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#marya morevna: general
readerbookclub · 7 months
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Hello everyone, it's time for a new book list! This month, I've made a list of books inspired by folklore. Hope you enjoy! I tried to include stories from different countries and cultures. As always, please be sure to vote using the link at the end of the post :)
Onto the books...
Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
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The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.
Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.
Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente
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Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.
Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.
Things in Jars, by Jess Kidd
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Bridie Devine, female detective extraordinaire, is confronted with the most baffling puzzle yet: the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick, and a peculiar child whose reputed supernatural powers have captured the unwanted attention of collectors trading curiosities in this age of discovery.
Winding her way through the labyrinthine, sooty streets of Victorian London, Bridie won’t rest until she finds the young girl, even if it means unearthing a past that she’d rather keep buried. Luckily, her search is aided by an enchanting cast of characters, including a seven-foot tall housemaid; a melancholic, tattoo-covered ghost; and an avuncular apothecary. But secrets abound in this foggy underworld where spectacle is king and nothing is quite what it seems.
Blending darkness and light, history and folklore, Things in Jars is a spellbinding Gothic mystery that collapses the boundary between fact and fairy tale to stunning effect and explores what it means to be human in inhumane times.
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold - by Bolu Babalola
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A high-born Nigerian goddess, who has been beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover, longs to be truly seen.
A young businesswoman attempts a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life.
A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether she should uphold her family’s politics or be true to her heart.
In her debut collection, internationally acclaimed writer Bolu Babalola retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with incredible new detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East, and stories from long-erased places.
With an eye towards decolonizing tropes inherent in our favorite tales of love, Babalola has created captivating stories that traverse across perspectives, continents, and genres.
A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark
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Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.
So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.
Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city -or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…
Please vote for our next book here.
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dreamsatdusk · 9 months
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Hmm for the ask game how about 1, 2, and 20? And also I see Alexander the Great mentioned in your bio. Can I ask why? :)
Apologies, missed this one earlier! Thank you for the ask!
book you’ve reread the most times?
Probably either The Black Company, by Glen Cook or Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. I've also ready Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle at least a few times. As a kid, I probably reread The Boxcar Children the most.
2. top 5 books of all time?
I couldn't decide even sort of, so this turned into a selection of favs that I think are rather different from each other.
The Phantom Tollbooth; Norton Juster: Disillusioned kid finds a toy tollbooth setup has appeared in his room, builds it, drives his toy car through...and winds up in The Lands Beyond! It is extremely weird in a very matter of fact sort of way that I adore in books to this day. I was particularly amused by the wordplay and such even as a kid.
Machineries of Empire; Yoon Ha Lee: Okay that's a trilogy and a short story book all together, so I suppose I will say Ninefox Gambit is my favourite of them all, but there's so many key points in the other books too, so! The consciousness of an undead general is installed into the head of a soldier chosen to defend against a rebellion opposed to the dystopian space empire she lives in. It is far far more complex than that little description makes it seem. One of the books where my mind latched on at high speed and very intensely to a particular character (Jedao).
Deathless; Cathrynne Valente: A retelling of The Death of Koschei the Deathless, but set during and after the Russian Revolution. It follows the life of Marya Morevna, Koschei's chosen bride. Another one that is complicated to try to explain, because there is an immense amount going on. I suspect it might be easier to follow if you know at least a bit about the relevant faerie tales and Soviet Union history, but I've heard that even people without that backgound enjoyed it.
The Etched City; K.J. Bishop: Beautiful and utterly bizarre. I'm not sure how to describe the plot. It starts out with two...hmm, friends? war buddies? who are ex-soldiers and on the search for a new home after being on the losing side of a civil war. They resettle in a city with very peculiar stuff going on. Steampunkish in a way. Wikipedia informs me it's considered part of the 'New Weird' genre, so I should look into that and see what else is on that list.
The Lord of the Rings; J.R.R. Tolkien: I really loved LotR when I read it as a child, but then I also got into the History of Middle Earth collection and it's fascinating how much work went into all of it, how much the story (and that of the Silmarilion) changed as they were shaped. And then there's also hilarious things like the proto-versions of the 4 hobbits having a debate about eating dinner on the second floor of a house and throwing the (wooden) plates out into the front yard and never cutting the grasss so you can't see them.... This is all so you needn't bother carrying the dirty dishes DOWN the stairs mind you.
20. what are things you look for in a book?
I tend to be put off by overly simplistic use of language. Not always, but there have been cases where something was really bothering me about a book here or there and I figured out that's what was up.
Characters that interest me. This doesn't mean they have to be 'nice' or 'good' characters, but someone needs to interest me somehow. I've found it a struggle more than once to stay engaged with a book where I get to the point of just not caring what happens to anyone in it. Again, not a hard rule, but one that has recurred more than once.
Vivid descriptions that paint a strong picture in my mind are a delight, but yet again, not a dealbreaker. (One of my favourite authors actually sucks at this*L* I think we were 7 or more books into a series before the narrator of the first 3 books was ever actually described at all?)
Strong worldbuilding, moral complexities, a sense of epicness - all further interests. And I have to admit, I have a soft spot for eccentric military geniuses.
