#idk why it was recommended for me I don't read romance novels | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

olderthannetfic · 2 months

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I would never defend them - at least not the ones who actually harass people - but I do wonder if there's some antis out there who genuinely come from good intentions.

Super serious and genuinely shameful confession: I'm an ex-radfem. I went into those circles in the first place bc I liked some of Dworkin's works. And while I obviously do not recommend anyone ever get into radical feminism, I will say this: If haven’t been down that very specific rabbit hole of ideology yourself - especially in online settings - you cannot even begin to imagine how fucking INSANELY pervasive the ideas are. Even if you've been a victim of radfem hate, if you haven't been a radfem yourself, I'm truly inclined to think you have no idea what those spaces are actually like. Sorta like how if you've been a victim of fundie hate, that is awful and it fucking sucks, but if you haven't been raised fundie yourself, you really don't know what it's like to be IN those circles, just a VICTIM of those circles.

I hate to throw around words like “hivemind” or “groupthink” but it is that. I went into radfem spaces thinking that I was above believing certain things that they believed but I clearly wasnt, it is so fucking toxic and that’s why i’ll never believe that “TIRF” (trans inclusionary radfem - something I tried and failed to be) can be a real thing. And then these same people have the audacity to call trans rights a cult, but you know, it's whatever.

Obviously terfs are more serious in the "real world" than antis are, but there are some parallels in the way that both groups feel about kink/porn discourse. (No, I'm not saying that antis "believe TERF ideology" or anything, but I do think in the specific context of sex stuff, there ARE alot of parallels.)

I am not defending radfems either, but I will say that I got into it because I was genuinely worried about things such as: PH and how they just steal content from sex workers, the abuse going on in the sex work industry, the phenomenon of young girls who are waiting to turn 18 so they can start an OF account, romance novels that were not marketed as dark but should've been considering they straight up romanticized abuse and rape.

I really do think that most antis are of a similar mindset -- people, typically young traumatized people (not trying to pull the neurodivergent minor card, it's just that statistically speaking, that label CAN describe most antis) who are truly worried that, like, idk, some young girl is gonna watch Twilight or read Reylo fic and think that an overly possessive bf is #goals. Again, I'm NOT trying to defend this ideology or line of thinking at all, I'm just saying that i DO think most of them really don't realize the harm that they're doing, and actually think they're doing good.

I actually kinda feel bad for them, but like my earlier comparisons, I feel bad for them in the same way I feel bad for fundies or evangelicals. I feel bad that they hold such an awful ideology while thinking they're doing good things, but I stop feeling bad once they start ACTUALLY hurting people and I'll always feel worse for the people who they harass and harm.

And like I'd never want to be a radfem again and I hate that I was one once but, between myself and your ~10k (ballpark estimate lol) followers, I think that my time spend in that belief system gave me some really good insight to cult mindsets, which was something I didn't understand before or have much sympathy towards, and I've emerged with a lot of empathy for people who ARE stuck in bad ideologies. I could've been born into a hate group. I could've been preyed on by alt-right people and sucked in that way. Instead, it was reading radblr during quarantine that got me. Before I fell into it, I just mindlessly hated everyone in that group, and now I just feel sorry for them (still without justifying any of their actions).

It's honestly a really, really, complicated thing to try to grapple with. Anyone, yes including you reading this, can be brainwashed into hate. The second you think you're too good for that, you've lost.

This was more of a vent than a discourse ask. I guess my tl;dr is: I hate antis, terfs, fundamentalists, etc, as much as the next guy, but I also recognize that some of those people truly truly do think they're on the right side of history, and some of those people have been sucked into an ideology they never would've believed otherwise if not for xyz factors. While hate groups will never deserve pity, there are some vulnerable people in hate groups who for some reason believe they're doing good, and I wish I could help all of those people.

Yeah, I assume many antis are perfectly sincere in their desire to protect people. They're just wrong about what will work.

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carnivalcarriondiscarded · 5 months

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Phullo it is I again!

I am very glad that you actually responded and given me an actual advice since I was worried about the question I sent you.

Though besides that I have another question for you (hoorayyy)!

So, about the reading books earlier- I’m fortunately a bookworm too! It’s just that I notice I prefer reading the genre science fiction/psychological horror more than… anything else!

And while the books I am currently reading, ‘Flowers For Algernon’ and ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ (these books are seriously so wonderfully made they make want to tear my walls), DO have romantic aspects of it- it’s not really the main plot of the story..

‘Flowers For Algernon’ has amazing storytelling and is very unique- though I’m not sure if you’ve read it before but, it’s actually just the main character taking notes. Hence why there was a lot misspellings which honestly makes it a great touch if you know the context behind it.

On the other hand, ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ too shares the same uniqueness as the other, possibly even more unique if I must say so myself. Though I REALLY don’t want to make my story similar to them since I want to make it more heart warming than fucked up..

Which is why I feel like I have the need to borrow or buy at least one romantic book because, I lack of it. I mean I accidentally borrowed it one time but it was kind of disappointing.

I don’t know if its a good idea and if I should do it or not since does it really matter of the genre, or just the writing?

Still, if you have any good books that are in the romance genre. Feel free to recommend some to me!

-lots of love, from another bookworm

welcome back! happy to hear you're a bookworm as well <3 im writing those titles down since i read a criminal lack of sci-fi despite loving it

i actually don't have any straight up romance recs - i don't actively search it out (outside of fanfic), so any romance i read just comes with whatever book i've picked up. just straight up romance bores me, unless its a fic with a pairing i actively like. and even then, i need to take breaks from it unless the romance is interspersed with an actual plot. im not a romantically-geared person! i dont have single Main Plot Is Romance book on my shelves!

but imo its really just the quality of writing that helps. ive never been in a romance, im the child of two different divorces, and yet ive been told that i write romance fairly well. go fuckin figure lmao.

so actually my advice on romance is to just like. wow idk what i do is pick apart the romances i see on tv / in writing. what makes them good together, how do they act around each other, what are their love languages, what's their dynamic, what traditional romance things do they partake in, what dont they partake in, do they have anything nontraditional, do they work and why do / they dont they - does that make their relationship more interesting or is it flat. are they a good match.

you don't have to have every answer, but ive found that at least understanding their characters / dynamics, and having them interact in a way that suits them will help your romance feel natural. dont conform to tropes or tradition, that will just make the relationship flat and unrealistic. and you can always sprinkle in little things that you like / would like, which will help ground the romance and get you into the groove

tldr with romance, i think it's better to observe real life (whether that's paying attention to couples or reading reddit threads) & analyze in-love or in-a-relationship characters instead of just reading romance novels. bc honestly, and from what i can tell, they can tend to be over the top or cookie cutter

just realized you did not explicitly ask for romance advice! Oopsie! i got a little carried away here....

