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imaginesmai · 5 years

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THIS IS MY OLD MY MASTERLIST, IS NOT UPDATED ANYMORE. CHECK OUT MY SIDE BLOG @imaginesmaimasterlists FOR THEM

💕:Fluff

🎈: Funny

💋: Smut

😭: Angst

⭐: Personal favourite.

🥇: The most popular fic in each category (it might change).

Angst Alphabet

Fluff Alphabet

Prompt List 1

Kink-November

AVENGERS

PETER PARKER/SPIDERMAN

A phone call away: Peter is having a hard time sleeping, and doesn’t know how to tell you. Eventually, someone catches him sleeping on a public place and you find out. The thing is, you love him and Peter should know that you’re always there for him. Even if it’s just by a phone call. 💕

⭐ Autistic love (autistic! Peter x reader): there is something weird about Peter, but that doesn’t make him any less lovable. 💕

⭐ Autistic love (autistic!Peter x reader): Peter and you have decided to meet your mother for lunch, and he’s going to discover how much you and your family care about him. 💕

Beautiful: study break is better if Peter is with you. 💕

Breeding kink (November Kink) 💋

Check: He had a date for the homecoming dance, he had the perfect suit and a proper preparation. Peter Parker didn’t think about the winged man 😭

Dating Peter Parker would include... 💕 🎈

⭐ De-aging (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) : you get hit by a de-aging spell, and Peter has to take care of you while trying not to break down completely. (COMPLETE)🎈

Europe (1) (2): Europe is being great, and it would be even greater if Peter could just follow his plan. (COMPLETE) 💕

Sometimes, once in a while: even heroes need saving sometimes 💕

Far from home: Peter Parker has just been run over by a train. However, he has biggest worries. Like, Beck having you in his grasp. 💕

Finally: Peter’s strange behaviour hasn’t gone unnoticed by the people around him, but he has a very, very, good reason for it. Or, in which Peter and you plan a date for Friday’s night and he can’t stop thinking about it 💕 🎈

⭐ First kisses: Peter Parker’s and yours first, or five, first kisses. 💕

Fluff Alphabet

Friday Night: you want to have a quiet Friday night, and Peter is just swinging by to make it better. 💕

Fuck you Beck: You had been given strict orders, yet you couldn’t ignore Peter’s call for help, even if the boy was too stubborn to do so; and even if you can be the one needing help at the end. 💕 😭

⭐ Hold you: fighting is always hard, but Peter didn’t think it would be that hard. 😭

No more fondue on my watch: Peter and you have been together for a while now, but nothing can go past Captain America eagle’s eyes. 💋 🎈

Peter Parker having public sex 💋

🥇 Peter Parker making you squirt for the first time 💋

Peter’s Tingle: Peter’s tingle must always be trusted; through the good and bad. 😭 💕

Praise Kink (November Kink) 💋

Promises 💋

⭐ See the light (Tangled AU): Pre-view (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12 - epilogue): Peter Parker has lot a lot through the years, and has become a shell of the bright boy he used to be. A serie of unfortunate events lead him to you, a naive young girl who has a dream. Slowly, he starts to realize that you might be that light at the end of the tunnel he needed so much (FINISHED) 💕 🎈

Short fic 1 💕 🎈

Skip (1) (2): Peter’s new life couldn’t be better. College, aparment for himself, you. Still, Parker’s luck is not on his side, and the memories are coming back. (ON GOING) 😭

Soul Stone: Peter and you are sent to Vormir, to get the soul stone 😭

Tried (not enough): Tony had developed a cronic anxiety every time Peter calls in the middle of the night. He knows it gets bad; just not so much. 😭

Worry: you’re sick and Peter is worried. Maybe a little too much 💕

TONY STARK/IRONMAN

⭐ According to the plan: Tony Stark has a plan. Tony Stark builds a plan. He couldn’t have known both of them could go to shit in an abandoned HYDRA base in Siberia, by the hands of his ex-best friend. 😭

⭐ Family: Tony Stark doesn’t have a lot of nice things nowadays, but his family make up for all of what he has lost. 💕

🥇 ⭐ Feeling old: you say something that tiggers Tony’s inners insecurities and doubts. 💕 💋

Heartbeat: Tony has a heart attack, and you’re the only one around. 😭 💕

Imagine 1

Long way home: the final battle is over. Thanos is dead. Tony is alive. Everyone has payed the price, but some are having a harder time than others.

An endgame fix-it of how Tony Stark survived the snap, but with the reality about a traumatic experience as losing a limb and almost dying. 😭 💕

⭐ On sale: Tony has a task: bring nuggets to satisfy your pregnant cravings. The obstacle: they were on sale. 🎈

Out in space: Tony is trapped in space, and his biggest worry is not how to get back home, but rather if you’re going to make it. Because there is more than one problem he has to face 😭

Recovery: Tony Stark has a problem. Actually, he has a lot of them. Tony Stark has always been surronded by problems. But now it’s different, and he has found the will of getting out of them. 💕

Things we don’t mean: a mission gone wrong, and Peter gets hurt. It hits Tony where it hurts the most, becuase he sees the kid as a son, and he blames it on you. Hard words are exchanged and apologies are muttered. 💕

Whatever it takes: something in Tony’s gut tells him that this recording is neccesary. He doesn’t want to think about it, but he does it anyways 😭 💕

BUCKY BARNER/WINTER SOLDIER

A lash for a dog: after a failed mission, things only gets harder. 😭

🥇 Beautiful ballerina: Hiding your relationship with Bucky from the world was not easy. The worst part of it was hiding it from the mightiest heroes in the world; the Avengers. 💕

Imagine 1

Imagine 2

The first rays of sun: a short fluffy blurb with your moment with Bucky before a mission 💕

STEVE ROGERS/CAPITAN AMERICA

🥇 Be Okay: HYDRA takes Steve. When you get back to him, he’s not the sweet boyfriend you know. 😭

Photograph-song inspired 💕

Perfect: your date is about to get ruined and not even your perfect boyfriend might be able to do something against it. 😭

THOR

My hero: you didn’t believe in heroes. Those strong, brave men that always wanted to save the day, only to cower away when the real problems began. You didn’t like heroes, who wanted to save the damsel in distress; you could save yourself, thank you very much. You didn’t fall in love with heroes, until a certain blonde one stumbled into your life. (1) (ON GOING)

New Asgard: life in New Asgard is peaceful, but the past always comes back. 💕

🥇 ⭐ Nightmares: the final battle had made a mess out of the God. Nightmares fill his mind, but you’re always there to make it better. Until one day, you aren’t. 😭

LOKI

Imagine 1

VENOM/EDDIE BROCK

Friends: Eddie and you have been friends as long as you can remember. He has ruined your life, but it’s not like you can hate the man you love.

