skepticbeliever-bookclub

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

O' our beloved fellow shippers & readers

This week we celebrated our 100th round. That means we have been doing this long enough to have read 100 fics give or take since the founding of our sweet little club. This mod is honoured to be at the helm of a fun practice that has brought quite a few of us together and introduced us to some great titles. In celebration, we decided to host a Renaissance Round. This meant, we wanted nominations from any of the first 31 reads we've done as a club and would you believe it? The members voted in the very first fic we ever read as a club.

Made it so Far in Time by addandsubtract

This is one of those true underrated classics. Written in 2018 Buzzfeed era but so prescient with characterisation, many of the members couldn't help picturing 2022!Ryan with the above pictured Shane in college. Time-travel really gave us a gift and this fic gave us all we needed for a world where the guy in this photo meets a Ryan who already knows him.

Rating: E

Summary: “I’m, uh. I’m pretty sure the you I’m friends with is older,” Ryan says, and then winces.

Book Club Thoughts

i appreciate, as well, that if anyone's going to end up with this weird time travel situation and just roll with it, it would be them. like yeah, ryan could freak out, but shane is there which is a calming factor. and shane's brain is probably just frozen (both by what's happening and by the hot guy who just woke up in his room)

I would love to read a Shane pov of this. And how this changes everything

What fascinates me throughout the fic is how much less guarded college Shane is

this fic is so cute and good I want to just hold it in my mouth

I love the plot twist of Shane actually caring about Ryan a lot, because with time travel scenarios you think "oh he probably forgot about this" but here we have Shane in deep very much in love with Ryan for 10 years maybe more

so much of the hindsight of their situation is muted behind what Shane doesn't say in these scenes but his body language is explosive with years of pining and dashed hopes

Also imagine being like 20 and losing your vcard to a 28 year old Ryan bergara

what i thought was so interesting was that young!shane was kind of a chill cool dude, like the early versions of shane characterization in the fandom, while the fully fledged adult shane was much closer to how we now characterize him

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#shyan #shyan fic #skeptic believer #otp: we took an oath #read of the week #time travel #college au

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hi shippers & readers!

Spring Break hit us full speed on week 3 of our rotation so the theme we decided to go with was Drunk in Love, not unlike this time last year, our members rec'd a whole pile of good titles with drunken confessions and general tipsy sweetness. The title we landed on was The Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles by allredpen

Once again, our Weird Wonderful World: Lost episode collection serves to be a fount of good written content. With a fic like this riding full peak on their sexual tension and the two of them trying to shoot an episode in that state, the book club agreed this fic is one of our favourite reads of them falling to pieces about each other borderline in full view of strangers.

Rating: E

Summary:

The Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles' Annual Tiki Night won't know what hit it when the Watcher boys turn up. Shane and Ryan drink too much, throw knives, lack professionalism, and make their crew's life hard.

Submissions:

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #skeptic believer #shyan fic #read of the week #otp: we took an oath #creative round #drunk confessions

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hi guys! Just wanted to say I am very flattered and tickled absolutely pink that you chose to read my fic last week and super happy to see you liked it 🥰🥰🥰

Honestly, it was a whole treat to read and from this mod personally, the style and the premise really felt like coming home conceptually.

Thank you for writing it and giving our little club a lovely week of reading

#shyan #sbbbookclub #otp: we took an oath

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Shippers & Readers, we're at it again

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck!

The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week.

This week was us overlooking the broad landscape of the middle of March where once upon a time, many of us looked forward to a little reprieve within the scope of Spring Break and all the fun times it entails. The request to our members was a return to a theme that once gave us a really fun banger of a read. Drunk in Love. We wanted shyan tipsy and confessing. Of our titles with this theme, we had two runners-up and we just want to highlight them.

Three Many Spirits - fullofbees

Please drink responsibly.

Bad Ideas - Fraudgara

Shane’s fingers curled tighter so he would stop shaking. Ryan pulled away, drew back slowly, and pushed Shane’s hands back, off his hips gently. “Baaaad idea,” he mumbled, licking his lips and shutting his eyes as he extricated himself. “This is a bad idea.” Ryan didn’t get it, and Shane was left behind in a moment, trying to figure out in a drunken stupor, how best to tell Ryan that those were the ideas Shane liked the most.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #shyan fic #skeptic believer #otp: we took an oath #weekly read runners up #drunk confessions #new orleans bfu #TMS centric fic

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Heyo shippers & readers!

