#stephen zhang

[dare-g]

The New King of Comedy (2019)

[librarycards]

hello all, and welcome to your favorite book rec series! :) here are my favorites of the first quarter of 2024. it was, as always, a tough choice, and several 5-star books had to be left out. to see all of my book reviews/follow my reading life, add or follow me on goodreads (and check out my forthcoming novel on goodreads and storygraph while you're at it). I also recommend all kinds of media on my newsletter, which a couple hundred people seem to like!)

with that, here are my top 9 books (in no particular order) of jan-march 2024!

Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks

Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina

Megan Milks, Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body

Hiromi Goto, Chorus of Mushrooms

Carla Sofia Ferreira, A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us

Sam Sax, A Guide to Undressing Your Monsters

C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

Ulrich Jesse K Baer, Deer Black Out [I was lucky to get an ARC of this one; it drops in April!]

tagging people who are or might be interested below - but feel free to do this for yourself and tag me, i read every single one i'm tagged in and update my tbr accordingly! thanks for reading & loving this series as much as i do :3

@heavenlyyshecomes @communicationissues @fluoresensitive @gwenderqueer @capricornpropaganda @discworldwitches @stephen-deadalus @materialisnt @boykeats @growtiredofpublicvulnerability @flameswallower @closet-keys @fatehbaz @trans-axolotl @bioethicists @aldieb @petesdragon @passerea @lesbianlizzybennet @slowtides @felgueirosa @sadhoc @sawasawako @candiedsmokedsalmon @tirragen @punkkwix @feypact @abstractlesbian @crippleprophet and anyone who wants to!

[jennibeultimate]

Medal summary by gymnasts at Olympics 2024

Sorted by number of medals including team medals. Not listed with name gymnasts who won "only" team medals:

Simone Biles 🇺🇸 🥇🥇🥇🥈(4)

Shinnosuke Oka 🇯🇵 🥇🥇🥇🥉(4)

Rebeca Andrade 🇧🇷 🥇🥈🥈🥉(4)

Zou Jinyuan 🇨🇳 🥇🥈🥈(3)

Sunisa Lee 🇺🇸 🥇🥉🥉(3)

Zhang Boheng 🇨🇳 🥈🥈🥉 (3)

Carlos Yulo 🇵🇭 🥇🥇(2)

Liu Yang 🇨🇳 🥇🥈 (2)

Alice D'Amato 🇮🇹 🥇🥈 (2)

Jade Carey 🇺🇸 🥇🥉(2)

Jordan Chiles 🇺🇸 🥇🥉 (2)

Xiao Ruoteng 🇨🇳 🥈🥉 (2)

Manila Esposito 🇮🇹 🥈🥉(2)

Stephen Nedoroscik 🇺🇸 🥉🥉(2)

Rhys McClenaghan 🇮🇪 🥇(1)

Kaylia Nemour 🇩🇿 🥇(1)

Nariman Kurbanov 🇰🇿 🥈(1)

Illia Kovtun 🇺🇦 🥈(1)

Qiu Qiyuan 🇨🇳 🥈(1)

Zhou Yaqin 🇨🇳🥈(1)

Artem Dolgopyat 🇮🇱🥈(1)

Angel Barajas 🇨🇴 🥈(1)

Artur Davtyan 🇦🇲 🥈(1)

Harry Hepworth 🇬🇧 🥉 (1)

Jake Jarman 🇬🇧 🥉(1)

Elftherios Petrounias 🇬🇷 🥉(1)

Chia-Hung Tang 🇹��� 🥉(1)

[llovelymoonn]

favourite poems of october

alfred starr a dark dreambox of another kind: the poems of alfred starr: "didn't you ever search for another star?

stephen spender new collected poems: "auden's funeral"

marianne boruch keats is coughing

noa micaela fields zoeglossia: poem of the week, may 17, 2021: "echolalia"

kevin young diptych

richard siken real estate

crisosto apache kúghą/home

mikko harvey for m

nathan hoks nests in air: "the barbed wire nest"

john a. holmes noon waking

crisosto apache 37 common characterisi(x)s of a displaced indian with a learning disability

oliver de la paz requiem for the orchard: "at the time of my birth"

zhang xun jiangnan song (tr. bijaan noormohamed)

paul violi fracas: "extenuating circumstances"

tianru wang after "yellow crane tower"

lloyd schwartz cairo traffic: "nostalgia (the lake at night)"

kamiko han the narrow road to the interior: "the orient"

rigoberto gonzalez unpeopled eden: "unpeopled eden"

adelaide crapsey verse: "to the dead in the graveyard underneath my window"

chester kallman night music

alan shapiro covenant: "covenant"

tom clark light and shade: new and selected poems: "radio"

tc tolbert my melissa,

charlie smith in praise of regret

carolyn kizer cool, calm, and collected: poems 1960-2000: "fanny"

julie sheehan orient point: "hate poem"

arthur sze the redshifting web: poems 1970-1998: "streamers"

joumana altallal everything here...in the voice of tara fares

abid b al-abras last simile

w.s. merwin to lingering regrets

george scarbrough music

shout me a coffee

[the-monkey-ruler]

Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017) 西游伏妖篇

Director: Tsui Hark Screenwriter: Stephen Chow / Li Sizhen / Tsu Hark Starring: Wu Yifan / Lin Gengxin / Yao Chen / Lin Yun / Bao Beier / Battle / Yang Yiwei / Dapeng / Wang Likun / Wang Duo / Zhang Mei'e Genre: Comedy / Action / Fantasy / Costume Country/Region of Production: Mainland China / Hong Kong, China Language: Mandarin Chinese Date: 2017-01-28 (Mainland China) Duration: 108 minutes Also known as: Journey to the West: Demon Chapter 2 / Journey to the West: Demon Chapter / 伏妖篇 / 西游降魔篇2 / 西游·降魔篇2 / 西游·降魔2 IMDb: tt5273624 Type: Reimanging

Summary:

The monk Tang Sanzang finds himself as a giant in a city in India. His master congratulates him on reaching India and retrieving the Sutras, and gives him a halo as a reward. The halo, however, malfunctions and Tang awakes from his dream to find himself in an alley in a village of circus performers with his three disciples: Sun Wukong; Zhu Bajie; and Sha Wujing. Tang encourages Sun Wukong to perform for the villagers, but the disciple refuses. Angered by this stubbornness, Tang provokes Sun Wukong by calling him a "bad monkey", which causes Sun Wukong to smash the village and damage the villagers' homes in his temper. The terrified villagers present the group with money and food for their travels, but Sun Wukong continues wreaking havoc, sending Zhu Bajie and Tang flying through the air. That night, Tang whips Sun Wukong for his disobedience.

The next morning, Tang goes to find water for their breakfast congee and comes across a house. Its host, a beautiful woman in a splendid outfit, welcomes them all in for breakfast with her companions. Sun Wukong, however, sees through their disguises as spider demons; he purposely provokes them until she and the others show their true form. During the subsequent battle, the demons come together to form one huge spider. After being poisoned by the spider, Sha Wujing falls ill and slowly bloats into a fish-like creature. Sun Wukong defeats the spider and Tang attempts to exorcise her, but Sun Wukong smashes in the demon's head with one blow. Once more, Tang is annoyed at Sun Wukong's disobedience and whips him again that evening. Later that night, the enraged Sun Wukong discusses with the other disciples his plans to kill Tang, but the others fear Tang's mighty Buddha Palm powers. Tang overhears this conversation and prays to Buddha to help him and also confesses that he actually does not know, or have, Buddha Palm powers. Zhu Bajie overhears this admission and tells Sun Wukong, who challenges Tang to a fight. Just as Sun Wukong is about to strike, a blinding ray of light shines from the heavens and he retreats.

