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bae-science · 3 years

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it’s t-t-t-t-time for another newt bae-science fic rec extravabonanza! same rules, same boys, same bullshit! let’s get into it:

a beginning; a second chance by @dykesword

other newt and i have a long and intricate ritualistic battle to become the alpha newt, but i gotta give credit where it’s due. if you like to annotate your books for fun, this fic will give you a looooong comment you’ll want to write, and for good reason! there’s a lot of really well done metaphor and character detail in here, while still keeping a very soft, melancholy but with a hopeful edge tone. and also, like, the care and detail in which newt’s mental state in the aftermath of the precursors’ abuse is depicted is so so good, and delightful to read

husbandly duties by @kingeiszler

i am soooo biased with this one bc technically it was made for me but GODDAMN it’s good. this shit has everything: gottlieb trio sibling dynamics, vanessa in giant femme earrings, hermann yearning, newt and karla infodumping together, newt’s terrible and accurate gaydar, gay crime, the newmann dynamic and why it works boiled down to its bare essentials, pride and prejudice glasses touch, and neon green acrylics. required reading for the vanessaverse

Say That Again by @robertfrobisherslover

WOOF. if you like mutual pining and lack of communication from men with rocks for their emotional processing centers, and guncle (gay uncle) newt and hermann and KILLER artsy sex scenes, and themes of words unsaid in a story about LANGUAGE..... oogoogogoogouhufug. the writing style is clear and well paced, i LOVE little mako’s scene she’s such a cutie, and there’s like. a line. that’s a play on the whole “it’s always been you” trope. that lives in my mind rent free forever.

speak right to my heart without saying a word by @thekaidonovskys

i’m just gonna paste the comment i left on it here, because that sums up what is so absolutely incredible about this fic the best:

so sometimes you stumble on a piece of fiction that you add to your little collection of stuff you would show a person if you wanted them to understand a part of you that you can't quite explain eloquently, or it would take too long, etc etc, and i've never really found something like that for my autism until now, which, like, poggers. and i'll be as straight up as i can while still being the biggest lesbian in the great state of ohio (not a hard feat but alan invented computers so i love continuing on the autistic tradition of being a living miracle), the chameleon effect hit me like a mack truck. catholic school in the deep south is the most potent and effective form of ABA therapy imaginable :/. so sometimes i wonder what i would be like if i didn't have such a strong ability to pass, and here's where we finally get to the part of this comment where i just vomit compliments at you: you nailed it. you got it. i don't know if you're on the spectrum, but either way, well fucking done. trauma therapy research talks a lot about healing fantasies, which are fantasies, usually in the form of daydreams, that abused/neglected/traumatized/etc people create that directly address a struggle they have and take the form of a scenario in which that struggle is helped in some way. it could be an abusive parent repenting and showering them with the love they never had, or someone finding them during a panic attack and somehow knowing how best to comfort them without having to ask, or being intimate with someone and having a scar or physical deformity they've been shamed for be given attention and care. and i think you have created the ultimate perfect healing fantasy for autistic people, or at least those with """"high functioning"""" autism. it has a character who is visibly and undeniably on the spectrum having the pain and trauma going through life like that causes being acknowledged and validated, they are purposefully paid attention to because person b genuinely likes them and wants to understand and respect who they are and how they function in the world, and thus get The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known as well as the eventual rewards of being loved, person b makes a genuine effort to help teach them social skills in a way they can understand and learn through and is there for them when these skills are being practiced, their space and boundaries are respected but they aren't infantilized or thought of as an emotionless robot, and they receive love and comfort on their own terms not despite of but because of who they are, even specifically being asked not to change the way they are because that way is lovable. they are openly desired. writing is my fucking JOB and it's still difficult to put into words how much you got 100000% right about the dream with this fic. i have been in the EXACT and i mean EXACT same situation as hermann when he asked newt if it was his personality itself that made people not like him, because i deadass made a spreadsheet of all my personality attributes i thought could be preventing me from making friends in college, and then asked my fellow nd friend to see if there was anything i was missing. so i guess what i'm trying to say is that this amazing, and i'm bookmarking it and putting it on my next fic rec post, and maybe one day way way in the future if i ever get a partner i want to explain the whole autism thing to, i'm gonna have them read this.

The Facts With Newton Geiszler, PhD by what_alchemy (NSFW)

storytime: i read this fic a few years ago, completely forgot the title and author, and ended up thinking about the part where hermann admits to having fucked a trailer hitch when he was a teenager, at least once a week. last november, i say to my friend samara on twitter, head of the BSHCU (buttslut hermann cinematic universe), hey this seems like something you’d have read, do you remember a fic where... and samara says FUCK i do know what you’re talking about lemme find it. so if the fact that i have been looking for this fic for like, two years, and that it contains a moment so iconic all i had to say is, “hermann says he fucked a trailer hitch” and she IMMEDIATELY knew what i was talking about, does not convince you to read this... go back to catholic school i guess.

Feeling Blue by TempusPetrichor

fics where newt goes back to work as a biologist, especially a xenobiologist, post pru are really interesting, and usually have something neat to say about recovery, how it isn’t linear, how it often involves us returning to things we love for comfort, etc. this one sure does! some good emotional and physical h/c, LOVE the use of the ghost drift, and it’s always fun to see post pru fics use dialogue very obviously taken from dbt, trauma-specific therapeutical texts, and anything that shows the author has experience with, or did their research on, ptsd therapies.

You’re Everyone That Ever Cared by KlavierWrites

you know a fic is good when it’s an only 9k slowburn and still manages to reach infinite regress levels of are you fucking KIDDING GO TO THERAPY. newt “acts of service” geiszler may have a little misplaced misogyny due to his broken woman-centric gaydar. as a treat. the fucking. post-drift scene where hermann subtextually screams “LOOK IN OUR BRAINS YOU FUCK I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU I JUST HAVE AUTISM AND CAREER IN STEM DISORDER” is soooooo. god just hermann in general in that scene is great. if you like classic mid 2010s era newmann, ghost drift romance, and good ole mutual pining, this is a treat.

