#this book was also recommended to me which also kind of forces me to finish it bc they're gonna ask why i didn't like it

[sofipitch]

There are two wolves inside me: one that thinks I should dnf any book I don't like because it is a waste of my time to not read something I enjoy, the other wolf wants to finish the book so that I can be a well informed hater

[dailydragons]

I am not immune to this propaganda…

Do you like long fantasy series, but are tired of authors never finishing them?

Do you like interesting magic systems?

Do you like when characters form intense even psychic bonds with animal companions?

Do you like your heart getting ripped out of your chest and then stuffed back in full to bursting and but then ripped out again to get stomped on but it turns out you like that too uhhh let's call it... intense yearning

Do you like dragons? Of course you do, why else would you be on this blog!

WELL DO I HAVE THE BOOK SERIES FOR YOU!

The Realm of the Elderlings is a 16-book series is comprised of four trilogies and a quartet. All of which have been finished. Yes that's right, Robin Hobb saw other authors who can't seem to finish their multi-book fantasy epics and said "I will finish mine 4 different times to show you it's incredibly easy actually." She also has written multiple other series (some under the pen name Megan Lindholm), set in different universes.

So, where to start?

The components of RotE are:

The Farseer Trilogy

The Liveship Traders Trilogy

The Tawny Man Trilogy

The Rain Wild Chronicles

Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

The three bolded trilogies above are told from the perspective of FitzChivalry Farseer, one of the main/major characters in this universe and my eternal blorbo. The Liveship Traders trilogy and Rain Wild Chronicles are told from several points of view, and happen in chronological order between the series above and flesh out the worldbuilding, lore, history, etc.

For the most complete look at the universe, you can of course read everything. However if you want to stick with just one character, you can read the three bolded trilogies only. And of course, if you don't want to commit to a metric ton of words either way, you can just read the first trilogy and see what you think. Though I do think the levels of joy/pain/adoration increase with each work as you get more invested in the characters, of course.

OR. You can in fact read the Liveship Traders trilogy or the Rain Wild Chronicles quartet completely independently of the others. I actually started with Rain Wild Chronicles because those books have the highest concentration of dragons--it was actually a follower of this blog who recommended them to me, and I decided to jump into those rather than commit to The Whole Series (which at the time was only 13 books not 16). But I loved the writing style and wanted to learn more about the world, so got into the rest, and now I actually think the Rainwilds books are the weakest of the bunch (though I still enjoyed them initially)!

But You're Following This Blog, DailyDragons, So Here's The Part Of The Pitch You're Actually Invested In

Now I will be up front that you don't get many dragons in the first trilogy. There are a kind of dragons that appear at the end but dragons are not the main focus of this one. However Hobb learns from her mistakes about not including tons of dragons in her fantasy world and you get more in the next parts of the series.

The Liveship books deal with sea serpents and dragons in very interesting ways I don't want to spoil, though it's a slow build. But VERY fascinating reveals into the dragon's biology, life history, and magic.

The plot of the later half of the Tawny Man Trilogy revolves around dealing with how the world of this story used to have dragons but they have practically gone extinct. Less direct contact with dragons but still a dragon-centric last book.

Rainwilds is chock full of dragons. Including as POV characters. Can't complain about lack of dragons here at all.

Fitz & The Fool Trilogy is lighter on the dragons at first and then they show up en force at the end. Ta da!

anyway please read these books and join me in my eternal suffering. wait, suffering? nevermind who said that. shhh. it's fine. you will love fitzchivalry farseer. you will love the fool. you will never be the same again.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #53 – Binti by Nnedi Okarafor

This is one of those works that has been vaguely on my radar for years and years now – I have entirely lost track of the number of places I’ve seen it recommended as some of the best or most original science fiction of the 2010s. So when my hold finally came in on it, I went in more or less blind – which was, frankly, a fatal mistake. I bounced harder off of this than I have very nearly anything I can remember – if it was any longer I probably wouldn’t have bothered finishing the story. I got the whole trilogy as a compendium, and I’m certainly not going to force myself through the rest of it. Which is a shame, because there are plenty of original ideas in there, but (to me, at least) it’s an absolutely brutal failure of form and execution.

The story follows the eponymous Binti, a prodigy and savant in mathematics and the quasi-magical ‘harmonizing’ – creation and manipulation of electric currents. At age 16, she received accepted into the planet-spanning Oomza University and, despite the clear disapproval of her family and her people’s traditional isolationism, she runs away from home and aboard an interstellar transport to take her away. But when the ship is attacked by the Medusae – an alien species with a grudge against the university – a personal keepsake that turns out to be a powerful ancient relic allow her to survive when every other passenger is slaughtered where they stand – and eventually even communicate with the aliens who have seized the ship. She learns that they attacked as part of a plan to steal back their leader’s stinger, and convinces them to let her be their ambassador and attempt to get it through negotiation with the university administration instead. After she proves her willingness to argue on their behalf, they agree – and once they arrive at the university, the administration does as well. Both she and the young Medusae she forged something of a friendship with are welcomed as students, and she has to reckon with the dramatic changes being tested and healed by the medusae caused in her. Fin.

That is much more of a plot summary than I usually write for these things, but I guess my first big issue with the story is just that that’s basically everything that happens in the book? This feels like it could be quite easily cut down to a tight, compelling short story – or else expanded into a full novel, with enough space to give things time to breathe and allow for foreshadowing with more subtlety than a sledgehammer to the face. As is, the story feels both kind of meandering and like the plot beats are a first draft that never had the space to go back and add any real interest or surprise to them.

Which would honestly have been far more forgivable if not for the prose. This is shelved as young adult but in terms of sentence complexity and the way things are phrased it honestly feels closer to middle grade? Or, at least, every sentence was very simple and very explicit and direct, in a way that I quickly found clunky and then intensely grating to read. A friend described it as reading like it was translated from a different language, which doesn’t seem to be the case but I honestly wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Everything is also just thematically very convenient, I guess? Not even that the random relic Binti found in the sand as a child and keeps as a good luck charm turns out to be a hyper-advanced technological plot device, but that for unclear reasons the otjize dye that she (and the very real Namibian Himba ethnic group she’s a member of) use to plait and colour hair is to the Medusae a miraculous panacea which heals scars none of their own technology (capable of creating interspecies hybrids and inducing mutations with a single injection) could touch. Which is a level of thematic bluntness that’s just much more fitting for a children’s story than what I went into this expecting or hoping for.

I could go on, but there’s not really any point – to be positive, the worldbuilding hinted at is intriguing and evocative like absolutely everyone says it is. The whole reading experience was just a terrible failure of marketing, I think – I can’t recall the last time I read a book I ostensibly should have liked that is quite so forcefully Not For Me. Which is odd, because I actually quite enjoyed the other novella of Okorafor I read. But then, Remote Control was written six years later and for an adult audience.

[ipsl0re]

2024 in 52 games

I maintain a list of every game I complete- get to the point where I see the end credits roll.

Partway through this year, I realised I’d surpassed my previous record for how many i can complete in one year (26), and decided, with the uncomfortable amounts of time I’ve had to fill this year, to go for an all-time max. That number reached 40 near the end of November, and a subsequent sprint brought me here: to a game a week, 52 completed.

Here’s the list, and below that, my top ten.

Bold- I recommend it.

Italics- I enjoyed it.

(honourable mention to all games in italics that didn’t make the list. It was close!)

