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2024 reads / storygraph
Thyme Travellers
an anthology of speculative short stories by diaspora Palestinian authors
a variety of narratives imagining Palestine in past, present, and future, with significant themes of memory, identity, and resistance
includes: an Australian woman who decides to dig to Palestine, a haunting story about a group of Gazan boys swimming at night, a family discovering their grandmothers secrets in her memories after she dies, a girl from the west bank who has to do a quest as a spirit to get back to her body, an astronaut who returns to Gaza and finds he still has a chance to go to space, time travel, aliens, and more
arc from netgalley, out sep 5
#Thyme Travellers#sonia suliaman#aroaessidhe 2024 reads#I am not really a short story/anthology person but I found the majority of these stories engaging!#most memorable tbh the short one about gazan boys swimming at night#also the last one by nadia shammas#and the astonaut one#There are multiple stories about people discovering their grandmother was sapphic. good for them#there’s like? three total reviews of this up on the usual sites so go request it on netgalley#palestinian books#palestinian fiction
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The Spell for Unraveling (book 3 of The Buried and the Bound trilogy) has a cover! behold!
i think this is my favorite one yet! i love the stained glass background so much <3 the artist is helen mask, who's done an amazing job on all three covers for this trilogy.
#the buried and the bound#book covers#tbatb#booklr#ya books#illustration#i have not posted this on insta yet it's a tumblr exclusive#well. it's also been on goodreads for a few weeks but shhhh#more info on book 3 to come hopefully soon#if you enjoy this series please consider leaving reviews on amazon and goodreads#recommending it to your friends#requesting it at your library#and pre-ordering once buy links are available (which i'll post here)#those things can help let my publisher know that people are excited about these books#toward the end of a series - unless it's really taken off - it's not uncommon for the publisher to completely give up on promoting it#so word of mouth is the only way it will find new readers
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My Year of (Educational) Podcasts
I spent 12,000 minutes this year listening to podcasts according to Spotify. No, I do not listen to alphamale or girlboss or true crime podcasts– I mostly listen to history, philosophy, and literature podcasts i.e. educational podcasts. Here are 12 fun, well-executed podcasts I’d recommend if you’d like to learn more about your favourite (Humanities and Social Sciences) topics.
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. This is a podcast about the history of sex and sexuality. The podcast pays special attention to overlooked aspects of queer history, pop culture, and cultural superstitions. The love life and sex life of historical and artistic figures are also discussed with historians.
Dan Snow's History Hit. This podcasts discusses the most exciting and culturally relevant historical events and figures with expert panel guests. Clears up historical misconceptions and deals with the most interesting topics in an engaging way.
Occult Confessions. This podcast is about the history of the occult, witches, folklore, magicians, and conspiracies. There are discussions of folklore, religious history, and cults. The themes are dark but quite fascinating.
Intelligence Squared. This podcast is centered on cultural and academic debates and deep-dives into polemical topics among top UK experts. I really enjoy their episodes about writers, art, and artists.
The History of Literature. This is about, well, the history of literature i.e. the contexts that created impressive writers, literary movements, and literary works. It also debates and critically discusses classic works.
The Korea File. Y'all know I love kpop and kdramas and by extension, am quite fascinated by Korean culture and society given how much I interact with Korean media. This podcast, produced by a couple of Korean guys, critically explores Korean media, culture, society, and history.
Not Just the Tudors. A fun history podcast that doesn't only cover English Tudor history, but definitely covers a whole damn lot of English Tudor history. Mainly focuses on 13th-17th century global history.
Classical Stuff You Should Know. A podcast about the classical world, the Western Canon, and world philosophy. Discussions of the classics are in conversational layman terms. Topics not restricted to the Graeco-Roman world.
Why Theory. A podcast that uses philosophy and psychological theory to examine culture, history, art and human behavior. Lots of pertinent contemporary social topics are discussed.
Brown History. A podcast about South Asia and "brown" Asian demographics. A wide range of topics, from Pakistani history to the Indian diaspora to Afghan migration to the colonization of India by Great Britain.
Philosophize This!. This podcast covers philosophy, philosophies, and philosophers. I highly recommend listening to the episodes in order as much as possible. Breaks down the complex philosophical ideas using simple terms.
The Thing About Austen. This is a podcast about the world of Jane Austen from the time period to the people to the culture which influenced her big literary hits. Hits that sweet spot between literature and history in a creative way. Recommend for all the Pride and Prejudice (2005) fanatics.
#i could make at least three more of these lmfao#if you have an oddly specific podcast rec request hmu#podcasts#spotify#postcast recs#podcast recommendations#podcast reviews#podcasting#history#literature#books and literature#book blog#nerdy#studyblr#learning#education#light academia#light academia blog#philosophy
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Book Request: Looking for Dark Romance novels with REAL Strong Female Lead
I’m so tired of dark romance novels with so-called "strong female leads" who turn out to be anything but. It’s like their strength is just a cover for being mean, with the whole "I’m not like other girls" attitude cranked up to eleven.
