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alexsfictionaddiction · 5 months

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Review: Sad Girl Novel by Pip Finkemeyer

I don't know why I'm so drawn to covers that feature women who look like they're in some kind of emotional distress (there are a lot of them out there -have a quick Google!). Maybe I feel a kind of kinship with them and feel like they're calling me home! With a title like Sad Girl Novel, I had a good idea of what I'd find inside and I was really excited to see how many of my own feelings and opinions would be validated in this book.

Kim is an Australian living in Berlin but she is drifting through life while trying to finish her own sad girl novel. When she meets a hot, successful, American literary agent named Matthew, she finally feels that he may be able to help her finish and publish her novel and get her life together. Perhaps there might even be a chance of romance too.

Kim becomes obsessed with Matthew and overreacts to every interaction she has with him. I didn't predict the twist regarding this but I'm also not sure it was needed. I didn't really understand the reasons for it and would have liked that to have been explored a bit more. I did enjoy the easy, overdramatic humour that came along with Kim's romantic hopes because sadly, for some of us, that's a real coping strategy for dealing with something as emotionally intense as unrequited love.

The humour is dry and definitely isn't for everyone. I did see this book compared to Monica Heisey's Really Good Actually and while I can see the similarities (a millenial woman realises that life isn't what she'd thought it would be hides behind comedy in order to deal with it), I'd say that Heisey's novel is much funnier. However, comedy isn't something that you can please everyone with, so some readers will undoubtedly enjoy it more than I did.

Naturally, there is a lot of discussion about the regular things that come with being biologically female. Like most women, I could definitely relate to Kim in this. It also talked about the unpredictability of a menstrual cycle and the havoc it can wreak on hormones and emotions. I'm not sure if it talked about it in a way that I haven't read before but of course, it would have been strange to not touch on women's issues in a book like this.

Again, naturally, the book talks about issues that writers face. For Kim, this means keeping her focus and I know that this is something that most, if not all, writers deal with. Kim is also an overachiever and perfectionist with the reality being that she is spread too thin and that nothing is done well. This is really typical of many writers' mindsets, so no doubt several readers who also write will identify with this.

Kim has some really interesting opinions on fertility and getting pregnant and to be honest, they are quite thought-provoking. I hadn't considered that since sperm banks and artificial insemination has become more mainstream that women perhaps have more power over whether they have children or not. I just thought of it as great scientific advancement but it's true. Women no longer need men to have children and that's actually a great triumph for female autonomy and independence.

I really loved the friendship between Kim and her best friend Bel. Their conversations paralleled those that I've had with my girlfriends and their connection felt really authentic. That's perhaps why the 'twist' upset me so much. However, for the most part, Sad Girl Novel does a good job of depicting a loving, genuine female friendship and I have to give it credit for that.

Sad Girl Novel is a cynical, wry take on life as a young, aspiring but unpublished, female writer. There was also some reflection on how a foreigner experiences Berlin, which was another aspect to the book that many readers will find interesting. In general, I feel like the book was perhaps trying too hard to be hilarious and that didn't land for me. There was plenty to relate to as a millennial woman though, so I enjoyed it well enough.

#sad girl novel #pip finkemeyer #contemporary fiction #book review #review #books #bookworm

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inkskinned · 25 days

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how odd, to watch the creative writing exercises of angry men in the comments of instagram. you noticed it first in the comments of conventionally attractive women - but then it started appearing everywhere else, too.

a young man talks about what lunch he's packing his wife. there is a little story under it, with 300 likes, fabricated from nothing. "this is pointless. if you treat her like this, she will take the lunch to her office and fuck her boss and divorce him and take all his money."

you scroll. a young woman talks about what lunch she's packing for her husband. it is always uglier when the subject of the video is a woman, you've noticed. "you sit on camera and you smile and you are cheating with the neighbor and then you're going to lie about being sexually assaulted by your husband and -"

you stop reading. it has 567 likes.

