#the demons lexicon trilogy

[wherethemothsgrow]

Alright LISTEN UP 🗣️ there is a book series that means to world to me and I am sick of it having literally zero fandom at all. The Demons Lexicon by @sarahreesbrennan is phenomenal. When I found it on my mothers bookshelf at 11 years old my brain chemistry was altered

Also The Lynburn Legacy by her!!! Please please please

[cabeswaterdrowned]

I feel like I’m in a headspace where I really am in the mood to read urban fantasy more than anything else, part of me wants to start the Lynburn Legacy reread I’ve been wanting to start for a while and apparently unspoken is quite cheap on iBooks so that’s doable but I’m already doing my in depth trc reread buddy read with notes + rereading other things more casually. If I do the TLL reread I’ll definitely liveblog it because I want to propagandize it to my followers who are here for other modern or urban fantasy I talk about lol. Maybe I should read a Sarah Rees Brennan book I haven’t read yet? I also have been wanting to start reading the Vampire Chronicles but I think I should leave that for when I have more concentration to give over to it / my brain is processing new content better. The TVD books are another possibility, if nothing else I think that could be really funny. There are other possible candidates but if someone wants to recommend me a thing now is your chance

[howlsmovinglibrary]

Hello Beautiful! Do you have any book recommendations involving morally grey characters? Characters that initially do not like one another and the fall for eachother? Or any book recommendations in general? Thank you!

...beautiful?

anyway, onto the actual question!! I'll be honest, I'm more of a simp-to-lovers kind of girlie than enemies to lovers, but I do have some morally grey protagonist recs!

The most obvious and what you've probably already read is The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, for morally grey queen Jude and the man who's life she ruins (why were you a coward in the final book, Holly? let the two of them be awful and hot together)

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black (morally grey, enemies-to-lovers, vampire stand alone and my favourite Holly Black protagonist bc she's got that Final Girl in her)

The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin (morally grey kind of by necessity, there's an apocalypse occurring - this book is also got the most triggering content of the list so bear that in mind before checking it out!)

The Young Elites by Marie Lu (for morally grey AND two very messy romances. the protagonist's superpowers means she inherently destined to be a little bit sketchy. I was surprised how dark this went while still being YA.)

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen (morally grey protagonist and a nice dose of the kind of harmless enemies to lovers where actually they're just sniping at each other.)

The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (the characters aren't morally grey overall it's more... morally grey stuff happens to them. they are existentially morally grey, I'd say).

For characters that do not like each other but fall for each other, my go-to is always Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (this is the 'why do i like you, I'm so annoyed that I like you, you're so fucking insufferable do it again' kind of enemies to lovers.)

[wetcatspellcaster]

i love the way your fic breaks my heart - do you have any book recs or other fic recs that inspired you or have the same kind of angst? it hurt so good 😫

Hi anon! This was a really nice message to receive... I have no idea if I emulate the writers I admire or not, but I certainly figure there are some books that have informed me in my past and it was fun thinking of them to answer this question!

For fic, please just check my bookmarks on AO3! I actually write a little different to what I read (I also don't tend to read much for the pairings I write for, combination of 'feeding myself' and fighting off the potential for imposter syndrome/accidental plagiarism) but the fics I've bookmarked are all ones that I objectively loved and also reveal all of my fictional obsessions... knowing myself, the angstiest ones there will be Spike/Buffy :')))))

As for books! These are some basic bitch recs but I'm a basic bitch so-

Holly Black has a big influence on the kind of heroines I write, and her books are usually a little angsty although they have happy endings... most people have heard of The Cruel Prince which is one of my favourites, but Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a standalone vampire novel and is pretty good for angst that hurts in the right way tbh, that heroine is really Going Through It

Sarah Rees Brennan (good fic author and good author) taught me everything I know in The Demon's Lexicon, which is just a really funny, trashy YA novel except that the plot twist is tragic af and I saw it coming from chapter one and it still hurt so good! In Other Lands is not angsty AT ALL but great if you like slow burn romance.