I mean, come on, why do so many authors think that being strong means having no female friends, hating your mother, refusing to wear anything remotely feminine, or scoffing at anything pretty?
Worse still, these characters are supposed to be "independent," yet the moment something big happens, they’re suddenly helpless and need the very man they were fighting against to come to the rescue. Their protests feel like empty gestures too—like refusing to eat his food or wear his clothes out of sheer stubbornness, as if following a single request equals weakness. It’s such a tired trope.
What I’m craving is a real strong female lead—one who’s genuinely intelligent, knows how to pick her battles, and doesn’t waste energy being pointlessly difficult. Someone who’s kind, sweet, and capable of standing her ground without resorting to stubbornness for the sake of it. A character who’s smart enough to know when to accept help but doesn’t need it as a crutch every time.
There are only a handful of female leads I’ve come across who feel truly strong:
Jude from The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: Jude is a fantastic example of a strong lead. She loves wearing beautiful dresses and doesn’t shy away from embracing her feminine side, but she’s also fierce and knows how to fight. She’s smart, cunning, and holds her own in a ruthless world.
Vale from When She Unravels by Gabrielle Sands: Vale is probably my favorite female lead ever. She proves you don’t need physical strength to be strong. She’s kind, sweet, and determined to survive in an unfamiliar place.
That’s the kind of female lead I want to see more of—multifaceted, relatable, and genuinely strong in ways that feel real.
#book requests#book club#books#fem reader#booklr#dark romance#bibliophile#female reader#the cruel prince#book review#jude cardan#tropes#book recommendations#book reading
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#violent night#byron justice#in search of the cover i found the authors now abandoned blog#and hes very christian and has a real fun review of a vampire book on there#lets just say he doesnt get the appeal lmao#book poll#have you read this book poll#polls#requested
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As I am getting ever-closer to finishing the First Draft of Tylvinian Tales: The Wolf's Den...
This is my official call for readers!
People who have already read the available chapters, people who would be willing to, people who have been meaning to but haven't gotten to it yet, all are welcome.
You can find the story here on wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/1435263399-tylvinian-tales-the-wolf%27s-den-chapter-1-dance
Or here on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50774143/chapters/128261692
What I am looking for:
Review and critique. What seems lacking, what feels missing, what do you think is overused or ignored? Looking for as wide an audience as possible for this, from as many corners of writeblr as possible, so I can get a variety of viewpoints.
Who I am looking for:
Anyone! Anyone and everyone. All are welcome to offer their views and opinions. But if you're looking for what the content is, look no further than...
About the story:
Tylvinian Tales: The Wolf's Den is the first in a 10-book anthology series detailing the lives of various residents of the city of Tylvin. The series is set in a world of anthropomorphic beings known as Sentients, specifically in a country called Ferus. The Wolf's Den focuses on Ryder Trayson and his efforts to navigate life, love, and his increasing involvement in the darker sides of his home town. It can best be defined as romantic slice-of-life with elements of crime. It also includes a diverse cast of LGBT individuals, with Ryder himself being bisexual, with his found family consisting of David Seltz, a homoflexible male, Trace Parker who is trans masc, Moss Seltz, who is non-binary, and Davina Seltz, who is omnisexual. Be aware, strong language and, at times, slurs are used, as well as there being heavy violence described in varying levels of detail, from mild to extremely graphic. Also features some sexual themes and scenes.
How long until the story is complete:
I am writing Chapter 15 as we speak, and there are a total of 20 chapters planned. I'm less than 2 weeks away from finishing the First Draft in it's entirety if I maintain this pace, or less than 4 weeks away if I slow down and account for off-days.
#writeblr#relan#furry#literature#fiction#anthro#modern fantasy#anthropomorphic#writing#lgbt#beta readers#reader requests#reader reviews#book#books#reading#original fiction#slice of life#romance#love#crime fiction#Tylvinian Tales
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Treasure Seekers 2 go brrrrr
So this sequel... exists :D
Welcome to the second entry in the Treasure Seekers trilogy that I'm gonna ramble about for the next six hours (in me time, in you time it's probably gonna be like thirty minutes or less), if you wanna read it yourself before reading this ramble, here's an Archive copy. Otherwise, enjoy the ride :D
So our story begins with the Thea Sisters locked in a basement in the dark, with Russia's penchant for matches (and the basement's lack of a smoke alarm) coming in clutch. Seems like another vacation's gone awry for them :3 How could it have possibly turned out this way?