Baby, You're Hotter than my Bunsen Burner by SkySongMA

moronosexual hermann representation is something that can actually be so personal

Times of Stress by RadioMoth

the boys are processinggggggg. man what a good, quick and powerful punch to the gut. if you like post-pr1 catharsis and physical h/c, AND are the one friend that likes to comment at the end of the movie that hey newt got beat the fuck UP, check this one out.

black tea by @faggotcas

okay first of all, god fucking tier url, lee. second of all, food as a love language is my SHIT. i love the very slow relationship development here, where you see them making a genuine effort to get along and that in turn leading to feelings reigniting. it’s such a sweet little moment of a fic, with a nice atmosphere and tone to fit it

now here’s the part where i usually drop my latest fic, but i haven’t written one this month because i’ve been busy launching an audio drama! you can find it here, it’ll be right up your alley if you like cryptids and gay scientists and enemies to lovers and good ole americana, but since this is a newmann post, i’m gonna recommend the pacific rim audio drama duology i did a while back! part one is called conversations from the brink, and it’s a little slice of the pr3 we better fucking get from streaming that godawful looking anime. love and lesbians to everyone ❤️

#pacific rim #pac rim #mine #newmann #pacific rim uprising #fic rec

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the-wotog-collection · 3 years

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some new(ish) kids

“new” as in they didn’t exist yet when we last posted. so some of them are at least 9 months old. anyway!

list under the cut:

CAS

- they’re a half-elf monk! but now that i think about it it would be kinda funny if they had a level or two in rogue

- honestly? they’re a frat boy, but one who drinks respect women (and everyone, really) juice

- complete thembo. they have a -1 int, but +5 dex and +3 cha so who’s really winning here

- seriously when i say they’re a thembo i mean it. cas can dodge bullets all day but they don’t know that a tomato is a fruit

- they’re a people person and respectful and are very much work hard play hard. i love them

PUMPKIN

- now this is a bastard right here

- he/they tiefling rogue. yes they stole that crown what about it

- very much like mollymauk tealeaf i’m not gonna lie. they’ll charm the pants off of you and run away with your whole coin pouch

- smth i love about pumpkin is 1) their last name is pye 2) they have aliases bc in nearly every town they’ve been in there’s a warrant out for his arrest

- pumpkin pye (persona), a flirty rapscallion. if they had to pick one alias to stay as, this would be that one

- apple pye, a quiet sweetheart. kinda country bumpkin-esque

- pecan pye, taciturn but honest (as he can be while using an alias and on the run from the law and generally up to no good) and a hard worker

- underneath all the layers? he’s kinda sad and lonely, still a flirt and a rapscallion but considerably less, and sometimes he just wants to stay in bed instead of going out and getting into all kinds of trouble

- oh also! he’s self conscious about his freckles, and usually uses some kind of makeup to cover them up if hell brain is acting up/he’s causing trouble

TENJIN

- i’ll be honest i do not remember if i still have their picrew

- i do nvm

- this is tenjin! iirc they’re a drow enchanter (homebrew class my cousin made) but ig in a legal game they’d be a divination wizard

- he’s such a sweetie, oml

- fun fact he has autism! mostly nonverbal and gets overwhelmed super easily, and has a whole pouch full of trinkets that they fidget and stim with

- baby. baby boy

- really fun to play actually

BEE

- she’s here to kick names and take ass, and she’s all out of names

- a whole lesbian. most of why she does what she does is to protect pretty girls

- human (shocker, i know) cleric of a storm god that i forgot to write down

- anyway!

- do no harm but take no shit is her motto. her methods may be borderline illegal, but hey, as long as the thing gets done it’s fine

- usually.

- basically her only method is swing a bat around until people talk and if the bat hits anything/anyone, well. that’s not her business

- oh yeah her bat. it’s infused with electricity and deals lightning damage as well as bludgeoning. it’s sick as hell

- she’s pretty rad

RAY

- everyone needs a weed druid

- okay but seriously. they eat every plant they come across to 1) figure out what they do (they have insanely high con dw) and 2) for magical power

- are they high most of the time? yes. are they really sad actually? also yes

- they aren’t religious, but they do worship the deity their childhood best friend (turned lover, yes) worshipped

- i might talk about that more later :)

- anyway they’re super chill and also one of the few drows i have, iirc

WALKER

- okay now we’re starting to catch up

- his name isn’t actually walker, but it’s what everyone calls him so that’s what he goes by

- he/they (wow theres a lot of he/theys huh) fallen aasimar gloom stalker ranger

- basically think of the edgiest anime boy you can imagine and go “what if he went to therapy”

- he’s such a good boy! yes they still do the adventuring thing, but make a point of going to therapy every week

- they’re making some great progress :)

- while he’s basically a witcher and gets treated like one (i.e. poorly), he just wants to settle down somewhere quiet when there’s no more evil in the world to grow vegetables where the only one around to judge him for being mute is his crow

- the picrew didn’t have a crow so please pretend that’s what the pigeon is

VAL

- valor is a tiefling fighter who came into existence bc i rewatched netflix castlevania and was super gay for striga so i made a character inspired by her

- also has autism, but in addition, she has ptsd from her days in the royal army. she’s seen some shit yall

- isn’t very good with social interactions, a lot of stuff goes right over her head and she’s just awkward as hell, but get her talking about her special interest (military tactics) and she will talk for hours. please let her

- fun fact she met her wife bc she was fishing in a bog trying to catch dinner and fished out a wholeass lady instead

- she’s buff as hell. she could use literally anything as a weapon and make it hurt

UNNAMED WIZARD

- i don’t have a name for them yet BUT i do know that they’re a bitch

- yet another he/they, this time we have a neutral evil wizard who doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as they get results for their experiments

- think albedo genshinimpact but with almost no morals

- yes he’d cast ninth level spells on his party if he was researching something. no he would not feel remorse. probably

- idk i haven’t fleshed him out yet i just know that he’s a bitch

MOUSE

- finally! my favorite character on this list

- this is maisy, but she’s so tiny that everyone calls her mouse

- when i say tiny i mean she’s a halfling and also seven years old. she’s fucking little

- little human druid girl who basically raised herself in the forest and can & will make friends with literally any animal she comes across

- her arcane focus is her flower crown, which also has berries growing on it. they grow back every time she picks one to give to her friends :)

- she’s so fucking pure oh my god. actual cinnamon roll and everything that’s good in this world

- her rat’s name is rat. he’s her friend :)

- and also dog sized compared to her it’s hilarious. she has a little leash for him made of vines and particularly spry twigs

- have some bonus art bc oh my god cutie

#mod ash #oh boy here we go #cas #pumpkin pye #pumpkin #tenjin #bee #ray #walker #valor #val #maisy #mouse #art tag? art tag #ash doodles #that only applies to the art of cas. it's one of the few pieces i'm proud of klajdshlj

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jaskiersbard · 4 years

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The Fantastic Beasts Franchise and JK Rowling

Alright, so...hi everyone.

I don’t know how many people follow this blog anymore because my main blog of operation is now @alwaysahiccupandastrid - I still try to keep this blog relatively active though, just because it was my original blog, I’ve had it since I was 13, and I have so many memories attached to it.

I’m aware that a lot of the people who follow me, especially since late 2016, do so because a) I was a loud and proud Fantastic Beasts fan, b) I wrote some Newtina and Jakweenie fic, and c)...I don’t know. I literally don’t know why people bother following me anywhere because I don’t feel like I have a lot to say. But, anyway, many people probably follow me due to Fantastic Beasts and my posts/fanfics within the fandom.

Those who follow my active blog will already know my feelings and thoughts, but because of the fact many things about this blog - me, the posts for the last four-ish years, the url itself - are Beasts related, I felt it was necessary to come and write an actual post here instead of just reblogging things and calling it a day. I’ve always been very outspoken online, but I’ve been avoiding a certain topic of conversation on this blog for years now, and I’m finally in a place where we can discuss it.

