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margaretthotcher · 1 month

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Queer Book Recommendations

It's pride season in Wellington, New Zealand and my local library has published its second "Teen Staff Picks" zine! In that spirit, I bring you, a collection of lesser-known queer books featured in the two that have been released so far! I've narrowed the lists down to books that have 1000 or fewer reviews on Goodreads as of posting (though I actually use Storygraph personally). I haven't read most of these, they're new to me as well but looking forward to getting into them.

Sapphic

Trouble Girls - Julia Lynn Rubin

Planning Perfect - Haley Neil

Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches - Kate Scelsa

The Meadows - Stephanie Oakes

Never Trust a Gemini - Freja Nicole Woolf

This Is All Your Fault - Aminah Mae Safi

The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet - Jake Maia Arlow

Youngblood - Sasha Laurens

In the Role of Brie Hutchens - Nicole Melleby

Achillean

We Are Totally Normal - Rahul Kanakia

Two Can Play That Game - Leanne Yong

Blaine for the Win - Robbie Couch

I Like Me Better - Robby Weber

The Language of Seabirds - Will Taylor

The Feeling of Falling in Love - Mason Deaver

Charming Young Man - Eliot Schrefer

Emmett - L. C. Rosen

Pages I Never Wrote - Marco Donati

Trans Characters

Across a Field of Starlight - Blue Delliquanti

Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure - Lewis Hancox

The Borrow a Boyfriend Club - Page Powars

If I Can Give You That - Michael Gray Bulla

Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic - G. Haron Davis

Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity - Kristin Elizabeth Clark

Magical Boy - The Kao

Kisses For Jet: A Coming-of-Gender Story - Joris Bas Backer

Between Perfect and Real - Ray Stoeve

Featuring Queer People of Colour

Ander & Santi Were Here - Jonny Garza Villa

The Loophole - Naz Kutub

Spell Bound - F. T. Lukens

Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues - H. S. Valley

Rise to the Sun - Leah Johnson

Never Kiss Your Roommate - Philline Harms

Rainbow! - Bloom & Sunny

Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales - Melanie Gillman

Anne of Greenville - Mariko Tamaki

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iamthecomet · 3 months

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SO, I'm jumping in here so I can stop hijacking your comments 🤭 here's your excuse for a book-related thread where you can scream about your newest reads!!

I need a new stand-alone book recommendation. All the folks at work are on a romance kick and I need something completely different. 180-degree spin kinda different!!

Tell me about your latest fave!

Do you have a GoodReads?

Feel free to rant!!

Ok SO. You have no idea what you've gotten youself into by giving me permission to do this BUT thank you. ♥ I do have a goodreads, but I haven't been good at keeping it updated this year. I've been using StoryGraph instead because it has pretty charts and graphs and I am a sucker for things like that. I have the same username and (and profile picture) over there as I do here, just in case anyone feels like stalking my reading habits hehehe. As far as stand-alones and not romances go that I've read recently (ish) and enjoyed, you can find them under the cut to save space :)

Family Lore - Elizabeth Acevedo - Magical realism about a couple generations of women most of whom have supernatural gifts. One, Flor, has dreams when people are about to die. She suddenly decides to throw herself a living wake, but won't tell anyone (not her sisters or her daughter) if that means she dreamt of her own death or not. It's very grounded in the real world and very much a book about family and relationships and heritage. It's strange and heartbreaking sometimes and feels real. It won't be my favorite book of the year but I really enjoyed reading it. Manhunt - Gretchen Felker-Martin - Now for something completely different. Found it on the horror shelf. Not so much scary as it is very gorey. The premise is it's been several years since a disease ended the world as we know it and turned most AMAB people into cannibalistic monsters. The story follows two trans women, and a trans man as they fight their way through an organization of TERFS and some really spoiled rich women to try to find a place they belong among this madness. Also, they kill feral men and eat their balls which apparentely keeps them from suffering the same fate as other AMAB people (there is probably science in the book but I read that part long enough ago that I don't remember it). Not a stand alone but I have to mention The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Oseman. You can absolutely just read the first one and never move onto the second. I hate mysteries, I adore these books. They're about four 75+ year olds who live in a retirement village in England who get together every Thursday to try to solve cold case murders. And then...a murder happens basically on their doorstep so they decide they're going to solve a REAL murder. Hysterical, heartbreaking at times, the characters feel like real people. The plots are unpredicitable and complicated but not unrealistically. It is not my usual thing, but the 4th one in the series is my only 5 star read so far this year. I cannot say enough good things about it.

And, not a book I read super recently but: Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. It's a book with an obvious agenda which always knocks things down a couple pegs. But reading it was like watching a car crash I couldn't look away from. The modern version of The Jungle but intentionally a horror book instead of just accidentally one. It's about the not so distant future where humans are farmed for meat instead of animals. It follows a man who works in the meat industry as he grapples with the morality of what he's doing. I can't say it an amazingly well written book, but it is deliciously fucked up which is sometimes all you need for a good read. It's also a very quick read. I read it a couple of years ago and it has stayed with me. It really feels on par with golden age sci-fi to me (1984, Fahrenheit 451) it just has that vibe (which I really like, so maybe that's why I love it). And if you're in the mood for some feel good realism that isn't a romance book, The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson made me tear up several times during the book both for happy reasons and sad. It's about a painfully shy small town library assistant who has to figure out how to stand up for herself (and a lot of other people) when her library is threatened with closure. Maybe I just loved it because it was about libraries but it was just warm and fuzzy and also heartbreaking and infuriating (I did want to shake the MC several times, and/or slap her to snap her out of her bullshit, but I don't think that's a bad thing). I will stop now before I rant about books for literal years. But if anyone EVER wants to talk books with me I am more than happy to chat about them, give recs if I can, scream about how bad something is (I have to hate read a few books every year, I just have to).