Flashback: so the girls are vibing in Moscow, visiting all the cool sights and all that, Pam is wanting to try some Russian cuisine, when they spot this girl that's wearing what appears to be a barrette that used to belong to Aurora's sister Hannah Lane. They follow her a bit, find a THUG JUMPSCARE, follow the girl, Cassidy and co into the building they're heading into, and oh dear door with passcode is in the way. They find this dood Sergei, explain to him the situation, deal with him being like "who is u, and wth are you on about mate" until they hear a scream and oh dear turns out that girl with the barrette is Sergei's sister Irina and she's in trouble.
Sergei opens the door, they go in, walk in on Cassidy, Stan and Max (who I will from now call SM for simplicity) doing their whole thug jumpscare thing and kidnapping Irina in 4K. SM somehow rolls a high enough strength roll (or the girls roll a low enough initiative) that two roughly intimidating guys successfully trap six people into a basement without breaking a sweat get yourself some self-defense classes girls oml, and that's the end of that.
Luke's up to his shenanigans again, and it seems that he's targeted Irina Lenenko for the same reason the girls double-taked at the sight of her barrette: Irina (and Sergei in conjunction) is a descendant of Hannah Lane, and Hannah Lane may or may not have known a thing or two about one of the seven treasures. It's such a shame tho that Irina doesn't wanna spill any of the tea. What's this about a "queen's jewel"?
Oh also Luke has Aurora's third diary. I would like you to pay attention to this detail in particular. Oh and he's keeping Irina ratgrabbed until she tells them what he wants to know from her. Oh naur
Meanwhile the girls infodump all of the TS 1 LANE LOORRREEEE to Sergei in one whole sitting and finally manage to get around to "what the hell does this have to do with my sister". Sergei thinks it's not really possible for Irina to know anything about great-grandma Hannah's involvement with Aurora, but Irina's still in trouble soooo time to solve this nerdy-ass science trivia keypad puzzle to get outa the basement. Irina's nowhere to be found in the lab itself, so they regroup at Sergei's place to use his phone tracker app on his computer.
Bad news, SM dumped Irina's phone somewhere in the lab so the tracker app is useless; good news, while looking for some Lane Lore™ to get some context about the situation, the girls find some Lane Lore™ :D
-
Turns out Aurora was looking for one of the seven treasures again, y'know just updating her sister on that, who'd moved to Saint Petersburg with her husband Ivan.
Seems like Aurora's quest at the time involved "the queen's jewel", which Aurora said she was 1000% down to ramble about to Hannah, maybe when she's done finding all seven treasures and hiding them from Jan.
I would like to take this moment to remind you that Aurora is a British Amelia Earhart, and if you dunno what that means, look up what Earhart was famous for and then look at this with that given context :']
-
With that lead, the girls plus Sergei take a ride on presumably the Krasnaya Strela night train to Saint Petersburg, read some Lane Lore on the way, Peter-Griffin upon realizing that they spent the whole night reading AO3 fanfics Aurora's diaries and it's like 2AM now, land in Saint Petersburg, stop by Nevsky Prospekt Street to have some breakfast (I think they went to Venezia?), and discussion.
(For the rest of this review, please assume when I say "the girls", I'm including Sergei because Sergei tags along with them and helps them out in their entire journey. It's okay, Sergei may be biologically male but he is an honorary female in our hearts /j)
Aurora mentioned the queen's jewel in her diary, and when you're in Russia, the first queen that comes to mind is Catherine II, so maybe something relating to her? Some Lane Lore of Aurora taking interest in Catherine II's Amber Room in her palace specifically confirms their theories, sooooooooo it's time to go to the Amber Room to see if Aurora left any clu--
The girls are about to walk out of the Catherine Palace to Peter Griffin in private when SM JUMPSCARE--
So SM is stalkin' around the Catherine Palace looking for something, so the girls stalk them back and follow them out of the palace, into a car (the girls called a separate taxi to follow them), and to a little gray building in the outskirts of the city. They don't follow SM into the building because it might be dangerous, but Irina's scarf lying around near the premises confirms that Irina was in fact there and possibly being held hostage in the building.
The girls do a little tactic I like to call "the Ding Dong Ditch": Pam and Nicky knock on the door, SM answers it, do a little Metal Gear exclamation point "HOW DID YOU GET HERE", Nicky and Pam book it so SM chases them, and that's literally how the other girls plus Sergei sneak into the building to get Irina out. (You dunno how badly I wanted to make a videogame reference for this but I couldn't find anything so here we are--)
With that, the girls plus the Lenenko siblings book it outa there without SM being none the wiser (seriously it doesn't even cross their mind that there are more than two Thea Sisters, that's how dum they are). Irina books a hotel room at a friend's place and gives them some extra Lane Lore that she never told Klawitz despite the interrogations:
Hannah Lane was once visited by Aurora unexpectedly, a little after Hannah and her husband moved to a house near the Ob River, in Siberia. Possible lead :3c? The girls think maybe, so they decide to head on over to the exact address in Novosibirsk, Siberia.
