#who i imagined when i read tsh

[greensdelight]

MY camilla macaulay

[willothewispwisteriadawn]

We need to talk about Tartt’s character descriptions

More Donna Tartt praise.

She writes human physical descriptions in the most genuine and true-to-life ways. I didn’t even realize how many books do not go into the actual nuance of human appearances until I read TSH and Goldfinch.

I think most books kind of categorize people as pretty, ugly, or plain then lean into what generally makes people pretty, ugly, or plain plus hair and eye colors. I love how Tartt’s books make characters appear how the majority of people really do: an assortment of specific details. There’s Boris’s bitten nails and how Henry is big and square but does not carry himself as if he is. Bunny is a once-muscled guy (now more chubby) whose naturally good looks are starting to get a little sloppy. His nose is also a bit small/sharp for his face shape. Camilla is pretty, and we hear about her thick ankles and the way her curls rest at her temples. Francis is nice-looking because he carries and styles himself well, but we hear that those things compensate for his kind of beaky nose and boney angles.

Pippa is another great example! Theo describes her looks as tender and precious. She comes across as very cute in a homely way. But we hear that her eyes look “naked” because her lashes are so pale (I can imagine this so well!) and that her nose is long. Her cheeks are thin. Theo notes these things, and thinks she’s pretty anyway; he assumes he must have some personal affinity for her and is given a wake-up call when Everett also finds these traits cute.

OH actually let me squeeze in Mr. Barbour here. Because lol???

His eyes were a queer unstable gray and his hair was pure white, which made him seem older than he was until you noticed that his face was young and pink — boyish, even. His ruddy cheeks and his long, old-fashioned nose, in combination with the prematurely white hair, gave him the amiable look of a lesser founding father, some minor member of the Continental Congress teleported to the twenty-first century.

This is so specific and so easy to see. It stuck out to me when I read it, and my mom mentioned it to me when she read it. She said she was really hit by Andy’s dad’s description and thought it was funny but did a really good job delivering an image.

It’s just so real and gets at how normal people actually are: not always pretty in a “safe” way. Tartt has the guts to give you a description of an actual unique, textured person and say “This is nice.” Or, in Bunny’s case, give someone who is basically handsome but not necessarily pleasant-looking. Theres so much nuance, and it’s honest.

It kind of made me rethink how I write human descriptions. There are “safe” things to point out that become a little insubstantial if you combine too many of them: “The pretty girl has glossy hair and curves and bright blue eyes.” And then there’s going into actual shapes and the way people carry themselves and how some features look against others. It honestly just makes the characters really pop and they’re easy to envision.

[jmwdoesthings]

Snape's Retirement Headcanon:

In an alternate reality, in which Snape survives Nagini and is pardoned by the higher powers or whatnot, both Minerva McGonagall and he come to a decision: as soon as the aftermath of the war is over, they are going to retire.

And they do retire. Minerva manages to find two matching bungalows somewhere in a village and after a lot of snapping and arguing Snape agrees to move into the one meant for him. They visit one another every day, read to one another, go on walks dressed exactly as they normally would be in Hogwarts and become somewhat of a mysterious attraction for the locals.

The village children don't like Snape at first - he's always grumpy/scowling, hardly laughs, and he looks pretty ominous in his black clothes which he wears even during the summer. Minerva is slightly more welcoming: she invites the children for biscuits and tea and they after a week or two they all call her Granny Minnie and are fascinated by all the things she has in her house and how amazing the sweets she has are.

After Snape catches a cold or something irritable like that, and the children arrive at Minerva's for their usual visit and after they get scolded for having muddy knees and hands (which they wash), Minerva gets up using her walking cane, gestures with it and says:

"Come on, children, we're all going to pay Mr Snape a visit to see how he is!"

And Snape gets absolutely swamped by these loud and hyper village children (including little girls of six with frilly bows in their hair which fetch their plush toys and dolls and place them all on his bed and rowdy boys trying their best to be helpful whilst fetching things and knocking furniture over) who all offer him tea and show him their treasures and babble nonsense while he vaguely resembles the 'A Bug's Life' ladybird. He's obviously really irritated but cannot for the life of him bring himself to chase them away since they obviously mean well. During all of this, Minerva basks in the image and almost gets a stitch from laughing and... well. After some time, they end up adopting all these village kids, deemed a mad uncle and auntie, get invited by their parents for tea and get interested in the small village community state of affairs (though Snape obviously pretends he couldn't care less, which is a big fat lie).

Minerva often says things like:

"Wow, Franny has grown so tall and quite a proper young lady! We'll have to use a warding charm so that she doesn't get into trouble when the admirers start pouring."

"Don't worry, Dylan, you'll look as good in braces as you did without them, like I have told you before... What? Your teeth magically straightened overnight? Merlin's beard, what a surprise! [hides wand] I cannot imagine how that possibly could have happened."

And Snape:

"You say Antoinetta has a boyfriend, now? Tsh. I remember when she was six and could hardly tie her laces... a tidy, neat creature, that has to be admited. Though she had a gift for breaking all of my porcelain... What? He left her for another girl? She was in floods of tears? [drawing wand] Oh, no, no, don't be silly Minerva, I'm just going to repair the sink. It broke recently... [under his breath] And it won't be the only thing that's broken when I'm through with that wretch."

and:

"No, for the final time, Minerva, I don't give a damn whether Brandon wants a cat or an even an ostritch for his birthday. Honestly. [scoffs and adds 'cat for Brandon' to shopping list] Who do you take me for, a fairy godmother?"

And for them, life is good, and they do live happily ever after.

[insidemyrottenbrain]

Years later - TSH

Henry Marchbanks Winter x GN!Reader

Word count: 1666

TW: religious imagery

Out of guilt and dread you end up leaving Vermont and building a new life. Just as you thought you escaped your past, you once again find yourself in its grasp.

The past haunts me. It has been years—so many I cannot begin to count, and if I’m being completely honest, I was not counting to begin with. Everything I have done was to escape that wretched part of my life in which my naivety and perhaps self-consuming passion, managed to control me. I wanted—want—to forget it all. 

The first time I stepped foot into what would soon come to be one of the few select places in my nightmares was very awe-inducing. The university was large, larger than I’d imagined. The stone walls had arched indents that made it look as if it belonged in one of the novels I read as a teenager and that my family wholeheartedly despised. The hallways were a contorted maze of watchful ancient statues following every movement with their eyes, priceless antiques donated by rich parents and students with more money in their pockets than I could ever dream of having. A multitude of departments found their home in that twisted place, such as theater, arts, modern literature, architecture, history, music, philosophy, and more. I believe you can imagine my excitement when faced with the exact kind of university I dreamed of studying at, especially when I had little to no hope of ever getting anywhere close to it, much less belonging.