Imagine 1

🥇 Imagine 2

Imagine 3

VIKINGS

UBBE RAGNARSON

25th of December (1) (2) (MILITARY AU): When Ubbe’s gone, the only thing you have left is hope. (ON GOING) 😭

Dance Teacher (1): Ubbe’s Friday is not going as well as he would have liked it. Yet meeting his daughter’s dance teacher is going to change that. (ON GOING)💕

First time being a dad (MODERN AU) 🎈

Heartbeat AU (1) (2) : your heart doesn’t allow you to have a normal life, but it does beat faster when you meet your new doctor. (COMPLETE) 💕 😭

Imagine 1

Imagine 2

Imagine 3

Imagine 4

⭐ I’m with you: Ubbe wants to make peace with the Saxons. He doesn’t care what it takes, but when you decided to follow him in the middle of the night, he’s not so sure anymore. 😭

⭐ Lagertha’s Daughter (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) : Lagertha plans on attacking Kattegat, soon, and you, her daughter and Ubbe’s lover, just ask her to make you a promise (COMPLETE) 😭

My Viking Prince (1) (2) (3) : you’re Alfred sister, princess Y/N. All your life, you have believed that love is all about pleasing your husband and making him happy or that’s what your mother told you. Now, prince Ubbe is making you see things differently. (COMPLETE)💕 💋(3)

Say that again: Ivar has never liked you, Ubbe Christian lover, and he makes that very clear.

⭐ The sweet baker and the bad biker (1) (2) (3) (4) (5): (vikings x SOA crossover) Ubbe, as the new president of SAMCRO, goes to the new bakery to see who is the owner and if he or she is a threat for Charming. He finds you, a sweet, cute and innocent girl who doesn’t hesitate to make him fall in love (COMPLETE) 😭

🥇 They learn about periods 🎈

Together: Sigurd’s death threaten to tear not only your world but your relationship apart. 😭

What you deserve (1): Ubbe knows that you’re pregnant with his son or daughter and that he needs to leave Kattegat if he wants to protect you. What he doesn’t know is if you’re going to make it. (ON GOING)

Winner’s prize : Ubbe has put his life again at risk, but this time there are things in between that makes it different💕 😭

Your daughter’s first boyfriend 🎈

HVITSERK RAGNARSON

⭐ Angst Alphabet (Tattoo Artist!Hvitserk) (1) 😭

- N for Nothing 😭

- O for Offended 😭

- P for Pressure 😭

- Q for Quake 😭

- R for Rob 😭

- S for Surgery 😭

- T for Time 😭

- X for Xx 😭

Crush AU (1) (2): shitty job, shitty life, too much stress. What’s better to solve those problems that your hot, handsome and funny roommate’s brother? (COMPLETE)💕 💋(1)

⭐ First time being a dad (MODERN AU) 🎈

Him (MODERN AU): Hvitserk and you are seeing each other behind your boyfriend’s back, his half-brother Magnus. And leaving the latest isn’t easy. 😭

His lady: You’re his lady, he’s your prince. 😭

Home: What do you call home when you have lost everything? You come back to Kattegat to fight Ivar, but it’s hard to know that Hvitserk will be there too. 😭

Imagine 2

NSFW Alphabet

Octopus: Hvitserk is sick and just wants cuddles. (can be read as the second part of him) 💕

Rewrite the stars (Song inspired) 💕

Soon to be husband: Hvitserk’s back from raiding only to find you promised to another man. It’s up to him do something or not about it. 😭

Taken : you are taken by the saxons, along with your soon to be husband, Hvitserk. And you do not hesitate in protecting him, not caring about the consequences 😭

🥇 ⭐ They learn about periods 🎈

⭐ Your daughter’s first boyfriend 🎈

IVAR RAGNARSON

Angst Alphabet 😭

Checkmate: Ivar hasn’t always been the murderous king we know. There was a spark initiating the fire. 😭 💕

First time being a dad (MODERN AU) 🎈

Quiet days: Ivar is in a bad mood and it seems like only you can fix that 💕 💋

🥇 They learn about periods 🎈

Your daughter’s first boyfriend 🎈

BJORN RAGNARSON

Angst Alphabet 😭

First time being a dad (MODERN AU) 🎈

Imagine 1

🥇 They learn about periods 🎈

Your daughter’s first boyfriend 🎈

ALFRED

Something that there wasn’t there before (Song inspired) 💕

ACTORS

TOM HOLLAND

Back home (1) (2): Five months ago, you broke up. Five months ago, you walked out of Tom’s house because it was all too much. Five months ago, Tom left his home without you. And now he’s back, realizing you shouldn’t have never broke up. (COMPLETE)💕 😭

Back to you (Song inspired) 😭

Caterpillar: there isn’t ice-cream on the fridge, and that only makes your day worse. Until Tom comes home to fix it all. 💕

⭐ Christmas Present: you recive a call in Christmas and your world lights up like a Christmas tree. 💕

⭐Fawn (Mob!Tom): GENERAL SUMMARY (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)💕 😭

⭐ Fluff Alphabet (Tom Holland) 💕

Forgotten aniversary: working so hard had consequences. 💕 😭

Football incident (college!Tom): Tom gets hurt in a game, although it might not be an accident after all. 💕

Gift wrapping: gift wrapping is the worst part of Christmas. Tom is the best one. 💕

Lost kid: Tom and you spent your last weekend before going home in Disney World, and he turns out to be one of those boyfriends who end up in the ‘lost kids’ deparment. 💕 🎈

Mushy Pancakes: morning sex and breakfast in bed is the best way to wake up. 💕

Relax: Tom is driving you mad without knowing, but that’s about to change after an stressful day. 💋

Short fic 1: everyone is cooking in the quarentine, and even if Tom knows he can’t do shit, he’s going to try. 💕 🎈

Shower time: the quarantine is the perfect time to tease, until you have enough and Tom is alone in the shower. 💋 💕