In Siberia, the girls cross the frozen Ob River in Novosibirsk to this abandoned little house, where they find this little note with a riddle that talks about Cleopatra and an emerald she had at one point, and CASSIDY JUMPSCARE--
Cassidy busts in, snatches the note and books it away on her snowmobile before the girls can even react. You may be wondering, how the hell did Cassidy get there and know where they were? The answer is the same as the reason behind the SM jumpscares in Russia and in book 1, and that is Luke.
Luke Von Klawitz is doing a little segment that I like to call: Luke Touch Grass, where it becomes increasingly clear that Luke's spent way too much time on 4Chan (/j but you'll see what I mean). Luke hears about SM's failure and facepalms. Then he calls his friend Petrovski, who has access to the database of all of Russia's airports, for help tracking down "six mice leaving Saint Petersburg". Petrovski gives him results in minutes: the girls and Sergei are leaving Saint Petersburg and heading for Novosibirsk, Siberia (most likely Tolmachevo Airport). With that intel, Klawitz looks into his own database of Aurora Beatrix Lane, finds a picture of Hannah and Aurora together, and uses his own version of Google Lens to figure out the exact coordinates where the picture was taken, which happens to be in Novosibirsk, Siberia.
No this man does not in fact canonically touch grass on the regular, who's asking
Anyway so he sent Cassidy the coords, instructions and Aurora's diary to go, and that's how Cassidy walked in on the girls in that little abandoned hut next to Ob River. Only thing is uh, she dropped her purse on the way out. A purse that just so happened to contain Aurora's diary that Luke gave her.
So the girls scoop that puppy up and assume that the treasure is Cleopatra's emerald, thus they think it's in Egypt.
So the girls go to Egypt :D (29 and a half hour flight there good god no wonder they conked out in the plane--)
The girls read some Lane Lore, something about Aurora finding the treasure and hiding it somewhere in a desert, in an "expanse pure and white" that a star compass will lead to. First thing the girls think of at the desert bit is the White Desert (Sahara el Beyda), specifically a spot near Cleopatra's pool, so they leave the airport (not realizing Cassidy is following them now) and head over to a market to buy some supplies because might I remind you, they initially went to Moscow, Russia for vacation.
While in the market, Pam meets a guy named Omar. Pam tells him a little bit about them going to Cleopatra's pool in Sahara el Beyda, and she finds out that Omar just so happens to be an Archaeology major in Oxford University who's here on his summer vacation and works as a guide for Sahara el Beyda, and is more than down to give the girls a tour. Talk about lucky :D
The next day the girls take the scenic route and after a while make it to Siwa, where Omar books a room in a hotel for them, and the girls find this interesting myth there about Cleopatra that I will summarize here:
Cleopatra was once given a jewel that maxes out the owner's rizz and the effect is supposedly indefinite. Cleopatra liked the jewel so much that she wore it on her crown at all times... until she grew a bit self-conscious about the gem's maxxed rizz effect and how everyone kept eyeing the emerald a second too long for comfort, so she decided to hide away said rizz in a spot where none of her rivals could get to it. Oh and uh Cleopatra wrote up a dedication to Ra that's hella cryptic too.
One long rest later, the girls go to Cleopatra's pool on a donkey cart. Yes, a donkey cart. It was Omar's idea. Speaking of Omar, prepare yourself buddy because the girls have dubiously decided to give you some Lane Lore to chew on. O-oh you like it a lot. A lot a lot. Well okay cool, maybe you can help out, cool.
The girls manage to figure out the riddle in Cleopatra's dedication, find a little stone coffer that has the queen's treasure and-- SM JUMPSCARE
With a donkey as the girls' only escape method and Omar having suddenly disappeared, a scuffle ensues where the girls play hot potato with the box until SM gets their hands on it and opens it, and here we get a very accurate depiction of what SM and the girls found in the box once it was actually opened.
Description: a hand made of salt shaped in an upside-down "ok" symbol, circa 1920s-30s.
The sheer whiplash of this leaves both sides of the conflict losing enough HP that they're all on red-- SM is blaming the girls for this (how dare >:[) and dip. Omar is gone, and all the girls get as compensation is the empty box and a letter from Aurora telling them that they'll know to read the hidden clues. The girls head back feeling very hollow and dead inside, and this is the one time one of the girls questions how the hell did SM know they were at Siwa. I mean they never get any answer to this (kinda), but it is a milestone! They're aware of it now!
