nao can’t swim due to his injury. Even if we didn’t really see him swimming in Starting Days, the fact that he doesn’t have a choice but to stop has obviously left Natsuya grieving for him, so I’m sure it’s effected Nao as well. Will this effect how they act around each other? Or how they feel about one another? Will Nao feel insignificant as a coach because he can’t get in the water, or will Natsuya consistently make sure Nao feels loved and appreciated, given that swimming is not an option for him? Another thing that might have made them drift apart: the awesome @livruka reminded me that there’s talk that in Take Your Marks, it’s mentioned that Natsuya and Ikuya went to America, most likely to study and train. So was Nao left behind, alone in that Tokyo apartment and dealing with his injury on his own?  Though, Natsuya has been hopeful of Nao’s return to the water since the first surgery - in Starting Days, Nao says he can never stop teaching, and Natsuya says that’s fine, but he needs to return to swimming with him soon.

Nao pauses, then laughs, and it honestly sounded sad to me. Then he says, “When I can.” I think Nao knew his days of swimming might be jeopardized, but he didn’t tell Natsuya that. Kind of like how Sousuke didn’t tell Rin the extent of his shoulder injury. Could that drive a rift between Nao and Natsuya? I doubt it. I mean, it seems like Natsuya realizes in Take Your Marks that Nao won’t be able to swim with him for a while - he’s just praying that one day they’ll be back in the water together again. Nao might have tried to hide how bad his eye was when they were younger, and he might have even been able to swim in high school for a time before his eye got increasingly worse, but I’m sure that he and Natsuya have a level understanding of the situation now. Natsuya might be a little more earnest and hopeful about the injury getting better, but I think Nao would be more accepting of the situation, given his personality is very go with the flow, as devastating as the injury surely is. But, as a side note, I really enjoyed this parallel between Nao and Makoto: in Starting Days, Nao says he started swimming for Natsuya, so it makes sense why Nao knowingly questions Makoto about only swimming because Haruka is there. 

Nao says, “Makoto, do you like swimming?”

Makoto’s all like, “Yes!” 

Nao gives him that why the fuck you lyin~ smile and says, “It’s not just because Haruka is here?”

I’m not saying that link could mean anything for Nao’s future or Makoto’s, other than both of them being coaches - I just thought that was interesting. 

4. How will Natsuya and Nao be reunited with Haruka, Makoto, and Asahi? Ikuya and Natsuya still talk to one another when they’re older, since I believe there was a scene in Promises where Ikuya missed a phone call from Natsuya and intended to return it (his roommate, Hiyori, teases him about it, which could indicate that Ikuya talks about Natsuya fondly, and often). Itseems like their relationship has continued to improve since the end of Starting Days.

Plus, I believe they have another phone scene together in Bonds, in which Ikuya promises Natsuya that he’ll be the strongest swimmer. At first, this led me to believe that Ikuya would be the one to reunite everyone - maybe Natsuya and Nao would come to see him swim against Haruka, which could still happen, but Ikuya already had a chance to reunite with Haruka and Makoto - he had several chances, actually. In Bonds, Sousuke saw Ikuya swimming at the Nationals Stadium. In Promises, Ikuya’s roommate, Hiyori, comments that Ikuya didn’t go to the Awards Ceremony at Nationals, and he missed the opportunity to see his friends from Iwatobi. Ikuya responds with silence, then leaves to return a phone call from Natsuya. Also in Promises, it’s revealed that Ikuya and Asahi were in the crowd (separately, I’m assuming) when Haruka stood up in the pool at regionals. So I could dare to assume that not only did Ikuya avoid Haruka and Makoto, but Asahi as well.  I don’t think Natsuya and Nao will see Ikuya swimming and just happen to see Haruka, Makoto, or Asahi at the same race - there was already an opportunity for this to happen as well. In Bonds, Sousuke recognized Ikuya as a swimmer in the Nationals Stadium, which he explained to Rin in Promises. So Sousuke remembered Ikuya after years, but he didn’t notice Nao or Natsuya cheering for him? He didn’t seem to know Natsuya at the onsen, so this further discredits the theory of Ikuya being the one to get the gang back together. However, I think Ikuya still has a strong relationship with Nao and Natsuya, and I’m sure they both still care for him greatly. I’m excited to see the three of them in Season 3! 

So if Ikuya isn’t going to reunite Natsuya and Nao with the group, who will?

5. Enter: Asahi Shiina

I think Asahi could be the one to reunite everyone from Starting Days. In Take Your Marks, Kisumi and Asahi are texting about meeting up, so they’ve kept in touch over the years. I think Asahi would also make an effort to stay in touch with Nao, given that they had a strong friendship when they were younger.

So even if Ikuya avoids Asahi, Asahi might still be talking with Nao, who is still in contact with Natsuya and thus, keeps up with Ikuya. BUT WAIT, I SEE YOU, LOOPHOLE!!!!! So, okay, yeah, sure, Asahi might still be in contact with Nao and get back with Natsuya and Ikuya, but how will everyone reunite with Haruka and Makoto? 6. Enter: Kisumi Shigino

Asahi and Kisumi still text and make an effort to see each other. Kisumi helps Makoto and Haruka find Haruka an apartment because they’re his friends - he and Asahi LOVE THEIR FRIENDS ok guys. If they don’t organize some way for everyone to reunite, then they’ll all show up in one place at the same time, which will probably be one race where most of the characters are competing. But that’s not to say Kisumi and Asahi won’t have a hand in stirring up something to get the gang back together. Either way, any way this goes, I am very excited to see what will happen in summer of 2018~ Thanks for reading! 

[books-tea-and-blankets]

Reading challenge 2017

34. The Hate U Give-Angie Thomas

Genre: young adult, contemporary, realistic fiction

In a nutshell: Starr, a teenager living in a poor neighbourhood and attending a prep school, witnesses police brutality with the death of her friend Khalil and decides if she wants to wait in the sidelines for change or to take a stand herself. 

Recommendation: I recommend this book to everyone, as it mirrors aspects of our society. The change starts with us. This is ESPECIALLY important for teenagers to read so I think parents should read it and then decide if they want to pass it on to teach their children to challenge society’s injustices. 

Rating:

I read this after seeing rave reviews for this book everywhere. It won best debut author and best young adult awards on Goodreads last year. I understand why entirely. 

“I can't change where I come from or what I've been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?”

Starr is at a party that she doesn’t want to be at in her neighbourhood and people are making fun of her for attending a prep school and “acting white.” When the party is abruptly broken up, Starr catches a ride home with a childhood best friend and they are pulled over. Starr witnesses her friend killed by a police officer for doing nothing wrong and her world is shattered. She can’t tell her friends or boyfriend about it out of shame and fear. She quickly realizes, however, that her voice is powerful and that she has to take a stand to invoke change. 

Normally I hate books written about high school students because the language is exactly as you would expect. Despite the fact that the writing style and dialogue is as you would expect for a book written for that age group, the actual social and larger narratives were incredible. 

The only downfall of this book for me was just closer to the end... It got a little bit too far-fetched and then it was tied up in a neat little bow at the end like everything was right in the world despite what happened to Starr and the trauma she now has to live with for the rest of her life, and the injustice she witnessed. To me it also focused too much on teenage romance at the end, and that’s not what the book is about. Maybe the romance was thrown in there to make teenagers that love Twilight and Eleanor and Park and The Fault in Our Stars happy? I’m not sure. I just thought it didn’t go along with the rest. 

Mostly this book is terrifying, because police brutality is not fictional. When privileged people(such as myself) read this book, it makes us fear for humanity and wonder what is to come in the future when we currently live in a society in which things like this happen. Where police prosecute and even kill innocent people and chock it up as “self defense” when really they are just terrible human beings... and they get away with it. All. The. Time. 

My hope is that teenagers and young people read this book, and, like myself, fear for humanity and where it is headed and decide not to be this way and decide to speak out against injustice. And perhaps this is what the author is trying to achieve. Young adults and teens don’t typically watch the news or hear about things like this. So maybe the author has tried to reach younger audiences on social discourses by writing this book. And if this was her intent, I applaud her. 

[myhahnestopinion]

THE AARONS 2017 - Worst Film

A funny phenomenon overcame me this year, as, in my pursuit to watch as many new releases as possible, I found myself much more eager to watch the films I expected to be horrendous than those I felt would be quality. Well, like they say, and by “they” I mean one of the films you will find on this list, be careful what you wish for. And so, I ended up watching a lot of dreadful films this year. Here are The Aarons for Worst Film:

#10. Leatherface

While The Last Jedi and The Fate of the Furious showed this year that eighth installments in franchises can still feel fresh, Leatherface brought the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series sputtering to that ordinal in the laziest of fashion: the unnecessary prequel. Even wonder what Leatherface was like as an orphaned child who embarks on a road trip with a group of other unlikeable, thinly-written inmates? No? Like most people, you understand that the whole point of having a character who wears other people’s faces for a mask is the element of mystery? Oh. Well, don’t worry! This fundamentally flawed entry will probably get completely retconned by the next inevitable installment.

#9. Wish Upon

If I had a magical music box that granted me seven wishes, I wouldn’t waste one trying to figure out why the main character in Wish Upon continues to use all her wishes after learning a person dies every time, why she uses one of those wishes to make her dad hotter, why the film’s attempted Final Destination-style kills rely on a woman nonchalantly sticking her braided hair down a garbage disposal, or why the film casts two Korean-American actors to be its experts on Chinese culture. The answer is because the filmmakers were simply incompetent.

#8. The Book of Henry

The Book of Henry is the charming little story of a precocious child named Henry who navigates school with his younger brother, while being raised by a single mother, and crushing on his next-door neighbor. It’s also about 11-year old Henry romantically kissing his mom’s alcoholic friend on the lips while on his death bed, adults unconcerned by obvious conflicts-of-interest but persuaded by the power of interpretive dance, and, oh yeah, it’s about Henry’s elaborate, yet never detailed, plan to convince his mother to murder their abusive neighbor in cold blood and get away with it. If you’re one of the surely numerous people confused and appalled as to why anyone would think that would make for a good whimsical family film, congratulations! You display better judgement than Colin Trevorrow, who’s decision to film this thoroughly bizarre and hilariously misguided script led to him getting fired from directing Star Wars: Episode IX.

#7. Bright

A thinly veiled attempt to explore systemic racism in the way only a white beneficiary of nepotism like screenwriter Max Landis can, Bright magically manages to mash together generic buddy cop formula with generic fantasy “chosen one” tropes in a way that renders both entirely incoherent. Netflix squanders their biggest budget for an original film yet on the murky aesthetic of Suicide Squad director David Ayer and a script entirely disinterested in any worldbuilding. By the time Bright reaches its bafflingly ill-constructed climax, the viewer still hasn’t learned why it takes three magic wands to resurrect the non-descript “Dark Lord,” nor why the film uses fantasy stand-ins for every real-world ethnic group except for Latinx people.  Rather than light the way to further tolerance, Bright suggests a dark future filled with dull half-baked ideas for Netflix’s attempts to become a major blockbuster competitor.

#6. Split

In many ways, 2017 was a year of going backwards. Though many critics heralded the film as a return to form for director M. Night Shyamalan, Split is another misfire from the once promising director. James McAvoy tries his best to salvage the bland exposition-heavy screenplay, but the film is ultimately undone by its reliance on regressive horror tropes. The marketing for the film was already concerning, preying on archaic fears of those suffering from mental illnesses, but the movie itself manages to take its offense in a whole other direction, fetishizing trauma while giving its survivors no agency. With years of potential growth in-between, it’s disappointing that this is the direction Shyamalan chose to finally return to the world of his best work, Unbreakable.