⭐ The Impossible (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6): Your relationship with Tom is on edge. Work, paparazzi and not seeing each other for months is making you tear apart from each other. Thankfully, he’s an amazing boyfriend and propose you what you thought it would be the perfect holidays; Thailandia. The hot sun, the beach, a cute hut and privacy to mend your relationship. Neither of you thought you would be witnesses of one of the greatest natural dissasters of history (COMPLETE) 💕 😭

Training Day: Tom’s morning hasn’t been the only thing hard that day. 💋

🥇 True love kiss: “I tricked your little sister telling her Ursula has stolen my voice because I have a massive hangover, and now we have to kiss in order not to break her innocence”

Au were Tom works in Disney store, has a massive headache and can’t talk, and now he has lied to a little girl and she wants to get him a ‘true love kiss’; which happens to you, her older sister and Tom’s highschool crush. 💕 🎈

ALEX HOGH

Attention: Alex just wants to cuddle with you. 💕

🥇 ⭐ Friends don’t love each other: when feelings and sex are mixed, nothing good can come out of it. Alex and you have been doing it for a while, and the bubble if about to explode. 💋 😭

Good Boy: Alex has been a naughty boy and he needs to earn his reward. 💋

Imagine 1

CHRIS EVANS

Bananas: your daughter seems to have a strange fixation with bananas 💕 🎈

Bananas’ worries: Banana the plushie is making another appearance in your life, and this time is bringing worries. 💕 🎈

⭐ Banana’s new friend: little Nathan is the new addition to the Evans-Y/L/N family, and Banana is having troubled feelings, along with Claire. 💕 🎈

🥇 NSFW Alphabet 💋

MARCO ILSO

🥇 Imagine 1

Imagine 2

You’ve got my heart : Marco is your best friend, your neighbour and your crush. One night at your house changes everything for the best; but you’ve taken different paths and life might never reunite you again.💕 💋 😭

TOM HARDY

B for Baby: you’re pregnant and something happens 😭

🥇 Imagine 1

Imagine 2

SEBASTIAN STAN

Gorgeous: Sebastian is doing and interview and can’t keep his eyes away from you (short blurb)💕

🥇 ⭐ Wired Autocomplete Interview: fans watching your interview with Sebastian are going to get more than what they bargained for. 💕

BEN HARDY

⭐ Interview : you’re exicted for your first solo interview about the End Game movie, but it’s not going to be as good as you thought it would. 😭 💕

Trust: Ben is your bodyguard and you’re his client, and both of you have some unspoken feelings. And what best way to confess, that without words and just after a bomb have blown up the building you were in? 😭 💕

TARON EGERTON

Hypothetically: you find something that you didn’t mean to in Taron’s tablet, and you wish it had been porn. 💕 🎈

SONS OF ANARCHY

JAX TELLER

🥇 Break in: your family night turns into a nightmare morning when some guys break into your house threatening your family 😭

Dating Jax Teller 💕

Embarrasing moment with their child 🎈

Imagine 1

🥇 Imagine 2

Imagine 3

Imagine 4

⭐ Injury: Summer mornings with Abel are always unpredictable. 💕 😭

Lucky (Zombie apocalypse) (1) (2): after the “fall”, everything turned out to be dangerous. You have been lucky enought to find Jax and a group.

Safe: in your mind, it’s not his fault. It’s never his fault, becuase he’s your dad and he loves you. But there is one person who loves you more, and is willing to prove that what Clay does is not right 😭

Short fic 1: after a shooting, the most important thing Jax has to do is to pick up the pieces. 💕 😭

HAPPY

🥇 Dating Happy Lowman 💕

⭐ Embarrasing moment with their child 🎈

PEAKY BLINDERS

ALFIE SOLOMONS

🥇 Bad words and bad luck: Alfie and you have a bet going on; if he doesn’t say any bad words until night, you’ll let him do whatever he wants in bed. 💕 😭

Imagine 1

NSWF Alphabet 💋

MICHAEL GREY

Attached: there isn’t much to say, just a cute rotten fluff day with the Shelby family 💕 🎈

Beach days: Michael’s and your honeymoon is going to take an interesting turn in the beach 💋

🥇 H for Humillation: you have a nice life, with a quiet library and a loving boyfriend. But some people don’t know how to respect that 😭

M for Mistakes: you’re Michael’s world and he’s not ready to lose you yet 😭

Umbrellas (C for Catcall) 😭

THOMAS SHELBY

G for Grounded: yours and Tom’s son is a spoiled kid, but his father hasn’t really noticed that. Until one night when, after a fight, Tom recives some harsh words from him. 😭

ARTHUR SHELBY

B for Baby: For being a Shelby, having twins was one hell of a lucky strike. Arthur couldn’t be any more happy and exicted about it; yet as always, luck is not very common in a Shelby’s life. 😭

QUEEN (BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY MOVIE)

ROGER TAYLOR (Ben Hardy)

🥇 ⭐ Freddie’s best friend (1) (2): being Freddie’s best friend means supporting him on everything, and being in love with Roger Taylor means suffering in silence, doesn’t it? Maybe a little trip to the fields can change that, but not in the best way (COMPLETE) 💕

To let you inside my heart (1)��(2): when you have your heart broken, you build walls so high that no one can climb them. Roger Taylor’s purpose is to show you no walls can stop a loving heart. (ON GOING) 💕

What I love: Roger was a confident guy; full of girls and empty of insecurites. But now, he has a girlfriend and when an insecurity knocks at his door, all of them enter into his head. 💕

GAME OF THRONES

JON SNOW

Imagine 1

ROBB STARK

🥇 Betrothed : you have know since you were little that prince Robb Stark would be your husband one day. It’s time to meet him, and to discover if being promised to an unknown man is good or not 💕

Imagine 1

THE ORIGINALS/THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

DAMON SALVATORE

Back to you: Damon and you broke up two years ago, thinking it was for the best. When a threat to your life becomes too real, he’s forced to come back for the only woman he loves

KLAUS MIKAELSON

B for Baby 😭

🥇 Imagine 1

⭐ The Painting (ANGST ALPHABET): your anniversary is coming up, and Klaus is determinated to put into a painting your relationship. Someone might finish it before he gets the chance 😭

SUPERNATURAL

DEAN WINCHESTER

Imagine 1

Imagine 2

Love you (small drabble) 💕

🥇 ⭐ Please Don’t: while Dean and you’re trapped, he starts to realise that not everything is under control. 😭