I am, of course, talking about the hot topic that is JK Rowling.

Back in the days between FBAWTFT and FBTCOG, I was a very outspoken defender of JK Rowling and her decision to defend Johnny Depp’s inclusion in the films. Now, this is something I still stand by to this day, and due to the evidence that has since come out, I’m even more steadfast in the opinion that keeping Depp was a great decision. I am fully in support of him and the way he’s currently battling against his abuser. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about right now. As I was saying, back in the day, I was outspoken about the opinion that “we don’t know the full story” etc., and as a result I received very colourful anon messages. Now, to my knowledge, none of these were about JKR being a TERF/transphone, but I think it’s important to mention that at the time I scoffed at the idea she could be one. I openly admit that I didn’t listen to what other people - including actual trans individuals - were saying about JKR and her transphobia because I frankly didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to admit that the person who wrote something that saved my life could be so hateful and a bad person - that, and at the time I passed it all off as “wokeness out of control”.

It is now 2020. Up until last Saturday night, I was still in support of JK Rowling - I didn’t agree with some of the stuff she had said, but I was trying to be positive and have hope by telling myself that she didn’t mean to be transphobic, that she just didn’t know what she was doing was wrong, even though the evidence clearly showed otherwise (I.e. her liking transphobic / radfem tweets). I said to my followers on my Beasts page that instead of cancelling people outright, we should be attempting to educate them instead, and if they choose not to learn then fine. And, being 100% obvious, I didn’t want to admit it because I frankly already was feeling annoyed at two different Beasts cast members for different reasons: Ezra Miller (for choking a girl) and Dan Fogler (for his tweet about BLM - admittedly that was probably him being well intentioned but not saying it right). So yeah, I didn’t want to cancel another member of the Beasts “family”.

I had JKR’s tweets on notifications, and for the most part over the last few weeks, it was all about the Ickabog. However, on Saturday night I noticed that she had suddenly tweeted something completely different, and I looked at it. Given that I had adamantly defended her and said “freedom of speech” for so long, it’s telling that my first thought upon seeing her tweet was literally “for fuck sake, Jo, why”.

I won’t post her tweets here but to sum that first tweet up, it was her being annoyed over the term “people who menstruate” being used in an article instead of “woman”, and mockingly saying “there used to be a word for that” before pretending she didn’t know the word. She knew that tweeting it would start arguments and anger, and yet she still made the decision to do so. Her follow up tweets frankly dug the hole deeper; she tried to defend herself by saying, to sum it up, “I have a butch lesbian friend who agrees with me” “I just care about women’s rights!” And “IF trans people were marginalised I’d march with you!” (“If”, of course, being the real kicker here because what do you mean IF. They ARE. Every DAY.)

Since then, JKR has written an essay on her website defending herself and her opinions, and yes, I read it. I read it a few times, in fact. At first, I felt my anger simmer and felt I had been too hasty to make anti JKR jokes, that I was wrong...but then I read it again properly and realised that what she had written was a piece that turned herself into the victim, and that despite putting on the appearance of her saying she supports trans people, including the phrases “I support trans people” and “of course trans women are real women”, she still spewed much transphobic vitriol and hate. She cited no sources for any of her proclamations or statements about statistics, implied that trans men transition to escape their “womanhood”, that trans women are men in dresses, that trans women are dangerous to “real” women (aka cis women) and shouldn’t be allowed into women’s changing rooms or toilets. There was also the autism comment, and the implication of autistic girls somehow not being able to make decisions or whatever.

I’m going to get straight to the point: I don’t support JK Rowling or her radical feminism.

As someone who is a proud feminist (libfem?), I can honestly say that never have I felt threatened or like I was being silenced by the inclusion of trans women in feminist spaces or conversation. Never. In my second year at sixth form, I was in charge of the LGBTQ+ club until a new leader with better leadership skills could step in, and - put simply - that year, the club was made almost entirely of first year transgender students. Even though I had called myself a trans ally for years, I realised there was a lot I didn’t know, and I learnt quite a lot from these students. I continue to still learn today. They were some of the nicest and most intelligent people I got the chance to meet, and I can truly say that at no point was I ever worried to be in a room alone with a trans woman, nor was I concerned about which bathroom they went in - bathrooms are bathrooms. Speaking of bathrooms...when I was at uni during a particularly tense rehearsal a few weeks before our final show last year, a guy in our group made me cry and I ran to the women’s bathroom to escape. Not only did the other girls come to comfort me, but you know what? The guy came in and apologised profusely to me. Did any of us girls give a shit about having a guy in our toilet? Absolutely not. It’s a fucking toilet. And, on that note, I was never worried about a trans woman or even a cis man attacking me in the toilets. You know who DID attack me in the toilets regularly? Other cisgender women.

As a feminist, I fully support trans women and am not threatened by the inclusion of trans women in women’s spaces or in women’s rights discussions. While I agree that cis women and trans women inevitably go through different struggles, at the end of the day, we all identify as women and are women. I think that if your feminism is so threatened by the existence of trans women - TERFs, RadFems, JKR, looking at you - then your feminism is flimsy and not feminism at all.

As a woman, I find it highly offensive that JKR and many RadFems focus so much of womanhood and feminism on an involuntary biological function that, frankly, many of us would rather do without. Yeah, I’m talking about periods - no matter how proud I am to be a woman, I still fucking hate periods and would get rid of mine if I could without erasing my chance of having kids someday. I can hear the RadFems accusing me of “internalised woman hatred” for saying I hate my periods, but you know what, they suck and they hurt and fuck them. The fact that JKR (also the the radfem movement) reduced “women” to just people who menstruate and can have children, and vice versa, is incredibly offensive and misogynistic. For a start, trans men menstruate, intersex people can, non binary can etc. Next, not even ALL cis women have periods - women who are menopausal, young women who haven’t started puberty yet (some do start very late), some women don’t have regular cycles, some women have medical problems that affect their cycle, some women are on birth control that can stop their cycles. So the idea of women being defined as “those who menstruate” is offensive not only to trans/intersex/non binary individuals but also to cis ones too.

As I write this, I’m a 22 year old woman who is still learning and changing every day, and one of the things that I’ve found myself thinking about recently - especially since we’re in lockdown and we have nothing BUT time to think - is about myself and my identity as a woman. What prompted this was when I saw Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved book, “Little Women”, which I’ve since read, for my birthday back in January, and I left the cinema feeling exalted and powerful with my own identity as a woman. (I’ll be returning to LW in a bit)

After some thinking, I’ve realised some things. For me, my identity as a woman is not just because once a month my uterus decides to shed; I do not identify as a woman just because I have certain physical features. I am not a particularly feminine person either, and I’m what some may call a “tomboy” (a phrase I actually don’t mind but I know a lot of people do for understandable reasons since it’s a phrase designed to differentiate people who don’t conform to society’s expectations etc) because I prefer video games and more geeky stuff to shopping or dressing up or make up.

