#theological thriller

[mysticpatrolsong]

THE WORD

Irving Wallace

Pocket Books

1972

[communistkenobi]

disney or whoever sees your good star wars takes and decides to let you be the showrunner for a new series. what do you do.

OOOOH interesting. I would love an Andor-style bureaucratic thriller about the Jedi Order slowly becoming more enmeshed with the Republic. My Old/High Republic lore knowledge is rusty but it would probably be set around that time I think? I want full on theological debates about the Force, Jedi expressing their anxieties of becoming a diplomat/peacekeeper class for the Republic, how that political power influences the way the Order views its relationship to the Force, explore the imperial component of that diplomatic work, etc. Show them actually doing diplomacy work and political management for the Republic, explore the exact details of the political status the Jedi have in the Republic, how that informs their recruitment of new Force users as children, etc etc. OT/PT era is extremely well trodden already so setting it quite some time before that would allow for more freedom to play with canon. Idk what the sith are doing around this time period but it would be post-Rule of Two so having a Maul-style asshole side villain running around would also be funny. I think that would be really fun

[cryingoflot49]

Book Review

Counter-Clock World by Philip K. Dick

Life is uncertain. Our perceptions of reality are shaky, incomplete, distorted, and inaccurate. If we use our perceptions of truth as a basis for making decisions and plans of action, how can we possibly know if we are doing the right thing or not? We can’t so we just do what we think is right and hope it works out for the best. This is the central, unstated theme of Philip K. Dick’s Counter-Clock World.

Sebastian Hermes is at the center of it all. He lives in a future time when dead people reawaken and rise from their graves and after being reborn they get younger with the passage of time, eventually becoming children then infants and returning to the womb. Sebastian runs a business, assisting people as they return to life then selling them to whoever will be their caretaker for the immediate future. One night while working in a graveyard, he realizes that the leader of a religious cult called the Uditi, named the Anarch Peak, is about to come back to life. Sebastian realizes this is an opportunity to make a huge amount of money, so he helps to resurrect the Anarch Peak, but not everything works out as smoothly as he plans.

The antagonist of the story is the Library which is run by a secretive group called the Erads. Their mission is the control of information and they operate by erasing and destroying all works of literature that they decide are harmful for society. They realize that the Anarch Peak is about to return, so they hatch a plot to kidnap and assassinate him before he can spread his religious message further than it already has. They know his return will be even more important this time because during death he would have had direct contact with God. The Erads send a charming and beautiful woman named Ann Fisher to seduce Sebastian Hermes while an attempt on the Anarch Peak’s life is made since he is being held in the care of Sebastian’s office building. Ann Fisher’s plans get spoiled because two secret agents from Rome tip Sebastian off to her plot. These Romans are most likely unstated representatives of the Catholic church who have a vested interest in getting a hold of the Anarch Peak.

At this point in the book, it becomes obvious that this is an action/thriller story with science-fiction trappings and theological undertones. Since the world moves in reverse, people disgorge food rather than eating it and they blow smoke into cigarette butts which elongate until they can be put into a pack. The climax of sex happens when the male’s sperm separates from the egg and returns to the man. There are other science-fiction details like flying cars, robot people, and exotic high-tech weaponry. None of this feeds directly into the main point. The author wanted to write a story about resurrection and made time flow in reverse, then added these details in to make it feel more complete and maybe a little more trippy like some mind-blowing window decorations. This was written in the late 1960s after all. These details, aside from the dead returning to life, are more or less just gimmicks. But at least they are unique and interesting gimmicks. The theological conversations and meditations on the nature of time and mortality are not terribly original either and seem to be tacked onto the story to give it a more mystical atmosphere.

As the story progresses, the actual theme of the book becomes a little less obscure. That theme, being the uncertainty of our perceptions and the inability to understand the consequences of our actions, can be seen in how the action unfolds. While there are a lot of sub-themes throughout, one thing becomes clear: Sebastian is faced with a series of choices in which the uncertainty of the outcomes make it difficult to judge what the right plan of action should be. This can be seen in his attempts to negotiate with the Romans and the Uditi who both want him to turn the Anarch Peak over to them. This culminates in Sebastian’s attempt to rescue the Anarch Peak and his wife Lotta from the fortress-like Library which is held by the Erads. It seems that whatever he does in this situation, it will be the wrong thing from both a personal and a moral point of view.