Monster Roadtrip

Book Of Hours

Misericorde: Volume 1

Settlemoon

Cult of the Lamb

Fight Knight

Cureocity

Venba

Roboquest

Buckshot Roulette

Slay the Princess

Akin

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

Minami Lane

Bad End Theatre

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley

Sheepy: A Short Adventure

Portal

Essays on Empathy

Kinitopet

Spiritfarer

Cobalt Core

In Stars And Time

Dicey Dungeons

Sifu

Pepper grinder

Mediterranea Inferno

Ender Lilies: quietus of the knights

Cassette Beasts

Borderlands: The Pre-sequel

Live A Live

Bloodless

Clickolding

Sunshine Heavy Industries

Artic Eggs

Bad North

Horizon Chase 2

I Am Your Beast

Midnight Ramen

Lookouts

Project Wingman

A Year Of Springs

Gravity Circuit

Disco Elysium

Gris

Children of the Sun

Awaria

Neo: The World Ends With You

Resonance of the Ocean

Ib

Serre

Detective Beebo: Night at the Mansion

Top 10:

These are not ranked- though I do have a favourite, as you’ll see.

1. Book of Hours

Only finally finished it at the start of the year after playing for four months- it can’t be accused of lacking in content! Hush House is vast and full of fascinating mysteries, both physical and historical. (It’s also very Cornish, which is fun.)

The gameplay cycle of reading, learning, classifying, and using the knowledge to read ever more complex tomes really immerses you into the life of an occult librarian. Once you’ve heard the secret histories: “well, there just doesn’t seem to be anything else worth hearing.”

2. Bloodless

There is little here that wasn’t meticulously designed. Genius combat that always keeps you on the back foot and insanely good art direction that works in tandem with the hyper-defensive combat to help tell a great story on the dynamics of violence. That makes it sound very grim and serious- and I can’t pretend that it’s not when it needs to be- but Tomoe is one of my favourite characters, the warrior idols plentiful side content, and the geography of Bakugawa just a delight to explore. There is so much here to love and it breaks my heart that so few people have played this.

Please give it a look.

3. Fight Knight

I didn’t think a game like this would be made- technologically (a 3D game in gamemaker? Are they mad?) or from a design perspective. It’s a collection of old school Zelda style puzzle dungeons, with grid based movement, a save system about pushing your luck, and combat that puts you into some kind of corridor fighting game? Also you punch people to talk. And… to do everything else, too.

Despite, or perhaps in some places because of all that, I’d also consider it the most epic game I played this year, with some really touching writing. Huh.

You won’t find anything else like it. On that note…

4. Artic Eggs

I thought a game like this would exist even less- a… Post? Pre? Apocalyptic setting where you fry eggs and all sorts of other things, for all sorts of people. And a dolphin. But I can’t say I’ve stopped thinking about it since frying my first egg: I mean, could you fry an egg on mount Everest?

5. Misericorde: volume 1

A visual novel, in monochrome, without a single decision, isn’t a great sales pitch. But when it’s a 10-hour tour de force of characterisation in a murder mystery set in a medieval yorkshire abbey- and with such stunning monochrome art & 104 tracks of incredible trip-hop… well, there are few games I can recommend more heartily.

6. Disco Elysium

Look, this game will (and has already begun to) shape the entire art of games. And for good reason! The twenty-seven voices in a certain double-yefreitor’s head (if i’m counting the ancient reptilian, limbic, and necktie right) have such incredible interplay, and would make interacting with the dullest characters and situations engaging. Not that such a crutch is ever used- every storyline and three-dimensional character involved in it is often painfully human.

Few games will get you thinking about so much in its world and ours.

Also, heads up: don’t pay for the game. The actual devs don’t get a penny from the sales any more.

7. Live A Live

If Disco Elysium is what happens when RPGs are focused into telling a very specific kind of story, Live A Live is what happens when one RPG somehow manages to tell multiple totally different ones. Every story brings something new, (except prehistory. Prehistory contributes nothing.) and by spreading its efforts across all these different narrative and gameplay conventions, Live A Live stands out as almost ten times the game of many of its contemporaries.

8. Ib

Ib doesn’t alternate between being cute and being a horror game. Somehow, it pulls off both at the same time. I don’t know how but I do know it makes for a very effective experience. Ib, Garry, and Mary have such wonderful interplay, and as you explore the galleries, solve the puzzles, and lay eyes upon the sheer variety of Guertena’s works, they all bring a lot of character that helps ground the frights and bring the humanity to the quiet moments.

I’ve already got four of the endings in this game, and no doubt i’ll be going back for the rest.

9. Slay the Princess

On the subject of many endings and paths (in the woods, at the end of that path…), a game that takes that to the extreme: in the form of another horror game, with just as much heart. With intricately branching paths, there’s so much to see and hear (Nichole Goodnight is stellar with everything from angry beasts to ascendant gods, and Jon Sims, well, he needs no introduction). It’s beautiful, it’s horrifying, it’s probably made me laugh the hardest of any game this year. It is a love story.

10. Detective Beebo: Night at the Mansion.

If you play anything from this year, let it be this. The best time loop game this year- and that’s even when stacked against Cobalt Core and fellow love story Slay The Princess. Private detective Oliver Beebo is a delight to see in action, whether he’s solving puzzles, reliving traumas, or being flirted with by a hot guy. It twists the established conventions of everything it touches in ways that are touching and new- a relationship that can be seen as five or as one, brief horror used to carefully set stakes, foreshadowing aplenty merged with a unique take on player and character knowledge, and utterly incredible characters that are allowed to unfold with unparalleled care- some more than once each!

Maybe it’s recency bias making me go this far- but gods, this is a high note to end the year on.

Try it! Give it one more chance.

[guardian-angle22]

Nobody tagged me in this (I just found it randomly in the book tag), but I feel like TALKING ABOUT BOOKS! and I wanna hear from my friends about their reading. so! Here we are!

Last book I…

BOUGHT:

Cooling the Tropics by Hi'ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart. This is a nonfiction book that uses the lens of refrigeration and ice (and its various food forms like frozen drinks/ice cream/etc) to talk about the ways Hawai'i was colonized and native Hawaiians were forced to assimilate. Have not read it yet, but itching to pick it up during this summer season!

BORROWED:

I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself by Marisa Crane. I have the e-book for this checked out from the library right now. Currently not super far into it, but it's about a world in which "wrongdoers" are given a second shadow (or third, fourth, etc) as punishment and forced to be publicly shamed (and discriminated against). We follow a main character who has lost her wife in childbirth and the baby was given a second shadow immediately. It's written in first person narration as the MC speaking to her dead wife.

WAS GIFTED:

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. My sister gave me this book for Christmas! I read it back in January and it's a fantastic middle grade/YA story set on a spaceship that has left earth right before a comet is about to destroy it. Follows a young girl who wants to be a storyteller for future generations but when she wakes up from stasis on the ship, a cult has taken over and they want to purge humanity of its stories and history.

GAVE/LENT TO SOMEONE:

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. A friend of mine was looking for some short reads, so I lent him a stack of various novellas. This is one of my favorites! This is the first book in a series following children who have gone into portal worlds and come back. While they're seeking to find their own specific door back to the world they're meant to be in, they stay at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.

STARTED:

Do What Godmother Says by L.S. Stratton. I started listening to this on audio the other day! Shanice has inherited a spooky painting from her grandmother. As she starts to learn about the Harlem Renaissance painter who made it, she also begins to wonder if maybe the painting is haunted.