Once they get back to Cairo, they ask around and find that Omar's completely up and vanished, and they decide they'll just head back to Moscow since their investigation has come to a dead end. On the way, Pam comments about the falafel she bought being hella salty, which leads Violet to an epiphany that hey, the Sahara isn't the only desert that exists, let alone the only desert known for how white it is (like how Boracay Beach is known for how white and fine its sand is, but it's not the only white sand beach that exists). A quick Google search (and a long flight (35 HOURS CAIRO TO SUCRE???)) leads them to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.
Nicky reserves a room for them at Hotel Luna Salada (a real place you can book a stay at actually :D), and they make a friend by the name of Adriana, a local waitress in the hotel restaurant. Adriana helps them pick out a dessert, fills them in on some stuff about the Salar since the girls came here 100% out of impulse, and talks about possible itinerary locations to go to, like the Isla de Pescado, Tiwanaku (the "Gate of the Sun"), Lake Titiaca, and Laguna Colorada. Y'know, typical tourist stuff, and Adriana was so kind to show them pictures she took when she visited said places herself! :D
Anyway so while the girls long rest, Luke is mulling about in his base waiting for updates. Someone calls him about the whole Egypt thing, and Luke calls the girls incompetent? Rude, oh and something about the caller being Luke's "secret weapon". Cassidy calls him on a theory she has about the gemstone being in Cleopatra's palace, and since the girls are currently long-resting (which means they aren't doing anything), Luke figures that a little diving trip in Alexandria to search for the gem with Cassidy won't hurt. Besides, he still has his secret weapon.
Oh yeah and he knows the girls are long resting because he has a drone in Bolivia spying on them and showing him their every move. Touch grass, Luke. No, going on a diving trip in Alexandria doesn't count, there's barely any grass there /j
Morning comes in Bolivia, and the girls head out early to search the Salar as much as they can. They look around the flat white desert, eat some late breakfast, toy around with forced perspective camera shenanigans for a bit, and read up on some LANE LOOORREEEEE
So Aurora's been to Pumapunku and Tiwanaku which is cool, she paid a visit to the archaeological site probably and that's really cool. She says something about hiding the queen's treasure in a fish's stomach covered in very fine thorns. Sergei ends up having an epiphany, and that leads the girls to Isla de Pescado, which just so happens to be "Fish Island" in Spanish, and has cacti on it, it's all coming together :D
Oh and the fish drawing Aurora made is coords to the treasure seemingly so that's cool-- OMAR JUMPSCARE
The girls are very surprised to find Omar joining them, and Omar explains that he booked it when SM came over and lost his cellphone as a result. However, he managed to figure out that Aurora's riddle was about salt and not sand, and decided to head on over to Bolivia since he assumed that's where the girls are going. How did he find them? It was just out of pure coincidence, and also the fact that the girls are extremely recognizable. Hm.
Anyway, Paulina plugs the coordinates into her GPS and leads the girls plus Omar to a little cave at the bottom of a little embankment. The girls find that, lo and behold, there's an old tin box containing a bright green emerald!
Meanwhile Luke is not finding anything in Alexandria haha L, LVK L get dunked on Luke, Cassidy girlie that's not a man to simp for find someone else gurl-- oh dear Luke is alerted that the treasure has been found and now he's planning on heading over to Bolivia? Now how could he possibly know that?
In the meantime, I dunno what's up in the air or if it's the Archaeology major speaking in him but Omar's really invested in this treasure, even more so than the girls to the degree that the girls are a little freaked out by it-- RHEA JUMPSCARE-- Paulina calms the big bord down and gets it to not trample Omar please, he's still a friend of theirs. Colette picks up this blue notebook Omar seems to have dropped.
The girls plus Omar head back to the SUVs, and Omar is really trying to persuade the girls that he should bring it back to Cairo. The girls are not jazzed at the idea because Omar bringing it back alone will be too unsafe, y'know with Luke and Cassidy and SM and all. They gotta think about this rationally-- WHOA OKAY OMAR calm your man tits buddy why are you demanding they trust you like you automatically deserve your trust-- ohh that's how Klawitz has known about the girls' whereabouts, Omar was working as a double agent.
So yeah Omar snatches the box from Colette and drives off in his SUV, leaving the girls in the dust. The girls freak out and are feeling that EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, but Colette for some reason is very calm about Omar booking it with the emerald. And that's because SHE HAS IT :D she did a lil' switcheroo so now the emerald's with her while the box is with Omar.
For context about how Colette knew about this, remember the blue notebook Omar dropped? Yeah that notebook was a company LVK notebook, straight from Luke himself. Then after Colette saw it, everything about Omar became incredibly sus, so she performed this precautionary measure.
So now the girls talk to the local authorities about how the whole thing with the emerald is gonna go down, and soon the girls are waiting for a plane back to Moscow.
As for Omar, well, he goes over to Luke's super-fancy hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, and he hands the box to Luke, explicitly stating that he decided he'd let Luke open it before he himself can appreciate it.
Luke opens the box, and here we see an accurate depiction of what Luke sees.