For me, there is no one way a person has to be or appear in order to identify as a woman. Women are beautiful, complex human beings; we are not defined by our genitalia, by an involuntary biological process. Women are strong, intelligent, and interesting people - no two are the same. For example, some decide to raise families, some choose to pursue a career, some do both - all of these are valid and none are more “feminist” or “womanly” than the others, because it’s our as women. I guarantee that if you lined up every single woman in the world - cis AND trans - no two would be the exact same.

I mentioned “Little Women” earlier, and as I was pondering over what makes me identify as a “woman”, I thought a lot about a certain quote from the 2019 film that has stayed with me since it was first said in the release of the trailer. It’s spoken by Jo March to her mother, and I’ve started to understand what for me makes me a woman.

For me, being a woman is all of this: having minds, hearts, souls, ambition, talent, and being beautiful each in our own ways. Women are capable of love and empathy, capable of desire, capable of the most complex and human feelings and emotions, and coming out the stronger for it.

Sex is one thing; gender identity is another.

I won’t dissect every single thing JKR wrote in her essay, but I will just say this: her comments regarding autistic girls are extremely tone deaf and she does not speak for those with autism. I’m going to be honest and admit something here I haven’t before: I have not been diagnosed with autism or aspergers but I AM currently on the waiting list to see someone who COULD diagnose me. Apparently I show signs of a potential diagnosis, so...we’ll have to see. But I have friends who are autistic, and they’re disgusted by JKR trying to use them to support her TERF arguments. Autistic and other neurodivergent people are absolutely capable of making decisions and are NOT people who need to be babied or have their hands held, to be told who they are. It’s incredibly ableist of JK Rowling frankly.

I would also like to point out... I’ve seen people saying “but she doesn’t hate autistic people, Newt is autistic!!!” - yes, but JKR didn’t write him as autistic. Eddie Redmayne chose to play Newt as autistic - JK Rowling didn’t do shit.

It’s also time that I acknowledge that both Potter and Beasts inevitably hold JKR’s problematic views, and that by denying her ownership of her work, we’re not holding her accountable for the horrible things she’s done. This includes - but is not limited to -:

Anti-Semitic stereotypes in the goblins

Lycanthropy being used as a metaphor for AIDS - an illness that is heavily associated to the gay community, and also there was the panic of the AIDs crisis in the 90s where much misinformation and homophobia was generated and spread because of it.

Adding further to the lycanthropy point, one of the infected individuals - Greyback - is stated to have a sick preference for infecting children. Not only are werewolves tied to harmful gay/AIDs stereotypes, but also to the disgusting and frankly wrong notion that gay people are pedophiles.

The only Asian character is called Cho Chang. Cho Chang. That’s two steps away from outright just calling her “Ching Chong”. It’s not a name an actual Asian person would have.

The Goldstein sisters are probably distantly related to Anthony Goldstein, who JKR confirmed (on Twitter of course) is Jewish, meaning that Tina and Queenie are most likely Jewish too (and Goldstein is a Jewish surname). However, despite the fact that the first FBaWTFT is set DURING Hanukkah in 1926, there’s zero signs of them celebrating or observing it. Maybe that’s more on set design than anything else, but come on - if I, a fanfic writer, can do some research, JK/the crew of a major movie can too!

Adding on from that, gotta love how one of the JEWISH main characters then decides to join the Wizarding world equivalent of Hitler. I already had problems with Queenie’s characterisation in CoG, but that’s the icing on the cake.

POC/Black characters - in both series but since I’m a Beasts blog... Seraphina Picquery, a Black female president serving a term during a MAJOR wizarding world crisis, is severely reduced to have only 3 lines in CoG. Nagini’s only purpose is to be the only friend of Credence, a white man, before he joins Wizard Hitler and abandons her; she’s also an Asian character who we know one day permanently becomes a SNAKE, and who goes on to actually have a piece of Voldemort’s soul inside of her?? And some do see her as his slave, though you could argue that she’s actually the only being that he holds any love or respect for. Leta Lestrange is a half-black woman who is killed/literally sacrifices herself for TWO WHITE MEN, and who’s death was literally confirmed to have been added in last minute.

Also, the whole Lestrange storyline was fucking nasty: white Lestrange Sr imperius-ed a black woman (Yusuf Kama’s mother), raped her, and she then died in childbirth. I’m sorry, what the fuck??

In Harry Potter, Seamus is a terrible stereotype of an Irish person - he likes to blow things up. Look up the IRA and their bombings. Fucking Irish stereotype. As someone with Irish grandparents and who is proud of their Irish heritage, this really pisses me off.

Let’s not forget the whole Native American cultural appropriation. That truly speaks for itself.

So here is where I speak candidly to everyone who follows me and/or sees this post. While Beasts is no longer my No. 1 fandom these days, it and Potter still hold a huge piece of my heart. I have 5 wizarding world tattoos, so much merchandise, and I can safely say that being a fan of both series has shaped me as a person. Both of those series helped me get through the darkest days of my life, including bullying at school, my Nan passing away, and my mental health struggles.

This is why what’s happened has impacted me so much and broken my heart. For me, it feels like it’s tainted now because of Jo and her views. I know that we should separate the art from the artist, but when her views are so clearly woven into the very fabric of the Wizarding world, it’s a huge problem.

Here’s another part of the dilemma - I do not wish for the Beasts films to be cancelled. I’m well aware that the *cough* people who dislike me will say I’m trying to be negative, trying to boycott the series blah blah blah, but that’s truly the last thing I want. I still love the story, the characters, the soundtrack, and I want to know how it ends, if only for my own piece of mind. It’s also important to add that by boycotting Beasts, it’s also harming the hard working thousands of others who worked on the films: the cast, the crew, the extras, the musicians, etc., not to mention the fans who actually are invested in the series and have taken solace in it. It’s not fair for them to all suffer over the actions of one TERF.

This is one of my biggest worries, however: the Fantastic Beasts films do NOT have a good reputation as it is. The second film was boycotted by some due to Depp, and now there’s talk of people boycotting number 3 because of JK Rowling. Lots of people already talk hatred about it, and this will only fire that hatred up even more.

There’s also talk of Eddie Redmayne potentially being kicked from the franchise due to a “leak” that he doesn’t want to work with JKR anymore, but this could be sensationalist news reporting. But if it came down to it, I can honestly say that I would rather continue to have Eddie play Newt than keep JKR as a writer. Eddie has done more for Newt than even JKR has, and if he goes, then that will be the last straw for me within the fandom. That will be when I take a sharp exit out, sell my FB merch and have my tattoos covered.