To confuse matters more, Sebastian Hermes begins having dreams and vision in which the Anarch Peak visits him as a spirit and gives him information and instructions. Sebastian has no way of knowing if these are real or hallucinatory, but the Anarch Peak gives him one significant piece of information. He tells Sebastian that he is the most important man in the world. At this point, you can not tell if Sebastian is losing his mind or not. It appears that world events of religious and historical importance are happening all around him and maybe he is some sort of Christ-like figure that has been chosen as a messenger for God. But maybe this is all a delusional compensation for the way he keeps digging himself deeper and deeper into trouble by making decisions that are morally and pragmatically of a dubious nature. He may be somebody with a divine purpose or he may be a complete loser having delusions of grandeur to save his fragile mind from sinking into self-destruction.

What is truly great about this book is the way you see this whole mess from Sebastian Hermes’ point of view. His confusion becomes your confusion and the fact that, despite all his screw ups, he remains a sympathetic character to the end because he is motivated entirely by pure intentions and honesty. What are the ethics of this? Do insanity and honesty cancel each other out? If Sebastian isn’t insane, do his failures cancel out his purity of intent? The story leaves you hanging without any clear answers.

As enjoyable as this book can be, it isn’t one of Philip K. Dick’s major works. The biggest flaw of the book is the inconsistencies of the time-in-reverse premise. While food is disgorged and cigarettes are un-smoked, bullets don’t fly out of people’s bodies and back into guns. The flying cars move forward. People don’t run or walk in reverse. Even worse, when people get shot or blown uo they don’t return to life the way people in their graves do. And how could the plot even move forwards in a world where everything goes backwards? Why can’t the characters even predict what is going to happen next? If you think about this too much you will ruin the experience of the story. It is just better to accept these flaws without dwelling on them too deeply. You actually have to do that if you expect to take anything away from the story.

The idea that we can never know what is real with any certainty and therefore can never know what to do with any certainty is the same theme that animates Philip K. Dick’s earlier novel The Man In the High Castle. He just transplants that idea into a totally different setting and plot line. Counter-Clock World is also a lot more entertaining. The way you can feel Sebastian’s confusion while he maintains a calm and certain exterior is a strong point and the story moves along nicely too, even if the main theme is obscured under all the details. This isn’t one of Philip K. Dick’s most popular novels, but it possibly is his more underrated.

[brvja]

Now Playing: The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Some of my siblings went to go see this and they didn't have good things to say about it, but I don't necessarily have the same tastes as they do, so.

I don't expect this to be scary, not even in the slightest, but I do love me a theological thriller.

Happy Friday to you all 💖

Edit: Okay this is pretty bad, but I'm going to see if through lmao

Edit II: I could not finish it. It was so ridiculously bad. Aye dios. I'm sorry Russell Crowe.

[littleapocalypsekitten]

Ex-Evangelical CONVERT here. Can confirm. Granted, the churches I attended weren't extreme, but there was a vibe there. I mostly absorbed this stuff from televangelists. I also read about half of the fictional Left Behind series, which people took a realistic new future-depiction of what's coming! If you want to familiarize yourself with Left Behind but want an abridged version (because they really are horribly-written books), I got a blog for you: Slacktivist Example of one of his weekly Left Behind posts. He covers the first thee books on repeat because there is too much going on in his life to finish reviews. Blogger is a Progressive Christian Ex-Evangelical who started out making it his MISSION to tell the world how badly-written and theologically messed up these books are. His blog eventually morphed into American politics and occasional personal stories. The commentary community is delightful. (I am Shadsie there). Left Behind has a lot of fanfiction of the hate and fix-it variety. Like "Interesting concepts, horrible world, let's explore this" including stories of humans willingly going with the Luciferian faction at the end of the novels even though they know they will be doomed to Hell because they feel the need simply to fight and retain their fundamental humanity. Anyway, my point is that there is an entire generation of American Christians who grew up on watching eschatology preachers in the 1990s who created the "roadmap" these authors used and who read these books early on. They were some of the very few "approved thriller fiction" of the subculture. (Back when I was reading them, I liked them because they were violent - I could read something actiony and violent without the guilt I was supposed to feel for watching / reading similarly violent worldly things). I'm not trying to paint myself as a violent person here, I just enjoy action movies and action and horror manga. I've always needed a bit of an outlet, something exciting. American Evangelical / Baptist / Conservative churches don't allow "exciting" unless it is approved. I was trying to find a list by Progressive Christian blogger, Benjamin L. Corey where he made a checklist of how, Trump, ironically, ticks all of the classic boxes of being the Antichrist, but it seems to have disappeared from the Internet. (Said blogger does not believe in a literal Antichrist, he was just trying to make a point, but it still stands).