#comet comments #cait #book recs #comet reads

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katnissgirlsmakedo · 2 days

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please talk about your fuckass book you just finished <3

ok yay :) i literally neeeeeed to talk about it in relation to other books i’ve read recently so that’s what i’m gonna do here i heart making every book a conversation with each other… so you’ll all have to forgive me for comparing call me by your name to the dream thieves of raven cycle fame but i need to. its a comparison that literally begs to be spoken about. to me. i also need to compare it to the secret history and the sun and the star and most importantly. well we all saw the timeless video. we need to get into that as well!!

obviously what sets it apart from all of my genre bullshit is that it is NOT genre bullshit, like it's just set in italy 1983 in the normal universe. which made it one of the most unique books i've read this year to be honest and real.... i have NOT been reading normal ass books... earlier i compared elio's narration to the great gatsby but i literally have just only read very few real world narrative novels i've got gatsby, richard, and this i guess. i'm working on it though!

anyway it was veryyy richard core in the sense that it's being narrated from some point in the future where elio is reflecting on that summer and oliver and what it meant to his life at large, where richard does the same thing with narrating his time at college with his greek class and bunny's murder. reflecting on two very different things unless you wanna look at it with the keen eye of a total nutcase and then i could say that they're both simply reflecting on what it was like to be seen and known by someone who turned out to not be what you hoped and you didn't end up with him despite it all. richard papen you would have loveddd call me by your name... wow. elio pearlman you would have loved the secret history...

it was ALSO very the dream thieves core in the sense that um. well me when i'm gay and having kind of a hard time working with that and there's a guy who's just like me in a bad way who wants to fuck me so bad we both look stupid as hell... but through it all there is the through line of intimacy that comes from being Recognized… rip joseph kavinsky you would have LOVED call me by your name!!!!!!!!!!! (would ronan lynch love cmbyn? well no!)

i ALSO only wanted to talk about it in relation to the sun and the star because they’re both like. ok Gay Representation is not a genre but they’re both books about gay people that i read recently so like. yeah. it’s crazy how glaring the difference between those two books is for things that both get tagged “lgbtq+” on storygraph or however many of those letters that website uses idk. like one of them is clearly written so some dude could pat himself on the back for giving the kiddos Representation in his stupid ass franchise and the other is just some fuckass book written by a totalllll freak that happens to be about gay people. in essence one made me so mad to read and the other was fine. i would never go so far as to describe a man’s work as great though. chappell roan voice i don’t think men make good art. !!! and i really believe that sorry. when a man impresses me i will let you all know but it is very rare…

which brings us to the timeless video. for everyone who somehow missed that that means (you’re fake btw 🙄) the timeless video is an amv i made last summer when i wanted to make an amv for my guys from my books but obviously they’re from books. so what i did instead was gather a bunch of characters from movies and shows that reminded me of MY guys and edit them to taylor swift’s timeless. because it’s like. other lives and i see them in everything. anyway so elio and oliver made it into the timeless video despite all the sort of mean stuff i’ve said about oliver lately (not even my fault he fuckin sucks btw) and the fact that their relationship is not like. Endgame. BECAUSE of my favorite scene. from the movie not the book. this scene was lame as hell in the book it’s the part that made me go wow i think perhaps the film is much better!! the “is it better to speak or to die” scene… i talked about it earlier but genuinely that happened to my buddy kit herondale…. and then he said something and it didn’t go very well!!!!

anyway. yay i <3 blogging on my break at work!

#asks #and also blogging on the clock!

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jupitersrising · 2 months

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Overall Masterlist

Hello! I already have a Camp Cretaceous: Survival of the Fittest Universe Masterlist, but I originally created this account to interact with all fandoms that I write for/am in so I thought I'd make one big masterlist to include everything.

I post fics on Ao3 under the same username (Jupitersrising) and post on Tumblr if I get motivation!

[Link] to "Survival of the Fittest Universe" Masterpost :)

[Link] to ao3

Fic Masterlist (All Fandoms):

--How To Burn Bright (and fall so far)

--Post-Canon Found Family

--Brand Bowman's Guide

All She Is To Me (Is Everything): JWCC, complete

All The Screams Sound The Same: JWCC, complete

The Rickety Bridge: JWCC, complete

Country Roads and Unknowns (i don't think i'm ever comin' home): JWCC, complete

Runaway: JWCC, complete

Survival of the Fittest: JWCC, in progress

all our bloody teeth: JWCC, complete

i found something in the woods somewhere: JWCC, complete

Brand Bowman's Guide To Making Dino-Nuggets: JWCC, complete

Brand Bowman's Guide To Bisexuality, Break-Ups, and Brotherhood: JWCC, in progress

The Winnebago at the End of the World: Stranger Things, complete

The Strange Happenings of the Harrington House: Stranger Things, complete

We Didn't Start The Fire (It Was Always Burning): Stranger Things, in progress

Adronitis: Stranger Things, complete

a rebel without a clue: Stranger Things, complete

This Is Me Trying: Stranger Things, in progress

All The King's Horses and All The King's Men (Couldn't Put Us Back Together Again): AFTG, complete

Bullet Holes Aren't Fixed With Band-Aids: AFTG, complete

Can You Spot The Numbness In My Heart (oh, my love, it won't start): PJO/HoO, complete

The Logistics of Love (and other bloody, beaten things): PJO/HoO, in progress

no grave can hold my body down, i'll crawl home to her: Disney Descendants, complete

i'd tear off cupid's wings for you: Disney Descendants, complete

Dried Flowers (and other dying things): The Raven Cycle, complete

i've been searching for a trail to follow again: OTGW, complete

Fandoms I Interact AND have (Tumblr or Ao3) content posted for:

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (JWCC)

Stranger Things (ST)

All For The Game (AFTG)

Percy Jackson Universe (PJO, HoO, ToA, The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase)

Descendants Disney [Only the movies]

The Raven Cycle (TRB, TDT, BLLB, TRK)

The Magnus Archives/The Magnus Protocol (TMA/TMAGP)

Over The Garden Wall (OTGW)

Harry Potter; Marauders Era

Due to recent circumstances surrounding ai and some situations in larger fandoms, I've decided to include this: I do not allow book binding of any of my fanfics for any monetized purposes; I do not condone reposting my works on other sites (whether or not you credit me); my fanfics should not be posted to any rating sites for published works such as Goodreads or Storygraph; I do not condone using my fanfics to feed ANY ai training programs or ai generators.

LAST TIME UPDATED: April 12th, 2024. Depending on when this was last updated all information may not be relevant or entirely accurate.

#masterlist #masterpost #fanfic #fandoms i'm in #fandoms i write for #survival of the fittest fanfic

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readingrobin · 10 months

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Mid-Year Book Freakout 2023

I was tagged by @the-forest-library. Thanks for the tag. Gives me a chance to do a bit of reflecting.

1. Best book you’ve read so far this year

The Scapegracers. It's so weird that I felt like I read this book so long ago but it was just in March. Angry queer witch vibes continue to have a big hold on me and I really need to get around reading The Scratch Daughters.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far this year

Seeing as I've only read two sequels this year so far and one was the most disappointing continuation I think I've ever read, I think Bloodmarked is a clear winner. It's odd to see how contentious this book was among the fans, since I enjoyed it just fine. But hey that's just me.

3. New release you haven’t read yet

Probably Mysteries of Thorn Manor by Margaret Rogerson. I really want to go back to the world within Sorcery of Thorns and I'm glad that it's just a novella so I don't have to worry about too much of a time commitment. I want to see the good meow meow demon boy Silas again.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Oooo, The Spirit Bares its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White. I absolutely loved Hell Followed With Us, especially how raw it is. I'm so excited to see how Andrew pulls off a ghost story when he has such a great way of writing uncomfortable and disturbing material.