To add, the Fantastic Beasts scripts are...not great. Or, at least, what we saw on-screen wasn’t. Maybe that’s David Yates being the literal worst (fuck you, Yates, you suck) and cutting all the parts with strong female characters, but I honestly don’t think that JKR can write screenplays well at all. I think she’s clearly better at writing books, and that’s fine - books obviously allow for more time to explore characters and story/plot arcs etc, and film scripts offer way less of those chances. I don’t think screenplays allow her to write what she needs to in order to tell the story she wants to, hence why CoG was kind of a hot mess. So maybe it’s just that she’s not suited for screenplays and should stick to books.

Honestly, I kind of just wish that WB would hire another person to finish writing the Fantastic Beasts movies - obviously they’d have to keep JKR on board to tell them the actual plot, but get someone who can actually write screenplays and not be problematic to write them.

By now I’ve gone on long enough that I’ve forgotten my original intent while writing this, so I’ll try to sum up and end now. In short, I am extremely disappointed in JK Rowling and do not support her or her views any longer.

I don’t know how any of you guys are feeling but I would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts, especially other Fantastic Beasts fans. I want to also add that, as always, my DMs and inbox are always open - if not here, then always at @alwaysahiccupandastrid where I’m more active nowadays.

Finally, you guys don’t need me - a white cis woman - to tell you this but you’re all valid and magical and fuck JK Rowling. Her characters would all be ashamed of her, and the characters we grew up with would not stand for the bigotry and vile hatred she spreads under the guise of ““protecting women””. Several of the amazing actors from Potter and Beasts have spoken out against her and her tweets: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Bonnie Wright, Katie Leung, Chris Rankin, Eddie Redmayne. Some have been...less inspiring (Tom Felton, Evanna Lynch, looking at you two 👀)

I’m sending love to everyone right now. I wish I could say something more useful but I’ve spoken enough - I’ve made my opinion clear. I love you all, please stay safe.

#fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts: the crimes of grindelwald #jk rowling #harry potter

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thewhitefluffyhat · 5 years

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Feminist Relevant Themes

<-Previous (Introduction)

To talk about Magia Record’s writing in detail, it helps to understand how the game is structured.

Magia Record has many story modes:

Main Story: The main plot, centered on new protagonist Iroha arriving in the city of Kamihama to search for her missing sister. Everyone can read this at any time, and new chapters come out every few months.

Another Story: The events of the Main Story, but told from the point of view of the original Madoka Magica cast. Also always available to everyone.

Magical Girl Stories: short stories centered on one specific magical girl - usually they tell the backstory of the girl’s wish. Can only be watched after obtaining the character in the gacha.

Mirrors Story: A very slowly updated story unlocked by completing many player vs. player battles.

Event Stories: Short stories that come out roughly every two weeks. Sometimes introduce a new character for the gacha, sometimes related to a seasonal holiday. Playable to anyone around during the event (and will be stored in the archive afterwards).

Costume Stories: Tiny story snippets involving a character wearing a special outfit. Implemented one year in and unlocked by obtaining both the character and the outfit in question.

Good

Female Friendship

As with the better side of magical girl media, the game’s biggest feminist plus is its complex female characters and focus on female friendships, including some great examples of female mentors and role models. The mechanics of the setting are even tweaked to facilitate this - gone is the TV series’ lonely, competitive system that isolated girls from each other. Instead, in present-day Kamihama, witches are so strong and plentiful that magical girls are better off forming teams to support one another.

While this change arguably waters down some of the thematic weight of the original (in that this isolation was another example of how Kyuubey’s system is an easy metaphor for other oppressive systems), I find it a worthy trade-off. Allowing for magical girl teams to exist results in much richer possibilities for interactions between characters, especially welcome in a sprawling game with far more narrative content than a one-season anime.

And the game takes good advantage of this - no two magical girl teams are exactly alike, both in terms of internal dynamics and how they interact with other teams.

Doppels

The main gimmick of the game’s story is the existence of “doppels” - a mechanic where a magical girl partially transforms into her own witch to unleash a powerful attack. And from gameplay to story to art, doppels are excellent. They look cool and they’re rewarding to unlock and use in game. From a feminist perspective, I also love the idea of reclaiming witches, the “adult” form of magical girls, into a source of salvation and empowerment for girls* instead of a curse. On a meta-level, it echoes a common magical girl trope of the character transforming into an older version of herself, while specifically to Madoka Magica, it’s a creative way to dismantle the misogynistic implications of Kyuubey’s system!

(*There are supposedly drawbacks to doppels, but that bit of setting mostly serves to make them a ~dangerous forbidden technique~ that shouldn’t be overused.)

Struggling against class prejudice

The tensions between different wards of Kamihama are a key component of the setting, and affect many character interactions. One aspect the Magical Girl Stories are good at is showing how arbitrary and hurtful this discrimination is, and how difficult it is to overcome prejudice once it has become entrenched. It’s made abundantly clear that Kamihama would be a better city without these attitudes - the question is, how to get there?

A variety of careers

Several girls make wishes or have backstories centered on what they want to do when they grow up. What’s especially neat is that most girls ask for the opportunity to follow their passions, rather than having a talent magically granted to them - thus avoiding the pitfall of having a female character’s abilities originate from a power granted by a male character.

The range of career interests depicted isn’t as amazing as it could be (In a cast of 80+, I would love to have more than three girls representing STEM), but there’s some decent variety. Many girls aspire to take over their parents’ family business, for example.

And even some characters who follow more seemingly feminine careers (a model, a chef, an artist, etc.) have serious narratives centered on the skill and effort needed to succeed in those highly competitive fields, which is quite refreshing to see.

Mixed

The many different ways to be a girl

The nice thing about having a large cast of female characters is that it gives plenty of opportunities to show how all of these characters are different. And in general, Magia Record does very well on this front! One aspect I’ve particularly been enjoying is the how the cast has widely varying tastes in fiction. Yes, there are girls who like dreamy romances, but there are also girls who bond over their shared love of a hotblooded shounen series!

Where this falls down somewhat is an overuse of “but look, she has a secret feminine interest.” Sometimes this plot can work, if coming at it from the angle that superficial judgments can be misleading, or that there’s nothing wrong with having feminine interests. But when all the more masculine-presenting girls end up with a hidden fondness for stuffed animals, the sheer repetition becomes rather irksome. It’s as though the game feels the need to insist “but look, she really is a girl!” because the audience wouldn’t believe it without such a trait.

LGBTQ+ characters

In terms of LGBTQ+ content, the game feels rather similar to the original anime and other Madoka spinoffs. That is to say, there are tons of shippable f/f pairings that get teased, but as of the present, only one new playable character (and a tiny sample of minor characters) are explicitly confirmed to be lesbians. No trans or otherwise queer characters either, unfortunately. (Though of course that’s not to stop a good interpretation or headcanon!)

However, as a whole, the game is oddly averse to showing the characters in active, healthy relationships. One of the early frustrations I had with the new character’s portrayal was that the game’s one mutual gay relationship was never directly shown on-screen and gets broken up in favor of more ambiguous teasing. That being said, all the het relationships are treated similarly, either never being confessed and requited or never getting shown on screen. So… I suppose there’s not actually a double standard here, but players hoping for lots of canon yuri content might end up a bit disappointed.