Hey so I still see people utterly baffled by how religious fundies (still a majority in America and moreso its senate) react on certain issues so uhhh is it actually not common knowledge what the antichrist is all about? You guys know his defining characteristic is ending war, right? That he’s foretold to unite the world under his leadership by preaching global peace and solving basically every single problem in the world? So you know when you try to talk to these people about equality and togetherness they literally believe that’s what makes you an agent of the devil right???

[thecinechewpapers]

HIGH AND LOW (1963, dir. Akira Kurosawa)

A CINÈCHEW Review

“I’m not protecting him. I’m protecting myself.”

There are no wrong turns in High and Low—only descents. Down a hill. Down a city. Down a man’s sense of moral clarity. Kurosawa, ever the cartographer of conscience, draws a map of justice that’s warped, inverted, and drawn in blood money.

On the surface, High and Low is a procedural—a kidnapping thriller. A child is taken. A ransom is demanded. A man must choose whether to save another man’s son at the cost of his fortune and future.

But the genius of Kurosawa is how he takes this clean, genre-ready line and folds it into a spiral of class warfare, spatial politics, and capitalist grief.

The film opens in a sleek, hilltop villa—modernist, high up, immaculate. The kind of house that believes in its own success. The kind of view that lets a man forget what he stands above. Inside: Gondo, a shoe executive poised to seize control of the company with a ruthless financial coup. He has it all calculated. Until the phone rings.

A boy has been kidnapped. The ransom: astronomical.

But it’s not Gondo’s son. It’s his chauffeur’s.

From here, the film doesn’t escalate—it sinks. Each cut pulls us closer to the rot beneath. First morally. Then visually. What begins as a tightly staged chamber piece in a sunlit mansion unravels into a slow, patient dive into the grime of Yokohama’s streets, heroin dens, and alleys.

Kurosawa weaponizes architecture in this film. The title isn’t just metaphor. It’s geography. The high is the illusion of safety. The low is the reality of consequences. Gondo’s home becomes a surveillance tower. His windows become confessionals. His wealth becomes a burden.

There’s something terrifyingly quiet about the way High and Low handles guilt. Gondo chooses to pay the ransom. He loses everything. But there’s no cinematic triumph in this act—only the cold paperwork of sacrifice. Kurosawa doesn’t glorify morality. He shows us its price tag. In a system built to reward selfishness, decency becomes radical—and self-destructive.

The final sequence, set in the prison where the kidnapper awaits execution, is almost unbearable in its restraint. A pane of glass separates victim and perpetrator. But no rage passes through. Only recognition. The man who committed the crime looks into the eyes of the man he destroyed and sees the thing that haunts him most: empathy.

It’s a confession that doesn’t absolve.

A verdict that doesn’t settle.

A camera that refuses to look away.

This isn’t a thriller. It’s a theological essay written in shadows and sweat.

It’s what happens when justice costs too much and you pay it anyway.

[FLAVOR INDEX]

TASTE: Filtered coffee through a bullet casing

TEXTURE: Velvet upholstery over concrete guilt

SOUND: The echo of a child’s voice down a stairwell of class

COLOR: Ash gray, briefcase black, moral white

AFTERTASTE: Sweat. Silence. A ledger stained with mercy.