The next day, the group pass into the capital city of the Biqiu Kingdom and a minister comes out to greet them and bring them to see the king: an immature and childlike man who likes to play games. The king orders Tang to perform for him but the monk does not have anything to showcase. Sun Wukong therefore pastes an "obedience sticker" on Tang allowing Tang to copy his actions and perform stunts for the king. Sun Wukong, however, goes too far and makes Tang slap the king continuously, who throws them all out. Tang orders Sun Wukong to return and apologize, but it is revealed that Sun Wukong purposely provoked the king to make him reveal his form as the demon Red Boy. They fight and Sun Wukong defeats Red Boy, also freeing the true king of Biqiu from his cage under the throne. As a reward for helping him, the king presents them with a beautiful girl, Felicity, to accompany them on their travels. As Felicity dances for them, Tang is reminded of his deceased lover, Duan.

The group set off and on the way, Sun Wukong realizes that Felicity is actually a demon. In the meantime, Felicity takes out the nose plugs on Sha Wujing, allowing him to sneeze out the poison and turn him back into his human form. Tang, however, does not believe him, so they set off to visit Felicity's home village. Sun Wukong becomes enraged with Tang's lack of trust in him and that night he destroys the whole village, killing everyone. Tang stops him from killing Felicity, further angering Sun Wukong, who attacks Tang, but Felicity finally confesses that she is actually the demon White Bone Spirit and that the whole village was an illusion conjured by her. Sun Wukong flares up and turns into a giant Monkey King demon and swallows Tang. At that moment, the minister and Red Boy arrive and see Sun Wukong has fallen for their trick.

They had deliberately sent Felicity with the group to cause strife between Tang and Sun Wukong, so Sun Wukong would kill his master. Sun Wukong spits Tang out, however, as they had known this all the while; they only played along so that the minister would reveal her true form. They battle and the minister creates an illusion of Buddhas surrounding Sun Wukong, using them to fight him. The real Buddha, however, uses his giant palm to destroy the false Buddhas and reveals the minister's real identity as the Immortal Golden Vulture.

After the battle, Tang heads back to find a dying Felicity. He has no choice but to free her soul as there is too much demon in her. Before she dies, Felicity asks Tang if he loves her. Tang replies that he has only one person in his heart. The animosity between Tang and Sun Wukong has finally dissolved; together with Sha Wujing and Zhu Bajie, they continue their journey to the West through a desert.

In a post-credits scene, breaking of the fourth wall is invoked with the appearance of a modern movie theater, where theater employees tell both the viewer and the in-story audience that it’s time to leave and there is no post-credits scene

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West:_The_Demons_Strike_Back

Link: https://ww5.0123movie.net/movie/journey-to-the-west-the-demons-strike-back-19438.html?play=1

[voguecovers]

• Vogue France, October 2024

American top-model Egyptian born Anok Yai, photographer Mikael Jansson

❛ Anok wears Gucci and Alexis Bittar jewelry, styling Ibrahim Kamara, head of content Eugenie Trochu

models, @itzz.ennis, @phoebeshardlow, @sirimarielle, @luxgillespie, Ugbad Abdi, Jawara Alleyne, Joe Bates, Alex Consani, Amelia Gray, Stephen Isaac Wilson, Seoyong Jang, Angelina Kendall, Jill Kortleve, Iris Law, Tomos MacDonnell, Kacion Meyers, Lila Grace moss, Stephanie Odonkor, Ace Rahman, Celina Ralph, Lulu Tenney, Milla Freya, Judith Watt, Lina Zhang and Anok Yai

Fashion Front Row through the Decades

[queenpiranhadon]

- Love Like You, Rebecca Sugar

I...write for pretty much anything! You can check my fandoms list through the main navigation on my intro post!

Here are the ones I'm most comfortable writing for though:

ᴀɴɪᴍᴇ ➜

› My Hero Academia / Boku No Hero Academia

› Jujutsu Kaisen

› Spy x Family

› Demon Slayer

ʙᴏᴏᴋꜱ ➜

› Harry Potter

› Riordanverse (check my fandoms list to which series I've read)

› The Inheritance Games

› Keeper of the Lost Cities

› The Hunger Games

ᴛᴠ ꜱʜᴏᴡꜱ + ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇꜱ ➜

› MCU

› Avatar the Last Airbender & Legend of Korra

› Lego Ninjago

ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ɢᴀᴍᴇꜱ ➜

› Stardew Valley

› Genshin Impact

ᡣ𐭩 = romantic pairing; ✩ = platonic pairing, ✿ = x another character (usually canon ship)

ᴀɴɪᴍᴇ ➜

› ⎸ Bakugou Katsuki ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Kirishima Ejirou ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Takami Keigo / Hawks ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Todoroki Touya / Dabi ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Aizawa Shouta ✩ ⎸ Hitoshi Shinsou ✩ ⎸ Todoroki Shouto ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Midoriya Izuku ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Eri ✩ ⎸ Ashido Mina ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Jirou Kyoka ✩ ⎸ Asui Tsuyu ✩ ⎸ Yaoyorozu Momo ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Usagiyama Rumi ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Gojo Satoru ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Sukuna Ryomen ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Itadori Yuji ✩ ⎸ Fushiguro Megumi ✩ ⎸ Nanami Kento ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Geto Suguru ᡣ𐭩 ⎸

› ⎸Kugisaki Nobara ✩ ⎸ Maki Zen'in ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Anya Forger ✩ ⎸ Yor Forger ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Loid Forger ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Kamado Tanjirou ✩ ⎸ Hashibira Inosuke ✩ ⎸ Agatsuma Zenitsu ✩ ⎸ Tomika Giyu ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Uzui Tengen ᡣ𐭩 ⎸

› ⎸ Kamado Nezuko ✩ ⎸ Kanroji Mitsuri ✩ ⎸

ʙᴏᴏᴋꜱ ➜

› ⎸ Sirius Black ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Fred Weasley ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Remus Lupin ✩✿ ⎸ James Potter ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Hermione Granger ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Luna Lovegood ✩ ⎸ Ginny Weasley ✩ ⎸ Nymphadora Tonks ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Percy Jackson ✩✿ ⎸ Grover Underwood ✩ ⎸ Nico DiAngelo ✩✿ ⎸ Will Solace ✩✿ ⎸ Jason Grace ✩ ⎸ Leo Valdez ✩ ⎸ Luke Castellan ✩ ⎸ Frank Zhang ✩✿ ⎸ Carter Kane ✩✿ ⎸ Walt Stone ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Annabeth Chase ✩✿ ⎸ Piper McLean ✩ ⎸ Thalia Grace ✩ ⎸ Hazel Levesque ✩✿ ⎸ Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano ✩ ⎸ Sadie Kane ✩✿ ⎸ Zia Rashid ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Jameson Hawthorne ✩✿ ⎸ Grayson Hawthorne ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Nash Hawthorne ✩✿ ⎸ Xander Hawthorne ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Avery Kylie Grambs ✩✿ ⎸ Libby Grambs ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Keefe Sencen ✩✿ ⎸ Fitz Vacker ✩ ⎸ Dex Dizznee ✩✿ ⎸ Tam Song ✩✿ ⎸ Kesler Dizznee ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Sophie Foster ✩✿ ⎸ Biana Vacker ✩✿ ⎸ Marella Redek ✩✿ ⎸ Linh Song ✩✿ ⎸ Juline Dizznee ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Finnick Odair ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Peeta Mellark ✩✿ ⎸ Haymitch Abernathy ✩ ⎸ Coriolanus Snow ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Katniss Everdeen ✩✿ ⎸ Rue Barnette ✩ ⎸ Cressida ✩ ⎸ Lucy Gray Baird ✩✿ ⎸ Johanna Mason ✩ ⎸

