#you do not read the duology (and I understand that) so I bring the duology to you

[aleksanderscult]

You don't need to read the whole book of "King of Scars" to understand the stupidity of its protagonists. You only need to read only one chapter. Take for example this:

A few Grisha: *betray the Darkling*

The Darkling: *kills them*

Zoya: *shocked Pikachu face*

Didn't those Grisha choose to take Alina's side? Weren't they aware that there was a war going on and their choice might very well result in death?

Zoya loves to make martyrs the Darkling's victims even though their actions were their own and the consequences reasonable.

'Without remorse'

I didn't know that the Darkling confessed his feelings to you, Zoya.

Zoya wants her people to feel safe and suddenly realizes that the country needs to be strong and its leader capable.

The Darkling who knew all of this and tried to do just that rolls in Elizaveta's castle right now.

The heroes are so painfully dumb it's almost remarkable. They curse Aleksander for his harsh actions but when they realize that they have to do the same to bring stability and peace, they panic. Because they find it difficult to do without making hard decisions but still won't admit that the Darkling was in their position but didn't act like a chicken and instead decided to dirty his hands with more blood to put an end to all of that.

No, his way is condemned as brutal. His feelings inhuman, his goals selfish. There must be another way for them. A more pure, holy way.

The Darkling no longer gave a shit about how Ravka saw him as long as his dream came true (even though he longed for their love). While the heroes care so much about how they feel and about how they are perceived that cannot even stand doing anything radical through force and blood.

[oldfashionedbooklove]

tell me about your favorite lm montgomery novel please <3

Okay this is SO hard because her books are amazing but I just have to admit Rilla of Ingleside is my favourite, which is saying a lot because I LOVE HER BOOKS, okay! I adore the Story Girl duology and I absolutely love the Anne series and Jane of Lantern Hill.

But Rilla. This book is a heartbreaker. And it’s so beautiful.

I don’t know if I can fully express how much is to be found in this book. I have been reading it yearly for many years, and always come away with new thoughts. As I grow older, and see more of the world, I relate and understand more, and another level of the book is discovered.

The setting—a small P.E.I. town carrying on through WWI. I’m pretty tough when it comes to war books, but I have to take breaks from this one because it is so raw and real. The agony is intense. I cannot even cry over it—my heart hurts too much for tears. This shows exactly what the Great War was for people. You sway back and forth, feeling the dread and terror. You know how it ends but you are broken anyhow. And when the end comes, you too can only rejoice softly. You feel as if you have paid part of the price yourself.

“‘We’re in a new world,’ Jem says, ‘and we’ve got to make it a better one than the old. That isn’t done yet, though some folks seem to think it ought to be. The job isn’t finished—it isn’t really begun. The old world is destroyed and we must build up the new one. It will be the task of years. I’ve seen enough of war to realize that we’ve got to make a world where wars can’t happen. We’ve given Prussianism its mortal wound but it isn’t dead yet and it isn’t confined to Germany either. It isn’t enough to drive out the old spirit—we’ve got to bring in the new.’”

The characters in this book—they are alive. Splendid Jem, brave and merry and true; Jerry, steady and dutiful; Walter, sensitive and courageous; Carl, cheerful and fearless; Shirley, honest and reliable; Nan and Di and Anne, all heart-wrung and smiling; Gertrude, tragic and grasping for hope; the Doctor, determined and self-sacrificing; Susan, simple and true—and Rilla, who starts out a silly, frivolous girl and ends a strong, mature woman. Then there are all the minor and side characters—the Merediths, Cousin Sophia, Jimsy, Ken, Irene, Whiskers-on-the-Moon & his family, Mary and the Elliotts, Norman + Ellen, and everyone else. They’re all so alive, so real, so funny and terrible and beautiful—I swear Glen St. Mary exists and all the inhabitants thereof.

The story follows the Great War, from the first days in August 1914 to the bitter Summer of 1919, where peace has come but normal will never return. As a child, this story was simply World War One—a faraway, long-ago grief and horror and agony. Now, in 2024, as a woman, I have experienced a slight taste of what the people of 1914 felt, and it has humanized the story of the War. This, more than any other book I have read, brings the War and the world of 1914-1918 to life, showing how they were people just like us. The heart is wrung by their suffering, and there is no escape, for the war must drag on for long bitter years. And the price! Walter has become the face of unknown, forgotten heroes, and Jem has become that of the scarred heroes who returned. Every November we grieve the young men who never came home, and for the ones who came home missing a part of themselves, physical or otherwise. I have wept thinking of the children of Rilla, Ken, Faith, Jem, and the others—children who fought in WWII and whose parents were forced to relive the horrible conflict of mankind.

“It has been such a dreadful week,” she wrote, “and even though it is over and we know that it was all a mistake that does not seem to do away with the bruises left by it. And yet it has in some ways been a very wonderful week and I have had some glimpses of things I never realized before—of how fine and brave people can be even in the midst of horrible suffering.”

And yet the book overflows with humour—real laugh-out-loud scenes and witty, clever banter on princes and politics. It is another aspect of the humanity—the part that cannot fully let go of laughing despite the drain. Another angle is the shrewd commentary on principalities and powers, nations and cultures, is thought-provoking, as is the remarks that show us how the war truly changed the world.

“There was a time,” she said sorrowfully, “when I did not care what happened outside of P.E. Island, and now a king cannot have a toothache in Russia or China but it worries me. It may be broadening to the mind, as the doctor said, but it is very painful to the feelings.”

But the biggest things to me is the SPIRIT of this book. The spirit of perseverance, endurance, courage, and love. Of course, man is man, and there is suspicion, contempt, and a feeling of superiority—but this is not exclusive only to Anglo-Saxons. As someone who isn’t Anglo-Saxon myself, and actually of mixed cultures, I can attest every nation is guilty of such. World War One was a battle of good vs. evil—not of man vs. man, but Idea against Idea—the idea of civilization against militarism. Perhaps not on the part of the leaders—but when one studies the writings, letters, poems, and speeches of the everyday folks caught up in the war, one sees this distinction plainly. It was not a war of European against European, Anglo-Saxon against German—it was a war between an old, terrible Idea of Prussianism (Frederick the Great, anyone?) and the Idea of Respect and Peace.

“And you will tell your children of the Idea we fought and died for—teach them it must be lived for as well as died for, else the price paid for it will have been given for nought.”

May we never forget.

A REMARK: I discovered that Rilla of Ingleside was abridged by about 4,300 words (~14 pages), so I searched for an unabridged copy. I definitely encourage you to take the extra trouble to find an *unabridged* copy. It is SO worth it! I’ve read both versions and the unabridged is so much fuller, with a great deal more humour and fun.

I just have to pick out my favourite quotes, too…

“We all come back to God in these days of soul-sifting,” said Gertrude to John Meredith. “There have been many days in the past when I didn't believe in God—not as God—only as the impersonal Great First Cause of the scientists. I believe in Him now—I have to—there's nothing else to fall back on but God—humbly, starkly, unconditionally.”

“‘Our help in ages past’—‘the same yesterday, to-day and for ever,’ said the minister gently. ‘When we forget God—He remembers us.’”

Below her [window] was a big apple-tree, a great swelling cone of rosy blossom.... Beyond Rainbow Valley there was a cloudy shore of morning with little ripples of sunrise breaking over it. The far, cold beauty of a lingering star shone above it. Why, in this world of springtime loveliness, must hearts break?

And I can’t leave without some humour:

“‘The Germans have recaptured Premysl,’ said Susan despairingly… ‘and now I suppose we will have to begin calling it by that uncivilized name again. Cousin Sophia was in when the mail came and when she heard the news she hove a sigh up from the depths of her stomach, Mrs. Dr. dear, and said, ‘Ah yes, and they will get Petrograd next I have no doubt.’ I said to her, ‘My knowledge of geography is not so profound as I wish it was but I have an idea that it is quite a walk from Premysl to Petrograd.’ Cousin Sophia sighed again and said, ‘The Grand Duke Nicholas is not the man I took him to be.’ ‘Do not let him know that,’ said I. ‘It might hurt his feelings and he has likely enough to worry him as it is.’ But you cannot cheer Cousin Sophia up, no matter how sarcastic you are, Mrs. Dr. dear. She sighed for the third time and groaned out, ‘But the Russians are retreating fast,’ and I said, ‘Well, what of it? They have plenty of room for retreating, have they not?’ But all the same, Mrs. Dr. dear, though I would never admit it to Cousin Sophia, I do not like the situation on the eastern front. [But] Grand Duke Nicholas, though he may have been a disappointment to us in some respects, knows how to run away decently and in order, and that is a very useful knowledge when Germans are chasing you. Norman Douglas declares he is just luring them on and killing ten of them to one he loses. But I am of the opinion he cannot help himself and is just doing the best he can under the circumstances, the same as the rest of us.’”