Sub!Dean (November Kink) 💋

OTHER FANDOMS

STILES

Angst Alphabet 😭

🥇 Being Liam’s older sister and having a crush on Stiles 🎈

AQUAMAN

🥇 Imagine 1

Imagine 2

EGGSY UNWIN

Imagine 1

DARYL DIXON

Imagine 1

JACE WAYLAND

Daddy Kink (November Kink) 💋

⭐ (Don’t) Care: Jace’s carefree attittude is going to have terrible consequences for once 😭

Strawberry: two assholes feel the right to ruin your day, but Jace isn’t going to let that happen. 💕

🥇W for Weak (1) (2): your relationship with Jace is on edge, so you decided to wait and see if things get better. Not knowing that waiting can be your death sentence. (COMPLETE) 😭

JAMES DELANEY

Devil (1) (2): James isn’t sure if he loves you or he tolerates you. He trust you with something really important to find out. 💋 😭

MAD MAX

Imagine 1

2K notes · View notes

fresh-outta-jams · 5 years

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Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Part 3

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Part 3 Namjoon x Reader Author: Admin Mo Summary: When your soulmate tattoo finally shows up, an address, you figure it couldn’t hurt to send a letter, right? Warnings: Some swears, soulmate fluff Word Count: 2.2k

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, Epilogue

It took Namjoon a long time to finally take a picture he was proud enough of to send all the way to America. The real trick, he discovered, was taking one that was vague enough to conceal his identity for a little longer, but not so vague that (Y/N) would feel like he was catfishing her. It was an awkward balance, but by use of a hat and some casual clothes on a busy Seoul street, he took a picture he was satisfied with.

As soon as he got it printed, he set to work writing his letter. Sitting down at his desk with his favorite travel mug full of coffee, Namjoon opened his now sticker-covered binder and flipped through the dozen or so letters you had sent him. Each one had been slipped into a plastic page protector to guard them from his clumsy ways. He couldn’t imagine the tragedy losing even one of them would be.

“Dear (Y/N),

It’s going to take a little while for this letter to get to you. I think I ran into the same problem you did, finding the courage to finally show myself to you. As you can see, I wasn’t able to gather enough of it, but this is me.

On another note, I’ve been trying to put words together for days to try to attempt to describe to you just how beautiful you are. I can’t even begin to figure out how I can capture in words the wave of warmth I get every time I look at my first and (so far) only picture of you. You look so happy in it, really genuinely happy and candid and I can’t help but wish I had been on the other end of the camera that took it.

Thank you so, so much for the stickers. I have them scattered all over my binder, and they really did help make it more colorful. As for Christmas presents, I would be more than happy with a rock. I’m sure you’d pick a great one. Seriously though, surprise me. I trust your judgement.

Also, how is it that one (1) week into Nanowrimo you already have 17,000 words??? What the fuck? How am I supposed to compete with that? As you’ve probably seen, my graph is not nearly as impressive as yours, but I’m not giving up yet. I was a little busy at work this week, so I fell a bit behind, but I actually kind of like my novel so far. I was afraid I wouldn’t. It’s not perfect, and I know that, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever written.

I have something to confess to you. I went back and watched over some of Friends again and...I surrender. I think, looking back on it with everything you said in mind, Ross really is kind of an asshole. Now I’m upset Rachel didn’t end up with Joey instead. I don’t think I told you this, but I got to go to the Friends set once for a tour sort of thing. It was really neat. I got to sit on the couch in the coffee shop. Sorry, that was random.

(Y/N), I hope you know I would LOVE to watch your film project. I’m sure it’s not trash, but you know what they say, we are our own worst critics. But if it makes you feel better, I will totally watch it and see if I can find anything. I’m glad you think my advice is good. Sometimes I’m not sure, but if it helps you, I must be doing something right.

You said you want to know the little things about me. For starters, I have my ears pierced. I heard that’s not as common for guys in the states, but it’s pretty common here. I’m not really a fan of seafood, but I love crabs, just not eating them. I have a younger sister. I don’t get to see her very often, but I miss her a lot. She’s about your age, actually. I like to think you’d get along.

I want to know the little things about you, too; anything you can think of. Also, riddle me this: what is a real American Thanksgiving like? I’ve always wondered.

-Namjoon”

***

Another long evening spent in the library passed and you still didn’t feel any better about your film project. The one you’d worked on with Ryan and Jacob turned out great, and your grades had been better than any of you had expected. Your solo film project, however...No matter how you edited it together, what transitions you used, or what music you layered underneath it, it still felt wrong in ways you couldn’t explain, and even worse, you couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

It was dark outside, the dead of night, and at this time of year, of course there were little flurries of snow drifting down. It wasn’t quite cold enough for them to stick yet, but it was getting close, and soon, you were sure your campus would look like a marshmallow winter wonderland.

You trudged all the way back to your dorm building, boots crunching in the leaves scattered about the sidewalk. You almost didn’t give your mailbox a second glance on your way through the lobby. Almost. Sighing, you walked over and unlocked your box, which had been empty for a little over a week now. Every day you checked and it was empty, you felt like something in you was wrong, like something had shifted out of place. Fortunately, when you opened it this time, that was not the case.

Mood shifting instantaneously, you grabbed the envelope and raced up the stairs, moving like someone had lit a fire under your ass. You knew, well, hoped, that inside this envelope would be the first look at Namjoon. He’d promised he’d send you a picture, and if he had chickened out, you would just have to fly across the world to kick his ass. It wasn’t like you didn’t know where he lived.

You snuck into your dorm carefully, discovering after you were inside the door that your roommate’s bed was empty, luckily. She must have been out partying. Good for you, you could click on your reading light without feeling guilty about it. So you did, plopping down in front of your desk, flicking on the little light, and tearing the thin layer of envelope that stood between you and your first picture of your soulmate.

You pulled the note out, the paper gently cradling something much more precious. With shaking fingers, you opened it and finally looked at him. Namjoon. He had a red beanie covering up his head, a black jacket layered on top of a white shirt, his beige shorts doing nothing to hide his long, long legs. There was sun shining in his face, making his tan skin glisten, and a hand rose to shield his eyes from the light, fingers long and covered in shining rings. And there, on one of his handsome cheeks, a very prominent dimple was poking in.

Holy shit. Holy. Shit. What had you ever done to make the universe reward you like this? This was your man? This? This man? Your man? Something wasn’t adding up. Your brain was failing you, not quite registering the reality that this beautiful nerd was YOUR beautiful nerd.

