#i'm off to reread the goose girl to soothe my heart tho ✌️

[madamescarlette]

You guys, Thorn by Intisar Khanani (another Goose Girl retelling) is.....so good. It's so good. I'm a bit devastated I read it so quickly.

#reading tag #i cried many many times #though that is partially because i made the mistake of choosing golden embers to be my listening song ~2/3 of the way through #but i haven't read a book that has really scrapes to the bottom of the issue of what loss and violence do to you until this one #or at least not in awhile #the second half is actually quite heavy (in a good way!) but it tackles quite real and vicious things #like- why is safety only afforded to those who can pay for it? why does power mean so little when it cannot protect? and so on #i feel like i kept coming to a point where i wondered what else could possibly be taken from thorn #a dilemma oft heard in my head this year #so i think there is something very beautiful and significant about her story #about facing the violence and hurt and hatred of the world #and eventually finding love and acceptance and work to do along the way #she doesn't just have to make the choice to live. she has to make the choice to give up her chance at peace so that she can protect #and protect in the way only she can. as the honest one. as the person who has been here watching and hiding and intervening when she can #and because of who she is she can reach anyone with the depth of her understanding of suffering #and convince them that life is the right choice #it is just. fantastic tbh #i'm off to reread the goose girl to soothe my heart tho ✌️ #reading the blue sword and this back to back led to perhaps a bit too much ugly sobbing