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Worldbuilding

Thanks so much for the interest in this series on my previous post, I’m excited to share it with you :)

One of the strengths of the Grishaverse worldbuilding is that the different countries and cultures take clear inspiration from the real world, so the reader is able to infer a lot of the small details without having to be spoon-fed the information. For example, we don't need a long, info-dump explanation as to why surnames in Shu Han are constructed from the prefixes "yul" or "kir" based on sex and the first name of the parent (eg Kuwei Yul-Bo, son of Bo Yul-Bayurr) because we understand that the country is partially inspired by Mongolia. And even if we don't make this immediate connection, looking at characters like Tolya Yul-Batar and Tamar Kir-Batar we understand how to infer the source of the name because of it's basis from many different naming conventions in our world, such as the -son, -dottier, or -bur suffixes in Iceland. Something I think I see authors do a lot is struggle with the balance in this kind of situation, but personally I find that Leigh Bardugo does it really well. We don't need to be told the extensive information about this, even if she knows it or has some idea about it for herself, because it isn't relevant to the story. If we were told about it in great detail during the Grisha Trilogy or the SOC duology, it would feel a lot like info dumping. But by telling us what it's necessary to know about the Shu royal family in KOS/ROW and letting us fill in the gaps, we feel that we have enough information to both understand and keep the story moving forwards. All we're actually told, to my recollection, is that the Shu queens maintain the given name of the first queen of Shu Han rather than their mother's name to unify the family and to maintain the status symbol of the royals. The information we've been given from this that's immediately relevant to the story is an explanation as to why the character doesn't take her mother's name, so we're not confused or distracted by that as we read on, but we also know that Shu Ha, or at least its aristocracy, is a matriarchy, that the Shu people still feel a great respect for their first queen, implying further that there is a great respect for heritage in the country, and that the Shu monarchy feel the need to remind people of that first queen for what is probably a fear of unsettlement in their power and therefore a need to remind people that this is their 'birth right'.

In my book, there are futuristic technologies made possible by the blending of science and magic, such as a scanner that can identify several genetic markers and is connected to a national database in order to identify anyone, that is used very similarly to a passport system, as well as by the justice system. But it's not necessary to explain the set up of the database, or that the earliest generation of the scanner was developed in the 16th Century, because that doesn't move the story forwards. Instead, I focus on the impact that the technology's usage has on one of the main characters, who has to have routine police and governmental contact because she witnessed the destruction of her home and the murder of her family at age 10. The case is so famous that at the equivalent of passport control to know that her information is about to appear on that database and the person is going to know what happened to her is deeply stressful for her, but there are no alternatives because this system is considered far safer than any paper-based system that could be cheated or faked. My aim is to actually say that the scanner recognises the person and brings up their information so that I can use it to move the story forward through the emotional response of the character, whilst letting the reader infer anything else about the system. I also don't have to tell you that the technology has been around for centuries, but if I have a stranger to the technology describe it and casually mention that 'Generation 18' or something similar is written on the side, you know that it's been around for an extended period of time.

I hope this made sense and was somewhat helpful, I thought I wouldn't go into too much detail and instead split this into multiple posts. Thanks for reading, and if there's anything in particular about worldbuilding you'd like me to talk about let me know and I can give it a try :)

[lassieposting]

I think in KoS duology Nikolai actually mentions that Vasily tried to poison him once.

The discord mentioned this to me when I came up with that theory! Apparently Niko was twelve.

Ngl, I'm wheezing at the idea that this was at a dinner Aleksander was actually present for. And Nikolai bribed Vasily to swap seats so he could sit beside his crush, which Vasily allowed because like. Sure. Drop dead wherever you like, lil bro. The Black General scares the shit out of him anyway.

In Niko's head, he wows General Kirigan with his wit and charm and extensive knowledge of many things. In reality, Kirigan spends 95% of the time talking to Pyotr, and only really acknowledges Nikolai to ask how his lessons are going and whether he's thought about what he wants to do for his military service - infantry? Cavalry? Artillery?

At some point, still focused on talking to the Tsar, Kirigan reaches out without looking and picks up Nikolai's wine glass by accident. When he notices, he makes a face at the taste, laughs it off and makes a joke out of it - terribly sorry, moi tsarevich, I appear to have stolen your drink...more of a whiskey man myself - and has a servant get Niko a fresh glass, no biggie. Vasily, sat opposite, goes rather quiet and slightly pale the rest of the dinner, but Nikolai isn't really focusing on his brother.

The next time he sees Kirigan, a couple days later, he looks like he's been a bit unwell, and that's exactly what he tells Niko - just a little under the weather, moi tsarevich, nothing I can't handle - but unlike Vasily, Nikolai likes to read. He knows Grisha aren't supposed to be able to get sick. He's a smart kid, and he figures out that Kirigan's 'sick' because his body's fighting off poison, and since the rest of the dinner guests are fine and dandy, it was his glass that was spiked, not the wine. Process of elimination leads him to suspect his brother, but he has no proof, so again, best to say nothing.

He doesn't bring it up with Kirigan at that point, because they absolutely do not have that kind of relationship. It's not until many years later that he asks whether Aleksander knew there was something wrong with Niko's glass at that dinner.

"I didn't know," Aleksander tells him, sprawled out like a housecat with his head in Nikolai's lap, "Not until I tasted it. But I suspected."

"I didn't. What gave it away?"

"Vasily. As soon as that wine was brought out, he couldn't take his eyes off you. He was waiting for something. It was cyanide, you know. Vicious little bastard, your brother."

Niko flounders a little, his fingers stilling in Aleksander's hair. "But you barely noticed I existed back then. Why risk your life for me?"

Aleksander quirks an eyebrow at him. "Oh please, sobachka. Poison enough to kill a scrawny otkazat'sya boy will hardly have the same effect on an adult grisha. Besides, while I certainly understand the impulse to poison one's relatives - do not give me that look, you met my mother - I draw the line at doing it at the dinner table."

Nikolai can't help himself. He laughs.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

What do you think about people shipping Alina and Nikolai? Also how do you feel about them implementing The Zoya romance going forward? Even though I do like their overall relationship between Nikolai and Alina I'm worried that they'll throw away the Nikolai and Zoya potential from the books in season 3 for Alina and Nikolai. For the 3rd season I wouldn't mind if they explored his feelings for Alina but I think maybe he could get eventually friendzoned by her because let's be honest Alina has too many boy problems to deal with another. And maybe whilst Alina is dealing with her problem, becoming darker and more corrupted, Nikolai deals with his on his own(becoming a shadow monster)where Zoya finds out and helps. And maybe over time they get closer. That's kind of what I'm hoping for season 3 regarding the introduction to the relationship. I wouldn't mind if Nikolai is hung up on Alina whilst Zoya falls for him and he remains oblivious despite the sexual tension but it would be cool if they decide to make them a main duo for season 3 constantly flirting with each other neither one ever making a move. Nevertheless, there is so much potential and I hope they don't throw it away because Nikolai and Alina have 'great chemistry' as some people say. I wouldn't completely mind if the writers gave them a little romance in the beginning but Zoya is endgame for me.

I've always been a ship and let ship person so I don't mind people shipping Alina and Nikolai, I did think they had really good chemistry in season 2 and so can understand why people may be drawn to the ship especially if they are show only watchers. I myself really enjoyed Alina and Nikolai's dynamic, however I don't think of them as a long term/ end game relationship. I will admit that I don't know much about Zoya and Nikolai's relationship as I haven't read the duology, only summaries of the books, but I could see them being very compatible and having quite an interesting, flirty dynamic.

I know alot of people are worried with season 2 ending with Alina still engaged to Nikolai and standing beside him at his coronation, that means they are going to take Zoya's storyline in the duology and give it to Alina. But rest assured it doesn't look like they are doing that at all this is what Eric (the showrunner) said about season 3:

The books also put Zoya front and center, and Heisserer heaped praise on Dasgupta: "I hope she's ready for it because she'll be a pillar of that storyline."

So it looks like they will be bringing Zoya's character front and centre and she'll still play an important role in the storyline, I think they just really wanted to keep Jessie and Alina so they had her keep her powers. It also makes sense within the narrative that she is still currently engaged to Nikolai as it would seem random if after saying they are going to marry to unite otkazat'sya and grisha they then suddenly decide to call it off without a reason. Alina's corruption arc would create that reason for that engagment to be called off in a way that makes sense with the narrative. Because even if they have her corruption arc and then pull her back from it, her reputation in Ravka as this pure Saint of Light will be ruined and so that political advantage to the marriage will be gone. That would then open the way for Zoya and Nikolai as Zoya is also a powerful grisha but one that wasn't corrupted at any point.

I could definitely see season 3 playing out the way you described with Nikolai at first having some romantic feelings towards Alina but her corruption arc means that a distance grows between them and this kind of breaks Nikolai heart watching Alina slowly going further to the dark side, but that also meaning that she is not really there for him when it comes to dealing with nichevo'ya that has infected him. I could see Zoya then stepping in to help Nikolai and that leading to them getting closer and developing romantic feelings for each other, it could have the potential to be very flirty, because I do think they both have very flirty personalities, but also very angsty because they are having these feelings for each other but he is still technically engaged to someone else, I predict drama.

But I also think there is a hint to Zoya being the one to help and support Nikolai in the season finale, when Zoya and Genya come to help Alina get ready for the coronation, as Nikolai leaves the room Zoya checks him out and then tells Alina and Genya that 'that one's a mess, I could fix him.' Also another thing she says that could be a hint at a potential romance between Nikolai and Zoya is when Alina says she is going to get rid of the coloured Kefta's Zoya complains saying she looks good in blue, which interestingly enough is the colour of the Lantsov Royals, its why Alina is wearing the blue dress to the coronation. So that too could be a hint.