ᴛᴠ ꜱʜᴏᴡꜱ + ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇꜱ ➜

› ⎸ Bucky Barnes ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Stephen Strange ✩ ⎸ Tony Stark ᡣ𐭩✩✿ ⎸ Peter Parker ᡣ𐭩✩✿ ⎸ Steve Rogers ✩✿ ⎸ T'Challa ✩ ⎸ Peter Quill ✩ ⎸ Thor ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Natasha Romanoff ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Yelena Belova ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Kate Bishop ✩ ⎸ MJ ✩✿ ⎸ Pepper Potts ✩✿ ⎸ Shuri ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Aang ✩✿ ⎸ Zuko ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Sokka ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Iroh ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Katara ✩✿ ⎸ Toph ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Cole Brookstone ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Kai Smith ᡣ𐭩✩✿ ⎸ Zane Julien ᡣ𐭩✩✿ ⎸ Lloyd Garmadon ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Jay Walker ✩✿ ⎸

› ⎸ Nya Smith ✩✿ ⎸ Skylar Chen ✩✿ ⎸ Pixal Borg ✩✿ ⎸

ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ɢᴀᴍᴇꜱ ➜

› ⎸ Sebastian ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Sam ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Alex ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Krobus ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Haley ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Leah ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Sandy ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Maru ✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Diluc Ragnvindr ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Zhongli ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸ Kaeya Alberich ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Tartaglia ᡣ𐭩✩ ⎸

› ⎸ Beidou ᡣ𐭩 ⎸ Klee ✩ ⎸

You are totally fine to request for any of the characters in the fandoms listed, but these are the ones I'm the most comfortable with :)

ᴀʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴅ ➜

› ⎸ x reader ⎸ fem, gn, male readers ⎸ gore/blood ⎸ AU's ⎸ family relationships - ex. Dad Aizawa, brother Megumi ⎸ character x character ⎸ friend relationships (you and Haymitch are best friends) ⎸ character x character family relationships (Weasley twin shenanigans) ⎸ poc readers ⎸

ɴᴏᴛ ᴀʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴅ ➜

› ⎸ smut ⎸ racism in a positive way ⎸ homophobia in a positive way ⎸ incest + stepcest ⎸ sexism in a positive way ⎸ slander to any religion or culture in a positive way ⎸

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ➜

› If I don't answer a request- I promise I don't hate you I'm super slow I'm sorry 😭

› I will not write any requests I am uncomfortable with.

› Happy requesting ~

[bookclub4m]

Episode 201 - Weird West

 It’s episode 201 and time for us to discuss the genre of Weird West! (Just in time for Halloween!). We talk about the potential temporal and geographic restrictions on western fiction, folklore, tall tales, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian, narrated by John Pirhalla

The Gunslinger by Stephen King, narrated by George Guidall

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Sixth Gun Omnibus, vol. 1 by Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, Bill Crabtree, and Tyler Crook

The Witch Owl Parliament by David Bowles and Raúl the Third

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Other Media We Mentioned

Vermilion: The Adventures of Lou Merriwether, Psychopomp and Molly Tanzer

The New Adventures of the Lone Ranger (Probably the version Matthew saw)

Lucky Luke

The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Links, Articles, and Things

Episode 029 - Westerns

Episode 082 - Steampunk

Episode 106 - Alternative/Alternate History

Episode 183 - One Book One Podcast: Upright Women Wanted

Space Western (TVTropes)

Skin-walker

Land-grant university

Map shows where Colorado’s 8 known free-roaming wolves wandered in September

Libro.fm’s Audiobook Listening Copy Program

Jonah Hex

10 Weird Western Books by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

The Witch Owl Parliament by David Bowles and Raúl the Third

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (forthcoming 2025)

Sisters of the Wild Sage: A Weird Western Collection by Nicole Givens Kurtz

Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group or Discord Server, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, October 15th when it’s time for our “We All Read the Same Book” episode as we discuss A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.

Then on Tuesday, November 5th we’ll be discussing the genre of Dark Academia.

[mortiflyer]

compilation of weird results at this open so far

bc my last post made me wonder what other kinds of fuckery have occurred less than two rounds deep

atp:

6-4 4-6 3-6 6-3 7(10)-6(8) [rinderknech d. eubanks, r1]

2-6 6-1 3-6 6-1 6-4 [marozsan d. medjedovic, r1]

6(6)-7(8) 7(7)-6(2) 7(7)-6(4) 4-6 6-4 [evans d. khachanov, r1]

4-6 5-7 6-1 6-2 6-2 [rublev d. rinderknech, r2]

6(5)-7(7) 0-6 6-4 6-4 7-5 [lehecka d. krueger, r2]

6-3 4-6 6-4 1-6 6-3 [etcheverry d. cerundolo, r2]

6(4)-7(7) 2-6 6-2 7(7)-6(5) 7(10)-6(3) [mensik d. schoolkate, r2]

6(8)-7(10) 6-3 6-2 7(7)-6(1) [goffin d. mannarino, r2]

6(1)-7(7) 3-6 6-0 6-3 6-1 [ruud d. shang, r3]

6(5)-7(7) 6-1 3-6 7(8)-6(6) 6-0 [borges d. mensik, r3]

6-3 6(4)-7(7) 6-0 6-0 [de minaur d. evans, r3]

wta:

6(4)-7(7) 6-0 7-5 [alexandrova d. tomova, r1]

0-6 7-5 7-5 [burel d. stephens, r1]

6-1 3-6 6-1 [kalinina d. dodin, r1]

6-3 0-6 7-5 [ka. pliskova d. sherif, r1]

0-6 6-1 7-5 [krueger d. zhang, r1]

7(12)-6(10) 6-1 [kostyuk d. dart, r2]

4-6 6-1 7(10)-6(8) [badosa d. ruse, r3]

2-6 6-1 6-2 [sabalenka d. alexandrova, r3]

rb if you want this updated lol

[missyourflight]

some stuff i read and watched january - may

i had to stop doing f1 stuff (because it was making me miserable lol), redirected most of that energy into reading romance novels (occasionally other things but mostly romance novels lbr) and watching films. anyway now interview with the vampire's back and i'm fully deranged about that etc. highlights below!

black sails (s1 & 2 rewatch): i do enjoy s1 for my sins (marcus aurelius foreshadowing!) but it's Wild how much s2 kicks up a gear the instant they start properly pairing off flint and silver. coming back for the rest of the rewatch once i've calmed down about the vampires so the true devastation lies ahead etc. also i rewatched twelfth night for toby stephens reasons, his orsino remains a formative piece of nonsense

mary & george: i'm not going to get into the whole nicholas galitzine filmography deepdive i was compelled to do for reasons not even known to myself but i raced through this. very sexy obviously but often in a way transactional or empowering or tender without necessarily being romantic. like it's not reinventing the wheel but it felt like a more expansive presentation of intimacy than you usually see in a costume drama. tony curran great in this!

shōgun: god what a show!! epic and tragic and funny and specific and just like an unbelievable showcase for craft and talent. fuji forever

a moment of romance: andy lau so gorgeous i could die, neon bloody hong kong action with a love story that's almost chaste until they finally kiss and it's fire actually. the rain! sparklers! explosions! a motorcycle helmet that says "safety!" on it!

tampopo: spent way too much money on a bunch of criterion collection blu-rays and i Loved this one, even the freaky egg stuff. an all-time food film and also baby ken watanabe is there with a little bandana!

all that heaven allows: i always feel like i came to sirk backwards because i saw far from heaven first; did magnificent obsession and written on the wind as well and the colours are always gorgeous but this was far and away my favourite. at one point a teapot gets smashed and i gasped like my heart was breaking

thief: god this absolutely rips! unfortunately your girl Is a michael mann bro (austin butler heat 2 let's gooo) and incredibly into things like blowtorches and shots of windows exploding outwards like a shower of diamonds

challengers: feral about it obviously, itemised list of derangements here

la chimera: it's josh o'connor season and i loved this even more than challengers, there are moments in this that felt like miracles

emma. (2020): rewatched this with the blu-ray commentary which only made me love it more, also i've warmed on callum turner since i saw his trip to the criterion closet, what a babe

queen of the damned: watched this in a vampire fever and in the spirit of "how bad can it be?" and the answer was: worse even than that

furiosa: a mad max saga: i really felt the saga of it all, like the almost mythic telling of it, and hemsworth's great and the action's great, but most importantly OH GOD TOM BURKE IS SO HOT AS PRAETORIAN JACK. OH GOD HE'S SO HOT AND STOIC AND SOLID and i was not prepared for it to be a Romance like that oh god

land of milk and honey by c pam zhang: near-future dystopian unbelievably sexy food book, i still think about some of those images. a duck breast split open like a geode!! fuck!!