One thing, as you know, led to another, and I ended up as one of the infamous Greek pupils. I’m quite sure everyone thought we were some kind of cult, which, if you think about it, isn’t entirely wrong.

The first few years were everything I had ever hoped for. I felt that I had found my place and, most certainly, my kind. We used to do everything together. Being with them was the only time I truly felt alive. It doesn’t matter whether we went to the comforting country house engulfed in trees safely from the outside world, had delicious dinners debating the most obscure topics, or simply studied in the library, sleep-deprived and on immense amounts of caffeine, I always felt as if I was doing something more than just existing.

Where did it all go wrong? I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I do not want to categorize Richard’s arrival as the initiator factor, for it was not his fault. Nor is it correct to say that the Bacchanal was the beginning of it all. It wouldn’t be Henry’s doing either, at least not the start of it. I have speculated on this over the years, and I have come to only one conclusion that seems right. My theory as to what the answer is and my attempt to pinpoint the exact place on the timeline are not as precise as I hoped they would be. It was not a single event that gave birth to our ruin, but rather multiple little moments, that are rather large in the big scheme. I also like to believe that Julian had as much of a role in all of this as the rest of us. Perhaps, even a considerably more sizeable one.

Everything that happened—I wish to leave behind. However, I recently came to realise, that, to my misery, it incorporated and formed my very being. My views, my ideas, my tastes, and my activities are all, to a certain extent, if not fully influenced and ruled over by it. I am my past.

My great, futile attempts to escape the life I once had, led me to London, a perfect setting for someone who wished to hide. A bustling place, where I had the chance to not be me, but a mere shadow lurking throughout the crowded streets, observing every passerby, while trying to guess their life stories, deepest desires, and strongest fears. I was no one, and I adored it. However, my presence became known among museum guides and librarians for its consistency. I have also earned a reputation among university students for being one of the few odd professors. This is probably due to the fact that I am very selective with my pupils, and I teach a couple that are quite brilliant in my office. I often have open discussions with them, for I consider it helps them engage with the topic better and understand the meaning and philosophy behind it in such a way that encourages them to analyze, observe, and critique. One such day, we were talking about the loss of self, Plato’s four divine madnesses:

‘Death is the mother of beauty,’ said Felix, one of my students.

I nodded in approval as I propped myself up on the desk.

‘And what is beauty?’ 

‘Terror,’ a voice answered from my office’s door.

My life up until this moment, along with all my darkest memories and the series of events that led me to where I am today, flash before my eyes, and it feels as if the universe has stopped specifically to play along with his sadistic trick. My jaw clenches involuntarily, my eyes threaten to betray my emotions, and I have to remind myself I’m not the same brainless kid chasing empty promises and impossible dreams, fully convinced that every existing land, no matter how vast it may be, is my playground and that fate will bend according to my petulant will. I have to get out of my head, the silence is stretching. My students, probably confused, are expecting some kind of sign from my disordered self. He is waiting for a reaction. The past has finally caught up to me. After all my futile attempts, it still managed to intrude on my present’s doorway. 

I take a deep breath. I look at my students, curiosity mixed with confusion clear in their expressions. I don’t need to look at him to know who he is.

‘I apologize,’ I start hoping that they cannot hear the tremble in my voice as accentuated as I seem to do, ‘class is dismissed.’

I need not say more before my students start gathering their belongings in complete silence so as to not further disturb the room completely filled with palpable animosity and perhaps something more vivid, cursed to lurk in the depths of our minds. I reach blindly toward my pack of cigarettes, lying somewhere on my desk between books and coffee-stained papers. Lucky Strikes, yet another sign of his hold on me. I light my cigarette, breathing in the curls of smoke spiraling down my throat. The sound of his leather shoes clicking against the wooden floorboards reverberates through my beating heart. I am well aware that even now, after years of attempting to escape from the rosary He entangled around my neck, I am still His most loyal devotee, respecting vigilantly every silent command. Deep and numbing smoke inside my lungs, like a relaxant, washes me with warm Indian summer waves of calmness.

He is fixating me with his cold blue eyes, watching for any sign of defiance. Over the years I’ve spent in his presence, I’ve learned to recognize his transitive facial expressions, his secretive ways, and his small habits, whether it is the way he holds a page between his fingers before turning it or his tendency to dive into long monologues about whatever interests him at that moment. It is a distinct ability that has grown its roots along my blood vessels, twisted and intertwined beyond differentiation. Understanding each other used to be our way of showing our affection. It is something so sacred that I cannot bring myself to weaponize against him and betray the bond we once had. You’d think that after so much time I’d be able to break free from the shackles His divinity holds me in and convert to a different faith. But He is nestled so deeply in me, that I cannot help but like the burns and the imprints upon my skin.

Henry Marchbanks Winter looks the same. But he now has a new pair of glasses and slight crow’s feet, along with faint smile lines framing his lips. He’s wearing one of his dark English suits, which have always fit him incredibly well. And if the wrinkles weren’t enough, the few grey hairs peeking from underneath the familiar dark colour of his hair are a brutal reminder of how much of him I missed. A cruel admonitum of the years that have passed and of all the times I wasn’t next to him, not by chance but by choice. It takes all I have in me to not fall to my knees, confess my sin, and beg for forgiveness. As if all the years I’ve been away from him turned into mere days I find myself falling back to my old habits and once again bowing down to his silent command.

Amor dominus terribilis est.

The cigarette burns, forgotten between my fingers, as I get wasted on his scent, for once, unbothered by the consequences.

‘I’ve finally found you, dilectus.’ Beloved.

‘I suppose you have.’ I cannot help but stare at him, hypnotized by the storm in his eyes.

‘I have been searching for you since the day you left.’ He reaches a gentle, steady hand to brush my cheek ‘London of all places-’

As much as I wish to let him hold me again I find myself interrupting him. ‘You have no business here.’ I walk to the open window and take my second drag from the almost fully burned cigarette.

He sighs, frustration slipping through the cracks of his perfection.

‘Like it or not,’ he emanates divine turmoil as he emphasizes every word  ‘you are my business.’

‘After so long we can’t be anything but strangers.’

‘You are wrong.’ He states immediately as I finish the sentence. ‘You cannot act as if you have forgotten everything we’ve been through.’ His hand once again finds its way to my face and caresses it with smooth, slow motions. This time I let him. ‘One more chance is all I ask for.’ He whispered.

‘One more chance.’ I agree, defeated.

[madockisser]

I just read your reasoning, and I totally understand. Madoc used to be my fav character at the start of the book, since he was a good dad and wanted the best for his children.