I will say that personally I would love to see them develop a romance between Nikolai and Zoya as I said I think they could mesh well together, I think they would have really great chemistry so if they do decide to explore the relationship in season 3, which I strongly suspect they will, I would absolutely be down for that.

[but-ter-flie-ge]

'Ollo

I'm back. Pahahaha. That sounded so menacing in my brain. Anyways it's six of crows time again. Crazy I know.

I reread the first book and had to get some thoughts out of my jelly brain:

Firstly: the last time I read the duology I didn't really get the hype around the first book.

It just wasn't that interesting to me and the whole ice court heist felt very... faulty and too fast paced. Everything was kind of weirdly put together and rushed. Fight scenes. Emotional scenes. Most of it except for the flashbacks and the banter felt too quick.

I couldn't connect with the characters and I feel like I also didn't really understand a lot of them. Maybe the fact that I read it in German changed something as well, probably changed something.

Now being older and rereading it after the show while properly indulging in the fandom I found myself enjoying every interaction between the characters and actually really noticed a lot of their growth. I appreciate them more and while reading I could overlook that the ice court heist still felt weird. Or rather the heist wasn't weird but it's weird to me that people call it an absolute masterpiece.

I think it should just be seen as something that it is: "A bunch of messed up teenagers doing the impossible with the help of luck and a few good tricks."

That's a mindset I ought to keep when musing about the heist, I suppose. I'm not sure if it was intended as such but it is what I gathered from it.

Secondly: I cherish the characters way more than before and that makes a major difference. Since what I've mentioned before and I have been constructing the characters in my brain as who they are and what I appreciate about them the first book became 10 times better.

This point is also related to the fact that everything feels rushed because when you barely know the characters their banter might be funny but it doesn't affect you as much as it does once you know them. Now it feels like you're reading of friends joking around instead of strangers.

Kaz:

During the first read I really despised Kaz. I may said I found him interesting but now I feel more like I just said that out of a want to understand what the rest of the world apparently agreed upon which is that Kaz is phenomenal. He's great he's wonderful and a big player when it comes to book crushes.

What I can say is that the TV series really helped me understand and ultimately like Kaz more. Specifically the second season. In the first season, I don't connect Book-Kaz with the Kaz on screen but the second season did him justice. To a degree. (Idk why he gives Nikolai his cane (please fix that)) Probably also because in season 2 he was in his actual plot and habitat.

This time when I write:"I find him interesting." I mean it. I actually really enjoy watching how his character moves and tada! I now even acknowledge his crush on Inej. Because in my first read I subconsciously never really believed him. He was too much of an asshole to me. But even if I believed him I didn't have any pity left to sympathize with him. Blinded by hate I suppose.

This time I actually had an understanding of his actions, why he takes them, and what they mean to him.

I still view him as a ruthless fucker who only has space for himself when it comes to his friends but it's easier to bear when I actually want to know more about his rage and logical reasoning. The way he gets to where he is.

Inej:

In the first read, I may liked Inej. In the second read, I put her on a pedestal and prayed next to her feet every night.

I don't know what hold me from seeing Inej for who she is in my first read but I know that now I could explode with love for her. It's funny to me because I thought I quite enjoyed reading about her but for some reason, it intensified.

Anyways her character growth and the resolve she finds in herself to say no, choosing what's best for her. Oof-

Also, Danielle Galligan (actress of Nina Zenik) said that Inej is just so authentic she brings other people to be truthful in her presence. I just really loved that statement.

Nina and Jesper:

I still adore both of them as I did when I first read it. Nothing much changed. Except maybe it got worse. But all in all, I'm the same old simp.

Wylan and Matthias:

Matthias I found way funnier. During the first read, I was just hating on him for obvious reasons. And even at the end of it all I wasn't a big fan and I didn't grab a lot of his pov nor what Nina meant when she said that he's just a boy with rage planted inside of him.

Now I understand that better and of course, he's still an annoying stupid big honk that doesn't know shit about the world but at least his confusion and the others mocking him were enjoyable. And the character development will forever make me happy.

I adore him and Nina. They're so sweet together and I didn't think I'd ever say that after my first read. But here we are. What a journey it has been.

It's the same as the first time with Wylan. I loved him but I didn't get any chapters from his pov so I was pissed. The show slaughtered the reveal of his dyslexia which I still don't support but maybe they can make the angst work somehow if there's to be a spin-off.

Also, I was scared that he would be useless throughout the whole book. Because in my memory, he wasn't but maybe that's just my old memory blinded by the pink glasses.

However, I think it's often hard to judge Wylan on this since he operates more in the background and with the few resources he has. Of course, he's still a weight the others drag along during the heist but let's be honest: Wylan was less of a problem than other characters messing up.

Obviously one has to consider that Wylan doesn't get the big jobs to begin with but one can counter-argue that Kaz could've left Pekka alone in the cell instead of taking too long and risking all their lives for his vendetta.

This reminds me: the scene where Kaz exposes Jesper about having told a dime lion he's leaving town will forever make me mad for this exact reason.

Kaz says he can't trust Jesper anymore. He says he wanted to punish him by not telling him about Wylan looking like Kuwei or that Wylan and Nina were actually safe when Van Eck destroyed their ship.

I don't even know where to start. Did Kaz ever really trust Jesper? Don't think so. He just knew how to use him but trust? The only one he ever conceded to was Inej which could be considered a spark of trust. That's it. I feel like he doesn't have the right to speak of trust when all he ever gave were simple orders.

Then his thoughts about punishing him.

Dear Kazzle Dazzle, did anyone punish you when your weakness showed and you collapsed in a prisoner wagon even though you knew this could've happened? Did anyone punish you when you left Nina alone in the corridor of a high-security prison? Did anyone punish you when you sent Nina in a death trap with Matthias and Brum that could've gone very wrong very quickly? It was a gamble and he says it himself. He even says he would be the one to pay for all these "tree jokes". But no Kaz. You wouldn't have been the one to take the brunt of this. It would've been Nina. She would've paid with her consciousness. Worse than death.

Nina was lucky that luck was on your side. I guess the third scenario is still very different from the first and second ones because at least Kaz tried to save her but nonetheless it annoyed me that he made it about himself. I get why but the why doesn't help him.

Thirdly: I have my problems with the writing style and plot.

By no means am I a professional especially not when it comes to English as it is not my mother tongue but I just wanted to describe the feeling I've got from it.

This is a tricky one because I'm not the biggest fan of either. I mean the only reveals or plot-twists that really hit home are the ones not related to the ice court. So the biggest portion of the book I wasn't too keen whenever some grand scheme worked because it didn't seem like a scheme at all. It was a lot of luck.

In the first read that bothered me. In the second read it didn't too much.

The writing style isn't my favourite. I don't hate it though. I feel like some of the similes are pretty damn good and the train of thought of the characters and descriptions are nicely woven together. The dialogues are very strong and the banters may be some of the best I've ever read. Even fanfiction got some serious competition here.

However, as I said it felt rushed and like sometimes there wasn't the right feeling for how the scenes should end. When I first read it I found this even worse than in my second read. For instance, the fight with Jesper and Wylan against the Tidemakers doesn't take much longer than a few seconds to read. But apparently, that fight had a big impact on Jesper. It's never mentioned again in the book but it's the start of him questioning whether he should go and learn about his powers. And since we already don't get any background about him in the first book I feel like this at least could've been a longer struggle.

In conclusion, I know it's not all about the plot and a book can be about good characterization and everything. But I also know that I can love something and still criticise it. Usually makes the media even better.

The characters are where the book shines which means a reread or watching the show and then reading it feels like the smarter option to me. It's worth it and it lets you see things in a different light. That's me speaking from my subjective point of view but it's also my review so. Get wrecked I guess?

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

2023 Book Reviews: Fantasy, Part 1

I have by far the most books I'm classing as fantasy for these reviews, so you'll be seeing a lot of them! (You could argue that a few of these are fantasy romances, but I think these ones lean more on fantasy than they do on romance.) I quite enjoyed a lot of these, especially Even Though I Knew the End, although it also broke my heart </3

1. A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson: 4.5/5

Pitch: the story of Dracula's 'wives', if they knew it was abusive (poly & queer)

Review: This book is only about vampires in the way that The Old Man in the Sea is about fishermen - vampires might be the medium through which the story is told, but the heart of the story is about abusive relationships and how they affect you and the people that you love. That isn't to say that I found the vampire angle frustrating, or distracting - I thought it was quite well done - but if you're looking for a fun story about vampires, I don't think this is the right place to come. As far as the story itself, I thought the characters were vivid, the prose was excellent, and the historical details were a fun dressing on top of a well-told and heartbreaking story.

2. Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk: 4.75/5

Pitch: sapphic detective noir in an alternate Chicago with angels & demons

Review: I loved this book but it also broke my heart. It's perfectly paced as a novella, with characters and a setting that are so vivid that you immediately love them and are invested in them. The plot was the perfect size for it, and mostly I loved everything about this book, except that it broke my heart. I wasn't really looking for heartbreak in a book, and even though maybe I should have expected it from the noir aspect, I wasn't ready for it. It is absolutely going to stick with me, though, and if you're in the mood for a book with some heartbreak, I think it's brilliant.