Also, a note on Homura specifically - this game’s version is “glasses Homura,” who hasn’t realized she’s in love with Madoka yet. So despite what you might expect given Rebellion, in Magia Record there’s nothing beyond heavy hints and ambiguously cute scenes between her and Madoka.

Characters with disabilities

A few characters in the game have difficulty speaking. It’s not made clear if this is a speech impediment or something like social anxiety (or autism - I know I’ve seen headcanons for that). There is some depiction of these characters getting bullied, but in each case the character ultimately finds a group of friends who love and support them as they are.

After two years, now there is technically a magical girl who uses a wheelchair. (And it’s a cool custom wheelchair too!) Unfortunately I hesitate to count this as a full positive, because shortly after she appears in it, the character becomes unable to transform and fight for an unrelated reason, so we haven’t seen her in battle since. But who knows - the story’s still moving forward on the Japanese server, and there’s likely to be more content with her in the future.

At the end of the day, though, this is a setting with magic wishes and healing effects. Thus, it’s very common for girls to wish to cure someone’s illness, or to use their abilities as a magical girl to cure themselves, which can easily fall into ableist tropes.

College age magical girls

Yes, really! Although even the oldest characters are only nineteen. However, there’s also a subplot about how two of the nineteen-year-olds are losing power because they’re older, which… hm. The message that we all need to accept passing the torch to the next generation is generally a valuable and good one. Aiming it at older teen girls just on the verge of adulthood is where the implications nosedive into unfortunate. Young girls already get far too many messages that their worth is entirely dependent on their youth/beauty/innocence and that it’s better to stay a “girl” than to be a fully grown “woman.”

The entire reason it’s exciting to see college age magical girls in the first place is that even now, it’s rare to see adult women as protagonists in these types of fantasy adventures. By introducing these young adult characters only to caveat their inclusion with“they’re getting too old to be here”, it puts a very sour note on what’s otherwise a welcome expansion of the Madoka Magica universe.

(It’s also hilariously contradictory to other spin offs in the Madoka Magica franchise, including the implications of the anime canon itself, so… whoops?)

Bad

Lack of diversity

(Particularly racial diversity.)

The only non-Japanese magical girls are from the pre-existing Tart Magica spin-off set in medieval France… and Meiyui. (And maybe Alina.)

Meiyui is a complicated case - her family has ties to both Japan and Hong Kong. Meiyui herself is a fun character, but she also ticks a lot of the checkboxes for a Japanese stereotype of a Chinese person (a la Xiao Mei in Fullmetal Alchemist). As a white person only familiar with US culture, it’s not my place to make a judgement call here, but I’d love to hear from someone who knows more!

The largest disappointment, though, is in wondering what might have been. The Madoka Magica anime implied that there are magical girls all over the globe from every different time and culture, so the game’s narrow focus on one modern Japanese city greatly limits the setting from its full potential. And even within that limitation, the sheer homogeneity of the new cast is starting to get awkwardly same-y.

The arc two’s logo teases what might be girls from several other backgrounds, though, so perhaps this will improve in the very near future. Of course, success will depend on the writers’ abilities to handle other cultures. Which, when given the example of Meiyui, might actually be cause for concern...

Revolutionary Girl Utena, this ain’t

In a game full of decent-to-good backstories, you’ll sometimes hit an unfortunate and very disappointing outlier.

My personal least favorite is the victim-blaming one mentioned in the content warnings. Another low point is a story where a girl frantically diets as a response to another girl’s comments about her weight.

Then there’s the backstory the above picture comes from. It involves a girl who has to drop out of sports because her next school only has a boy’s team - and instead of challenging this situation, it’s the inspiration for her to discover she’s actually happier as a cheerleader anyway. Hm.

This last case is actually pretty emblematic of the game as a whole. Whoever’s doing the writing (the credited scenario team is four people, and from the names at least two might be women?) mostly seems to mean well, but they occasionally step hard into the -isms that come from not actually thinking about the problems with the status quo.

So the game isn’t typically hateful, but it doesn’t push the envelope in any revolutionary directions either. As a result - and it feels weird to say this, but - I really miss having Urobuchi as the writer. Sure, his writing had its own problems, but in comparison, it was at least genuinely thought-provoking. The way that even the adult female characters got complexity and screentime, that whole conversation between Sayaka and the misogynistic men on the train, the compelling exploration of consent and determination that underlies the whole anime – even six years later, these aspects hold up and stand out.

Magia Record is an inversion – far more pleasant on the surface, but without the backbone and depth that made the original so thematically intriguing despite all the suffering.

Next (Other Writing Aspects)->

#puella magi madoka magica #pmmm #magia record #magical girls #feminist analysis #my blog organization tags #magia record analysis #my feminist friendly magireco review #madoka magica #magical girl genre #magia record jp #magia record na #my ramblings #haha this section is so long #nothing else even touches it #and even then there’s so much other stuff I could rant about lol

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extra-flamey · 5 years

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Nissa Revane: Actually Autistic (why accurate representation matters (featuring gruulfriends))

This entire post is actually in response to @jiangyanggu‘s post about Chandra/Nissa being an adhd/autistic wlw power couple. I wholeheartedly agree! Go gruulfriends! But there was more I wanted to say about this, especially about Nissa. I don’t usually attempt a big post like this, because I’m not that great at putting my feelings into words. But with something so near and dear to me, I wanted to at least give it a try and put my thoughts out there.

(Warning: personal story + character analysis under the cut. If you wanna skip my ‘backstory’ and go straight to the analysis, you can skip the first 5 paragraphs.)

I’m a woman on the spectrum who was diagnosed late (about 17 years old). I was having trouble in school way before that because I was nauseous on a daily basis (which, in hindsight, was caused by being in a constant state of stress) and had to stay back a year since I couldn’t keep up anymore by just showing up once every three weeks. Without getting into too much detail: after a couple years of weekly visits to all sorts of doctors and therapists, I was finally diagnosed with autism.

With the diagnosis a lot of things changed. Unfortunately, these changes weren’t all that positive at first. The first thing that took a hit was my self-esteem. While it wasn’t all that high to begin with, hearing people at school use your disability as a slur really does something to you. Along with that I had to switch schools, because for some reason they don’t take kindly to students staying back two years in a row. My new school was one for people with autism as well as other similar disabilities. This should have been great, but it wasn’t. I was still too nauseous to attend. Also, while changing school I had lost a lot of friends and I couldn’t exactly make new ones because when I was present, I was too afraid to talk to anyone. Finally, to put a cherry on top of the shit cake, my family was under the impression that I was misdiagnosed and didn’t actually have autism.

But nearing end of that school year, two things happened. 1: I finally went to a psychiatrist who was able to prescribe me fluoxetine. Originally used to battle depression, but for me it helped get rid of the constant fear and stress which lifted the nausea entirely. And 2: I got into Magic. Hello, new special interest!