FINISHED:

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray. This is the third book in a series so I won't go into the plot, but it was a solid continuation of the story - I read all 500+ pages in one day! The first book, The Diviners, introduces a group of characters living in 1920's NYC as they're discovering their various supernatural abilities, trying to solve a crime, and save all of humanity from evil.

GAVE 5 STARS:

El Deafo by Cece Bell. This is a middle grade graphic memoir about CeCe's experience of growing up as the only hearing impaired child at her school and in her neighborhood. It was adorably illustrated with all the characters as rabbits. This was definitely written for a younger audience but I think anyone can enjoy and learn from it!

GAVE 2 STARS:

Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy. This was a book I picked up specifically for a vacation in January so I could read a book set on a cruise ship while on a cruise ship... While it kind of fulfilled that for me, it also surprised me with unnecessary on-page abuse of a child. The "thriller" aspects of this book were not at all interesting. There were also too many POV changes throughout. 2 stars. Do not recommend.

DIDN’T FINISH:

Stiff by Mary Roach. I DNF'd this on audio specifically. I just was not digging the voice of the narrator. I could see myself trying to read this again in physical form at some point in the future.

Tagging any of my friends that I have ever chatted with about books (but no pressure as always!): @alrightbuckaroo @carlos-tk @lemonlyman-dotcom @beautifulhigh @tailoredshirt @heartstringsduet @dotsunflowers @mikibwrites @three-drink-amy @rmd-writes @liminalmemories21 & OPEN TAG to anyone who wants to do this!! TAG ME PLEASE so I can see all the fun books!

[morrigans-umbrella]

putting my english major to work

AKA

unit 919 favourite (semi popular so you’re not forced to google them all) classics headcanons

starting off strong with morrigan. for reasons i hope are evident i think she is absolutely a gothic girlie, she’s probably got an affinity for poe. i’d say her favourite is the raven, though unlike most poe fan girls i don’t see her as someone who is able to yap endlessly about why she likes him. she’s quite reserved with her interests after all. i imagine she’s capable of giving solid but simple reasons to justify herself when asked (pressed) by her friends but otherwise keeps her thoughts internal.

cadence, this might be a hear me out, has an adoration for oscar wilde. my first thought was dracula actually but as someone who is perpetually cursed to be forgotten i think she’d enjoy the way wilde writes. she finds society frivolous and rather stupid, and wilde is prompt to agree with her on this. i’d say her favourite text is the importance of being earnest, as it’s possibly the most ridiculous piece of nonsense ever, entirely on purpose.

hawthorne was a hard one, as i don’t think he willingly reads anything that he could preemptively deem “boring”. i had to shake my brain like a maraca to try think of something easy and entertaining enough to keep his white boy adhd brain locked in long enough for him to intake it. the conclusion drawn was that i think he could survive through three men in a boat (sincerest apologies she’s a little niche). i found it funny enough, i think hawthorne is capable of switching off his brain and blindly enjoying it.

anah. well. i adore her greatly and i was a little in between. i think she’d ADORE little women. i think she has incredibly strong opinions on all the film remakes and could give you an extensive breakdown of the pros and cons. however. i also think the only CORRECT choice with her is pride and prejudice. she seems like she enjoys a good love story that has her giggling and kicking her legs it just befits her.

now, archan. if you ask he will lie to your face, he will very confidently say the most pretentious book he can think of. this is because his favourite classic dodie smith’s i capture the castle. which isn’t embarrassing by any means, but it is a very silly romance novel (i am strongly passionate about it). i think he likes to read casually more than obsessively and it’s a relatively easy read, and if you get the right copy the cover makes you look very distinguished in public.

mahir was harder as i had to test my knowledge of various translations across the world. he’s definitely a poetry type, i think he likes collections of poems as opposed to large brick novels. poems are more entertaining to translate and test your skill far more. i think he’d like mahmoud darwish (who is unfortunately NOT a classical author but i wanted to bring him up anyway), so i’m marking his as leaves of grass by walt whitman. which i strongly recommend to all poetry enjoyers out there. he definitely would get into translation purism beef online if he could. i know it in my heart.

so francis was kind of hard. i was actually tempted to be sneaky and pick an old recipe book as his favourite without specifying BUT i concluded through my non biased perfectly objective opinions he’s an agatha christie enjoyer. poisoning and cooking are sort of born of the same mother. to me at least. his favourite is dumb witness, as it features a brilliant dog. full disclaimer that’s the one i am presently reading, so i don’t know everything that occurs in it, but i know in my heart he would enjoy this.

thaddea was hard, man. i expended my one easy ish to read comedy on hawthorne and i refuse to repeat. then i remembered treasure island. which i also have not finished (someone stole my copy when i was 50 pages in). i don’t actually think she banks too hard on humour to get through books, she more so is interested in action and adventure. i actually think thaddea enjoys to read, she just has a hard time keeping herself focussed and finding the time to sit down and enjoy it, so she probably leans toward audiobooks.

lambeth. well. i opted against the one i initially was thinking of not because it wouldn’t fit just because i considered the discussion that surrounds it and concluded i didn’t feel compelled to dig into that here. she’s definitely a prose enjoyer, she has probably the most “refined” taste save for maybe mahir (i like to believe they talk books together frequently). after much consideration i concluded on black beauty. on account of the fact that it’s my (second) favourite and i think she would appreciate how gorgeous the craftsmanship is.

[pinkyjulien]

I finished No Coincidence and I have some THOUGHTSS

Heads up for potential spoilers 👁👄👁

You can read my condensed, spoiler light impression on Twitter also 👀

GODDDD.... What a book man fhjfg

Gotta say, the start was a bit slow? To me at least. I wasn't too interested in the individual characters, who I thought were another group of gonks like Edgerunners

At one point, I did not want to even continue; the romances between Ron and Melina, and Zor and Aya felt forced, "he's a boy she's a girl" kind of deal. "They're around each others so of course they fuck"

A lot of moments around Melina and Aya were focused on their physics, how sexy they were and how the men were attracted to them; they made it a force and used it to their advantages of course, but this felt like I was reading an old book, yknow?

Aya being the poor girl forced to sell her body to live, and Melina being the sexy corpo doing everything to stay young. It's like, aren't we past those tropes for female characters in 2024 deadass??

They eventually grew on me as we dived more in the story, they got way more interesting once the book stopped focusing on how the men felt around them; when the book stopped using the two female characters as tools to move the male characters backstories and trauma

(making it clear its nothing against Milena and Aya, as I said I really liked them and the main gang in general, just a bit of eeeh heteronormative writing, boring to me)

Once the romance "build up" was over, I really got into the story and the characters; the dynamic between the group was interesting 👁👄👁 You can tell there's more to it all, you can tell it's No coincidence if they're together

Even if you can sniff the twist coming, they still hit HARD AND GOOD, made me look away from the book with an audible Oooooooh multiple times

I did not expect Albert to be present throughout the whole book, but I loved the deep dive into the netrunning word and the cyberspace in general oof... made my brain goes bbrrrbbrrrrrr it's so good 👁👄👁 without getting too spoilery, Albert's storyline was probably my favorite; that finale is insane, got me on edge, both fascinated and terrified

ANOTHER THING I LOVED. Seeing familiar faces! I loved to see Pepe, Dum Dum, and hear about Royce. Dum Dum actually have a big place in the book, which was fun!