You read over Namjoon’s note, brain still fuzzy from the picture sitting on your desk innocently, as though it hadn’t just shattered your entire brain. Your hands were shaking when you set down the note, taping the picture to the wall beside your work station. It might keep you motivated when you needed to write papers. Or maybe it would distract you to the point of no return. You weren’t sure, but that didn’t stop you from sticking it right there anyway before uncapping a pen and trying your best to write back to him.

***

“Dear Namjoon,

What the fuck. What. The. Fuck. Okay, listen here buddy, I don’t understand how a human being can be that radiant. Your smile, your DIMPLES, your face...you literally glow?? Are you even human?? Did the universe send me an angel instead?? I don’t get it. My brain is mush. I can’t even think about anything except your handsome ass. Not fair, sir.

It’s cute you think I’m beautiful, even though we both know you are Olive Garden and I’m the leftover spaghetti that got run over in the parking lot. I still appreciate it, though. It did make me smile.

You know what didn’t make me smile, though? Namjoon. What the fuck. Do you want. For Christmas. I’m not getting you a rock, although the temptation is overwhelming now. Are there any American artists or authors you really like? I know ordering them in overseas can’t be cheap, but I could hit up Barnes & Noble and find you something.

I am so proud of you for your feeble attempt to beat me at Nanowrimo, but I warned you I have a lot of free time and I type really fast. Also, I’ve been planning my novel for three months, so that probably helps. It makes me happy to check your cute little chart every day. It’s adorable. No, but really, you’re doing really well for your first time and I love to watch your progress. I’m sure it’s going to be a bestseller someday.

Also, I TOLD YOU! I told you Ross wasn’t good for her! Ha! Fight me! Okay, but don’t really fight me though because you look like you’re tall and though I’m angry, I am also very small. Touring the set sounds cool! I bet that was really neat! I’ll have to add it to my bucket list.

Against my better judgement, I’m sending you my trash film project. It is very much trash. Please don’t sugar coat it. I need to know how bad it is so I can fix it before the end of the semester. But I really do appreciate you sacrificing your ears and eyeballs for me. How romantic.

The fact that you have your ears pierced doesn’t surprise me too much, but it does make you even hotter, which is not fair at all. Jesus, give me a break! It’s adorable that you love crabs, and I’m sure your sister and I would be best friends. If she’s anything like you, I’m sure we’d get along.

As for the little things about me...I love Back to the Future. I’ve seen those movies like seventy times and I still can’t get over them. I have this locket I wear and I never go anywhere without it. You can probably see it in my Wonder Woman picture. I have a black cat named Binx, but he’s at home, so I miss him a ton when I’m at school. I also have a little sibling, but mine is my brother and he is an idiot. I do miss him, though. He’s going to school in Boston, so I never get to see him.

To answer your question, American Thanksgiving is odd. The day starts out (in my house, at least) with the Macy’s Parade and then the dog show immediately after. Then, Dad enlists my help in the kitchen, even though I have no idea what I’m doing. Family starts arriving around four and then we have dinner and say what we’re thankful for. It’s pretty basic, but I guess you wouldn’t know given that it’s an American holiday. I think they celebrate it in Canada too, actually. Anyway…

Good luck catching up to me in Nanowrimo. You’re going to need it,

-(Y/N)”

***

When the envelope finally arrived for him after a long few days of waiting for it, Namjoon, as had been his habit of doing, leapt and bounded to his room to read it in solitude, away from his six well-meaning but inevitably noisy brothers.

It was chunkier this time that it had been the last time, meaning only one thing: you had sent him your film project. He opened the envelope with his usual care and slid the note, and the treasure hiding inside of it, out carefully. The letter was wrapped around a flash drive, a handful of autumn-themed stickers, and another smaller note.

“WARNING: THE FILM PROJECT CAPTURED ON THIS FLASH DRIVE IS TRASH NOT MEANT FOR HUMAN VIEWING. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.”

He chuckled to himself. There was no way it could be that bad. On the back of the little warning, there was another note.

“P.S. YES, NAMJOON, IT IS THAT BAD.”

Namjoon picked up the innocent little flash drive and plugged it into his computer, letting it think for a second before clicking on its icon on the screen. The player filled his desktop and he took a breath, staring at the play button that was waiting for him, practically calling his name.

Maybe he should read her letter first. Yeah, that would probably be best. Namjoon read over the words she’d written carefully, unable to keep a dopey smile off of his face. This girl thought he was handsome. More than that, she thought he was an angel. God, his heart was racing. What had he done to deserve this girl? How could he ever thank the universe for sending her to him?

Once he’d read the entire thing, still grinning like an idiot, he let his mouse hover over the play button before he finally let himself click on it.

Tagged: @ffantasylandd , @jooniefluff , @chimchimsauce , @mrs-saeyoung-choi , @theprinceoftheundead , @angyexoxo, @copenhagenspirit , @lovelylittlekittn, @lilgaga98 , @iminlovewjjk , @feed-my-geek-soul

#kpopwonderlandtag #armyofwriters #namjoon x reader #namjoon imagine #signed sealed delivered #rm #rm x reader #rm imagine

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ayearofpike · 6 years

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The Grave

Pocket Books, 1999 194 pages, 16 chapters + epilogue ISBN 0-671-55077-2 LOC: CPB Box no. 1856 vol. 22 OCLC: 42262026 Released September 1, 1999 (per B&N)

Keri Weir has a rough life: her boyfriend bores her, her sister is dead of cancer, her dad has abandoned her to start a new family, her mom is addicted to cocaine and is slowly selling everything they own to get a new fix. That doesn’t mean, though, that she wants it to end. But when she meets a mysterious man at her workplace, and feels inexplicably drawn to him, that’s what happens. But the end itself is a new beginning, one that threatens to never end.

And so we come to the end of Christopher Pike’s output under the imprint of Archway Paperbacks, a solid 11-year run whose end was inevitable thanks to the increasing stature and importance of teen and YA literature. If you weren’t there, it’s really hard to understand what the climate was like, how books for young people were seen as less — less important, less prestigious, less work to read and write. Likewise, it’s kind of hard to overstate the importance of Harry Potter, what it did for not just the readers it aimed at but the whole genre of juvenile literature. Prisoner of Azkaban came out one week after this book in the US, which I remember as being the flash point for interest in the boy wizard over here. After that, nobody was going to underestimate the selling power of a kid’s book, and nobody was going to accept an underdeveloped story that stood alone and didn’t (or couldn’t) promise resolution over a series.