I write Darklina for a reason :') Leigh Bardugo got good at the right amount of angst with Six of Crows and I KNOW that's a basic bitch rec but KAZ/INEJ ARE THE 'ANGST THAT HURTS SO GOOD' BLUEPRINT!!!!

I remember Marie Lu's The Young Elites trilogy making me cry for hours in the good way and I'm now worried that was formative.

This is not a romance book and doesn't have romance in, but The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly is an amazing novel about grief and processing loss through and using fairytales and I'm reading the sequel now and honestly? God-tier writing.

The Wicked and the Divine is a comic book series but it's sexy af and definitely gets that balance of 'sacrifice' vs. 'selfishness' that it seems I've become lowkey obsessed with.

I also just recently read an amazing fantasy duology by AK Larkwood (The Unspoken Name and The Serpent Gates) and I'm adding it here bc these were the first books that I'd read in a long time that were genuinely... aspirational - I wanted to learn from them and try to write more like that author. They had just the right balance of angst and levity... also there is a peak Astarion coded character in them tbh so people should read them for the hot fucked-up elf boy.

[bookcub]

I read your review of In Other Lands years ago, and added it to my list. It takes me forever to get to things, but I finally read it and AUGHOUGHGOGHGOUGHUOAUAGHGGGUO IT'S SO GOOD. Elliot is insufferable, and so similar to me at that age, and I love him. Serene is the coolest person alive. Luke is so sweet and shy (despite being a perfect killing machine) and he just needs a hug. The world is such a perfect portal fantasy. So much happens in it--they completely grow up, they have misunderstandings and fights, they go on missions and change their world--yet it's only 400 pages, yet none of it feels rushed. Gonna go read her other books asap.

ahhhhh that makes me so happy to hear!! there is an additional short story from Luke's pov in Monstrous Affections, a collection of short stories!

in other lands is one of my favorite books, but i highly recommend the lynburn legacy as well! I enjoyed the demon's lexicon trilogy as well. i need to get catch up on her latest work as well.

and i so agree about the characters and the pacing, i love a complete story in one book and spectacular commentary on portal fantasies and magic schools!

[rubyneo]

Top 5 books you read as a teenager

as a TEENAGER.... augh uhhhh. ngl i didnt read a ton as a teen bc i was busy being like. fucked up and sad a lot. so these are gonna be like 13-14 year old cherry's paranormal romance book reads RANKED!!! also sister's grimm.

1. Sisters' Grimm (Jeff Buckley) -- fucking fantastic i wanna say it at least partially inspired once upon a time on abc. And I also read it like 3 or 4 times between elementary and high school.

2. The Demon's Lexicon trilogy (Sarah Rees Brennan) -- LISTEN!!!! i love this trilogy so much its unreal. I didn't even like any of the endgames tbh but I loved Nick Jamie Mae and Alan's little group. Also I was down bad for Sin as a 14 year old so I was so fucking excited when she joined their group in book 2.

3. Lynburn Legacy (Sarah Rees Brennan) -- Once again loooooved this series so much. I think I read it on my school computer during one of my online classes instead of doing the work. I did in fact fail that class.

4. Fallen (yes the angel romance book.) (Lauren Kate) -- Don't look at me I was 13 and I TORE through that fucking series. I checked it out of my middle school library on Monday at 9 am and I returned it Wednesday at 10 am. I didn't sleep for two days I was so engrossed in it.

5. Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead) -- I FUCKED WITH THESE BOOKS SOOO HARD. I WANTED ROSE AND LYSSA TO KISS SO BAD. I WAS INSANE OVER THEM FOR LIKE A YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL.

Honorable mentions:

The Vampire Diaries and the Wicked (Nancy Holder) series. Those drove me bonkers as a 13 year old.

[incorrectcoldflashblog]

11, 18, 30, 49 for the latest writer asks list, please and thank you. 😊

Hi friend!

