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Iāve started reading Scott Lynchās Gentleman Bastard series and Iām starting to think that Camorr is like the Florida of the City-States - except that any reports that may circulate with regards to āCamorr Manā are more often than not just the Misadventures of Locke Lamora in a Variety of Silly Hats.Ā
āCamorr Man Spends Entire Morning Being Strangled in Hopes of Attracting Lucrative Business Opportunityā
āCamorr Man Calls Literal Wizard an Asshole - Kills His Pet Birdā
āClimbing Down 100-Foot Trellis After Taking an Emetic Honestly Camorr Manās Best Option Given the Circumstancesā
āCamorr Man Lucky He Wasnāt Devoured by Giant Spiders After Nearly Drowning in Barrel of Horse Pissā
āCamorr Man Fakes Assassination Attempt in Order to Steal Manās Pantsā
āCamorr Man Punches Old Lady in the Face - Jumps out Fiftieth Story Window - Claims it was āReally Big Birdāā
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[video] I kind of like the way this one turned out, even if it is a lot more abstract than I usually go for. Made this after reading My Dark Vanessa and wanted to make an illustration that captured leaves in red hair.Ā
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My Dark Vanessa book review
Book summary:
Hard-hitting adult contemporary standalone
Narrative flits back and forth between the past (15 year old Vanessa having a relationship with her 42 year old teacher) and the present (Vanessa in her thirties being forced to begin to confront the aftermath of it)
Unreliable narrator. Itās easy as the reader to spot young Vanessa romanticising things and see how warped her perspective has become. This relationship impacts her whole life and has devastating consequences on her psychology and success throughout her teenage and adult life
Nothing is neat and clear cut. Vanessa is no convenient victim, nor would she even call herself a victim. She has no desire to come forward, often doesnāt recognise the abuse as abuse, and ends up being complicit in some dubious things herself
Very much about grey areas and shades of morality, touches on collective responsibility and wilful ignorance too
Feels incredibly realistic
TW for grooming, statutory rape and dub-con, gaslighting
[my video review] My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell is not a book thatās easily stomached. It doesnāt hold your hand, it doesnāt tell you want to think, it just tells you the story as it is and leaves you to take what you will from it.
One of things it does so incredibly well is how Vanessaās story is told. I donāt think Iāve ever come across a novel that has such a vivid picture of someone who is undeniably a victim (even though sheād deny it) who is also in no way a convenient victim. It would be easy to make Vanessa the heroine of the story, searching for justice. Thereād be nothing necessarily wrong with that story, but itās not Vanessaās story.
This story is very much about the grey areas that exist within decision making, morality, and people. Nothing is easily resolved, no one is 100% innocent or 100% a monster, and the plot doesnāt fall in line with what a lot of people would expect from a book that deals with this type of content. How events transpire and how it impacts Vanessaās life is what makes it such a disturbing read because it feels so real and believable.
Another thing it really doesnāt hold back on are the details. It paints a full picture of Mr. Straneās grooming, how their relationship came to be, along with precisely what happened during it and afterwards. Be warned that there are explicit scenes that were a lot more explicit that I was expecting. For me, the most difficult parts to read were seeing the consequences upon Vanessaās way of thinking and behaviour, but many readers found the explicit scenes the hardest to stomach, and with good reason.
The story has a way of hooking you in and keeping you locked there, so much so that I read this is less than two days because itās such a hard book to put down. Itās not an easy read but itās a read that has so much value and merit and generates questions about topics that there are no easy answers for. For that, this has been one of the most valuable and worthy of discussion books Iāve read in a long time.
5/5 stars.
#my dark vanessa#book#bookish#book review#booklr#contemporary#contemporary fiction#my reviews#books abuse abuse#cw: abuse
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Book Preferences Tag
hardcover or paperbackĀ /Ā rent or buy / reads in silence or reads with music / standalone or series / annotations or pristine pages / ebook or physical copy / dog ears or bookmarks / mismatched series or complete set / cover matters or you donāt judge / lend books or keep them to yourself / enjoys lit classes or despises them / browses shops or orders online / reads reviews or goes in blind / unreturned books or clean library record / rereads or once was enough / fanfic enthusiast or a stickler for canon / deep reader or easily distracted / must read the book before seeing the movie or order doesnāt matter / has neat bookshelves or messy bookshelves / skips ahead or resists temptation / reads aloud or in your head / guesses plot twists or never sees them coming
Aaaah some of these were just so hard. Iāve only just started getting into annotating my favourite books I own but if theyāre not favourites then Iām a stickler for pristine.Ā
Something similar goes for rent/buy - if itās a favourite book/series then I want it on my shelf but I DNF so many books that it just makes so much more sense for me to borrow from the library/other people first instead.