It seems like Pike saw the writing on the wall here. He’s talked a little bit about the market changing around him and not being able to catch it. We saw a lot of the crap we were pushed fall off around the same time; a whole bunch of the series I’d mentioned before became too fluffy or lightweight for the new generation of teen book-purchasers. Longer stories became de rigueur, as publishers saw the willingness of kids to push through four hundred pages of the third story out of seven in order to find out how that poor kid with the lightning scar was going to figure himself out and avenge his parents.

It’s not like Pike didn’t have the chops to write a longer book; his four adult novels illustrate how he can dive in more depth into a concept and really flesh it out. (OK, two of them do.) And it’s not like he didn’t have material to expand upon and really explain — if anything, I feel like I’ve been complaining that he doesn’t unpack ENOUGH here at the end. And maybe that’s the real problem. Christopher Pike rose to fame in a climate where it was OK and expected to not give up all your information and secrets, to not explore a thread that didn’t speak to a highly-focused theme, and above all else to keep your page count down. Adapting to the new model of kidlit would take him some time.

This book is no exception. It starts with a strong and promising presence, reaches a conflict point that explains and engages, and then ... just sorta falls off with no real resolution, or at least not a satisfying one, maybe with a mandate to get out of the book before page 200. It opens another door right at the end, one that would have been OK to leave hanging ten years before maybe, but which now is unsatisfying and frustrating to readers who are expecting to know where that door leads. And maybe there are some other problems with construction, but let’s get into the recap before we talk too much about that.

We start not with Keri, but with Ted Lovett, a college freshman who has fallen for a young woman at HIS work site. She is mysteriously charming and bewitching, and when Ted asks to see her again she promises to call. And she does, holy crap. But her calls are scattered and sporadic, and even though Ted isn’t sure whether he wants this kind of a relationship he finds he can’t stay away. The last call leads to a hike into the forest, where suddenly he is beset on all sides by monstrously strong humans and buried alive in what appears to be a Satanic ritual. He feels a prick in the back, pleads with a morose but determined beauty, and then smothers in a shallow grave.

Keri doesn’t know any of this. She doesn’t know Ted, even. All she knows is she’s stuck in a dead-end with no way to turn around or back out of it. That is, until she meets Oscar, a sensitive and quiet man who has some undefinable quality that draws her to him. He’s certainly a lot more interesting than her doofy boyfriend, who comes across as the worst kind of clingy shithead. We understand this through his behavior as much as we do because Keri wants to shake free of him. It helps that the next night after work she sees Oscar again and asks to go to his apartment to see his paintings. Like, leading up to much? Of course they have sex, and of course Keri’s boyfriend is waiting outside her apartment when she gets home, and of course he’s all whiny and shitty about it.

But then they find Keri’s mom inside, barely breathing after an overdose, and they rush her to the hospital. Once in the waiting room, Keri passes out from the exhaustion of not only having to take care of her addict mother but also from doin’ it all night. She has a dream about a beautiful garden full of happy people, and of journeying from it to a cave full of smoke, where a figure shrouded in shadow asks if he should come. This part was super confusing, because it’s literally a page of one-sentence back-and-forth unattributed quotes, and you almost have to mark it with a pencil to keep track of who’s saying what. But ultimately Keri says yes, and then immediately wakes from her dream to learn that her mother is stable and her relationship is over. Well, OK, she and the now-ex talk about it and agree that they need to be done. Which she should have said before, considering how long she’s felt that way, but I get it. (I’ve had my own relationships that dragged on longer than they should have out of obligation, on both our parts.)

So obviously Keri isn’t going to work today, but she does arrange to meet Oscar for a late dinner and maybe some more shpdoinkling. On her way to the car, though, she’s suddenly waylaid by a strong person who chloroforms her and drags her off. She’s aware enough to realize when she gets shot with a syringe in the butt, and fully awake by the time she’s carried from the vehicle she’s in and deposited in a grocery store freezer. She manages to break her bonds, but there’s no fail-safe to escape the freezer — even Pike’s favorite emergency ax has been removed from its hooks. So she feels her body freeze, go numb, and then inexplicably feel warmer as she blacks out for the last time.

And now she’s in her sister’s bedroom, back in the before times, when Sis was alive and Dad was around and Mom was coherent. This part is one of the times when I wish we’d gotten more. We learn that Keri has more or less completely blocked out any memory of her sister’s death, and won’t talk about it to anyone. Her sister tells her that she needs to come to grips with reality, that her death has led to so many of the problems and if Keri will just understand and accept this tragic end it could help her. Only maybe not now, because she’s in a weird place where she’s neither dead nor alive and is going to have to face the coming of the shadowed person. And then Keri wakes up, and we almost never talk about her sister again. Like, what was the purpose of this dream sequence? We just needed someone dead who could explain it to her? Shouldn’t the sister play a bigger part in post-death? I was dissatisfied, much like with the mom, who we’ll get back to.

But yeah, Keri wakes up, and she knows it’s cold but it doesn’t bother her, and she knows it’s dark but she can still see quite well (except suddenly without color), and she knows she’s locked in a freezer but a couple of stiff kicks get her out the door. She also knows she’s hungry, and she eats more food than she would have even been able to look at before she went in the freezer. What’s most disconcerting to her, maybe, is the fact that she doesn’t really FEEL anything about these changes. She accepts that she’s changed, that she should have died and didn’t and is now insatiable and powerful, but she’s not bothered by that — which is the thing that bothers her most.

She leaves the market and, after a run-in with a gang where she totally ruins the leader by kneeing him in the crotch up to his sternum, starts to go to Oscar’s house. Only, wait: Oscar was the only person who could have known she was leaving her place when she did, and he exhibits some of the same things she’s feeling now (colorblind, need to eat, unexpected strength). So maybe don’t seek out the person who made some weird manipulation that cheated your death, but then tried to kill you. Instead she goes home and calls her ex and talks about her concerns about Oscar, staying vague but still ominous and foreboding. She can’t sleep anymore either, so she basically eats all night and into the morning before she goes to see her mom. Mom notices a frightened, frail stance that Keri is taking (trust an addict, I guess), but she also wants to talk about a dream she had where they were all watching Sis pack for some kind of a trip. Keri apologizes for her distance, but then she leaves again right away, after determining that Mom can get home safely after being discharged. And this is the last time we see Mom too. Which I’m kinda OK with, because at least we get a picture of her being on the road to recovery, which allows us to imagine she turns out all right ... but wasn’t it the death of her first daughter that made her spiral to begin with? What’s going to happen now that she never sees her second one again?