#another thing i like to do is analyze bad fictional relationships / ones i dont like #both bc it gives me a concise argument / explanation if someone gets on me about it #and bc it helps me understand what makes good romances Good #bc bad relationships make me sit there and ask 'well. what went wrong here? why dont they work? why do i hate this? whats Missing?'#and filling in those gaps teaches me what Does work. what will go Right. why i Love it. what Is there.#sometimes the answer is simply bad writing & after taking a deeper look #i can conclude they they Are good for each other - the show/book just shoved them together with no reason other than #'need romance' or 'boy meet girl' or 'love at first sight'#i mean there are some romances that i look at it and im like 'wow! this should not be happening!'#but i Like it because its interesting enough! a good example is aline & the darkling from the grishaverse #such a fucking unhealthy relationship. really well written. fascinating. hot as hell. important for the story/characters.#i wanted to rip them apart but also glue them together to see how horrible the train crash would be!!!!#absolutely unprompted #so i mean... i think i can rec books that Have good romances in them? but thats not the focus by any means #lemme know... i know im less helpful this time around but i hope im helping a little!#feel free to ask as many questions as you like - ill do my best with all of them

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ofliterarynature · 10 months

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JUNE 2023 WRAP UP

loved liked okay no thanks (reread) bookclub*

Let’s just say I was feeling a bit unhinged this month…

I don't know what was up with my brain this month (it was stress, probably. ugh.), but it was comfort-reads-only central. Which spun out of control a little with the KJ Charles, but we'll get to that.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World started things off with a great non-fic pick. It spoke so deeply to me that it made me very angry at the world while also being very comforting. Would highly recommend.

Dust and Shadow is Sherlock Holmes solves Jack the Ripper, but hewing much closer to canon than say, that other one I fell in love with last year (The Angel of the Crows). I couldn't help comparing the two, and while it was interesting seeing each author's interpretations of the Ripper case, this one did not come out on top for me.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is a sort-of sequel memoir to the author's collection of letters published as 84 Charing Cross Road that I read last month and loved. A little different but still a delight, and I've got another one of her related memoirs waiting for me on my desk right now.

The Goblin Emperor... what can I say, my brain needed comfort, I caught up on the AO3 tag, and thought why not. It was amazing to go back and see all the little bits of Maia I'd forgotten.

Sorcery & Cecelia I picked up partially as a consequence of my KJ Charles/historical romance rampage that fully put me off of the other audiobooks I already had checked out. I've been meaning to reread them for a while (it's probably been a decade) because I wanted to explore my mixed memories of the two sequels. And I don't blame younger me! The original book is a delight sort of in the vein of Diana Wynne Jones and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, with adventures and almost a comedy of manners element to it. The much later sequels lose a lot of the whimsy and brightness, are much more serious and adult, and are much more explicitly mystery novels. Now I love a mystery novel, and I think if you distance them from the original book they're not too bad! The Grand Tour is the worst, I think, both because of the unexpected shift in style and because I don't think the epistolary format they chose works well (I really would have loved to see some letters they wrote to other people, imo, rather than diary entries). The Mislaid Magician brings things back around much closer to the original novel's format both literally and narratively, if not in style, and I liked it a great deal.

This next one goes out to Lauren, who will probably never read this but - I finally read The Age of Innocence! Not the copy you gave me, but I did it. It wasn't quite to my taste, but it absolutely fits with what I know of your other favorite things. Sorry this was like 8 years too late.

Bloom I've had on my shelf for years and it's totally my doing that we read it for book club - it was a nice read, I love the art style, but ultimately it was a bit forgettable. Maybe if it'd focused on resolving the non-romantic conflicts as well, idk.

It took me MUCH longer to get to Winter of the Witch than I had planned, but I did! It felt a little clunky trying to get all the ends tied up, but overall I liked it, I was very glad to get away from the politics of the second book. This was such a well written series, I definitely recommend it, but it also made me feel angry and anxious enough while reading it that I can't see myself ever revisting it. (I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of the author's work though).

AND NOW FOR THE KJ CHARLES!!!

I started off the month finishing up the Will Darling/English books, which, do not follow my example, you should absolutely read in chronological order (and pay attention to character names!). These were not books I fell immediately in love with, but exposure and persistence, not to mention some great side characters, won me over. I also cannot BELIEVE that KJ waited until the very very end to introduce the "proteges" concept, and it's the best thing I've ever heard I am emotionally devastated (and cackling, lmao).

I've mentioned elsewhere my accidental discovery (too late) that the next 3 series were related, but I did manage at least to start with the correct one. Society of Gentlemen was...okay. The first one might actually be the worst KJ Charles I've read so far, but the other two were definitely better, if not exactly to my taste. I like the mystery/action/adventure plots more, I suppose, rather than...politics? I think? and respectability is boring anyways.

I managed to accidentally skip over Sins of the Cities directly into the Lilywhite Boys, which is a pity, because they're much more closely related to each other than Society (which honestly you don't need to read beforehand). Even without the more detailed background from Sins, I LOVED the Lilywhite novels and novellas. Thieves and shady characters who are extremely competent, excellent lovers, a little violent, and with their own moral codes are catnip for me, I could not have resisted.

I then went back to Sins of the Cities, which were also good! The leads in the first book were sweet but a little bland, the love/hate thing going on the second book was fantastic, and I loved that the third book had a genderqueer/nb lead. I appreciated getting all the background to events hinted at in the Lilywhite books, but I also admit I spent less time focused on the murders and more on "ok but HOW does X become the Earl???????" I had so many theories lol, none of them right. I just wonder if these would have hit a little harder if I'd read them first.

As I write this in July, I'm still working my way through the rest of KJ's catalogue but I think the worst of my brain fever is over, and I'm hoping to soon have the mental capacity to read the new Victoria Goddard I've been ignoring for a couple of months. Wish me luck, and happy reading!

#book log #2023 #wrap up 2023 #bec posts #kj charles #david epstein #Helene Hanff #the age of innocence #bloom #sorcery & cecelia #winternight trilogy #dust and shadow #booklr #books

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azelle-intermisson · 1 year

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Echo vn review

i have finally finished echo as my second ever visual novel after adastra. i really loved this vn and it was a super interesting read. for anyone who hasn't read it if a furry horror vn with very human feeling characters peaks your interest then i would 100% recommend echo its a really good story with some really strong characters that i enjoyed thoroughly. in this review im gonna be going through all the main cast and some of the side cast so its gonna be a kinda long post where i just gush about parts of each route i really liked but there will be titles before each section if you want to see what i have to say about one character in particular for whatever reason.

this review is all my opinion and is not going to be exhaustive so i will end up missing some things (mainly because i did not take notes while reading and forgot a lot oops). so if there is something i missed you wanna hear my opinion on ask :). also this is my first time writing something like this so lmk if there are things i can do better if i end up doing this again.

SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME AFTER THE READ MORE

before i fully dive into the review i wanna go over some of the external factors that have influenced how i view this vn. during flynn's route i was the most sick ive ever been in my whole life and im pretty sure i missed out on some vital details because of the brain fog during that sickness. i am not well versed at all in vns the only other vn i have played is adastra, however i am familiar with romance tropes so even though i feel like i missed out on some cool moments simply because i haven't played many vns i did not miss out entirely. also about halfway through my playthrough i learned that there is kinda an order you are supposed to read the routes in which is: Carl > Leo > TJ > Flynn > Jenna, i ended up reading it in this order: TJ > Leo > Flynn > Jenna > Carl. i don't really know how much this ended up changing how i view the story but thats how i did it. i also made chase gay i don't really know what that ended up affecting since i played all the routes as gay chase and whenever i got something i considered a "bad ending" i would reset to my last decision and do something different. the last thing that might have some sway on how i feel is how sweet the community has been to me so far, i don't usually get myself involved with a community before i finish something but this time was different since i was making fan art and everyone was super nice <3

Visuals/Music

I really loved the music and artwork for this game. i feel like the music did such a good job of creating an atmosphere whether it was chilling in the diner with jenna and tj or getting kidnapped by brian it always did an amazing job at really putting me in the shoes of the characters. i adored all of the fully rendered drawings throughout the game i love the colors i love everything about it. of all of them i think the one below is my favorite i just love how serene it looks.

youtube

this was my favorite track i feel like it does such a good job of capturing the tone of the whole game so well or the one that plays whenever they are just chilling idk what its called and i can't find it for the life of me it is driving me crazy.