We also get to see Dum Dum friends, or should I say Dum Dum's partners? I really doubt they'd categorize their relationship, but that trio obviously love each others in the most *Maelstromish* way

Karla and Dixie were fun characters, adding new flavors to what we already knew and saw of the Maelstromer gang 🤌

Talking about gangs, we also get to meet with Animals, who have actual animal features in the book compared to the game! Tusks, fangs and whiskers, with actual animal head even 👁👁 wish we had that in game

Knowing everything I know, I might want to revisit it again in the future 👀 cause its def a book you wanna re read once you get all the keys AAHHH

GOOD SHIT GOOD SHIT. Recommend it if you wanna have more of Night City and of the Cyberpunk universe ⭐️

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (11/17/24)

I'm back! And hopefully I'll keep up with this once again.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (★★★★★, reread)

Ostensibly, I was reading this for my thesis, and I was keeping a close eye out for any way that Novik uses language and magic to signify power. Things like the incantation track being the most popular and certain languages being more valued. However, nothing can keep me distracted from El and Orion for long. I absolutely adore their romance, and they're such fun characters on their own too. Reading for my thesis allowed me to really get into the nitty-gritty of the worldbuilding, my second favorite part of this book, and even while annotating and taking notes I burned through this in only a few hours overall. As always, I highly recommend it!

More under the cut

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (★★★★☆, reread)

I only vaguely remembered this book from my childhood, but it remains a cute story about beauty under the surface. I think that thematically it's a bit more heavy-handed than Levine's other works, but it's still sweet. Aza is a character that is both kind and selfish, and her desire for beauty is one many young girls can relate to. The whole concept of a singing kingdom is lovely, though it does contradict Char's account from Ella Enchanted where he claims they are largely silent outside their sings. I liked the romance for the first part, but Ijori turns on Aza too quickly for my taste, and I know it's a children's book but Ivy getting off scot-free when she nearly caused a rebellion and attempted murder doesn't sit right.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (★★★★★, reread)

I mean, do I really need to say more about this book? This reread was as an audiobook, as I had a friend hostage in the car for a road trip and seized on the chance to make her listen. I had as much fun as I ever do, and the audiobook is fun. It's narrated by an older English woman, and her attempts at a Welsh accent for Howl are...not great, but her voice for Calcifer was spot-on and humorous.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (★★★★★, reread)

Another audiobook I held my friend hostage for, I stand by my assertions that this is the best Cinderella retelling out there. Ella's obedience is supernatural, but her abusive family, tough social situation, and refusal to bow her head are all things that occur perfectly naturally. Her romance with Char develops naturally and is just absolutely adorable, probably one of my earliest romances personally. I will say that for some reason they had a prepubescent narrator, even though Ella is 15/16 for the majority of the book, which, while I got used to it, was quite annoying.

The Squire's Tale by Gerald Morris (★★★★☆, reread)

Yes, another reread. This one I've been working on for a while, and the influx of work I've been doing with Arthurian legend spurred me on. This book may seem a bit quick-paced and disjointed, but Morris does a great job of mimicking the style of Arthurian legend itself and the work of fantasy authors such as T. H. White. Despite being written by a man in the 90s with an almost entirely male cast, the story does its best to respect women and include a variety of characters that, even if exaggerated, rarely fall into stereotypes.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (CR: 29%)

I am being forced to take another go at this book by my thesis. I wouldn't say I dislike it, but I'm not enjoying it either. There are hints of things going on, but I need more than hints, and the main character is resolutely not picking up on any of them. The House itself is incredibly interesting, but I need more than statue descriptions to keep me engaged. I should be finished with this by the middle of the week, so wish me luck.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (CR: 4%)

This is a bit of a last-minute read for my book club. Despite the fact that I've barely read anything, I'm enjoying it so far. Miryem is already my favorite character; I love a ruthless woman. I also love that this is an explicitly stated Jewish fantasy, though I can't tell yet if it's set in our world or a world adjacent to ours. I'm excited to keep reading!

[keyishacolecat]

do you have any book recommendations? pls i need lots 💙💙

this is such a loaded question friend. but lucky for u, i am procrastinating assignments, my take out has yet to arrive, and i just finished another book!

horror fic has been my choice for the last several books

the centre by ayesha manazir siddiqi is about a young Pakistani woman living in the UK. she's a translator for Urduru films. language and translation are central to this book. people are becoming fluent in a matter of weeks in complex languages.... the centre is gorgeous if not entirely mysterious, magical even. but whats the catch?? beautifully written. vivid details. anisa is a flawed, honest, and genuine feeling mc, as are the people in her life. i just finished it a couple hours ago n i miss my girls.

slewfoot by brom is set in 17th century Connecticut. our protag, Abitha, is not from this town but she does he best to adhere to the Puritan standards, if not for her well being, than that of her husband's. something stirs in the outskirts of the village, in the forest and beyond. she finds help from an unlikely source while also fostering a deep inner power of her own. these characters felt so well thought out, the writing is magnetic and the action is well paced. it puts so many preconceived notions right on their head. i loved this book and can't wait to read brom's other novel, the child thief, a retelling of peter pan and the lost boys!

sister, maiden, monster by lucy a. synder was oh so gay and oh so cosmically horrendous. this is like h.p. lovecraft wasn't a weird racist. this is like if biblically accurate angels were once just women in love. this is horrifying, visceral, and relevant to our COVID world. i was gawking at so many of the details. there are so many monster themes actually, it's perfect. the story is told through 3 povs of 3 different women. and we love women! and horror! i didn't expect to pick this one up but I'm so glad i did.

mary: an awakening of terror by nat cassidy do u know what it's like to be virtually invisible? forgotten? disaffected? do u know the pure joy of having a precious collection, adding to it over time, and it being almost ur only reason for living anymore?? then you're a lot like mary. and mary is a lot like plenty of women who get the chance to live beyond adolescence, who are cast out by society-- deemed invaluable. mary is utterly lost at a time in her life she feels she should have it all figured out. she goes back to her hometown, an ambiguous small town in the middle of the desert, and some unlikely characters help her piece things back together. i finished this book feeling so close to mary. we are friends now. there is mystique, horror, fables, myths, bad guys, mysterious architecture, and well mary is not the most reliable narrator. loved this one too.

the last house on needless street by catriona ward i had no idea where this book was going and i loved piecing the narrative together through several characters and their povs. it forces u to confront ur own biases regarding mental health. u are sympathetic to the characters in the most painful, heart wrenching ways. there is murder. there is mystery. there is missing children. there are cats. this book surprised me and it was fun to have to find a couple reddit threads to be sure i was understanding the story correctly. i felt like i read this kind of fast! which is always fun too.

brother by ania ahlborn this one pissed me off a bit. but in a good way because i was so deeply invested. this one is set in Appalachia. i'm not one for stereotypes, especially bc i think Appalachians have a bad rep and it's of no fault of their own. that being said, the insular feel of the book and the absolute claustrophobia those mountains create in this story were like a character in it of itself. our protag, michael, knows there's something beyond. he's seen them on colorful postcards. but his own mind and his own heart seem utterly trapped here. this one is heartbreaking. it's horrifying. and it'll make u dizzy from the amount of times u change ur mind. excited to read her other novel, Seed, because this one stuck with me so much!

a couple honorable mentions that fit the theme:

the vegetarian by han kang korean food. infidelity. art. nightmares. inexplicable mindfucks! this story was scary because it felt very.. possible? no monsters this time. no spells. just... the mind deteriorating. could happen to any of us.

a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers what if girlbossing is just a quick pivot from sociopathy?? what if the crimes are so much more gratifying than say, fame or fortune or even love?? women can be sociopaths too, you know!! this one is fun bc the protag is crazy and it's fun to slip into these characters. cathartic even. omg did i mention, she's a foodie too! just like me :-)

[rocketturtle4]

Be My Favorite, Lets Reflect

Okaaaay I’ve decided this is happening today after all because who knows what the combined power of Only Friends and Laws of Attraction is about to do to my brain.