Alexander the Great
Bonus round! Alexander has been one of my historical interests for a long time and I have two shelves of books about him and related topics (e.g., the Successors to his empire, a book about his mother, one about his grandmother, etc.) I'd almost forgotten I put something in profile notes. I think I did so when I was trying to come up with some stuff to mention as interests, like fandoms and such.
In the spirit of the book ask theme, I will recommend A Very Short Introduction to Alexander the Great by Hugh Bowden as, indeed, a good short intro. It's solid and detailed in spite of its brevity, but it also included some information that some older books about Alexander have ignored in my experience, so I found it an enjoyable read even beyond my original objective (which was to find out if it was actually a good intro book to suggest to people who asked).
Thank you!
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coquette-club · 2 years
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Deathless
Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century. Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation
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a-koschyei · 11 months
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men in general like to win ♔. from the hoard : 𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶𝔞 𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔢𝔳𝔫𝔞 ( @voivoditsa ) , accepting
the first light of dawn splits between them like a sickle. casts a red sheen over a battlefield, ripe for another day's slaughter. but the armies at their backs still hold their first breath for the promise of a truce. he indulges the pantomime, meeting her at the navel of the field on his golden horse, but neither one dares be the first to expose a belly. and this is how a peace talk turns into wolf-speak. intimidations and posturing that lead to nowhere but an unbridgeable impasse:
❛❛ men in general tend to lose. ❜❜ is that not what she means to suggest? is that not what he'd come to learn? all these years spent watching them rise into power and collapse like transitory stars. ❛❛ but i am more than just a man. ❜❜ and his soldiers, all strange of gait and temper, who looked like men, but bled of sap, pond scum, grains of barley & rye -- they, too, were more than just soldiers. but not deathless.
❛❛ i'll admit, your cunning in battle has been admirable. . . your stubbornness to see the effort as fraught, however, wears my patience, marya morevna. ❜❜ a name that laces the mouth with water. with blood. a name spoken with a hunger for worship. for someone to burn. ❛❛ my offer remains the same: yield your kingdom to me, and you may keep your head. marry me, and you may keep your crown. that is how we both win. ❜❜
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vesperlionheart · 5 years
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There is a rich tradition in fairytales of making the girl/woman the one who goes out on the quest to save her lover, her friend, her husband, or her feathery brothers from something greater than herself, aided by crafty wise women in the woods and talking animals, or in spite of them. The more I read the more I wonder why we’ve forgotten their courage and turned the term ‘fairytale’ into something silly and childish that often ends in a ball gown with glass slippers and a neat happy ever after.
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melnchly-a · 4 years
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@misbehavc​ (MARYA!) said:  Men die. It’s practically what they’re for. to LEBEDEVA!
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           “well yes, darling,” says lebed, who has seen so many years of men come and go, live and die, that some of them have bled one into another of them: shepherds and clerks and kings and princes. their land has always kept going, fighting on. they pass house after house as they walk, houses of skin and hair that shiver as they pass: marya and lebed, one with hair as dark as midnight, the other’s moon-pale. “but most of them live first, and what a charming time can be had with them, then!” she sighs, looping her arms through marya’s, the rose-pink blush of her cheeks blending gradually into the garnet shades shimmering around her eyes. all to compliment her latest dress of ruby-red, all to make her feel her own power, all to catch certain eyes. (and, in part, to complement marya herself, who lebedeva has always thought looked so charming with the reddest gems in her hair, like little drops of blood caught up in crystal.) “but tell me, marya, where has this thought come from? mortal men living and dying - - - what has that to do with you?” 
DEATHLESS: ACCEPTING
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dwellordream · 3 years
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because i wanted to drop some expanded folklore/retelling/alternate interpretation recommendations:
the mere wife by maria dahvana headley: inspired by the epic Beowulf, the mere wife centers around dana, a traumatized young veteran who returns to her rapidly gentrifying mining home town to raise her son gren. mistrustful of society and humanity in general and terrified of losing gren, dana raises him in near total isolation in the mountains bordering herot hall, the first of many shining new suburban expansions.
as gren grows, he becomes curious about the world outside their cave dwelling and eventually befriends dylan, the troubled son of willa, a neurotic socialite with her own baggage. gren and dylan’s unlikely friendship becomes an increasing risk as they age into teenagers, as gren is everything the pampered, bigoted and fearful residents of herot hall have trained themselves to hate.
the mere wife is an extremely compelling tale of two scarred mothers as it switches perspectives between the privileged and dissonant willa and the hardened but loving dana, both of whom are trying to protect their children from the abuse and trauma they suffered as they grew into adulthood.
also a pretty searing look at police violence, the intersection of racism, classism, and homophobia, and the military industrial complex’s exploitation of impoverished black and brown youth to fight its wars.
i, tituba: black witch of salem by maryse condé: i, tituba is a satirical in one sense but deadly serious in another take on tituba, the slave accused of spreading witchcraft to the young puritan girls of salem.
it tells the epic life story of tituba, from her conception aboard a slave ship headed to the caribbean to her childhood as an orphan raised by her foster mother mama yaya, who teaches her the power of healing and communion with the dead.
while tituba grows up technically a free woman, living in the shadow of the plantations but without an owner, she willingly enters slavery again to be with her beloved john indian, and winds up sold to the cruel and tyrannical reverend samuel parris and transported to boston and then salem massachusetts alongside his terrified family.