Early March and 3 months into the year; we thought we'd solicit something special this round by asking our members to nominate a fic they know has been in our runners-up queue again and again and again. That fic we've all been hankering to read and for whatever reason, was always the bridesmaid of fics we chose to read and discuss together. With a tiebreaker and an emergency poll, we finally landed on Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered Am I by colazitron.

Something about the hype really made this read worth the wait. Many of our members agreed that the themes therein felt like the most classic of our favourite motifs. Moreover that it was clearly inspired by a deeply resonant moment in shyan history really had us yelling during the live-read.

Rating: E

Summary:

Look, just because Ryan looks good dressed as Indiana Jones, or dressed in various other things, and just because Shane maybe has a feeling or two about it, doesn't mean it's a thing, okay? Shane's got this.

Or: 5 times Shane had a feeling about Ryan's outfit, +1 time he did something about it

Book Club Thoughts

I'll read 50000 Shane spiraling about Indiana bergara and I'm so glad there was one out there I had never gotten to

I really also appreciate this fic for showing that level of how comfortable they are with each other, like that but also Shane saying "she thought I'm going to tap that" and Ryan laughing about it in the beginning of the fic

this is one of those fics I totally forgot about after reading in my early days of being a Watcher fan but it’s full of so many classic tropes, I’m very fond and it was fun to re-read

the humor in the writing is top notch. the tone is so consistent throughout, and nothing is ever fully serious

it was okay because shane wasnt turned on by it and he knew ryan wouldnt be either because no one is getting off but to then have this reverse dream where he’s trying so hard not to think about ryan, and he ends up conjuring a fantasy where he’s blowing ryan and getting off to it???? gorgeous beautiful amazing my kingdom to cola for this

Something about him being in the full outfit in first and last example where feelings begin vs are said aloud puts a nice bow on this story

I also love the way [the author] had Shane's worry and denial over his feelings for Ryan was the major conflict in getting together, but them actually getting together was so right and so easy for them and right there the whole time and ;aksdjf;lkdsj;fjkasl;d.

Shane’s progression from acknowledging Ryan being attractive, to admitting being attracted, and finally realizing it had become a feelings situation flows wonderfully. This is a delightful read.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #shyan fic #sbbookclub #otp: we took an oath #skeptic believer #indiana bergara #pining #getting together #love confessions

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hello once again, shippers & readers!

We are very closely approaching the season of love this month so our hope was to read something soft and sweet with the prompt of a momentous love confession and the read selected for our monthly creative round was no one's got me quite like you by uneventfulhouses

With this author, our little club knew exactly what to expect by way of sweetness and softness and this fic written in the early days pre-Watcher delivered on the gooey goodness.

Rating: M

Summary:

Andrew nudges Ryan's shoulder. “I have a question: are you and Shane busy tonight?” Aside from general editing, Ryan doesn’t recall having any plans for the rest of the day. He can’t necessarily speak for Shane, but chances are he doesn’t either, unless Netflix and Chill with his cat counts. It doesn’t. “No?” he says, cautiously, because for the most part, when BuzzFeed employees ask him these things, it’s usually for something that he doesn’t necessarily want to do. But for the sake of views, Ryan tends to sacrifice himself. “Cool. We’re doing a video.” Andrew turns to walk away, like that’s the end of the conversation, but Ryan calls after him. “About what?”

or; today on worth it, shane and ryan evolve into a couple during three double dates at three drastically different prices.

Creative Submissions:

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #shyan fic #otp: we took an oath #skeptic believer #read of the week #fake dating #buzzfeed days

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Good morning shippers & readers!

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck!

The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week.

With our next round being a Creative Round and with Valentine's Day close on the horizon, we solicited for nominations from our members for a fic with a momentous love confession that they most wanted to read and interact with creatively. With a very close vote, our two runners-up are as follows

The Denial Twist - beethechange

“This is kind of surreal,” Shane says, taking a sip of his tea. It’s piping hot and delicious, except it tastes like hot chocolate and not like tea at all. “Sort of—Wonka-esque, right? Or Alice in Wonderland.” “If you’re aiming a shot over the bow about my height you can fucking forget about it,” Ryan says, watching with interest as Shane’s cup refills by itself. “But yeah, it’s surreal. Literally, because dreams aren’t real.” Shane’s unsettled by the comment. It sets alarm bells ringing in his head but he doesn’t know why. He just wasn’t expecting Dream Ryan to be so, well—so on the nose. * Or, the one where Shane and Ryan have some really weird dreams and perhaps, eventually, some sex.