the spymasters series by joanna bourne: i haven't loved a romance series like this in a While, it's napoleonic era spies! everyone's in love and constantly betraying and shooting each other! it's Not lymond but it was twisty and detailed enough to scratch the lymond itch for me. you can basically read them in any order because they weren't written chronologically, but take my advice and start with the black hawk, because then you can play "what's hawker up to?" in all the other books and hurt your feelings, then go back to the spymaster's lady and do the rest in publication order. i love my terrible spy family!!

practice by rosalind brown: i'm so obsessed with this, it's about a student trying to write an essay but really it's about shakespeare and yoga and the elaborate gay fictions she's constantly making up in her head

henry henry by allen bratton: henry iv by way of brideshead and patrick melrose, i deeply loved this and i deeply loved this hal. one for the hal/hotspur yuletide enjoyers etc

you should be so lucky by cat sebastian: i also read and loved her cabot series but this one really got to me. as a brit i can never truly be a baseball understander but this crossed the bull durham/everybody wants some!! line of making me yearn about it a bit

kaliane bradley, the ministry of time: loved this so wildly that i committed multiple counts of reverse wage theft to dazedly copy the best parts into my notes app and yowl about it with my friends who'd had arcs. sexy time travel roommate situation, my beloved

add me on goodreads or letterboxd if you're into that sort of thing etc

[wyrmsfornerves]

Hi! Younger artist here, I just saw your post with all those super cool monster designs and I took a quick stroll through your blog, and I was wondering if you had any specific inspirations for those designs or where you get inspo for character designs in general? Or perhaps some tidbits on how you learned how to make wild designs like that?

Sorry if this is a bit of a big ask, I just think it's really cool and I was curious!

Hello! Thank you for your question and apologies for taking so long to answer, I just got really excited and wanted to be thorough! 

My biggest piece of advice is research and develop a visual library of reference material! Your visual library is like a mental database of everything you’ve ever seen in your life, and this is what you can pull from to design concepts. 

There are a couple ways to start this as a practice: 

Notice what you see! It can be a chair, a sunset, a shoe, the light on a tree, but if you see something you think is beautiful or interesting, mentally make a note of it!

Document what you like! With computers and cameras this is a lot easier to do nowadays, but if you see something interesting to you, document it. You can draw it, or take/save a photo to folder. 

Organize it! I highly recommend coming up with a system for referencing back to find things, either through image tags or folders or even a manual filing system. 

Pay attention to your personal preferences and experiences. Try to think about what draws you to certain visual elements, identifying them can lead you to more things you like. Also pay attention to what you don’t like and why, it doesn’t necessarily need to be bad or amoral, we all have personal tastes. 

Get out of your comfort zone! I recommend trying to see something you’ve never seen before often. Find a new artist, a new genre, research a new type of design movement, go to a new place, etc. 

Try to find context for your research! For example, If you really love a specific era of fashion, research that time period and the way historical context informs it. Context can be really important, especially if you are working with references new to you!

Important Note 01: You don’t want to copy or rip-off these things. In my experience the best way to avoid that is to have a lot of reference points for any project and embrace your authentic personal interests, experiences, and identity. 

Important Note 02: Like any research, be conscious of primary person vs secondary sources! One is not better than another necessarily, but I find I work my best with a  mix of both. I like to start with primary sources and then move to secondary sources, Ie: looking at authentic suits of armor before moving to contemporary armor concept art. You don’t have to do this, it’s just something I find helpful. 

Important Note 03: While mostly I’m referring to visual references, audio, music, and writing are also super helpful!

Ok now, how do you curate all that for a project. For those monster illustrations I wanted to explore how color can be horrific. Keywords: Color & Horror. So I start looking through references for things that have the effect I want color wise, vivid and maximalist, and things that I find scary or horrifying. Here are some of the things I knew about or discovered during the research process that had the vibe I wanted. 

Notable Influences 

Color and Design 

Peruvian & Guatemalan Textiles and Traditional Clothing 

Spanish Traditional/Folk Clothing 

Sammezzano Castle, Italy

Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, Iran

Russian Traditional/Folk Costumes 

Fonthill Castle, Pennsylvania

Zhangye National Geopark

Nick Cave - sculpture artist

Lousie Zhang

Magnhild Kennedy - “Damselfrau”

Horror

Catacomb Saints

Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo

Japanese Yokai

Greek & Roman Mythology

Mandrills & Monkeys

Charles Fréger’s Photographs of  European Pagan Costuming

Avant Garde Fashion

Alexander McQueen

Vedas by  Nicolas Alan Cope and Dustin Edward Arnold 

Stephen Jones - Hats

Mummies

Reliquaries

Marina González Eme

Lorenzo Nanni

H.R Giger

Intersections of Color & Horror

Microscopic Imagery

Moths, Beetles & Shrimp

Suspiria (1977)

AJ Fosik

Hungry | Johannes J. Jaruraak

Once you’ve gathered these references in one place (like a moodboard, folder,  or Pinterest board) It’s time to pay attention to wear aesthetics intersect, what patterns are coming up, what proportions of color, what textures reoccur, what elements of clothing reoccur, etc.. What relationship do different images have with each other, what emotional effect do they create. 

Now that you’ve studied up, it’s time to sketch, try and create things that feel similar to the work you are looking at but not copy it, instead try mixing things together. Experiment! Let your personal style and preferences sink in! Interpret what you’ve learned!

From there, it’s more of a design process, how to use proportion, light, anatomy, perspective, form, repetition, etc, to create the desired effect. Then you refine and refine.

For new or different projects you repeat the process, maybe you use similar points of reference, maybe you go a completely different direction. 

Anyway that was long, but I hope it was helpful!

[jennibeultimate]

Artistic gymnastics Olympics 2024 MAG Qualification

Number of Entries for individual finals (AA&EF) per nation with a team

China 🇨🇳 9 finals (Zhang Boheng FX + PB + HB , Zou Jinyuan PB + SR, Liu Yang SR, Su Weide HB, Xiao Ruoteng + Zhang Boheng AA)

Great Britain 🇬🇧 8 finals (Jake Jarman FX + VT , Luke Whitehouse FX, Max Whitlock PH ,Harry Hepworth SR + VT, Jake Jarman & Joe Fraser AA)

Ukraine 🇺🇦 8 finals (Oleg Verniaev PH + PB, Igor Radivilov VT, Nazar Cherpurnyi VT, Ilia Kovtun FX + PB , Oleg Verniaev & Ilia Kovtun AA

Japan 🇯🇵 7 finals (Takaaki Sugino PH + HB, Shinnosuke Oka PB + HB, Wateru Tanigawa PB, Daiki Hashimoto & Shinnosuke Oka AA)

USA 🇺🇸 3 finals (Stephen Nedoroscik PH, Paul Juda & Fredrick Richards AA)

Netherlands 🇳🇱 3 finals (Loran de Munck PH, Casimir Schmidt & Frank Rijken AA)

Turkey 🇹🇷 2 finals (Adem Asil SR, Ferhat Arican PB)

Germany 🇩🇪 2 finals (Lukas Dauser PB, Nils Dunkel AA)

Italy 🇮🇹 2 finals (Yumin Abbadini & Mario Macchiati AA)

Switzerland 🇨🇭 2 finals (Matteo Giubellini & Florian Langenegger AA)