Description: an upside-down "ok" symbol drawn in strawberry pink lip balm, signed Colette [insert last name], circa 2018.
Luke punts the box (prolly with the lip balm still inside it) into the swimming pool, tells Omar to get out, and that's the end of that. Haha Omar L Luke L
The girls head back to Moscow to drop Sergei off when SURPRISE PARTY BY IRINA'S SQUAD :DDD
Then the girls are about to return to Whale Island to presumably Peter Griffin in their dorms, when Colette suggests they make a journal a la Aurora Beatrix Lane, and they do. In a pink notebook because it was Colette's idea so we might as well give her that
And they take a black-and-white group picture of them wearing adventurer clothes like Aurora would've done. The brainrot is real, these girls are mentally ill /j
And that's the book :D
... Honestly it's the most meh out of the trilogy besides the big-brain bits in the middle and the end imo
The writing was so much more stilted in this one, even for Scholastic standards, and everything feels pretty..... kid's book. Even more so than the usual in the book's English translations. I do readings for the books in some of my Discords, and this book did not read well at aaallll. And I haven't even mentioned the typos in the book (they're not a lot, but they exist, and they're kinda egregious :D) and some grammar errors if I'm remembering things correctly. It might just be a translation thing-- I worry a bit for the translator who had to put this together.
Luke's character here is also kinda wonk? For one we see him directly contradict his anti-friendship spiel in TS 1 since he literally greets Petrovski like a friend (maybe it's a "friendship doesn't exist except in 4Chan" thing, I dunno). Then in the middle of the book, he gets... very Disney villain-y. The most egregious example here is the chapter "Lurking in the Shadows", where as you can see
I am confusion?? Luke has been described as a to-the-point brat who hardly cares for the means to his end (unless it will impact his ability to achieve the end) and is so fixated on his goal that he doesn't touch grass. Is this not-touching-grass behavior? Yeah, definitely, but this??? This is too Disney villain???? Why does the man break into an evil cackle in front of Cassidy???? I understood it in book 1 because man thinks he's doing a "You may think you have outsmarted me but I have OUTSMARTED YOUR OUTSMARTING", but this one?? Maybe it's my personal taste, but it's too cartoonish and too... deviated from what we know of him up to this point.
ALSO TWIRLING HIS MUSTACHE? WHAT MUSTACHE IS HE TWIRLING THAT THING IS NOT TWIRL-ABLE
Also time to address the one big plot hole in this book: Aurora's diary.
So in this book there's only one diary, which is infinitely simpler than the two we got in the first book. This diary supposedly contains Aurora's records of her mission in hiding Cleopatra's Rizzmerald, and the details are supposedly vague enough that Luke felt the need to kidnap and interrogate Irina, a Hannah Lane descendant, to fill in the blanks. However, when you look at the contents of the diary itself (which lord knows how many times Luke himself has looked through it), there's hardly any blanks that need to be filled, at least if you're Luke.
The diary itself is mostly in the background-- like I said, not as much Lane Lore here as the previous book, the girls mostly rely on Aurora's letters to Hannah here-- but there's one specific entry the girls read in the latter half of the book that explicitly mentions Pumapunku and Tiwanaku, and how Aurora is there for her mission to hide the emerald. Complete with coordinates hidden in a little drawing! My one question I have for Luke is, why didn't he go straight to Bolivia and started searching there? Why did he go through all the effort of kidnapping Irina, tailing the girls around Sahara el Beyda, letting SM fall for the salt replica gambit, left his base to touch grass and go on a dive with Cassidy in Egypt; all if he could've just gone straight to Bolivia to look for the treasure there? Sure, Aurora did a good job hiding the coordinates in the fish doodle, but someone as observant and as obsessed about the outcome instead of the journey like Luke would rather have sidestepped all the Aurora shenanigans and beelined straight to the goal if he was able to.
Luke hardly has an excuse here because he owned the diary at the start of the book, and most definitely read through it many times (and we know he's the type to do this, see TS 1). The plot hole is plot hole-ing, it seems :/
Maybe it was just an excuse for the girls to get a giant glowing arrow pointing in the direction of the treasure? It certainly feels like it.
Anyway, the things that carry this book and made it memorable when I first read it (and allowed me to ignore the iffy bits) are the gottems and Omar as a character. Aurora setting up a salt replica of the Rizzmerald as a gottem in a time capsule, only to be opened almost a hundred years later to still be as potent as intended when it was made so long ago? That is amazing, like c'mon, pure comedy material.
Even funnier is Colette doing the exact same thing, only with her lip balm. Luke is quaking in his bougie-ass leather boots.