And Dain was introduced to the story. Became my fav character and we all know what happened at the coronation :')

dain greenbriar analysis! not that u asked but i did one of madoc so i’ll do one of dain since he’s super complex

i really liked dain too! he was totally mysterious, which was later revealed that he was more so manipulative and cunning. balekin says that dain is “surprisingly unsentimental” which is shocking coming from balekin of all ppl. since balekin believes it to be true, then imagine like a 10x worse version of balekin. we know dain is very smart, he is charming and manipulative, which are all qualities that balekin do not quite possess. (as seen in the lament of lutie loo)

dain truly did not play around when it came to things in the way of his coming into power. which shouldn’t come as a surprise since we know that dain was slowly poisoning eldred to make him weak and make him resign from being king. then obv what he did to the woman he sent love poems to (liriope) whom he poisoned alongside the fetus in her womb. all that just to assure his succession to the throne.

not to mention how he played poor 5ish yr old cardan. dude was beefing w a toddler! which again, he uses his elder brother charm to do, and his manipulative hand to persuade eldred to kick cardan out and cast asha out. (which makes me wonder if he had a personal grudge or something against asha ((maybe something she knew that he didn’t want eldred to know)) or if he was simply just killing 2 birds w one stone)

it’s fascinating to me that he killed liri despite caring for her sm. why do i think he cared for liri at all? because he was at a great risk to dally and play around with one of his fathers lovers/consorts. for someone who is so notoriously careful, he must’ve really grown to care for her, the same way nicasia came to care for locke!! ( i ADORE the parallels in lockes and his mothers relationships!)

edit: it’s revealed that he actually loved her in tsh, but he just loved power more. sad

but maybe dain caught on to her gancanagh/ love/charm speaking powers and was displeased enough to not really gaf when he administered poison to her and oakey.

while dain is a giant asshole, he really fascinated me. his actions at first were charming and humble, and from jude’s perspective, almost kind, and even someone she could look up to. but after jude fell out of favor with him, he was cold, cruel and calculating.

he even managed to skillfully manipulate his own spies into liking him, seeing as the ghost still served dain after his death by betraying jude (which wasn’t his fault). the roach and the bomb didn’t know of dains poisoning of liri, and even jude wasn’t allowed in on some of the spy work she was doing for dain.

and ofc when jude delivers the paper that says, “i know the provenance of blusher mushroom” dain, who is put on the spot, skillfully manipulates his spies yet again by claiming that “he”(could be any faerie that goes by “he” btw) was blackmailing orlagh.

furthermore, he says about balekin.

“he and i never got along. and yet i had hoped ….” purposefully not finishing his sentence so as to not reveal to his spies how truly unfeeling he was about his elder brother, balekin.

i wonder a lot of his plans for jude, i saw a theory that he was going to arrange jude in a marriage, and i have a few small ones of my own, but it’s super intriguing that he chose jude, the daughter of the very influential grand general (the man to stole half of the high kings army in twk lol) to use as a spy. makes me wonder what his plans were for madoc and for jude if madoc ever found out. because surely, as careful as he is, he would’ve had one.

ANYWAY sorry i kinda went on a tangent there but he’s such a cool character and while i def do not agree w his actions, i almost wish he stayed alive longer to be a more significant villain, but i am SO glad we got cute oakey pokey as a cute less evil replacement! and also more insights of what oak thinks of him in tpt and tsh!

holly black, despite dain and several other characters have short amounts of page time, managed to make dain such a great subtle villain! which is why i love her work so much. she slides in and incorporates little damning facts and details that could mean nothing, but could also have great significance!

lastly, i rly like doing character analyses so feel free to add on or send me characters or questions thru the ask thingy!!

[eerna]

I think the big problem witht the fan service in TPT was that it was to throw in your face.Fan service is good when you fell natural but simultaneously you could tell that is fan service.I rolled my eyes at taryn divine punishment it felt like she gave the fans what they wanted since qon(the whole taryn didnt got a punishment was always funny to me they were acting like having locke as a husband wasnt one)

I understand why HB tried to please as much people she could with it since from what i saw even people who enjoyed her other faerie books weren't big fans of TSH.I agree with J and C don't make good mcs anymore thei arcs endet and most of their problems were solved in a good note.

TPT tried to be a lot of things at once:

1.Fan service

2.the conclusion of the story

3.a bridge for her undersea book

4.Romantasy( marketed like this)

And fails at being a good structured story.(for a book marketed like a romantasy the romance was so little and rushed at the end)

From what i saw a lot of people started hating wren after TPT wich i understand in a measure since she was so little and most of her scene were not in a favorable light.(shes still my fav Tsh character and i love her but her arc was practically non-existent)

I enjoyed oak a lot maybe bc im a sucker for his type of character but i think it could have been done more with his character.

I don't know how a undersea book in jurdan pov will be but i dont think it would be a good one since what they will narate especially in the undersea!

Yeah, you laid it out very well. I am NOT above fanservice. I friggin love the stuff. Case in point: the way I was SO INSANELY HYPED for TPT because they promoted it with Madoc household content which are words to my heart. But the issue is when the fanservice overshadows everything else. Case in point: Wren becoming a side character in her own duology so that Oak's main storyline can happen with Jude. I legit can't blame anyone who hates her after TPT because oh my god her writing was SO BAD in that second book. You can't just have your character do the vilest cruelest thing in the world to her love interest and then remove her from page and later say that she was just manipulated and blackmailed into being mean and is ready for love now. Imagine if the everapple scene happened and then Balekin convinced Cardan to give him an oath of allegiance that kept Cardan on Madoc's side for the rest of the plot except for romance scenes and then in the end he and Jude still got together. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO WREN. Well not exactly because she had a POV book first BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.

Even the Oak-Jude storyline was not all it could have been. HB tried to give them a similar dynamic that Madoc and Jude had, where Oak isn't sure if Jude truly loves him and if she would sacrifice him if she suspected he worked against her. But there is no real tension because we KNOW Jude would never do that because like. That's the entire point of TFotA. I think that Oak slowly growing to resent his family was a fantastic concept, but the book barely gave it any screentime before it was solved. It's like HB didn't want to do anything too uncomfortable because this time around she would have to make Jude and Cardan his problematic parental figures, and that goes against every single rule of fanservice. So we get the worst of both worlds: Oak is a messed up kid doing very self destructive things that Jude is responsible for, but we can't explore them or treat them as very bad because that would make Jude look bad, and who wants to read a book about their fave girlboss accidentally ruining her baby brother's life? (Me I do oh my god I was looking forward to it so much I am still heartbroken)

There's still hope that the Undersea book won't be Jurdan POV, and I am manifesting it so much, because you're so right I have 0 confidence that I would like it.