i tituba systematically unpacks ‘the protestant work ethic’ of the ‘upright and noble pilgrims’ who carved out their existence on the backs of the enslaved and the indigenous population.
tituba suffers just about every abuse and humiliation imaginable but refuses to allow herself to be dissuaded from practicing her own spiritual practices and actively seeks to show compassion and care towards her captors, despite it repeatedly backfiring.
ultimately she survives the witch trials and finds herself back in barbados, where her final fate as a devoted rebel against the plantation system that killed her parents awaits.
the bloody chamber by angela carter: probably carter’s most well known and popular set of short stories, the bloody chamber is a series of original takes on the most gothic and disturbing of european folklore, from bluebeard and his murdered brides to beauty and the beast to all sorts of werewolf and vampire mythos.
carter’s language is as lush and purple prosey as ever, and she vividly paints a series of terrifying and alluring pictures of decrepit castles and manor houses, unhinged inbred aristocrats preying on the peasantry, vampiric maidens and girls raised by wolves, men turned into beasts and beasts turned into men, and lots of sex, gore, ghostly music, and rustling taffeta.
deathless by catherynne m. valente: yes, endlesssly overhyped by tumblr but still a very compelling take on the russian folklore of koschei the deathless and his mortal turned goddess bride, marya morevna, this time set in parallel with the unfolding of russian history in the 20th century.
valente gives an absolutely merciless look at the spiteful and selfish whims of gods and what it means to give up your humanity for love, as well as a tortured narrative surrounding power and control in intimate relationships and questions of gender roles and sexuality.
deathless is probably a most capital R Romantic romance, mostly because both marya and koschei have heaps of charm and beauty and passion... and heaps of obsession, jealous violence, and power hungry ambition.
wide sargasso sea by jean rhys: should be required reading for everyone who has devoured Jane Eyre, rhys’ novella tells the take of the reviled and scorned first wife of rochester.
born to a plantation owning family whose fortunes are crushed when the british empire bans slavery, antoinette grows up a lonely and emotional child, rejected by her grieving and closed off mother and longing for a family and place in the world.
as a young woman her stepfather arranges her marriage to rochester, who wants what’s left of her inheritance, and antoinette finds herself caught between her island home where she is still seen as the hated daughter of slave holders, and england, where she is seen as an impure creole woman who will never be able to conform to victorian propriety.
although initially hopeful of a loving marriage, antoinette quickly realizes that rochester’s passion for her is propelled by fear and insecurity, which quickly makes itself known as he turns against her, labeling her ‘bertha’ after her ‘insane’ mother and treating her as a mentally unstable invalid and then as little more than a prisoner.
lovecraft country by matt ruff: lovecraft country both skewers and embraces the eldritch abominations of hp lovecraft, and tackles his own inhuman racism head on, through the perspectives of the courageous and clever atticus turner and his eccentric and loyal extended family. their adventures take them all over america and into a series of increasingly horrifying encounters with cults, monsters, and white supremacy - sometimes all three at once.
circe by madeleine miller: not nearly as discussed as its predecessor The Song of Achilles, Circe tells the story of Circe, daughter of the arrogant sun god Helios and by some accounts, the ‘first’ witch and sorceress to walk the earth.
exiled to her own desolate island kingdom after defying the gods, Circe becomes a powerful and infamous enchantress, painted as a villain while the gods, who amuse themselves by tormenting and impulsively rewarding men in turn, are honored and venerated. circe quickly realizes her growing powers make her a threat to mortals and gods alike, and must decide what her legacy will be and if she cares at all.
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oficmag · 2 years
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Book Rec: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
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Medium: Novel
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Tags/Content Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence and War, Russian Folklore, Romance, BDSM Overtones, Unhealthy/Obsessive Relationship Dynamics, Love Triangle, Magic, Period-Typical Sexism
If you were on Tumblr in 2012, you probably heard of this book, if not directly, then from quotes beneath picspams and gifsets. Deathless is a retelling of the myth of Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna from Russian folklore set in 1900s Russia. Following the path of Marya Morevna, a young woman who becomes aware of the magic of the world at a young age, this book is beautifully written and contains imagery that I’ve been thinking about ever since I read it for the first time almost ten years ago. 
At first, this novel follows the contours of a typical fairytale: Marya is whisked away from her normal life to join Koschei in his mystical world where he, as the Tsar of Life, is fighting a war against the Tsar of Death. Valente’s approach to the fairytale is simultaneously weird, whimsical, dark, and tongue-and-cheek. Marya’s friends take the form of talking guns, flirtatious tree-men, and glamorous witches. She has run-ins with a very fun (and evil) depiction of Baba Yaga and helps Koschei fight his war against the Tsar of Death as one of his best generals. But what I love most about this book is its depiction of the relationship between Koschei and Marya (and, later, Ivan, the human man who has been ordained by the folktale to take Marya away from Koschei). This book is deeply interested in fate, cycles, and how the stories we tell affect our lives. Also, if you’re a melodramatic romantic like me, literally everything Koschei says to Marya is the kind of stuff you want to get tattooed on your body.
You can find this book here.