Now for Omar. This may be a hot take of mine here, but Omar's sus-ness is actually at a decent level compared to the girls and what they usually deal with. On one hand, Omar is incredibly suspicious with how incredibly lucky the girls are to find an Archaeology Oxford major working as a Sahara el Beyda tour guide; but on the other hand, the girls had almost the exact same situation with Diego in Mexico (I didn't mention him in the first review, but he came in clutch in TS 1).
The girls met Diego in Merida, Mexico, and he helped them with their research into "the invisible place", which happened to be Uxmal, along the Puuc Route. Diego also just so happened to be a tour-guide-in-training for the Puuc Route, which was the place the girls just so happened to need to go to find Aurora's second journal.
In comparison, the girls meet Omar in Khan El-Khalili while they were looking for supplies for their trip to the Siwa Oasis. It comes up in conversation that the girls are headed to Siwa, and Omar just so happened to be a tour guide for Sahara el Beyda, which was where the Siwa Oasis is, and it just so happened to be where the girls needed to go. When you stack them up together, it made perfect sense that the girls thought they could trust him-- Diego didn't know much about their trip and helped them the best he could (which was a lot), so why wouldn't Omar do the same? He's an Oxford Archaeology major, too, for crying out loud, the girls struck gold in the end!
Gold that was too shiny and too good to be true. Gold that was, in the end, nothing more than pyrite, fool's gold.
Omar is a good case for why you should be careful with who you trust, and when you should start thinking a little bit when you're getting a little too lucky with the people you meet. When the girls got to know him a little more and decided to trust him and tell him the deal with their trip, he got way invested in the gem-- too invested to not be a little bit suspicious. Maybe the girls mistook it for his passion for his archaeology major, maybe they mistook it for something else-- but whatever the case, Omar pulled the cheesecloth over the girls' eyes and really only fell apart near the end, when his alibis and behavior started becoming more and more suspicious; and by then, Omar didn't need to be as inconspicuous, and the girls had gotten to know him too much to readily say to him "okay buddy can you kindly f%ck off, your vibes are not vibing here".
The girls probably should've been suspicious when Omar reappeared in Bolivia out of nowhere, but I guess his alibi was just good enough (and the girls at this point were probably running on adrenaline, caffeine and a brain on 70% capacity at most) to pass the Deception check.
Fr tho there were some bits where the girls should've found him sus but they didn't (him accidentally saying "I did it" when they uncovered the emerald, and also him handling the emerald the way he did), so shrugs. It could be a translation thing, but it could also be something else.
Anyway, kinda meh for a sequel, but it does have its standouts that allow it to somewhat stand on the same level as the first and third books. Kinda.
Hey, at least it's not as bad as Crystal Fairies-- that's the bar of bad-ness I'm setting. It's not as bad as Crystal Fairies and that's what matters--
Also special thanks to @ishmeowwow (it won't let me ping you for some reason bestie <:[) for making the lil' artworks haha
#geronimo stilton#thea sisters#thea stilton#book review#book rambles#book rant#thank you ishmeow for making the gottems for me :D#you came in clutch while my ipad is still dieded thank you bestie <3#in the book it's just the lip balm but ishmeow decided to go all-out with the gottem gag and i can't be more grateful lmao#same goes with the gemstone in aurora's gottem (it's just the fake tiara plus fake gem) but hey the more salt the merrier :D#book 2 luke is so jarringly different from his other depictions but at the same time#he does not in fact touch grass and he does crack an evil cackle at least once a book so#i dunno how i feel about it . .#on one hand it adds to him not touching grass#but on the other hand it doesn't connect with his “this villain is supposed to make you shnit your pants at how intimidating he is”#he's intimidating because of his connections his ability to basically spy on the entire world and control everything from his base#and y'know he can tell his goons to do whatever and they'll literally wreak havoc to fulfill said requests#he was so intimidating in concept that they had to nerf him with incompetent goons lmao#after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D#like good god i thought a ten hour flight was unbearable and made your body stiff but holy damn#i'm not complaining too much about the timeline tho because this is hilarious and makes the girls look so neurodivergent#“what do you mean we flew a total of 64 hours by plane feels like it's only been a day to m--”#*dies*
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The way I hit request so fast (here's the link)
#i swear to god some reviewers have the most braindead takes#and yet they continue to get approved#how did this person not know what they were getting into when they requested a book with this cover and this premise#it literally says#TRIUMPHANTLY BLACK AND QUEER#the bigotry in romance spaces is real#romance novels#contemporary romance
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We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis
Release date: 3 September 2024
Genre: young adult contemporary coming of age
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis
Part coming-out story.
Part falling-in-love story.
Part falling-apart story.
Harvey's dads are splitting up. It's been on the cards for a while, but it's still sudden. Woken-by-his-father-to-catch-a-red-eye sudden. Now he's restarting his life in a new city, living above a cafe with the extended Greek family he barely knows.