CHEW RATING:

4.5 out of 5 chewed gums

(Half a gum dropped on the train floor. Still potent.)

CINÈCHEW

// WRAPPED BY THE INVISIBLE LOLLIPOP CO.

[bkdkink]

I JUST FINISHED DONT BITE AND I RLLY LOVED UR WRITING !! Do u have any book recs? 🥹 of any genre, creepy or otherwise !!

OMG thank you so much!!!!!! Oooo I sure do!!

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist: (can be very heavy though, warnings include: attempt at SA ) a vampire child meets a human child and form an unlikely friendship, at least 2 movies have been adapted (haven't seen). i LOVED the book and how it is written and the characterization, hits a lot of growing up themes. the relationship between the kids is wonderful

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice I read these in high school and need to re-read them, but girrrrlll......this was my whole personality for a bit lmao. it's a lot of purple prose and can be very philosophical/theological (the author was working through her grief and relationship with religion in the first book) it also can be SO fun and sincere and the relationship with the characters vary from toxic to sweet to just,,,,ultimately complex and so very human

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora This is historical fiction that takes place shortly after the American Civil War. There is definitely some creepy aspects to it although I wouldn't say it's the main focus, it's like,,,if you're familiar with the horrors of the south in the USA then like,,,,this will hit you (also has SA), but it's not just that by any means, also a coming of age tale!

And finally, I'm not even joking, the Bible. Specifically, the Old Testament. The way translations have impacted the structure and flow of story telling along with the particular way dialogue is since it's just so old........i was reading the Bible at the same time I was writing Don't Bite so take of that what you will lmao

I want to read more thrillers/creepy/horror in the future for sure!!! It's just hard to ift through the ones that's just a gorefest and shockfactory and find the genuine ones that explore like,,the human condition or includes some sort of romance in it (which i love hehe)

Enjoy!!

[quoteoftheweekblog]

…

3/3/25 - J.B. PRIESTLEY

' … the carnival spirit … ' (Priestly, 2023, p.184).

REFERENCE

Priestley, J.B. (2023 [1934] ) 'English journey'. Amazon.com [E-book]. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Journey-finest-written-England-ebook/dp/B0BF8MX5Y1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0 (Accessed 1 March 2025).

*****

MARDI GRAS (SHROVE TUESDAY)

...

&

QUINQUAGESIMA

THE 3ND SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

(THE 7TH SUNDAY BEFORE EASTER 50 DAYS BEFORE THE SATURDAY AFTER EASTER)

*****

PRE LENT

*****

'Probably we could not let ourselves go if we tried.' (Priestley, 2023, pp.183-4).

…

…

OUR ALL SAINTS CORRESPONDENT

...

&

…

ONE OF

OUR BELLRINGERS

...

*****

SEE ALSO

’ … the self-sacrifice of a god for men, seems to me too good to be true ...

...

… and the rest of it, the theological jugglery lit by hell-fire, not worth having … ’ (Priestley, 2023, p.218)

…

*****

ALL SAINTS

BASINGSTOKE CHURCH

*****

…

CANDLEMAS CANDLE

LIGHTING THE YEAR

*****

FOR MY HUSBAND

WHO WOULD HAVE ENJOYED THIS ONE

…

LOOKING GOOD

*****

ALSO FOR BOOK GROUP 2025

21 (91) GLORIOUS YEARS

…

' "I hardly ever go into a pub. I go home and have a read." ' (Priestley, 2023, p.102).

LAST MONTH I ALSO READ

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A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA

MY SUGGESTION FOR FEBRUARY’S TRAVEL BOOK (DIDN’T MAKE IT)

📚📚📚📚📚

OUR MEMBERS ALSO READ OR ARE STILL READING …

TOP READER

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LUKE’S GOSPEL

STUDYING HIM AT CHURCH

&

…

WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

ABOUT THE PSALMS

&

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THE RISING TIDE

A VERA NOVEL SET ON AND AROUND HOLY ISLAND. EXCELLENT.

&

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DISSOLUTION

THE START OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES. A THRILLER WITH HISTORICAL FACTS. EXCELLENT.