Recommender: Hannah L. | Fiction Editor
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dimitresca · 2 years
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head empty thinking about deathless quotes and how alcina’s whole vibe fits fairytale aesthetics so well. better even than the scifi of resident evil generally. examples under the cut but ... if you wanna do fairytale or magic au stuff send me a dm eye.png  i have about a million quotes from deathless by catherynne m valente beneath the cut bc they Inspire me and i wanna do more witchy stuff.
“Magic does that. It wastes you away. Once it grips you by the ear, the real world gets quieter and quieter, until you can hardly hear it at all.” im crying bout this line... constantly.......... its so good. the addictiveness of magic send help rip. the way it seems fun and exciting and quick and easy. until u are waking up as a nine foot human experiment.   “Oh, I will be cruel to you, Marya Morevna. It will stop your breath, how cruel I can be. But you understand, don’t you? You are clever enough. I am a demanding creature. I am selfish and cruel and extremely unreasonable. But I am your servant. When you starve I will feed you; when you are sick I will tend you. I crawl at your feet; for before your love, your kisses, I am debased. For you alone I will be weak.” ok but the above.... mirancina vibes . or just anyone powerful To alcina. i dont think she has the Inner Peace or Angst to ever say this but i love it anyway.  “That's how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you'd have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.” thinkin. . . about the cult and the roles they played out for decades on decades on decades on decades “I do not tolerate a world emptied of you. I have tried. For a year I have called every black tree Marya Morevna; I have looked for your face in the patterns of the ice. In the dark, I have pored over the loss of you like pale gold.” this one WOULD be something alcina could say.
“Lebedeva’s eyes shone. “Masha, listen to me. Cosmetics are an extension of the will. Why do you think all men paint themselves when they go to fight? When I paint my eyes to match my soup, it is not because I have nothing better to do than worry over trifles. It says, I belong here, and you will not deny me. When I streak my lips red as foxgloves, I say, Come here, male. I am your mate, and you will not deny me. When I pinch my cheeks and dust them with mother-of-pearl, I say, Death, keep off, I am your enemy, and you will not deny me. I say these things, and the world listens, Masha. Because my magic is as strong as an arm. I am never denied.” and this would be alcina to her daughters. ugh i love madame lebedeva. “But her heart was so cold that she could hold ice in her mouth and it would never melt.” : /  “A marriage is a private thing. It has its own wild laws, and secret histories, and savage acts, and what passes between married people is incomprehensible to outsiders. We look terrible to you, and severe, and you see our blood flying, but what we carry between us is hard-won, and we made it just as we wished it to be, just the color, just the shape.” “How I adore you, Marya. How well I chose. Scold me; deny me. Tell me you want what you want and damn me forever. But don’t leave me.” “I savor bitterness - it is born of experience. It is the privilege of one who has truly lived.” “You will live as you live anywhere. With difficulty, and grief. Yes, you are dead. And I and my family and everyone, always, forever. All dead, like stones. But what does it matter? You still have to go to work in the morning. You still have to live.” “Oh, quit that. Blushing is for virgins and Christians.” @ donna “Men die. It's practically what they're for.”
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vidalinav · 2 years
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Sjm better make nesta a queen,if i have to go through the series i deserve that.
I personally think the same. I just want her to be something else but a general. I did not just go through a whole ass series where she's referred to "queenly" and "other" every other page, have her hold onto the idea that she didn't want to fight, have her get ultimate power by herself without training!!!!! Only to become a warrior and that is all.
Like sorry, I'm not in the business of finding women taking on the roles of their spouses as something that's new and fascinating. I don't care how many people say Feyre is a high lady and does that job well and accurately, like... no. There's several points that say the opposite, no matter the intention. So am I going to believe that Nesta is just going to miraculously be a fantastic general and that's whole-heartedly what she was meant for?
HA HA HA no.
HOWEVER, if this is potentially a set up for making Nesta the Marya Morevna character then I’d be okay with this. 
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WHERE RUN THE DEATHLESS WOLVES ↳ A WIP INTRO BY @SPRIGOFBASIL
graphics by the amazing @moariin !
"Why have you come here, Ivan Tsarevich?" 
"That's not my name," he forced out, the words catching and dragging sharp in his throat. 
She bared her teeth in a grin. "You're the son of a tsar, aren't you? In the end, that's all that matters."
GENRE: YA Fantasy, Slavic Fairytale Retelling
TYPE: Standalone (for now)
POV: Past, dual POV (third-person limited)
STATUS: Outlining
THEMES/TROPES: Fairytale logic; sword lesbians; curses and retribution; the loneliness of immortality; sibling rivalries; wars of succession; himbo and the beast; the hollow ringing of revenge
FAIRYTALES: Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf; The Death of Koschei the Deathless; Vasilisa the Beautiful
SUMMARY: 
A self-avowed tsar lies on his deathbed, his crown threatening to shatter between three pairs of unfit hands. The throne will fall to the most deserving son, the one to catch the mythical firebird, and born under the shadow of his two brothers, Ivan Petrovich vows that it will be him.
Meanwhile in the far north, the motherless Vasilisa Evgenievna has always been fated for something more. She has the gift, they say, though she can’t help but wonder for what. Her city is dying, rotting from the inside out decades after its light has begun to flicker, and to save it, Vasilisa is soon saddled with a purpose greater than herself: bring back the heart of a firebird.