#5. The Bye Bye Man

What can one say about a film like The Bye Bye Man? What is one supposed to think about a film like The Bye Bye Man? Luckily, the movie gives us an answer. “Don’t think it, don’t say it,” reads the film’s tagline, which is certainly a philosophy the filmmakers took to heart, as they don’t tell viewers a single comprehensible detail about The Bye Bye Man, his powers, his motives, his poorly rendered digital mutt, his obsession with trains and Greek coins, or why he apparently makes other people impotent. This lack of detail is probably because the movie clearly didn’t put any thought into its premise, ripping off numerous better horror films throughout its nonsensical, jump-scare-heavy cornucopia of inept filmmaking techniques, abandoned plot threads, and unrealized ambition. From the silly name to the lazy costuming to the character’s grab-bag of distinguishing features, The Bye Bye Man is actually quite charming in its complete ineptitude, hence its position as a longest running point of ranting and mockery on the Reboot Already Underway podcast I co-host.

#4. CHiPs

When Baywatch can’t be considered the worst raunchy reimagining of a classic TV show of the year, you know something went massively wrong. CHiPs’ repeated insistence that its jokes aren’t actually homophobic is about as convincing as Donald Trump’s tweets about his genius intellect. The film’s treatment of its female characters is about as misogynistic as, well, Donald Trump’s tweets about women. The movie’s formulaic buddy-cop plot is about as lazy as, well, jokes about Donald Trump’s Twitter.  The point is, CHiPs is loud, brash, incompetent, and nauseating, and you just can’t wait for it to finish out its allotted time.

#3. The Mummy

How do you kill what is already dead? Universal Pictures certainly found the answer when they killed their shared cinematic universe before it truly began. The Mummy is a thorough embarrassment, which elicited uncontrollable laughter from my friend and I as soon as the credits rolled due to its ridiculous dialogue, its jarring attempts at comedic relief, its logic-defying plotting, and its rancid stench of desperation to get audiences invested in the Dark Universe of shared monster movies, as seen in a momentum-destroying trip to the lab of shadowy monster-hunting organization, Prodigium. Universal’s decision to hand the reigns of this hopeful universe and the film’s $175million dollar budget to inexperienced director Alex Kurtzman makes about as much sense as Prodigium’s decision to keep their monster prison in the heart of a major metropolitan city like London. How could that possibly go wrong?

#2. Transformers: The Last Knight

If there was one consistency in a year of chaos and confusion, it was that the latest Transformers is once again one of the worst films of the year. No one probably expected The Last Knight to reverse the trend, especially with director Michael Bay still at the helm, but the film miraculously manages to lower the bar for the franchise ever more. What exists of The Last Knight’s so-called plot is a truly confusing attempt to weave together the Transformers mythos with King Arthur, Harriet Tubman, Nazis, Stonehenge, and Mark Wahlberg’s inability to get laid (Seriously, this is a big defining character trait in the film). The massive budget for special effects gets drowned out by the decision to switch aspect ratios ever other shot, even during simple dialogue exchanges, which makes the film nauseating and nigh-unwatchable. Unfortunately, despite the title, The Last Knight will not be the last we see of the Transformers series, as the near 3-hour run time apparently wasn’t enough for the film to finish up its story, ending with the cliffhanger reveal that the Earth is a Transformer. I repeat, the planet Earth is revealed to be a Transformer, and that’s not even in the top five dumbest plot developments of the film.

AND THE WORST FILM OF 2017 IS…

#1. The Emoji Movie

Should I just put a poop emoji and leave it at that? I mean, the world really needs to develop a new form of communication just to describe how awful this film is. Perhaps the only thing lazier than the jokes inspired by having to evaluate such a film as The Emoji Movie are the jokes in The Emoji Movie itself, with its festering byproduct of a screenplay, apparently created by a malfunctioning A.I. force-fed nothing but rough drafts of The Lego Movie, a book of old knock-knock jokes, endless Sony product placement, and the broken spirit of Sir Patrick Stewart. Led by two of the most obnoxious voices in modern comedy, the movie drudges viewers through an infuriating journey that replaces plot points with brand names, and never establishes any coherent dramatic stakes beyond the audience’s struggle to maintain sanity in the face of a Twitter bird deus-ex-machina and its half-hearted attempt at promoting feminism before a quick devolution into fascism. The Emoji Movie may not be the death of cinema, but it certainly feels like it while watching it, making it the worst movie of 2017.

NEXT UP: THE 2017 AARON FOR BEST DIRECTOR!

[stacks-reviews]

New Releases 10/3/17

Happy New Release Day! 

In Books --The Name of the Wind 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by Patrick Rothfuss “My name is Kvothe. I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that would make the minstrels weep. You may have heard of me. So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature - the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man’s search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.”

This book more than likely did not require me to provide a description. But I just love the description so much that I just had to put it up. This is my current top favorite book. I really love it and I am very excited to see an anniversary edition for it. I have been wanting to retire my mass market paperback for a while. I did get to meet Pat at a book signing a few years back and got that copy signed, as well as my copy of The Wise Man’s Fear, and my hardcover of A Slow Regard of Silent Things. I’ve been wanting to retire these signed copies so that nothing happens to them so this anniversary edition is just what I’ve been waiting for. At least until I can meet him again and get this one signed.

This edition has a new cover by designer Paul Buckley and artist Sam Weber. I’m not crazy about the cover. I prefer the standard cover used now. I’m having some trouble trying to understand just what all the images represent in the story so that’s what is really making me not like it as much. There is also some never before seen illustrations by artist Dan Dos Santos. Nate Taylor created a updated and detailed map of the world. An appendix of the calendar system, the currencies, and a pronunciation guide was added. And Pat wrote a new author’s note for this edition.

As of this writing (around 10:30pm Monday) it has not arrived at any of the bookstores near me but I have seen where it it out at other locations. I’m hoping it will arrive near me sometime today. Then I guess I’ll have to plan a fourth (or maybe a fifth. I don’t remember) reread of it soon.

--Anime Supremacy! by Mizuki Tsujimura “Japanese animation - the globally acclaimed, family-friendly theatrical features are the exception rather than the rule for a TV-oriented industry that has been pushed into late-night slots in an era of fragmented audiences. When only three titles among fifty might turn a profit, topping the charts is hardly an overambitious aim. Yet as three women, a producer, a director, and an animator, survive in a business infamous for its murderous schedules, demoralizing compromises, and incorrigible men, moments of uplift emerge against all odds - and how. More than just a window into an entertainment niche, here’s a kickass ode to work.”

A new; though only volume, manga about the animation industry in Japan. It sounds like a good look into this industry and it follows three women as they try to make their way in an industry full of ‘incorrigible’ men. Which this might be the first manga to follow women in this industry. I’m not positive but I’m fairly sure most of the manga that has used this type of story has mainly followed men. I can think of maybe one or two that has some ladies but I can’t recall for sure.

--Assassination Classroom Volume 18 by Yusei Matsui “Nagisa and Karma travel to the International Space Station in hopes of learning the secret to saving Koro Sensei’s life. Meanwhile, Yanagisawa and the upstart Grim Reaper II train ever harder to assassinate him. Then, when academic setbacks lower the spirits of his students, Koro Sensei comes up with an ingenious - or perhaps idiotic - way to cheer them up. Next, Valentine’s Day arrives! Will any of the 3-E students or teachers find true love? And will the meddling and teasing of the others help or hinder Cupid’s arrow in finding its target...?”

I’m reading this volume right now. But in Volume 17 Nagisa and Karma faced off in their fight to determine if they should save or assassinate Koro Sensei. Nagisa won and they learned that information about Koro Sensei was on the ISS that could potentially help them save his life. It ended with Nagisa and Karma sneaking into a rocket prototype to retrieve said information. Which was handed over fairly easily in this volume. The part with Yanagisawa and the Grim Reaper were short which is for the best to keep us wondering what they will try to do to kill Koro Sensei. I last left off during the start of the Valentine’s Day chapters which I will finish sometime today.

--Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Kay Finally! I love the illustrations in these editions and just how full and how many are used in them. PoA is my favorite of this series, mainly because of this is when we are introduced to Sirius (my favorite) and Lupin.

Though as the rest of these are released I start to wonder how much longer they will be released as a single volume. At some point; either for money or for the binding of the books, they will probably be split into volumes. For my bookshelf’s well-being, I hope that is not the case but it could happen.

--The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli “In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laugher wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be dark - and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death bringer. These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up hearing in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari - a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl. Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await her at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend - a slave boy from her betrothed’s household - Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.”

I have a few questions regarding this book. Mainly revolving around the Namsara since it isn’t mention again in the description except in the beginning. Is Asha’s betrothed the only one who knows that she is the Iskari? If so, is she being blackmailed into marrying him? My theory right now is that by killing all these dragons it makes her the Iskari but since light and dark are two sides of the same coin, she has the possibility to turn into the Namsara. Cause I expect the legends to end up saying that it was the same person.  It sounds like it could be pretty good. There’s dragons, fights with dragons (don’t kill dragons cause they are awesome), and the classic light vs dark. 

--The Water Dragon’s Bride Volume 3 by Rei Toma “Unable to return home, Asahi grows into a lovely young woman. As a priestess, she must spend time with the water dragon god for a ritual every year, but because of her connection to the water dragon god’s power, someone kidnaps her! Will Asahi be able to escape unscathed?”

Such a cute and still surprisingly dark series. The first two volumes were kind of dark because her best friends; Subaru, mother tried to have her killed a few times. And the water dragon god didn’t care if she lived or died. He only really intervened when the other gods started annoying him. 

This volume came out early where I live so I read it over the weekend. The volume was mostly about Asahi being kidnapped, then rescued by Subaru, which then started a war between her village and the one that kidnapped her. The water dragon god does sorta intervere and helps them out a little. But he slowly seems to be changing and might eventually develop feelings for Asahi. Which will interesting since Subaru obviously loves her and she him. Though she may not realize that herself yet. 

--Yona of the Dawn Volume 8 by Mizuho Kusanagi “Jaeha, the Green Dragon, joins Yona’s party after their harrowing adventure together in Awa. Now the group must find the Yellow Dragon - the last dragon from the prophecy that Ik-su told Yona! Meanwhile, Su-won visits Chishin Palace and tells General Geun-tae, chief of the Earth Tribe, that he should hold a mock battle and festival. But what could be the true intent behind Su-won’s proposition?”

I think the last volume I read was six. Seven never came in near where I live and I haven’t been able to order it. Last I read was Yona and Yoon got themselves onto the pirates boat so that they could try and send a signal for the others to attack the right boat. 

I can’t wait to see what the Yellow Dragon is like and I’m interested to see what this mock battle will be about.

In Movies --Revolutionary Girl Utena Set 1 (Blu-Ray) “‘Never lose that strength or nobility, even when you grow up.’ When Utena was just a child and in the depths of sorrow, she found salvation in those words. They were the words of a prince, who wrapped her in his rose-scented embrace and bestowed upon her both a ring and the promise that it would lead her to him again. She never forgot the encounter. In fact, she was so impressed that she aspired to like the prince and also help those in need. Now a spirited teenager, Utena attends the prestigious Ohtori Academy. However, her strong sense of chivalry soon places her at odds with the school’s student council and thrusts her into a series of mysterious and dangerous duels against its members.”

For the first time the hit anime is being released on blu-ray. I have only seen the series and the movie once. One of my friends can explain it a lot better than I can. The next time I watch it I will not be putting so much time in between each season. There is a lot of symbolism throughout the show so it can be easy to forget or miss something. It is a really good show and worth checking out. The manga of the same name (by Chiho Saito) that it was based on is also available in an awesome box set that was released by Shojo Beat. 