5. Biggest disappointment

Ugh, absolutely West by Edith Pattou, the sequel to East. I don't want to be mean, but I don't think this book really needed to exist. After 15 years, a sequel to a fairy tale retelling that retreads the plot of the original has a difficult time of being interesting or engaging to the people that really fell in love with the original. If you want to see me get into specifics, it's in my review on Storygraph.

6. Biggest surprise

I think just the fact that one of the books I read, Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton, had a polyamorous triad that really felt organic and believable. I genuinely think these three people all love each other, which is rare enough in YA between just two people. I'm always behind choosing throuples over dumb love triangles.

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Angela Carter for sure. Also, T. Kingfisher.

8. Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

Valec from Bloodmarked is easily at the top of that list. Sissix from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was real cool as well.

9. Book that made you cry

Haven't really been reading too emotional of stories, so I don't think I have an answer right now. There've been emotions sure, but nothing really sobworthy. Firekeeper's Daughter got me close though.

10. Book that made you happy

Spider-Punk: Battle of the Banned mainly because it's feeding into my current Spider Punk obsession and the art is so lively and amazing.

11. Favorite Adaptation

Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber is absolutely fundamental for anyone that loves fairy tale retellings. They feel so dangerous, sensual, but also mature and exploratory. Sometimes it feels like the retellings are somehow the stories' coming of age tales.

12. Prettiest Cover

The Kingdom of Back by Maire Lu, hands down.

13. A book you need to read before the end of the year

Still slowly, but surely chugging along through Les Miserables. Hugo goes on tangents like you wouldn't believe, not just about the Parisian sewer system

Not going to be tagging anyone this round, just do it if you feel like it!

#mid year book freak out tag #mid year book tag #book discussion #books #booklr

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rosyjuly · 1 year

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hiiiii rosy! if you’ve had any good reads lately pls consider this a free pass to talk about them- i love hearing what you’re up to in the world of literature & am curious to hear whether any of the book recs you’ve been sent worked out! <3

hiii anon this is such a sweet ask, thank you so much!

i've read a lot this year (compared to my usual, i'm now at 13 books and i used to average one monthly). but this is also due to cutting down fic reading & writing, which i'm slowly picking back up, trying to keep it very low-pressure and fun. (just today i read @antimonyandthyme's newest sebmick fic, which is incredible.)

the last thing i finished (yesterday) was Averno by Louise Glück -- it's a gorgeous collection. it touches upon death, complicated family relations, grief, and also -- i'm sure there are better words for this, but i don't know them -- trauma that often comes with becoming a woman. see here, from averno:

from a myth of innocence:

the triumph of achilles has remained my fave collection of hers, but i liked averno better than the wild iris.

before that, i read neal shusterman's series arc of a scythe within like, a week. it's dystopian and ponders interesting ideas. there'll be a movie (allegedly) and i'm really curious about that -- i also started gleanings, which is a collection of short stories in the same universe. if anyone read the series, please hit me up because hooooo boy have i got some opinions.

i'm ALSO reading my dark vanessa but i admit i take a break after every chapter because it's quite heavy, but i love it so far!

and the book recs, i'm sorry i'm so terrible with them, but i've got all of them logged on my storygraph to read pile, and up next is: stone butch blues (i've only read excerpts before and i don't want my gay card revoked -- jk, jk), swimming in the dark, proper english and mort (discworld). i travel a lot and i always forget to download them and then i read whatever i have on the kindle or scribd app available!

okay one last thought: this year i finally got around reading margaret atwood (the handmaid's tale and alias grace) and james baldwin (go tell it on the mountain) and they were soooo good, i definitely want to read more of their works!

#anon thank you SO much for indulging me #i tried to keep it short but alas.#i'm a lot less online than i was in 2022 -- which is a good thing #but i also post less stuff here i guess #and i read more prose this year for some reason!#rosy reads #rosy.ask

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godkilling · 1 year

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3, 6, 15, 17, 25!!!

3. What were your top 5 books of the year?

This is tough!! I feel like it's relatively easy to pit one book against another in terms of enjoyment, but when trying to decide a top list out of more than, like, 3 options things get difficult. That said, here's a punt in no particular order:

Pity the Beast - Robyn McClean

Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner

Young Mungo - Douglas Stewart

As Meat Loves Salt - Maria McCann

Sundial - Catriona Ward

Special mention for "How Much of These Hills is Gold” by C Pam Zhang which I'm reading and really enjoying at the moment

6. Was there anything you meant to read but never got to?

Babel by R.F. Kuang has been eyeing me since it dropped. I also have started a number of sci-fi/fantasy series but haven't managed to get around to sequels for basically any of them (apologies to: Baru Cormorant, The Poppy War, among others). I've also wanted to read The Priory of the Orange tree since this time last year but it's gathering dust on the shelf still... One day!

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women's Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

I don't pay massive amounts of attention to book awards except occasionally browsing the Booker longlists for something to read next. That's actually how I found out about No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, Young Mungo by Douglas Stewart and Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi this year. I really enjoyed all three of those! I've said a few times that I really like ""literary"" books and the Booker is usually pretty good at sniffing out books that are doing something interesting with prose/concepts (most of the time lol)

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Everything I read that I didn't get recommended by TikTok videos LMAOOO I try to go into books without much prior knowledge to get a more pure feel for the first impression. Genuinely, I think I enjoyed most of the books I picked up on a whim, far more than anything I found on a specific recommendation. I've had a lot of fun in book clubs this year but the books picked out for those clubs have been... An interesting bunch lol.

Special mention goes to Pity the Beast, a debut novel I knew nothing about going into and that I haven't stopped thinking about ever since.

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

I'm on track to hit 70 this year, so the plan is to aim for 60-65 again next year. Using storygraph and reading in book clubs has been a huge game changer in terms of habit building and motivation to read lots. I might actually try and read slightly less next year and attempt to take some of the raw word soup floating around in my brain and try and actually output some writing again (though I think the year off has been helpful in terms of stress and feeling bad about metrics lol).

#sorry this has taken me literally weeks to answer lmaooooo BUT i very much appreciated the ask #nightmigrations #asks

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theultimatenonbinarynerd · 2 months

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February 2024 Reading Wrap Up

The Calendar

Unfortunately I sadly had to break my 405 reading streak as I have been terribly ill with presumably the 100 day cough. I was just too tired and ill to do anything. I'm on the mend but unfortunately February's reading ended on a low because of this.