Taking the path of greater resistance, Ivan finds himself at the mercy of a great beast in a wolf’s skin, its secrets buried deep within its long-crumbling castle. Meanwhile, Vasilisa’s quest brings her to a hut on chicken legs, her life now in the balance of three impossible tasks. Between them, a thread of malachite through a needle. 
But myths borne by flame do not make for easy prey, and the clever, foolish hunter is no better than the hunted.
CHARACTERS:
Ivan Petrovich Voronin  |  the third son, the soft-hearted prince who can’t help but want for more. Handsome and charismatic, but too honest to bear the crown he knows that he doesn’t truly want.
Vasilisa Evgenievna Lebedeva  |  the beautiful, with the name of heroines of old. Meant for greatness, the shadowed weight of her own purpose lies heavy on her shoulders despite her quest for light.
Galina Bogdanovna  |  the foundling, with no family nor hopes beyond her self-imposed debt. Her own hand grasps a glass hammer over her heart, ready to give it away to anyone who asks.
↳ Marya Morevna  |  of broken promises
↳ Koschei Bessmertny  |  in the eye of a needle
↳ Baba Yaga  |  of bone-legged sorcery
↳ Mistress of the Copper Mountain  |  from malachite
LINKS: wip page | main tag
tag list under cut (send an ask/dm to be +/-!):
One-time tag of some moots who might be interested! @tsainami @vitrichor @atelierwriting @scaevolawrites @incipientdream
General tag list: @bookism @problematicallybored @adaparkwrites @citrinus @harrowingwords @elaichichais @sondials @bijouxs @nikolae @endymions @cometworks
WRTDW tag list (except for reni bc i already tagged her for the god-tier edits): @serpentarii @bulletgirl @sidhewrites
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ash-and-books · 2 years
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Rating: 4/5
Book Blurb: Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century. Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.
Review:
A new spin on a russian folklore with magical history, revolution, mythology, romance, power... This story follows Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna, Koschei is an ancient figure, he hides his death and is in the middle of a war. Marya is his new wife and between them there is power play, bdsm, romance, cruelty, wickedness, love... Marya is clever, cruel, and the perfect match for someone who wants someone just as clever and cruel as they are. Marya and Koschei are equals in their marriage but that all comes down when his death is approaching and Ivan comes. This is a bit of an odd story to be honest. It’s got the folklore/mythology aspect mixed in with more magical history and actual history. It’s an odd read, it definitely left me feeling a bit odd. The writing is gorgeous, no doubt about it but the overall story line and characters were just. huh. I don’t know how I feel about the ending particularly, it’s open ended and I definitely wish there was a bit more closure. The plot seems to switch gears towards the 60% mark and the story feels different.... though I preferred the start of the story more so than the later. Overall, definitely an interesting read if you like magical history and folklore reimaginings. 
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hrbumga · 4 years
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Review: Deathless, Cathrynne M. Valente
Overall Rating: 2.5/5 stars.
This review contains heckin’ spoilers. I had about as mixed feelings as you could have about this book. On one hand, I can see where it gets it’s hype—a lot of the descriptions are beautiful, Valente manages to weave a rich tapestry of images and situations so that each page dazzles you anew. The thing is, I think I liked this book. Think. To be honest, I’m not totally sure. While rewritten fairytales for adults is a genre I’m drawn to, I think there were a lot of issues I had with this book, and furthermore some of the strangest things about Deathless actually didn’t take place within its pages at all. Let’s put a pin in that.
Structural Integrity
I can’t tell if the structure was the thing I took the most issue with, or if it was just the first thing I noticed. I’m mostly going to focus on the prologue and parts 1 and 2, since that’s where I have the issue.
The prologue opens with a boy (when I say boy I mean little kid, I think he was like 9 or 10) standing trial for not being available to fight in The War(TM). One of the people trying him is Marya Morevna, our protagonist. In a moment of kindness, she tells the boy to turn, run, and never look back, letting him escape punishment. Are we going to remember this? Of course, it’s the prologue, an introduction to the core of the story. Does it come up again? Kinda. In part 6, we loop back around to it, which makes me think part 6 should’ve been more of an epilogue to pair with the prologue.
So anyway, all we really derive from that is Marya is either a traitor to whatever war she’s a part of or is sympathetic to children. Or both. Which, okay, having a prologue mainly focused on the character we’ll be following makes sense. We either see who she is or who she was, and we get a sense that this Marya is/was a strong yet kind hearted character. Put a pin in that.
Part 1 is Marya’s upbringing, taking place either right before or during the Bolshevik Revolution. There’s a lovely, fairytale-esque portion in the beginning where as a little girl, she watches from her window as birds hop down from the tree outside, transform into handsome, wealthy men ask to marry the girl in the window and in turn, each of Marya’s three older sisters are married off. She waits for her turn and is teased by schoolmates for believing in magic. As time goes on, more families move into her cramped home for communal living and she visits the house elves that live between the walls, who tell her that Papa Koschei, the Tsar of Life (a kind of god/demigod figure in folklore from what I can gather), will come for her soon. She visits a creepy widow next door who turns out to be the Tsaritsa of the Hour who tells her pretty much the same.