Read To Me - ouijaboy (nbfutureboy)

When acclaimed children’s author Shane Madej meets a long-suffering parent at one of his signings, he decides on a whim that he’d like to torture this man some more. As it turns out, both Ryan Bergara and his son are two infinitely entertaining human beings.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #shyan fic #otp: we took an oath #weekly read runners up #skeptic believer #dream fic #children's author au

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hello once again shippers & readers

As we wind down the month of January and have rung in the new year, we wanted to take a look at some fics deserving of a little attention. This round we asked our members to nominate any fic they'd love to read with under 300 kudos, and we landed on a fic set in a universe paralleling our own in a number of ways in Say You Want Me, Too by sequence_fairy

As a group, we loved the author's choice of style and unflinching look at what love and growth can do to two young people under the public eye

Rating: M

Summary:

It’s too easy, Shane thinks, to love Ryan; too easy to get caught up in the swirl and eddy of the light he projects. Too easy to lose yourself in the whirlwind of an A-list romance. Too easy to fall for who someone is on the red carpet and to find out they’re not at all the person you thought. Ryan’s not like that, though. He’s hard-working, dedicated, and devoted to his craft. Shane loves him for that and more. Loves him for the way Ryan reaches out when they’re on the red carpet and the crush of people is too intense, loves him for the way Ryan redirects the far-too-personal questions that get hurled their way when they come out into the spotlight for real. Where Shane’s career is mowing along at a steady clip, Ryan’s is a rocket rising up out of the desert. Shane knows the saying about tides, but more than anything, he just wants Ryan to succeed, and he’s thrilled to death by the meteoric lift of Ryan’s star.

Sometimes, you fall in love and it's just not the right time. Sometimes, you get a second chance.

Book Club Thoughts

it’s such a gorgeously written fic, so much story packed into a shockingly low word count I deeply love this so much, I love how free of dialogue it is, I love thr prose, I love the flow and the way it skips through time and its so romantic I could die. i think the thing that stuck with me the most was the pov. kind of…separate, chilly, almost, like it was written by an entertainment journalist I also love how [the author] write[s] them as complex characters like everyone here has depth my favorite thing about the ending is the privacy. just like with the marriage the first time around, they do without the publicity the second time. eventually, they just stop trying to hide it, but it still feels like it will be different, how much they let the public in. i just love how they are constantly revolving around each other in this and we know it's inevitable but they don't and that's why they're stupid The structure of this is so good. We know the inevitability of their divorce, the inescapable pain of their separation. We know that neither of them will find happiness with others, and it hurts. We ache for the promised happy ending as the years go by. And the whole thing is told so calmly, all we can do is be carried forward by the story, just like them.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #otp: we took an oath #shyan fic #read of the week #alternate universe: actors #angst with a happy ending #skeptic believer

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hi friends!

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck!

The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week.

This week we went looking for hidden gems; fics with less than 300 kudos. We like these rounds 'cause it means our members dig deep and find us some very cool nominations!

Our runners-up this week were:

watch things on vcr with me - romanceisb0ring

“Y’know what would be really dumb?” Ryan says, exhaling the smoke through his nostrils like he’s a cartoon dragon as he speaks. He tucks the pen into the pocket of his jacket, then shrugs it off his shoulders. He struggles to get one of his arms out of it as the jacket gets caught between his back and the chair, but eventually he manages to free it. Shane can’t help but trace the lines of Ryan’s biceps with his eyes for just a second before asking, his voice low, “what, Ryan?” He’s uncertain where this could possibly be going. When Ryan is like this, he’s unpredictable in the best way. He could either say the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard that’ll make you cry laughing for five minutes, or he could say the most earnest, heartfelt shit that makes you so thankful to be allowed to be part of Ryan’s life. Turns out, in this case, it’s neither of those. “What if we watched one of those VHS tapes.” _______ Or, Ryan and Shane get high and watch one of the porn video tapes from the Mystery Files set.