Full Disclosure: I’m an optimist and I’m easy to please. If I finish a show, that typically means I liked it. This final episode could have been an actual disaster and I probably would have given this show 8/10 and watched it again in the future.

Tagging the people who have been watching along with me, in case you wish to read my final thoughts, getting to be a part of this experience with you has been an absolute delight no matter how late you joined! @shouldiusemyname @thegalwhorants @plantsarepeopletoo @lurkingshan @pandasmagorica @twig-tea @waitmyturtles @benkaaoi @telomeke @dribs-and-drabbles @stuffnonsenseandotherthings @clairificusrex @williamrikers @grapejuicegay @dropthedemiurge @bengiyo

With all that said here goes

Themes that felt unfinished

The whole thing with any and all parents, but especially Piseangs felt somewhat unresolved/glossed over.

I have no idea what the point of the Kwan/Not storyline was??

Themes that felt reasonably resolved but could have been pushed more

Looking back I kind of like that the fighting for rights storyline was most strongly played out through Max. This was consistent all the way through and while I do definitely think this show could have chosen a different direction and taken a stronger stance, I’m not mad about this.

I genuinely think that the fact Kawi tried and then DIDN’T LIKE the rollercoaster after episode 10’s EXTREMELY ON THE NOSE POINTING (apparently this one still invokes strong emotions huh) kind of make’s ace!kawi pretty close to canon, they clearly still have sex which is totally fine in my books but like, my dude is ace.

Where have I landed overall?

Using my unnecessarily lengthy 5 category system of rating and review this show ended up at 92% 21st out of 82 BLs 12th out of Thai BLs, Greater Recommendation  

I want to be clear here, 92% is HIGH and I loved this show A LOT, the ending very much included. Also I normally wait longer to give something a rating so this could waver but likely only by a couple of percent either way

What Was My Takeaway? -It’s about Control

Okay so this is definitely influenced at least in part by my readings of @lurkingshan (here) and @waitmyturtles (here) posts and I loved how the framing of the serenity prayer in Shan’s takeaway (original post by @shortpplfedup here) lined up perfectly with my thoughts so I will put that in here

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,  The courage to change the things I cannot accept,  And the wisdom to know the difference

So much of this show was about Kawi learning that control and change isn’t resolved through force but instead through trust and patience. In the first half of the show, Kawi tries again and again to alter things into perfection, and he fails each time. He learns that only his own actions can be controlled, not even his own feelings are entirely within his grasp. He learns to hold on to the things that matter and let go of what can not be.

He father dies but he gets a chance to see him again, and to convey his feelings sincerely building up the relationship before the end.

He learned that even with a second chance, some things can’t be changed, and no matter how hard he tried his dad still died.

He gains a beautiful found family, so different from the family he was trying to build with Pear before he understood himself.

I feel like episodes 10 & 12 dragged my right down into my feels about the things control can change. Because to me, everything that happened in the theme park in episode 12, juxtaposed in my head against everything that happened in the theme park in episode 10 highlighted how much change control can wrought.

In episode 12 we have the shifted perspective, Piseang has come back, Piseang is panicked and fearful and Kawi clocks this immediately, and what does he do, he stays completely calm, in this same time, but in the original timeline (ep10), Kawi is lacking all control. Max has pointed out to him that Piseang probably want’s sex and Kawi is NOT SURE how he feels about that. He tries to regain some equilibrium by taking them out but refusing to ride and ends up more and more prickly and uncertain at Piseangs every nudge.

Opposite this we have our episode 12 timeline where our focus is all different, Kawi is pulling Piseang along with him and encouraging him to accept the future even as they enjoy a lost moment of the past. A moment now filled with much greater joy for both of them because with the pressure gone, Kawi is ready to face anything if it makes Piseang happy.

I have seen some interesting thoughts about Kawi being affected by the knowledge of his possible death, and maybe this is it, but to me this change felt different. For some people it’s easier to be strong when someone else is being weak, because we can’t always be strong for ourselves, sometimes we have to be strong for others. Kawi’s focus in this second timeline was outward rather than inward and it fundamentally changed the experience for both of them.

Piseang hadn’t really been weak much in their relationship, even in the most developed future where they aren’t together, he is there, steady and waiting for Kawi to need him.

In this episode Kawi had to be steady and this put them on more equal footing than ever before because Kawi has grown so much. We have seen his change, his arc was immense and, to me at least, immensely satisfying. Getting to see this Kawi in episode 12, the one who is calm and sure in the face of his partners uncertainty highlighted how these two will work and grow together in the future we had already seen.

It made me like episode 10 more

(I have specific thoughts about consciousness and whether or not the latter scenes in ep10 occur with Kawi’s knowledge of future!Piseang laid out at the bottom of this very interesting thread. In short(ish), my takeaway is that the memories of Kawi’s second day at the amusement day are dormant but present in Kawi’s mind, influencing his actions. To me when he reaches out to Piseang at the restaurant towards the end of episode 10, after Piseang has travelled back to the future

this is an extension of the reaching out we see Kawi doing throughout episode 12

This gif was posted by @wanderlust-in-my-soul as a part of this post which is all the times Kawi and Piseang hold hands in ep 12 (often with Kawi reaching out). Even if Kawi doesn’t consciously know it, he is influenced by the events of episode 12 in the latter parts of epiosde 10, this also makes me feel better about the episode 10/11 sex scene for the record)

It made me like episode 11 more (and I already liked this one!)

It made me glad to have been so wrong about where I thought episode 11 and 12 would go.

Because the finale drew us back in to the core of the show. It let go of the things that could not be finished and brought together the things that could. Making us the audience sit with the very themes Kawi had learned.

@dropthedemiurge actually put it so beautifully that I’ve just stolen (and slightly paraphrased) their words straight out of this post

“the final episode was not here to yell, but instead to speak softly and soothe your worries until you find the courage to live and stay smiling, content with discovering the right way to live”

I was left warm and fuzzy, content and satisfied, I could never be mad at a show for that.

[paintedbutton]

2024 Recap Tag

@writernopal tagged me in this, and it came at just the right time since I didn't manage doing an actual reflection post before the end of the year (working between christmas and new years is always weird that way for me).

2024 Accomplishments

Let's start with the big one, obviously: I finished and shared Worthy of a King! I'm incredibly happy that I accomplished this. Sharing my boys with the world and having people love them as much as I do was absolutely something special. <3

Beside that, I wrote a silly little pirate story inspired by a silly little song just because I wanted to. That also feels like it matters a lot.

I managed to figure out the vague shape the Queen's Guard series is going to take. I always said it was gonna be somewhat like the Paladin books by T. Kingfisher - interconnected standalones. It's not quite that, obviously, but I'm looking forward to exploring this world more.

All in all I wrote about 82k words in 2024, and that's with about 4 months that I took as planned breaks in between. I feel pretty comfortable with that number.

I also had a pretty active year, non-writing wise. So many concerts, festivals, markets, etc. This isn't in any way writing related but I feel like every year I've been chipping a way at prioritising myself and the things that make me happy more. I finally managed to get rid of a pretty big burden in my work-life that's made me breathe a lot easier. (It probably says a lot that I haven't had a crying breakdown about work this year ... for the first time. In fact, the last time I broke down crying was when I thought they wouldn't let me give up the position they forced me into. Damn.)