But Keri has suddenly realized why Oscar looks so familiar, never mind that this was not foreshadowed or alluded to ANYWHERE in this novel. He’s a dead kid who disappeared last year, who had his picture in the paper next to a tragic article. A dead kid named Ted Lovett. And like, you saw this coming; we had enough foreshadowing that Ted was dead but back somehow. I’m OK with that. What I’m not sold on is Keri going to talk to Ted’s mom. Like, why? She doesn’t know he’s alive; if she did, wouldn’t that have also made news? But she does it, because I guess Pike just can’t leave the parents of dead kids alone, and then she goes to Oscar’s place because what the fuck else is there to do when you’re colorblind and hungry and strong and out of options?

Oscar’s not alone. There’s a scientist there, who explains that Keri’s condition is a clever manipulation of her DNA to prevent the body from being able to die unless it is completely destroyed. He created the compound to try to save his daughter, who was succumbing to leukemia ... only she went bad. In fact, she swiped the formula and turned a whole bunch of others, including her brother. The secret, it seemed, was to enhance the dying person’s fear, which would then manifest in cold brutality once they awakened from death. It didn’t work on Ted Oscar, for reasons not sufficiently explained, and now he and the scientist are trying to figure out how to stop the monstrosity that is these other monsters. They have help: an inexplicable vision of a shadowed man, who has indicated that they should impregnate a virile young woman and then turn her so that she brings him into the world.

That’s right: Keri is vampire-zombie-monster pregnant. And the baby she carries will determine the fate of the world.

The bad guys want the baby too, of course. All of a sudden they’re at the door, holding Keri’s ex hostage. Seems they followed her from Ted’s mom’s house. No one has to get hurt, the bewitching beauty daughter says, if they willingly go downstairs and get in the van. Obviously Oscar and the scientist aren’t gonna willingly anything, and Keri wants to get her ex out of harm’s way. Too late she dives after BBD, who calmly and effortlessly rips her ex’s arm off. There’s a monster of a shootout, and our good guys manage to escape (not the ex, who bleeds to death in seconds), only to find once they’re out on the ocean in Oscar’s boat that the bad guys have a helicopter and a flamethrower. So they have to bail as the boat goes up, and sure they have super strength and stamina but Keri can’t outswim a power boat, which is what BBD pulls up in, informing her that she has no choice but to be a prisoner.

They caught Oscar too, and drive the both of them to an abandoned military facility in a mountain somewhere. Their cell is a nice one, as far as cells go, but unescapable: the bars are too strong to break, and the back is raw rock that goes deeper into the mountain. They won’t be able to dig their way out before the baby comes, which thanks to Keri’s enhanced biology should take about a week. After that, the bad guys figure, they’ll just undo Mom and Dad and be able to use this baby for their own nefarious ends.

Of course it’s more complicated than that. BBD still has feelings for Oscar ... it seems that something about the undeath process might make us more susceptible to finding a soulmate or falling in love with a person. At least that’s what I feel like we’re supposed to understand, given Keri’s inexplicable and instantaneous affinity for Oscar; this is one more thing Pike doesn’t go into. Just like the brother, who is a total cocknugget but only really shows up at the birth, so he can menace the couple and torment the doctor before killing him. Seriously: we constantly hear about this dude and what an evil monster he is, but he’s only actually in the book for seven pages. Still, he acknowledges that our other prisoner needs to live, too, as the mother will be critical to feeding the baby while he matures.

And he also does this fast. In twenty days he gains twenty years, reads the entire Internet, and gets crops to grow in their underground cell. Shades of Last Vampire 4, a little bit. BBD tries to get him to explain his goals and doings to her, but he flat-out refuses. In fact, the only person he’ll try to explain anything to is his mom. She asks if he will draw a picture of how he might represent himself before he was born, and it’s ... caprine. Horns, a tail, cloven hooves. And now Keri is all, oh shit, I invited the actual DEVIL into my uterus. But the boy advises her: don’t panic.

So now they’ve been in this facility a month, and all of a sudden there’s sounds of scuffle. It seems that the scientist managed to get away clean, and has given up just enough info to the government that they managed to track these monster fighters to this facility and are now cleaning it out with firebombs. Luckily for our heroes, Oscar has dug up to a boulder that he’s pretty sure is the last blockade between their cell and an underground river. They can’t move it, though, before everyone comes pouring into the holding facility: BBD and Cocknugget with guns, Scientist with an obvious bomb, and then the military. But what if we ask the devil? So he moves the rock without any problem, just behind an explosion and expansion of fire, creating a swirl of water and a gush of ashes and a battering of rocks that leaves Keri unconscious.

She comes to in a beautiful garden, like the one in her dream. Oscar and their son are there too, so obviously they’re dead and in heaven, right? No, idiot, they can’t die, remember? And the son has decided he’s going to say in this nowhere and be one with nature, and that his parents have to go on without him. Keri doesn’t want to, but Oscar thinks they have to, and he has a rationale: he’s pretty sure that their son is not Satan, but instead is Pan, the ancient god of the wild. They both have goat legs and horns, after all, and look at how good this kid has been at making plants grow no matter the lack of water or sunlight. This doesn’t go any farther either, and I need more, specifically: how the shit does tampering with human genes equal giving birth to another fuckin’ Percy Jackson character? We never get to find out. Keri and Oscar leave, they run into BBD (who also somehow made it out alive), they tell her to fuck off, and then they keep walking, and the book ends.

So if you’re keeping count, that’s at least five people whose stories have not been satisfactorily explored in this novel, which pulls up well short of half of the page count that Harry Potter would get to lose a rat. If we’re looking for an inability or unwillingness to expand and explore both the narrative and the changing state of YA, this is it right here. Just like Pike’s career, it fizzles out unresolved and without warning. Couldn’t he have spent just a little more time on some backstory or character building, to explain just why these douche-monsters were so horrible but Oscar was good? Was there no chance at all of explaining the connection between technology and nature that would explore just how and why Pan reincarnated in the womb of a half-dead high school senior? What happened to Keri’s family that it fell apart so hard and was predisposed to forget about a dead sister through running from her? Is it any wonder that The Grave was his last book for four years?