11.  Books and/or authors who influenced you the most

That’s a good question! I think the most obvious one for me would be The Demon’s Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan. I haven’t re-read them in forever but I legit think about those books at least once a day, lol, and they definitely influence the way I write Len in particular.

18.  If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

Truth be told I’ve never thought about doing a collab but if I did you know you’d be my first choice! We’d write about Coldflash because, well, that’s the only thing I write about XD And I know it’s the same for you so that’s perfect. No idea beyond that but I’m sure we could find something fun!

30.  Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet

Oh, that one has to go to my Fake Dating AU. It’s a fusion of canon with plot elements from the movie To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, which. I know doesn’t seem like it would fit in easily but I’ve got a whole plan, you’ll see!! I haven’t dared actually start it though, mostly because I already know that’s gonna be on the longer side and I absolutely cannot start a new longfic right now, I’m already drowning in WIPs… But one day!

49.  Which character would you most want to be friends with, if they were real?

Oh, interesting. I’ve never actually thought about that but Cisco would probably be the best friend to have out of all of them. He’s a gem!

Thank you so much for the ask <3

A Writer’s Ask Game

[the-dust-jacket]

Since you've got Demon's Lexicon I'm guessing the Lynburn Legacy is already on your radar but if not please check it out posthaste!

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

The Curseworkers trilogy and The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

So many books by Anna-Marie McLemore

The Brooklyn Brujas series by by Zoraida Cordova

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Blood Debts and Blood Justice by Terry Benton-Walker

A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

The Cecelia and Kate books by Patrica C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

A little farther from the brief:

The Court of Fives by Kate Elliot

The Darkness Outside Us and The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer

The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

Throwing in a few mainstream SFF titles:

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison (messy family drama on a dynastic level)

Lois McMaster Bujold's sprawling Vorkosigan Saga is deeply interested in familial drama and intergenerational history and historicizing, and definitely popular with younger readers; The Warrior's Apprentice is one of several good starting points and reads the most YA, but feel free to tag or DM for specific content warnings

The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster (super cute and doing fun things with big family drama)

Hey there's like 600 more of you than there were than the last time I asked so...anybody recommend me some fantasy or scifi YA books that feature a lot of family drama?

Specifically, I mean like multi-generational, established families. Usually when I get asked this I get a lot of recs about establishing a found family consisting of several peers. and those are great and I love them, but not what I'm looking for with this ask.

So far I have Liberty's Daughter and Demon's Lexicon.

Any thoughts?

[lowkeynando]

The Demon's Covenant is a 2010 novel by Irish author Sarah Rees Brennan. It is published by Simon & Schuster. It is the second book in "The Demon's .." trilogy, the first being The Demon's Lexicon, released in 2010, and the third, The Demon's Surrender, released in June 2011. The Demon's Covenant is a 2010 novel by Irish author Sarah Rees Brennan. It is published by Simon & Schuster. It is the second book in "The Demon's ..." trilogy, the first being The Demon's Lexicon, released in 2010, and the third, The Demon's Surrender, released in June 2011. Early scholars discussed the role of the devil.

Scholars influenced by neoplatonic cosmology, like Origen and Pseudo-Dionysius, portrayed the devil as representing deficiency and emptiness, the entity most remote from the divine.

According to Augustine of Hippo, the realm of the devil is not nothingness, but an inferior realm standing in opposition to God. The standard Medieval depiction of the devil goes back to Gregory the Great. He integrated the devil, as the first creation of God, into the Christian angelic hierarchy as the highest of the angels (either a cherub or a seraph) who fell far, into the depths of hell, and became the leader of demons. [4]

Since the early Reformation period, the devil has been imagined as an increasingly powerful entity, with not only a lack of goodness but alsos CLONES

[totallycorrectjediorderquotes]

Agen: I only punched one person, but the night is young.

Bultar: Forgive him, he has no manners.

Agen: I get by on good looks.