2025 Writing Goals

Again, the big one: Shadow of a Queen is my one serious goal for 2025. I wrote the first draft of WoaK in six months in 2023 and then took a couple months break before starting on revising it, and that felt like a pretty good workflow for me, so the goal is pretty much the same: Write draft 1 until the summer (I am probably aiming for August, here, because June and July are already packed full with other activities). See where we go after.

(Re)establish a writing routine that works for me. With the break, I've kind of fallen out of it and I'm having a bit of a hard time getting started again right now. I know I'll get there, but kicking my own ass into gear is one of the first goals I'm gonna have to achieve this year.

Figure out a writing setup that is future proof. I'm a Word girlie. I've been a Word girlie my whole life, and while I've looked into dedicated novel writing programs before (it's kind of hard not to stub your foot on Scrivener at some point in any writing community you stumble into), I've never felt the need to dive deeper. But with AI growing ever more ubiquitous (and all the big companies pushing it lbr), I at least want to give my options another look. Maybe I'll stay a Word girlie, idk. I want it to be an informed decision if I do. Tentative searches so far have turned up a whole lot of browser based bullshit that I do not want, subscription services galore, and nothing that works as a program both on Windows and Android, which I would need because I write on my tablet on the go. Related to that, I might just look into getting a refurbished laptop or something. But we'll see. If you have any recommendations for me to look into, please do send them my way.

I want to be more active on Tumblr again, and on Writeblr specifically. I go through phases with social media where mindless consumption is all I can muster, and I fucking hate it. But I love sharing my stuff and reading other peoples' and doing tag games. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of that.

Not exactly writing related, and a little bit silly: One of my goals for the year is to dress more like a fantasy character. Simply because it makes me happy. And, honestly, I wouldn't mind closet cosplaying my own little guys to be a part of that goal. ;)

Tagging @winterandwords , @malimaywrite and @boundedsea if you all feel like doing it. No pressure though. :)

[copperbadge]

i'm reading all the peter wimsey novels because someone recommended gaudy night and that's how i work, and now i'm up to the nine tailors and just finished murder must advertise (my favorite so far), but i found it really hard to get through have his carcase, which was odd since i loved harriet vane so much in strong poison. even the characters seemed to bugger off at the end of have his carcase instead of tying up all the storylines and sayers seemed disengaged after the first act or two. i liked the parts with peter and harriet, even the two chapters that are 99% cipher, but everything else felt weak. did you enjoy this one/why or why not? do you have a favorite of the wimsey novels other than gaudy night?

I may be inducing a fight by saying this but I think Have His Carcase is one of Sayers' weakest novels, and certainly the weakest of those featuring Harriet Vane. I tried to re-read it recently and couldn't get very far into it, and I'm a huge fan of Sayers. I think it's also a necessary book in order to create a complete story for them -- but I don't know that it's necessary to read it in the modern era, and certainly not necessary to re-read it.

(My other picks for least enjoyable: Five Red Herrings and Nine Tailors, both of which are visibly her attempts to write like Agatha Christie, one of her literary heroes -- and they're not bad books, I just don't like Agatha Christie style "clockwork" mysteries, which tend to sacrifice personality to logistics. I suspect this may have impacted Carcase somewhat. We will come back to this.)

Gaudy Night is actually not my favorite overall -- I think it's one of her best, but Murder Must Advertise is my favorite and in fact the first one I read. Which is hilarious because Peter spends a significant amount of time Not Being Peter Wimsey in it, but it's just such a combination of things I love. Advertising (which Sayers worked in and which she also clearly loved writing about), secret identities, crime rings, a hint of romance, office gossip...

Anyway, Carcase. I think the problem is that to get from Strong Poison to Gaudy Night, there has to be a bridge, and it has to be kind of an unpleasant one, and thus you get Have His Carcase. One of the major points of Harriet's arc is that Sayers wanted to contravene the "damsel rescued by the hero" narrative. Not so much because she believed women should save themselves or not, but because she believed that a relationship based on that kind of inequality, where one partner was grateful (or was expected to be grateful eternally) for being saved, was inherently unhealthy and unsustainable, and it was also a super common narrative at the time she was writing. This reaction to the narrative is most visible in her unfinished novel Thrones, Dominations -- which was finished after her death by Jill Paton Walsh, and I'm not a huge fan of the end product, but I've seen the original manuscript held at Wheaton and it's evident that this was a theme before anyone else took over, it wasn't forced into the plot.

In any case, Sayers had to get Harriet and Peter from victim and rescuer to equal footing, and while Gaudy does a lot of lifting in that regard, it doesn't do enough on its own, there had to be a previous groundwork laid. In a sense I'm glad that the grappling they have to do, which is sensible and intelligently written but also really unromantic, was done in Have His Carcase, so that it doesn't intrude more than briefly into Gaudy Night. Carcase is a lot about Harriet setting boundaries and testing whether Peter will cross them, and Peter reacting (sometimes poorly) to someone challenging him in ways he's unaccustomed to being challenged. Carcase is two people finding out the worst parts of each other so they can work out that they love the reality of each other anyways, which is what they're doing in Gaudy. But we have to witness it in Carcase, which is unpleasant. At least for me.

As she matures as an author and gains more power over how she's published, you can see Sayers trying new things -- after Bellona (another fave) she gets very literary with Strong Poison, and then seems to swing between these kind of torturous attempts at Christie's style (Herrings, Tailors) and incredibly sensitive, emotionally delicate books like Murder Must Advertise and Gaudy Night. Carcase is a weird combination of the two, where she seems to be applying the dispassionate Christie style to a book that wants to be Gaudy Night but can't be.

Anyway, even her less enjoyable books can still be pretty fun, and it's worth it to have books like Murder Must Advertise and Strong Poison, and the thrilling romance of Gaudy Night. But yeah, Carcase is a bit of a slog to get through.

[piratekane]

i read a lot of books in january so i figure that i'd give y'all a quick rundown on what i loved, what was terrible (affectionate), and what was also terrible (derogatory).

top reads:

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid okay, why did no one tell me how good this book was? i knew the show was about music but wasn't super into giving it a watch. i was not expecting the format at all but boy did it set up a compelling story. billy and daisy truly were the bitch4bitch relationship everyone needs. 5 stars

Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennet this is the final installment in the founder trilogy and what. an. ending. the first, Foundryside, was a solid start with a weird plot point at the end but and it picked up in Shorefall with more lore (that i loved) but really blossomed into something amazing in Locklands. the POV changed, the villain evolved, the lore - i love a good magic system, truly i do, and it just came together for me. came for the sapphic romance (of which there is not much in Foundryside) and stayed for the story. would recommend to my cousin. 5 stars

terrible (affectionate):

Yearning by Gun Brooke this was just... okay, so. aliens. aliens and a femme-butch cop (you know the type) and a high-femme librarian (you also know this kind) whose clinical exterior is broken down by the sudden realization that she can be queer because she's actually living in a town filled with descendants of aliens. it was quick and easy and i just kept going, "aliens. fucking aliens." 3 stars (no alien-makeout scene)

terrible (derogatory):

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May i tried to like this one. i really did. Great Gatsby meets Practical Magic isn't my cup of tea but my cousin recommended it and she reads for a living so i said sure. that cousin is uninvited from christmas next year. the pacing was so off and the two main characters were either "edgy" or a wet mop. their romance was terrible (edgy-witch too edgy to be in love) and felt forced. the story either zipped through major plot points that needed work or just. dragged. on. almost did not finish but it would have haunted me not to 1.5 stars

honorable mention:

i read Nevernight by Jay Kristoff again. it's a classic. mia and ash, my favorite murder children. i will read godsgrave posthaste 10 stars

plans for february:

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi i'm reading this one now and i like the premise so far. Samantha Shannon gave it a stamp of approval, hence my willingness to give it a shot. guess we'll see!