Finally, on cue, a handsome young man named Koschei, who is in fact an ancient, old, old man comes to the door to take her away from this life of poverty and be his fiancée. Marya is roughly sixteen at this point. The part ends with him grooming her while spiriting her away to the magic land of Buyan. When I say grooming, I mean he’s literally taking her willpower away as though it’s an object, slowly, over time. Part 1 ends with Marya disobeying his order not to speak (literally all she says is she’s feeling a little better after being violently ill all journey) and he punishes her by biting her tongue til she bleeds.
Then part 2 kicks off! The beginning of part 2 begins with Zemlehyed the leshy and Naganya the vintovnik bickering. Classic them! Then Madame Lebedeva hops off her horse from a firebird hunt.
If you just said, “wait, back up, who are these people? What’s a leshy?” you are not alone! Oh, eventually Marya turns up too. Yeah, turns out there’s been a major time skip from the point where Marya was a starving, impoverished child to a magical being’s bride-to-be, who’s dressed in jewels and gold, has three whimsical pals that are framed as though we’ve already been endeared to them, and is super into her kinky BDSM lifestyle with her ancient groom. This transition has taken a year. Mind you, Marya isn’t just our protagonist, she’s the one the narration follows, so any internal monologue with her grappling with whateverthehell happened in that year is just something the reader doesn’t get.
Sure, her and her whimsical folktale fae friends have snappy dialogue and seem close, but we see literally nothing of how they get there. It’s a neck-snapping tonal whiplash from part 1 and frankly, had this not been a book club pick I would have DNF’d at the beginning of part 2 so quickly.
That’s a big issue I have with this. The parts don’t have much of a narrative through line, not really. The time jumps are janky and messy, we’re tossed in the deep end constantly. I think if the book had begun with part 2, I wouldn’t have minded the deep-endedness, that’s how books are at first. Have part 1 be a prologue or split up in flashbacks. But no, you read part 1, get accustomed to what the book is, and then quick as a whip you’re in a completely different novel altogether. It doesn’t read as cute or clever, but rather awkward and annoying.
While the beginning of part 2 has flimsy explanations of what leshy and vintovik are, as well as other Russian creatures and characters, it’s all missile launched at you so quickly you don’t have time to actually absorb any of it.
The Book Doesn’t Breathe
Boy howdy, for a story with Buyan, where the buildings literally have flesh and blood, it sure doesn’t leave space for air. Like I mentioned before, it often tosses unfamiliar terminology, stories, archetypes, and situations at you all at once without a moment’s notice. If the book is trying to cater to a new adult demographic in America, it doesn’t do an adequate job of hosting the reader in this new strange world. It’s a shame, really, because Valente describes things incredibly vividly and beautifully. Description in this book? Great. However, it feels as though character and plot development were sacrificed in the process. You’re yanked from one cast to the next, and Marya has very little impact on anything at all.
Okay, so, Naganya is this spunky steampunk-like troll creature. One of the main (thus, new) characters in part 2. She’s introduced as a close friend of Marya’s, which, okay. Moving on. They go on a wacky adventure! You see their relationship organically. While you’re still frustrated there was no build, you’re kinda on board. Okay, great. End of part 2? Naganya’s murdered. Slaughtered, in fact, pretty brutally. Gone, dead. Didn’t matter. Moving on to part 3’s cast!
While Naganya’s ghost is referenced and Marya’s like, “F in the chat, that was a bummer dude,” that’s about all we get. Again, there’s no insight into whether she gives a damn. She uses sentences like “I loved my friends, them being dead is a downer” but it’s extremely tell-don’t-show. The thing is, in part 3, it’s ten years later and Marya is a hardened war general in her late 20s who simply doesn’t have the time or emotional energy to deal with that stuff.
Marya, Paperdoll Protagonist
I was watching a video essay where the essayist mentioned that Disney princesses in the Disney Renaissance were passive protagonists. Even if they were the main character, the story wasn’t about their growth and development, but rather it was about them being a free spirited teen who eventually settles down with a man. The heroes get the emotional arcs, not the heroines. Nearly all princesses from this era were more just placed in a setting and waded through it as things happened around them. Flat, unchanging, stagnant, like dolls.
Marya is like that.
Our protagonist never has any agency in the book. She’s groomed as a child, pushed around by Baba Yaga in part 2, pushed around by her husbands in part 3, and so on. She literally is just rolling with the punches. At a couple points she mentions wanting to free a bunch of sweatshop workers, but the narrative doesn’t budge, but rather tells her “no,” and railroads her forward in the predestined plot line like a bad D&D Dungeon Master.
Now, real quick, I don’t necessarily think this is inherently a bad thing as a narrative. Highlighting Marya’s lack of agency could be interesting and lead to a story that’s satisfying to read. It might not be how I would want a heroine to be treated but hey, different strokes. Here’s the problem: some Russian readers and reviewers have pointed out that this is absolutely antithetical to who Marya was in original Russian folklore. She was a warrior queen. She didn’t have to beg and cajole her way to power, she had it all along. Subverting traditional fairytales is also not inherently bad, though it’s been pointed out that this subversion in particular does a disservice to the character. Not to mention that Valente isn’t Russian herself, didn’t grow up listening to these tales, but rather seems to have appropriated them for her own gain. I’m not Russian, I can’t speak to whether or not Valente mistreated original texts, but I encourage readers to look into reviews written by Russian people who’ve read and reacted to the book. (Note: in the interest of attempting to be balanced, there is a review from a Russian who really liked Valente’s treatment, so there’s also that.)