This set contains the first twelve episodes. Set two is not street dated until 11/7/17 but is now available on Rightstuf. Set three is set for 12/5/17, might also be out before that day but not at this moment of writing, and includes the movie. There is also a box set coming out on 12/5/17 that contains the complete series, the movie, a replica Rose Crest Ring, a replica Black Rose ring, and a 264 page art book with sliver foil numbering.

[huntertales]

Part Two: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery. (The Real Ghostbusters S05E09)

Useful Links: Last Part | All Episodes Word Count: 5,458. A/N: I honestly didn't think I was going to like writing this episode as I have been, but it's been quite funny seeing how this has been turning out. I hope you guys enjoy this part. More out soon!

You understood the feeling of being sucked into a good book or a TV show, being immersed with the plot and characters that seem to grow on you more through each page you turn or how many episodes you watch. Throwing yourself into other fictional worlds was how you used to cope with the loneliness when you were younger. And sometimes reading a good book was how you could get your mind away from the stresses of being a hunter. But you were finding it hard to understand how people could find your written counterpart so interesting in the book series called "Supernatural." You had abandoned the brothers at the bar about fifteen minutes ago for the merch table that were selling the books for anyone that might want to buy. Nobody was around, giving you a chance to read a book you picked up for random. You skimmed the first few pages with little interest, you had already read half of them online. It was holding the actual paperback in your hands that made this entire situation so surreal.

Your entire life for the past twenty six years was here, from your wicked past of how you came to be from the demon deal your mother made and how they knew Andrew was a demon. Thanks to book number nine and ten. The books even included mentions of your faulty deal with Yellow Eyes for Sam and another one made right after with another demon as an attempt of saving Dean. "No Rest for the Wicked" sure did include every little detail of the final hours of your life from the first kiss with Dean, all the way down to the horrendous twist of fate after the boys realized Lilith was possessing your body, forcing you to watch all before being thrown into the same demise.

Every single internal feeling and deep fear you had ever had was written in black and white, then placed in paperback with some tacky looking cover. It was hard for you to understand how people could love your character so much that they wanted to be like you. Not to mention how everyone in this room thought all of the monster they read about were just fictional beings. And all the hunts you went on was just another adventure they could read about in the comfort of their own home.

"All I'm saying is that Dean always gets the girl. Why can't Sam have a bit of happiness in his life?"

"Because everyone Sam loves dies a slow and agonizing death. Mary and Jess, not to mention Madison. And if you want to blur the lines, I'm sure Ruby didn't stray too far from Hell."

There was a distant conversation not too far from where you were standing about a subject matter that you were growing tired of hearing about. Looking up from the bok, your eyes wandered over to across the room where you saw two girls sitting at a table with a few beers in hand. Both of them were heavily in conversation, not seeming to notice a bystander eavesdropping on their conversation. You watched as both of them argued their points of who Y/N could have ended up with at the end of "Supernatural" if it hadn't ended with two main characters meeting a bloody demise.

One argued that Dean and Y/N had chemistry since the first chapter. She was his mystery woman that he had kept secret for so many years, his last bit of normalcy to a past he didn't even remember before hunting. Her friend tried to argue again that Dean had a chance at something real, and that was with Cassie. Of course, that didn't work out. Her friend argued that Sam was the best fit for Y/N's character. Both of them were children thrown into a lifestyle they didn't want. Each of them found comfort in one another and had a relationship that was natural. He was smart like her, and despite his fatal touch, it seemed like Y/N didn't stay down for long.

Both of the girls, just like everyone in this room, were just having fun. Each of them started smiling and laughing a few moments later, making a few comments about how much they loved Y/N. "I mean, she's a total—" One of them began speaking, but she couldn't finish her sentence when someone poorly dressed as Dean came strolling up, deciding he should have put his opinion in on a conversation that was harmless to begin with.

"Y/N's character is totally pointless, if you ask me." He said with a cocky tone. You narrowed your eyes on him as the girls started to roll their eyes from his opinion nobody asked for. "I hope she stays dead. I mean, what does she even add to the storyline?"

"A lot, actually." One of them remarked. “Considering she’s one of the main characters…”

"She was only added to reach out for a bigger female audience and a cheap attempt at ruining a good storyline for a dumb romance." The man continued on talking, despite the glares he was getting from both of the girls. "Y/N's just as useless as all the other female characters in the book. I bet you in the next one all it's gonna be about is Sam and Dean whining about how they miss Y/N while they try to get revenge on Lilith. Sort of like how they got revenge on Azazel after he killed Mary and Jess. It's gonna be the same plotline all over again.”

"Is that, so?" The man looked away from the girls to see another voice had jumped into the conversation. He found himself letting out a chuckle to see you standing there with a brow arched up and your arms crossed over your chest. " I have to disagree. I think she's done a lot of hard work over the past several yea—I mean, books. I think she's worked her ass over enough to get some credit. She's done a lot."

"Like, what? Get captured by the bad guys half the time? Or maybe it's getting herself almost killed because she has no idea what's she's doing." He man argues with you, only causing your lips to stretch into a smirk and press your arms tighter around your body. "She's stupid. Not to mention her selling her soul for the boys. She's not a 'strong female character.' She's weak, stupid and shows no redeeming qualities."

"Right. Because Sam and Dean have never done anything stupid to get themselves into trouble. I mean, Y/N made a few mistakes because she was naive and learned how to hunt from the beginning. It’s called character development and learning from her mistakes. And selling her soul for the boys doesn't make her a weak character or a plot device to move the story along. Dean did the exact same thing and I bet you would say that's heroic of him. But if a female does something for a male character it makes her less of. Hmm?" You raised a brow after giving your opinion that he didn't ask for. "Or maybe you don't like Y/N's character—or any of the female characters—is because they're smarter, stronger and level headed than you'll ever be. And for someone like you, who probably still lives in his mom's basement, gets intimated pretty quickly by the opposite gender.”

Both of the girls stared at you with slightly growing grins as each of them reached out to drink their beers. The man tried his hardest to ignore what you had just said, he adjusted himself looked away. You were about to walk away, but something else popped into your head, and it was too good to pass up. "Come to think of it. You and Y/N do have one thing in common." You said as you wagged your index finger at him "Both are you are gonna die virgins, that's for sure."

You turned around in your spot and headed for the bar again, a smirk stretching across your lips as one of the girls let out a giggle as the other accidentally spit out a bit of her drink from what you had said. Nonetheless, the man walked away from the girls, leaving them alone to continue on with their night as you made your way back to the bar where you had left the boys. You lean against the wooden countertop and wave up an arm to get the bartender's attention, all while making sure not to accidentally smack the girl in the face that was sitting on the other side of the bar just a seat down. She didn't seem to realize you were standing next to her as she quietly texted on her phone. You notice from her powdered face to make her complexion and outdated outfit she must have been on the actors working tonight, probably the infamous Leticia Gore that was supposed to be haunting the halls. But it seemed that even ghosts needed a break.

"For the last time, I'm not making this up, okay? She—She's upstairs! A real, live, dead ghost!" You looked over your shoulder to see there was a guy, dressed like Sam, going on about being attacked. You wondered if he was just part of the show, but seeing that he was bleeding from the head and showed discolored bruising, you were starting to believe otherwise. His friend tried to calm him down by saying that it could have been one of the actors just getting too into characters, but he caught him off. "Who beat the crap out me and vanished?"

You looked over at the boys and gave a shrug, thinking that you might have possibly gotten a case here, after all. The three of you walked over to the boys and added yourself into the conversation. "You saw something?" Sam asked rather politely. But the guy thought you were trying to play the game like everyone else causing him to look at the taller man with an annoyed glare.

"Look, this isn't part of the game, jerk." He snapped at the three of you, obviously having had enough of tonight's antics as he looked back over at his friend to tell him the change of plans. "Tim, I'm getting out here, and I suggest you do the same."

You watched as the both of them stormed out, one following the other, making you rather curious of what could be going on around here. Perhaps Chuck wasn't too creative at making up his own story for a change and needed a real haunted place to set up the convention for the feel. "What do you think?" Sam asked the both of you.

"I don't think that guy's good enough actor to be acting." Dean said, you nodded your head in agreement.

You and the boys, in true fashion, decided to as around the staff to see if there was possible truth of what people were saying around here. While you had seen a few people taking part of the festivities, you would only think you would be playing along in the game and tell you the same speech they'd been giving everyone dressed in cheap suits and showing off their fake badges. You wandered around the hotel until you spotted a man working behind the front desk, and showing no interest to what was going on around him. And that was the exact person you wanted to personally talk to. You and the brothers began heading for the front desk, you passed a group of people as they all circled around the same man giving the speech earlier tonight. You passed by them showing no amount of interest as you placed your hand on the wooden countertop.

"Excuse us." You said, catching the man's attention as he looked up from his paperwork. You gave him a polite smile as you tapped your fingertips against the countertop. "Mind if we ask you a few questions?"

"Look, I don't have to play 'Star Wars,' guys." He said, showing little interest in keeping this conversation alive. He pointed the tip of his pen across the room, directing your attention over to the man you had just passed. "Go ask the guy in the ascot.”

You and the boys exchanged a look, knowing this wasn't going to be easy, but there was one way to make anybody talk. Dean reached a hand to his back pocket to pull out his wallet. "Actually, we, uh," Slipping out a fifty dollar bill and across the countertop, the sight of green makes the man look up from his paperwork again. "Really want to talk to you."

"Okay. You guys are really into this." The man laughed out, taken back at the money in front him. He cautiously glanced up to see if all of you were being serious, you gave him a small smile that made him confident enough to quietly grab the money while nobody was looking. "What do you want to know?"

"All this stuff they're saying—place being haunted, Leticia Gore. Is there any truth to it?" You asked him, curious for answers.

"We generally don't like to publicize this to, you know, normal people. But, yeah, in 1909, this place was called Gore orphanage. Miss. Gore killed four boys with a butcher knife, then offed herself." He explained to the three of you, giving the exact same information you had heard earlier tonight. Dean asked him if tonight was really the anniversary of the crime, the man nodded his head. "Yep. Guess your convention folks wanted authenticity."

"There been any sightings?" Sam asked.

"Uh, over the years, yeah. A few maids have quit, saying they heard the boys or saw them." The man said. You listened to what he was saying, not having a clue you had two eavesdroppers on the conversation. "A janitor even saw Miss Gore once."

"Where did Miss Gore carve up the kids?" Dean continued on asking, but it seemed that one came with a higher price point.

"Look, I don't want you stomping all over the joint. A lot of this place is off-limits to nerds." He said, not giving up the answer so easily. You rolled your eyes from the remark as Dean took another fifty out from his wallet and discreetly making another offer the man couldn't refuse. Of course he grabbed the cash and tucked it into the inside pocket of his jacket. "The attic."

You gave him another smile and thanked him for the help. All though you weren't too happy at getting this information with a hundred bucks wasted, but you might have actual problems if Miss Gore decided to start carving up a few guests if she gotten word of what was going on around here. You and the boys traveled up to the second floor of the building try and find an entrance to the attic. Sam managed to find the string that dangled from the ceiling, and thanks to his freakishly tall height, he had to just lift up his arm and effortlessly pulled down the flimsy looking ladder that lead to the attic. You always had a little bit of a fear of heights, and looking at the flimsy wood that looked like it couldn't hold your weight without breaking, it made you slightly nervous. But you swallowed down your nervousness as you watched Sam head up first, and besides the creaking coming from the ladder, he made it up relatively safe. You fished out your flashlight and turned it on, making sure to have it handy as you descended your way up to the void of darkness and dust.