Roots of Chaos series by Samantha Shannon a friend just reread A Day of Fallen Night and it's got me longing for 800 page books all over again. might have to just give in

queer fantasies really anything that's queer fantasy. if y'all have recommendations, throw them my way!

okay so that's that, see you again next month!

[vitaminseetarot]

Aquarius Full Moon PAC - General Messages 🖤💗❤️

The full moon in Aquarius is finally here! I hope you're getting the chance to enjoy some sunshine in between these bright moonlit evenings. I sure have had my fill from this last weekend; I got the royal sunburn to prove it! Owo#

(Life lesson: apply sunscreen, then do it AGAIN.)

Aren't you glad we can't get moonburns? One could get burned sitting on the moon, sure, but it's kinder than to send that kind of energy back down to Earth. The moon allows us to see the sun's light without dying, which I can appreciate. But I'm going off on a tangent! Below are three images based on color palette cards I've picked for your reading. I've also added some emoji hearts for additional guidance. Please time all the time you need to select your pile when you're ready.

(1, 2, 3 - images from pixabay, divider from @saradika)

Pile 1. Tahoe Blue + Black Heart

X Wheel of Fortune, 7 of Pentacles, XXI World; Sun - Source, Space (Black), New Moon Gemini - Communication is Key

"I'm curious about my true nature; I seek to understand myself."

I feel such stillness and calm with this pile. You have so much blue present in your pile asides from the palette card! And watery energy too; your moon quote card has a lake on it too! Still yet deep. I'm hearing that this pile is getting a big upgrade to your throat energy. It's for both ways, listening and speaking, but I think speaking is being highlighted here more. This is in order to help you move through a bigger phase of your life that's yet to come. You may be feeling like you're ready to come out of your shell, even if just for a short while. There's a sense of grand change occurring in your external world, something that has been in the background or in the works for a long time has finally begun to culminate during this potent full moon time.

You have have recently closed a big chapter in your life and cleared out the muck. Now it's like you're standing before a canvas and you're ready to paint something new. The lunar force moving now allows a turn of luck to flow towards you like a water wheel. It's also purifying your intentions. When you have the place to be still and concentrate on where you want to go next, things can really quickly line up in your favor. With this extra space, whatever that has been building in the background may finally come out and be seen and heard. There's no resistance to this buildup, or there was resistance but it's been removed through this clearing out. You're being asked to savor this brief time. Not just make use of it, because in a way it's growing on its own, but to actually enjoy where you are right now. To get into the mindset of the person on the 7 pentacles card harvesting their abundance, that all is working out at a good pace.

You're being recommended to journal or write during this phase, perhaps like paragraphs of where you're going next (like a vaunt). I'm also getting vision boards for you would help if you need inspiration, or lyrical songs. I'm getting that communications will help you move into the next stage. This whole reading reminds me of someone who's finally finished the manuscript of their book and is sitting in that serenity of having completed something important. But, dear, that's not the end of it! You still need to bring it out into the world for it to be as evident as you see it in your mind. You still would need to get an agent and submit the manuscript to publishers for review.

Communication is being highlighted here as being that which you need in order to move along. Furthermore, you're being asked to tune into yourself for answers on where you'd like to go next, as no one else can tell you. People don't just go out on the lake for peace and quiet, they go to find a piece of themselves and to tune into that for spiritual guidance. May the boat be your lucky charm this full moon, pile 1. Not just to find yourself on the open water, but to connect you with other shores as well.

Pile 2. Sunflower Seed + Pink Heart

Queen of Cups, Queen of Swords, 4 of Cups; Vesta - Hearth, Love (Pink); Full Moon Virgo - You Are Good Enough

"Beauty raises my vibration; I seek it for joy."

For the rest of this month, you are focusing solely on your own needs. Like it or not! [blows coach whistle] But no, seriously, I'm not getting busybee vibes from this pile, I'm getting "poor dehydrated bee that's fainted on a flower" kind of feel. Maybe you're actually dehydrated and tired! This could also be true for your garden if you have one. You may need extra TLC around this full moon. You've been stretching yourself too thin but you'll be in much-deserved receiving mode in order to heal. I like that two Queens showed up and one of them is of Swords. She knows better than to spend her precious time worrying over the trifling things. She knows when to disconnect and tune into what's important. And Queen of Cups says that important thing is your own emotional wellbeing and comfort.

Your quote card features a person standing at the peak of a mountain with arms stretched out towards the moon in accomplishment. You either are or have been working intensely on something for the last few months. It either has or will soon come to a full head and with that comes a surge of expended energy. Similar to midterms or the week before a holiday when the workflow doubles. It's a crunch time! Since it's summer and you may not be in midterms or busy on vacation, this could be a reference for later this year or fiscal quarter. Take care that this busy time coming up isn't going to drain you.

You could have opportunities come up near the middle of autumn that's gonna want your attention. You'll want to be fully hydrated and refreshed for when it finally shows up. The 4 of cups can sometimes be about blind spots, or the blessings we don't see readily available because we're too tired and burnt out to really see what's there. It's highlighting this opportunity and wants you to make the most of it.

You could be feeling a strong pull to stay at home and focus on your craft, project, or hobby. Perhaps you're busy squeezing out the most free time you can while you have it. Again, avoid the sense of pushing like "oh man, I only have a week of summer vacation left oh geez what do I do?!" It's not a matter of sitting around and doing nothing all vacation only to hurt ourselves trying to be On 24/7 for a semester. That's not sustainable. Make the most out of your time, but make sure you have time carved out in between the high energy weeks of being productive. A sunflower without water can't stand and a bee without rest can't fly!

Pile 3. Clover Patch + Red Heart

XVII Star, XVI Tower, XV Devil; Progressions - Journey, Anger (Red), Waxing Crescent - Have Faith in Your Dream

"I gather more wisdom each day."

This pile … hoo boy. This would be my pile if I had to choose one, so I'm with y'all on this. Okay, I got the instant message that you are trying to manifest something very VERY big right now. I mean big like new car, apartment, longterm relationship, just something that's gonna upgrade and transform your life in a big way. It could even be education as one of the cards has a book in center. The thing is, Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither is your manifestation gonna instantly appear when you're desperately trying for it to cause desperation doesn't usually bring positive outcomes, it usually winds up with Fun With Dick and Jane type scenarios to play out. Also stress.

You have three major arcana cards in a row, with the tower card smacked right in the middle like a spicy sandwich cookie (would I even try one?) So I get it. This is likely a very significant full moon for you, supercharged as it's an Aquarian supermoon, and you got Aquarian Star as your first card, so emotions will be running a bit hot. Unpredictable swings. Sudden "bursts". But don't suppress your feelings of frustration, you'll just need to redirect these emotions differently.