Finally finished Will which was such a relief. I was worried it was gonna clog up February but thanks to a unexpected a + e trip I luckily got to finish it quicker. Its a very good memoir but it tried to balance being a self help and account of Will Smiths life and as a result made it very overwhelming. Might Reread this again in the future but we shall see.

Still as of this post Reading through Black Spire but I hope I'll be able to finish it in March, we shall see. Its not a perfect story and really confusing without reading Phasma but still pretty decent especially on the world building. Fazbear Frights 4 is easily the best novel out of the bunch I have read. It focuses on the themes of Family and Fixing Past Mistakes but still expands and keeps to the og lore. Coming Home is the best out of the three short stories.

Man so far I'm loving the 8th Doctor Adventures and agree it was absolutely necessary to jump into Big Finish through this series due to the similar style to New Who. I hope the 2 hour stories are as good. Just purchased Dark Eyes 1 and Out Of Time 1 this month and excited to build up an exciting Big Finish catalogue to listen too. Horror Of Glamrock was a very unique and interesting story as well as incoperating rock music in a fun way. It makes me excited to see what other fun new ideas Big Finish have done with their stories. Miss Bernard Cribbins and it was nice to hear him on audio again. Immortal Beloved used Greek Mythology in a fun way and is definitely one of the best Big Finish audios I have listened to so far. It debated the ethics of cloning and appealed to older Whovians in a brilliant way. Paul MacGann was excellent in this and I feel like this audio allowed him to really develop the complexity of his character. No matter the audio length I vow to devour Big Finish in one day.

I think that this month was so crammed full of books due to how many shorter 200+ books I read. It took about 7 days too read the incredible Doctor Who novel, The Way Through The Woods and Different Not Less, 12. Both absolutely fantastic like I mentioned. I knew Different Not Less would hit hard but I didn't realise just how hard.

Overall a good reading calender that will hopefully improve in March now that I'm feeling a lot better.

February's Stats

Looks so much better than my January Stats layout that I did. Credits to LeeBee Reads as her templates are so much better for showing off Storygraph Stats. Wish I'd shrunk things down a bit but apart from that all good. With that being said let's break down the Stats from left to right.

So in February I read and listened to in total 6 books. 4 Books and Two Audio Dramas. Pages wise I managed to read 1,123 which is 168 pages up from February 2023. An absolute huge improvement which I'm proud of myself for. Then I listened to 2.27 hours between both Big Finish Stories I delved into. Nevermind 2023, February compared to January this year was alot better despite falling off at the end. I'm excited to see what March will bring me in terms of pages and listening hours.

In terms of Genre, Science Fiction absolutely devoured once again but that can be expected considering how much Big Finish I've been listening too. Whilst Young Adult dominated last year, I definitely think Science Fiction is gonna be the winning genre of 2024. In second place was of course Memoir as I managed to finish Will and Different Not Less. Two very informative and life changing memoirs. But with Science Fiction, Memoir, Video Games, Young Adult, Self Help And Horror. February sure was an interesting month when it came to genres.

My profile has not changed much at all. As much as I have started to branch out and look at more Non-Fiction Recs unfortunately my profile will remain mainly reads Fiction. Like I've tracked and compared to Fiction I only have 80 Non-Fiction on it so yeah. My most popular moods are Adventurous, Dark and Mysterious which is again definitely not changing anytime soon but we shall see. I definitely need to balance my Dark and Lighthearted moods better as much as I would love to claw into exclusively dark books. And again I will try to get myself into longer and more faster paced or slow paced books but unlikely to change.

Onto moods, no second place this time as three moods impressively decided to tie. Those moods were as followed; Mysterious, Informative And Funny. Not suprised there as literally most of my reading in February was mutiple genres and types. Ignoring my audio listens it was literally half and half between fiction and nonfiction material so I'm not shocked at their being no winning mood this time round. Will definitely not be the case in March though I'm sure of it.

Finally we have Star Ratings. Thankfully no books went below 3 stars as wether it due to enjoyment or of a good quality nothing this month had mostly slaps. Three Five Stars in one month is very impressive, than again Last Year was the same when I got to experience the wonderful Loveless and Leia Princess Of Alderaan back to back. February tends to be a good month for me which is a huge trend I've noticed. A 4.58 average rating is really good and makes me excited for what March might bring.

Good stats and a fabulous template to use.

Finished February Reads/Listens

Again I can't help find myself smirking at the fact that the month with more books read and listened to is the shortest month of the year.

February was really good and I'm hoping it only gets better from here. Will was a really good memoir and whilst I don't agree with his political views 🍉, I do recommend borrowing this from the library as it has a lot of valuable life lessons and lots of Will Smiths character. Probably gonna borrow it off my brother again in the far future. Just to see how I feel about it with a reread.

I'll include them together but I'm absolutely in love with what Big Finish has to offer and have a future wishlist ready for when my wallet can afford it. Horror Of Glamrock and Immortal Beloved were very entertaining and creative stories that I've never really seen Doctor Who do before. I'm very much going to dive more into the format and might even try some of the BBC audio novels. I've also gone to really care about the 8th Doctor and Paul MacGanns portyal. Gonna try get some reviews out soon and highlight more of the ones that are avaliable for free on Spotify.

From Audio to Physical. I finally managed to pick up my first 11th Doctor adventure and it was absolutely fabulous. The Way Through The Woods is such a well built up mystery that pays off super well and doesn't go too out there. Una McCormack knows how to write Amy, Rory And The Doctor and they all get their moments to shine. It was also super fun and wild and the location was perfectly eerie. Absolutely worthy of five stars and one novel I'd highly recommend to other whovians. Up next for Doctor Who books I'll be re-reading Prisoner Of The Daleks and exploring the 9th Doctor adventure The Deviant Strain.

Different Not Less is another amazing memoir that hugely hit hard and deep. As a newly diagnosed Autistic person back in March 2023, I knew that this was absolutely one of the first books that I had to pick up. Hearing Chloés story really gave me a lot of comfort and hope I didn't know I need. She also perfectly balances out her two reader audiences of Neurotypical readers wanting to learn and Neurodivergent people wanting to understand there self. Fabulous book that I will be rereading without a doubt in the future. Completely recommend this wether Neurotypical or Neurodivergent.

Fazbear Frights: Step Closer, was absolutely the best out of the four books I read. It still had a lot of faults don't get me wrong but it was so much better than the other three. If the Epilogues didn't exist this is the one I'd recommend out of all of them. Coming Home was the best out of the three stories in the book, it made me super emotional and I almost cried. It had a twist I was not expecting and incoperated some of the og lore in such a brilliant way. I'm honestly happy to end there as I am not willing to force myself through all Twelve of these when not all the stories are good. Eventually I plan to read the first few Tales books and we'll have to see what they are like in comparisant.