Misc

there are a few things i couldn't quite fit into any of the next sections so i wanted to put them here. i really loved every character in this game i feel like the reason why i loved them all was because of how human they felt. whenever someone did something i didn't agree with i always defaulted to sympathizing with them because of how human they felt to me. also after writing this i have realized my ranking of each of the routes is just how much leo is involved with each of them i guess i just really love the guy.

Prologue

this part of the game is a little less fresh in my mind since i only read through it once on my first playthrough but from what i remember it did a really good job of establishing the setting and getting me interested in the lore of these characters. the first river scene was such an amazing moment i love how the route split happens in a way that makes you choose between emotionally comforting someone or going after who you want to romance. my only issue with it was that i did not realize that this was a route split in my first playthrough and ended up picking tj since he seemed the most affected by flynn and i was really worried about him even though the character i really wanted to romance was leo. even though i did not realize it was a game with so many diverging paths at first i still think the prologue was really good and got me very invested in the lore of echo.

MAIN CAST

Chase

i walked into this game not really expecting to care for chase too much since i kinda didn't like marco in adastra and i was expecting him to be more of the same type of guy but i was pleasantly surprised. i hate it so much when player inserts are just blank slates so im very glad that chase is an actual character who interacts with the world and people around him. he never had any moments where i was frustrated with him and wished he had said something different(aside from the ending of tj's route) and for the most part he reacted the way i think i would in his situation so i really liked him in all of the routes.

in retrospect i really like tj's route for how subversive it is as a romance with tj not reciprocating chases feelings and how nasty chase's jealousy felt. while playing it i kept waiting for leo to show up and whenever chase would try and romantically pursue him i would get kinda sad because i wanted to hangout with big wolf man. however i feel like this gave me a really interesting perspective on this route since before chase even kissed tj i never expected them to actually get together since it didn't feel like tj was all that interesting to me. this made chase's jealousy over julian feel even more scary than it already was and that final confrontation at the lake with flynn horrifying. i loved how the horror aspects where handled in this route and how subtle a lot of it was in comparison to other routes. chase drowning flynn and the description of it is one of the most haunting things from this game for me. overall i thought tj's route was pretty good even if i spent the whole thing wanting to hangout with leo because i was dumb and didn't know i had gotten to the route split. its in 4th place in order of my favorite routes in this game.

Leo

leo's route is my favorite i love him so much. i love how you get the bad ending of his route for trying to stay with him. his route was also my first time seeing the hysteria in full swing so that was a crazy twist. every single scene with brian made me feel so anxious i never really knew what to expect from him. i loved how his unhealthy obsession with chase was treated with the weight that it really deserved. the way he reacts to kudzu and chase's relationship not only feels like a natural progression of his character but also adds so much to the horror of his route since his jealousy often ends up causing serious harm. it was so sad to see him unravel and act the way he does during the hysteria because i really wanted to see him be happy and somehow move on from chase. the final scene of the "good" ending gave me what i wanted in the most evil way possible. i had wanted him to move on so bad that i had forgotten how brutal moving on can actually be. leo ends up losing the person he is closest to in the worst way possible i say this with love though it made me cry real hard. and the implication that he is planning on staying in echo is too just heartbreaking. i could go on forever about all the things i love about leo's character but i don't want this section to be too long so i will end it here and say leo is my favorite of the main cast and he has my favorite route of this whole game.

Flynn

i feel super conflicted on flynn's route, it does so many things so well but the ending left me feeling weird. i wanna talk about the things i liked first, which is most of the route. aside from leo he was the character i was most interested from the prologue mainly because i could tell that he wasn't just going to be a one-note mean guy and i thought he had a ton of potential for a really interesting story and i was right . i really enjoyed how his mean demeanor was written the times when he decided to be nice never felt out of character, like the way he helps carl with his interview and really wants his friend to do well and when things don't turn out well he still supports carl but does it in such a flynn way i just loved it so much. flynn and chase's relationship during this route stressed me out the most out of all of the routes mainly because of how they hid it from leo i really wanted chase to just talk to leo about everything but i can understand why he was avoiding it so much. i really loved the reveal of chase killing sydney and how flynn reacts to it. the way everything in that scene plays out was just amazing i can't be mad at either side of the it since i can understand why jenna and leo don't want to believe that their childhood friend killed someone but i can also understand flynn's immediate reaction to this and wanting to lash out at chase. the sydney flashback really got to me everything about it felt so real to me and flynn trying to take a big brother role for sydney and try and protect him from seeing the corpse anymore was so heartbreaking. my favorite part of this route was when you get the perspective of flynn rather than chase it was not something i was expecting in the slightest and i was so happy to be able to see some of his thought process when he does stuff. i really liked the hysteria portion of his route but im a little iffy on the ending. on one hand i like it for the story the fact that flynn dies kinda makes sense to me i just really wished he had lived and we had gotten to see a healed flynn who now knows the truth of what happened fully, even though i know this vn doesn't like giving out easy solutions. overall flynn's route is really good i just wish it had ended differently i would put it at 3rd place in my ranking of the routes in this game.

Jenna

i almost adore jenna's route as much as leo's. i really like her personality and aside from leo she is my favorite character. learning that she likes manga and watching anime with her was such a fun little moment that i thought was cute. it really surprised me when carl went missing in this route i was kinda expecting his birthday to play out the same in every route but i this was a really good plotline. i liked that this route forced jenna and flynn to interact more since the tension they have is always so fun to read. i loved the side characters in this route micha was my favorite out of all of them(even though i think jeremy is really cute). i want to give micha his own section in this review but to put it shortly his relationship with leo made me super happy. i really liked the tension between jenna and leo it was such a good conflict that i enjoyed reading. the whole fake cheating prank was such a gut wrenching scene that i was honestly having a hard time getting through. i liked the section where they are kidnapped by brian more in this route than in leo's mainly because brian getting rocked by the ghost thing was really satisfying. the implication that carl was tortured the same way chase was for multiple days is unfathomable to me. leo and chase being sewn together made me feel sick because anything remotely body horror related gets me and micha having to sever that tie was really cool foreshadowing for leo and micha's whole thing. the whole van section was also really incredible and seeing leo start to move on from chase warmed my heart in an otherwise very intense route. i liked heather she is such an intresting character to me since i really want to sympathize with her because its clear she has a lot of unresolved trauma but she was also an asshole to jenna and tried to flood all of echo. i really loved her trying to flood the town it is such a crazy plot point but i still really loved it and jenna having to put aside how shitty heather was to her to talk her down was a really good moment. the dinner scene after everything also felt very satisfying and it was good to see micha be apart of the group for a bit his interactions with everyone made me smile. i really liked jenna's route all around it is my 2nd favorite and was a super fun read.