If itās a massive book series with loads of characters I think that might actually be the exception to if I prefer to read the book before seeing the adaptation because if I see the adaptation first then I get to access whether or not Iāll be invested in the characters far quicker than if I was to read a long book/series. For a series like A Song of Ice and Fire, for example, I donāt think I wouldāve finished the books if I read them before seeing the first couple of seasons of the show because theyāre really slow moving and there are so so many characters and locations to keep track of, and itās just easier to do that if itās on screen.Ā
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Science fiction and fantasy by Asian authors! A text list with Goodreads links is available below the cut.
My absolute favorites include Jade City by Fonda Lee, The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, In the Vanishersā Palace by Aliette de Bodard,Ā Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao and Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan.
The first half of books is adult, the last is young adult.
Lees verder
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Harry Potter is authorless.
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some random Adult SFF books with lgbt rep:
A Memory Called Empire (f/f): MC is a diplomat working as an ambassador for her tiny planet and gets involved in political intrigue. Also great portrayal of imperialism and colonialism.Ā
The Starless Sea (m/m): follow the MC as he discovers a mysterious subterranean library and the secret societies fighting over it.Ā
The Raven Tower (bisexual, trans): very weird political fantasy narrated by a god whoās also a rock? Sort of reminiscent of Hamlet.
Ninefox Gambit (lesbian, bisexual): a space opera set in a math-based universe, lots of manipulative characters and political subplots (TW: mass shooting, sexual assault, suicide).
The Fifth Season (polyam MC, bisexual, trans side character): post-apocalyptic SFF, with an extremely interesting (and complex) magic system based geology and tectonics.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune (f/f, non-binary): novella following a cleric chronicling the life of an exiled empress.Ā
In The Vanishersā Palace (f/f): novella retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with an all-Vietnamese cast, following a shapeshifting dragon and a ruined scholar.
This Is How You Lose The Time War (f/f): enemies to lovers f/f romance set in a time travel war.
Foundryside (f/f): following a thief trying to steal an artifact that could revolutionise her world.
The Binding (m/m): set in a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th century England where people can bind their worst memories (TW: graphic suicide, abuse, pedophilia).
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shawnfoundation:Ā We compiled some resources, materials & reading on racial injustice in one place for you. Letās all continue our efforts to learn, act and make change. #blacklivesmatterĀ ( blklivesmatter,Ā colorofchange,Ā naacp,Ā surjswfl,Ā civilrightsorg,Ā unitedwedream,Ā theconsciouskid,Ā ckyourprivilege,Ā ebonyjanice,Ā ethelsclub)
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Inspired to paint a river after reading Into the Water!
#river#landscape practice#landscape painting#sketchbook#gouache#painter#gif art#painting#traditional media#artists on tumblr#my art
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Into the Water book review
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins is an adult mystery/thriller that revolves around the dark history of a river that runs through a small English town.
Book summary:
river with dark history of drownings (cw for suicide)
small town drama
multi 1st person POV chapters
complicated dynamics between characters (especially between sisters and mothers and daughters)
cast of complex flawed characters
theme of grief
begins with the discovery of a body in the river
4/5 stars. My overall thoughts are that I really enjoyed the audiobook and thought the cast of narrators added a huge amount to the experience of the story. The characters felt very well realised and their grief felt realer than Iāve read in any other book within this genre. I wasnāt unsatisfied with the plot twists and how the mystery resolved itself but at no point was I completely unsurprised by what happened either. If you want more in depth thoughts on this, watch this where I discuss my final thoughts while I paint an illustration of a river.
#books#book review#into the water#mystery#thriller#paula hawkins#bookish#book reviews#tw: suicide#my reviews
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Bleh. Fell behind both on reading and actually posting my thoughts about the books Iāve read on here. Good news is that my momentum seems to be coming back but I think I might have to change what I normally do a bit to avoid this happening again.
Iām thinking instead of making videos where I review a book then make a post with another in depth written review, I might as well only do one or the other rather than doing whatās basically the same review twice.
So the plan is to make the videos with my review and illustration inspired by the book Iām reading, then type up short summary reviews over here on tumblr. GIFs of my art can continue as normal. Hope that suits you guys anyway. The shorter stuff tends to get more notes anyway so Iām assuming people prefer less lengthy to read stuff on tumblr which is fair enough.
Got a bit of catching up to do anyway with the er... approximately 6 books I never got around to reviewing, though two of them are rereads
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*waves* still alive, just havenāt been very active recently. More book reviews and art to come soon!
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Tagged for the big book tag. Thanks @belle-anne-the-book!