Conclusion

Overall a very fun reading month jam-packed with absolutely fabulous content that I'd recommend. I'm excited to see how March will compare and what it will bring.

If you want to check out my full reviews of all of these books mentioned you can find me on Storygraph and Good Reads.

Storygraph: melsage1823

Good Reads: Melody Soundy

That's it for now, I'll pop back in April for an update about March.

-Melody-

They/Them

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syds-bookshelf · 2 months

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Book Reviews!

Hi everyone!!!! As my bio says, I'm a huge bookworm, and read about fifteen books a month, sometimes more. I love reading, and I love making little reviews for them in a creative way. I used to bullet journal a few years ago, and my favorite part about bullet journaling was writing down reviews for every book I read in there, but eventually it was too much for me to keep up with, so I decided to do it digitally! I got an iPad about a year ago, and started making my reviews this way, and it made it so much easier, more fun, and more visually appealing. Here's an example of one:

I'm going to be using this to upload all the books I've read so far this year, along with a typed up version of the review along with it. In case anyone wants a template of what I'm doing here you go:

I've been doing these for a little over a year now, so I've tweaked it a lot along the way, and the template I have now is just what works best for me. You're absolutely more than welcome to switch things out for whatever fits what you read best. For instance, I read a lot of romance and fantasy books, so I have a spice rating on mine, but if you read mainly horror books you could do like scare factor, or something!

What I Use

Goodreads (I use this mainly just because it's so common and popular, and I love the reading challenge feature, my goal is 100 this year!) feel free to follow me on there!

StoryGraph- I heavily recommend this app. It's kind of like good reads, but honestly, infinitely better. It gives you graphs to help you better understand like the statistics of what you're reading, and it also has a really cool buddy read feature where you can buddy read with someone, and add comments, and they won't unlock for the other person until they've gotten to that point in the book. Love this app so much

Goodnotes - This is what I use to make my book review journal pages! This app unfortunately not free, so do with that information what you will, but when I originally got this app, I got it for college, and it's just a one-time purchase unless you want to upgrade, but I really don't think it's necessary. I think I paid like $8, but that's honestly less than a regular journal and it comes with pens, stickers, and a bunch of amazing features!

Thank you everyone for reading! I understand this is a lot of info here, but it's just an introduction to what's to come on this page! Thanks for reading :)

#booktok #booklr #bookworm #bookblr #bookshelf #book review #book journaling #book rating

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wholelotofweird · 1 year

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Okay, gamers, the first quarter of the year is over and I want to share with you the books I've consumed thus far.

I've recently been using StoryGraph and damn, it's really fun if you like data and also logging the stuff you read. Would recommend. I say that, because a number of these books were consumed thanks to one of the challenges they've set for the year, to read a number of books in different categories. Let me say, this is the most diverse spread I've read in YEARS. So. Anyway.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, by Kristen O'Neal

I would 100% recommend reading this book, if you are able, in print format instead of audio. There are a number of sections where the main characters are talking over text chat and I'm not sure how well that would translate over audio.

This book had me saying, "They're just like me fr" non ironically multiple times. It's such a lovely look at friendship and building our own communities and struggling with chronic illness. There is at no point any gatekeeping of what a chronic illness should look like or what a person with a chronic illness needs to look like.

The one thing that I didn't love was the fact that a white author picked first person POV of a POC. It isn't the best choice. I feel better about it after looking through O'Neal's website where she has readily admitted that it was a choice she would not make again. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of not making the "monstrous" character a POC.

Overall! I really enjoyed this book. It's a pretty fast read, but it is heartwarming and hopeful and full of genuine joy.

A Magic Steeped In Poison, by Judy I. Lin

This book was SO fun! Magic, romance, court politics, betrayal. What more could you want? Other than the magic system being tea based. That's right babies, TEA BASED! Monch monch monch, what a beautiful system I am in love.

This is another fast read. I've always been a sucker for magical tournaments and historical fantasy. If any of that is your vibe I would absolutely recommend picking this up. I know there is a second book, but I haven't had the opportunity to read that one yet.

Found, by Margaret Peterson Haddox

Now... Like I said... I was picking books for a reading challenge I'm doing. This one was from "read a middle grade book you never read", so I am FULLY aware that I am not the audience for this book.

That being said, oh my god, this was a rough one. I think my biggest gripe is that the cast are all 13-15 year olds but you would never know it. They're out here acting like 20 year olds. Maybe when I was 13 I would have been able to buy it, but at 30-whatever I am not. This is the first of multiple books and I can't say I regret not reading more.

Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, by Deborah Heiligman

So, I'll be honest, the reason I was drawn to this was because I got to see this amazing Van Gogh art instillation last year. Part of that instillation was a display of excerpts of the letters between Vincent and Theo, and let me tell you, that is what made me cry.

This book is certainly nothing ground-breaking. It's a biography of these two men. It tells their stories at the same time, side by side. I also cried reading this.

Am I emotional? Is it because I have younger siblings I'm very close to? Is it because I, too, am mentally ill and an artist?

Who knows, gamers.

Quackery - A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, By Nate Pedersen & Lydia Kang, MD

Again, nothing groundbreaking. This book is a funny and informative look at medical process through history. I'm a sucker for medical history. I did listen to the audiobook for this and I think it really helped the humor shine. If you're also a fan of bizarre medical history (or the podcast Sawbones), this is the book for you.

The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

I enjoyed this book! For a person who is bad at remembering names, though, it was difficult to follow at times. There were so many players in the conception and realization of the Chicago World's Fair that I would lose track of just who I was hearing about.

That said, it was a very cool look into the trials and tribulations that went into making the spectacle a reality. This book managed to touch on SO much, not even to it's detriment. Despite getting confused by names the main through-line was easy to follow. I was invested start to finish.

In the Vanishers' Palace, by Aliette de Bodard

Do you like beauty and the beast retellings, but instead the beast is a very cool dragon, and also it's hella gay??? Then do I have the book for you! It does one of my favorite sci-fi things where there is a world, there are facts of that world, but you aren't supposed to learn them. Those aren't what matter, they are simply table setting. It's a beautiful story. I do wish there was a bit more depth into the romance, but that's just me.

Beautiful, atmospheric, and emotional. Lovely book.

A Marvelous Light, by Freya Marske

Damn, the pining in this book??? Truly a wonder.

This book is such a lovely blend of interesting plot, intriguing magic system, and just lovely gay romance. I've been trying to consciously read more queer books this year and so far I am having a wonderful time. I'm going to be 32 this year and for the first time since I was a pre-teen I'm seeing myself really reflected in books. It's such a fuckin' cool experience. I'm an emotionally compromised teenaged girl.