📚📚📚📚📚

OTHER READERS

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FERNEY

AN ODD BOOK, WITH SOME ELEMENTS OF TIME TRAVEL IN IT. A YOUNG COUPLE BUY A DERELICT PROPERTY IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE VILLAGE AND LIVE IN A CARAVAN WHILE THE COTTAGE IS BEING REPAIRED. AN ELDERLY NEIGHBOUR GETS TO KNOW THEM AND IMPLIES THAT THE YOUNG WIFE AND HE WERE A COUPLE, CENTURIES AGO, AND KEPT REAPPEARING AS A COUPLE AS THE YEARS PASSED BY EXPERIENCING BITS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. VERY CONFUSING FOR THE HUSBAND WHO DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING AND THINKS THE ELDERLY NEIGHBOUR JUST FANCIES HIS WIFE! I DIDN’T ENJOY IT BUT PERSISTED AND APPARENTLY THERE IS A SEQUEL BUT I WON’T READ IT, I DON’T ENJOY SCIENCE FICTION, IF THIS IS WHAT IT IS!

&

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VIRGINIA WOOLF - A BIOGRAPHY - VOLUME 1

… IT’S QUITE HARD WORK BUT VERY INTERESTING, AND MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER GETS A BRIEF MENTION IN IT, BUT SHE WAS NEVER A MEMBER OF THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP!

📚📚📚📚📚

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LANDLINES

THE THIRD IN THE ‘SALT-PATH’ SERIES

 📚📚📚📚📚

OUR READER LEADER

…

CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

… I AM FINDING IT MORE AND MORE GRIPPING AS I CONTINUE THE BOOK.

&

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ANGELS AND MEN

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE LINDCHESTER SERIES

📚📚📚📚📚

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BOOK GROUP

*****

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2011 - 2025

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13 EPIC YEARS

*****

FROM THE ARCHIVE

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19/2/24

*****

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Devils of Loudun. By Aldous Huxley. Harper Perennial, 2009 (original 1952).

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: French history, 17th century history, history of witchcraft/demonic possession

Series: N/A

Summary: In 1634 Urbain Grandier, a handsome and dissolute priest of the parish of Loudun was tried, tortured and burnt at the stake. He had been found guilty of conspiring with the devil to seduce an entire convent of nuns in what was the most sensational case of mass possession and sexual hysteria in history. Grandier maintained his innocence to the end and four years after his death the nuns were still being subjected to exorcisms to free them from their demonic bondage. Huxley's vivid account of this bizarre tale of religious and sexual obsession transforms our understanding of the medieval world.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: description of torture

This book wasn't on my radar until I happened upon it at a used bookstore, and honestly, I might not have picked it up had I not seen it was written by Aldous Huxley. I've only read Brave New World, so I was curious as to what his non-fiction would look like.

Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It's very much not pop history; Huxley dives into the world of 17th century France, including what philosophical and theological discourses were influential at the time and how that informs the way we understand the story. I liked the little tangents where Huxley put in his own thoughts on several theories, and the prose feels both learned and playful at the same time.

I wouldn't recommend this book for casual history readers, however. Though the story is about demonic possession, it doesn't revel in the details of demonic lore or all the spread things that were being done. Instead, Huxley is interested in what went into this event being possible: what the political situation was like, what the Church stood on certain ideas, the tension between local persons of interest, etc. If you're looking for some Exorcist-level thriller, this book is not that. But people with an academic interest in history might be delighted.

All that being said, I think I would have liked an edition with more supporting materials. This edition has some interviews and clips from other writings in the back, but I think I would have preferred an edition with some helpful lists or keys for diving into this book. For example, I found it difficult to keep all the names straight, so a list with a little reminder or description of who they are would have been useful.

TL;DR: The Devils of Loudun is a fascinating analysis of a 17th century French town whose famous episode of demonic possession had more to do with local and national power struggles than supernatural warfare.

[ontherunmovies]

Heretic (2024)

HERETIC (2024) is a mind-bending rollercoaster! Read my review.