where did this even become a thing? people making up stories in their head, disgusting long-winded assumptions about intention and sexual disgrace. the evil twin of fanfiction.

like - it's just a lie. it's a lie that they are telling, baldfaced and assumptive. the undercurrent is of course misogyny, but the trouble is that they're so fucking certain. that's what makes the hairs on the back of your neck rise. there is this pervasive, inventive desire for them to be right. that they must be right. all women are cheating, lying, gold-digging bitches. no exceptions.

in the reverse, when women say i'd rather meet a bear in the woods than a strange man - men funnel in from the sides. they defend each other with a vibrance and capacity for empathy you wish applied to like, the other half of the population. a man could be saying i absolutely did kill her and these creatures in the comments would rise up with king shit. she made it happen. they love each other to the point of this sick strange self-gaslighting, a fervent and unhinged cognitive distortion. all men are good, wonderful people. all women are terrible, conniving, seditious, annoying.

and when did it become okay to just, like... say that kind of a thing? at one point, you find yourself typing out a witty and snappy retort. why are you spending so much time fantasizing about other people babe. but as you stare at the screen, some part of you pictures this man in public, saying these things to your face. his soapbox, high and mighty. his mirrored sunglasses and his empty life: tired and lonely.

what a sad and horrible loop he's locked in. he is terrible to women, so women don't talk to him, which he uses as an excuse to act more terribly. he blames this "failure" on women, rather than on his behavior. it cannot be that he is the problem (that the solution is to just put his ego down and accept women as equals) - he begins to invent a sculpture to replace the flesh frame of each person he sees.

it isn't just a woman posing on the beach. it is now a slut with a desperate need for each person to crave her body. it isn't just a woman yelping with surprise during something upsetting. it is a hysterical, unhelpful cretin who will probably make things worse instead of better. it isn't a person.

someone's very sweet wedding vows get moderate attention on instagram. in the comments, a man says good fucking luck you'll waste your life providing while behind your back she's absolutely fucking the best man. this will be so cringe in 2 months when she walks out on you.

you think - is that what you need to be true? is that what you need to happen, for the world to make sense to you?

#writeblr #every time i see these little creative writing projects i see red lol #girl go write a novel or do ur homework or something.#if youre gonna lie on the internet at least stop badgering women. do it in the privacy #of your poor sad reddit boards

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bishopcomics · 2 months

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Normal People matching icons

like or reblog if u save

kirstvndunst on twitter

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sandyona · 29 days

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I thought about Nimona didn't had such a big anger at the start , but it was growing with every bad emotion she had...

(Im sorry,Im bad at drawing animals lol)

#nimona graphic novel #nimona comic #nimona #nimona past #thanks #i love her #its sad #art #where is our favourite Goldeheart?#my baby girl

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aubdrewanchel · 6 months

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My conclusion on things after my conversation with @tired-reader-writer

#My poor girls Charlotte and Hannelore #I hate Veronica but even she had a really sad childhood #Lil Melchior is hurting himself trying to be more like Rozemyne #honzuki no gekokujou #ascendance of a bookworm #ascendance of bookworm #honzuki no gekokujō #rozemyne #ascendance of a bookworm meme #ascendance of a bookworm light novel #ascendance of a bookworm manga

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mermaidsirennikita · 5 months

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choose your fighter: Immortals After Dark epigraphs edition

#romance novel blogging #romance novels #immortals after dark #I MEAN LISTEN.#every romance novel should have an epigraph where people say something super poetic or super stupid or both #also: wicked deeds (book 3) is apparently the first one to have gotten an eipgraph bc my copy of no rest for the wicked (book 2)#doesn't have one #also also: 'the sorceress is an evil bitch but she's MY evil bitch and i'll have no other' still outsells #probs the hottest is garreth macrieve talking about hunting her against her will and bringing her back to his bed #macrieve's is intensely sad actually and i didn't realize that before now #the contrast of tragicomedy with both neomi and conrad's super works #and ofc: 'expert in boys reverse psychology and law enforcement evasion'. best. my baby girl. my precious cinnamon toast crunch #they're both relentless!!! neither of them can be stopped!!!! unstoppable force meets immovable object: the book!!!!!#(lmao i do love also garreth's title being 'king of all lykae' only for him to be immediately relieved of that #and going 'OH THANK GOD')