Canada 🇨🇦 2 finals (Felix Dolci & Rene Cournoyer AA)

Spain 🇪🇸 1 final (Rayderley Zapata FX)

Countries with finals without team:

Philippines 🇵🇭 3 finals (Carlos Yulo FX+VT & AA)

Kazhakstan 🇰🇿 3 finals (Milad Karimi FX & AA, Nariman Kurbanov PH)

Croatia 🇭🇷 2 finals (Tin Scrbic HB , Aurel Benovic VT)

Armenia 🇦🇲 2 finals (Artur Davtyan VT, Vahagn Davtyan SR)

Israel 🇮🇱 1 final (Artem Dolgopyat FX)

Ireland 🇮🇪 1 final (Rhys Mc Clenaghan PH)

South Korea 🇰🇷 1 final (Hur Woong PH)

France 🇫🇷 1 final (Samir Ait Said SR)

Belgium 🇧🇪 1 final (Glen Cuyle SR)

Greece 🇬🇷 1 final (Elftherios Petrounias SR)

Iran 🇮🇷 1 final (Mahdi Olfati VT)

Taiwan 🇹🇼 (Chinese Tapeih) 1 final (Chia-Hung Tang HB)

Columbia 🇨🇴 1 final (Angel Barajas HB)

Cypres 🇨🇾 1 final (Marios Georgiou HB)

Hungary 🇭🇺 1 final (Krisztofer Meszaros AA)

Australia 🇦🇺 1 final (Jesse Moore AA)

Brazil 🇧🇷 1 final (Diogo Soares AA)

[raikkxz]

ᯓ ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 ⑅ RULES .ᐟ.ᐟ

★ — requests﹕closed

★ — taglist﹕open

★ pinned post || ☆ taglist || ★ rules || ☆ main masterlist

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ how to request !! ꒱

if you'd like me to write for your favourite driver, requ est their name, trope, concept and anything else! ex : can i request a charles leclerc x reader, best friends to lovers, assistant!reader

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ what/who i write !! ꒱

⭑ f1 ⭑ hp ⭑ blurbs ⭑ headcanons ⭑ fluff ⭑ smut ⭑ boy x girl ⭑ age gap (not super big tho.) ⭑ social media au ⭑ person x female reader ⭑ kinks (not super kinky.)

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ what i don't write !! ꒱

⭑ angst (maybe if im in an angsty mood, but otherwise, no) ⭑ anything that has any hate towards to ANY drivers. ⭑ driver/person x oc (i only write person x reader - unless it's a ship) ⭑ eating disorders ⭑ self-harm ⭑ mental/physical illness ⭑ incest

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ drivers i write for !! ꒱

⭑ charles leclerc 16 ⭑ carlos sainz 55 ⭑ lando norris 4 ⭑ oscar piastri 81 ⭑ max verstappen 33/1 ⭑ daniel riccardo 3 ⭑ lewis hamilton 44 ⭑ logan sargeant 2 ⭑ kimi raikkonen 7 ⭑ jenson button 22 ⭑ sebastian vettel 5 ⭑ fernando alonso 14 (these are the drivers i feel comfy with writing, i might do other drivers tho)

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ other f1 related people i write for !! ꒱

⭑ toto wolff

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ pjo characters i write for !! ꒱

⭑ luke castellan ⭑ percy jackson ⭑ annabeth chase ⭑ leo valdez ⭑ jason grace ⭑ clarrise la rue ⭑ will solace ⭑ frank zhang ⭑ hazel levesque ⭑ magnus chase ⭑ piper mclean (probably more but those are js my main ones)

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ hp characters i write for !! ꒱

⭑ mattheo riddle ⭑ theodore nott ⭑ lorenzo berkshire ⭑ tom riddle ⭑ harry potter ⭑ hermione granger ⭑ cedric diggory ⭑ luna lovegood ⭑ ginny weasley (probably more too but these also are js my main ones)

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ mcu characters i write for !! ꒱

⭑ peter parker (spiderman) | any film/actor ⭑ stephen strange (doctor strange) ⭑ tony stark (iron man) ⭑ steve rogers (captain america) ⭑ thor odinson ⭑ natasha romanoff (black widow) ⭑ wanda maximoff (the scarlet witch) ⭑ bucky barnes ⭑ loki ⭑ gamora ⭑ peter quill (star lord) ⭑ miles morales (more but are js my main ones)

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ x-men characters i write for !! ꒱

⭑ alex summers (havok) ⭑ scott summers (cyclops) ⭑ jean grey (dark phoenix) ⭑ james/logan howlett (wolverine) ⭑ charles xavier (professor x) | before x-men: apocalypse ⭑ erik lehnsherr (magneto) ⭑ raven (mystique) (more but are js my main ones)

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ ships i write for !! ꒱

⭑ brocedes

˚ ₊ · ͟͟͞͞➳ — ꒰ multiple x reader i write for !! ꒱

⭑ tbc

even if my requests are closed, you can request for a second part and I might consider it. otherwise, requests are closed. if you have any questions, don't be shy to ask me! <3

if you break these rules, request for things i clearly stated that i wasn't comfortable with writing, "just write this, it's not that hard," hate towards any drivers, then you can leave.

please be patient when requesting. remember, I only write for fun, so it's not like a job. Which means that I won't be able to write every minute of every day.

please be specific when requesting. it'll help me get a better visual/thought of what you want me to write.

please understand that I can't write every single request. i'll lyk if i can't write this request or if i don't feel comfy with writing it.

@RAIKKXZ

do not repost/copy any of my works on apps or websites.

all rights and credits go to the original owner of any images from my blog. most images are either from pinterest, discord, or made by ME.

this may be updated often in case of any mistakes or forgotten info.

[tournevole]

Stephen Zhang.

[bracketsoffear]

Buried Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the Buried Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Abe, Kōbō: Woman In the Dunes

Basye, Dale E.: Rapacia Boorman, Kate: Into the Sublime

Clark, Mary Higgins: Moonlight Becomes You Clarke, Arthur C.: A Fall of Moondust Cortázar, Julio: No se culpe a nadie (Don't you blame anyone)

Donoghue, Emma: Room

Graves, Damian: The Sandman

Hamid, Mohsin: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia Hendrix, Grady: Horrorstör Hunter, Erin: Warriors: Dark River

Ingels, Graham: "Chatter-Boxed!" (from the comic anthology The Haunt of Fear) Ito, Junji: The Enigma of Amigara Fault

King, Stephen: A Very Tight Place King, Stephen: Dolan's Cadillac King, Stephen: Gerald's Game Kinney, Jeff: Cabin Fever Krabbé, Tim: Het Gouden Ei (The Golden Egg)

McDowell, Michael: The Elementals Morozzi, Gianluca: Blackout Mudford, William: The Iron Shroud

Platt, Marc: Lungbarrow Poe, Edgar Allan: The Cask of Amontillado Poe, Edgar Allan: The Premature Burial Pratchett, Terry: Snuff

Reilly, Lucas: The 1925 Cave Rescue That Captivated the Nation

Sachar, Louis: Holes Sebestyen, Ouida: The Girl in the Box Seibert, Ken: Night Burial Shusterman, Neal: Dread Locks Sophocles: Antigone St. Clair, Margaret: Thirsty God Starling, Caitlin: The Luminous Dead Steig, William: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble Stine, R.L.: The Curse of Camp Cold Lake Stoker, Bram: Crooken Sands

Trumbo, Dalton: Johnny Got His Gun

Verne, Jules: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Wells, H.G.: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Young, Ben: Stuck

Zhang, C Pam: How Much of These Hills is Gold

Abe, Kōbō: Woman In the Dunes

In 1955, Jumpei Niki, a school teacher from Tokyo, visits a fishing village to collect insects. After missing the last bus, in an act of apparent hospitality, he is offered lodging for the night by the villagers at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman, who has lived her whole life in the village and is accustomed to living among the dunes.