Let’s fast forward a few months with the release of Kaladesh. It was around this time I started following the story as well. And I’m so glad I did.

This is where Nissa comes in. I liked her before I started reading the stories. I’m a green player at heart and really like elves. Funnily enough, I was already shipping her with Chandra, because as a lesbian I’m always looking for two female characters to ship. The thing about just playing the game though, is that you don’t get to see a lot of personality from its characters.

So... reading.

The first one I read was of course ‘Homesick’. The first thing I noticed (besides Chandra being adorable) was this:

And in addition:

I’m instantly on high alert. For most people with autism (including myself) being touched can be extremely uncomfortable. Nissa reacting in this manner is a huge possible indicator. And can we also take a moment to appreciate the way in which Gideon handles the situation?

Then later we get this scene from Chandra’s perspective:

Other than this being the initial gruulfriends scene that got me hooked, the eye contact part really stood out to me. Again, for a lot of people on the spectrum, making eye contact is really uncomfortable as well. Some refrain from it altogether. Since eye contact is such a crucial part in communication though, it’s one of the first things you have to learn if you want to get better at connecting with people. However, what you usually get when you start out is the staring. Seeing as Nissa has lived alone for most of her life, she likely didn’t have to bother learning how to make eye contact until she joined the Gatewatch.

And for my next point:

I don’t know about you, but this sounds exactly like sensory overload to me. To me, this is one of the worst parts, if not the worst part of being autistic. There isn’t really anything you can do about it other than seclude yourself from anything and everything. For anybody unfamiliar: I like to think of it as every sound, noise, smell, etc, being amplified until your brain short-circuits. Remember what I said about the constant stress and fear that made me nauseous? Sensory overload plays a huge role there.

Now for the last point I wanted to bring up (this time from ‘Renewal’, the last installment for Aether Revolt):

The awkwardness of communication. Not knowing how to talk to people, how to put your thoughts into words. Misunderstanding which usually comes from being unable to read between the lines. Or, also a fun thing, leaving out information because you think it’s obvious while it really isn’t.

And I also wanted to include this:

Because I think it’s beautiful to see how far Nissa is willing to go for Chandra, to be with her.

I let my mother read these snippets and you know what she said? “That’s you.”

So here we’ve got a character who I like, look up to and can relate to. The latter had never happened to me before when it came to characters with autism. They’d always have this ‘redeeming quality’ of being a genius; something associated with autism, but there’s a small percentage that’s notably great at something. Other things to consider are how the characters portrayed are usually male or that they’re usually ‘straight’ but struggle in the romance department. Nissa seems to defy all of these ‘rules’ (if they actually go through with what they’ve set up between Nissa and Chandra).

Now I know an argument against the previously mentioned reasons would be that not all symptoms I have pointed out exclusively apply to autistic people and that’s true. However, with so many things that are typical for people on the spectrum, it’s hard not to see the pattern.

So, Nissa has helped me accept who I am as a person. Helped me accept the difficult things I struggle with on an almost daily basis. I’m not filled with constant self-loathing because I can’t do everything I’d want to do. There’s just things I need a little more time with and that’s okay. This is why I’m so grateful for her. I fear for her though. It appears as though Wizards is done with her. I hope this isn’t the case, and that she’ll survive War of the Spark and live happily ever after with her girlfriend, Chandra (a girl can dream).

Thank you so much for reading this long rant-like... whatever this is. If you want to discuss something said in this post, or just to chat, my inbox is always open.

#nissa revane #mtg #chandra nalaar #gruulfriends #mtgwar #magic the gathering #temurmaids #actually autistic #autism #asd #this took all day and i'm tired but i wanted to say something before it's too late

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utcb-spider-clem · 5 years

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Any Sarah or Ben headcanons?

uhh YES

for ben:

he and travis are dating!! and they work at dq together

he doesn’t have the best relationship with his dad, but he loves his mom and his sister a TON

his sister’s name is charlotte

violet is his favorite cousin

he goes to community college! he’s still not quite sure what he wants to do with his life, so he’s taking a lot of different classes to see what he likes.

dogs kind of scare him, but he likes reptiles!! he has a snake named peter.

ben, travis, and charlotte all REALLY like drive-in movies, and sometimes he takes them all out to the closest one, which is an hour’s drive away. they saw power rangers there, which ended up being charlotte’s favorite movie of all time

he likes taking pictures of little things that make him happy, like sunsets, or ducks, or his loved ones, or the french toast he ordered at a diner. it’s the little things.

ben’s planning on printing out the pictures and making a photo album.

he loves declan mckenna!

sarah:

she had a my little pony phase through seventh grade (same)

yes, it overlapped with clem and gabe’s emo phases

yes, duck looked like a stereotypical jock

and yes, they looked ABSOLUTELY ridiculous when they went out together

she still has a soft spot for applejack and twilight, since they were her favorite characters. she still keeps her mlp poster on her wall

she’s a lesbian

carlos is teaching her about medical stuff, since she wants to be a doctor too

she and her dad have a good relationship

he’s a little protective of her, but he also listens to her and what she wants

she loves drawing!! she has lots of sketchbooks on her bookshelves

sarah keeps a diary, but like. very inconsistently. there will be five entries in a week, and then nothing for another three months.

she and duck are really close

whenever she’s having a bad day, she’ll probably text him first

when their friend groups merge, she takes a liking to louis IMMEDIATELY

sarah has autism

she loves reading! she’s got a lot of bookshelves in her room. like, three of her walls are basically just Books.

her favorite animal is a cat, but she likes dogs too.

sarah’s favorite color is reddish pink (like the color of her glasses)

she thinks spider woman is really cool. sometimes she imagines she’s got spider woman’s powers and goes around saving people. other times, she imagines spider woman saving her and swinging her around the city. if she ever meets spider woman, she would want her to take her around the city.

she can’t drink coffee, but she likes iced tea! specifically peach tea and green tea.

she enjoys painting, typically with watercolors. she paints landscapes a lot.

sarah’s a vegetarian!

god i love them both so much sdfjalsdfk

deserved better squad

#ask #answered #anon #headcanons #sarah #ben #utcb #travis #charlotte #violet #clem #gabe #duck #carlos #louis

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saltyoaktree · 2 years

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Autism acceptance month and lesbian visibility week?? I've reached maximum power

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willreadforbooze · 5 years

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Hello fellow boozie readers!

If you haven’t heard about #Booziebookathon, it’s our week long readathon we host every year! We had such a blast hanging/reading with you guys!

Sam’s Update:

I got a lot of reading done this week, it was Booziebookathon, Dewey’s Reverse Readathon, AND NEWTs.

What Sam finished this week:

Booziebookathon Gin: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: There was the Sam before Evelyn Hugo and the Sam after Evelyn Hugo. I will never be the same. I’m gonna drunk review it.