Wow! Wow! Wow!! Heretic is a mind-bending rollercoaster that’ll leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about faith, reason, and Hugh Grant’s ability to give you the hebie-jeebies. This A24 gem, directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, is a theological thriller that packs a punch and doesn’t pull its punches. The story follows two young Mormon missionaries, Sisters Barnes and…

[cinematicendevaourz]

College and beyond I've always had a love for theology, in the latest A24 joint, "Heretic", audiences are treated to a two hour theology course with Hugh Grant as smarmy as ever as the sociopathic mastermind who doubles as an ex-university instructor. Set in Utah, the film features two female foils as they are pushed about in a game of wills to see if their idealistic faith will stand the test of the horror's that Grant's "gamemaster" of sorts has yet to teach them. There's plenty to pick up in this feature with nods to copyright infringement by the Parker Brothers and Lana Del Rey to Radiohead all set in an atmosphere made comfortable at the start of the film as West Coast fast food eateries are put up to debate. Yes, I still recognize a Rally's over a Checkers and a Carl's Jr. over a Hardee's too. Chloe East's Paxton is not alone in that regard. Does the film make religious missionaries any more forgivable? No. And this makes the kills all the more enjoyable in Beck's feature. The gore is regulated, nothing over the top, as the shocks come more from the enlightening theological discussion had amongst the characters throughout the film, which is irresistibly inviting. From Confucian parables such as the man and the butterfly to Paxton using comic book characters Swamp Thing and Spider-Man for ideological touchstones, "Heretic" is more like being back in a university classroom than the hostage situation presented as the premise for this thriller.

For those without open mind's I can only imagine the boredom that could ensue from Beck's script heavy feature, but for those who enjoy the art of syncretism - "Heretic" is a fun trip back to school.

C.V.R. The Bard 11th/Nov.2k24

[screenzealots]

"Deliver Us"

The complex, existential themes in co-directors Cru Ennis and Lee Roy Kunz’s “Deliver Us” are sophisticated and thought-provoking, which makes it even more disappointing that the film isn’t well-executed overall. This theological horror thriller has a solid backbone story-wise, but there’s very little payoff for the viewer. In a remote convent, a nun (Maria Vera Ratti) claims that she has had an…

[penig]

The Raksura have an aromantic society, which is interesting. Sex is something you do with friends and seldom has consequences due to the way biology works. You could argue that their biologically determined division of labor is really a set of genders and one of the characters has spontaneously changed biology and therefore job and feels really weird about it. Also, lots of danger and adventure and a world with more weird intelligent species than you can shake a stick at.

You can also have a great time with Lois McMaster Bujold, who is a great depression binge because compared to Miles Vorkosigan you have no problems. Start with The Warrior's Apprentice. Non-Vorkosigan stuff is also very good, though less action/adventurey. She basically invented a new genre (the theological thriller) in the World of Five Gods. PenricDesdemona is a fun protagonist. Bujold likes her romance but that's not her primary focus at all. Romance is one of a lot of important considerations in how we live our lives, but Miles and Penric both run up against situations in which romances they'd like to pursue have to take a back seat to larger duties and goals, as well as theoretical potential partners who simply can't cope with the weirdness of their lives.

I want to read more murderbot books

I just listened to all the audiobooks which counts as my 3rd read through of the series and I still want to read it.

anyone have recommendations for a series that has a similarly compelling main character\narrator action story? preferably sci-fi or fantasy and not romance focused.

examples of other authors I've liked include -T Kingfisher Clockwork Boys- Maggie Stiefvater The Scorpio Races and her Dreamer Trilogy-

are any of Martha Wells other books as good as the Murderbot Diaries?

[morgan--reads]

Top Ten Reads of 2020

10. Passing for Human - Liana Finck 

This haunting, elusive graphic memoir is difficult to forget. Finck combines jagged art with a story about a woman whose shadow has abandoned her, a phenomena that seems only partly a metaphor.

9. Bobcat - Rebecca Lee 

Lee weaves a sense of hindsight or nostalgia into her stories, each containing belated realizations that the narrators have about their lives. I read a lot of short stories this year and these were the best of the lot. 

8. Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir

A gorgeous blend of sci-fi and fantasy, with swordfights and necromancy set in a decaying space civilization. Gideon is an absolutely delightful narrator - snarky, witty, and flawed - and her dialogue provides a nice counterpoint to the overall darkness of the murder mystery at the heart of the plot.  

7. The Ballad of Black Tom - Victor LaValle

LaValle makes an obvious point but with some beautifully subtle writing. The horror and racial injustice of this reworked Lovecraft story feed each other in a nuanced and powerful way. 

6. The Thomas Cromwell Trilogy - Hilary Mantel

This year Mantel finished her clever, lush, and endlessly absorbing trilogy about King Henry VIII’s doomed advisor, Thomas Cromwell. The third book, The Mirror and the Light, was just as excellent as the two that came before it. 

5. In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado 

The structure of this memoir, centering on Machado’s experience of an abusive relationship, is both smart and beautiful. The way she weaves fairy tale lore into her life and how she focuses on breaking down moments and themes instead of telling a comprehensive story make this memoir wonderful to read despite the heavy subject. 

4. The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling

Explosively paced and filled with all sorts of tension, this sci-fi thriller about a caver and her handler is an intense survival story. 

3. Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder - Lawrence Weschler

I love non-fiction books that touch on a variety of subjects and this tiny volume packs in a amazing mixture of science, museology, personal biography, and art. The story of the Museum of Jurassic Technology and its strange owner generates a sense of wonder and discovery.

2. Hex - Rebecca Dinerstein Knight

A short tender and cathartic read, but also a deeply strange one. Knight’s gorgeous writing tells of the complicated web of relationships that get woven between Nell Barber and the object of her obsession, her mentor Joan Kallas, as their friends and family come together in unexpected ways. 

1. The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell

A Jesuit mission goes to space to make first contact with alien life. It could be the set up for a farce or for a weighty and preachy tome. Russell instead combines a heart-warming found family story with a nuanced theological debate. The jokes are excellent, the drama thrilling, and the tragedy aching. 

[kanraandchrome]

I'm here with emojis ! OvO Son for you Big Bro : 👄, 🌑 and 📚 ? '^'

OvO Yaaaaaaaay !! Thank you so much ! 

👄 What is your / your OC favorite place to be bitten ?

Surprisingly, Willi likes to crook his neck so anyone can bite him if they need to calm down or scream into the void, but he also extends his arm with a questionning look. He just knows when someone needs it. 

As for me, I ‘like the wrist bites the most, I find it kinda romantic ? Just someone taking your wrist, kneeling, kissing the skin before biting and sucking ? I kinda like it yes >//w//>

🌑 What do you dislike about the vampire you’re romancing ?

Ouh boy. A lot to be said about Ethan xD His violence for once but it was only in Ivan’s route, the fact that he’s not honest with his feelings about her (come on say you’re worried about her and consider her a friend on Béliath’s and Raphaël’s route and you tolerate her in Aaron’s). 

Also the fact that in every route he says that we could be a bait to catch Neil without a care for our life or our vampire’s except Béliath’s ? Let’s see if he suggests it when we’re his Chalice e__e. There’s also the fact that he drowns his sorrow in alcohol maybe, I can understand why but he’ll achieve nothing and we’ll have to pick up the pieces I just know it. 

Otherwise there are a lot of other small things for sure, but the fact that he’s not honest and became the mask he so much wants to look like to the others is my biggest pet peeve. BE. HONEST. DAMMIT. And show your real nerdy personality, people won’t care and won’t tease ;;

📚 What book would be a good addition to the library? 

Ooooooooh ! I love that one but you already know what I’ll add ! The Dictionary of Angels and Fallen Angels for sure, I’d also add some theological books (all of them) and fairytales like The Child of Gold and the Child of Silver (a fairytale from Africa but I don’t remember where exactly ;;) that they don’t really know about ? I’d also add more thrillers and a mediatheque side to it, with vinyls and VHS/DVD (because one day they’ll own a tv. 

[nemfrog]

Frogs and frog-like friend. Allen K. Crypt of Cthulhu. #26. 1984. “A pulp thriller and theological journal.” Cover.

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