The novel opens by telling the audience that Jumpei Niki's case has gone cold after being missing for 7 years, and so he's been officially pronounced as dead. The majority of the novel details him trying to find some way to escape the pit, but the audience knows its hopeless because of how the novel begins. He eventually decides to stay when he realizes that he's just as free in his life before the hole, as in his life after.

Aside from the obvious claustrophobia being used to comment on the metaphorical claustrophbia of modern life, and the plot of a man choosing to live his life in a small collapsing cabin in a hole on the beach, sand is an ever-present motif. The roof in the cabin is broken open and there's no where to fully wash up, so the sand is ever present, caking itself to their sweaty skin. They have a single umbrella that hangs over the well so that the water doesnt get muddy. They have to sleep with a newspaper over their faces to avoid inhaling any sand and fully nude so that the sand on their bodies doesn't chafe at night. There are constant, grotesque descriptions of the sand coating their skin, mixing with their sweat, crunching on their dry lips, shifting whenever they move and so on.

It doesn't need to be a leitner to make me feel like their is a disgusting amount of sand on my skin, but turning it into a leitner wouldn't help.

Basye, Dale E.: Rapacia

Welcome to Rapacia, where the greedy kids go.

When her brother, Milton, escapes the otherworldly reform school Heck in a soul balloon made of old clothes, Marlo is the only Fauster child left to take the blame. Bea "Elsa" Bubb, the Principal of Darkness, sends her straight to Rapacia, the circle of Heck where greedy kids are tormented by glimpses of a just-out-of-reach, glittering shoppers' paradise called Mallvana. Marlo soon falls under the sway of Rapacia's vice principal, a grinning metal rabbit known as the Grabbit that seems to have plans of its own. Marlo is torn between wanting to find a way out and wanting to do . . . whatever the Grabbit asks her to do. Meanwhile, back on the Surface, Milton has his own problems. He is determined to get in touch with Marlo and help her find a way out of Heck. But it's hard to concentrate when his body and soul don't seem to hold together the way they used to. Will Milton ever reach Marlo? And if he does, will they both end up as pawns in the Grabbit's mysterious game?

Boorman, Kate: Into the Sublime

A YA psychological thriller about four teenage girls who descend into a dangerous underground cave system in search of a lake of local legend, said to reveal your deepest fears . When the cops arrive, only a few things are clear:

- Four girls entered a dangerous cave. - Three of them came out alive. - Two of them were rushed to the hospital. - And one is soaked in blood and ready to talk.

Amelie Desmarais' story begins believably Four girls from a now-defunct thrill-seeking group planned an epic adventure to find a lake that Colorado locals call "The Sublime." Legend has it that the lake has the power to change things for those who risk―and survive―its cavernous depths. They each had their reasons for going. For Amelie, it was a promise kept to her beloved cousin, who recently suffered a tragic accident during one of the group’s dares.

But as her account unwinds, and the girls’ personalities and motives are drawn, things get complicated. Amelie is hardly the thrill-seeking type, and it appears she’s not the only one with the ability to deceive. Worse yet, Amelie is covered in someone 's blood, but whose exactly? And where's the fourth girl?

Is Amelie spinning a tale to cover her guilt? Or was something inexplicable waiting for the girls down there? Amelie's the only one with answers, and she's insisting on an explanation that is more horror-fantasy than reality. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between?

After all, strange things inhabit dark places. And sometimes we bring the dark with us.

Clark, Mary Higgins: Moonlight Becomes You

Starts out with the protagonist buried alive and desperately pulling on a bell to signal for help. The story then flashes between the present and to several weeks earlier, showing how she came to this fate and leaving the reader to decipher who her would-be killer is, all the while inserting her frantic efforts to remain conscious until help arrives.

Clarke, Arthur C.: A Fall of Moondust

Set sometime in the 21st century, the story takes place in and around the Sea of Thirst, a fictional region of The Moon bearing a sea of incredibly fine moondust that behaves like water, upon which "buoyant" objects can float. The Lunar tourism authority operates the dust-cruiser Selene, a vessel which rides atop the surface like a boat and takes passengers on sightseeing tours across the Sea of Thirst.

When an ill-timed moonquake creates a disturbance that swallows Selene beneath the surface and cuts the dust-cruiser off from outside communication, the routine trip becomes a race to stay alive long enough to be rescued, and indeed for those above the surface to even discover that a rescue is needed. Coordinating the effort to survive and stay sane are Selene captain Pat Harris and flight attendant Sue Wilkins; aided by the vessel's diverse passengers, including retired legendary astronaut Commodore Hansteen. The search and rescue effort from above is headed by Lunar Chief Engineer Robert Lawrence and prickly astronomer Dr. Thomas Lawson, who are faced with a ticking clock, their own disdain for each other, and every nasty surprise the Sea of Thirst has left to throw at them.

Cortázar, Julio: No se culpe a nadie (Don't you blame anyone)

A very short story about a man putting on a jumper. You just need to read it.

A man puts on a jumper and suddenly he becomes tangled in it. The jumper seems to become alive, choking him, strangling him and causing him to fall out the window and to his apparent death.

It shows the struggles of modern life, how one finds himself buried by the monotony of an asphyxiating existance. The buried goes from metaphorical to physical.

Donoghue, Emma: Room

The book is about a mother and her five-year-old child who are kept captive in a small room for years by a kidnapper. The child was born in the room and has never been outside in his life.

Graves, Damian: The Sandman

John and Sarah grow curious about the man who wins the local sand-sculpting competition every year. When they investigate, they discover his grim secret; all of his realistic animal sculptures are built around a real dead animal, be it a beached octopus or dead stray dog. When they confront him, he swears that the animals were already dead, and promises not to make any more sculptures of dead animals. Unfortunately for the kids, he didn't say anything about (formerly) live humans...

Extremely unpleasant ending, describing John's unblinking eye covered over by the thinnest layer of sand, staring at but not seeing the faces of the mourners gathered at the sand memorial to him and his sister.

Hamid, Mohsin: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

"... the astonishing and riveting tale of a man's journey from impoverished rural boy to corporate tycoon, it steals its shape from the business self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over "rising Asia." It follows its nameless hero to the sprawling metropolis where he begins to amass an empire built on that most fluid, and increasingly scarce, of goods: water. Yet his heart remains set on something else, on the pretty girl whose star rises along with his, their paths crossing and recrossing, a lifelong affair sparked and snuffed and sparked again by the forces that careen their fates along. "

Buried in the meaning of debt and money in this book. the main character and the girl he loves always striving to become richer, no matter what, so that the crushing weight of poverty will never hurt them again. Also lots of water and dirt imagery perfect for Buried.

Hendrix, Grady: Horrorstör

The novel follows a group of people—store manager Basil, and employees Amy and Ruth Anne—who stay overnight at ORSK to investigate strange acts of vandalism. The book particularly focuses on Amy, who is unhappy because she views her work at ORSK as an unfulfilling dead-end job. The workers discover that their store was constructed on the ruins of an old prison, where inmates were forced to do mindless, pointless work in order to break them of their criminal ways. Now, the ghosts of the prison haunt the store, where mindless toil remains the name of the game...

Hunter, Erin: Warriors: Dark River

(this book is part of a very long series about clans of cats so forgive me for not providing more context for the plot) -Two apprentices from rival clans develop a friendship/possible romance, which is forbidden so they secretly meet in a series of underground tunnels. The main cave they meet in has an underground river flowing through it (hence Dark River). -Jaypaw (medicine cat apprentice, blind, has the ability to see and speak to dead cats in his dreams) has dreams/visions of ancient cats who used to live in their territory long ago and had a rite of passage that involved navigating the underground tunnels. The two ghost cats are Fallen Leaves (died during his rite of passage due to sudden rain flooding the tunnels, now eternally trapped in the tunnels as a ghost), and Rock (haggard elderly cat who kept a stick with scores of claw marks, one for every cat who died in the tunnels). -At the climax of the book, a litter of kittens goes missing, and the main characters must enter the tunnels during a rainstorm to find them. As the tunnels flood, they are guided by the spirit of Fallen Leaves and are able to find the kits but get swept up in the flood and nearly drown before being ejected into a lake.