[kalinara]

When I think about it, it’s really not surprising that Rip Hunter couldn’t make things work as a member of the Time Bureau.

It’s pretty obvious that he created the Time Bureau to be as unlike the Time Masters as possible.  They’re situated within a time period, not outside of it.  They’re transparent.  Their headquarters are accessible.  They have accountability both within the organization (tribunals) and without (the UN treaty, presumably.)  They’re brightly lit and they have “quiet rooms”.  And they seem to be heavily focused on in-and-out extraction missions rather than more manipulative long-term infiltration missions (though that might just be because of the nature of the crisis.)

And from the look of it, Rip actually did a pretty good job with them.  It’s not perfect, of course.  But we saw how capable they can be when they fixed up Los Angeles after the time crash.    And even their less stellar decisions (like wanting Zari to return to prison) make some sense if you’re looking at it from a “preserve the timeline” view.

Unfortunately, it sounds like maybe they don’t quite know what to do with themselves without him, but that may just be an issue of needing more experienced leadership.  (Assuming there’s no corruption or treason complicating the issue, of course.)

Rip is an idealist at heart.  And it makes perfect sense that after his bitter experiences with the Time Masters that he’d try to create an organization that’s the ethical and moral antithesis of them.  It actually wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t recruit any old Time Masters (or if he did, just the ones that were clearly breaking away from them, like Miranda was, or Eve Baxter), because he wouldn’t have wanted to taint his new creation with the stain of the old.

The problem is that, in the end, Rip himself is a throwback of the old.

There are folks at the beginning of the season who claimed Rip was turning into Vandal Savage.  That’s a ridiculous claim, because Rip is not doing anything of the sort.  Vandal Savage was a man who used his long life span to accumulate vast knowledge and infiltrate himself into positions of power, to whisper in the ear of powerful regimes, until he finally felt ready to seize control.

That’s not what’s happening to Rip.  He isn’t even becoming Zaman Druce.  Rip’s flaws are his own.

And basically, Rip’s primary flaw in this case is that he still operates like he did when he was a Time Master.

We know what Rip did as a Time Master.  He carried out missions competently, he made Time Pirates fear him, but he also kept his own counsel.  He hid the Spear of Destiny.  He recruited the JSA.  He very quietly broke the rules in Calvert and even managed a not-so-secret family.

Rip Hunter has been a Time Master since he was ten years old.  That is, probably, two thirds of his life spent as a good man in the charge of a very fucked up space cult that forbids personal attraction, invades people’s minds, monitors their agents’ dreams, and believes in sending assassins instead of grief counseling.  And he has adapted accordingly.

Rip’s been socialized as a Time Master, and all of his coping mechanisms are designed around surviving and succeeding as part of an untrustworthy, corrupt organization without sacrificing his own moral values.  He literally doesn’t know any other way to be.  (His only other life experience is being a starving orphan on the streets of somewhen, which doesn’t exactly translate to bureau life either.)

And when you take someone who been involved in this sort of cloak and dagger lifestyle since childhood and put them in an environment of transparency and accountability...well, there will be friction.  Even if that person actually created this environment.

We don’t really know where Gary, Ava, Bennett, or the other Time Bureau Agents come from.  But given the way the Bureau is set up to be so different from the Time Masters, I doubt Rip would have gone out of his way to recruit other former Time Masters.  (I headcanon Eve Baxter as an exception, because we should get to see her again).  But that means that Rip probably has very little common life experience with his agents.  

And we know how much Rip LOVES to confide in people and openly share with people.  It’s very possible that the vast majority of the Time Bureau has no idea where Rip comes from, or why he is the way that he is.  (The Legends have a big advantage here, since they’ve actually seen Vanishing Point.)

It’s a recipe for disaster and honestly, probably a little surprising that Rip’s lasted this long before ending up in prison.  He just doesn’t know how to function in an agency in which he doesn’t have to lie, scheme, or misdirect to survive.