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outmaww · 1 year

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someone HAS to know these gals someone please

if you do i might actually marry you

#OBSESSED WITH THEM #old piece but i figure if anyone would know it's tumblr #100% willing to update this drawing #the girl from the sea #molly knox ostertag #my art #they're sweet summery sapphics ;-;#whenever i'm sad i read this graphic novel and everyone else should too

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ofyorkshire · 4 months

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sitting on bj now bc now i'm thinking about his gender again and how i have no idea how to figure it out because he doesn't totally seem to know, and even if he did, there's a huge discrepancy between the films (where i primarily base my portrayal) and the novels.

i think he should experiment more. he doesn't get to, but he should. i think he's mostly afraid of the reactions he'd get from friends, whether he decides "yeah, actually, i'm a girl / i'm genderfluid / i thought i was something else for a while but actually i think i am cis after all and just feel euphoric cross-dressing, sorry, i've never been allowed to form an identity until now", and idk. whatever it is, i think i do need to figure it out, eventually, if only bc it seemed so important to him that barry gannon understood him.

whatever tumbles out of him when i get the chance to really shake him for it, i'm soft about bj having the freedom to discover himself. and i'm soft thinking about him having friends who'll accept him not in just whatever he finds, but his in searching.

#novel bj: possibly??? a not-transitioned trans girl??? or does he mean something else and just doesn't have the language for it??#film bj: idk just there to give other characters info when they need it. has no personality except 'sad' and 'deeply troubled'.#chinhands @ bj's freedom/recovery aus. i thought his gangverse would be my favorite bc i don't get many opportunities to write that setting #but actually i think i prefer skipping a little toward his recovery bc it's nice to have the opportunity to let bj find out stuff.#and that's really why i love writing characters.#digging into them. learning about them. listening to what they have to tell me about themselves.#out of fairy tales [ooc];

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heartstopperthoughts · 2 years

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Some graphic novel recs from Bookstagram: @ and_so_she_reads_

The Sad Ghost Club ~ non-binary ghosties with mental health struggles find friendship in one another

The Girl From the Sea ~ summery sapphic love story with selkies

Mooncakes ~ cozy autumnal sapphic romance with queer and non-binary rep and a hard-of-hearing mc

Witchy ~ magical adventure with trans rep and talking ravens

#as promised here’s some book recs!#starting with some graphic novels I’ve read lately #books #book recs #from bookstagram #sad ghost club #the girl from the sea #mooncakes #witchy #lgbtq

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bradshawsbaby · 2 months

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The older I get, the more I genuinely fear that I’m never going to be the love of anyone’s life 😢

#probably why i cling so tightly to my romance novels and fluffy fanfics 😅#sad girl hours brought to you by pms

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sadexecutivelove · 8 months

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Nicola Yoon, The Sun is Also a Star

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lolitafan1997 · 7 months

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Sad.

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non-fantasy · 4 months

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Hello!! I saw your post about the game you're making - it sounded fascinating, and out of curiousity about a genre I don't know much about I got into a visual novel/dating sim related rabbit hole.

If you don't mind my asking, do you have any recommendations? VN or datesims or both! or any adjacents too.

(thank you, and good luck with the game!!)

