anis-book-club

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question for the wednesday (netflix) fandom:

i've made this a poll because i thought it would be a more accessible format, but i'd be really interested in having a (respectful!!!) discussion in the comments. reblogs are closed because i'm sort of testing out a theory and i don't want this post to spiral too far away from my original intentions.

disclaimer: i don't think shipping wenclair in particular is necessary to having an opinion on this matter, and i'd be interested in hearing what a wider group might think.

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this blog is a disaster and i need to go through it and reorganise 🙃🙃🙃

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review: the cuban girl's guide to tea and tomorrow by laura taylor namey

read: 21 january 2024—22 january 2024

medium: audiobook

⭐️2/5

every time i think about this book i want to drop half a star from my rating.

it's okay. it will stay at a 2/5 for now.

usually i don't take the time to actually review a book because i am busy and tired, but i just keep thinking about how much i want to talk about my issues with this book.

i think this book really bothers me because i lived lila's eventual dream life. i moved from the united states to england for university three years ago, and there are a couple of things that just felt really off about lila's character arc and the characterisation of the british characters.

as i said, i'm american and therefore i don't have much claim to knowing exactly how british people act and speak, and that awareness made me wonder if laura taylor namey had it right and i was wrong. later i spoke to my british flatmate and she sort of validated some of my issues with how the british characters spoke—namely that i think i heard/read the word "bloody" more times in the less-than-nine-hours duration of this novel than i have in the entirety of my three years living in the u.k. there may be some regional and generational differences in speech, but "bloody" doesn't really seem to be a prominent staple in british gen z slang in my limited experience. it honestly felt like an american-held stereotype of british speech given personality (and not all that much personality if i'm being honest).

moving on.

i felt like the writing of lila's coming to love england wasn't done very well. this is something that i closely understand and identify with, and the way it was handled in this novel felt very abrupt and awkward. if you're going to tell me that lila 'loves england', you have to show me as well, and i don't think that was accomplished. i took greater issue to it because a big part of her monologues about 'loving england' was that, for her, england was tied to orion. it started to feel like she only loved england because she loved orion. this isn't strictly true, and i think she does cite a few other reasons why she wanted to stay in england, but tellingly, i don't remember what any of them were. i know that not every person who moves to england will fall in love with it the way i did, but i remember being absolutely in wonder at the architecture, the culture, the atmosphere, the transportation links, the blend of modernity and antiquity, and so much more. i didn't get that feeling from lila's narration, and i think more time should have gone into exploring that.

a couple of very small lines at the end compounded this feeling of "that's not how that works". the first was a conversation between lila and pilar, where she says the word "petrol" instead of "gas". the second was her telling orion that she had submitted an application to a university in london and started applying for her student visa.

let me explain.

in my experience, vocabulary shifts take a lot of time. when you grow up into early adulthood saying one thing, it's not going to take only two and a half months for you to slip out of that and randomly start using another word. there are certainly some british words that someone might intentionally switch to using as opposed to the american equivalent.

for me, that was words like 'uni(versity)' over 'college' and, more recently (as in, in the last four months or so), 'trousers' over 'pants'. these are both because 'college' and 'pants' mean something different in england than they do back home, and i use these words daily to discuss my uni work. also, to me, 'petrol' is such a random choice. in my entirety of living here, i've probably heard the word 'petrol' only a handful of times. granted, i live in london where i and all of my friends use public transportation, which might not be the case for lila—i can't remember.

regardless, my point is that if your vocabulary is going to shift within only two months, it's going to be a word you use and hear daily, and you'd probably have to put the mental awareness into using the new word. her slipping up speaking to her american sister and saying 'petrol' just doesn't seem realistic. there is a plethora of more common words that namey could have used to make it more believable.

finally, i think i had a visible and audible reaction to the student visa comment. in public.