Booziebookathon White Wine and Smirnoff Ice: Demon in the Whitelands by Nikki Z. Richard: I did not enjoy this very much. I wanted to, it was such a unique concept but it was choppy and very little was answered.

Booziebookathon Beer and NEWTs Charms A-level Exam: Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed: This was a really cute quick story and I really enjoyed it! It shows the ins and outs of indentured servitude on this planet. 3.5/5 shots.

NEWTs DADA A: Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel: These books are fab. It’s really hard to say what I did and didn’t like because the audiobook is just so good and so much happens that it’s hard to describe.

What Sam’s reading now:

NEWTs Transfiguration A: Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera: This is a book about a newly-out lesbian on an internship on the other side of the country. I’m still at the beginning but I’m loving the bits of Spanglish, and the crazy hippies, and the tone overall. I can’t wait to keep going.

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad: Buddy reading with Ginny and Liz and also for book club. I’m ready for more, but I don’t want to say any more thoughts because we still have to discuss as a group. I might figure out how to work this into my NEWTs but it’s not currently there…

Ginny’s Update (Aka Reads-with-the-wind):

Hi Everyone, good to have wrapped up the BoozieBookathon! Happy August, we’re only a few weeks away from going back to tolerable weather. I’m already looking at my closet looking forward to jackets and jeans and basically not being a walking sweat-being as soon as I walk outside.

Currently Reading

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad: This is still for a book club, I’m still reading it slowly. There was a pretty big twist and I’m enjoying seeing it ripple out.

The Ten thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow: I grabbed this book from bookcon and I am so looking forwarding to reading this.

Finished (aka ALL THE MF BOOKS)

Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move by Katherin Lanpher: this was one of my books for Boozie Bookathon and it fulfills my Gin challenge (book on tbr forever). Also technically fulfilled white wine. This book is an autobiography that focuses on change and really how to move between what you expected things to be and what things actually are. I really enjoyed some of the chapters, but I also don’t necessarily feel ridiculously drawn to the city of New York and found some of the descriptions a little tedious. 3/5

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman: IT’S THAT TIME! I’m reading the fifth book in this series that I adore. Irene is being called in to act as mediator in a conversation between the Dragons and Fae. This book was delightful. I also enjoy a mystery where all of the players are on the table early. (If you’d like to start at the beginning, my first review is here.) Most definitely writing a review.

Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews: Some people have crazy wild powers and one of those people is going crazy. Neva is tasked with bringing him in ssafely. Except dude is kind of a psycopath. Neva ends up working with pretty much the strongest other person, Mad Rogan (I know, that name…) who is trying to snag one of Adam’s (I think it was Adam) co-conspirators. I’m unsure of how I feel about this book. The plot was wild and a lot of fun, but some of the romance felt weird due the question of where consent should come into play…. I’m going to keep reading because I like the universe but will keep an eye out for consent issues.

All the Bad Apples by Moira Fowley-Doyle: This is a bookcon book (that I finally got around to) and I’m planning on writing a review, so brief summary. On Deena’s 17th birthday, her sister goes missing. She follows some loose threads to learn a lot more about her family history and the “family curse.”

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh: I’ve read a few of the books that come much further in this series but I really liked them and decided to come back to the beginning. Sascha is a Psy who has been taught emotion is weakness but is struggling to uphold the “Silence.” Lukas is the head of his clan and is trying to find a serial killer. Also they fall in love. Sascha is a lot of fun and it would have been completed different to read this book first when I didn’t already know about some various things. Still, a romp of a read! 4/5

A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole: Alyssa Cole is an always read for me now. I might prefer her contemporary things, but dear god is this series great. Marlie is the illegitimate daughter in a white family, which has given her a protected status but still a status of “other.” Ewan was responsible for torturing the Rebs captured by the North and then was captured himself. He escapes from prison and hides in Marlie’s house with her help. Due to circumstances she ends up as trapped as she is. This book was lovely. Ewan had a slight level of autism (I assume, it’s never directly diagnosed) but is one of those people who one sees his deficiencies rather than the things that made him wonderful. Marlie is just a brilliant character and the way they worked together was great! I enjoyed watching them learn their own self-worth. 4/5

Minda’s Update:

Booziebookathon is complete! Now full focus is on NEWTs Readathon for the rest of the month.

What Minda finished this week:

The Liar’s Daughter by Megan Cooley Peterson (Beer) – This book was kind of a trip—girl taken from her cult family resents having to readjust to life in society. Definitely recommend!

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Whiskey & Champagne) – Slog is the best word used to describe how I felt about this one.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Shot & White Wine) – Loved this one! Super short and just what I needed after the above. Counts for the first part of the Ancient Ruins exam for NEWTs Readathon!

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon (Vodka, Gin, and Red Wine) – I did like this one and it was on the shorter side, but not as much as I feel I could have from the premise. I thought it was a weird decision to have only one person tell the perspective of three. Also counts for Ancient Ruins exam.

What Minda is reading now:

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – My final read for the Ancient Ruins exam, this has been on my TBR for a bit. Excited to see how it goes!

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – Counts for the first part of this History of Magic exam! I got really excited about this when everyone picked it up at BookCon.

Linz’s Update:

Booziebookathon is OVER and I can finally get back to The Starless Sea *takes nap*

What Linz read (jmj what didn’t I read):

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay: Published this summer, this book is about a Filipino-American teen who goes to the Philippines to find out the real story behind his cousin’s murder. This book could not have spoken to me more and it was EVERYTHING.

Our Dark Duet by V.E. Schwab: I’m glad I finally read this sequel to This Savage Song but it wasn not nearly as solid a book

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi: I sat on this book foreeeever; it’s about an alien race approaching a Hollywood agent to help them be introduced to the human race. It wasn’t what I thought it would be, and it was super tell-y and monologue-y

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas: EXCELLENT romance novel, could have used like 1-2 more sex scenes

All Systems Red by Martha Wells: A bombass novella about a science team’s mission gone wrong and the android sent to protect them, told from the android’s perspective.

SLAY by Brittney Morris: Thanks Jesus I managed to get a copy of this book at BookCon because I do NOT know what I would have done if I had to wait til its release. In case you’ve been living under a rock, this is about a black teen girl, Kiera, who created an underground computer game for the black community. One of the players is killed in real life over a dispute in the game, and a lot of shit happens. It’s an incredible book and I’m absolutely reviewing it.

What Linz is currently reading:

The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton: a forthcoming novel about women’s relationships and racial identity, told by a mixed-race mother in the modern day and her ancestory, a former slave. It’s the only challenge I didn’t finish for Booziebookathon, but it’s not a book that you should rush through.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern: THANK GOD I CAN FINALLY GET BACK TO THIS, I don’t know what I was thinking starting it 2 days before Booziebookathon.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

Sam, Melinda, Linz, and Ginny

Weekly/Booziebookathon Wrap-Up: July 29 – August 3, 2019 Hello fellow boozie readers! If you haven't heard about #Booziebookathon, it's our week long readathon we host every year!

#Wrap Up

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