Carl

i really liked carl's route i relate to a lot of his struggles and even though there where less scenes that scared me it was still really good. this was the last route i played so i was feeling kinda melancholic while reading since echo had become my nightly routine for about 3 weeks and i was really loving the characters and story. i liked how much lighter(in comparison to the other routes) of a tone carl's route took staying over at his big haunted mansion is such a silly concept on paper but it ends up playing out super well. i thought raven was a silly guy even if he didn't really add or remove much from this route and he helped keep jenna somewhat in check so that was nice. the escape room stuff was so interesting to go through. i found myself feeling scared that they may not actually make it out or they would end up killing each other. my favorite scene from this route was the hanging tree stuff. i had such a vivd picture of everything happening and it was really hard to watch jenna and carl to do things that i know they wouldn't. this route also had a ton of echo lore so i kinda wish i had played it first since i feel like i missed out in other route because i was trying to piece together things that are revealed in carl's route. i really liked the james hendricks and john begay stuff . even though carl's route is my 5th favorite by no means do i think it's bad.

Side Characters

i'm not going to only talk about the ones that really stood out to me and in a much shorter way than the main cast (other than micha)

Micha

micha is my favorite of the whole side cast and i really adored him and leo's relationship that i interpreted as romantic during the last bit of jenna's route. at first i didn't really like him and thought he was kinda an asshole. as the plot kept going i kept getting more and more attached to him since he was still an asshole but he was working with the main group. normally i don't like characters like him but i feel like he was written in such a realistic way that i found it hard to stay mad at him. i really loved him and leo's relationship their connection felt so real and i think they could be soooooo good for each other. the van scene was so incredible the way the player and chase have to fill in the blanks as leo and micha talk about what happened between the two of them really immersed me in the story .leo feeling guilt over never reaching out to micha after he was disowned was such an interesting thing i never really expected leo to want to help someone who was a bully to his friends but i still feel like it makes sense for leo to feel this way since he just wants to protect people. i think its really sweet that leo ends up leaning on micha more after the van scene. also the scene in the dinner at the end of jenna was really sweet i loved seeing micha being added to their group dynamic and i wish i got even more. in conclusion leo and micha should kiss and live happily ever after <3.

Brian and Clint

i don't have a lot to say about these guys other than the fact that they are horrifying antagonists. before i saw brian fight i was under the assumption that if leo is present then we are probably safe but brian ends up breaking that sense of safety in such a horrifying way. i like that even though clint isn't physically strong the fact that he has the strongest character following his orders made him so intimidating

Jeremy

i wanna give him a big kiss even tho he is mean

Janice

i really liked janice in tj's route. i love the fact that we never get a clear answer for why she needed chase and tj to be digging holes. i almost want to trust that she isn't killing people but she clearly has a few screws loose.

Closing Thoughts

i really loved this furry visual novel and its really human feeling characters. i had way more to say about it than i thought and the more i write the more i love the story and the more i want to say but this is already such a long post. i liked adastra more but i don't really feel like it is a fair comparison because if i hadn't played adastra this account would not exist and i prob would not be drawing at all but maybe if i had played echo first it would have done that to me since it still is really good. this was super fun to write even tho i know some of it might not make any sense lol because this is just kinda stream of conscious. i might end up doing this with other things i read/watch since it also gives me an actual reason to take notes when i read/watch things. also i wanna say thank you to the community on here i haven't been involved with fandom spaces for a really long time and im still not very involved with this one but you guys have been super nice and i wanna continue making art and talking about this game :)

#azelle talking #echo project #echo vn #review #vn review #furry #leo alvarez #chase hunter #flynn moore #tj hess #carl hendricks #jenna begay #micha echo #Youtube

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daily-linkclick · 10 months

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(im sorry if this sent twice my computer did a weird thing as i was typing out my ask and idk if it sent prematurely)

i just caught up to the orv manwha on webtoon (ep 158) should i pick up the novel where it leaves off or should i pick it up from the beginning? like... how different is the manwha if it differs majorly anywhere in the story (personally got a lil annoyed at it misgendering nirvana in the chapters following after they said theyre neither man nor woman :/)

dw you're good it only sent once!

i'm not the best person to ask this because i'm (apparently?) one of the uncommon ones who read the webnovel first! from what i've heard the webtoon is fairly accurate, but it skims! there's some really good subtle character moments that don't get shown (which i can see why, a webtoon is more costly both in time and budget than making than a novel). and also from what i've personally seen they removed a character's line teasing kdj's romance with yjh. it was pretty funny and i'm sad they removed it LOL

plus if you start from the beginning you can get used to how the novel is structured! it has honorifics for a lot of characters and the names are structured as last name then first name which looks more natural to me LOL. i read a *bit* of the webtoon because i wanted to see how some things looked, and the webtoon does not capture kdj's thought process as well as the webnovel. a lot of his personality and how we get to know more of him comes from his thoughts, and i assume the webtoon cuts most of them for time and readability.

(also my god im so sorry to hear about nirvana, iirc they use they/them for them in the novel with the occasional gendered pronouns? so not as bad as what you mentioned lol)

so tl:dr, i personally recommend reading from the beginning to get used to how the novel is structured and written, and to get those very nice characterization that might be lost in the webtoon!

#not dlc #dlc asks #orv #also having read the webnovel first before even seeing what the webtoon looks like??? very glad i did that #it looks like a generic action fantasy and my ass would NOT have read it LMFAO #i mentioned the character line thing as an example of how different your experience reading the two could be!

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mermaidsirennikita · 7 months

Text

ARC Review: 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

4/5. Releases 10/17/2023.

Vibes: Hallmark Christmas movies with a twist, boss/employee, grumpy meets snarky, uptight meets defiant

Sam can't stand his controlling, uptight boss, Jonathan. When they get into a conflict (at the workplace!) right before Christmas, enough is enough, and Jonathan fires Sam... Right before accidentally causing an accident that gives Sam a concussion. Befuddlement and confusion at the hospital leads Jonathan to believe Sam has amnesia... And why not go with it...?

Another charming, funny romcom from Alexis Hall, full of chemistry. It's a little tame, but it's also Christmasy and offers me the same feeling a sugar cookie would. If you're a fan of Alexis--or want a seasonal good time--go for this.

Quick Takes:

--One thing I loved off the bat was that Jonathan was SO. VERY. STARCHED. And he hired Sam despite his lack of managerial experience because he "saw something in him" (or maybe he envisioned Sam inside him idk idk). So of course, he's so, so mad and so, so stuffy about his would-be protegee... kinda sucking at his job (more on that later).

Sam, meanwhile, is like--I wouldn't call this grumpy/sunshine. Sam is too snarky, too snappy, and too confrontational with Jonathan to be a sunshine. They're immediately combative, and you get this great tension, and then like... boom. Jonathan is trying to keep himself from getting sued to hell and Sam is pretending to be an amnesiac in order to keep his job. MESS.