You gotta be patient and watch it unfold organically. Even if you're manifesting the demolition of something, there is strategy to it. Demolition workers don't just go in and do what they please, they have to be mindful of their surroundings and what impact they'll make when they make it. When gardeners prune, they're mindful of the angle of the cut, knowing that the right cut can grow just as the wrong cut can infect. Let things go as they may. Things can start moving smoothly or quite abruptly, so focus from a place of expecting that it's already coming and strategize from there. You got the Star card, so something fortunate is indeed coming for you. There is a little Leprechaun luck on your side. It'll be easier to see that once you're able to move past old blockages that are delaying your manifestation. Listen to the leprechaun and not the little voice on the other shoulder telling you that you need to panic over the small things.

See the current time you have as a manifestation in itself, as a product of you believing that you need extra time to cook up the right end goal. See this time you have as a blessing, not just an in-between state. Make good use of this time. There is no reason why the process can't be as fun as the destination. Your inner child is being subtly asked to come out to play for a spell. This pile may be into doing witchcraft spells; if so, grab a little glitter and sprinkle some magic into your day, especially a time-based spell like a growing plant or burning a candle. If anything, it will boost morale which is often more important for manifestation than simply applying routine and logic to everything. I'm also getting that journaling may be of interest to you, whether it's writing down meditation notes or affirmations or just venting. Get creative even and write a poem about your wishes. Try to incorporate more writing in general into your moon magic. (Thoth would be pleased.)

This reading has not been evaluated by the FDA to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease or infection. Please ask your physician before going online.

2023, @VitaminseeTarot ™

[anartificialsatellite]

So I can't play a lot of video games because anything 3D where the camera moves around a lot with the player character makes me very motion sick pretty quickly. I used to be able to play these sorts of games, but as I've gotten older it's gotten worse and I haven't been able to for a few years now. (I thought finally getting glasses would fix it and it does kind of help, but not enough.) This sucks because it does mean that I miss out on a lot of games, but it also has forced me to broaden my horizons and try games I might not have found otherwise.

One of the places where this becomes more of a problem for me is the horror/thriller genres - I think there's especially a tendency to rely on 3D first and third person perspective (and especially first person) in games that are meant to be scary or creepy or whathaveyou, because when you limit the player's field of view it's not difficult to make them feel trapped and uneasy, and it lends itself well to jumpscares.

...Which makes it all the more impressive, imo, when a game that doesn't use that still succeeds at building that sort of atmosphere and immersion. So!

Here's three of my favorite scary/spooky/creepy atmospheric games without a 3D first or third person perspective:

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

This point-and-click adventure game has 2D pixel graphics, an excellent soundtrack, and a fascinating and compelling folk horror mystery at its center. Antiquarian Thomasina Bateman travels to an isolated English town on the moors to pursue research for her book on the barrows of England, and (as one usually does in this genre) discovers something strange and sinister lurking beneath the surface. I finished this game in about 2 sessions, by which I mean I've got 10 hours of playtime on it and the only reason it wasn't one session was because I had to stop and do normal human things. (I found this game because I'm a fan of one of the publisher's other titles, The Shivah, a kind of weird and super short detective style adventure game whose main character is a bitter, depressed rabbi, and I really recommend that one as well.)

Oxenfree

Not really horror, I guess, but definitely a supernatural thriller? We'll go with that. Another adventure game, this time one where your choices affect the story. The main character is Alex, a teenage girl who, along with some friends and some non-friends, is spending the night on an island that was once home to an old military base. Using a radio, you unintentionally open a portal and find yourself facing the supernatural effects of a decades old naval disaster. The art is gorgeous, the music is absolutely tits, and there's some really cool gameplay mechanics, as well. I'm also a sucker for spooky radio shit, so when I came across this game I was all over it.

It's got a sequel, Oxenfree II: LOST SIGNALS, which is a similar style game set on a nearby island some time after the events of the first game, and I also super recommend that one, too.

FAITH

I'll start with a caveat for this one: I've only played Chapter 1, because when I first bought and played it that was the only part that was out. I can't speak for any of the rest of this game, and annoyingly, it looks like you can't buy Chapter 1 by itself anymore.

In this retro-styled game you play as a priest returning to the site of a failed exorcism, so if demonic posession and that kind of Catholic religious horror isn't your bag this game probably won't be either, but even as someone who is not Christian, I super enjoyed it. It features 8-bit graphics that remind me of Atari and some old DOS adventure games I haven't played in almost two decades, as well as some truly creepy rotoscoped pixel art. The sound is just as old school as the art and is used to deeply unsettling effect, and I was continuously impressed by how the dev managed to make such a creepy game in this style.

If you've got any others, please share them with me! I absolutely love this kind of thing and am always happy to add more to my "to play" list.

[pocketsizedowls]

One of the most important characteristics of Mizuki Akiyama is her love of cute things.

Unlike many teenage girls who, by her age, may feel embarrassed about their passion for the color pink or kawaii culture, she thrives as a "girly girl," a teenage representative of the latest fashion trends and make-up products. She is cheerful and artistic, sensitive and kind. If we lived in a world where gender roles and binaries are less rigid, perhaps she wouldn't struggle so much under the glare of society's hefty expectations. I think of her all the time because I know her story well.

Mizuki is just like my brother, who used to sneak into my closet as a young boy to try on my church dresses. My brother, who shed hot tears when my father forced him to cut off his long hair. My brother, who went off to college and at long last, started wearing make-up to school and dancing in a cheer team full of girls who claimed him as one of their own. He has never been this happy, and I am grateful for his happiness and for his femininity, because my mother loves buying me dresses I'll never wear and make-up I'll never use. If I give them to him, I used to tell myself, I'll do a good deed. And, most importantly, I'll no longer have to worry about being a "good enough woman," both for my mother and for society at large.

According to American theorist Judith Butler, gender is a performance. To put it simply, gender is a book of rules, a game of chess, and all people should think twice about their gender and the hoops they jump through to fulfill those roles before they claim to be, for a lack of a better word, gendered the way they were assigned to be. As a glum teenager, I watched girls around me blossom into women, and while I identified with some aspects of girlhood (i.e. crying over a boy, trading secrets at the playground, and braiding each other's hair), I never aspired towards womanhood. Or femininity, really. It wasn't until I got older, after years of settling into a nonbinary lesbian identity, that I finally picked up a foundation brush and put on a skirt. Because by then, those things are just cute and beautiful to me, instead of womanly and intimidating.

I wish I could shout this from the rooftop. That I am free, and so many people should be, too.

Mizuki is just Mizuki, because gender is a friend to meet and a thing to love instead of an obligation to fulfill or a monster to defeat. Much like Tsukasa Tenma, who shines on a stage and carries that spark with him everywhere, gender is supposed to be euphoric. It's Mizuki, when she finishes sewing a new dress. It's my brother, when he puts on heels that actually accommodate his shoe size. It's me, when people call me "they" instead of "she," a "lovely person" instead of an "anxious girl."

I don't exactly know how Mizuki identifies or what her true pronouns are, but what I do know is that she is allowed to take her time. She is young, she is loved, and she is not a freak. If you are trans or nonbinary or anywhere under the umbrella, you are also not a freak. You can also take your time, then stomp your feet like a toddler when the world angers you because transphobic people are everywhere, and America seems especially fond of passing anti-trans registrations these days. Which goes to show, perhaps, that you are a miracle. And despite how lonely being a trans person can be, you're survival gives everyone else in the community hope and strength to keep going.

For some trans anger, I recommend you listen to Teniwoha's Villain, sung by Mizuki and Mafuyu. The lyrics are truly awesome.

For some trans hope, I recommend Toa's ID Smile, sung by all the N25 girls. The background of the 3D MV is so beautiful and relevant.