[the-lincyclopedia]

I really love May the Best Man Win by ZR Ellor! It's a YA romance, and there are two POV characters: Jeremy, a trans boy, and his ex-boyfriend, Lukas, who's autistic. It's an exes-to-lovers arc, and I LOVE the way Lukas's autism was portrayed.

I also just finished (and adored) A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall. It's a historical adult romance about a trans woman who's presumed dead in the Napoleonic Wars and takes the opportunity to start living as a woman. The love interest, her former best friend, has a disabling injury from the war, as well as PTSD and laudanum addiction.

The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner is (roughly speaking) YA fantasy. The extent to which the series is queer is debatable (there's a lot of gender stuff going on, and there are multiple explicitly canon or very-nearly-explicitly-canon same-gender couples, but it's secondary-world fantasy in an approximately historical Greek/Byzantine setting, so they don't use modern terms for sexuality or gender identity), but there's definitely some queerness. There is a major character who acquires a significant physical disability early in the series (I'm trying to be vague to avoid spoilers), and the narrator of book six is nonspeaking and physically disabled. A LOT of the characters are also probably neurodivergent, but, again, secondary-world pseudo-historical setting without a lot of modern labels.

The new adult romance Breakaway series by E. L. Massey is very queer and involves multiple disabled characters! The main character of the first two books, Eli, has a traumatic brain injury that has resulted in a seizure disorder, and he has a service dog to alert him when he's about to have a seizure. The love interest of the first two books, Alex, has an anxiety disorder. The main character of book four (coming soon!) is autistic, and the love interest in that book is a bisexual trans woman.

The Check Please new adult comic series by Ngozi Ukazu features a protagonist with PTSD (and a lot of ADHD-coding), and the main love interest has severe anxiety (and a lot of autism-coding).

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a YA book by John Green and David Levithan, and it was maybe the first book I ever read where, like, the whole point of the book was that it had queer main characters. I'm hesitant to recommend it, because it's well over a decade old in ways that really, really show, but I have incredibly fond memories of it and it played an important role in my life. The disability at play here is depression.

Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce is the final book in a nine-book YA fantasy series, and it's the only one where both disability and queerness are really front and center, as far as I can recall. One of the four main characters is a lesbian, and another of the four main characters has intense PTSD and is coping in pretty unhealthy ways.

The Demon's Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan is also YA fantasy (but urban fantasy, not secondary-world like the Queen's Thief or Will of the Empress), and it's the one on this list that I have the most complicated feelings about. Over the course of the trilogy, there are both queer and disabled main characters, and the books can be a lot of fun . . . but one of the characters is very autistic-coded, and then it turns out that he's "weird" because he's not human. I miss liking those books so much! They were really important to me as a teenager! But I also feel kind of betrayed by them.

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are an adult sci-fi series with an agender, asexual, aromantic main character who's also a human-robot construct with really significant neurodivergent traits. You're allowed to have complicated feelings about neurodivergent robots, but I think Wells handles them really well (definitely in a very different way than Sarah Rees Brennan handles the autistic-coded demon character in The Demon's Lexicon).

The Gentlemen's Guide to Vice and Virtue and subsequent books in that series are historical (sort of fantasy) new adult romance/adventure books (yeah, a bit hard to categorize). The main character of the first book is bisexual and has PTSD and alcohol addiction; the love interest in that book has a physical disability (I think a seizure disorder, but now I'm doubting myself). The main character of book two is asexual, and the main character of book three has really severe anxiety.

Six of Crows is a YA fantasy duology by Leigh Bardugo in which the main character has PTSD and chronic pain and uses a cane. He's straight, but among the six major characters, two are bisexual and one is gay, and one of the bisexual characters has ADHD and a gambling addiction (though, this being secondary-world fantasy, those words don't appear on the page).

The main character of Hench, an adult superhero story by Natalie Zina Walschots, is a bisexual woman has chronic pain and PTSD, and she also uses a cane.