Pushing yourself up to a standing position, you left your flashlight on the ground for a moment as you steadied yourself on the attic floor and tried to get the dust off your jeans. You bent back down and grabbed your flashlight to try and navigate your way as Dean crawled his way up from the tiny space that was too narrow for him. You began looking around to look around the place to see what it had become over a hundred years later. Mostly the place had turned into another storage unit for unwanted things like rusty headboards and outdated looking furniture the hotel had long forgotten about. If nobody had heard about the tragic history of this place, someone might not have suspected four brutal murders and a suicide happened right here.

The three of you worked mostly in silence, letting your footsteps treading across the wooden floors and the quiet buzzing coming from the EMF reader be the only noise. Sam stood next to you as he scanned the room to take a brief sweep. You looked over to see the needle was jumping back and forth into place as the little red bulbs were brightly lit. “The EMF’s going nuts.” Sam said.

"Great." You muttered underneath your breath at the dangerous situation that was unfolding. "So, we've got a real ghost, and a bunch of nerds, pretending to be us, poking at it. This isn't gonna end well."

"You know what? Serves them right." Dean said with a snarky tone. You furrowed your brow from his remark as you flashed your light at him. Giving in a dirty look, you mumbled his name underneath your breath as you shook your head. You didn't like this situation as much as he did, but there was no reason to wish harm on someone innocent. It was your job to make sure that didn't happen, much as you despised some of these people. "Well, I'm just saying."

You rolled your eyes from his attitude before parting ways with him, deciding to go on your own for a chance at finding anything that might explain what happened here or where Miss Gore was buried. You didn't have your usual time of research like most hunts. This was more of a spur of the moment with a little bit of background information that was useful enough to know that this place was harboring a malicious spirit that would probably strike again due to some unwanted attention. You quietly wandered through the attic and followed whatever the flashlight could pick up. Mostly all you could see was outdated furniture and rags, not to mention cobwebs and dust. Nothing seemed to have popped out as unordinary, that was, until you heard a childish voice speak from behind you, making you jump a few inches in the air in surprise.

"My mommy loves me." You quickly turned around in your spot to see there was a little boy crouched down in the corner. Your flashlight put a spotlight on him so you could see that he was dressed in dirty clothes, and far outdated for this time period. He stared at you with his hands on his head, and again, he professed something to you. "I said my mommy loves me."

You heard the shuffle of feet across the floor before you saw the boys heading your way at the sound of an unfamiliar voice break the silence. Both of them notice right away of the little boy, you gave him a small smile as you nodded your head. "I'm sure she does." You agreed with the little boy, thinking he must have been one of the victims.

"My mommy loves me this much." The little boy drew out his hands to show you, but you only noticed the wound on his head. Your eyes widened in slight horror at seeing his skull peek through with fresh trickles of blood seeping from the wound. His hair and skin missing from where Miss Gore had butchered it out with the knife. When you glanced back down at the boy, he vanished from your sight, going off back to where he'd been hiding for the past hundred years.

+ + +

You and Dean stayed back, getting a table for yourself and quietly waited for Sam to get back. You scanned the bar to see how things were coming along, only to spot Becky across the room, her gaze solely on the younger Winchester. She quietly sipped on her cocktail and  watched as the man. While Sam busied himself with the conversation, Becky was feeling a bit bold. You didn't know if she was starting to feel a bit tipsy from the drinks from what unfolded next. She lifted up her and decided to lick of her hand to blow a pretend kiss at the man, all before topping off the gesture with an awkward attempt at a wink. Sam responded with an awkward wave from across the room, unsure of what the hell just happened.

You bit the inside of your cheek as you looked over at Chuck, who sat right across from her at the table, looking a little defeated. It seemed your assumption about Chuck was right, he was harboring a crush on his number one fan, who was seemingly a little too preoccupied with the other Winchester. "Awesome." Chuck muttered underneath his breath as he brought his beer glass to his mouth, decided that he was in desperate need of a drink.

Becky had a thing for Sam, who she once only thought was just a fictional character by the author Carver Edlund, only to find out that Sam was a very real person and Carver was just a penname for Chuck. Chuck had first used Becky, the self-titled number one fan, as a way to safely transport some useful information after Lucifer was freed from the cage. Only it seems that after being around her for a little while, he was starting to grow fond of her. Meanwhile, Sam was too obvlious to what was going on, and had no desire to even give Becky the time of day. And here you thought things couldn't have gotten any weirder.

"All right. So, that was the guy with the county historical society." Sam came back to the table after wrapping up his phone call to tell you what he learned. "Not only did Leticia Gore butcher the four boys, one of them was her own son. According to the police at the time, she scalped the poor kid."

"Oh, that's it. I'm gonna deep-fry this bitch extra-crispy." Dean let out a bitter chuckle from hearing the news. Whenever children were involved, it always set something off inside of you, and hearing that a woman had killed her own child out of cold blood made you want to burn her bones fast as possible. “Dude say she was buried?”

“He doesn’t know.” Sam answered.

"Check it out." You heard someone trying to speak in a deep and gravelly voice from behind you, causing you to look over your shoulder at who it was coming from. Two guys, one that you recognized from earlier today as Dean, sat at a small table with his partner, who was attempting at being Sam. "There's the orphanage, here's the Carriage house. And right there, cemetary."

"You think that's where Leticia's planted?" Dean, the imposter, asked his partner. You looked over at the boys with an annoyed look, seeming to realize you had a shadow following on your actual trail. Pushing yourself up to your feet, you casually headed over to the other men, and reached out a hand to take the map from them, only it seemed the fake Dean was fast, letting you only feel the paper before snatching it away. "Hey. Ooh. Hey, hey! Hey, do you mind lady?"

The fake Dean folded the map back up as he gave you a dirty look at trying to steal his piece of evidence from you. "It's real." You said, looking over at the brothers. "A century old, at least."

“And he's right.” Sam said. “There is a cemetery on the grounds.”

"Where'd you get that?" You asked the two men.

"It's called a game, sister." Dean, the player, told you. You raised your brow from his tone of voice, obviously not too amused at the little act he was playing. "It ain't called a 'charity.'"

"All right," Dean stretched out his arm in front him and wiggled his fingers at the man pretending to be him. "Give me the map, chuckles."

"Oh, you're the chuckles...chuckles. Besides," The man failed at an attempt of lashing out another sarcastic jab that only Dean could come up with, but he had other leverage. You quickly bit your bottom lip to keep a laugh from escaping your throat when you watched him lift up his leather jacket, showing off his toy gun that was stuffed in his jeans. "Dean don't listen to nobody."

"Dean, cool it." His friend said, attempting to play his character through.

Dean rolled his eyes from what was unfolding right in front of his very eyes. He copied the other man's actions, but this time, he wasn't afraid to pull out his gun from his jacket, showing it off for a moment before you quickly slapping his palm back so the weapon could be hidden before anyone would notice it. "What, Y/N? They're friggin' annoying."

"So are you, like ninety percent of the time I'm with you and Sam. But you don't see me trying to shoot either one of you." You hissed at him, making the man shove the gun back to where it came from. Dean gave you a glare from forcing him to take the high road. You looked back over at the other men, deciding to try and play peace maker between teams. "Look, guys, we all want to find the bones, right? We just thought it would go faster if we all work together."

Both of the men glanced over at one another and silently tried to figure out what they should do. It took a moment before the one playing Sam looked over at you and nodded his head, agreeing with your plan. "We, uh, we get the Sizzler gift card." He said, wanting to make that clear.

"Fine." Dean grumbled underneath his breath, already he was detesting your plan.

The one playing the oldest Winchester added one more negotiation, "We get to play Sam and Dean."

“Fine with me.” You said, jumping into the conversation again. "As long as I can play Y/N.”

"Is that who you're supposed to be?" The man playing Dean asked. You looked over at him with a confused expression, but you nodded your head, all before asking him what he meant by that. "I mean, you're not really dressed like her. And you're giving me more...Meg vibes. From the way you're dressed to how you've been acting. I mean, this really isn't gonna logically play out. She's a demon trying to kill us. I don't think she would help us—"

"Trust me, I know what that black-eyed bitch is capable of! I've—" You snapped at the men by accident, suddenly finding the thought of being recognized as Meg, the mega bitch who was still roaming around the world, made your skin crawl in annoyance. You find yourself having the same reaction as Dean, but before you could spill any truth, you calmed yourself down by clearing your throat. "I've read the books cover to cover. I just...really don’t like her. I'm playing Y/N. That's final."

"Okay." The one playing Sam said. "If you say so."

You scoffed at what he said and crossed your arms over your chest, watching as the two men began heading for the doorway. Dean followed behind a second later and headed for the Impala to get a few supplies, Sam walked over to you and peered down at you. Looking up, you gave him a glare from what he said next. "I mean, I can kinda see it." He said, his lips stretching into a certain way whenever he was trying to be funny. You narrowed your eyes on him and muttered how much you hated him right now. "Let's go, Shrimp. Before people get the wrong idea."

"I hate you. I really do." You muttered to him. "Sleep with one eye open, Sasquatch."

Sam laughed off your threat as he began walking to the entrance of the hotel, where his brother was waiting ever so impatiently for the two of you. Rolling your eyes, you followed behind, managing to catch up with everyone else. The brothers packed up the supplies you would need for a salt and burn before catching up with the other two men that were playing them. You walked in the middle between both groups, wanting nothing more than for this entire night to be over with. But if you were having a rough night, Dean was slowly losing his nerve, and it wasn't helping when he was forced to agree to play a whole other role beside himself. You looked over your shoulder to the other man when he was trailing behind with a duffel bag full of salt and loaded shotguns, trying his hardest not to use of the weapons on him.

"Hey, Rufus, Bobby," The fake Dean called out, "Would you hurry it up?"

Dean wanted to lash out at the man, but he composed himself long enough to let the situation roll off his back. The men in front of you continued on with the game they were playing. "So, where were we?" The one playing Sam asked as he walked through the dark hotel grounds.

"Uh, Dr. Ellicott had just zapped your brain." His friend said, setting the scene.

And here you thought things between the two men couldn't have gotten any weirder, you realized they were acting out scenes from the book. You rolled your eyes and looked up at the night sky for a second to calm yourself down the cringing feeling that was starting to settle in the atmosphere. You were trying so hard to be understanding, but they were making it harder with each passing second. "Why are we even here, Dean?" The one playing Sam asked his friend. "Do you just follow in Dad's footsteps like a good, little soldier? Are you that desperate for approval?"

"This isn't you talking, Sam." The fake Dean said.

"See, that's the difference between you and me. I got a mind of my own. I'm not pathetic." The one playing Sam said. You found yourself thinking the last line he said was slowly starting to come true. But you kept your opinion to yourself.

"So, what are you gonna do, Sam?" The fake Dean questioned him. "You gonna kill me?"

"Man, I am so sick of you telling me what to do!"

"Oh, you know what? That—That's it. That is it." Dean officially hit his breaking point, having enough with the flashbacks that were starting to come back. And seeing these two chuckleheads acting it out was the cherry on top of a disastrous night. The man pretending to be him asked him what was wrong, Dean rolled his eyes when he was addressed as Bobby Singer. The man he was supposed to be playing in this bogus game. "I'm not Bobby, okay? You're not Sam. You're not Dean! What is wrong with you? Why in the hell would you choose to be these guys?"

"Because we're fans, like you." The fake Sam said.

"No. I am not a fan, okay? Not fans." Dean said, wanting to make the point crystal clear. "In fact, I think the 'Dean, Sam and Y/N' storyline sucks! It is not fun. It's not entertaining. It's a river of crap that would send most people howling to the nuthouse! So, you listen to me. Their pain is not for your amusement. I mean, do you think that they enjoy being treated like—like circus freaks?"