Schaumburg Abbey - Siria

When a young man is born to be a hero, some adventure must happen his way, no matter how quiet the market town into which he is born. So, when young Mr Ryan Bergara receives an invitation to spend the season in Bath, it is inevitable that the dashing Mr Madej catch his eye—and that Ryan is soon caught up in the mysteries surrounding Schaumburg Abbey.

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#weekly read runners up #shyan fic #skeptic believer #sbbbookclub

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Happy New Year, shippers & readers~!

We've come back after the holidays and wanted to reflect on the past year 2023, so the theme we chose was "Any fic published in 2023!" and what do you know, we chose a very special fic called The Call of the Forest by ÉcrivainFantôme

We love an AU in the book club and we love even more when the premise has them developing a slow little romance over the radio waves deep in the forests.

Rating: E

Summary:

If you’d have asked Shane five years ago what his five-year plan was, he’d have had a very different answer to the one he's living now. Today, Shane starts his first summer as a fire lookout in California. He's miles and miles away from civilization, and the closest person to his lookout tower is a strange man who keeps asking him questions about Bigfoot.

But, like The Rolling Stones say, "You can't always get what you want", but Shane sure hopes he'll get what he needs.

Book Club Thoughts

Firewatch is one of my favorite shorter video games and I'm sooooooo thrilled to have a shyan take on it It was the details that counted for me. The solitude Shane experiences that feels comforting to someone who loves being alone and then there is always that feeling when you first speak to someone and they just shake up your world Okay but this fic has so many good things.... I love how [the author] weaved in the canon of Ryan hunting for cryptids/ghosts and Shane being a skeptic normally, i like to take notes during the live reads (if i remember to), but this week, all i wrote was "That Anne of Green Gables ass moment where they freak themselves out discussing a true crime event" there's something to the like, manufactured intimacy of talking to each other over a private radio channel and sharing that sort of mundanity with someone who you don't really know The way intimacy is explored here so great. The lack of touch and physical presence, the isolation, makes it more intense for me

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#shyan #shyan fic #au fic #skeptic believer #otp: we took an oath #read of the week

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hello shippers & readers

We've come around again in our eight-week cycle to a fun little creative round. This is one of those rounds where, once we've read the week's selection, we gather round and share little pieces of art, moodboards etc that the fic inspired out of us!

With the current theme having been "pining"; we had a chance to get real soft in the warm well of a reminder of what Weird, Wonderful World did to us fictionally. At least in this case, what it did to this author to create it's no good unless it grows by the very talented allredpen.

There were a number of squeals, giggles and kicking of feet reading this one and three of our members treated us to some very sweet and cozy-feeling moodboards

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #shyan fic #otp: we took an oath #skeptic believer #read of the week #creative round #pining #weird wonderful world

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hiii shippers & readers!

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck!

The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week.

We asked our members to nominate fics with copious amounts of pining and they sure delivered. Here are our runners up for this week!

Intimate Acts by popkin16

Ryan starts stealing food off of Shane’s plate. Shane lets him. It takes Ryan awhile to realize that means a lot more than it seems.

take me to your underground doomsday conspiracy bunker by icantturnthisthingoff

Everything had gone to shit. Frankly, it felt like the end of the world. At first there was just a virus, it was a deadly one, but nothing like what was coming. Things were just starting to get back to a sense of normality when the second one came. Ryan could only guess that the first was only a trial run before they got to the big leagues and judging by the countries response to the first he guessed they never even had a chance when the second one hit. Fucking zombies. ZombieApocalypse!au where Shane and Ryan are 438 miles away from each other when the news hits.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #shyan fic #sbbookclub #weekly read runners up

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hello darlings!

We are back again with a read of the week. This past week, we had our raffle winner pick the theme for our nominations and they picked 'Supernatural Ryan' and we got a stellar list of nominations to pick from.

This week's selection was a tough vote, but we came together in the end to pick something with a lot of heart, pair of sharp teeth and the kind of intimacy that makes the whole book club keel over in a heap.

Fresh Blood by sessrumnir

Rating: E

Summary: Ryan is a vampire in a world where vampires are not that extraordinary anymore, really. Still, he thinks he might be getting the short end of the stick when he realizes everyone is having amazing vampire sex, including plain ol' human Shane. So Ryan is intrigued. (Sue him, ok?)