3. The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden: 4.25/5

Pitch: #2 in a trilogy set in historical Russia with gods, politics, and a very headstrong female MC

Review: I definitely enjoyed this, although coming into it after it had been like 5 years since I read the previous book meant that I was very confused for a while, since it wasn't really something that the author left hints about at the beginning of this book. I started caring more in Part 2, and then pretty much read through the rest of it all in one go. Still enjoy Vasya quite a bit, and I'm very intrigued to see where it goes next!

4. The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin: 4.25/5

Pitch: what if cities were people? what if those people also had to fight an indefinable cosmic horror? final book of a duology

Review: A fun conclusion to N.K. Jemisin's Great Cities duology, but there were parts of it that felt quite rushed or anticlimactic (like the ending) and parts that just didn't land for me (like the romance between Neek and Manny). She talks in her author's note about the decision to cut this series down from a trilogy to a duology, and I totally understand and respect those choices, but I also think that the book suffers some as a result. It's still fun though, and an interesting world, so I enjoyed my time in the story.

5. Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 10 by Kamome Shirahama: 4.75/5

Pitch: #10 of a fantasy manga about a girl who becomes a witch to un-curse her mom, while dealing with evil witches who want her to use magic recklessly

Review: Honestly I loved this volume - the tension is really ratcheting up, and there's a bunch of plot threads all coming together, and the next volume promises to bring it all to a head. I'm excited!!!

[lachimolalaorangee]

Heyo guyss

So I'm back with a new book rec slash review!!

Do you like a book with

Enemies to lovers with dual pov 😏

I have to kill you but I fell for you troupe

Cool magic system

Badass and strong female lead?

I got yall covered

The song of wraith and ruin and The Psalm of storm and silence is a duology written by Roseanne A. Brown is a West African folklore inspired High fantasy

Summary

During the festival of Solstasia a comet festival which happens once every fifty years Malik along with his sisters Leila and Nadia sets off to the capital city of Ziran to start a new life however after series of mishaps and magic involved Nadia would be kidnapped who would be saved only if Malik kills the princess of Ziran - Karina. Coping her way after her sister's death Karina was the daughter of ( insert name) All she did in her life was run away from reality. Things turns upside down during the festival when Assasin's starts attacking the palace and suddenly being the queen of the country which she never thought she has to be anytime soon happens Karina is absolutely ready to do anything absolutely anything to bring back her mother from the dead even if she has to use magic which defies the balance of the universe. Will Karina actually succeed? Will Malik murder her before that ? Will they ignore the sparks flying between them and finish what they started? Guess you have to read to find out 😉!

My Review

As someone who knew nothing about African Tales and Mythology this was definitely a breath of fresh air for me! And the world building was easy to understand too.. And what I appreciate so much in this book is the characters. The author was not afraid to break the gender stereotypes. Especially the male character Malik was anxious , Extremely introverted and I saw much of myself in him I loved how she wrote about matters mental health and trauma in an extremely realistic way . As for Karina I loved how she was potrayed with so much swagger and boldness. And I really Loved the LGBT rep too ❤️

All in all the character building was good but however I felt the book was a bit... stretched out to be honest. And the character building between other characters was not good enough making it a bit boring

In conclusion I'll give it a solid ⭐⭐⭐ stars

Sorry for the long ass post lol 😭

[sentfromwolves]

✧ SENTFROMWOLVES. ⊰ WRITEBLR INTRO & TAG/WIPS DIRECTORY ⊱

➺ Hey friends! Welcome to my writeblr (re)intro. If you’re new here, my name is Eran. I’m 20+, nonbinary (they/them, experimentally he/him), and not only is my sun in Virgo, so is my rising (heck). I’m from the pnw but I live in new england now, and if you ever see a key smash, I swear it was my cats. You can find out more about me here!

⊰  Let’s get some house keeping out of the way really quick! ⊱

➺ I interact from @calamityeden! If you see that username in your dms/ask box, it’s just me! 

➺ Feel free to tag me in ask/tag games! I am open to them and happy to partake. I am slow, so please don’t mind if I take my time in responding! ; w ;

➺ Never hesitate to DM or sending my asks about my wips or inquire about my tag lists. I’m also always happy to just say hi! My dms/ask box is not a scary place, I swear! I am just a slow and somewhat distracted potato.

➺ This is a strictly 18+ writeblr. Please DNI with me if you are a minor and respect my boundaries.

Ok cook, now onto the more exciting stuff. 👀✨

✧ TAGS MASTERLIST ✧ there are others but these are the important ones!

➺ 📝 my writing (woo!) 

 ➺ 💌 my graphics (double woo!) 

➺ 😤 shoutout train (for amazing writers & writing!) 

➺ 🎉 game train (for oc games/asks & answers!) 

➺ 🎑 insp tag (general inspiration for wips)

➺ 💫 shut up eran (personal thoughts, rants about writing, etc) 

➺ 📚 resource tag (!!) 

➺ 💦 you should be writing (writing memes & silly things) 

✧ So what do I write? ✧ I write queer NA/Adult crossover fantasy. Sometimes it’s space fantasy. Sometimes it’s urban fantasy. And sometimes I get really wild and do historical fantasy too. You can check out my main projects below for a better understanding of what I’m focused on at the moment!

In any and all of my works, you can be sure to find: 

➺ Nonbinary and trans voices at the heart of the story. 

➺ Polyamorous relationships in varying shades of platonic/romantic. 

➺ Tall men who love their tiny lovers. Am I a size difference hoe? Yeah. Yep. 

➺ Soft magic systems, celestial gods, sprawling series-long plots. 

➺ Large queer diverse casts. I very rarely write anything that doesn’t have an ensemble cast involved. 

✧ While I don’t often write explicit content into my projects, I am always happy to provide a list of potential tws for each of them. ✧ Very often I will explore complex topics and sensitive issues through the lens of my characters with a lot of nuance based on my own experiences (gender identity being a major one among others), and I will always mark anything I share appropriately if they are discussing or involving sensitive issues. 

✧ Beneath is a list of my active projects I am projecting to work on through 2022-2023! ✧ Feel free to ask about any of them, or inquire about being added to their taglists! 

✧ BIRTHRIGHT / ENCHANTED AT EVENTIDE.  ⊰ Adult Soft Fantasy Series ⊱

In Adrien, the light of the sun is eternal, but there are whispers that once, it was not. The middle daughter of the last Lunar Celestials in the realm, Aurora spends her time avoiding would-be suitors and reading myths of lost moons and missing stars, wondering where the night has gone.

But when her eldest sibling goes missing, Aurora flees her home to find a way to bring Diana back - even if it means chasing fairytales off the edge of the world and into the unknown. The last thing she expects is the help of an arrogant planetary god, or to unravel the mysteries of Adrien's broken past only to find herself at the center of a prophecy forgotten by time itself.

Soon enough, what had once been Aurora’s quest to find Diana and bring them safely home becomes a journey that will decide the fate of all Adrien--and the rest of the shattered celestial realm of Tolemia too.

➺ WIP PAGE . ➺ WIP TAG . ➺ CAST PAGE (UC)

✧ HIS BODY A BROKEN LAW.  ⊰ Nitty Gritty Urban Fantasy Duology ⊱

There’s a clock tattooed on Nemesis’s wrist, and when it reaches midnight on his 21st birthday, it will kill him.

It doesn’t help that his mother was the one who cursed him, and that the demon possessing his car ate her down to the bones before Nemesis could get her to break it. But Nemesis is nothing if not versatile, not when he’s only got a few months left until the big bad end. If a deal with the devil under the hood of his vintage car is what it takes to survive, Nemesis doesn’t mind selling what’s left of his soul.

But Judge doesn’t just want Nemesis’s soul. The demon has bigger, meaner plans than that, and he needs Nemesis’s help to see them through. After all, stealing the heart of a living city isn’t a one-man job, and for all Nemesis is cursed, he’s still the first True Witch in a generation. And with a centuries old turf war raging through the streets of the Veldt, Judge and Nemesis are going to need each other’s power if they hope to make it past every last exorcist, demon, and vengeful witch in their way―regardless of whether they can stand each other or not.

➺ WIP PAGE . ➺ WIP TAG . ➺ CAST PAGE (UC)

✧ CARVE THE STARS.  ⊰ Neo 80′s Space Opera ⊱

Two hundred years after reaching the stars, it turns out that aliens are either dead, missing, or worse.

For Wren Akane, this is a fact of life that comes alongside the three golden rules: water is wet, the sky is red, and whatever came before left something behind. A mechanic of Terra-9, a backwater planet in the backdrop of a budding human nation set against a foreign set of stars, Wren doesn’t care much for the starward politics of the galaxy, but they certainly have something to say about the aliens everyone thinks are merely dead.

Unfortunately, Wren’s golden rules are shattered the moment Marek Khalid touches down on Terra-9 and challenges them to a race. A star pilot turned famous for coming back the lone survivor of the missing deep space mission of the century, Marek is nothing short of dangerous, but Wren never learned better than to play with fire when it came crawling to their door.