"Uh, I don't think they care," The man playing Dean said. "Because they're fictional characters."

"Oh, they care. Believe me." Dean hissed at the two men. "They care a lot."

And with that said, Dean pushed himself between the two men and began walking off again, needing to get the anger out before he mentioned something he would regret. You slowly looked over at the men, who were staring at you and Sam with the most complexed expression, wondering what the hell had just unfolded. "He, uh..." You tried your hardest to explain Dean's outburst, but you were falling short of a reasonable one. "He takes the story really seriously." You gave both of the men a smile before you were walking past them, trying to figure out your way to the cemetery, wanting nothing more than for this hunt to be over with.

[citrusandbergamot]

hmm, so. I am an adult. and I am aware enough to know exactly how the fic I tend to read reinforces all kinds of mental processes. there is a thin line between self-care and enabling. 

I read a lot of romance, soulmate, love you forever kind of stuff. I read a lot of unrequited love, I read a lot (as in a fuckton) of angst. Whump, character death, pining, guilt, dub-con, rocks fall everyone dies, you name it. I like angst, always have. I want characters to hurt because I want to feel their hurt. And sometimes that’s fine and fun and okay, and sometimes I use it to escape my life. I am really good at escaping. 

Fanfic is not like...to blame for my escapist tendencies. It’s perfectly suited for it, sure. But, like, I am an adult, I know (more of less) what my limits are, and these things tend to go in cycles. Fanfic is very, very cut-and-dry lately; you get exactly what’s on the tin, so you can really, really find the stuff you think you want. There is some absence of variety in style and tone, perhaps, but a plethora to choose from, so that’s okay. 

but like. I know the things I have read have shaped my expectations of various things. I also know that it’s fake. I know that my expectations have been shaped by a variety of things: the media, by the way I was treated as a child, my parents, my own self-image, my fucking terrible, terrible health, my sunny fucking personality. I am not free from the influence any of these things, and they work on conscious and subconscious levels that I could spend a lifetime trying to understand. But I am not a child, I have been stuck with myself for 30 years, I know (mostly) what’s real and what isn’t. There might be something truthful reflected in fantasy but at its core, on a extremely basic level, stories are stories. They are not recitation of fact. It’s a story, a fantasy. Even if it’s about real things, it changes in the telling. It changes in how it’s heard, and there is nothing the teller can do about that. All this talk about how stories and fantasies ‘change the brain/affect reality’ is just like...it’s making it harder to put that distance between reality and the fantasy. It’s making it harder for people to know there’s supposed to be one. 

Take ‘based on real events’ stories. Does it fucking behoove anyone to forget that it’s still a story? That it needs some kind of arc, or point, or narrative, a beginning and an end (maybe some stuff in the middle?) Stuff that happens in real life is not so neat, not so linear, not so definitive. Real life doesn’t end when you close the book. The big revelation doesn’t stop the hurt the next day, understanding doesn’t beget immediate forgiveness. Things fall apart in ways that can’t even be explained, let alone written down. That’s why we keep trying - art and music and poetry and prose and theatre. Hundreds and thousands of emotions and connections, all stemming from the same kind of animal, with the same kind of consciousness, living a life until death. We’re fascinated by it, we’ll never run out of stories. But stories and real life are not the same. This should be shouted from the hilltops and proclaimed in every school, at every level. Stories and real like are not the same. Expecting real life to match a story is going to lead to some jarring realizations. It is not the fault of the story. It’s the emphasis placed on it. It’s the lack of diverse information. The lack of critical thinking skills. It is not the story’s fault, nor the fault of the person who wrote it. 

Fanfic is not my only source of knowledge about like, romance and unrequited love and heartbreak. I have my own experiences, and the experiences I’ve helped others’ through. It’s hard though, to feel something purely, cleanly, discretely, when it’s happening in real life. Like, my father died 6 years ago. There isn’t a single narrative out there that could capture the complexity of my relationship with him. There’s no way to describe it. There’s no way to explain it to someone outside of my immediate family - not in the way that counts. Not in the way that wouldn’t demonize or sanctify him. Neither of those would be correct. There is only what I know, what I feel. What I can let go of, what I can forgive, what I can’t. The things I miss. The things I don’t.  I could write a dozen, a hundred stories, and all they ever would be is a reflection of one aspect, one facet. And maybe somebody reading it feels a kinship with that aspect, feels it resonate. maybe they don’t. Maybe they’re searching for something else. 

If the brain changes with thoughts, then surely thinking about stuff in a critical fashion, after the emotion is done, will also change them. And surely to fuck we are not supposing that action and thought are equivalent. You can think about practicing the piano all you want. You still have to touch the fucking keys to be able to play. Our brains are terrifyingly capable. But action and thought are still not the fucking same. 

We are real, and complex, and living complex and real and messy lives. It’s a fucking terrible world and we all have the capacity to be terrible people, every single one of us.  There’s....I really don’t see the point of trying to sanitize that aspect away. Be vocal about it, sure, warn people who are younger that this is fantasy. But like. It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real. Reading it doesn’t not make it real. Watching James Bond kill people in cold blood does not make me a murdering.  Playing violent video games does not make me more violent. Playing only violent video games and dropping out of society entirely and only have social contact through those very games is something else entirely. See where I’m going with this?

There is a lot of ways that fanfic can instill terrible coping mechanism and thought patterns in the young that have nothing at all to do with dark!fic, or rape fic, or whatever. Fanfic cannot be like, the only outlet and/or role model.  Real life does not work like fanfic. Doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy it. Doesn’t mean we can’t still work out dark, twisted feelings, get them out. Keeping them in is really, really not awesome. Constantly bringing them back up and re-exposing yourself to them is also not good. There’s a ...balance, or there should be. 

But like, dude. that’s self-care v. enabling. Nobody else can make that judgment call, you gotta find that line for yourself. I don’t see why fandom at large has to be involved in that. I sure as fuck don’t want anybody passing that judgment on to me. I am responsible for myself. I am a goddamn adult. 

(oooo no, think of the children. Please. Let children ask questions about stuff, let children know that what they are reading is meant for mature audiences, let parents know about parental-block. It’s really, really not my responsibility to do anything more than that.) 

Anyway, this mini-rant is because I fucking love ao3 and I am so, so thankful to astolat and the others for creating it and for making the policies that are in place. They took the stance that policing fandom was none of their fucking business. It’s a goddamn archive and it’ll be there forever, no matter how much people shriek and gnash their teeth, thank fuck.

[rebelthroughreading-blog]

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

A man takes a long look back at high school, a true time when he knew and was friends with a teenage Jeffery Dahmer.

Quick Information

price: $19.99

number of pages: 224

ISBN:  978-1419702174

publisher and date: Harry N. Abrams, 2012

author’s website: http://www.derfcity.com/

genre: juvenile graphic novel, non-fiction, autobiography

main subjects: comic, graphic novel, serial killer, high school students

Plot

Derf Backderf, then John Backderf, writes of a time when he was in high school and knew Jeffery Dahmer, before he was a famous serial killer. He takes his readers back to those days in hopes of seeing the disturbed teenager and the context of his life and perhaps of finding an explanation for the terrible deeds Dahmer would commit in the future.

Who’s reading it?

Written on a much lower level than those who may be interested, teenagers in later high school (grades 10-12) may find this intriguing and somewhat disturbing tale more appealing than those younger (grades 7-10).

Why did I read it?

Graphic novels are rising as a more prominent medium for reading for young adults, especially for those who are afraid of the “bigger books” with many pages and chapters. The idea of looking at pictures and reading dialogue can be less threatening. However, those pictures and dialogue can have just as much depth and story than any chapter book. Sometimes, the graphic novel can explain more than a book full of only words, often because of the addition of pictures and visuals.

As someone who was not alive during Dahmer’s killings, learning about something so gruesome and terrible is easier through a less serious medium. By that, I mean cartoon like illustrations and the safety of fiction between me, the reader, and reality, the fact that this all actually happened. On top of that, we do not often see the perspective of the serial killer when discussing things that actually happened. Backderf created a graphic novel to show what he saw as a high school student going to classes with a weird boy who would eventually become a monster. I wanted to know if readers were going to see a novel about a man who regretted not putting together clues in time to save people. I wanted to know why Dahmer’s high school years were important enough for someone to write about them.

Evaluation

Jeffery Dahmer, like all men who choose to murder, has become a terrifying monster in the heads of many people. He committed irreprehensible acts, ones that could never be forgiven, so the idea that a man would write about a time before the murder and necrophilia in a way that almost takes Dahmer’s side is almost unbelievable. But, hold up a second, that’s not exactly what that is. Sure, Backderf shows a sympathetic side of Dahmer’s story, however, he makes it clear that he has his reasons.

Backderf wanted to give some backstory and provide what he sees a bit of reasoning behind the monstrous reality of the serial killer. He does not necessarily want to take all blame away from him nor does he want to reason away what Dahmer did, but he finds it important to explain what he saw and knew about Dahmer’s life previously to show that there was a before, and certain events may have made a difference in the way that Dahmer would later live his life.

Through several instances of weirdness and almost comedic behavior, Dahmer is portrayed as a strange teenager with serious problems that everyone avoided instead of attempting to remedy. He makes weird sounds, acts comically weird for his friends’ enjoyment, and continues to be just a weird guy at all times.

Graphic novels are some of the most appealing forms of literature, especially for younger audiences, such as those in high school. Like I said earlier, I read this because of the scary story told in a less scary medium. Graphic novels are a wonderful medium to get someone like a high schooler to read something like this. Backderf’s choice to use his artistic abilities in this way give his readers a more complete view of Backderf’s own memories of the world at the time. He draws in a cartoon like style, which is important, because that is how he remembers Dahmer. He remembers the weird guy who was like a cartoon all of the time. If he drew any more realistically, the effect would not have been as great in the end when the author realizes that Dahmer was not a joke but very real.

Backderf poses some interesting questions that could potentially create huge problems. Is this Dahmer’s fault? Could anyone have stopped him? Could anyone have acted differently and changed the course of Dahmer’s life? Were there enough signs for people to have noticed before? He answers known of them, because that is not the purpose of this story. This autobiography is more like a case study of a strange boy with a difficult childhood who grew to be a monstrous adult. The author’s questions are for the readers to consider for the rest of life, not necessarily for this one. We cannot change the past, so look at the present and see if we can use this information to change the future.

The issues

The issues with My Friend Dahmer are far more complicated than a list of the generic ones (i.e. bullying, inappropriate language, sexual content, etc.). Instead, we see a story that almost forgives a serial killer of his terrible acts because of his difficult childhood and lack of help when he so desperately needed it. 

Backderf portrays himself as kind of mean along with his other friends. They thought teenage Jeffery Dahmer was strange and sad and only acted like his friend when they wanted something from him like when they thought it would be hilarious for Dahmer to act out at a mall and scare everyone. They used him.

The author is sympathetic to Dahmer, a troubled kid with a troubled upbringing. He blames everyone else for what is happening to Dahmer. The parents’ messy break-up and then blatant ignoring him, teachers and workers at the school not noticing his behavior or the fact that he not only drank but came in with such great stench that people anywhere near him were put off. Backderf even asks the question “Where were the adults?” (p. 66-67) effectively blaming them for not taking the time to notice something that could have saved lives later. The audience feels as though they have to be on Dahmer’s side despite knowing the outcome of the story before it begins.  

So why should be read it?