As a sidebar... This is not a true amnesia romance, but if you like amnesia romance, I think you'll enjoy it. Jonathan fully thinks his employee! is an amnesiac and spends this whole time babysitting him, and having him meet his family... You know. Boss stuff.

--One thing I expected going into this book was like, this typical scenario where the millionaire asshole Jonathan was wrong, and Sam's soft managerial approach was entirely right. To me, Sam immediately had some noticeable issues as a manager that I've seen in real life, and they're often brushed off because it's nice and kind of passive.

I should've trusted in Alexis Hall more, because he really handles this well and humanizes both Jonathan and Sam. Neither one of them is perfect. Sam has a lot of growing to do. Romance arc aside (which was obviously good), I seriously appreciated where Sam ended up in this story. It was a very evolved take, and refreshingly realistic in a way I think Alexis handles better than almost any other author.

--The Christmas isn't OVERMUCH, but it's just enough to have that charming, snowflakes in the air over kisses vibe. And it has enough wit and chemistry to really overpower the schmaltzy Hallmark movie sensibility. Although it's nothing like this movie in terms of plot, in terms of romanticism this book reminded me more of Dashing in December, than a Hallmark movie.

The Sex:

This is a closed door romance, and I won't lie, that didn't feel completely right to me. I'm biased, and if anyone is going to sell me on closed door, it's Alexis Hall. And this couple did still feel very sexy--like I said, the chemistry is great. I would recommend this book as a closed door novel that will probably work for people like me (who don't really read closed door ever).

But... they do have sex. It's just not on the page. And I couldn't help but wonder why? It's probably just an artistic choice, and I respect that. Like I said, it works. I just think it would have been a little bit better if we'd seen that sex scene. Or really, those sex scenes. I also just love the way Alexis writes sex. Peggy and Orfeo's first time in Something Spectacular is one of my favorite sex scenes ever. Something on the love of Mortal Follies, a book which was pretty tame in terms of sex but still said a lot with a little, handled this a bit better to me.

With that being said, if you want a cute and witty Christmas romcom with a wacky twist, this will absolutely work for you. It's light, it's fun, it's satisfying. Can't complain about that!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#romance novel blogging #arc reviews #netgalley #book recs #book reviews #books

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mandalhoerian · 9 months

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last words on moth to a flame.

oh god i kept sleeping the whole day away on and off this fic really drained me and now i'm literally done with it i feel so empty. (if you dont know what im talking about, final part to ghost to its haunt is out)

like moth to a flame (as a series) is the first project i've completed EVER and i'm feeling so great (even though half of it was shameless porn) but also it's done now and idk what to do with myself hhhhh

no joke i've written a whole novel. the minimum words for a novel is 50K and:

It feels SO WILD.

Thank you so much for seeing this through with me, all the support and being patient with me as I scrambled to finish everything!

More blabbering thoughts below the cut for the final huzzah (i am giving this fic a send off after all. ur getting a huge author's note)

moth to a flame was the first leonxreader fic i'd written and no joke, my first smut too. looking back i was really writing it for ME lmao, practicing and playing around with leon's character and everything.

i am lucky to have it blow up this much (thanks to that one tiktok account who recommended fics you have my heart) because it t came out relatively early like right after re4r release. i received incredible comments on it. like PARAGRAPHS and whole essays picking it apart and appreciating the details and i never got around to answering any of that because i didn't feel deserving of that kind of praise. I've never gotten attention like that before and i felt unworthy of it? I didnt feel it was anything special, leon isnt a new character there are better works out there,

but i get that fics for re4r leon were being put out SLOWLY and mine just happened to be on the better side of the spectrum since i started working on it way before march when the remake came out and had months to revise and edit, so that's why it's much more superior to lamb to the slaughter and ghost to its haunt which are dopamine-fueled, weeks-old projects barely beta-read basically running on concentrated inspiration (and i've been dealing with cholecystitis for months waiting for surgery through it all. so it's really been a roller-coaster ride)

to this day i have no idea why both ended up to be 25K words each dude 😭 i just wanted there to be a story i guess? like, when people said they wanted more in mtaf's comments i just wanted to deliver a decent plot and have a strong background on how the reader had ended up in a situation like that with leon, and things just branched out from there.

i took so much time on them because I FREAKED OUT over it being slightly popular. you guys know. lmao . its all i talked about on ltts notes BSDSJDS

by the time they came out though, attention and interest had fizzled out majorly, like, anons who were begging for a sequel did not come back after ltts dropped I CLEARLY remember (after getting what they wanted from me) AHAHAH but i did deliberately shoot myself in the leg with that one, i am AWFUL with expectations, so it was between "what the hell, let's go low-ER" and "let's go out with a bang"

i think i did get back on track A BIT with ghost to its haunt, but still, it's its own thing, you know? i did say it'd be a good ending, so it has a good ending... in moth to a flame standards.

this series ended up to be a choose your adventure type of story. it's up to you how it ends. if you like angst, just accept it ends with moth to a flame and reader and leon are done and go their separate ways. if you don't want to settle with that and want the story to continue, you have a dark romance with a doomed ending with lamb to the slaughter; and if you like a kinda hurt/comfort fluffy bittersweet conclusion instead, ghost to its haunt is for you.

So yeah. It's really over.

Thank you so much everyone. It's been a pleasure and a great couple of months. If you want to come talk to me in the asks or whatever about the series, you're more than welcome.

See you next time in potential new projects!

#shai.txt

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stormblessed95 · 1 year

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Heaven's Official Blessings (Tian Guan Ci Fu) Vol 1

Volume 1 in print stated that it covered through chapters 31 in the web novel edition for anyone who sees this and read it that way, please don't spoil me for the future books!

So I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It started off slow, wasn't sure if I'd be into it or not, took about 100+ pages to really snag my interest. Then I binged the other 2/3rds of the book in 2ish hours. Lol it's also fairly tropey in some ways, but not so in others. If that makes any type of sense. It's giving me the slowburn red string soulmates vibe of my dreams though. It's giving a will they won't they, but we know they will just wondering when vibes. It's clearly first and foremost going to be a romance book with fairly character focused plot lines, but it doesn't overshadow the adventures and mysteries they are solving either.

The first adventure Xie Lian goes on, I will be honest and say I wasn't sure why we (as readers) were there or what relevance it had to the story at all other than perhaps just as a character introduction. But the author looped it all around and tied it back in to the main plot line, our next adventure and it all connected. Which made me realize I should trust her to not just give me pointless information and to take it all in because who knows where we are going next. It was an easy read, the tone and world building were for the most part fairly simplistic and didn't require a lot of brain power, but was fun. I would have loved to see more foundation here for this world and the magic within it. It did get me blushing over bridal carries, gentle hand holds, fixing each other's hair and the oh so cliche "we only have one bed" which was done all so innocently. The slow burn is oh so good.

The book ending with a promise of a next meeting and a promise to see his "true form" and I can't wait. Xie Lian is a little too.... good natured? Idk the best word to describe this one, but he is very gentle and while I know he can fight and be a badass, I want to see more of it. I'm not sure if he will ever be a favorite MC for me in general, but I didn't dislike him either. Hua Cheng though, he has potential to make me really fall for him and these books! Lol

Overall, yeah, I'd recommend these books so far! I plan to check my library for the next volumes and hope they have it so I can keep reading. And this is marketed under romance so if these two don't have a HEA, I'm going to feel very lied to! Lol also the art (official and otherwise) for this series is STUNNING wow

#heavens official blessing thoughts #storm book recommendations

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witchcraftingboop · 11 months

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Would you please recommend mangas?