Book Club Thoughts:

this fic ultimately was a good mix of cute and spicy

my fave part of this fic is the persistent metaphor and through line of like. heart beat? blood flow? it's not said In Those Words necessarily every single time, but the wordless communication it takes within this supernatural world in order to be compatible.

i do love when they do get together though, shane's explanation of how personal the combination of blood drawing and sex is for him. deeply romantic, i thought. and just the overall encouragement shane gives ryan so ryan can just relax and give into it

I also like the fact that Ryan feels a bit disconnected from his vampirism - like he finds ways to get by and doesn't want to see himself as some other - also a good commentary on living in a multicultural society. Kinda how he mentions he feels disconnected from his culture bc he doesn't speak spanish

I really enjoyed Ryan's internal conflict about his desires, wanting them, but also feeling shame. I liked the way you drew out the path through his thought processes.

I think like, vampirism and kink are always so closely entwined in so many fics and takes on it and I like that it's very clear that it works for Ryan and Shane because they did the bit where they talked about what they were expecting out of the scene

sometimes vampire sex is about the hunger to be yourself and the other other person fully embracing it and not turning away

Also the vampire sex was really hot

Something so affirming about Shane loving and missing Ryan’s fangs

The juxtapositions between the first and last scenes. Ryan’s growth and acceptance of himself is so palpable

the thing about supernatural Ryan is, in addition to everything said in this discussion, it just feels to me like an extension of his unwavering belief in something more in the world.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #skeptic believer #sbbookclub #shyan fic #read of the week #otp: we took an oath #supernatural ryan #vampires

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hiii shippers & readers!

Ever wonder about the fics that don’t make it through the final round of voting for the bi-weekly read in the book club? You’re in luck!

The book club is structured so that we solicit nominations from our members, either based on a theme or a trope or simply a request for their favorites, and develop a list of ten nominations, which are then narrowed down to a top three. The top three fics end up in our weekend vote and the winner of that vote becomes our book club fic for that week.

This week we had our raffle winner choose our theme and they chose any fic with supernatural Ryan, and while the list was a little smaller this time round, we got excited and quite a few bangers hit our nominations channel in swift succession. In choosing our winner, we have two runners-up that we're convinced would have been as equally a joy to read

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom - PhyllisDietrichson

Shane’s always been prey.

Don't Forget To LycanSubscribe - breathtaken

Shane looks up and nearly swallows his tongue as he finds himself face-to-face with Ryan from LycanSubscribe. The YouTube channel that’s consumed most of Shane’s leisure time and pretty much all his waking thoughts for the past two weeks, not to mention a couple of vaguely guilty jerk-off sessions. Ryan’s wearing a white T-shirt with a pair of sunglasses hooked onto the neck and there’s a stray lock of hair curling over his forehead, and he’s even more startlingly attractive in the flesh—which in Shane’s opinion is saying something. He says, “Hi, can I get a—” “Grande iced chai latte,” Shane blurts out, before he can stop himself.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan fic #shyan #skeptic believer #sbbookclub #weekly read runners up #supernatural ryan

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hey there!

We've rounded out Spooky Month with an exceptional read! This week, we read Hunted, Haunted, Moderately Daunted by makemadej (santamonicayachtclub)! While this fic is only 5k, it's packed full of juicy little moments that sit atop a great, science-based premise. Set during unprecedented times, the boys head over to a haunted castle to check out some frequencies and creepy hallways (and each other).

The bookclub really enjoyed this one and it was the perfect note to end our spooky month on!

Rating: T

Summary:

“I wish I had a knife,” Shane announced suddenly. “To...protect us from the sound?” “No, dumbass, so we can carve pumpkins in a spooky castle. That would be peak Halloween. Or a Sharpie, that would work too.” He palmed a pumpkin and regarded it seriously, Hamlet from the Independent Shakespeare Company all over again. “We could draw some funny little faces on these guys.”

Bookclub Thoughts:

[author] always always delivers with comedy and the bridge between friends and lovers and there's no point hiding anymore that shane brings him comfort if it wasn't the infra sound generators then it was ghosts but also it was Ryan asking Shane for comfort i think everywhere i go theyre giving off their own frequencies and the spn world has no choice but to push them together. tied by invisible strings, etc etc this one has that classic psychological horror premise of 'is it in my mind or is it real?' and the answer to that question is so good would love for them to cover something like this at some point. the science was so interesting. science: inconclusive at best on ghosts, very conclusive on gay the actual infrasound was the hum of all sides of their fanbase scrutinizing two ghost hunters on opposing sides of the belief spectrum making a relationship work

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #skeptic believer #sbbookclub #otp: we took an oath #shyan fic #read of the week

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Hallow shippers & readers!