Backderf is not telling the audience to feel sorry for Dahmer and forgive him of his sins, because no one noticed that he was acting strangely. He is not saying that the adults are completely at fault, because they did not notice that he skipped class and came in inebriated and smelling like he was made of alcohol. He is suggesting that the events of his past contributed to what Dahmer would become, and that looking back, readers can see those things that suggested that something was wrong - the drinking, the divorce, the odd behavior, the vibe - and consider that for other situations as well. 

How can we use it?

Other than using it as a case study to use in the future when look at other kids who may have troubled backgrounds and need help, it is good for everyone to see that things do happen, and sometimes that is because they have had many other challenges lead up to a breaking point. Dahmer always had that daydream of corpses he mutilated, but with help, his victims could have been saved. Children do not always know how to handle their inner conflicts nor do they know how to ask for help. As long as we try to notice, it is better than ignoring things that we have seen.

The book is also a great representation of the autobiographical graphic novel. Biographies and autobiographies, like all nonfiction, are not as popular with young adults. They view the genres as boring and even tedious. Backderf writes a true story in an interesting way that makes it feel more like fiction, which appeals to more people. Even if the story is not favored among teens, it is a good introduction to the genre and suggests that readers try other stories like it. 

Booktalk Ideas

The narrator shows a more understanding perspective to the Jeffrey Dahmer story. Having seen some of the background, is Dahmer a character for which someone should feel sorry? Does Backderf give Dahmer too much sympathy?

Backderf discusses the question people ask about why he and his friends never spoke up, and instead, he deflects the question with generalities of being unaware kids and then immediately begging what he thinks was the more important question: Where were the adults (Backderf 66 and 67)? He goes on to mention everything that adults did or did not do such as his parents not noticing his problems, no adult at the school noticing his drinking problems or his weird behavior, the adults at the mall not stopping him. Is Backderf deflecting the blame or is he simply trying to find a reason that no one noticed before?

What else can I read?

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Awards and Lists

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award

2014 Revelation Award at Angoulême

2015 ALA/YALSA Alex Award (Excellence in Narrative Nonfiction)

BEST OF 2012 by Time, The Village Voice, A.V. Club, comiXology, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, and MTV Geek

Professional Reviews

Martha Cornog (2012), Library Journal - http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=d6633867-86f9-4d8b-8d45-1ddb488259b4%40sdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=75327065&db=a9h

No author (2012), Publishers Weekly - http://go.galegroup.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ps/i.do?&id=GALE|A276437030&v=2.1&u=csusj&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

[connecticut-seo-adwords]

9 Steps to Do SEO for Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés

The glutton called the digital age is swallowing whatever it can. Even the HoReCa market( short for Ho tels, Re staurants and Cafés), one of the unshakable bastions of live human interaction, hasn't been safe-- and now the Web has permeated into every aspect of the trifecta. Sites are springing up like mushrooms after rain, and SEOs swoop down on them, each wanting to be the very first to take their customers to Google's page one. Swooping is good.Since no 2

markets are the very same, SEO slightly varies from specific niche to niche. Exactly what should you get out of SEO for hotel and catering services? Do you know how to promote a dining establishment online? Let's meet the devil who depends on the details.1.

Catch ONLY Long-Tail Keywords

The food service market is pretty demanding about keywords. Short-tail is not an option at all. What's more, whatever that isn't really long and clear enough can be put in the short-tail classification. You won't get far with something seemingly specific, but modest like "hotel in Melbourne". Much better examples are "household hotel in Melbourne" and "hotels with verandas in Melbourne". When picking long-tail keywords, make sure they stay true to their name. SEO for hotel industry doesn't like anything in the middle ground at all! Exact same applies to café and restaurant SEO.Find the most optimum keywords for your website with WebCEO's Keyword Research study tool. Always remember to set your area in the settings to see how frequently your keywords are searched locally. The bar is set so high for factors more crucial

than traffic and beating your competition. You have to be upfront with what your service needs to provide, and it needs to be reflected in the keywords you use. Specify, and visitors will never be dissatisfied in your site.And while we are still on the subject of long-tail keywords, there's an increasing wave you

must attempt to catch: voice search. That's 20%of mobile searches that can lead to your site now, and there will be more in the very future. It's a pattern to live by. What do you require to optimize your website for voice search? Numerous websites have found this winning formula: A question, as spoken by users into their devices, put in the heading An in-depth response, covering all important points and put under the concern Content written in this fashion has the tendency to appear in ordinary searches, too. Concern +immediate answer is a format specifically liked by included bits.2. Compose content both for customers and search engines As soon as you have your keywords, it's time to put them to good usage. There are a couple of easy guidelines for doing it.1.

Put keywords in these places on the page: URL address, title, meta description, H1-H4 headings, text's body, image titles and ALT tags.2. Prevent using the exact same keywords on multiple pages, or they'll wind up competing for rankings for their keywords. It's a pesky problem called keyword cannibalization.3. Don't repeat keywords to the point they make your texts

look unusual. This is another SEO-unfriendly activity understood as keyword stuffing. Include your keywords, however make certain the texts look natural and are a pleasant read.4.

Don't conceal keywords (and content in basic)by making it the exact same color as the background or through any other methods. Browse engines will analyze it as an attempt to cheat the rankings and release a penalty.5.

Put keywords in your internal links 'anchor texts. It will help the pages on the other side of the link rank higher for those keywords. Also, prevent putting your own keywords in the anchor texts of external links.In order to check

optimum keyword usage on your site, include its pages in WebCEO's Landing Page SEO tool and see if you missed anything.That's how you enhance your material for online search engine. What about optimizing it for users? Your material has to be attractive to them, too. You can achieve this in various methods-- a few of them general that could use to all websites, others more carefully associated to the HoReCa industry.When filling your website with material,

it assists to keep in mind it isn't just about you. It's about your customers and exactly what you can give them. So rule number 1: don't oversell yourself. Present your brand in all its magnificence, however don't overdo it. Style your content to keep the visitors hooked and make them come back for more.What are some ways to make your content addictive?Actively utilize images and videos.

You are going to need them for a site in the HoReCa niche, I can ensure. Program your prospective customers the good place and tasty food that await them, and inform them a story, too. Increasingly more organisations have been mastering VR photography and creating 360 ° panoramic shots-- it's a trend that's going to be hot in 2018.

Add the choice to book your services online. You

'll have to ensure your site is user-friendly and simple to use, especially on mobile devices.Avoid using excessively professional language. Every industry has its own slang and acronyms, but you shouldn't utilize them to interact with your audience. Talk with confidence and professionalism, but ensure individuals understand you.Introduce your staff. Let your clients see the faces of individuals whose task is to provide whatever for a pleasant stay. It makes visits to your site feel more individual and builds trust to your business.Show what happens behind the scenes. Has anything amusing took place recently? Have

your chefs battled with cooking a huge lobster? Perhaps you want to share a trick that's humiliating, however not too damaging? Clients enjoy gossip like everyone else. Provide something to discuss.3. Develop internal links with care Have you become aware of the Hitler Wikipedia game? You begin at a random Wikipedia page and attempt to reach the post on Adolf Hitler in as couple of clicks as possible. It is stated that five clicks are the optimum for even the most unassociated pages.

I have actually yet to go under a dozen, myself. Maybe I'm playing it wrong.My Hitler hunting abilities aside, this video game is a testament to Wikipedia's impressive internal connecting structure, disorderly as it might be. I will not encourage you to organize such video games on your HoReCa website( as the majority of individuals would rather spend their time making appointments), however do ensure there's a brief"range"between

any two pages. Make it 3 clicks, though, not five. Leave no page unlinked (likewise understood as orphaned )or without links to other pages(dead ends). Most significantly, a website in an industry like food service, where content requires to be organized, is going to need a navigation bar.

Make it possible to reach your essential landing pages from the top of the screen.4. Backlinks and regional search, all at the same time Link building is an important aspect of SEO for any site that wishes to reach page one of Google. For websites in certain niches like catering services, this job is a larger obstacle than normal. This is mostly because for catering services, link building is carefully tied with optimization for local search. We don't have the innovation to download meals yet(although house delivery comes close

), so the goal to make users reveal up face to face remains-- and for that, you have to know ways to do local SEO for dining establishments, cafés and hotels. Whichever is yours.Build your backlinks where users intentionally try to find a place to rest and consume. Produce listings for your organisation and fill them out with all the details you can in places such as: If you can discover more, by all means!With that, you have backlinks from high-authority resources, a few of which are used by potential clients prior to they check Google

. And you need to appear on Google Maps, too-- speaking of which, you must embed it on your site, as well.Some other methods of structure connect to your HoReCa site consist of: Colluding with regional bloggers who write about hotels and dining establishments Reaching out to colleges and universities whose alumni may come to work at your facility Connecting to airports and travel agencies in other parts of the nation and world whose websites have lists of nearby hotels and restaurants Contributing to local fundraiser Guest blogging 5. Utilize structured information Marking up info is highly advised for websites in the food service market. They have a lot to tell their prospective consumers, a lot that might be shown directly in search engine result. That's what structured information is for: to indicate search engines about useful details that deserves to be put straight

in SERPs. I'm shocked it isn't a ranking aspect.

There's plenty you might tell your clients about your facility: your evaluation rating, your costs, your address and open hours ... There's a line of

code for every relevant bit of info

and little factor not to use them.There are several ways to increase information on your website. Microdata, JSON-LD, RDFa-- select your poison and roll with it. JSON-LD looks so compact and tidy, it makes me desire to discover JavaScript this year at long last. And perhaps I will.6. Enhance for mobile gadgets Something to keep in mind is that individuals access the Internet from all sorts of gadgets. Excellent old desktop PCs and laptop computers are still in style, but the younger mobile phones are growing more popular than ever.

Exactly what does this indicate? Screens are available in several sizes, and all of them are implied for searching the Web. Your website requires to reveal effectively and be functional on all of them. This calls for mobile SEO!.?. !! Provide your site a responsive design that will make it automatically fit any screen.Make the text and interactive elements( such as buttons and checkboxes) large enough so mobile users wo

n't need to zoom in.Avoid using interstitials that block the screen. They are a problem that affects user experience nearly as badly as website mistakes. Appropriate types of interstitials are those that ask for the visitor's age or notify them about the use of cookies.7. Research study your organisation rivals All websites on the Internet compete with each other for rankings, traffic and visitors. It's kind of inescapable when there's over a billion for them. Your website is going to have to exceed its own variety of rivals, too. What can you do to obtain ahead of them? 8. Be active in social networks Nowadays, it's next to difficult to

find a hotel or a restaurant that isn't active in social media.

Unless they have actually only just opened. Even then, they'll be motivated to create accounts and start posting. Social network's appeal for companies lies in robust interaction with their target audiences-- enough to competing genuine life, I 'd say. It's a location to discover brand-new consumers and establish your relationship with existing ones.HoReCa facilities have a lot to show online that you could involve every significant social network

in your campaign. Film your interior and outside view-- there's a great video tour to publish on YouTube. Your menu and recipes will make juicy material for Pinterest and Instagram. Facebook is a jack of all trades in this regard. Bear down all fronts and monitor your development in WebCEO's Social Engagement tool. There's likewise the growing trend of ephemeral content which was promoted by Snapchat. It makes use of the audience's worry of missing out by allowing content that expires within a day. Organize occasions at your facility, announce them on Snapchat and Instagram Stories, and people will show up, encouraged by the sense of urgency.Most importantly, bear in mind that social networks is for communicating with your audience. Don't be reluctant to request for their feedback and talk.9. Make a great reputation online Where your brand name is concerned, there is no space for joking around. Without a strong online presence, you run the risk of losing customers to other, more popular brands; without a good track record, you run the risk of losing your service or worse. The digital age has actually produced lots of new things you can do to develop your brand name, but it has also made ruining a brand even easier. Discuss a double-edged sword!Be sure to keep your ear to the ground and not miss out on a word about you.