But being burned is the least of Wren’s worries when their life is turned upside down by an alien doorway in the desert opening again after a thousand years closed, and a sudden calling only they can hear. Drawn into an intergalactic war when their planet is sieged in search of something ancient and holy, Wren is forced to flee to the stars, where they learn that they may play a greater role in the universe than they’d ever asked for, and that now, they’re being called on to finish the job.

After all, Wren might not have won the war they started ten thousand years ago, but they’re nothing if not determined to end it once and for all.

➺ WIP PAGE . ➺ WIP TAG . ➺ CAST PAGE (UC)

✧ PREY FOR THE WICKED.  ⊰ Adult Dark Fantasy Trilogy ⊱

The only thing in all of Ossia that men fear more than monsters are the red-coated hunters that slay them.

That's none of Zara's concern. As long as their coin continues to line her pockets, they can continue cowering for the rest of their years. A Marchen, Zara's life is defined by hunting and killing the beasts of the world, whether undead or divine or some hideous corruption of both.

But when Zara is hired to find out what is eating wives in an ancient forest far to the north, she is forced to work alongside a necromancer to get to the bottom of the malady in the heart of the woods. The last thing she expects is to fall into a forgotten kingdom trapped in time, or have to make an uneasy truce with the cursed wolf-headed queen that rules it to find a way to kill the evil sleeping within.

➺ WIP PAGE . ➺ WIP TAG . ➺ CAST PAGE (UC)

And that’s all she wrote for now! Please feel free to reach out anytime hehe! 💝

[redgoldsparks]

September Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Full reviews below the cut.

The Breakaways by Cathy G Johnson

Faith is a quiet fifth grader, prone to daydreaming and doodling. She is not very sporty, but she is talked into joining the middle-school girl's soccer team and falls into a web of friendships, grudges, crushes, and aspiring punk musicians. The book weaves together scenes of most of the team member's various struggles and experiments as they all try to get through life in the tumultuous junior high years. I wished the story had focused on a slightly smaller cast, as I felt like I only only got a little slip of story about each player, but what I did get I liked.

A Lady for Duke by Alexis Hall read by Kay Eluvian

Viola Caroll fought as a soldier in Waterloo; when she was left for dead on a battlefield, but nursed back to health by farmers, she decided to renounce her old life as a viscount and live as her true self, a woman. At the start of the story, only her younger bother and sister-in-law know the story of Viola's past. But a cry for help brings her back in contact with the Duke of Gracewood, her childhood best friend, bosom companion, and fellow Waterloo survivor. Viola had decided the best thing she could do was cut off her old friend and never reveal to him that she lived. But she finds him haunted by fears, addictions, and PTSD; left with a permanent limp and a terrible grief, he is barely surviving. She commits to caring for him temporarily, but when he begins to fall in love with her, Viola feels trapped between her own feelings and her fear of telling him the truth of their past. This historical romance is almost completely free of homophobia and transphobia; what ends up separating the characters for much of the story is not their genders or sexualities but their social class. The cast of the book is rounded out with a delightful set of quirky family members, from Gracewood's dreamy oddball of a teen sister to Viola's Mrs Bennett-like sister-in-law. I read so little romance, I don't even have a virtual shelf for it. I liked this one, but also thought it was at least 50 pages too long, and wished the pace had moved more quickly through some sections. The tone switched from humor to melancholy very abruptly sometimes mid-scene, and the final confrontation with the main villain was a bit ridiculous, but ultimately I did enjoy the book.

Crier's War by Nina Varela

Crier is an Automae, an AI being made by human creators at the order of her father, the Automae king of most of Zulla. She is beautiful, smart, stronger than a human, and close to invulnerable, but she is also very naïve and has seen little of the world. Ayla is a human girl who's whole family was killed by Automae; she is in touch with many rebels in the oppressed human population, but she is more interested in revenge than rebellion. She wants to kill Crier and make her father suffer as Ayla has suffered. But Ayla isn't prepared for the warm sympathy and understanding Crier will offer her- or the spark of attraction between them. This is a very fast read, and if you are looking for a quick, easy queer YA to kick you out of a reading slump this might hit the spot. Don't, however, spend too much time thinking about the plot or the worldbuilding because both are extremely sloppy and full of holes. There are a lot of first-book weaknesses here from flat character introductions to an overuse of flashbacks. But I do still want to know how the story ends and will probably read the second book of the duology to satisfy my curiosity!

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

I think this is my favorite Nghi Vo novel yet, which is saying a lot, because I loved all of the others as well! Set in pre-Code Hollywood, the Chinese-American protagonist falls in love with movies after a single black and white picture at a nickel theater in Hungarian Hill, Los Angeles, where she lives over her family's laundry. She stumbles into a movie set and ends up getting a single-line uncredited role by being in the right place at the right time. This only feeds her desire for stardom- which is literal in this story, where most Hollywood studios feed on magic, deals with devils, equinox sacrifices of innocents, and actors can ascent to the sky if they glow bright enough on the screen. This world is woven thorough with miracles and dangers, some which hunt Hollywood hopefuls with teeth and others with predatory contracts. Our main character looses her name but gains entry to the movie world, were she falls into an affair with another actress in the shadows of greats. I loved how deeply queer and Asian-American this story was; our lead finds solidarity and friendship with the few other closeted queer and POC actors on the studio lots who often have to hid their differences but still manage to find each other and hold each other up.

A Mirror Mended by Alix E Harrow read by Amy Landon

I accidentally read this book before its prequel because I didn't notice in the Libby app that it was part of a series! Oh well, it stood alone well enough. In the first book, the main character, Zinnia, discovered an ability to slip out of our real world (where she has a genetic condition which will probably kill her by her mid-twenties) into the alternate universes of fairytales. She has made a business of rescuing princesses from their own stories and helping them find truer happy endings. But when she is pulled through a mirror not by the needs of a protagonist but under the power of a wicked queen, Zinnia has to face some harsh realities. The evil queen claims she wants to leave her tale and live- which is exactly what Zinnia is doing, and it seems to be weakening the walls between universes. Also, Zinnia has been avoiding calling home for months, unwilling to face a conversation with her best friend and family about her health. Then she lands in the darkest and bloodiest story she's experienced yet- only to find she has allies in unexpected places. Very queer, very meta. I often avoid fairytale retellings but this one brought some nice originality to the genre.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson read by Angela Lin

I have never read any Sanderson, but this novella was recommended to me as a good stand-alone. It opens with magical forger, Shai, in prison in the bowels of the imperial palace. She was captured in the act of stealing and replacing several very valuable palace objects with magical replicas. Shai expects to face execution for her acts, but instead is offered a secret, dangerous, challenging task: to magically replicate the soul of the emperor who barely survived an assassination attempt. I liked the clever way magic worked in this world, but wasn't wowed by the prose or the larger political world of this story, so I am unlikely to pick up a full length Sanderson, especially given that they are SO LONG. But if anyone else wants to dip their toes into his world, I think this story is worth a try.

A Spindle Shattered by Alix E Harrow read by Amy Landon

After accidentally listening to the second book in this series, I went back for the first one. The story opens with Zinnia's 21st birthday, which she expects might be her last. She has a very rare chronic condition which has proven fatal to everyone who has it by their early 2os. Zinnia has grown up knowing her life will be shorter than most, and partly because of that fell hard for the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty- a story of a woman who fell into a death-life sleep but woke up to a second chance. When Zinnia's best friend throws her a Sleeping Beauty themed birthday party, Zinnia jokingly pricks her finger on the spindle... only to be sucked directly into a fairytale, in time to stop another young woman from pricking her finger on a spindle as well. Zinnia has no idea what's going on, but luckily she has a degree in folklore and also her cell phone still has service, so she's able to text her best friend at home. This premise could have come off as so hokey and silly, but Harrow gives it an unexpected emotional weight, and a queer happily every after at the end. I can see why it was Hugo nominated! I liked it a lot, and plan to read more from this author.

Thieves by Lucie Bryon

I love Lucie Bryon's art and I've been anticipating this book for years. Set in France, Ella is a high school senior with a snarky no-nonsense best friend and a crush on a somewhat mysterious fellow senior, Madeline. Ella only gets a chance to really talk to her crush at a party, but then she drinks to much and wakes up some how at home surrounded by a pile of stolen possessions. When Madeline shows up to check on Ella, and comments offhand that some of her stuff was stolen last night from her room, Ella realizes that she has accidentally drunkenly burgled the girl she most wants to kiss. What follows is a hilarious kind of re-verse heist in Ella (and also Madeline) attempt to return items to their former owners. Along the way they also have to figure out their feelings for each other, and how to communicate, and forgive each other's inevitable fuckups. A queer coming of age story after my own heart.

Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith

I had the pleasure of buying this book from one of the authors at SPX! A sweet story of the intertwined lives of four Black women, best friends, each navigating life, love, careers, hard conversations with family, and supporting each other through it all. Each chapter is focused around one character on wash day, and the theme of hair weaves through the whole book beautifully.

SpyxFamily vol 1 by Taksuya Endo

I've been hearing a lot about this manga, so I decided to give the series a try! In a fictional Europe, a spy named Twilight is tasked with infiltrating a very high end private elementary school. But to do so, he must acquire a fake wife and child to pose as a family man. The child he ends up adopting from an orphanage is physic, and the woman who ends up agreeing to his fake marriage ruse for her own reasons is an assassin. None of them tell each other their big secrets, but they are all so weird they don't really notice how weird the other two are. The set up is SO SILLY, but I am curious enough to try a few more volumes to see how it plays out. The art is fun!