(Marrying Locke was all the punishment Taryn needed fr. Rest in pepperoni loser)

[quidfree]

I read your TSH X The Graduate fic and was struck by a line in which Francis calls Richard "plausible". There is a similar moment in Succession where Tom Wambsgans is described in the same quietly (for the show anyways) bitchy way. So... does this mean that Francis is distantly related to Lady Caroline Collingwood? Is there a world where Francis and Richard watch the Roy family drama play out from their TV in Montreal and Francis makes sporadic, vague references to Roman's childhood "latency" and the ginger promiscuity gene that he and Shiv share, without ever fully elaborating?? Please say yes.

plausible! anon the way this concept has had a hold of me since i saw it… words cannot describe. like! caroline “your father used to sleep with all the men in sausalito” collingwood running in francis’ circles is so real and true.

even if it’s not direct family... the roys are scottish catholics after all….. perfect tie-in to the red-head boston catholic abernathy clan…. it all just connects. ewan roy is kind of my mental image of abernathy senior anyways can’t you see a bit of the old-age francis in james cromwell’s cunty austerity?

anyways back on track francis and richard are what, late 60s babies if they were 20 in the 80s? and caroline is probably early 1950s if you go by the actress. so kid wise connor is probably roughly around their age??? oh my god. but francis would have only met the roys when caroline and logan were married so he would have been in his late teens looking with absolute disdain upon the roy kid trio. idk who he would dislike most. probably ken for being so *gestures at ken*, otherwise roman. he might have tolerated shiv more because he gives more grace to the girlies (see: camilla). and he probably only met connor sometime later since he didn't see the family for some time after his mother got taken away- i can only imagine the horrors of them interacting.

good lord imagine priscilla abernathy and caroline in the same room. the insane vibes. but at least that side is all old money condescension and they would bond over their distaste for the new money roys. what the roys would think of the abernathys? probably very little as adults. world famous homophobe logan roy would not have taken to francis, who is maybe the truest definition of 'not a serious person'. i have to think about what the kids would have thought about him. suggestions welcomed.

as for middle-aged francis and richard in montreal watching the shitshow that is canonical succession timeline playing out live in the news? *gesticulating incoherently* someone prompt me to write this.

i could go on for days this is too perfect of a concept. anon please supply more thoughts of your own. and if i kept going in the tags no i didn't.

[glowpop]

I actually asked why you specifically despise donna tartt so much, like other than the reasons I mentioned (and the heavy substance abuse that's supposed to pass off as cool) I think the hate towards the secret history is unwarranted. needless to mention that I don't think there's a certain rule book on not making your characters well read and that if you did then you must, at all costs, be pretentious. even so, donna tartt employed a 'show not tell' style of writing wherein we can actually imagine why the characters being interested in the classics impacts their daily line of thinking, unlike someone like murakami or sally rooney or even fucking john green who make their characters smart just for the sake of it. i read somewhere that the study of the classics was brought up so often in the novel to convey that it was academia that brought the students to their ruin. if it weren't the greeks and poetry and languages that interested the students and computer science for all I care, I don't think anyone would consider the novel this pretentious.

that being said, she wrote the novel very young and i think she wrote it in her best efforts in the 90s as a white woman. I read it at 13 and it was one of the first that I read that fleshed out characters this much and I don't think it's so vile if a 15 year old has it on their fav Goodreads lists lol maybe her other books suck idk

I have no idea how you got the impression that I despise Donna tartt since my blog has only ever vocally hated one author and one author only (hanya yanagihara I hope she sneezes or something whenever I think of her) if this is about me giving tsh 2 stars, it was because I thought it was fine but it wasn’t really for me. I’m trying to recall any context within which you inferred that I despised Donna tartt but apart from some tongue in cheek hyperbolic jokes I’ve made years ago I can’t think of one…I don’t hate tsh it just isn’t for me anymore, despite all the prose

I’m not sure what you’re asking of me? I agree with you? I don’t really care if 15 year olds love the book, because I thought it was the bees knees when I was 15 too, and honestly good for 15 year olds if they love a book which is clearly above their supposed reading level!

[chaotic-timelord]

TSH spoilers ahead

“My stomach burned but I felt oddly calm. Getting shot, I'd always thought, would hurt a lot more than this.” — this is the way Richard, at least at first, reacts to bring shot. Why? I never got shot so I might be wrong here, but from what I’ve heard and read getting shot usually hurts a lot. So why is Richard that calm about it? He didn’t even focus the group’s attention on the wound until in between half a page and a page later, which means he was probably so caught in the events that he barely remember he should tell them [not that it helped much, but I’ll discuss this other topic later].

My first theory’s quite simply : he was lying. Instead of passing next to a fatal point maybe the bullet just went through his skin, but it wasn’t deep enough to damage anything at all, causing surely less pain than what’d have happened if it were deep. We know Richard’s a very unreliable narrator, and by making the wound sound more dangerous than it was he might’ve tried to make it all more dramatic. Or maybe he’s lying about the pain. I mean, do we really expect Richard, who didn’t describe how it felt to be basically killed by the col when he was in the hippie’s house? [if I remember this right, he described only the events, not the feelings] In reality he was at least sitting down in pain and focusing all the attention on himself, or barely resisting the attempt to do it to see how the tensions in the group’d develop. Richard doesn’t strike as someone who’d gladly write about anything he doesn’t want to write about, so perhaps he wanted to seem braver by narrating as if he was calm during the whole scene.

Of course he might not have gotten shot at all and written he did just because of a really plain reason which’d make it all look stupid- he got a bad grade in his french test and instead of writing that decided to make up a situation where he skipped it or something sounding as ridiculous [imagine the scene : Charles and Henry almost fighting, Francis and Camilla having no idea what to do {with Camilla standing there until nearly the end like the 🧍🏻emoji, Francis probably thinking ‘oh my bacchus I need to drink. And have sex. What if I propose this to the group when Camilla isn’t listening after we’re done here?’ and Richard thinking about how to make it all sound poetic}.

Anyways, back to the theories- he wasn’t lying and was somehow lost enough in thoughts to not even notice he was shot at first. He didn’t feel it, just realised when he looked down. This seems less realistic to me than the previous ones, but Richard got surely influenced a lot by the rest of the greek class - even though he clearly didn’t belong in it - so his first though could have been a quote from a book they’d been studying, or a thought about the translation of words like ‘bullet’ and ‘death’ into ancient greek [yes, I bet Richard would have tried to translate ‘bullet’ into ancient greek. At least he can sort of justify it by explaining how he was still ‘in shock’ about getting shot and so on].

Now, the group’s reactions. As we all know, the group basically didn’t give a damn about Richard in that moment. As I mentioned before they were all busy doing / trying not to do other things [except for Camilla, and I’m not sorry at all to say she lacks a backbone. What the hell was she even thinking before the end? ‘Oh too bad my qpp and my brother don’t get along together. What should I do? Ah, right, stand here like a statue’?], and they either ignored him or thought he was kidding.