#lycanthropy and other chronic illnesses #a marvelous light #in the vanasher's palace #devil in the white city #quackery #vincent and theo #van gough #a magic steeped in poision #lgbtqia books #queer books #books and reading

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soracities · 2 years

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hi, m.! how do you discover new books upon removing yourself from the algorithm of goodreads / storygraph? my sister and i are currently evading book socials in an attempt to be more mindful of what we read, minus the ‘feed’ recommending us books. we want to read books because we choose it :) would love to hear your thoughts!

Hi, lovely! This will be a bit late since I've had this question a few times, esp. in regards to quitting social media, so I'm very sorry to anyone else who asked that it's taken me so long to get around to it!

I will be honest, this blog does make up a good part of how I find things -- my mutuals and other lit blogs especially (I also find works through the authors I follow online now and then); most often, though, these will simply put something on my radar so that I always have an ever-shifting web of disparate works circling through my head; titles will crop up when I'm looking for something, but whether or not I get around to reading those books sooner rather than later really depends on a lot of other factors: if it's an author I know or have read and loved before, for example, then I’m more likely to explore it -- the same goes if I spot something on a shelf or in an article that a mutual has mentioned!

Otherwise, the factors that really influence the books I find most often are a lot more personal and down to proximity: things close friends mention or recommend (Dostoevsky was on my list for years, but I bought The Brothers Karamazov without a second thought because of someone I love), the books I find in my local library or favourite bookshops, books mentioned in other books (I pick up a lot of titles through nonfiction / essays, or just stuff the authors I like enjoy), archives like Project Gutenberg, online magazines, journals, book presses, etc. These are the places I go to far more often and are probably what determine the books I actually read most of the time. Admittedly, it’s quite random and there is no set system for me aside from just following my own intuition -- that said, I think the last ones are especially good for discovering new works and authors, so while I don’t know what kind of books or genres you prefer (which means this will all vary of course), if you want to stay away from socials entirely, then I cannot stress enough: mailing lists & newsletters are your friends!! You don’t have to sign up to everything (I’d honestly recommend against it because I think you’d end up with the same situation I found on Goodreads which is far more time spent accumulating titles than actually reading them), but keeping up with sites whose content you enjoy, or signing up to the newsletters of local or independent bookshops is, I think, a really good way of coming across new things without an AI hobbling them together for you.

For me, a lot of what I come across has been assembled from a variety of places, but I have a handful of publishers whose content I love or am always intrigued by (like Tramp Press, Fitzcarraldo, Pushkin Press, or the Dalkey Archive) so I try to keep up with their releases every now and then (I’m also more likely to read random books I stumble across if I know they published them), as well as my favourite online journals, magazines, lit archives etc., As I said, I don’t know what kind of books you like, but for me sites like Electric Lit (because of them, I found out about Norah Lange), The Marginalian (Brainpickings’ new name, and it is an absolute treasure trove), The Paris Review, LitHub, Words Without Borders, or other poem-a-day / poetry archives (Words for the Year and poetry queen @firstfullmoon ig page grieftolight especially!) are wonderful, because they expose you to so many different voices and works. I’m not a huge fan of literary prizes for various reasons, but I do pay attention to the longlist and shortlist of the Dublin Literary Prize and the Booker International because they’re not as narrow or insular as others usually are; I may not always read the titles listed immediately, but they’re filed away in my head, because the most important thing for me is to read, or be aware of in order to read, as wide a selection of books as possible.

All of this means I end up with a very chaotic mental map of the various things I want to read and explore, but the chief thing for me is that if I find something that piques my interest, I follow it -- if I’m reading an author of a particular nationality, for example, I often look up their contemporaries or others writing from the same or a similar tradition. Most of what I read is in translation also, so if a book has really caught me I look up not only the author’s other works, but the translator’s too. Because I read Adonis, I looked up Khaled Mattawa. Because I looked up Khaled Mattawa, I found Saadi Youssef and Maram al-Masri, both of whom I absolutely adored. Non-Fiction helps a lot in this too, at least for me -- as I said, I stumble across a lot of new titles when reading essays by authors I already enjoy, and it’s far more likely that I’ll pick something up if I’ve read about it beforehand. I read Geoff Dyer’s essays because I read Zadie Smith's review of them in her own essay collection; I read Natalia Ginzburg’s Family Lexicon and Enrique Vila Matas’ Dublinesque because I read Zambra; I discovered and fell in love with Stig Dagerman through a Siri Hustvedt essay and I don’t know if I have ever before felt the kind of stunned response I had when I read his writing in Burnt Child; it honestly floors me still. Again, all of this is a very random selection process but it works for me because I’m always looking to explore lots of various things at any given moment. That said, and while I don't know what facilities are like where you are or how easily you have access to them, I do genuinely believe, along with all this, that if you want to be more mindful then the most important thing I can say to you is to really, really, try to cultivate a relationship with your local library and bookstores, whenever and however you can. As I said, I accumulate a lot of titles through a lot of different places, but even through all of these, most of the books I've ended up discovering and loving have been through my local library because they're the ones who have put the book and me in the same room: I had Svetlana Alexievich on my list for a while because I came across excerpts on tumblr, but the only reason I finally got down to reading her is because the Fitzcarraldo edition of Second-hand Time was put on the display shelf. That display shelf is also the only reason I eventually discovered Zambra (also in Fitzcarraldo and so, by now, the only reason I'd discovered Fitzcarraldo). It’s where I found Camilla Gurdova, where I found Nabokov’s letters to his wife and therefore finally got around to reading him; it’s where I picked up Camus’ essays because -- again -- I know how much someone dear to me loves him; it’s how I managed to read Siri Hustvedt and therefore the only reason I found Dagerman to begin with at all. For me, that physical proximity is a vital part of the books I come across because they’re no longer something vague that I “might” read, but a real tangible thing that I can actually pick up and read right there and then; this is what makes the difference for me.

When I first started reading more seriously, I (very naively) collected so many of those ridiculous 100 Best Books of All Time Ever lists; I thought Tolstoy and various other bigwigs were something I needed to accomplish in order to be considered a Real Reader -- naturally, it was a disaster because books then became a massive and daunting chore; I couldn't finish Notes from Underground because, in reality, I wasn't ready for it -- I just wanted to tick it off a list. What I needed, and what my library allowed me to discover, were books that weren’t necessarily on those lists but that stayed with me and influenced the literature I did eventually discover: because of my library I found Helen Simpson, Ali Smith and Jenny Offill which is probably the only reason I gave up those lists and finally allowed myself to read what I wanted, when I wanted; it wasn’t the time for Notes from Underground, but it was the time to read the slim little Turgenev I found wedged on the Classics shelf and fell in love with. The first books that I ended up being challenged by were not the Big Books I always thought I had to tackle but rather things like Books Burn Badly or A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing which I never would have read otherwise. It’s because of my library that I found Mihail Sebastian, Andrés Neuman, and Tomas Tranströmer. It’s why I read Mrs Dalloway as early as I did -- because the book was there. The only reason I ended up finding Adonis (and subsequently, any of his other works as well as Mattawa’s) was because my library had him on their Poetry shelf. I very rarely actually bought books for the longest time because 90% of what I read was through my library, which I know is an insanely lucky position to be in; I lived in a well connected enough area to be able to find most of the books I was looking for (and even if they weren’t in my county, I could order them in from others easily enough).