YIPPEE!!!

i'm a huge fan of it gets so lonely here because it does a lot of cool things with the narration and multiple playthroughs. her tears were my light does similar things with the multiple playthrough thing and it was the first visual novel to really open my eyes to what the genre could be like! and because apparently today is horror yuri day i will add liar liar and liar liar 2. the artstyle is very cute! and there's blood!

for less horror yuri and more dating sim, i am currently completely obsessed with tokimeki memorial girls side 1-3, the dating sim/visual novel/stat-raising hybrid that inspired a lot of otome games—— and for good reason, too, because it's JUST THAT GOOD. i almost exploded something trying to play the fourth game but i will not let that stop me

in pure visual novel, i have to recommend heartbaked, it was one of those games i played in my free visual novel frenzy when i was younger and it really stuck with me! i still think about the radley ending.

i adore adore adore pacthesis games and i would love to direct you to my number one favourite and inspiration, number days sim date, because the intertwining of plot and romance and friendship was wonderful. xolga and mr toko is more point and click but check those out too

i love you was REALLY GOOD and i adored it. if you want proactive women and blushing boys this is the game for you! kill them with blushing right now

senpai please look at me was good!!! i love it! absolutely worth sticking around for all the bonuses! very short and sweet and you will love it

sweetest valentine is a game. in a genre called :). if you don't know what :) means don't worry about it!

play yuki 4p for lesbians and its sequel, scheme, for even more dumb lesbians. i am absolutely begging you to click those links because the names are too long for me to type out and i don't know if googling lesbians scheme will bring you to the masterpiece properly

hermes and gry is REALLY FUNNY but also one of those games that opened my mind to how complex the ren'py system could be. you made a map, a constantly-updated journal, an inventory, and the best damn ending ever? i was screaming when all my evil schemes came together. absolutely 10/10 worth it if the creator wants my liver i'd hand it over

hot coffee is SO SO SO good that i ended up reaching out to the creator just to praise it so much please play it please i'm on my knees please

speaking of games i am begging you to play

absolutely play i want to pursue the mean side character and my sweet zombie!!!! tsun is a great artist and the stories are good and you have to have to have to have to play okay!!! tsun is also making i just want to be single which is so so so cool the game of the year every year and it hasn't been released yet and you need to become. a fan okay because aro pride is right now

#thank you anon it really was delightful to hear that you liked my game even before it was released!#i wanted to recommend no-good noelle but. apparently the creator just went offline?? sad #there was also our life beginnings and always which is very acclaimed and i loved the demo #but i haven't finished the full game so i don't want to recommend something i didn't finish #xoxo droplets is also good but it's half free half paid and i was focusing more on free stuff that is underrated #(p)lanets and heartstring bugs are also games i played years ago that i'm fond of #but like in a nostalgia kind of way.#it was absolutely wild to play tokimeki memorial girls side and realize that heartstring bugs was so heavily based off it tho #like it wasn't copying characters or settings but the stat raising and events and clothing system were all drawn from it #special shout out to corrine cross' dead and breakfast which isn't a visual novel or a dating sim #i just like it #i also need to clarify that her tears were my light is not like HORROR horror but like. existential gay nightmare kinda deal

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saturnniidae · 8 months

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Jlaire (or just Claire as a character, tbh) wouldn't be any be anywhere near as popular as it is if Claire was chubby like she is in the book.

Anyways, I love both book and show Claire with my entire heart, but I'm still kinda salty with how much they slimmed her down in the show

#the inherent fatphobia in media thats then perpetuated by fandoms and their favoritism of thin characters is just depressing honestly #and you can tell from early concept art back when they were still thinking abt keeping her closer to the book #she was still skinny like they never even considered giving her the body type she had in the book :(#anyway #her body type being described as “what the popular girls would call 'not skinny enough'” in the book #is like one of my favorite things ever #especially how its liek in the same paragraph as jim listing things abt her he finds attractive #im also still sad that they made her shorter than jim #i loved how in the book sje was the tallest and arguably most capable trollhunter #in the show they were clearly trying to make her a 'girl power' character #which is fine in theory #but their execution was meh #like imo the best way to do it probably would've been just keeping her more similar to her book counterpart #not that she wasn't badass in the show #but still #claire nuñez #claire fontaine #trollhunters novel #trollhunters #tales of arcadia #jlaire #Moth.txt

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seasideserene · 3 months

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Would anyone like to read a dystopian apocalypse story inspired by the last of us, mw2, and metro 2033??? Is it okay to write an oc instead of a reader??? Idk how this works. Does tumblr have a place for whole novels instead of just x reader stuff?