I'm not gonna lie to you, baby, my tastes are trash. You can call me the garbage man because bish I'm swimming in that shit, scooping it all up and dragging it back to my lil apt-- or maybe the Grinch... oh well!

Anywhoville, here are the mangas I've read physical copies of since this all started back on April 13th:

Fangs by Billy B-something - BL - I like their take on modern vampires. Could do without the crazy dude randomly (coincidentally) escaping from jail

Kaiju Girl Caramelize by someone - Straight, Romcom (wtvr that is in manga genres), takes place in a high school - hilarious and I love it

SpyxFamily also by someone - Idk what genre this is honestly but it's funny and good and I love it

Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle - I have all 20 volumes because it is just a cute lil fun lil read

So I'm A Spider, So What - Okay, does the mc grind like crazy to level up? Yes but it's also hilarious and a lovely lil isekai about how a high schooler is reborn as a weak bb spider and becomes super op and challenges gods and demon lords ... 10/10, have every volume out rn and love it

Heaven Official's Blessing (light novels) - BL, Danmei - Listen. I love these lil fucks and I love how these are written -> Currently on book 2/5 in my lil shelf, six comes out in Sept I think

Given - BL - It's an okay series. I read it all (that's out), and it is amusing while reading, but ultimately probably won't read again

Fruits Basket - grew up on it, love it

Chobits - unfortunately grew up on it (why do I not remember how sexual this shit was like jfc did that throw me for a Loop lmao)

Savior's Book Cafe Story In Another World - Isekai (of a 30yo, not a teen for once), romance -- I adore this lil series. It's a cozy lil hug in a book

Uzumaki by Junji Ito - Horror - classic, love his art style and story telling, I don't find horror manga or anime scary though so I read it more like comedy tbh

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas - Tragedy(?), Romance(?), set in high school - I went into this expecting and knowing nothing and I enjoyed it a lot

A list of BL I read and enjoyed: I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love, There Are Things I Can't Tell You(💜), Sotus vol 1, Killing Stalking (??? is it BL idk,, it's B), Midnight Rain, The Flower That Seems To Truly Dance, Loved Circus, The Snake Who Loved A Sparrow (look out for anatomy oddities), Sasaki & Miyano, Secret XXX, Therapy Game

The Witch & The Beast

A Silent Voice

Fire Force, omnibus 1 (dunno about later ones cause this is the only series I didn't just buy complete)

My next reads are gonna be the series I just bought, so Demon Slayer, Ouran Host Club (again, childhood fave), Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Ghoul Re, & Choujin X.

After that, the next batch'll likely be: Bofuri, Arifureta, & Overlord (all isekai - or in Bofuri's case video game life). Which I can recommend watching in the anime forms as well.

But yeah those are pretty much all the series I like that I can name off the top of my hear rn. There are definitely quite a bunch I'm forgetting, but I cannot be bothered because this lil answer has already gone on for a long time and been interrupted 4+ times by my Boss' after hours inquiries into his own goddamn schedule I'm going to beat this man with a sandal

But yeah that's it, anon, pillage through my wares as you please!

#boop's asks #manga reccs #bl and romance are my comfort reads obviously #I go through phases of reading just one primary genre at a time #rn we're shifting gear to more sienen stuff I think

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zhongrin · 1 year

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UMMM HI since it seems like u read webtoons do u have any recs on what 2 read???? :3

i've been reading a few these days! (pls note that i don't read the novels so idk how these series would turn out) my recommendations would be:

(note: ♦️ this symbol indicates mature / n.sfw content / dark themes. tread with caution if you search up the title)

another typical fantasy romance - there is no healthier couple than lithera and pellus and honestly it's the kind of relationship i picture myself with zhongli <3

♦️ elixir of the sun - dark themes ahead, but if you can stomach them then give it a read. i've. i've been guiltily brainrotting about this storyline but with emperor!zhongli hskdjjdlsjdlsjf

sigrid - i love the characters' development in this!! not just the fl but the others too!

my mom entered a contract marriage - the art is so so so gorgeous it's unlike any other manhwas hskdjskfldkd

i married the male lead's dad - this manhwa started so funny but don't be fooled. prepare your tissues. also hades supremacy holy fuck that man is h o t

♦️ under the oak tree - heehooweewoohooriftanholyfuckhhhhhhhhh

♦️ roxana - honestly i dropped this a long time ago and just recently remembered it. kinda forgot the storyline of this series but i remember it was a trainwreck and the art is gorgeous as fuck and fl is girlboss. SUPER dark themes ahead tho, so beware.

father, i don't want this marriage - super funny 'summary of the next chapter', frustrating to endearing father-daughter relationship, dumb (/aff) and down bad ml. juvel can have max i want her dad /bonked

cassmire: the loyal sword - badass fl i love cass she is awesome and she deserves the world

for better or for worse - there's just something about this series that makes me love it sm but i can't explain why. the scene where cedric admitted being in love to ethan was hilarious as fuck (could you imagine al haitham and kaveh in that scene??? bc i totally could hskdjsldjsl)

beware the villainess - lord help me nine is adorable and i want to give him all the head scratches. and melissa is such a mood.

beast with flowers - can you tell i love down bad male leads? lmao anyway the fl's dad is hilarious so bonus points for that!!

who made me a princess - i hold this series dear to my heart. the way claude and athy's familial relationship develops... sobsob i love seeing relationships being repaired in manhwas. gorgeous art too!

#rin answers #rin is having tea with: anon 💟#these are the ones on top of my head that i can think of atm

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coccolithophore · 1 year

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2,9,19 (book asks) 💖💖💖

2. top 5 books of all time? OH MAN ok idk if i can categorize things like this but ill put down a few off the top of my head

the left hand of darkness, ursula le guin

parable of the sower, octavia butler

why fish don't exist, lulu miller (read this recently its sooo good please read it)

to the lighthouse, virginia woolf

never let me go, kazuo ishiguro

9. when do you tend to read most?

recently ive been reading before bed every night to try to get myself to fall asleep and curb my phone addiction. and on planes and vacations i read obsessively

19. most disliked popular books?

im just not a huge fan of cliche Y//A romance novels 😶 like, ive tried, and ive read some ok ones in the process, but like... this new booktok advertising trend where people give recommendations based solely on fanfic relationship tropes has driven me away from the genre entirely. its a very capitalist way to consume literature and i like books that bend my mind or even change my worldview, and i definitely dont pick the media i consume based solely on... shipping potential. sorry for that lil soapbox it just drives me a bit crazy.

#THANK U EA LOVE U #asks

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mrsbakashi · 2 years

Note

all :) if you want lol but if not then just the even ones

you know damn well i'd answer all of them twice for you 😭

thank you for asking and watch out for the long ass answers (so i put a cut).