Here are some of the more critical reviews:
Nastassja’s Review
Kogiopsis’s Review (which links to a couple others as well)
Liz’s Review
Did I cherry-pick these reviews because they aligned with my feelings? Yeah, admittedly, I did, and I encourage anyone to read through all of the reviews at their leisure if they’re really interested in potentially reading, because most of the reviews are good ones.
The Diptych Conspiracy: A Space Opera
The strangest thing I found while reading Deathless actually has nothing to do with the text itself, but rather the metatextual… idk, nature? of the book. As of now, and seemingly since very early after Deathless was published in 2011, it’s been marketed as part of a series called the Leningrad Diptych.
Valente announced on her personal blog that there would be a companion book of sorts that didn’t follow the same storyline as Deathless, but was made to act as a spiritual parallel.
She announced that Deathless would have a twin, Matryoshka, which was picked up by Tor, the same publisher who published Deathless, to be released in 2015. That’s where things get sticky.
If you google “matryoshka valente,” you get a couple of hits. When you click those hits, they take you to webpages that allegedly are selling Matryoshka according to titles and headers on the page. However, the book listed was published in 2019, not 2015. And the book’s description has nothing about Russian folklore or historical fiction, but something about a metagalactic space empire. And also, the book cover says it’s called Space Opera.
???????????????????
I wasn’t alone in my confusion though, thanks to this gem of a comment on Goodreads:
Apparently, at some point, the twin in the Leningrad Diptych was listed as an entry on Goodreads at one point. It was unnamed at the time, perhaps the title wasn’t announced for publishing yet. Then, inexplicably, Valente (who is a Goodreads author and therefore is able to edit her profile and her book entries) overwrote the entry entirely. Apparently, Matryoshka has been “postponed indefinitely.” I can’t find official word on this, but nothing has been mentioned about this book since 2013, so I have to assume that’s correct.
Okay, then why overwrite the entry? Why transform Matryoshka into Space Opera, this confusing some auto-updated websites and more importantly confusing me, 7 years later, at 2am when I have COVID and can’t sleep?
I have absolutely no basis for this, but I have a theory. Valente announces Matryoshka and creates a listing on Goodreads for the upcoming book (was the book actually okayed for publishing? Could she have announced it before it was played so her following pushed the publisher into okaying it? Probably not likely and I don’t know, but that’s besides the point). Anyway, she gets all this hype up about this new book, and Goodreads users add it to their to-read lists.
Then, something happens. The book is trunked, writer’s block happens, 30-50 feral hogs destroy all the existing copies, the publisher cancels it, whatever. It’s a bummer (no, really, I know I dumped on Deathless earlier but I’d be interested in the companion novel). Life goes on, Valente writes a new novel, sci-fi this time. That’s a completely different genre though, and fans might be antsy if you announce Space Opera while Matryoshka is theoretically still on the table.
So you simply overwrite the entry. Wipe Matryoshka from Goodreads, swap it with Space Opera when no one is looking.
Now, a bunch of people have your new sci-fi book on their to-read list and are none the wiser. When the book is finally released in 2019, they all get notifications that the book they want is ready, hooray! Most don’t bat an eye, maybe reserve a copy. Some might go, “oh, I don’t remember saving this book, but here it is. And it’s an author I like, so I must’ve done it.” Plus, everyone on their friends list gets a lil nudge in their algorithms that’s like “hey, Sue marked Space Opera as want-to-read. I’ll bet you’d like it too.” Your unknown sci-fi novel is suddenly in front of a lot of eyeballs and on a lot of wishlists, while the previous book is quietly swept under the rug. Success. You never mention the other book again. Matryoshka, who?
But again, I’m looking waaaaay too far into this. As of first writing this It’s 2am, I’m on day three of COVID-aligned symptoms, still waiting for my test results which is scary, therefore I can’t sleep. Also I’m a little bored.
Anyway, Deathless was alright I guess.
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hauntedheroines · 4 years
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Could you recommend books with ships like Cardan x Jude, Darkling x Alina, Warner x Juliette and so? Thanks
Hi, anon! You’re in luck. I’m usually not much of a reader, but since quarantine I’ve catch up with lots of YA books... and realised it’s not my favorite book gener LMAO
It’s really a shame cause enemies to/as lovers has become quite popular in YA and you’ve just mention some really good examples of it (doe I must say Warner and Juliette were the only redeemable quality of the Shatter Me series). Unfortunately these are the only examples I know from YA, so all the books I’ll be mentioning here are not from this gener.
The three ships you mentioned have different dynamics, but I assume that you’re looking for a sort of empathy between enemies, something like “this person is my shadow and I’ve to become more like him in order to defeat him, or worst - I’m realising I’ve always been like him”?
There is a really well written and kink book, Deathless, where “young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing”. I stole that description from goodreads cause I couldn’t possibly explain what the book is about if I tried - just read the goodreads page, I’m not the only one. It starts out with a fairly normal amount of fantasy like Labyrinth then it gets more and more Alice in Wonderland abstract and weird. Despite all the wtf moments, it was a good wtf and it definitely left a mark. It’s not YA and it’s not enemies to lovers, but it’s unhealthy and proudly so.