Witch Hat Atelier vol 9 by Kamome Shirahama

Art-wise, this is one of my favorite manga series of all time. I also adore the main cast of little witch students and their teachers. However, the series has introduced so many side characters at this point that I'm having a hard time remembering who they all are and having any emotional investment in them from volume to volume. I wish the would stick a bit more closely to Coco and her education, because all of the fantasy politics might lose me.

Threshold by Anke Gladnic

This comic, loosely exploring identity, gender, and transition, moves from dreamy meditation to nightmare and back again. Beautifully drawn in soft greys and smoky blacks, it's more of a stream of consciousness than a story per say, but it leaves powerful lingering feelings of self-acceptance despite doubts and struggles.

Faster by Jesse Lonergan

Beautifully drawn, creatively laid out, and impeccably paced. This short comic follows a set of racers in an intense high-speed car race on a dangerous track. There are rivalries and friendships among the racers, some of whom are confident, some of whom just want to make it out of the race alive.

Die Horny by Rebecca Mock

Rebecca Mock described this comic as a love letter to horny 90s anime, and that influence very clearly shows! In a post-monster-based-apocalypse world, one human man, Iggy, and his gigantic monster queen wife, Wortizabella, just want to have a romantic honeymoon in the wastelands. But their trip is interrupted by a call for help from a boy who escaped a mining camp run by another monster. Iggy and Wortizabella investigate to find a human girl with superpowers being held captive for her ability to sense quartz crystals, which monsters consume for energy. To infiltrate the operation, Wortizabella pulls on her history as the more dangerous and violent monster warrior who has ever lived, and Iggy dons a leather bondage hood and begs to be stepped on. The line art is loose and full of lively energy, and the character designs are powerful and silly by turns. It's a delight to see such a talented cartoonist leaning fully into self-indulgence.

Nona The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Oh my gosh, what even to say about this book!! No spoilers, but if you enjoyed Gideon, then struggled with Harrow, I think it's very worth it to read Nona. It's told chronologically (like Gideon, unlike Harrow) and instead of being clouded with the unbearable grief and denial Harrow feels for her own actions and situation, this book is colored by a pure, child's joy at discovering the world for the first time. It's still a terrible world, a dangerous one, war-torn, full of refugees, paranoia, and death, but Nona finds so many small things to delight over. Petting dogs, making friends, being a teacher's assistant, swimming in the ocean, and the friends who look after her and taught her everything she knows in the six months she has been alive. This book didn't confuse me as much as Harrow, though I was left with many big questions about where the series is going at the end, I felt like the reveals were more evenly distributed throughout the story instead of all being stacked into the last 25%. This series is so weird, so convoluted, and mysterious, and I am having such a good time buddy-reading it along with a bunch of friends. I expressed this elsewhere, but I have not been so excited for the release of the middle volume of a series like this since the HP books were coming out. I preordered this book, a hardback, picked it up on release day, and read almost a 1/3 of it the same day it came out! I can't wait to see what's coming in the fourth book. I am so curious how Muir will land this skeleton-encrusted plane.

[adxmparriish]

Book recs?

hi! I can absolutely give you some 🖤

if we were villains by m.l.rio — favorite book of all time, it’s dark academia with some mystery and thriller elements. seven students who study shakespeare find themselves trapped up in a murder and it’s fantastic. the prose is to die for. I can’t properly explain how much this book means to me, it literally rewired my brain chemistry.

stalking jack the ripper series by kerri maniscalco — this is a 4 book series following a couple who perform autopsies and try to solve murders. the main couple is FANTASTIC and has one of my favorite fictional men of all time. the banter and love declarations are to die for. there is also plenty of angst and gothic atmosphere, too! all around amazing series, and do NOT forget to read the novella!

the folk of the air trilogy by holly black — I will never shut the fuck up about this series. wicked boy meets monster girl in a battle for the crown of elfhame and it’s fucking phenomenal. jude and cardan are one of my favorite fictional couples but don’t go into this series expecting a full blown romance. there’s a lot of political conflict with a romance splashed in, but when you do get those moments, boy… they’re juicy. enemies to lovers done right.

the raven cycle series by maggie stiefvater — codependent teenagers love each other so much it makes me sick. that’s basically it. oh, and one of them is doomed to kill her true love when she kisses him. oh, and there’s tarot and a dead welsh king and boys who bring things back from their dreams and a magic forest and a girl with hooves and just. read this? please?

these violent delights by micah nemerever — it’s hard to explain this book accurately but two boys find themselves so deeply obsessed with each other and wrapped up in their own game and it leads to absolute insanity. this book is dark though, so be warned. definitely check trigger warnings.

six of crows duology — fantastic books set in the world of “shadow and bone” about six teenagers on a heist. you don’t HAVE to read shadow and bone first but i’d recommend it. there are slight spoilers for that trilogy and elements you may not understand if you don’t. but I love these characters so much more and this story is amazing. there’s diversity and romance and tragedy and just!!!! so much!!!

the locked tomb series — these books are IMPOSSIBLE to explain but trust me when I say they are AMAZING. it’s got necromancy and love in its purest form and complex story arcs and impossible scenarios and HUMOR, SO MUCH HUMOR, and just. I can’t recommend this series enough. I will say though, prepare to be confused a lot until the writer finally lets it all come together, because that’s just how the books are. I promise it’ll all make sense.

[amara-laz]

Howdy! Thanks for the tag <33

1. Do you play an instrument?

Yes, I play cello!

2. Favourite book characters?

Growing up, Minerva McGonagall was a favourite. Still do love the character, hate the creator.

I don't read much anymore since I started writing, but Altair Al-Badawi from the Sands of Arawiya duology is definitely one of my favourites now :>

(Maybe I just have a thing for snarky characters)

3. What's your star sign?

Ohohoho I lost my mind in quarantine and I know way too much about astrology. Still have my birth chart lying around somewhere.

My big three are Pisces Sun, Aquarius Moon, and Scorpio Rising! Like a third of my chart is Aquarius-

4. Favourite colour schemes?

All of them

5. Naps or long sleep?

Those are literally the same thing for me hahahhsshdhhr

6. What languages do you speak?

I'm fluent in English; can speak and understand Mandarin Chinese; and can read, write, more or less understand, and minimally speak (Canadian) French.

7. Dreams/aspirations?

I'd like to get a book published one day!

8. Long hair or short hair?

Long hair. No idea why I like it when it's so hard to take of, but like. Long hair. I've always loved long hair.

9. Tea or coffee?

In terms of taste? Coffee (with a lot of milk and sugar and stuff, black coffee is way too bitter). However, caffeine has some not so great side effects for me, so I drink tea more often. (I could get decaf coffee, but tea is just more readily available to me).

I generally don't like hot drinks bc they're so hot so iced for me haha

10. Bring a book character to life or go to a fictional world?

My guy why would I subject anyone to this world? I'm leaving here, adios ✌️

Open tags since I cannot remember for the life of me which of my two other mutuals are okay with tags

Wanna get to know my tumblr friends better cuz y'all are dope so have a tag game challenge if you want :)

Also, if you don't wanna answer anything you don't need to.

♫Do you play an instrument?

•Favourite book characters?

•What's your star sign?

•Favourite colour schemes?

•Naps or long sleep?

•What languages do you speak?

•Dreams/aspirations?

•Long hair or Short Hair?

•Tea or coffee?

•Bring a book character to life or go into a fictional world?

No pressure tags: @thebestieyoureinlovewith @nikolaistealcoat @grishaverse-chaos @lostinfantasyworldsbi @lilisouless @l3st1b0urn3s-707 @arany-studio @waluigicumjar

[libertyreads]

Underhyped Books--

These are some of the books on my shelves that I think are under-hyped on the Book-ternet as some people call it. I think a lot of these standalones or series are under represented in the book community online. (Going from top to bottom, left to right.)

1. The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes-- Maybe I’m biased because this is one of my favorite authors. I discovered her a year or two ago and have become obsessed. The latest series of hers is going to be an all time favorite for me. Or at least the first one was. This book came out this past fall so I know that’s probably part of the reason for the under representation. But, for the love of all things spooky and puzzle-y, read this damn book.

2. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig-- This is a 12 dancing princesses retelling that has some turns no one expects. It has a gothic/horror/mystery/thriller element in a creepy mansion. What’s not to love? It’s so perfect for the fall. I have seen a couple of people talk about this one, but it’s not getting the love it truly deserves.

3. The One by John Marrs-- I only read this one this past month so maybe I’m the person who’s late to the party here. But I just need people to read this and love it as much as I do. I was literally gasping out loud and saying things like, “No. No, they wouldn’t do that. Oh. My. God. They did that.” Thankfully there is a Netflix adaptation coming out on March 12th.

4. In the Hall with the Knife by Diana Peterfreund-- This one got me hooked so fast. I blame the 1000 times I watched Clue (1985 with Tim Curry) as a kid. This is a take on Clue that involves a boarding school in an isolated Maine town. It’s probably the fact that this is so easy to read and is probably on the middle end of the YA age range that keeps this from being so popular. But I cannot tell you how much I loved this book when I read it this past fall. It’s the perfect late fall/early winter read.

5. Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young-- A YA Viking Fantasy story about two rival tribes. The way it felt like this book dropped you into this world and you didn’t come up for air until the book was over? Amazing. I think I’ve only heard about it in passing which is a damn shame.

6. The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross-- This was one of those books that sat on my shelf for years before I found the time for it and afterward regretted not reading it sooner. This is a YA Fantasy that includes a fallen kingdom that is overtaken and must find the strength to stand up to their oppressors. It’s only a duology so this series was so quick for me to read.

7.  Old Magic by Marianne Curley-- A backlist Fantasy novel from 2000. This is probably the oldest book on this list and so the nostalgia is a big factor here. But this is about a girl going back in time to prevent an evil wizard from putting a curse on her friend’s family bloodline. This does a good job of pulling the reader into the setting as well.

8. Fable by Adrienne Young-- This is a more recent release so I understand that a lot of people may not have gotten around to it yet, but I wish they would. I need someone to talk to about this book. This is a YA Fantasy novel about a girl who gets dropped on a deserted island after her mother is killed in a storm on the sea. Her only goal for the next four years is to find a way off the island and back to her father who is the biggest trader in the Narrows. The setting is great, very pirate-y, and a classic found family trope. As a whole, I just think Adrienne Young is a really underrated writer.

9. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green-- Being a fan of John Green’s has been a bit of a roller coaster ride as he got more and more popular only to plummet as people started picking his work apart. But I think this book is him being truly vulnerable as writer. He suffers from OCD similar to the OCD the main character suffers in this novel. And as someone who has been diagnosed with OCD I found this to be pretty haunting to read. I know that this book isn’t a beloved John Green book and I think that’s a real shame.

10. Written in Red by Anne Bishop-- This series is a bit weird for me since this isn’t my usual genre. This is an Adult Urban Fantasy about a blood seer who runs away from the institution she’s been kept in and finds her way to the local group of mythological creatures who hold a lot of power influence over the local government. There are werewolves, shifters, vampires...etc. who take up a huge section of this city and there are a ton of politics throughout the series. But the thing that I loved the most about it is that every story has a section that is so slice of life before the big action happens and those moments were so warm and cozy. The big action at the end of the novels all work to bring the main characters closer. There’s a romance between the human seer and the alpha werewolf which I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. Also, I read most of this series while I was stuck in bed sick with covid so I think the distraction added another level of fondness from me.

11. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton-- Where. Are. My. YA. Fantasy. People. AT?! Why is no one talking about this series?! This a YA Desert Fantasy with some amazing characters and a rebellion hiding out in the desert from the people in power. Found family tropes. Magic. Mystery. Stop sleeping on this series already! My only real complaint is that I wish I had the original cover because that one is so beautiful.

12. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody-- I originally got the first book in this series in a subscription box but held off reading it because I hadn’t heard of this series before then. But it’s one of those series that you wish you had read as soon as you had gotten it. This is a YA Fantasy novel set in a fictional town that looks/feels like a combination of 1920s-ish New York and Las Vegas. The Shadow Game series is about a girl going to the big city to find her adoptive mother who’s gone missing while there for work. But she’s spent her whole life learning how to be a proper lady and in the City of Sin anything can happen. The magic system here is so, so well done. It’s something I haven’t seen before or since which is refreshing when the main thing you read is Fantasy.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Hi. I found interesting site: Teases 'Six of Crows' Spin-Off and Season 3 Villain.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.newsweek.com/shadow-bone-six-crows-spin-off-season-3-villain-plans-eric-heisserer-1787601%3Famp%3D1&ved=2ahUKEwju8fDI8-r9AhVIhP0HHUh2DgoQtwJ6BAgJEAE&usg=AOvVaw2hnxBMmgP-arXDlTZvkqFI

(Book Spoilers)

This was an interesting read. There's some parts in particular that caught my attention. Eric talks about the potential of getting a six of crows spin off and I really do think his reasons for wanting a spin off are good ones.

"If we're able to get our way, because there are a lot of mouths to feed, the best course of action is to allow us to do Six of Crows as a standalone season and really spend time with those characters," Heisserer said. "And then Season 3 of the mothership allows us to spend a good amount of time with all of our Ravkan contingent."

One thing I do think the show has struggled with is fitting both the crows and the ravkan storylines into 8 episode long seasons. Don't get me wrong I have enjoyed both seasons so far and I like seeing these characters cross over and interact with each other. But I think now that they've established these characters and introduced them to show only watchers splitting it into two shows where they can focus more time on the two sets of characters would be a good move. Especially as we can still have cross overs so the characters can still interact with each other.

"But then it moves forward from there, and the fun will be knowing when those characters can cross-pollinate again, and when we can sort of Avengers Assemble everybody against a common, major enemy."

"The Thanos of the Grishaverse is a much-held secret that we've been excited to get to, if we ever get a chance," Heisserer said, adding that the villain they have chosen will be one that fans of the books are familiar with but he would not elaborate further.

Ok this part really really has me intrigued. Who could this 'Thanos of the Grishaverse' be? It sounds like it is someone that book readers in particular would know. Which makes me wonder if it is someone who hasn't appeared in the show yet. I mean if I made a list of potential thanos level villains then maybe Alina if they go dark with her but that seems too obvious, Aleks also seems way too obvious.

It could be a character from the Six of Crows duology or the King of Scars duology as I haven't read either, so I am not sure if anyone there could play the part of a really powerful villain. I did hear about a Saint Elizaveta, who has a connection with bees and there is a moment in the finale, when they are burning Aleks' body and Nikolai is giving a speech about a firebird rising and rebirth, where a bee lands on Zoya which I think is hundred percent a nod to Elizaveta and how she plots to bring the darkling back. But as for her being this thanos of the grishaverse I am not completely sold as from what I understand she gets killed off pretty quick in the duology, think she's only in one of the books, so I don't see her being a major enemy like Eric is talking about here.

One intriguing possibility is Ilya Morozova. Although he doesn't appear in any of the books he is mentioned alot and the show was dropping some pretty big hints that he is still alive, Baghra said that even after he was thrown in the river more of his writings on Merzost kept popping up. We also know that he too, like Aleks this season, was infected with Merzost which is why Aleks hoped a cure might be found in his journal. Which makes me wonder if maybe Ilya did find a cure. Can you imagine Ilya Morozova rocking up with the power to control Merzost without the effects of the poisoning that comes along with it? He could make a pretty formidable foe. He could definitely bring some more morozova madness to the show.

[tj-wrote-things]

Recoveries

Hurt!fem!Reader x Nikolai Lantsov

Basically this is just a headcannons list of how I think Nikolai would act around you when you were hurt:)

A/N- I have not read Ruin and Rising, or either of the Nikolai duology i just love this conceited jerk so much and i just... needed to write for him,,

Nik is a worry wart

Hounding you about your bandages

Interrogating whatever poor healer was supposed to be watching over you

“Did she eat?”

“It wasn't too hot, yes? She hates it when her tongue goes numb-”

“You oaf, she can't have peanuts she’s allergic. What kind of healer are you!?”

100% at your beck and call

Like seriously

If he knew you’d ask for tea, he’d bring it

Hell id bet if you asked to Zemini custards he’d sail away and bring that

Its sweet until it become a little annoying

“Nikolai, I promise I can walk to the restroom myself”

“Do I look like I care, darling dearest?”

Immediately hooks his arm with yours and helps you walk.

You secretly love it

Honestly who wouldn't love having this bitch on your arm

At one point you got thirsty in the middle of the night, and the infirmary was empty.

At least you though it was

You felt pressure on your hand, and saw Nikolai, holding it.

He was asleep. With his head resting on the edge of your bed, body slouched over in the rickety chair he used to hang out with you during the day.

You squeeze his hand to wake him, and when he opens his eyes, they’re red

(ouch)

He grins, “Miss my smiling face already? That’s alright, I completely understand-”

You don't smile, beginning to worry about him

He’d been starting to neglect his duties in favor of staying with you.

“Nik you need to sleep.”

He sighs and you think he may cry again

“You were half dead, when I- when I brought you back here. I keep thinking if I leave you alone too long then-”

(OUCH)

Now your eyes are red. And wet. But your not crying. Totally 

“Sobackha, i'm not going anywhere.”

He swallows and nods, eyes cast away from you.

You lift a hand and bring it to his chin, tilting his face towards you.

“I’d miss your smiling face too much.”