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littleartistthoughts · 5 years

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Red Leather

I first discovered this book when I was in the 8th grade, back when I was obsessed with Wattpad. It’s a sequel to another book I like, called “White Lies”, but I find myself returning to this story more often. I reread it every couple of years for fun. I get captivated every single time.

I recently reread the story again while my family was vacationing in Hawaii, about a week ago. It’s just as dark, twisted, and genius as I remember.

The Story:

So, the book is told in the perspective of a teen psychopath. 17-year-old Renee Griffin is beautiful, popular, cunning, and murderous.

Her first victim was her next door neighbor’s bunny, which she mutilated to death when she was 6 years old. Ever since then, her victims have suffered worse and worse fates, and the monster inside her grows ever stronger and ever darker. The story follows Renee’s journey as she moves to Alistair (where her cousin, Jessabel, the heroine of the first novel, lives). Here, in this fresh new city, she ensues in a grand, wicked scheme to cause chaos and destruction.

She details all her plots in a red, leather-bound book (hence, the title), which she nicknames “Genesis.”

Renee’s plan before moving to town was to befriend Jessabel and use the advantage of her highly admirable reputation to tear the city to bits. Things don’t go as planned. Renee, clever as she is, isn’t the best judge of character. Jessabel instantly senses something off about her, and they don’t become as close as she hopes. They don’t even become friends, really. Worst of all, Renee develops a crush on Jessabel’s boyfriend, Nathan. We see this small crush turn slowly into obsession throughout the book.

At school, Renee befriends many of the younger siblings of Jessabel’s classmates. However, “friends” to Renee are merely means to several ends. She has different uses for her classmates, like obtaining information, learning the ropes, and sabotaging. Reneee chooses several lives to destroy, and she does so successfully. And the city falls into insanity, just as she planned.

One of my favorite dynamics in the books is that of Renee and her relationship with her father, Ted. Ted is Renee’s single father, who has loved, spoiled, and cherished her all her life. He’s the only person in the novel that Renee feels true, human love for. Albeit a touch toxic and many touches obsessive, he’s a very humanizing presence in Renee’s life. The best irony is that he’s a doctor who sometimes must fix the people his daughter wrecks. But he’s aloof to it all. Renee, who he nicknames “Poppy,” is an angel in his eyes. After the death of his beloved wife, he’s devoted all his love to Renee, giving her everything she’s ever wanted and more. Blinded by his love for her, he’s completely oblivious to all the pain and destruction she’s caused.

Renee’s safety is Ted’s drive to move states and start a new life. He wants nothing but her happiness and safety, but he doesn’t realize that all the chaos that happens around them is because of her.

Another interesting character is Eli Lincoln, another psychopath, who Renee finds intriguing. She trusts him almost right away, without question, especially as he begins helping her with her schemes.

Back in her hometown, Renee left behind an enemy, a girl named Chloe. Renee murdered her boyfriend and got away with it by framing it as a suicide, but Chloe was there that night. She knew the truth, and she set forth to bringing down Renee, once and for all. Her whereabouts remain unknown to Renee, which infuriates her. Despite her attempts to stop the threat before it happens, Chloe seems to be three steps ahead, always.

Confident as ever, Renee and Eli design a scheme to accomplish everything she’s aiming for -- kill Chloe, kill Jessabel, kidnap Nathan, bring chaos, and escape to another country. Everything goes as planned.

Except that Eli didn’t kill Chloe as Renee thought he did. She failed to kill Jessabel. Nathan wasn’t in love with her. And Aurora Hockley, her host (and the main mastermind behind the kidnappings in the first novel), was never on her side. Neither was Eli.

Chloe had planned it all along -- Renee’s downfall. With Eli’s and Jessabel’s help, Renee is defeated, expunged from her throne of deceit. It’s very, very satisfying to the readers. Once again, good prevails. Evil is defeated, just as it’s destined to.

Despite losing it all (including the love of her father), she manages to put herself in control. Before her trials can happen, she kills herself and her father, with the audience of her dreams.

It’s infuriating that her death happened at her own hands, but I can see how it’s a fitting end to her character. If it is the end. The author once promised us a third installment to the White Lies series, but it never came. And as of now, there’s no promise that it’ll ever happen. There was an epilogue to Red Leather in Eli’s perspective, where there was small indication that Renee wasn’t dead after all. But, I guess we’ll never know. The author has fallen off of Wattpad, unfortunately. And so that’s simply that.

I find myself returning to this story because of how captivating and clever it is. Stories are traditionally told in the perspective of the heroes, protagonists who represent good and fairness, people whose shoes we can fit into, people who represent more good than they do bad. This is changing, now, in recent times, but this was the very first book I read that was in the perspective of the villain.

It’s interesting how you learn to love and hate Renee. Her crimes are heinous and unsettling, but you find yourself somewhat rooting for her. Renee goes through something like an anti-arch. The story is all about her downfall, even though we don’t realize it until the end.

Renee frequently flashes back to different parts of her life, and she tells about her past schemes. She tells us about her transition from her old self, Rhea, to her present self, Renee. Rhea, to her, was the part of her that was impulsive, sloppy, and miscalculating. Vicious, yes, and cunning, of course, but also prone to mistakes. So she adopts a new persona (and a new name) which she calls Renee. Renee is like a mask to her. Renee is kind, sweet, funny, popular, generous... nothing short of angelic. This is the face she wears in public to gain favor and trust. But Renee is also very murderous. Renee knows how to keep her hands clean. Renee manipulates and destroys from a distance, staying careful not to raise suspicion. Renee is smart and calculating, organized and well-spoken.

Throughout the story, we kind of see this resolve fade away. With Eli’s (unknowing) help, she makes more and more mistakes. She also grows more and more enraged, darker, more unhinged. The less sane she gets, the more Renee fades away, eventually giving way to the monster inside, her true self, Rhea Griffin. And she topples down until she’s ultimately defeated. She accepts her fate, but she now also accepts who she truly is.

As Renee, she constantly refers to the darkness within her as the “monster” that lurks beneath her skin. By the end, she fully embraces that she, Rhea, is the monster.

And despite it all, we’re captivated by Renee/Rhea’s confidence, her cleverness, her vulnerability. She’s a villain, through and through. Even on a gray scale, she falls very, very dark. But her novel gets us thinking, about morality, about our friends, and about ourselves. And that’s the true genius of the novel.

I can’t wait to give it another read, sometime later in the future.

#6.13.19 #redleather #wattpad #2019bookreviews #5/5

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