Biggest five books Iāve read according to Goodreads (for the sake of variety, Iām only including one book per series):
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Biggest five books I want to read:
Worm by Wildbow (okay, okay, I know a webseries isnāt a book but Iām counting it because itās original fiction and the author said they want to publish it in book form anyway)
Kushielās Dart by Jacqueline Carey
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderon. I have a complicated relationships with Sandersonās adult fantasy books so this would probably be the last chance Iād give his adult fantasy a go
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. Iāve tried to read this one before but the pacing was really slow so Iāll have to wait until Iām in the right frame of mind for it
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The Monster Baru Cormorant book review
dark political adult fantasy. Brutally dark but not exactly grimdark
Slytherin lesbian PoC main character tries to take down a corrupt government from the inside ā not by becoming a spy or assassin, but by becoming an accountant
2nd book in The Masquerade series
sea voyage adventure with someone trying to get revenge on the main character, meanwhile the main character just kind of despises themselves
really strong sense of characters and vivid dialogue
emotive and elegant but not too difficult to read writing style
[book review & illustration video]
The Monster by Seth Dickinson is the second book in his dark political adult fantasy series The Masquerade that follows Baru Cormorant as she attempts to take down the government from the inside but the further she gets, the more sacrifices she has to make.
Seth Dickinson writes with flair, his prose elegant and yet not too dense, and he conveys incredibly vivid characters and emotions. Dialogue, in particular, is a strength of his.
So if I enjoy his writing style and characters so much why am I only giving this book 6/10*s?
Itās because I had a very difficult time trying to grasp what was going on.
Firstly, itās been a few years since I read The Traitor so my memory of what happened in the first book was hazy which wouldnāt have helped.
Secondly, weāre suddenly introduced to a wide range of perspectives. Unlike the first book where the only perspective we follow is Baruās (I personally found it to be a nice change to be reading a political fantasy with only one perspective), this time there are multiple perspectives from multiple characters, many of them having a combination of very unfamiliar sounding names and similar-sounding names. Normally, this isnāt a huge issue because, being a person whoās generally pretty terrible at remembering names, I can just refer to a list in the book that contains all the names of the characters and a brief description of who they are. However in this book there is no such list, let alone a pronunciation guide.
As a result, for the majority of this book I wasnāt sure why the things that were happening were happening and to which characters. The first two-thirds ended up being a slog and despite how much I did end up enjoying the last third, it didnāt make up for how tiring it was to read the first two thirds.
My complaint is one I havenāt seen from many other reviewers, so itās entirely possible this is just a me problem, but this is just my honest opinion. From reading this book, I know Iād have to reread the entire series close to one another if I want to read the last two instalments when they come out.
The world is expanded upon, which many people enjoyed. Already finding it hard enough to remember the characters, this aspect just made it even more difficult for me. Thereās enough there that Iām sure it would be interesting if I wasnāt already having problems. Itās not as if Iām not able to follow a cast of large characters ā I didnāt have this problem reading A Song of Ice and Fire, for example.
In terms of the plot, this time the story is more of an adventure. Lots of it occurs on ships and islands and there are less political machinations involved compared to the first book. Baru is involved in a quest to find something that has links to extended life as well as meddling with various countryās economies, all while someone is intent on exacting their revenge upon her.
Like Iāve mentioned, I do really enjoy Seth Dickinsonās writing and characters and how easily he conveys emotion. But this book, except the last third, was just too hard for me to follow. My attention span has been really low lately which wouldnāt have helped either but I digress. The last third wouldāve been an 8Ā or 9* read but considering the first two thirds, I lowered my rating down to 6*s.
#the monster baru cormorant#the masquerade#fantasy book#fantasy book review#book review#seth dickinson#fantasy books#my reviews
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An illustration inspired by reading The Monster (Baru Cormorant) by Seth Dickinson [book review & illustration video]. Used chalk pastels and chalk pencils on black paper to illustrate a mask falling into dark water
#traditional art#gif art#chalk#book illustration#the masquerade#the monster#the monster baru cormorant#seth dickinson#my art
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Unpopular Opinions Book Tag
Iāve seen this list of tag prompts floating around and find them really fun to read and watch so hereās my take on it. This is just for fun and Iāve put the image of all the stuff I talk about below so you can skip over this post if you donāt like the idea of seeing potential criticisms of them. My Youtube version of this is here.
1.) A popular book or book series that you didnāt like
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I read the first two in the trilogy and I just donāt connect on a personal level to any of the characters. Iāve enjoyed other books by this author but Mistborn justā¦ doesnāt do it for me. I donāt have the level of emotional investment in the characters that I want and they donāt feel like vivid people to me.
2.) A popular book or book series that everyone else seems to hate but you love
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat. I know not everyone hates this series, but thereās a fairly high proportion of the people who read it who end up hating it. Based on the negative reviews Iāve seen, many peopleās reasons for hating it seems to be rooted in labelling it as problematic. While I agree there are a couple of elements of the series that arenāt handled with as much care as they should be, I still donāt think itās quite as bad as some people make it out to be. Itās also a pet peeve that some people make it out as if an author having certain things happening in their stories means they endorse those things happening in real life and thatās just... not logical.