I doubt they wouldn’t have seen the wound if they had looked at his shirt, but the majority of them was distracted and thinking about other things - and dealing with an injured person wouldn’t have helped - and Richard said that he looked at /him/. The normal reaction to being in some way called by someone is looking at them in the face, not looking at their shirt. Because of what he had said they should have checked whether he was alright or not, but seeing the situation I doubt any of them even thought it. The only ones who weren’t deep enough in problems to worry about it were Francis and Camilla, but Francis was surely used to Richard lying and saying things not the way they really were, and Camilla was too - scared, worried, overthinking about what’ll happen? I can’t relate to Camilla at all, so like with Richard I have no idea what she might have been thinking back then - to worry about Richard.

On the other side, they might have noticed the wound [and silently insulted Charles for causing that additional problem]. It’s possible that they just ignored it and truly didn’t care, but I doubt it. None of them was emotionally bound to Richard enough to try to help him - plus they were so absent from reality that I’d be very surprised to find out any of them had any medical knowledge - and they must have known their lives were about to change forever, since in a very little amount of time the owner of the place started knocking on the door, so what difference did a dead or injured classmate make? He wasn’t as close as they were. He never went on bacchanals with them. And they killed Bunny, someone they were much closer to, so maybe they silently agreed to focus on what they could still try to sort out and let the owners call an hospital instead, or directly let him die in case the owners weren’t fast enough. Feel free to add anything to any part of the post - I’ve just noticed I don’t have any other idea that makes much sense on the 2 topics, but I’m sure there’s lots of theories I haven’t thought about.

[barnbridges]

Just here to say that I've been scrolling your blog and reading your tsh takes and analysis and they are so interesting and pleasing. In the fandom I feel like people usually like the same characters and mostly talk about them solely. So it's nice to see Marion analysis! And Bunny and his relationship with her

Also thank you for being brave and talking about submissive meow meow bunny because everyone is just here to say 'hes homophobic I guess he deserved it.' like NOoo you guys don't get it!

And do you want to talk about any of your drafts? Because I've been writing a dumbass Wattpad level of quality fic of Henry and bunny and it brings me so much joy lmao

first of all thank you so much for this ask <3 it really made me happy to read it ghjk

i'm just a humble little girlie, I write about whoever I think about at the moment. It just so happens I tend to talk about Mom and Dad because they are funny to think about, and not as intertextual or high-brow to imagine versus other relationships in this emotional rollercoaster of a book.

He deserves everything that happened to him, because he is breedable, weird and offputting, and personally? He should rot. But he's also my son and my father so... make of that what you will. He's a creature <3

GHJK please do write! One of my favorite things to do in this little rotten corner of the interwebs is look up ancient works and gawk. For my own silly reasons, I have decided to contribute by virtue of the little "girl who looks and feels like old dead people" drabble and what I'm working on is the prequel-sequel to it, mood spoiler, it's just rot rot rot roT.

Here's a fun excerpt under the cut, mood spoiler.

The Buddy Holly 8 track he got his brother rested boastful under the crapton of comics Ted somehow thought they’d read. He got it off Sean for a pack of cigarettes he picked from Lisa when she was there, all beige suits and trying to nod to everything Mom was saying.  Back then they placed their bets, if she’d kill Teddy or get knocked up first, because no way he took her any other way. But she was nice and all, even in the summer kept her bob sharp and lips in a dainty smile. Funny thing was, she did both just fine it seems. ‘98. It was sad and all, like their Uncle down in Springfield, but they left the kid to find them. In bed and all, romantic almost. Lisa’s last pack of ciggies resting careful atop the dresser. But it was still Pall Malls. Who even smokes that trash? Neither he nor Bunny smoked much, but knew to appreciate a good ciggie when presented with it.  Ted and Lisa were under the ground by their own making for years, but a part still yearns for the stench of every car they ever owned, the way even the kid John smelled of it. For all of his father, Jack Corcoran felt sticky, even a bundle boy carried half-conscious across the parking lot at the burger place, he bore some of that maternal ugliness. It comes with having a mother at all, he muses. He’s rather think about anything, than the dopey grin that was half puked up birthday cake that Bunny had for him that birthday. It still feels etched into his soul, that this was it, where it all went wrong. 

[lordofthestrix]

Tristora in a dead poets society verse

First of all I'm going to follow in your footsteps with TSH and say that they are twins in this verse. Additionally, I'm going to take another executive decision and change Welton Academy into a co-ed boarding school. Perhaps theirs is the first year that admits girls in the institution? I could play with the local public school like the movie did but that would mean Aurora and Tristan only get to see each other a couple of times per week at maximum and no one should have to deal with either of them under those conditions. Who asks the other on dates: It is one of the unanswered mysteries of the universe the other students sometimes ponder. No one has ever heard them making plans or talking about schedules and yet they never fail to be in the right spot to wait for the other when they don't share a class. They are unusual in that they arrive at the meetings in the cave together and they leave together. Their time alone and what exactly they do is a bit of an inscrutable mystery for the rest of the student body. Who is the bigger cuddler: Aurora. An attentive witness would have realized that Tristan has never once in his life complained. Who initiates holding hands more often: Aurora. And they are preternaturally good at sneaking off the school buildings and into the woods at night for the meetings of the club while holding hands. Who remembers anniversaries: Tristan could probably tell you all the dates when Aurora read a poem she wrote herself. Who is more possessive: Tristan. Although they are both champions of the craft. Who gets more jealous: Aurora. Although they are both champions of the craft. Who is more protective: Read the next point. Who is more likely to cheat: I imagine Aurora is more likely to cheat on an exam. Tristan is more likely to turn ferociously protective of her if she gets caught and invite himself into Gale Nolan's office to passionately play her lawyer (with the prototype version of "the look" included) even when they don't have a leg to stand on. Who initiates sexy times the most: I sincerely can't decide. I suspect it is probably a tie. Who dislikes PDA the most: Various Welton authorities. Who kills the spider: Not a fair question for Aurora. This time the spider was an imposing tarantula of uncertain danger that seemed to specifically target her in the middle of the night. The whole double incident of sneaking in the boys' dorms for Tristan and then sneaking him back into hers was pretty justified. Aurora is the owner of an impressive arachnid-conqueror record in this meme but in this instance she doesn't kill the spider. Tristan takes it out of the dorm without killing it. Who asks the the other to marry them: That wasn't what happened. It is true that there was one evening when Tristan invited her into their own private meeting of the club, if you wish to call it that. And it is equally true that they both seem to have some kind of locket since that night. But the rest are just rumors. Who buys the other flowers or gifts: Remember how Tristan keeps the dates of Aurora's poems? He buys her trinkets and various gifts that reference each work one week after she shared them. Aurora probably has a collection of small and not so small treasures alluding to her writings. Who would bring up possibly having kids: I will concede it to this meme: It is admirably stubborn. Who is more nervous to meet the parents: Aurora on a regular basis. Tristan when it is time to confront his obligatory character arc. Who sleeps on the couch when the other is angry: Different buildings. Who tries to make up first after arguments: They are still figuring it out at this point. Who tells the other they love them more often: I would say they both know that with firm certainty. It arrives to crown special occasions. And there is a myriad of small ways in which the sentiment is expressed every day.