Mary Reilly is the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" story as told by his housemaid. Mary is divided between her gentle employer, Dr. Jekyll, and his cruel assistant, Mr. Hyde. Both are the same man separated in two personalities by a potion. It was going to be my first recc, but you have to watch the movie before reading the book - movie has more villain/heroine juice and book has more moments between Dr. Jekyll and Mary.
Another movie/book example is The Juror. As told by imdb:
When Annie Laird is selected as a juror in a big Mafia trial, she is forced by someone known as "The Teacher" to persuade the other jurors to vote "not guilty". He threatens to kill her son if she doesn't commit. When the trial is over, he can't let her go.
Once again you should watch the movie with Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore before reading the book. I like the movie better but if you dig the ship as much as I did, the book is an indispensable reading.
I hope this helps :)
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carelessgraces · 3 years
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Repost, don’t reblog! Tag 6 muns you would like to get to know better when done!
Name: marianne Nickname: ani, mostly, but a few people have started calling me “mari” and i think that’s fucking precious  Age: 27 Faceclaim: don’t use one !!  Pronouns: she/her  Height: 5′4″  Birthday: in may! i’m a taurus sun & moon ( and leo rising )  Aesthetics: my greatest wish is to give off a “neighborhood cat lady who’s definitely a witch” vibe. so lots of very soft sweaters, a lot of black clothes, and a lot of v thick curls. i like pairing really deep red with cool blues, outside of clothing. and i’m a perpetual student so really, most academia-related aesthetics are pretty fitting.
Favourite muse(s) you’ve written: astoria, hands down; i’ve had her the longest & i love her the most. aelith tabris ( elf rogue warden ) & katheryn hawke ( rogue, purple ) are other favorites. beyond that — i had a blast writing yennefer, from the witcher, and i’m putting her on my multi.
What inspired you to take on your current muse (that you are posting this on): way back when in july 2012 i found an ad for an RPG set immediately following the second wizarding war. i joined, and astoria became a constant companion through some very tough shit, and a good way to work through some major hurt. i moved her into DA because DA is a magical setting and gets to me in ways i cannot begin to comprehend, and fully out of HP because i just. don’t really love HP the way i used to anymore.
What are your favourite aspects of your current muse: i love writing villains, and complicated heroes who make very bad choices. astoria’s closer to the former than the latter in her modern verses, and closer to the latter than the former in her DA verse. beyond that: i love that she can manage a crisis. i love that she’s always a few steps ahead of everyone else.
What’s your biggest inspiration when it comes to writing: historical influences and inspiration — anne boleyn, caterina sforza, catherine de medici. fictional influences and inspiration — marya morevna, elena gilbert, bela talbot. for a long time i built her around ophelia, but she’s evolved out of that, and i’m glad for it. i like focusing on the survival and rebuilding more than on the pain. tarot influences and inspiration — the hanged man, the moon. musical influences and inspiration — “nfwmb,” “foreigner’s god,” and “it will come back” by hozier. really, all hozier.
Favourite types of threads: in terms of setting — dragon age, hands down, it’s my favorite universe. in terms of genre — i love love love horror, but i don’t get to write too much of it here. i like high fantasy as a genre, particularly when i can fuck around with the universe. and i love romance, so shipping threads are typically my favorites. diving into politics, and letting astoria really be horrible, is a favorite. if a thread can bring me to tears, i’m thrilled. 
Biggest struggle in regards to your current muse: less an astoria struggle than a general one — there has been a recent resurgence in biphobic Discourse, recycled straight out of the nineties, and it exhausts me. i get frustrated too when writing astoria feels like a chore, because her only role in a thread or dynamic is to be an object for someone else’s character development. i don’t enjoy writing her when she isn’t allowed to be her own person, when she’s being made subject to another writer’s expectations rather than my own judgment, or when she could be replaced by literally anyone else without there being any significant change in what happens in a thread.
tagged by: @trevelyanmagic ( thank you, sweet pea !! ) tagging: if you’ve done this already, or recently, please feel free to ignore, but i’d like to learn more about everyone, especially — @soldier-of-visus / @intcable / @vinylwords / @grandtales / @mulholland / @murdcck
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vesperlionheart · 3 years
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I dunno if anyone has asked this before. But if you had to choose. What would be your top 3 BAMF female lead fairy tales?
That’s such a hard question to pin down just because I have so many favorites!
Marya Morevna from The Death of Koschei the Deathless probably owns my soul more than she should, but how can she not? She’s a war general that is first seen on the battlefield atop the corpses of her enemies. Hawt
Vasilisa, from Baba Yaga & Vasilisa the Brave is another dear soul who is brave and strong and a total BAMF in quieter ways that has survived in my heart.
The unnamed maiden from The Lindworm Prince who has to marry this monster snake prince is another BAMF, even if she never got a name. Any woman who faces a monster husband but then beats him into submission (literally) to overcome some curse has a seat at my table as well as my unwavering respect. QUEEN!
Honorable Mentions: Gerda from the Snow Queen is also fantastic in her resilience and I’ll always b in awe of her enduring bravery even if she takes a few good cries for herself.  
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