[bloody-wonder]

mid-year book freak out tag

Les Bookes: read them, love them, write absurdly long posts about them📚

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2022? sadly i haven’t yet read anything that would blow my mind this year but i think my top 3 would be the power of the dog by thomas savage, empire of the vampire by jay kristoff and these violent delights by micah nemerever. the premise and the characters of the power of the dog are *chef’s kiss*, love me some evil gays and family dramas, but it’s kinda,, unfocused? it does that thing often found in classics when you want to get to the juicy stuff but the book’s like nooo veggies themes first. but the payoff is amazing and the ending is abrupt and very bold so i do recommend it if you don’t mind the slow pace. empire of the vampire is an extremely fun and very tropey high fantasy book with 🙌vampires🙌 and just a tinge of gayness. i’d heard a lot of mixed things about kristoff’s edgy writing style so i could mentally prepare and in the end i had a great time. i do have a lengthy list of criticisms, half of which are some version of “could’ve been much gayer“, but i suppose you have to accept the baby steps of cishet male fantasy authors, sighh🙄 and these violent delights is just a very solid dark academia book. a rare case when a book truly delivers on the buzzwords and comparisons mentioned in the blurb, so if hitchcock’s rope, leopold & loeb or the secret history give alluring vibes, check it out. (based on the afterword and the author’s bio i can safely say he’s my doppelgänger lol. i wish i could link that afterword somehow bc it’s like someone gazed into my soul and put it on paper). however, this book does read like a debut and in my opinion could’ve benefited from a couple of additional drafts in the course of which it should’ve preferably lost some of it’s ya-ness😬

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2022? the queen of attolia was the best one and definitely leagues better than the first book in the series but artificial condition isn’t far behind🧡 also the winter of the witch was a very satisfying conclusion to the winternight trilogy😊

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To? vale aida, the author of the magpie ballads, just published her second book - it’s called hostis and as far as i understand it’s a mm enemies to lovers historical romance set in ancient rome. i would pick it up immediately but it’s the first installment in a duology (?) and i’m afraid i’ll have to wait for book two and read them back to back bc if it’s anything like her previous books it’s gonna be very slow burn and i wouldn’t be able to handle any cliffhangers. but who knows, maybe i won’t have enough patience anyway lol. i also just finished dream boy and now want to pick up jim grimsley’s most recent release - the dove in the belly - which sounds like a grittier version of heartstopper👀

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2022? definitely fence vol. 5! in the last volume we finally had some skin to skin contact, who knows what depravities the next one will bring😅 there are also a couple of tumblr-adjacent comics i’m excited about: twelve percent dread by emily mcgovern from @emilyscartoons (which actually might be out already🤔) is about the quarter life crisis and working as a tutor in a rich family - both things i’m an expert in - and it’s gotta be hilarious if the snippets the author posted so far are anything to judge by. the dead romans (?) webcomic by @apolinariomabinis is the other one and i’m not so sure about the details but i think the homoerotic cassius/brutus art i’ve been religiously reblogging for the past couple of weeks are actually rejected scenes from a comic which the creator is gonna start posting in july :D

(tbh the og answers to the two previous questions were to paradise by hanya yanagihara and babel by rf kuang but now that i’ve read some early reviews i’m not that excited about these books anymore😬)

5. Biggest Disappointment? fucking vampire chronicles! *deep inhale* so. was anybody going to tell me that anne rice isn’t a good writer or was i just supposed to REread three of her books and find it out myself?? interview with the vampire is passable but underwhelming, the movie is by far superior imo, especially tom cruise’s portrayal of lestat. the vampire lestat is disappointing bc rice was just determined to retcon everything and make lestat a generic chosen one protag. but hey! at least the armand parts were good, right? well ig joke’s on me for picking up the vampire armand only to realize that as soon as rice makes someone a protag their personality is gone. but then, ig it’s true for her writing in general: her character work is just atrocious bc all of them feel the same and if you tune out for a minute and miss the scene change (which i sure did bc these books are boring af) you will never be able to tell you’re reading about different people now. her plots are ridiculous to non existent, her vampire lore gets ever more batshit (derogatory) the further you read and i find her preferred themes of religious guilt etc etc extremely tiresome. her prose is undeniably beautiful but if anything these books will forever be the example i hold up to prove that prose alone can’t carry a story. anyways,, at least it had some high quality smut👌 i just wish i could read it in a book like empire of the vampire instead ugh

6. Biggest Surprise? a density of souls by christopher rice who is, ironically, anne rice’s son😅 based on the blurb i thought it was gonna be some form of dark academia but it starts like one of those 2000s high school movies that are either nostalgic or didn’t age very well and then spirals into a high stakes intergenerational melodrama of massive proportions (the climax involves a freaking hurricane!) and goes to some very juicy taboo places with its characters’ relationships. the cherry on top is the afterword rice wrote for the new edition in which he recounts many a hilarious anecdote about his experience writing this book as a 20yo gay son of a very famous author and which was probably the funniest thing i read this year, all the more amusing for its contrast in tone to the melodramatic novel. another big surprise or ig more of a hidden gem was heart of stone by johannes t. evans which is a historical slice of life mm romance between an adhd vampire and his autistic secretary. (yes, i’m having a vampire themed reading year😁). very cute and wholesome, deliciously slow burn, binged it overnight but was somewhat let down by the ending bc imo the misunderstanding plot device overstayed its welcome and - oh horror! - the smut was fade to black😩 i mean the book’s still good but you can’t tease your readers with homoerotic blood drinking and then not deliver >:(

7. Favorite New Author? this year i read strangers on a train by patricia highsmith and can now safely say she’s one of my favorite authors. absolutely love her approach to thriller which is not about building up a mystery and resolving it in a satisfying way (forget about that lol) but instead about exploring the minds and feelings of her unhinged queercoded poor little meow meow characters. the same goes for philippe besson - i read another one of his “autobiographies” and i suppose if i’d read them in english his writing style would steer on the cringier side but it seems very appropriate in french. very excited to read dîner à montréal now to find out who this frenchman allegedly fucked next👀 i also have high hopes for christopher rice and shirley jackson to become my new favorite authors as soon as i read more books by them :)

8. Newest Favorite Character? murderbot is an aroace icon and “i'm in this picture and i don't like it” kind of relatable BUT phil burbank is a crusty man i can put into the washing machine and spin very fast hehe. also honorable mentions to father konstantin - very cool of katherine arden to write this frollo knock off character and then have him gay kiss unholy demons, 10/10

9. Newest Fictional Crush? marquis jean françois of the blood chastain. would drink from him on three separate nights any time😏 or whatever you need to do to get vampire married in eotv

💕Best Ships💕 an additional question selected and approved by me with the purpose of drawing the booklerina council’s attention to the fact that the framing narrative in empire of the vampire is basically damen/laurent interview with the vampire au which begs for fanfic writers who would go down the path jay kristoff was too cowardly to tread. (unless he plans to go there later in the series in which case i take back all the criticism😅 i do love me a slow burn but as of now book two is nowhere in sight so the point still stands). another fictional love story that stood out to me this year was ofc that of eugenides and attolia. didn’t care for how they got together in the end but the,, “inciting incident” for that relationship was sooo up my alley and the enemies to lovers banter was very good😏

10. Book That Made You Cry? the winter of the witch had all the bittersweet stuff the conclusion to a series should have and so it definitely made me tear up a couple of times but the book that made me cry the most this year was un certain paul darrigrand by philippe besson. life that gets in between two lovers, the dramatic farewells, the scar kissing, the flashforward scene many years in the future in which paul implies he regrets the choices he made way back when... there’s something about the unfulfilled love stories besson tells that makes you think how foolish, if only the characters said this, if only they did this instead, there would’ve been a lovely happy ending - and then you remember that it’s not characters you’re talking about, it’s real life people bc these books are at least inspired by besson’s own life, and so there’s no “what if”, there’s only what they did and where it led them😥

11. Book That Made You Happy? the porn fantasy webcomic for some inexplicable reason known as oglaf makes me very happy. very soothing to watch diverse pansexual cartoon people fuck and make funny jokes😌 the ladies of grace adieu by susanna clark was and the will darling adventures by kj charles (which i’m currently reading) are also a well of positive emotions. but i would be lying if i failed to mention that the bookish experience which is making me the happiest this year is re-reading the lymond chronicles with @starlingshrike🥰

12. Favorite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year? the power of the dog. i’m cheating a bit bc i watched it last year when it came out on netflix but it’s a good adaptation and a good film whereas the few i watched this year did not impress. *cough* heartstopper *cough*

13. Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year? the humongous vampire armand rant i wrote exclusively for katie in our tumblr chat lol

14. Most Beautiful Cover? empire of the vampire uk cover is gorgeous! the art inside the book not so much😬

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year? sighh remember i made a list of top 5 books to read in 2022? half the year is gone and i only finished one of them🙈 with fire and sword is on top of my pile of shame bc i started it all the way back in january and am still only a few chapters in. the other ones are the last two nightrunner books, fire and hemlock and rebecca - let’s hope i manage to read them this year after all, fingers crossed. the tbr pile of shame also includes you love me by caroline kepnes which was already featured on the last year’s mid-year tag🙈🙈 i also want to continue with the murderbot diaries and the queen’s thief as well as give another chance to gideon the ninth. hopefully i’ll also be reading more from the mlm authors i discovered in the recent months: the dove in the belly and dîner à montréal i already mentioned, to those i would add the snow garden by christopher rice which sounds like a very juicy thriller about a “a dark dance of sexual manipulation, twisted retribution, and murderous rage” between a married college professor and his secret student lover. sign. me. in.

i cordially invite @figuringthengsout @counterwiddershins @jimscoffee @fugitoidkry @magpiefngrl @sugarbabywenkexing @fandomreferencepending @pemberlaey @oliviermiraarmstrongs @moonsandstarsaregay @bellaroles @hello-jumping-in-puddles @thehalcyonharbinger to yell at me about the books you guys read this year :D