[ethernetchord]

lets talk: popular iwwv criticism

(disclaimer: i know criticism is subjective and thats why im doing this, i wanna look at some common points made against iwwv and dissect them just a little bit in the opposite direction. also none of this is directed at any individual- it’s all based on the general talking points i’ve seen surrounding the book.)

SPOILER WARNING !!

lack of exploration into james and oliver (+ gay characters feel performative)

i’ve seen loads of people say that oliver and james’ relationship felt very performative, a way of including the queer romnce which clearly is very important to the plot but not actually giving it any space in the novel, nor developing it to the same extent which meredith/oliver was.

oliver and meredith had a very strictly physical relationship and while he did love her, he wasn’t in love with her the way he was with james. the juxtaposition in the way that oliver/james is delivered and the way meredith/oliver is delivered is, i believe, far too repetitive to not be intentional. i actually realised upon re-reading how much focus there really is on meredith’s sexuality, even in subtleties in the book. meredith and oliver get more blatant sex scenes, get more physical parts because oliver was (to an extent) using his attraction to meredith to distract himself from his infatuation with james.

we also have to remember that oliver and james didn’t get their real moment of honesty about their relationship till extremely late into the book. i’d honestly see it as more ‘performative’ to then after or in the middle of kind lear throwing in some wild sex scene between the two. it wouldn't have fit.

“why didn’t james and oliver get together earlier then >:(((“ because the slow burn between them, the subtext, the subtle-ness, the yearning, they were all crucial to the decision which oliver made at the end. the fact that they burned so bright for each other but (oliver particularly) were so desperately repressed, that was what made this such a tragic romance. yes its tiring to read stories about queer people being repressed, yes its tiring to see the bury your gays trope. but like oliver says, it goes beyond gender.

if oliver’s second love interest was a girl, and treated this way, we’d be a lot more on board with these tropes- but the fact that james is a man, and this therefor becomes a queer relationship, makes it feel performative. i can’t convince you of anything- but i like to believe that their relationship being treated like this not only makes it so much more “heart wrenching because why! why couldn’t it work out, why couldn’t it be better!” - not because its a queer relationship but because they were soulmates.

alexander wasn’t performative. not in the slightest, rio just didn’t make being gay his entire identity. same goes for colin. just because they’re queer doesn’t mean it needs to be the only thing about them. this isn’t a lgbt novel- characters dont have to be gay just for plot. they can just be gay.

i’ve also seen people complain about not just making oliver bisexual. guys. did you read the book? he was bisexual. he was emotionally and physically attracted to both meredith and james. guys that’s literally what bisexual means.

i'm totally on board with the coming out scenes! and realisation of feelings and all that stuff- but again, not an lgbt centric novel and also- these were things oliver probably did and realised far before this book. remember that its set in 4th year, at an art school. he knew he was fruity ok. not every queer character in every queer book have to have these grandious coming out scenes or realisations. the lack there of doesn’t equal performance.

the ending was rushed and bad

believe what you will, but i don’t think james is dead. there’s a little too much ambiguity in that ending, in the extract he leaves oliver, in the “his body was never found.” so if your main quarrel with the ending is that “bury your gays” situation- please know there’s a chance- and that giving it that chance opens up so much more discussion and reader response.

yes, the ending is sad. but it’s not rushed. “but that is how a tragedy like ours or king lears breaks your heart- by making you believe the ending might still be happy until the very last second.” doing king lear, doing macbeth, doing romeo and juliet, the plays are chosen not only for reader convenience (they’re plays readers will most likely be familiar with) but also because they all, so very deeply, foreshadow a “bad” ending. killing james, makes sense. as much as people don’t want to hear it, from an authorial perspective- from the reader’s perspective and as a human being it makes sense. why do keep arguing that he “should’ve stayed alive for oliver” or that “if he really loved oliver he wouldn’t have done it” - why are we limiting a character’s entire existence down to their love interest. yes, they were best friends, yes they were set up as lovers but that doesn’t mean that that would be enough to keep james around. james was a fragile character- he was always checking with oliver if he had upset him, he was always worried, overthinking, james wasn’t strong minded- and he was suffering. the only person he had left to depend on was in prison, he was plagued with the guilt of causing the death of a classmate and letting oliver take the blame, if he did kill himself, it sure as hell doesn’t have any reason to sound forced.

“its not nearly as good as the secret history!!!!”

to be honest here buds, why the fuck do we keep comparing them so insistently. they are not the same book. iwwv wasn’t trying to be tsh 2.0, yes there are similarities because hey! guess what! books in similar genres tend to do that! always comparing it tsh when they have different motives, different plots and vastly different execution makes no sense. the only reason that they are compared is because tumblrtm dark academics like to group the two together. and yea- makes sense, but stop trying to belittle iwwv because it isn't as grandiose as tsh, because it’s a little more literal, because it’s not as intertextual as tsh. half the people saying iwwv isn’t as good as tsh are practically just subtly going “shakespeare isn’t as complicated as ancient greek huehue” stop forcing the two together and let them be separately appreciated.

the characters were flat/archetypes/etc

sigh. okay.

these characters are actors. this book shows us their transition from themselves entirely into a conjunction of the roles they’ve played and the stereotypes they’ve portrayed.

“we were so easily manipulated - confusion made a masterpiece of us.”

“for us, everything was a performance”

“imagine having all your own thoughts and feelings tangled up with all the thoughts and feelings of a whole other person. it can be hard, sometimes, to sort out which is which.”

“far too many times i had asked myself whether art was imitating life or if it was the other way around”

“it’s easier now to be romeo, or macbeth, or brutus, or edmund. someone else.”

are you seeing it now? this focus on their archetypes, this focus on the character they are; the way they see themselves not merely as human but as a walking concoction of every character they have turned into and out of. they depend on their archetypes to give them meaning. rio uses these archetypes to remind us of the submersion of her characters. they weren’t flat, their intentional lack of dimension due to their pasts is what makes them so intricate. furthermore, there's an evident subversion- the tyrant becomes a victim, the hero becomes a villain (they all become villains really), the ingenue becomes corrupted. like mentioned before, i think we forget ourselves easily reading this book but there is a great deal of emphasis on this being their last year- which is so important. the damage has been done and a lot of the issues people have with the content (or lack thereof) in this book has to do with the fact that it’s all things that would have occurred in books focusing on previous years at delletcher.