Sotiris is a rising star. At seventeen, he's already achieved his dream of publishing a novel. When his career falters, a cute, wise-cracking bookseller named Jem upends his world.
Harvey and Sotiris's stories converge on the same street in Darlinghurst, in this beautifully heartfelt novel about how our dreams shape us, and what they cost us.
Content warnings
Divorce, toxic relationship
Dementia, chronic illness
Implied sexual content
Alcohol
Xenophobia
Homophobia
Grief
Review
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!
I did not expect this book to hit me so hard in my feelings.
These characters are so human; they mess up a lot (Sotiris especially), but they are constantly trying their best at the same time, while struggling to figure out their dreams. I love how the author doesn't flinch from making these characters so complicated and messy, but at the same time he manages to keep them sympathetic and real.
I figured out the connection between the characters at about 20% but I think it's not supposed to be a huge plot twist anyway so it's fine. I loved how their stories paralleled each other's right up till the ending—and that ending was devastating.
I feel like Sotiris' story received more focus, which makes sense in the book, but it makes it feel like Harvey's story doesn't get enough precedence, not to mention that Harvey's story also involves Sotiris but not the other way around, which makes their narratives feel unbalanced.
Overall, this is an excellent story with realistic characters, one that will be sticking with me for sure.
#we could be something#will kostakis#ngl i requested this arc cos of the patrick ness blurb#booklr#book review#ARC review#readblr#queer#lgbt#lgbtq#lgbtqia#young adult#ya fiction#queer books#lgbtqia books#lgbtq books#gay#gay representation#mlm representation#own voices#mlm#pansexual#pansexual representation#coming of age
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i’m so angry with myself for forgetting to book a doctor’s appointment to review my meds fuckkk
#i’ve left it too late so at this point i think i’ll just request the prescription and hope they can give it to me without a review appt#my gp surgery only lets you book appointments between 7 and 11am and of course i missed the time frame
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I haven't read The Picture of Dorian Gray since high school, so I decided to give it a reread and it reminded me that I do love classics.
I love a good yammering via fictional characters about the human condition. One of the best pleasures in life is an invitation to see the world through someone who has a beautiful, unique mind.
With all good yammering, there are some ramblings, and there's about 20 pages describing Dorian's neurodivergent hobbies in heavy detail. I spent a lot of time mulling over the dialogue and interpreting it in different ways, that I mostly appreciated the break before diving back into the substance.
With this reignited love, I want to check out Flowers for Algeron. I'm thinking I'll do a So Sad September reading and pick a bunch of depressing books to read (I'll finally read A Little Life). Then a Don't Be Depressed December where I'll clean out the Emily Henry books I own, but haven't read yet.
If you have any sad books to rec or lighthearted, I'd love to check them out.
Oh! And for October (of course) horror books. I've been holding off on House of Leaves to read it in October.
#coffee and books life is good#book rec request#bookblr#books and reading#book blog#bookworm#book review#the picture of dorian gray#flowers for algernon#book recs#book recommendations#classic literature#literature
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netgalley please
#i will sell my kidney for this book#rani choudhury must die#adiba jaigirdar#please netgalley. please#i know i wrote horrendous reviews for the last 3 books i requested after i dnfed them at like 20% but I NEED THIS
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hey tumblr! the bda team is here to let YOU know that we're searching for beta readers (and arc readers, too, because we'll need you soon)!
if you're into crime fiction, social commentary, medical thrillers, and romance as a subplot... this might just be the reading opportunity for you.
click here to apply!!
#bookblr#indie publishing#indie author#books and literature#book blog#booklover#beta reader#beta request#arc reader#arc review
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#1 top goodreads reviewer in argentina has liked 2 of my reviews so im basically a celebrity
#actually very confused abt this bc he isn't following me and it's not 2 books that i think would both be read by the same person. usually#(it's johannes cabal book 2 and nicola gordon bowe's biography of harry clarke..) and he didn't like them one after another both were like#right after i posted the review. but again he doesn't follow me and i dont usually accept friend requests from people i dont know on there.#soo...??#talkin
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Hello, my darlings!
Small question for you: which book should absolutely be read?
(Your favourite book, your favourite series, everything you want)
Thank you ❤️
#books and reading#bookstagram#books recommendations#i need recs#i need requests#books & libraries#pal#bookish#bookworm#book review#book recommendations
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have any of you read tom hanks novel cus i’m highly considering reading but ik he’s like controversial or w/e🥲
#personal#reading#bookish#book reccs#book recommendations#book rec list#book recs wanted#book rec request#book recs pls#books and reading#bookworm#tom hanks#booklr#books#bookblr#book review#light academia#academia aesthetic#cozy academia#classic academia#fem reader#novelist#book nerd#cozy#cozy aesthetic#authors#the making of another major motion picture masterpiece#romantic academia#romanticize your life#nerdy stuff
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