Later Rick Riordan books get progressively queerer, and almost all his characters have ADHD and dyslexia.

I was about to recommend checking out @thedisabilitybookarchive, but it seems like they already reblogged this! Well, anyway, here are my recs.

I have a question

is there any lgbtq+ books with disability characters as the main lead ?

[wetcatspellcaster]

Top five book series?

The Protector of the Small Quarter by Tamora Pierce (anything by Tamora Pierce, but this is her best series IMO)

The Lady Helen books by Alison Goodman

The Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black

The Daevabad trilogy by SA Chakraborty

The Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo (is that a basic bitch answer? yes. Do those books still teach anyone everything they ever need to learn about romance? ALSO YES!)

I tend to prefer standalone novels, so this question produces a slightly different answer than usual lol. Shout out to The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare and The Demon's Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan, both of which shaped my young adulthood.

ask me my top 5 things!

[bookseraph]

Mae: "I heard this was the place to come if you had a problem that was...out of the ordinary."

Jamie: "Obviously that wasn't true. Obviously this is the place to come if you want to get murdered by lunatics."

[howlsmovinglibrary]

Mid-Year Reading Update

@logarithmicpanda tagged me, so ok! let’s see if I can still do a booklr!

Amount of books you’ve read so far: 22, and this is better than any year since before the pandemic

Best book you’ve read so far in 2022: I really enjoyed Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher, my favourite thing by her yet.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022: I haven’t read a sequel this year that wasn’t a comfort reread, instead I’ll say Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson bc all her books are standalones so I’ll imagine they count.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to: Siren Queen by Nghi Vho, as I loved The Chosen and the Beautiful last year.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno Garcia as I’m excited for more specifically Gothic content from her. And the Island of Dr. Moreau is ripe for a postcolonial retelling.

Biggest surprise favourite new author (debut or new to you): I was surprised I liked Lote by Shola Von Reinhold. I had to read it for GTA work, and it was the first ‘literary’ fiction novel I’d consumed in literally years. But it was actually really really good, I devoured it in a day, queer black perspective on eurocentric academia.

Newest fictional crush: I reread The Falconer trilogy by Elizabeth May and not to be a basic bitch but Kieran could still get it. Broody dark haired fey emo bois (written well) remain the classic for the reason, bonus points for him being the person who taught the protagonist to use weapons. 

Book that made you cry: I am in a place that means I am currently allergic to books that make me experience negative emotion, but the Hugo nominated short story “Unknown Number”, by Blue Neustifter (told as a twitter thread) made me cry in a good way.

Book that made you happy: I reread The Demon’s Lexicon trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan and you know what? 13 year old me had excellent taste, it remains a very good series of books. Also shout out to the fanfic ‘Heal Thyself’ by astolat, which genuinely was such a good example of a perfectly executed redemption arc that it left me buzzing with serotonin for days.

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): My copy of Her Dark Wings by Melinda Salisbury arrived in the post today! The cover looks like this. 

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? I’m so out of the loop with book releases that I genuinely don’t know. I would like to read Nona the Ninth but will also need to reread Harrow to do so as my last experience of forgetting the content of the previous book did not go well. Juniper and Thorn also looks good to me. And The Bone Shard Daughter and The Unspoken Name have been on my shelf for a while so I guess I’ll add them.

Not tagging anyone but if you see this feel free to take it as an invitation! :)

[bookcub]

my list is far too long for this post lolll

ella enchanted

the song of the lioness

kiki strike

percy jackson

penderwicks

wild magic

spindles end

the golden compass

the darkest powers trilogy

kingkiller chronicle

graceling realms

the hunger games

howls moving castle

the demons lexicon

wicked lovely

unwind

miraculous journey of edward tulane

and theres more but ill stop there

Okay new discussion topic: what are books you've read at least ten years ago but still love?

My obvious answer is The Kingkiller Chronicle lol

Also Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Chima, and Realm of the elderlings