1. book you've reread the most times?

probably pride and prejudice. it's a cliche, but it's my favorite book and i usually go for it when i don't know what to read next or when i'm in some sort of "book hangover" (is that a thing in english? idk). or maybe the little prince. yes, i'm a walking cliche.

2. top 5 books of all time?

oh god, so hard. i'm going for book that hold a special place in my heart for many reasons:

1st: pride and prejudice

2nd: the posthumous memoirs of brás cubas (it's from a brazilian author and it's honestly so amazing i can't even put into words)

3rd: the chronicles of narnia or harry potter (yes, i'm listing the whole series as one book)

4th: soul love - at night the sky is more beautiful

5th: the little prince

3. what is your favourite genre?

does fiction count as a genre? does novel? or maybe romance? to simplify: if there's romance in it, i'm reading it.

4. what sections of a bookstore do you browse?

first the best-sellers/popular because it's usually the first section, you end up there almost before you even enter the book store. then i like to go to a section on my favorite bookstore that is for recommendations of both customers and the people who work there (they can even let post its saying why they recommend it). then i go to national and international literature. sometimes i go to spiritual section because i love studying it. depending on how i feel i can also go to the languages section and see if there's anything helpful. and usually, before leaving, i take a quick look in the medicine section because old habits die hard, and then i feel super sad i won't be a doctor anymore and go straight to McDonald's. ✌🏻😗

5. where do you buy books?

this question is so sad... so books are really expensive in my country, and people don't really have the habit of reading here, the numbers are insanely low and our government doesn't care/doesn't do anything about it, so teacher and schools are left to do the impossible task to make people understand it can actually be fun - anyway, things are really bad, yes. so a lot of bookstores had to close after declaring bankruptcy, and the few that are still working are always empty. and that alone wouldn't be as much of a problem, but now the prices are so ridiculously high - i can't remember the last time i bought a book in a physical bookstore. they cost like double the usual price there. the last time i went to my favorite (ex-favorite?) one i got so mad i left withing 3 minutes. i literally felt like crying, because it's the most famous bookstore we have, and it's kinda historical, and i had so many great moments there. anyway. now i buy them online. i try to find small sellers on instagram/etc with a good price so i don't have to give my money to bezos, but sometimes i do, because sometimes i can't find a specific book anywhere else 😔.

6. what books have you read in the last month?

NONE! 😃

no, seriously, since november last year i've been reading exclusively fanfiction (and lately not even fanfics 😩). i did start a couple of books, but couldn't go through because my anxiety is quite bad and i can't engage with anything with more than 1 chapter or more than 1K words. or watch. can't remember the last time i watched a movie.

but last september, which was the last month i actually read something, i read 3 books i think.

7. is there a series/book that got you into reading?

i'm pretty sure there was, but i can't really remember, because i was too young. i think i was 4 when i insisted my sister taught me how to read so i could read books, and she did which is amazing if you think a 7 year old taught a 4 year old 🤣 she would come home with what she learned at school and taught me. i remember i already knew how to read when i entered school and the teachers were usually amazed and kept me in charge when they had to leave for a few minutes - yes, i was that kid who is responsible for writing down the names of everyone who is not quietly sitting.

but anyway. there's a really famous comic series around here that's called "monica's gang" in english, i believe, and i remember reading it a loooot.

but to answer the question: i've been into reading for as long as i can remember.

8. what is the first book you remember reading yourself?

the first one i actually remember reading is the little prince. i know i had read other children's books before, with little silly cute stories, but my first "big girl" book was the little prince. i was 6-7 and my sister got it at the school's library for me and i loved it so much - to this day it's still one of my faves.

9. when do you tend to read most?

at night, in bed, sipping tea, before falling asleep. that's the only time i feel okay with doing something not related to work or stuff.

10. do you have a guilty fav?

absolutely! twilight for example lololol. and like "Led Astray" by Sandra Brown, and also the Hush Hush series and "Perdida" from a brazilian writer.

11. what non-fiction books do you like if any?

most of them are from brazilian writers so i won't name them, but i really like reading historical books, biographies of people i admire, spiritual studies and stuff. i like studying some stuff too, so books with theories/textbooks. does poetry count as non-fiction? 🤔

12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

yes! the posthumous memoirs of brás cubas for example i was forced to read to vestibular - a big exam colleges and universities have to test if you are good enough. there were other books some of my teachers recommended or made us read that i really liked at the time, most of them are brazilian.

13. do you have a goodreads?

i don't, but i have another social media to keep track of my reading. it's called skoob (which is books spelled backwards) but i don't know if it's available worldwide.

14. do you ever mark/dog ear books you own?

yes, but i'm not really a fan of it. i like to write/highlight my books, but i worked in a company very far from my house so i used to read a lot on the subway/bus and i couldn't highlight/write in a bus/train full of people (like so full you could barely breathe) so i folded the pages i wanted to highlight later - but then i never did, because o was busy finishing the book, so now i just have a lot of books with dog ears.

15. recommend and review a book.

oh, i suck at it, which is ironic because i used to have a bookstagram. but i will do a very light one:

i will recommend the posthumous memoirs of brás cubas, one of my favorite books. it was written by an amazing author with an amazing story back in 1881. so it's a book narrated in first person by the main character, brás cubas, who is now dead and reminiscing on his life and the people he met. and he is sooooo ironic, funny and full of himself. like there's a part during his funeral when it starts raining and he just goes "even the sky is crying the death of the great brás cubas". and while you go with him in this trip through his life you find a lot of critics, specially directed towards the society, but also a lot of reflections about life. it's just amazing. funny and deep. i love it.

16. how many books have you read this year?

none! 🤣

i mentioned before the last book i read was like in september, since then i started books but kinda abandoned on page 30 or so. i was reading a lot of fanfic but now even that is fading, so i'm basically reading nothing...

17. top 5 children's books?

i think "children's books" is too much of a wild concept, like do you mean harry potter or do you mean the gingerbread man?

anyway, my top would be:

the little prince

the chronicles of narnia

harry potter

peter pan

diary of a wimpy kid

18. do you like historical books? which time period?

i do! basically any time. i love learning about the past, how people lived, how they did some things, their customs... it's really nice. also i don't know if historical books refer to like pride and prejudice or to actual history books, but the answer is yes for both ✌️😗

19. most disliked popular books?

oh, uh... i think the after series. i read the first book entirely with the strength of how much i hated it, and i just didn't drop it because i don't like dropping things (taking an indefinite pause yes) but i hated it so much.

20. what are things you look for in a book?

first i ask myself if the story has the potential to make me cry - if yes then I'll read it LOL. i look for stories that will give me many many feelings, like really mess with them, or stories that seem fun or sweet or interesting. i'm also a sucker for narratives (idk if that's the right word in english, but like the way the story is told) so when i'm in a bookstore before buying a book that seems interesting i usually read the first chapter/pages to see if i like it. i ended up giving up on some books because the narrative was bad or annoying. 🤷🏻‍♀️

#about me #ask game #morggie answers

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sb-essebi · 4 days

Text

13 books

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Tagged by @softest-punk thank you so much! <3

1) The Last book I read:

I'm rereading everything Shadowhunters by Cassandra Clare, I'm going back to some of my fave books from when I was a teen to chill while I'm having a stressful time at uni, so City of Fallen Angels.