3.) An otp that you donāt like
99% of the time I just donāt care about pairings and there arenāt that many pairings I can think of that I actively dislike instead of just not caring. Buffy/Angel? Iām counting it as qualifying for this tag because it has comics. I never found a Buffy pairing I either liked or was neutral about. I found Buffy/Angel to be way too over the top and corny and too instant. I honestly have no idea what they talk about when theyāre not dealing with various apocalypses and watching it made me realise where part of the inspiration for Twilight probably originated from.
4.) A popular book genre that you hardly reach for
Young Adult Fantasy thatās geared towards the older end of the spectrum. If Iām reading YA itās either because I trust the author to write something I like in that genre or because I want to give myself a brain break and read something I can get through really quickly. Iāve found with the older end of the YA spectrum that there doesnāt seem to be much difference in the reading difficulty between YA and Adult within the fantasy genre so the genre usually just ends up not giving me what I want from it.
5.) A popular/beloved character that you do not like
Kvothe from The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I like there to be things characters are bad at and Kvothe was just way too good at every single thing he did for my taste. Never before have I been so invested in the main character of a book failing and I was left completely unsatisfied because at no point in The Name of the Wind does Kvothe fail when it isnāt because of being sabotaged by someone else. I know there are theories about how heās an unreliable narrator but unless I see actual evidence on the page then I just donāt have the faith that he is. Saying that, I really did love the writing style so if Rothfuss writes anything not involving someone who I despise as much as Kvothe then Iād give it a go.
6.) A popular author that you canāt seem to get into
Leigh Bardugo? Iāve read Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, as well as Shadow and Bone and they were all fairly meh reads for me. I feel like my reasons for not being able to get into her books come down to my repeating previous points Iāve made because theyāre a combination of the genre she writes in as well as me knowing I love the tropes and character archetypes sheās using but just not having the level of investment in her characters that I want.
Robin Hobb is another popular author I canāt get into. She has characters that feel much more vivid and writes within Adult Fantasy but her pacing is so so slow and Iām not patient enough as a reader to be able to get through her lengthy books.
7.) A popular book trope that youāre tired of seeing
Redemption = Death. I love a good villain eventually turning sides or an anti-hero/anti-villain having a good redemption arc but it seems like all these arcs inevitably end in their death and it justā¦ doesnāt have to be that way. Iād find the story far more interesting if the redemption arc doesnāt end so abruptly and the person undergoing it has to figure out their new place in the world, how to live with themselves, and other peopleās changing perceptions of them.
8.) A popular series that you have no interest in reading
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. As a fantasy fan, peer pressure makes me feel obligated to like this series. I donāt like this series. Iāve attempted to read it three times and only managed on one of those times to get almost halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring. All the characters just donāt do anything for me (except you, Gollum) and I have no interest in what happens to them or the themes within the story.
Me not liking Lord of the Rings doesnāt mean that I donāt appreciate what itās done for the fantasy genre though and Iām well aware most of the series that I love probably wouldnāt exist if it wasnāt for the book thatās basically responsible for the catalyst of the genre of fantasy books that feature worldbuilding.
9.) What movie or TV show adaptation do you prefer more than the book?
Hmm. If I was only going off seasons 1-4 of Game of Thrones Iād go with that but considering what happened after Iāmā¦ ugh.
So instead Iām going with Dirk Gentlyās Holistic Detective Agency. Originally by Douglas Adams, itās a very witty and quirky comedy book series with sci-fi and fantasy elements set in modern-day (which back then wouldāve been around the 80s). It follows a detective who employs bizarre techniques like Zen Navigation:
āRather than using conventional avenues of wayfinding like consulting a map, the Zen navigation method consists of finding someone who looks like they know where theyāre going and following them. This is supposed to deliver the navigator to their destination, although its results are variable and often unexpected and unintended. It very rarely gets you where you wanted to go but always where you needed to be.ā
The only issue I have with Douglas Adams is that his characters tend to be a bit on the caricature-ish side but this is something the TV show put a huge amount of effort into and it paid off so so well. I had my reservations about the show since, other than Dirk, it looked very Americanised but they actually did an incredible job. Itās funny, complex, wacky, unpredictable yet (sort of) makes sense. There are lots of warm fuzzy feelings between the main characters and itās great. Also thereās a portal to a fantasy world where the knights fight each other with giant pairs of scissors. Itās an incredibly underrated Netflix Original series that always deserved more attention than it got.
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Trying out a new gif format!
This illustration of Ancient Roman architecture was inspired by my read of Cleopatraās Daughter by Michelle Moran, an adult historical fiction book where the main character is a princess who loves architecture is unwillingly taken from her home in Egypt to Rome [book review & illustration video]
#architecture#buildings#sketchbook#ancient rome#rome#cleopatra's daughter#my art#drawing#illustration#fineliner
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