I think it fits The Buried because most of the book takes place in the claustrophobic tunnels, and the prologue details Fallen Leaves’ failure to escape the tunnels. (also idc if this counts but it’s worth noting the tunnels continue to feature prominently in the next few books, specifically a main character runs into the tunnels and is trapped in a mudslide, presumed dead. later it is revealed she abandoned clan life and lived in the tunnels for months with only the ghost of Fallen Leaves for company)

Ingels, Graham: "Chatter-Boxed!" (from the comic anthology The Haunt of Fear)

An elderly man begins to suffer from catalepsy, which makes him appear to be dead when he is not. He leaves instructions to be buried with a telephone if he "dies", allowing him to call for help lest he regain consciousness. There's no way this plan could go wrong, or so he thinks...

Sure enough, he is buried after having an episode behind the wheel and does exactly that, only to find every phone line tied. After futilely trying to get a call through and finally running out of oxygen, the operator angrily snaps at the man's blue-faced corpse for being ignorant of what's just taken place: the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The story is set in December 1941.

Ito, Junji: The Enigma of Amigara Fault

Following an earthquake, a large rock face is exposed, covered in human shaped holes. Numerous people are drawn to it, discovering that each hole is uniquely and perfectly shaped for an individual person. Filled suddenly with an irresistible compulsion towards the holes meant for them, people begin entering them…

Upon entering a hole, you have no choice but to continue forward. The hole, fit perfectly for your body, leaves no room for anything but forward movement. As you move further and further, the hole‘a shape begins to gradually change. It slowly but so so painfully stretches and squeezes and twists your body. Yet you remain alive. You have to continue forward. There is no other way you can go.

Months later, another fault is discovered on the other side of the mountain. The holes on this end are elongated and twisted. And something no longer resembling a human is slowly moving towards the end of this tunnel.

***

Following an earthquake in an unnamed prefecture of Japan, a fault is discovered on Amigara Mountain, very close to the epicenter of the quake. On the slopes of the mountain, two hikers meet; a man named Owaki and a woman named Yoshida. The former assumes that they are both here to see the fault, which has captured the attention of the global press. Following the sound of voices to the fault, the two of them marvel at the strange sight before them: countless human-shaped holes in a rock face exposed by the earthquake."

"This is my hole! It was made for me!"

***

"This is my hole! It was made for me!"

King, Stephen: A Very Tight Place

Curtis Johnson is locked up in a tipped over portable toilet by his neighbor Tim Grunwald, and left trapped there in the heat of a Florida summer day to die.

King, Stephen: Dolan's Cadillac

Wealthy crime-boss Jimmy Dolan brutally murders a woman who is scheduled to testify against him, and her husband spends the next seven years plotting his revenge. Haunted by the voice of his dead wife, he will stop at nothing to exact his vengeance and allow his wife to rest in peace.

He spends years plotting vengeance, joining a road crew and upon acquiring the knowledge, redirects Dolan so he drives over a deserted stretch of highway which Robinson has excavated himself. The Cadillac Dolan drives plummets into the hole, killing Dolan's bodyguards and allowing Robinson to replace the paving so Dolan may die in darkness and madness, with Robinson never being caught.

From TV Tropes: "There's an especially disturbing part where the main character returns to the stretch of road where Dolan and his car are buried, and hears that Dolan is STILL ALIVE beneath the dirt. He covers the spot with asphalt, and leaves him there to slowly suffocate in the darkness."

***

A man gets buried alive in his prized car.

King, Stephen: Gerald's Game

Once again, Jessie Burlingame has been talked into submitting to her husband Gerald’s kinky sex games—something that she’s frankly had enough of, and they never held much charm for her to begin with. So much for a “romantic getaway” at their secluded summer home. After Jessie is handcuffed to the bedposts—and Gerald crosses a line with his wife—the day ends with deadly consequences. Now Jessie is utterly trapped in an isolated lakeside house that has become her prison—and comes face-to-face with her deepest, darkest fears and memories. Her only company is that of the various voices filling her mind…as well as the shadows of nightfall that may conceal an imagined or very real threat right there with her…

Kinney, Jeff: Cabin Fever

It involves the entire Heffley family (minus Greg's father Frank) getting snowed in due to a snowstorm. Compounding this is that the power goes out (Greg's little brother Manny was actually responsible for this because no one taught him how to tie his shoes), they are running out of food (Mrs. Heffley can't go out to get more because of the snow), and the basement flooded (which means that Greg's older brother Rodrick has to stay in his room).

Krabbé, Tim: Het Gouden Ei (The Golden Egg)

Rex Hofman is haunted by the disappearance of his girlfriend, Saskia Ehlvest. His obsession with discovering what happened to her has grown to such an extreme that he has taken out a large loan to post advertisements in papers throughout France, hoping that someone might be able to provide him with information. One night he is approached by a man who reveals that he is the one who abducted Saskia, and offers to satisfy Rex's determination to discover her ultimate fate, but only if Rex agrees to undergo the same ordeal that Saskia suffered. After a long discussion between the two men, Rex agrees to Lemorne's proposal, and proceeds to drink a cup of coffee laced with a sedative. He awakens to find himself buried alive, and suffocates while imagining himself finally to be reunited with Saskia.

McDowell, Michael: The Elementals

After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty. Inside, something deadly lies in wait. Something that has terrified Dauphin Savage and Luker McCray since they were boys and which still haunts their nightmares. Something horrific that may be responsible for several terrible and unexplained deaths years earlier - and is now ready to kill again ...

Morozzi, Gianluca: Blackout

Two young TV executives looking to break into the reality show industry came up with the idea to select an apartment at random, fix the lifts, wait until two or three people were in the elevator together, and then put it on lockdown and film the results. Things get bad. Fast.

Mudford, William: The Iron Shroud

From Wikipedia: It is a classic predicament story about a noble Italian hero who is confined in a continuously and imperceptibly contracting iron torture chamber. In the story, the chamber walls and ceiling are slowly contracting, day by day, through mechanical means, to the point of eventually crushing and enveloping the victim, thus metaphorically becoming his iron shroud.

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The story concerns a prisoner confined in a chamber where the walls and ceiling slowly contract, day by day, through mechanical means, to the point of eventually crushing and enveloping the victim, thus metaphorically becoming his iron shroud.

Platt, Marc: Lungbarrow

Synopsis: "All is not well on Gallifrey. Chris Cwej is having someone else's nightmares. Ace is talking to herself. So is K9. Leela has stumbled on a murderous family conspiracy. And the beleaguered Lady President, Romanadvoratrelundar, foresees one of the most tumultuous events in her planet's history.

At the root of all is an ancient and terrible place, the House of Lungbarrow in the southern mountains of Gallifrey. Something momentous is happening there. But the House has inexplicably gone missing.

673 years ago the Doctor left his family in that forgotten House. Abandoned, disgraced and resentful, they have waited. And now he's home at last."

Why it's Buried: The House of Lungbarrow is literally buried. Gallifrey as a whole is figuratively buried, stagnant and rotting. The Doctor is forced back into the hellish family dynamics of his childhood. Also, considering how much a physical copy goes for on eBay, I reckon it qualifies for the financial aspect of the Buried as well.

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Cask of Amontillado

yes, Fortunato, follow this creepy guy to his family catacombs, deeper and deeper. surely this will end well for you. surely he isn't plotting to bury you alive in these moist and cavernous vaults.

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You want a description? Sure, I got some in my basement. Follow me!