2) A book I recommend:

I feel like tumblr would really like Trudi Canavan. Plenty of POC and queer characters, good fantasy with a side of romance. The Magicians' Guild is a great wizard school fantasy, character-focused, start of a trilogy.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

The Hunger Games. Which is so funny having read that Cecil had to put it down :'D

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

I reread. A lot. All the time. One of my most-reread books is probably Eldest by Christopher Paolini. Yeah, Eldest specifically. I'm addicted to elves and to Eragon being incredibly pathetic and embarassing about pining for Arya, please don't judge me.

5) A book on my TBR:

God, I have like 12 books on my to-read pile and like 20 more that I don't have the money to buy. I'm most excited about Murtagh (yes, yes, I haven't read it yet, I swear I want to, my brain just says the stars are not in position) and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, a book I know nothing about but I bought on impulse the synopsys sounds dope as fuck.

6) A book I’ve put down:

A few. The most egregious example I've moaned so much about IRL I'm scared to say that, so I'll go with the Maze Runner prequel. I struggled through the trilogy to see if it ever got good/if the ending was really as easily predictable as it seemed, but the prequel... nothing fucking happens and the prose is just as boring as the trilogy.

7) A book on my wish list:

I really want to start reading the Discworld novels. It keeps getting pushed back because of the realistically minuscule extra hassle of wanting to buy them in English and not in ebook form.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

Ugh it's so specific I'd be doxxing myself. I'll go with the Geno Hastor Venti trilogy by Moony Witcher. Another great wizard school fantasy, for 11-year-olds, which I read at 11 and made me feel really good about myself because I had a huge "not-like-other-girls" complex and refused to read Witcher's much more popular series Nina because it was "too girly". Turns out I was never a girl and was processing my dysphoria as mysoginy. Huge win /s.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

Totally depends on the friend.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own

I have a few! My most recetly reread is Ovid's Metamorphoses.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

Uhm. I have a lot. A lot of them bad. Most of them only useful to linguists and translators. I just bought El comentario lingüístico-traductológico entre lenguas tipológicamente afines by Giuseppe Trovato... yeah.

12) What are you currently reading:

I'm onto City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

I should read Murtagh or Trovato's book, but I'll most likely read Fourth Wing when I'm done with Shadowhunters because it's new and shiny and this year's covers are fire idk why editors have so much money for golden paint and pretty illustrations all of a sudden but I love it.

Tagging: I'd love to know what @ghostboyjules @avelera @blueberrymffn @wordsinhaled and @landwriter read 👀👀👀

#tag game

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bellamysgriffin · 2 months

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Hi! This is so random but I've owned the book One day for a while and am planning on reading it soon..like in a month maybe. I don't have much time for reading right now but wanted to know how the book is cuz I've heard mixed things. I saw the movie a long time ago but barely remember it. I'm also doing this thing where I read two similar books at the same time to compare them and I've paired it with Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow by Gabrielle zevin. Have you read this book too? A lot of people love that book and someone I'm following said they loved it but didn't like one day so I'm interested in another person's opinion and if you liked it. But maybe the books aren't that similar either and that's why. I started both and read the first two chapters but had to take a break and will finish them hopefully soon. I do know what to expect from the movie too, which could help reading or not. Idk if you know the other book so sorry if you don't but am mainly asking about One Day haha.

omg i love talking about books so much and i always wish ppl would chat with me more about them so this is a very welcome ask!

i haven't read tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow although a trusted friend of mine really liked it so it's on my list. i thought one day was positively wonderful! it isn't ur typical romance novel, it's very character-focused, and the characters are very imperfect and flawed, but clearly meant to be. there's wonderful yearning and fights and brilliant arcs and it was funny and romantic and bittersweet and then horrifically tragic. if you've seen the film then you should know how it ends, and truthfully, if that ending doesn't bother you then i can't recommend the book more! i think lots of ppl are turned off by the ending, but i didn't mind so much, so.

if it helps, it reminds me a lot of some of nick hornby's novels, as well as the book normal people by sally rooney in the way it treats its romance.

#dana answers stuff #it's certainly worth a try at least. i adored it <3

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slowdripsunrise · 5 months

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ok yeah its 4 am idc book review time for the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw!!! spoilers under the cut :)

KLMELDKFCMLEKRMFLKVMLEKRMVLKERMVKLM AHHGGHGGBHGH 5 stars. off the bat. oughghgg i think this is one of my first 5 star book in a while tbh.... actually idk. whatever.

first off one of my favorite things about this book was the setting. ohhhhh my god the beauty of the taiga the beauty of snow!!!!!!! cold!!!!!!!!!!! like good lord do i hate being cold but new england november is killing me i need 5ft of snow rn or i will die. i think if this story was set in any other environment it wouldn't have hit as hard for me,,, even some place just as harsh and cold wouldn't have worked this specific beauty of the taiga and the snow, the descriptions of the aspens and cedars and pines,,, the desolation it causes to the village around them. the imagery of this basically religious cult of children surrounded by cold and dark forest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fav. fav ever omg.

the characters..... oggghhh the mermaid and the plague doctor, HER plague doctor, them together was so sos os so sweet. i loved it so much ohhh my god the tenderness there that i could Feel, without any real physical/sexual intimacy. and each of them on their own, the plague doctor's general care for others, for the children even if they was so indifferent about the mass murder of the kingdom lol. the sweetness without ulterior motives, idk. idk why im so endeared by them lmao ive imprinted and yeah again its like 4:30 now so. did i almost cry when they died. yeahhhhhhhh. and the mermaid!!!!!!!! blunt and hungry! loved her i don't know how to articulate my thoughts more than that, nonhuman and shows it and her transformation at the end to more human after the centuries go by and her teeth, her cunning, was so fairy tale like. and her love for her plague doctor, the switch from "the" to "my" OijoIJOIJOIEJJIOREJFIOER. one of my fav scenes of them together was when they were talking to luke and patching him up,,,, ;ladscx,;ls,dc;lms;dc,l;s,dc

ok and so the writing, yes it was a bit dense. did i understand every single word? god no, was it beautiful. yes omfg, i think the voice and the writing perfectly fit and encapsulated the vibe of this story. again it was very fairy tale esque and i really liked it. i don't think i would have liked the writing as much if this was a full length novel, thought. here, it works perfectly and serves its purpose.

the gore and the romance intertwined, these bloody awful evil people and the tender love they have for each other, the understanding,,,,, absolutely loved the horror aspects of this book, how it made the story so incredibly original. i forgot that i was reading a little mermaid retelling and felt like i was reading a brand new myth or fairy tale.

thats all im gonna say right now bc i need to sleep but 5/5 recommend for sure to everypne who thinks they can stomach it this is one of if not my fav of the year bye bye

#the salt grows heavy #thoughts.txt #book review #confession i listened to an orville peck song a bit before i read this book and i a bit associated his voice to the plague doctors lmao #i know their voice is androgynous but i couldn't help the association and also the southern twang was funny. and also the warmth #ifl idk if the mermaid ever described her plague doctors voice as warm but thats how i pictured it lol #for reference i know absolutely nothing about orville peck and have heard maybe 2 of his songs #so the association was moreso from what i picture OPs getup is-mask #wears mostly black? i think? idk

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