“it didn't live up to expectation” (also leading on from read tsh to this and being ‘disappointed’)

i cant argue this because its entirely subjective. whatever expectation was created for you, i cannot know that and appropriately respond however- if you liked the secret history and understood the secret history then there's a good chance you also liked and understood this book- even if not to the same extent but you must be able to recognize the authorial approach and its significance. i think a lot of ppl read iwwv (and a lot of “dark academia” texts and films) and hope to be able to romanticize the aesthetic or the concepts and then are disappointed when they are presented with mildly unlikeable and overwhelmingly human characters who aren’t easy to romanticize.

a great majority of these books are criticisms of the very culture you’re trying to romanticize, and the only time you’re willing to admit that is when boasting about the ‘self-awareness’ of the people indulging in them, and then a moment later complain about those same qualities because they don’t serve this idealized expectation.

bad rep for arts/liberal arts/ humanities students as being pretentious/cultish

as a humanities student with a great love for eng lit- all of these things are indeed pretentious and cultish. not all the time and not always and not every person- but it is a common theme. academia is overwhelmingly obsessive and extremely white-washed. people become so fast to believe that they are indulging in finer arts and are therefore a higher standard of person. academia is problematic. and the recent influx of people interested in it is good, very good because hopefully, we’ll be more diverse, more open-minded, more accepting. that's what i hope at least. if you know, as an individual, that you’re not a pretentious academic who places themselves above non-academics then that's wonderful- but there are dangers and negative sides to academia that need to be understood so that we can see to not perpetuating them.

i cant refute all points, mostly because there's a lot of good and well-explained criticism because no book is perfect. and my intentions are not to belittle anyone's opinion. these are merely opposing arguments, food for thought and to be fair- a critical look into why not everything is always going to be what we expect of it and why every ‘problem’ can be assessed.

[jsperfhey]

mmm because at their core tsh & iwwv are the same book

you've got a small group of elite and pretentious twenty-something students, at an already elite and pretentious arts college, who have no friends outside of their weirdly codependent clique, cannot go two minutes without a drink or a cigarette, generously quote whatever they're studying in their daily conversations, and (probably most notably) murder one of their fellow group members.

you have the victim of the murder who spends their life tyrannizing the other members of the group and spends their death haunting them (richard stirling / bunny corcoran); the admired, talented, and quietly manipulative mastermind who engineers the murder and dies unexpectedly at the end (henry winter / james farrow); the charismatic addict among a group that's already charismatic and liberal about drug use (charles macauley / alexander vass).

both books are narrated in flashbacks by the most unremarkable member of the group who honestly has no reason to be there except as a plot device, struggles with fitting in both emotionally and physically (such as with their financial troubles), and takes a bullet, both literally and metaphorically, for the mastermind of the group. this is, obviously, richard papen in tsh & oliver marks in iwwv.

in iwwv, there's a girl that the narrator is in love with (meredith dardenne) and a girl that's in love with the mastermind & vice versa which infuriates the narrator (wren stirling). in tsh, camilla macauley fulfills a little bit of both of these roles, since richard is in love with her and she's in love with henry.

none of this so far has discussed filippa kosta from iwwv, which seems like a bit of cruel irony for the girl that was always overlooked. i like to imagine that filippa fulfills a similar role as the reader of tsh: both know about the murder from the beginning and are the only ones to follow the narrator after the group graduates and drifts apart.

the only parts that really differ in my mind are how the groups deal with the aftermath. the two novels explore opposite but similarly extreme reactions to the same situation — do you force yourself to feel nothing to prove that you've done nothing wrong, or do you feel so much that it almost breaks you, to somehow justify your wrongdoing with remorse?

(or you could argue that nobody in iwwv truly feels sorry, either; after all, when you're acting, you have the ability to convince your audience that you feel something when you really don't. let's also not forget that oliver is telling his story to colborne, and despite the promise of no consequences, maybe he's still trying to humanize himself and the others, whether it's a conscious choice or a subconscious one.)

these are stories about students that are so caught up in the words they read that they don't realize, or maybe they choose not to realize, the irony in the ones that they speak. and most importantly, just like all the tragic heroes that they're studying, their fates are set from the first page. we know what's going to happen to them and they know what's going to happen to them and yet we keep reading and they keep moving. a tragedy within a tragedy.

anyways. it's the peak of their lives & the history that defines them for the rest of theirs. "this is the only story they'll ever be able to tell," and "they'll never be able to forget it. that's the worst part."

[insidemyrottenbrain]

Years - TSH

The past haunts me. It has been years—so many I cannot begin to count, and if I’m being completely honest, I was not counting to begin with. Everything I have done was to escape that wretched part of my life in which my naivety and perhaps self-consuming passion, managed to control me. I wanted—want—to forget it all. 

The first time I stepped foot into what would soon come to be one of the few select places in my nightmares was very awe-inducing. The university was large, larger than I’d imagined. The stone walls had arched indents that made it look as if it belonged in one of the novels I read as a teenager and that my family wholeheartedly despised. The hallways were a contorted maze of watchful ancient statues following every movement with their eyes, priceless antiques donated by rich parents and students with more money in their pockets than I could ever dream of having. A multitude of departments found their home in that twisted place, such as theater, arts, modern literature, architecture, history, music, philosophy, and many more. I believe you can imagine my excitement when faced with the exact kind of university I dreamed of studying at, especially when I had little to no hope of ever getting anywhere close to it, much less belonging. 

One thing, as you know, led to another, and I ended up as one of the infamous Greek pupils. I’m quite sure everyone thought we were some kind of cult, which, if you think about it, isn’t entirely wrong.

The first few years were everything I had ever hoped for. I felt that I had found my place and, most certainly, my kind. We used to do everything together. Being with them was the only time I truly felt alive. Doesn’t matter whether we went to the comforting country house engulfed in trees safely from the outside world, had delicious dinners debating the most obscure topics, or simply studied in the library, sleep-deprived and on immense amounts of caffeine and nicotine, I always felt as if I was doing something more than just existing.

Where did it all go wrong? I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I do not want to categorize Richard’s arrival as the initiator factor, for it was not his fault. Nor is it correct to say that the Bacchanal was the beginning of it all. It wouldn’t be Henry’s doing either, at least not the start of it. I have speculated on this over the years, and I have come to only one conclusion that seems right. My theory as to what the answer is and my attempt to pinpoint the exact place on the timeline are not as precise as I hoped they would be. It was not a single event that gave birth to our ruin, but rather multiple little moments, that are rather large in the big scheme. I also like to believe that Julian had as much of a role in all of this as the rest of us. Even a considerably more sizeable one, perhaps.

Everything that happened—I wish to leave behind. However, I recently came to realise, that, to my misery, it incorporated and formed my very being. My views, my ideas, my taste, and my activities are all, to a certain extent, if not fully influenced and ruled over by it. I am my past.

My great, futile attempts to escape the life I once had, led me to London, a perfect setting for someone who wished to hide. A bustling place, where I had the chance to not be me, but a mere shadow lurking throughout the crowded streets, observing every passerby, while trying to guess their life stories, deepest desires, and strongest fears. I was no one, and I adored it. However, I had earned a peculiar reputation among museum guides and librarians for my constant presence and among university students for being a great classics professor. Or at least I’d like to believe so.