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Premature Burial

The story consists of a number of grisly anecdotes about people who undergo premature burial, as told by a nameless, cataleptic narrator who suffers from a constant, crippling phobia of being buried alive due to his rare medical condition. As the story switches from anecdotes to the narrator's own personal experiences, he suffers no physical harm but begins to dream of death and premature burial. In one case, during a cataleptic trance, he hears a voice telling him to sit up before it speaks to him of the agonies of night and death. It asks him how he can sleep so peacefully when so many of the dead do not rest easily.

***

The narrator describes his struggle with catalepsy, a condition where he randomly falls into a death-like trance.

This leads to his fear of being buried alive. He emphasizes his fear by mentioning several people who have been buried alive.

The narrator reviews these examples in order to provide context for his nearly crippling phobia of being buried alive. He became obsessed with the idea that he would fall into such a state while away from home, and that his state would be mistaken for death. He extracts promises from his friends that they will not bury him prematurely, refuses to leave his home, and builds an elaborate tomb with equipment allowing him to signal for help in case he should awaken after "death".

The story culminates when the narrator awakens in pitch darkness in a confined area. He presumes he has been buried alive, and all his precautions were to no avail. He cries out and is immediately hushed; he quickly realizes that he is in the berth of a small boat, not a grave. The event shocks him out of his obsession with death, and soon after, his catalepsy episodes cease entirely, leading him to suspect that they were a symptom of his phobia, rather than a cause.

Pratchett, Terry: Snuff

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but a body in the wardrobe would be far too simple. Instead he finds many, many bodies – and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.

He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a punishment.

They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. Vimes is about to uncover the exception.

Reilly, Lucas: The 1925 Cave Rescue That Captivated the Nation

America’s first viral story was of a Kentucky cave explorer, Floyd Collins, and the epic effort to rescue him.

Sachar, Louis: Holes

A bunch of children in the juvenile prison system are sent to a work camp where they're forced to dig holes in a dry lakebed. Unbeknownst to them, this is because The Warden is using them to search for buried treasure. The major themes of the novel include the injustice of the carceral justice system and being trapped in unfair circumstances due to poverty and racism. Also there's a scene where the protagonist and his friend are stuck in a hole while The Warden watches over them hoping to steal the money belonging to the protagonist's family, which she feels entitled to because she's descended from a shitty rich man.

***

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment

Sebestyen, Ouida: The Girl in the Box

The titular girl has been kidnapped and locked in a dark cellar for no known reason. The novel consists of her writing her story and pleas for help on an old typewriter in the cellar as she begins to run out of food and water. And we're not even given the benefit of a happy ending. The story ends with her final entry (in which she is still trapped) and the reader never learns what happens to her.

Seibert, Ken: Night Burial

Terry, with the aid of his friend, decides to spend the night in a makeshift coffin buried in a cemetery, initially excited at the thought. Unfortunately, things go not quite as planned: it's quite hot in the coffin and he put on too many layers with no way to get rid of them in the uncomfortably tight space he has to spend the night in with no way to get out unassisted. The story ends with a stranger mistakenly thinking that his tube to the surface — which provides him with air — is a makeshift flower vase and stuffs it with flowers out of respect for what she believes to be a newly passed-on soul.

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A pair of con artists trying to fake one's death come face to face with a pair of grave robbers.

Shusterman, Neal: Dread Locks

Dread Locks is told from the perspective of bored high schooler Parker Bear, who is fascinated by the new girl, Tara. She always wears sunglasses, and her hair is almost alive with twisting curls. Parker watches, fascinated, as one by one Tara chooses high school students to befriend; he even helps her by making the necessary introductions. Over time, her "friends" develop strange quirks, such as drinking gallons of milk, eating dirt, and becoming lethargic.

Tara is a gorgon, petrifying students slowly -- the milk and dirt serves to build up minerals in their bodies for the final transformation. She's also begun to turn Parker into a fellow gorgon. At the end of the book, after Parker confronts her, they fight and turn one another to stone. The last lines detail the petrification process, then nothing more.

Sophocles: Antigone

Both literal and social pressure present.

St. Clair, Margaret: Thirsty God

After the main character, Brian, assaults an alien girl, he takes refuge from her family in a "shrine" that's actually an ancient biological processor, and the process wasn't designed for humans. When he wakes up he finds that he's a lot bigger than he used to be and incredibly thirsty. Thinking it's a trick he decides to get up, but can't make his muscles obey him. A little while after that he's visited by a plunp, a toadlike creature who forces the excess moisture into his body. Even though his body is thirsty for the plunp's moisture, he feels (correctly) as if he is being poisoned by it. When after several hours the plunp leaves he feels bloated by all the water he has absorbed and his body is completely stiff and immobile. Although relieved that his torment has ended, he knows that many more plunp will follow and he can do nothing to prevent it. For the rest of the rainy season Brian passively and helplessly absorbs the plunp's moisture while his thoughts turn inward and violently self-destructive. Meanwhile, his sight and hearing slowly deteriorate and his body becomes permanently bloated.

As the rainy season comes to an end Brian is relieved when the plunp finally stop visiting him. His body becomes dry and dusty and begins to shrink, and he begins to experience blackouts which he dares to hope are a prelude to death and a final release from his suffering. Brian is not dying but merely entering a state of estivation, from which he will eventually awaken to the first of many more years of service to the plunp.

Starling, Caitlin: The Luminous Dead

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .

As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.

But how come she can't shake the feeling she’s being followed?

Steig, William: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

A boy uses a wish-granting magic pebble to escape a lion by turning into a rock. Unfortunately, he drops the pebble in the process, leaving him trapped, still conscious, as a boulder.

Stine, R.L.: The Curse of Camp Cold Lake

Camp is supposed to be fun, but Sarah hates Camp Cold Lake. The lake is gross and slimy. And she's having a little trouble with her bunkmates. They hate her. So Sarah comes up with a plan. She'll pretend to drown—then everyone will feel sorry for her. But things don't go exactly the way Sarah planned. Because down by the cold, dark lake someone is watching her. Stalking her. Someone with pale blue eyes. And a see-through body...

Stoker, Bram: Crooken Sands

A rich Englishman on a vacation to Scotland is menaced by a ghostly Doppelgänger who is constantly sinking into quicksand, and tries to lure him into same fate.

Trumbo, Dalton: Johnny Got His Gun

This novel follows a young man named Joe Bonham, who, after becoming grievously injured during World War I, is left deaf, blind, dumb, and without any limbs. Throughout the novel, Joe reminisces about the life that he's lost, waxes philosophical about war and conscription, and tries desperately to communicate with the doctors keeping him alive.

You might say "Wait, this is about the horrors of war, this is Slaughter not Buried!". I would argue that is kinda both, but forced to choose between submitting it for the Slaughter poll and the Buried one, I chose to submit it to this one, because Joe's plight in central to the book and to me it is a very Buried-aligned one: He can't move, he can't see, he can't hear, he can't speak. He has been reduced to a limbless, faceless figure that is being kept alive in an army hospital. A line that sums up the horror of Joe's condition: "What good is being alive if I can't even tell if I'm asleep or awake?"

"S.O.S. Help me..."

Verne, Jules: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Lidenbrock's obsession with the depths of the earth results in his party being dragged ever deeper beneath the surface, and deeper into danger.

Wells, H.G.: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Pressure is present here both in terms of the vast weight of the ocean, and the hierarchical and strict rules laid out by Captain Nemo that all aboard his ship must obey.

Young, Ben: Stuck

John Camden doesn't realize he's dying, yet the physical signs are becoming more clear, and he's having recurring visions where he is trapped in a tight space. Everything changes when his best friend Robbie convinces him to go on a poorly planned caving trip as a form of immersion therapy. Soon the lines of reality blur as John finds himself lost and alone, deep underground where all is not as it seems, and the person he trusted most may have sinister intentions.

Zhang, C Pam: How Much of These Hills is Gold

This book is about a family of Chinese immigrants. The father works in the mines and sometimes takes his two daughters to the hills to try and find gold. They struggle against poverty and racism, trying to carve a better life for themselves.