We're still going strong on week#2 of spooky month. This month, the book club got to votin' and picked three spooky fics to read together for three weeks remaining in October. Our second choice in the tally was This year’s love (had better last) by Agf, a tale delving into modern magic, a curse that resonates with the year it was written for and a lovely surprise at the end. The book club agreed that this fic was sweet and subtle in its execution of the metaphorical human experience of isolation in a crowd.

Rating: E

Summary:

Shane’s given up on breaking his curse. After all, it’s not very likely he’ll bump into someone able to break it on Halloween - the one day he’s really visible - is it?

Book Club Thoughts:

As a lonely person this fic hit me right in the feels. Also I love the way he goes to a haunted house to be seen and noticed when we know that he'd not even flinch at people trying to scare him irl. I think that's a nice way to do it The POETRY of having gone through life like a ghost to finally be seen by the biggest believer in ghosts... It's so very Shane to not fight against the hand that the world dealt him and so very Ryan to be the one to show him he can i love the curse itself. "unremarkable". it's such an understated word and filled with such spite... she needed him to be unremarkable, so she said he was and then he was. but i think it can mean something so internal about shane, as well. that feeling of unremarkability. this fic is just so interesting to me This fic really gets the feeling of being lonely and then being seen. Finding a connection you never thought you could have. i also just wanted to mention the ending where ryan takes candid pics of shane and sends them to him. both because ugh dont we all want a love like that!!! ... even when youre not doing anything particularly interesting or when youre not posing and camera ready. i still see you and love you and want to keep these reminders that youre here with me I think it's such an interesting metaphor for a feeling that is so deeply human. whether logical or not i think everyone has times where they feel invisible and alone, like that alienation of being surrounded by loved ones and not being able to connect and feeling like they can't really see you, and all you want is to find someone who can see the real you there’s just something really poetic about this fic, the loneliness and how isolation can feel like a curse, how sometimes it feels like we’re waiting for that special person to break our curse. and I saw someone mention already the year it was written, which is a really crucial detail I think - irl Shane seemed to be suffering from isolation, being far from a lot of people he knows, so I can see how this fic would resonate with folks at the time especially

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[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Happy First Read of Spooky Month Darlings!

This month, the book club got our vote on and picked three spooky fics to read together for three weeks in a row. Our first selection is an eerie timeloop that left us scratching out heads and wondering what fate might have befallen out intrepid heroes in an empty train station on a cold night in Chicago.

the train is expected in five minutes by miraclesofpaul is spooky, ambiguous, stylistically gorgeous, and left us with many questions and not very many answers.

Rating: Teen

Summary:

Ryan finds himself in an abandoned train station with no memory of how he got there.

Book Club Thoughts:

i just love the mid sentence start. the ellipses, being thrown right into the confusion with no rope to hang onto

[the author] really set the scene so well that you travel with ryan through his entire confusion

Love the choice to have us know things that Ryan doesn't

dramatic irony is tricky to use, but in this fic it really pays off emotionally

the thing that really gets me about shane in this is that, instead of doubting for a moment, instead of coming up with a plan, he just throws himself into whatever nightmare ryan is in with the hope that he can get him out

it felt like reading something new even though i'd read it before and i love that feeling

Let me kick this off by saying that there is an untapped market of fic where Ryan vanishes for some reason and Shane drops every inhibition to dive in and go after him

The mood of this is fantastic, being dropped right in the middle of the scene immediately gives you this sense of eerieness, and because the timeloop is just five minutes long, it makes you feel trapped and claustrophobic.

also more people should write experimental shit. this was SO GOOD and the pacing was phenomenal and i love a fic that makes you work to put pieces together slowly instead of just heavy exposition doing the work for you.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE FAQ, AND SEND US AN ASK! IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR FIC RECS, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR READS, NOMINEES AND BOOK CLUB REC LISTS!

#shyan #skeptic believer #sbbookclub #otp: we took an oath #read of the week #sbbookclub spooky month