Track your brand name's online discusses in

WebCEO's Web Buzz Monitoring tool and check it frequently. You don't wish to start hearing bad things about yourself when they've spread over half of the Web; it will be far too late by then. React to unfavorable feedback as quickly as it's there! Address the displeased customer's concerns and, when the conversation is over, ensure their opinion of you is much better than before.Not all unfavorable feedback is harmful, though. You recognize with event and displaying customer evaluations on your website, as well as other places like evaluation platforms. The more of them are favorable, the better, however a few unfavorable evaluations can work in your favor simply. A discontent voice or two

from the crowd will make you appear natural-- it's difficult to please everybody. And if you can be seen talking about with the customers how your ways of doing things can be improved, all the better.Remember: brand structure is everything about the relationship with individuals who utilize your service, about offering. It's no coincidence that focusing on the users is SEO's main concept, too.

Source

https://www.webceo.com/blog/9-steps-to-do-seo-for-hotels-restaurants-and-cafes/

[fashiontrendin-blog]

A ‘Wrinkle in Time’ Review From a Superfan Who Grew Up

https://fashion-trendin.com/a-wrinkle-in-time-review-from-a-superfan-who-grew-up/

A ‘Wrinkle in Time’ Review From a Superfan Who Grew Up

Swear to god I thought I could time travel.

Or at the very least, at age eight, I believed I was well on my way to figuring it out. After reading A Wrinkle in Time for the first time, and then the second, before twice swallowing the rest of the Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle quintent (A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time), I began a near-daily habit of practicing how to “tesser.”

It’s been 21 years since I attempted to explain my elementary understanding of how to actualize the book’s version of “string theory,” but if my memory serves me, here’s how you do it: you close your eyes, imagine the place you’d like to visit, find a note — a musical note, but a color works, too — and sit astride it as you fold the universe toward you. It makes more sense when your brain doesn’t search for technicalities, when you’re young and still believe that fiction hides codes for kids to crack and save the world because parents and adults will never get it.

In third grade, my best friend and I told a boy in our class we were learning to tesser, and that we had telekinetic powers — the result of a simultaneous Matilda phase. When we told him, we made him swear to lock-jawed secrecy with such an “on your life” insistence that we really scared him. I have some recollection that he cried. We later had to lie and say we’d made the whole thing up, just so he wouldn’t tell his parents and blow our cover. We resumed in privacy. “It’s too dangerous for anyone else to know,” we told each other. We believed in the middle of our guts, right behind our belly buttons, that all of this was real.

It made so much sense at that age, that there were universes within our cells, that we as kids could enter different dimensions and defeat world-swallowing evil. It made so much sense that, if only we practiced enough, we could sit atop a music note and manipulate days, years, minutes and space with our brains. Of course adults hadn’t figured it out, we reasoned. Other books and movies had taught us that grown-ups lose their once-inherent ability to tap into alternative frequencies — or believe in magic. Whatever you want to call it.

I have another memory, this one a bit foggier, of crying one night out of sadness and frustration: My parents were divorced. I missed my dad and wanted to be with him that instant, but he lived across the country, so I tried to “tesser.” I did everything the book between-the-lines instructed, everything I’d practiced, yet when I opened my eyes, I was still in my same stupid bedroom. I hadn’t traveled an inch.

I couldn’t even get a measly glass of water to tip over.

After that, I stopped trying. It was my first “grow up, idiot” moment, the first time I translated my own voice of boundless imagination into embarrassed skepticism. And of course, I did grow up, with simultaneous reluctance and urgency, depending on the day.

I thought about all of this after watching Ava DuVernay’s movie adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. I bought tickets to opening night a week in advance, which I never do, to brace myself, emotionally, for Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon’s on-screen introductions as the other-worldly beings who once guided me (would they remember me?) through a truly formative period in my life. I was there to throw my heart to the screen for Storm Reid just in case her character Meg needed it (in case she wanted to be friends with my younger self); to chug childhood nostalgia from a giant straw while chewing on memories and popcorn.

But maybe, naively — and this is also a swear-up-and-down secret to anyone reading — it’s possible I hoped this movie might fill in the how-to-tesser holes I missed years ago, the ones that eventually led me to my own time-travel defeat and resulting commitment to give it up and grow up.

No tesseract holes were filled, unfortunately. The initial realization of this stung more than it should, which I know sounds ridiculous. But if you’re a grown-up, and you’re curious, what this movie will do is transport you to the reasonable extent that you let it: out of your routine, your bad day, your stressful week. If you’re a film critic, which I have no business being (my movie taste is the worst of anyone I’ve ever met), there is a chance you won’t like it: writers found issues with the locations, the planet jumping, the script, the theatrical optimism.

But I like to imagine that, just like its paperback namesake, A Wrinkle in Time, the movie, wasn’t written for an audience of jaded grown ups or critics. It’s for kids (of all ages) whose imaginations are so great they can’t be contained to our universe, let alone planet. It’s for girls to know that they, too, are heroes. It’s for young women of color, in particular, to see themselves running the show — Wrinkle is the first $100 million movie directed by an African-American woman — and in leading roles on massive, 3D screens.

In her opinion piece for CNN.com, Kerra L. Bolton writes, “the diverse casting in A Wrinkle in Time…takes an important step in normalizing girls and women of color as heroines of our own stories, interested in math and science…struggling to define ourselves in a world that doesn’t always accept us for who we are. The movie presents a vision of female empowerment in which whiteness is no longer the standard.”

“This is how movies should look from now on, which is to say how they should have looked all along,” says The New York Times’ A.O. Scott, who had a few critiques, but who mostly enjoyed it. Perhaps because he saw the film “in the company of a curious and eager 10-year-old,” which he calls “the best way to appreciate what [DuVernay] has done.”

I don’t know any 10-year-olds anymore; I hardly know my 8-year-old self, yet I remember that, when you’re young, fiction isn’t fantasy, but a real possibility. I left the movie a little sad to realize I’d aged out of unseeable dimensions and traded time travel in for a practical commute, an adult routine. But I’m also encouraged and excited and comforted to remember that, come Monday, a whole new generation is going to believe — with every fiber of their being — in a world beyond our own.

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: Another guest contribution from valknut79 to The Prepper Journal.  The opinions expressed herein are his and should generate a lot of comments as we all have our favorites on this subject. 

When the world as we know it comes crashing down, I think we all know the value of a farmer or an architect, and the value of a sharpshooter or outdoorsman.  Once things start to settle down again, I think that the value of a storyteller suddenly grows in importance, and a certain level of entertainment once again becomes an expected and valued part of society.  In ancient times, oral histories were a way of passing down stories certainly, but they also had great value in terms of teaching important lessons, changing perspectives, building communities, and bringing people together.

      As a high school English teacher by trade, I firmly believe in the power and the value of having a good library at home.  A book can provide knowledge or wisdom, companionship and life lessons, and can help you develop a lot of self-knowledge as well.  Here are my suggestions for books that would be potentially very valuable for preppers to own and read before, during and after an SHTF situation.

Pulp Fiction Collections

Pulp fiction is a specialized genre of literature that was particularly popular in the early part of the 20th century, referring to short stories that were published in literary magazines of the time.  My personal favorites are the Conan stories of Robert E Howard, the action-adventure stories of Tarzan and John Carter by Edgar Rice Burroughs, anything by HP Lovecraft, or while technically too early for their period but filling a similar role, the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Isaac Asimov is also considered part of this genre, and does good work with science fiction.

       These stories, which are all freely available online or available in collections at Barnes and Noble for a fair price, are not perfectly written.  Some reflect their times a little too accurately and are borderline racist or misogynist (especially Howard), and may not necessarily speak to everyone in a modern audience.  That said, these are the perfect campfire stories, and the plot, pacing, and occasional bits of character development are masterful. I equate these stories to a TV episode or sitcom – most are independent adventures that tell a complete story within 20 or 30 pages – and have a certain panache and style that I believe would suit the kind of stories you’d tell your buddies after an SHTF situation.  A take-no-nonsense hero who solves his problems with his great bran, superior intelligence, or tremendous cunning makes a simple and uplifting story that I think would inspire in a difficult situation.

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

High Fantasy is a take-it-or-leave-it genre for most readers.  While I tend to lean on the leave-it side, I cannot underestimate the importance and the power of the Wheel of Time series.  This 15-book series (including the prequel) is easily the longest series I’d ever consider recommending, especially considering that each of the novels in the series is two to three times as long as your average best-seller.  As a series of great length, this is not the kind of series you can undertake lightly, but the payoff is very worthwhile.

The length and depth of the series, however, is not what makes it a recommended read for preppers.  At its core, the Wheel of Time series is about accepting that the world as we know it today is not going to last.  The end is near for these characters, and they know it. The individual reactions of each are predictable (these are the heroes after all), but may be illuminating and inspiring for those in your group who are not prepared for the worst.

Ultimately, the plot line follows the main character of the series as he struggles to identify with his destiny as someone who simultaneous destroys the world and saves it, and through the books he does come to realize that whether in living or dying, it’s important to keep fighting, to leave the world a better place than he found it, and to help build a legacy of which he can be proud.  The wide variety of characters add color and supply a steady stream of small pearls of wisdom and inspiration throughout, and many of them have become closer friends than some of the real people I interact with every day.  Those are lessons that every prepper should understand and appreciate, even if the format of these books may be too much for many to handle.

Shortly after I finished reading this series, one of my students was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.  She was understandably devastated.  I chose the first book in this series to give her, telling her at the time that, whether you like it or not, sometimes you just have to buckle down, accept what life gives you, and try to do your best anyways.  She lived her life according to those principles, and I like to think that perhaps this had some part in her emotional recovery.

And if you don’t like, it, you’ll have a year’s supply of toilet paper in the bindings.

   Walden by Henry David Thoreau 

Thoreau’s classic, Walden, also finds a spot close to the top of my list.  While his seminal essay on living life alone near a pond is sometimes very difficult to read and often highly opinionated towards minimalist ideals that may have preppers shaking their fists, Walden is, first and foremost, a story about learning to live a simpler life, being self-sufficient, and largely doing things your own way.  Preparedness is a lifestyle that so often leans towards an old-fashioned lifestyle, “useless” life skills like learning to make a fire or build a shelter, and Walden remains one of the most important stories of a life led largely apart from society, convention and modern convenience.  There is an illustrated hardcover version produced by Fall Creek Press which is often on sale for less than $10.

Life as We Knew It (series) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Anyone who interacts with or parents teenagers knows of their penchant for being completely addicted to technology and instantaneous communication, knowledge and results, and their general disdain for the lifestyle of preparedness.  I find that the best way to start in interest in, or even a conversation about prepping might be to start with introducing your teens (and perhaps even your significant other) to the Life as We Knew It series.  This story, written from the perspective of a teenage girl’s diary, chronicles an SHTF situation which involves a disruption of tidal patterns.  This is perhaps not the most realistic novel, but in terms of story, pacing and plot, it does a very good job of not only entertaining, but also informing and getting the mental gears turning.  I think that this book more than any other SHTF novel I’ve experienced yet, will get teens talking about what they’d do in a crisis situation, how they’d adapt, and what they may be willing to look into now in order to help out later.

This book is part of a series, but I found the first novel to be far and away the best, while the later entries suffered.  If you try it and like it a great deal, consider getting the sequels.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

If there is one person who represents what it truly means to be American, I think that it might have to be Benjamin Franklin.  He remains perhaps the most approachable of all historical figures from that time period, and it’s not hard to imagine sitting down with him at the pub with a glass of his favorite Madeira wine and showing him the marvels of the internet age.  His Autobiography, while widely characterized as a too-heavily edited version of his life, does make for a entertaining read, but also one that has the potential to teach a variety of life lessons.