I also plan to write for fandoms but this is my big pet project.

A list of what I write for;

The last of us

Metro

Call of duty (black ops and mw2)

Stranger things

I will eventually make a list on who I’m confident writing. I am a college student tho so please bare with me.

#dmitri antonov #joel miller #the last of us #metro exodus #metro 2033 #metro 2034 #call of duty #black ops 2 #mw2 #mw3 #just a sad girl who likes to write #simon riley #ghost cod #writing #writing novels #i’m just a girl

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themidnightcircusshow · 18 days

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@heartofstanding tagged me in this meme months ago and unfortunately it took me this long to get to it because I had a mild crisis over how long it's been since I've read a novel, let alone one that I loved 😅 so this is nine of my favourite novels (not books, because if I included manga/short stories/comics/etc this would be giant)

0The Picture of Dorian Gray -- Oscar Wilde// Pyrrhus-- Mark Merlis//The Scarecrow--Ronald Hugh Morrieson//Unnatural History--Kate Osman//Tunnels of Blood--Darren Shan//The Coffin Dancer--Jeffery Deaver//Hero--Perry Moore//Frankenstein--Mary Shelley//One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- Ken Kasey

#TPODG I feel like is obvious. But a genuinely hilarious book that is also poignant and tragic and so /so/ compelling #The more work you put into it the more you get out of it and I get so sad every time I see people #not wanting to look deeper than what's beyond the surface #Pyrrhus gets the extremely high honour of Greek Myth Retelling That is Actually Good #it's less about the Trojan War and more about the journey there set in the 1980s gay scene #the cursed spot that gets Philoctetes abandoned is an effective allegory right until the moment it isn't an allegory at all #and you should see the gut punch coming but somehow you don't #The Scarecrow is my Token Kiwi Representation and it's also the one that got me into the genre I now write almost exclusively #reading it feels like watching a cheesy low budget slasher that accidentally says some really interesting things about sexism and misogyny #(I say accidentally because it is the 20s and my tutor very loudly hated this book for being sexist)#(and I both totally agree and disagree because Prue is the prototypical final girl and needs an adaptation that does her justice)#Also the story of this novel's publication is freaking hilarious and why I will only write under a pseudonym because I would be next #Unnatural History is an exact blueprint of what I love about sci-fi done well in the way we've only very recently started to see on screen #and I hate that the show of Doctor Who rarely if ever reaches this level #Tunnels of Blood is my favourite of the Darren Shan Saga but really is just a stand in for the entire series #yes it's a kids series but it's a kid series that got me into horror and surrealism #and delivers the most effective and heartbreaking plot twist that not even Hannibal pulled off as well #The Coffin Dancer is just some damn good crime fiction and I wish Jeffery Deaver wasn't so slept on #(yes I know The Bone Collector got an adaptation but The Bone Collector isn't even in the top ten of the Lincoln Rhyme series)#unfortunately Deaver's strongest point is his use of point of view #but he still manages to get the twist to be shocking (and Coffin Dancer is the best example of it) in a way that other media fails at #Hero is about a gay disabled teen with superpowers and somehow tumblr does not know about it #It is such a fun riff on superheroes while also being genuinely sweet and touching and sad #It was meant to get a tv show but the writer passed so it got stuck in production hell :(#Frankenstein is Frankenstein. It's just good on like every level. Victor is my problematic fave. I will take no criticism.#I am however on my knees hoping the Guillermo Del Toro adaptation finally gets it right #one flew over the cuckoo's nest means so much to me but no one ever talks about it beyond the Ratched and Mcmurphy stuff #who are the least interesting characters to me. And I find the debate about the sexism ignores that the novel is about the structural abuse #of the mentally ill

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