I am very selective with my pupils, and I teach a couple that are quite brilliant in my office. I often have open discussions with them, for I consider it helps them engage with the topic better and understand the meaning and philosophy behind it in such a way that encourages them to analyze, observe, and critique. One such day, we were talking about the loss of self, Plato’s four divine madnesses:

‘Death is the mother of beauty,’ said Felix, one of my students.

I nodded in approval as I propped myself up on the desk.

‘And what is beauty?’ 

‘Terror,’ a voice answered from my office’s door.

[pyro-sea]

For the fic ask game, gonna do a few if that's okay :D #5 for "Double or Nothing," #10 for "All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go" and #13 for "To Love Every Inch of You"

By sending me multiple, you've activated my trap card, giving me permission to present even more behind-the-scenes information about my stories! Mwahaha! Under the cut, though, because this got long ;)

5. What part was hardest to write? - Double or Nothing

Okay so believe it or not, despite Double or Nothing being literally just a plotless smutfic, the smut part was the most difficult. The actual writing of the dirty deeds took me the longest to write. It always does! I'm not sure why, but words do not want to appear on the page when I try to write a sex scene. The banter for Double or Nothing was came pretty easily (just like everyone in the fic *bu-dum tsh*), but adding descriptions of actions that didn't make the sex sound robotic took several tries and re-tries. But that's how smut scenes always go for me. With the exception of I think one or two fics, rarely ever am I able to finish a sex scene in around a month's time. And I mean just the scene, not the whole story, either. It's just slow-going. Probably means I need to write more smut to get some good practice and development of skills in, which, you won't hear complaints about from me. I do enjoy writing smut, even if it does fight me every damn step of the way.

10. Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story? - All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go

All Dressed Up got to be thiefshipping because during a wild conversation in Cali's server, art for any story that wrote maid dress thiefshipping got offered up and I am an absolute slut for fic art. So i thought to myself, "Oh, I can write that". And then I started thinking too hard about it. Why would Malik or Bakura have a maid dress? Where would they even get it from? Is this going to be a sex thing? Am I going to make this a gender and expression exploration story? Will this be crack, or serious? And the easiest option was, obviously regardless of who it was, they got the dress from Ryou, because it was a cosplay of Ryou's.

But then, why did Ryou have a maid costume? You can probably see how the story developed at that point. It was actually nice to think through, because it gave me the perfect opportunity to deploy one of my many "What career paths would Ryou plausibly take in canon?" headcanons: Custom costume designer/Cosplayer.

The only part that wasn't thought through like this was who would be in the dress, and who was going to end up with an Oh No Boner. I genuinely tossed a coin. Malik was heads, Bakura was tails, and the coin decided it would be Bakura who'd be into the maid dress thing.

13. What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading? - To Love Every Inch of You

What you'd expect is some sappy lovesongs, or some real down and dirty club songs, right? It's a cute, sexy smutfest involving two guys head over heels for each other. Welllll. Most of what I was listening to at the time was Molchat Doma and Sinking Ships. Which, aren't exactly artists I'd associate with Love Every Inch. Although, I also was listening to Smashing Pumpkins a lot, because someone said the singer sounded like Abridged Yami Malik/Melvin and let me tell you, imagining Yami Malik singing Smashing Pumpkin songs? THAT is some good fuel for AMV storyboards you don't have time to animate.

But back to the topic at hand, I think if you were going to listen to anything while reading Love Every Inch, it needs to be something equal parts sexy and sappy. I don't really have any recommendations for that. The "sexy" songs I listen to are like, club/discotek (discotheque? Spellcheck are you sure?) style songs, which would be way too fast and upbeat for Love Every Inch. But yeah, really long way to say, reader's choice!

[eerna]

I really like your response to the anon asking about what are the strengths of TFOTA. I think you nailed it regarding how Holly Black hit it out of the park, and I’m curious if you can expand on what you think some of the series missteps were. (TFOTA is an all-time fave for me, but nothing is perfect!)

For me, I think the way she structures her books into different parts does make them drag a little (especially some parts of the middle of The Wicked King). Like sometimes it feels like characters are spinning their wheels a bit while she’s setting everything up for the plot, but I ultimately don’t mind this because her plots are so well executed.

As always, love your breakdowns and critiques so just curious to hear more!

Ayyy thanks, glad you agree! :D

OO yes I heard that as an often critique of her stuff! I do think you're right and the slowness is present, but to me it's not an issue since the characters are fun enough for me never to be bored. I'm the kind of reader who can enjoy the slowest thing imaginable as long as the characters interest me.

Structured like the strengths post, my main issues. 1) The YA writing style of overexplanation. These books are sometimes great at leaving things unsaid, but other times they beat you over the head with the same thing over and over again or go into explanations for stuff you'd think is understood. Example: Jude constantly repeating it is messed up she lives with the guy who killed her parents in book 1. Like. Okay. We know. Trust us we didn't forget it's wrong to kill people and steal their kids. Of course, her constantly thinking about her trauma is part of her character, but it can be expressed in different ways - examples of how this was done well were "I love Madoc, I could love anyone" or "I get scared and I remember the smell of my mother's insides". 2) The repeating stuff from my list of pros... where it doesn't belong. Sometimes characters do or say stuff because HB wants them to do or say them bc she likes to write about it, but it makes NO sense. This was my main issue with TSH - for example, there is absolutely no reason for Oak and Suren's relationship to draw parallels with Jude and Cardan's to the point of repeating phrases, because they are so different that it jerks me right out of the story being told. 3) The editor is asleep on the job. There are quite a few basic editing errors - the amount of times characters smile or grin per page, and the continuity errors. This is the most frustrating aspect because it is so easy to solve!!!!! Just read it once more and click delete!!!! 4) Sometimes HB's "let's go back and elaborate on something from the past to give it a new dimension" works great, and sometimes it makes no sense. Examples: the Ghost betraying Jude because he was forced to, Locke being an Undersea collaborator and a gancanagh. 5) Taryn. She gets her own point because I love her and it's so unsatisfying how she ended up. She spends 2 books girlbossing and being such a sympathetic traitor, then gets pregnant and decides to stop being the worst offscreen and never does another plot relevant thing again. I don't know if HB got tired of her or if she realized everyone hated her and decided to sideline her so people would stop yelling, but MAN is it such a standout bad conclusion among a sea of good ones. 6) JUSTICE FOR OAK GREENBRIAR MY SHORT KING he was always described as tiny and underdeveloped for his age RIGHT up until he became a love interest, when he SUDDENLY started towering over everyone while still overflowing with short king energy. This is a joke to end the list on a happy note but also I would pay for a version of TSH where my monster girl has to lean down to kiss her bf