And I think the exact same kind of unexpected but striking discoveries applies to bookstores (secondhand and independent ones especially, and I love them more for this very reason) -- again, I don’t know what you and your sister have available near you, but if you have the means to visit them then I genuinely can’t overstate how important they are, not only because of what you can find on their shelves but also because of what you can learn by forging a relationship and talking to the staff, or simply the comfort of having an emotional tie to some aspect of the community you live in. I’ve found books because the shops I love posted about a reading or book signing, or because looking up an author on their website led to suggestions I’d never even heard of but was endlessly thankful for. For me, even for all that my brain hops back and forth like a deranged little magpie hoarding new titles, the most important avenues for finding authors or works happens between titles given to me by those I’m closest to, and the places where the books are physically there. I can have a book in my head for months or even years but it’s seeing it in the bargain bin or in the middle of a precarious pile of faded spines in a secondhand bookshop that makes me bring it home, if that makes sense. This is not to detract from any of the other sources above because I understand that this is a somewhat privileged place to speak from and relies a lot, not just financially but also locally on where you are and what you have access to. But if there are local bookshops, or even just ones a short while away from you then I really think you will get so much from visiting them or placing your orders with them when you do discover new titles that have caught you, however that comes about.

In any case, this has gotten a lot lengthier than I intended, but I hope some if it has helped even just a little bit. Happy reading and (hopefully!) happy future discoveries to you and your sister xx

#ask #anonymous #book talks #beginner guides

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concerningwolves · 2 years

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Hello

Just wondering if you have any book recommendations?

What's your favourite books?

Oohh *rubs hands* I'm never really sure where to start with book recommendations, but I can certainly recommend in the sense of "here are my favourite books" (●'◡'●) So —

here are ten of my favourite books / books that have left a deep and significant impression on me.

(all links are to the book's storygraph page. Series will link to the first book)

▶ The Stormlight Archive (series) by Brandon Sanderson. It starts with a soldier-turned-slave who struggles to protect those he loves when he and his friends are treated as nothing more than bait in a war; a young noblewoman from a backwater House who sets out to save her impoverished family via a daring heist; and a general who is being plagued by visions during storms, in a world where visions and seeing the future are extraordinarily taboo. It expands into an epic fantasy series that world-builds like science fiction, and puts a lot of care and time into character-driven plot arcs.

I'm particularly enamoured with TSA because of its meaningful (and sensitively handled!) explorations of trauma, recovery and mental illness; and also because the worldbuilding is so damn cool. [CW for alcoholism and addiction, mental illness (including POV characters with psychosis and PTSD), and violence.]

▶ The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky. An adult historical fantasy that explores the clash between Norse and Inuit mythology, based on the plausible idea that early Greenlandic settlers and Inuit peoples could have crossed paths. The story follows Omat, a young woman raised as a man for most of her life, touched by the spirits and watched by the gods of both the Inuit and the Norse since before her birth. It's a slow-paced, meandering story which focuses on character growth, finally coming to an emotionally fraught and explosive (but very satisfying!) climax. [Major CW for rape, threat of sexual violence, and graphic violence.]

▶ The Unwind Dystology (series) by Neal Shusterman. YA dystopia. [Disclaimer that I've only read the first book so far – I fully intend to go back to the series, but the first book had a nice conclusion on its own, so I left it there for the time being]. Unwind is set in a not-to-distant future where, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, children can be "unwound". This is really a very polite way of saying "being taken apart so that every single part of their body is donated to someone else, but it isn't TECHNICALLY murder because they live on :)". The story follows three teenagers who've been condemned as Unwinds for various reasons, on the run and searching for a place where they can be safe. It's tense, gritty and fast-paced, and I devoured it in about two days.

▶ Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Adult urban fantasy. A man called Richard meets a young woman called Door, and is promptly embroiled in the bizarreness of a world beneath London where Tube stations, landmarks and urban myths are personified in surreal and creative ways. A world that belongs to all the people who have fallen through the cracks of "normal" life.

This is the book that catapulted me into being a Neil Gaiman fan and I periodically come back to reread it. I can't be in London without making at least a dozen references to Neverwhere and I wouldn't have it any other way.

▶ The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. YA Contemporary fiction. “Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.”

Perks is one of those books I deeply adore, but can't really say why. The catharsis, maybe? The deep relatability of feeling Other and being unsure why? Really I can best describe my feelings towards it as "unexpectedly comforting comfort blanket". That said, CW for child sexual abuse, alcoholism, homophobia and drug use, because it does go dark and go hard.

▶ The Girl with all the Gifts by M. R. Carey. Adult post-apocalyptic thriller. A cordyceps fungus has evolved to infect humans, reducing those infected into mindless, ravenous creatures called "hungries". The only hope for a cure lies in a group of strange children who, although infected, have somehow retained their mental capacity. When the military installation where they're being kept finally falls, one of these children, Melanie, sets out in a journey for answers across the ravaged nation.

When I say this book absolutely blew my mind, I mean that it blew my mind. It was first recommended to me on the basis that it is thematically similar to the game The Last of Us, which it is! But it also goes in some new and highly unexpected directions that thrilled me to the core. I didn't enjoy the sequel (The Boy on the Bridge) much, but Gifts is very strong as a standalone so that doesn't bother me.

▶ If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio. Adult dark academia/thriller. A close-knit group of drama students are put under pressure when one of their number is found dead. It's told from the point of view of Oliver, who admitted to being guilty for the murder and has just been released from prison. What unfolds is a story about rivalry, yearning, unrequited love and what it means to be a villain.

I picked this book as my work of fiction to study for my A Level coursework, which was all about the nature of heroism/villainy, and how language is used to create and represent these ideals. I find it hard to talk about without spoiling because I literally ate, breathed and slept this book for months, but it's just... there's queerness, and Shakespeare, and examinations of what happens when young people are put into very isolated social groups and told to become the roles they play on stage. CW for drug use, alcoholism, and a couple of instances of homophobia.

▶ The Humans by Matt Haig. Adult Sci-Fi. When a professor solves an extremely advanced mathematical riddle, an alien is sent to earth to remove him. This alien then inserts itself into the professor's life. Unfortunately, the alien hates every single person on planet earth except Newton the dog. Well, he hates everyone until he discovers a love for peanut butter sandwiches, Emily Dickinson, Debussy and, unexpectedly, the humans themselves.