From his famous treatises on moral perfection, which systematizes Franklin’s own attempts to better himself, to his carefully worded passages on industry, in which he makes a very distinct point to say that appearing to be industrious is just as important as actually being that way, this book characterizes a simple, learned way of life that focuses on community and service to others.  Whether you see him as a fatherly scientist entrusting his lessons to a younger generation, or one of America’s greatest libertines and con men, the Autobiography is a book about building a new society from nothing, improving it far beyond what it was in former times, and at least ostensibly, doing so while preserving a hard-working character and social graces.  It’s not hard to see this man as a potential prepper or as someone you’d want by your side in an SHTF situation.

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton

“Now” is actually a book about business leadership more than anything, but it has strong applicable life lessons that preppers could benefit from.

The ultimate thesis about this book is very simple – do what you’re good at, because you can’t be truly well-rounded – and goes through the identification of your individual strengths, a description of the science behind Strengths-Based psychology, and has a section on how you can work around your weaknesses (or areas of “non-talent”).  This is one the books that I think has most influenced my personal development, and is a valuable reminder to those who are the do-all types that want to pursue 75 different hobbies without specializing that this is a course of action that is designed to fail.  This may not be the most entertaining book in the list, but is one of the foundational reads that I recommend to anyone attempting to learn or better themselves.

This is the one book I’d recommend purchasing new rather than used – it comes with a one-time-use online code to take the “StrengthsFinder” test from Gallup, which is the method you’ll use to identify your Top 5 Talent areas.

   Narrowing down a list of books for a preparedness library is impossible without imposing certain qualifications.  I did not include cookbooks, survival skills books, or any strictly informational books on subjects like gardening, camping, farming, and raising chickens.  Those are, in my opinion, quite obvious choices for preppers and so abundant that you can just pick up a huge quantity at a local library book sale without being overly picky about gathering specific volumes.  These are stories, whether strictly for entertainment or for improvement through gaining wisdom.

These are not all personal favorites, and do not necessarily represent a wide variety of literary styles, but do have what I would consider to be valuable life lessons that reflect a “prepared” lifestyle.  I did attempt to focus on books that are uplifting – while I do love a good murder mystery or horror title now and again, I think that an SHTF situation requires a little tact – and these stories also have a certain element of timelessness or classicists to them.  One hundred years from now, I think there will still be those who love Conan and friends as much as I do now.

That said, my library is constantly growing, and I’m always open to learning about new books to add to my collection.  What books do you consider indispensable?

  The post Best Books for Your Preparedness Library appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[danithebookaholic-blog]

A Book You Picked Solely Because of the Cover

The Fallen: The Fallen and Leviathan

by Thomas E. Sniegoski

This week’s suggestion on the Pinterest Reading Challenge is to pick a book solely based on its cover. So, I looked through my collection of books that I’ve gathered up through the years and thought to myself, “Hum… what looks good?”

With this week’s suggestion, I didn’t have the full pleasure of “judging a book based on its cover”—because I am trying to go through the hundreds of books that I already have—I’ve read all the synopses on their covers before. But I did make myself pick through a selection of books based on a few guidelines: the book couldn’t be a movie or TV show, it couldn’t be a classic that everyone knows the gist of the story line, and it couldn’t be one that I’ve been itching to get my hands on. I made myself look through the ones that I haven’t looked at for a while, the ones that were bought on a whim, written by someone I’ve never heard of before, or given to me from someone who reads genres that I’m not that into. This week I was going to make sure it was something different for me… Or so I thought.

Looking solely at the covers of the books I had collected—a couple fantasy, several YA and children’s chapter books (I don’t know why I gravitate to these so much!), a mystery, and a memoir—I kept coming back to the same one over and over. A black and white photograph of a lone figure with the title written in red. The lighting in the photograph had the lone figure highlighted in all the right places—the contours of his face and muscular arm—this alone will have you thinking to yourself that this must be some kind of romance novel, a spinoff of a harlequin perhaps and this will catch the females of the audience and make them want to pick it up. But romance novels are not my thing, so that is not what caught my attention. It was the dark angelic wing protruding from his back, and with a title of The Fallen, I couldn’t help myself but to pick it.

Some History:

The Fallen: The Fallen and Leviathan is a Young Adult read. It was originally published in 2003 and reprinted in 2010 with the new above picture on the cover. It is book one of five in The Fallen series, and it turns out it was also made into an ABC Family movie, Fallen, in 2006. (Oops! So much for those guidelines I made for myself!)

The Synopsis:

***SPOILER ALERT***

I wrote this review a little different than usual. I’m not sure why, other than this is how it came out, and I apologize that it 1) reads a bit like a school book report, and 2) does give away some of the ending.

 Aaron Corbet is a child of the foster care system and has finally found a foster family who he regards as his mom, dad and his brother, Stevie. On his eighteenth birthday he can suddenly understand and speak languages of all kinds even though he’s had no education in them. On top of that, he comes across a “homeless” man who begins following Aaron, telling him about his troubled past and the future that is to come: Aaron is Nephilim—the son of a mortal and an angel—and he has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.

The angel Verchiel is the master of the Powers and a Messenger of God. His duty is to cleanse the earth of the filth that the Fallen have produced upon the earth: Nephilim. Using his human hounds and divine senses he tracks down Nephilim and purges them from the earth. The Nephilim he’s currently hunting is Aaron Corbet.

With the help of Zeke, the Grigori, Camael of the Fallen, and his best friend Gabriel, Aaron transforms into the Nephilim he is, and not a minute too late: Verchiel has finally found him and is ready to purge his filth from the earth. A battle ensues and Aaron turns out to be more powerful than Verchiel originally thought. Aaron injures Verchiel, who flees, taking Stevie with him. Now Aaron must not only fulfil the prophecy, but find his brother before Verchiel turns him into one of his human hounds.

Aaron and his posse begin a road trip in search of Stevie, with a powerful pull toward Blythe, Maine. Along the way they encounter a group of Orishas, another product the Fallen have created. However, the Orishas are ruled by Verchiel, who has bestowed the mission of killing Aaron upon them, but they don’t succeed. Only one Orishas remains, and before fleeing it gets a small revenge and bites Gabriel.

Arriving in Blythe, they find Gabriel a doctor to treat the infected Orishas bite, but the townsfolk here are a little strange: they look suspicious of everyone and act as if they’re being controlled. That is everyone but Dr. Katie McGovern, who later tells Aaron that she, too, is an outsider, new to town. She came to town because her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Kevin Wessell, had e-mailed her with a strange request that she visit, but when she got to town he was missing and hadn’t been in to see his patients for days.

Katie enlists the help of Aaron around the office until Kevin hopefully returns, but after finding several strangely mutated animals in Kevin’s freezer, she begins to think that Kevin may have dug up some dirt on the town that someone didn’t want him finding out.  Katie and Aaron agree that they need to find out what’s going on around the town and try to find Kevin, but the mission is doomed from the beginning when Katie turns up missing herself. Aaron begins the mission alone, only to find himself in the lair of Leviathan, “that spark of uncertainty in the Creator’s thoughts as He forged the world—that brief moment of chaos—before Genesis.”

Leviathan, a great sea monster, entraps its victims by making their mind’s eye see whatever paradise it wishes to see, then swallows them whole and lives off the life force stored inside them. Aaron finds that both Camael and Gabriel are in Leviathan’s stomachs, and knows that in order to save them he must overcome his fear of letting the Nephilim power within him out and do the one thing the Archangel Gabriel could not: destroy Leviathan.

Aaron defeats Leviathan and frees all those within Leviathan’s stomachs including his friends and the Archangel Gabriel. Aaron then fulfills the prophecy and forgives the Fallen who are found within Leviathan’s many stomachs and sends them to their Heavenly home. But before The Archangel Gabriel ascends he gives Aaron another hint about the prophecy he is fulfilling and a wink of information about who his real father is.

The Fallen concludes with the townspeople of Blythe, Maine being released from their captor’s control, Katie and Kevin reunited, and Aaron with a lot of questions: Who is his real father? What does his father have to do with the prophecy? And where is Stevie?

The Review:

The Pros:

Of course, I liked The Fallen, it’s right up my alley (so much for breaking out of my habits and trying something new!) First, it’s a YA read, so you know I’m hooked there.

Second, it’s a present-day mythology just like the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan or The Mortal Instruments and Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare, both of which I’m a big fan of. To take a myth—and I use this word to group together the whole, so please you Christians out there don’t hate on me for using this word, I’m a Christian, too! —but to take a myth such as angels or Greek gods and to create a new story for them is awesome! You’re taking those classics that a lot of people don’t read any more because they find them boring or too difficult to understand and are making them readily available to today’s societies so that Genesis, Matthew, Luke, Homer and Sophocles are getting a new—and usually younger—generation to ignite and share their stories again.

Third, something that I found that set The Fallen apart from most YA books was the language. I, myself, don’t have the best vocabulary by any means (I should have listened to my mother and studied for those vocabulary tests!), but I have grown my knowledge and understanding over the years, and this book still had me looking up words in the dictionary (or rather dictionary.com, yay technology!) I like that about a book! I like that while I’m reading for pleasure I’m still learning things. I don’t think that everything should be dumbed down so everyone in the general population can understand it. I think you should always be learning something and improving on yourself, and if that means you must get a dictionary out to understand what’s happening in the storyline then that’s great! You learned something in the process; you made yourself better and had a better experience because of it!

The Cons:

Aaron Corbet is a little fake. He’s too good and not moody enough to be a teenage boy and a child of the foster system who has just found out that he’s this mythological creature. In the beginning, you’re told that he has a troubled past, that he was moved from foster home to foster home, but the person sitting in front of you is polite, never causes a stir, and when he does have an emotional outbreak of some kind its abbreviated and almost void of emotion. Almost like his outburst were an afterthought, like Thomas Sniegoski’s editor said, “Hey, don’t you think he would be a little upset that this is happening?” The lack of emotion he shows when someone he loves is hurt or killed is the biggest one for me. He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t get angry and yell, he just tells himself that he can’t believe that they are hurt or dead. I understand shellshock, but I think this is a bit more than just that. Aaron is not fleshed out enough to be a real person, but then again, I guess he really isn’t, after all he is Nephilim.

My other qualm with The Fallen is defeat is too easy. With each battle scene—if you can really call them that—the fight was ended really before it began. These are some big monsters he’s going up against, and yet I saw how the end of each battle was going to play out from the moment they started. There was no adrenaline rush of “is he going to make it?” in any of the battle scenes. From the beginning, you knew he was going to be just fine and good would prevail over evil once again.

The Wrap-Up:

Overall, I enjoyed The Fallen. I thought it was a great storyline with a good mystery: I want to know who Aaron’s father is myself! Who is this—as Camael puts it— “angel of formidable power to have sired one like [Aaron]?" ? And does he ever find Stevie? All the questions Aaron has at the end of the book are questions I have too, which is a sign of a good story. The author has you hooked to make you want to pick up that next book. Which I plan on doing just that!

 From one wine-loving bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix. —Dani

 Love this book? Check out The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare or one of her many other Shadowhunter series.

Pair it with: Lost Angel’s 2016 Mischief—Fruit-forward and jammy, with hints of cocoa.

Not all good wines are expensive, and this one is just that: good, easy on the wallet and fits with the trouble that Aaron gets himself into.

Start a conversation: What book have you chosen based solely on its cover and why? Was it worth the gamble?

Have a book you’d like to suggest or one you’d like me to review? Please feel free to leave your comments down below.