This book is. It's peak comfort read. Just.. a warm, fuzzy blanket. Matt Haig began writing after his severe struggles with depression (which he speaks about very frankly in the end note), and in many ways the "alien is stuck living a human life that he finds repulsive" is very much a metaphor for depression. But it's also just a book about an alien trying to be human. It's funny, witty, and heart-achingly tender. Simply delightful.

▶ The Bone People by Keri Hulme. Adult magical realism. An isolated artist who lives in a tower in New Zealand finds an odd kind of friendship with Simon, a boy who tries to steal from her, and Simon's adoptive father.

I've been meaning to get a new copy to re-read because my copy fell apart while I was reading it. That was over five years ago, and it still lives rent-free in the back of my head. This book absolutely revolutionised my idea of what a story could be! It's a romance without being about romance, a mystery without being a mystery, and genuinely so hard to define in a particular genre. Which is very much the point! There's a lot about Maori culture and heritage, the influence of European settlers, sexuality and gender, and the kinship found between lonely and estranged people. The main character, Kerewin Holmes, is asexual and aromantic; I'm pretty sure that the boy, Simon, is non-verbal autistic; and his adoptive father, Simon, is (I think?) bisexual. Fair warning that the book does portray an abusive relationship between Joe and Simon as a core of the story and it's very dark in places, so CW for domestic abuse, ableism, bigotry, racism and homophobia.

▶ Of Bees and Mists by Erick Setiawan. Adult magical realism. A story about three generations of women living in a town where magic blends with everyday life in subtle, yet bizarre, ways. Meridia's home has always been lonely and cold, surrounded by a mist created by her parents' relationship. At sixteen, she escapes to marry the man she loves – and finds a new, equally insidious darkness in Daniel's home.

It's been ... I don't know, six years? Seven? Since I read this book. It was my first dip into magical realism and really opened my eyes to the possibilities presented by the fantasy genre. I'd never read anything like it, and I think it's really influenced the way I describe and write magic in my own stories. I can't remember it well enough for all the content warnings, but definitely CW for mentions of rape/dubious consent.

#book recs

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tomatograter · 3 years

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i saw on twitter you reread the epilogues! would it be okay to ask how you feel about them now on a reread? have any of your opinions changed, for better or worse? i've really loved the art and analysis that's come out of your tumblr/twitter ever since they dropped, so i'm excited to know what you think. i couldn't get a great read on your feelings based on your tweets so that is why i am asking directly, hope that's okay!

Not much changed. That wasn't the first time I attempted to re-read the HS Epilogues, I've gone through bits and pieces of them a handful of times in the years since the original release and it's an effort I make to remind myself of events that happened because I tend to... forget. I don't mind reading books, I like those! In the hellscape that was 2020, according to my StoryGraph stats (great new site, by the way, stop using the Amazon-clawed Goodreads and transfer your account to a black led effort to diversify the current literary environment) I managed to read about 22 new books. Not too shabby for a total dumbass. The problem isn't that it was text-only, they just sort of mush together as a nondescript mass in my brain given enough time.

The first time I finished the epilogues, I said they felt like a purposefully unfinished text, but one at odds with itself (though in much more undercooked words, as I had just spent the last 2 days busy reading it) and it's an impression that has deepened since.

I do not mean anything like "Meat contradicts Candy" with this, that'd be foolish; the dissonance is the fucking point. I know how dubiously canon alternate universes work and I *enjoy* them, otherwise I wouldn't have wasted years in the circus ring that is accompanying Big 2 Comics in the hopes they'd do anything genuinely cool with that concept. Instead, I find there is a general problem in terms of internal cohesion. The Epilogues want to be a lot of things at once, be it a continuation, an expulsion, a deliberate attempt at public scorn, a somewhat genuine play in heartfelt analysis, a reinvention of what came before, or a loaded gun pointed straight at one's own foot. And in the process, they end up undermining the impact of their own strongest moments.

I don't like the Epilogues. Their lukewarm indecisiveness makes for a poor reading experience that needs far more asides, warnings and 'before you read it-'s than the book is worth. It is a text with a particularly distasteful, juvenile fixation in the show and repeated humiliation of sexual abuse victims, and manages to be more regressive about its female characters and what roles they're allowed to play than Homestuck, the 2009 Comic, ever was. And that was disappointing. It's as if the coming of adulthood must sort them into one of two categories: "wanted, desirable" woman or "unwanted, undesirable" woman. It also interacts with trans women in a really shitty way. It is a text married to traditional white-centric politics that makes an attempt to challenge them from that same perspective but falls flat on its face by pulling big moves like "making the alien-Hitler analogue character fight for a rebellion meant to represent racial liberation" and other unsavory choices. But I don't need to like the Epilogues to acknowledge them as both a text that exists and works within a shared universe.

They're pretty fertile ground for dissection and analysis. I think it's interesting how they accentuate some of the worst facets of the HS "canon"/"lore" by being incredibly blatant about their connection to stuff like the Skaianet archives, how they play with Fanservice and Fan Expectation by dedicating so much time to solving or sinking ‘The Davekat Equation’, and how they elaborate on complex facets of old characters. It's a text that acknowledges the existence of fanfiction and popular fanworks on a direct quotable basis (like "Can't sleep without holding onto a motherfucker" of 4Chords fame) as well as Fan Movements that preceded it (the also Gamzee-based "Free the clown!" Rush from 2016) it's intrinsically interactive, and that's not something you can say about a lot of media. The olive branch beckons.

I don't recommend the Epilogues. To me, the Epilogues portray glimpses of two potential, but not absolute, futures soaked in limiting metadoomer pessimism, best appreciated as "what-if" tales taking on the questions of serialization, post-myth, the self-cannibalistic nature of franchises, the abstractness of Canon, the absurdity of fanon, and why fascists like milk. The Epilogues are also not going to magically disappear or un-exist from our collective recollection anytime soon, or… ever. These statements coexist.

I think complex feelings towards media are best put to use in the making of your own art, which is unsurprising, given the fact I'm an artist and a fag, & I've personally enjoyed creating things that interact and rebuke aspects of that text. I've also been graced with the existence of wonderful art from others doing the same, may that be in the form of illustrations, written epics, analyses, comics, videos, songs, the collective transgendering of the series' main character, and all sorts of harder-to-categorize community creations. You can make the best of it. That's my favorite part of the whole ordeal, and one I don't regret one bit.

I hope this is an appropriately satisfying answer on this subject, and if it isn't, well, here's the thing; you can write a better one.

#homestuck #meta #the homestuck epilogues

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