this was such a small comment in the grand scheme of the novel but it made me wonder if namey had researched at all how applying for a student visa from the u.s. to the u.k. works. if all of my above points are strictly subjective and reliant on my individual experience, this is the single point i will make that is based in facts.

the specific statement is something like "i applied [to the uni] and started my student visa application this morning" (i'm not entirely sure of the wording nor punctuation, i no longer have access to the book). i read this as she'd submitted her application to study and her application for a student visa on the same day, but i will allow that it could be read as she had submitted her application to study on an earlier date and had started the visa process that morning.

it doesn't matter which interpretation is the correct one because it doesn't make sense logistically either way. i've had to apply for two student visas over my three years of studying so far. to apply for a student visa, you need a number code that is given to you from the school after you've been accepted. for both courses i was accepted into, the application process started in february or march at the very latest, and it took over a month for me to be accepted. from then, it took a few months for me to even get that number code so i could start the visa application. you can't really get very far in the visa application process without that code because it's the thing that tells the u.k. government that you have a school sponsoring your residency.

even if she applied to the school as soon as she got home (and she didn't), there would still only be two weeks between then and her telling orion that she had started the visa process, which is definitely not enough time at all. it's such a small detail, but that was the final straw for any believability i might have given the novel credit for previously. it made me feel like this wasn't a well-researched novel, which is a shame, because i do believe that namey really loves england, and i wish she had let this interest show in her work.

if i didn't have these experiences, i don't think i would have noticed these inconsistencies and misrepresentations.

anyway, i read this book because i learnt while doing research for an essay that kit connor is cast in the movie adaptation. will i still be watching the movie? yes. because while it lacked depth and all i have done in this review is discuss some of its faults, it was still a sweet and relatively enjoyable read. i definitely think that the movie has the potential to be a very lighthearted and easy thing to watch.

tl;dr because i recognise that this review is, indeed, too long: this book was cute and lighthearted, though it lacked the sort of depth i usually look for in novels. there were a lot of inconsistencies in the writing of the british characters and lila's love for england that bothered me because they paralleled my own experiences, but not well. i recognise that this might be entirely subjective and someone else could find that lila's story was a great representation of their individual experience.

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i have opinions about the influx of posts i've seen regarding the romanticisation of coriolanus and lucy gray's relationship

[the ballad of songbirds and snakes spoilers under the cut]

i've been seeing videos of people wishing coriolanus and lucy gray had ended up happily together and writing fan fiction about it, and this is so funny (and unsettling) to me because he literally didn't see her as a "civilised" human being due to her being from the districts, but alright. this is something he was taught throughout childhood due to the trauma of the war, and for sure he didn't change his mind just because he met lucy gray. he might have convinced everyone that she was an exception to this rule, but the fact that he still considered every other district citizen to be "uncivilised" means that he never once fully believed she was human in the same way that he considered himself to be.

besides that, one of his major character traits is that, yes, he does genuinely care about the people close to him, but when it comes down to it, he usually values them more for what they can do for him than anything else. sejanus is the most extreme version of this, but the relationship between himself and lucy gray before the game is described explicitly in this way.

these two points intersect when he "runs away" with lucy gray, as his major motivation for joining her was that they wouldn't be able to punish him for murder if he disappeared, and the entire time he was in the woods with her, he was thinking about going back. the minute he found the guns and tied up the "loose ends", he was ready to return to the base and accept his officer's position.

i also don't think we can ignore the fact that he was fully prepared to kill her in that forest. the whole story discusses what humanity really is when stripped to the core, and coriolanus snow stripped to the core is a terrified man who isn't afraid to murder someone in cold blood if that's what it takes to keep him comfortable.

i don't think there's as much emphasis on these points in the movie as there is in the book, so i can see how people who've only watched the movie may have missed the nuances of his inner thoughts.

i could go on about this for ages but this is already a longer post than i meant it to be. i just needed to write it out because i haven't found anyone to discuss it with as of yet.

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Casey Mcquiston books as Penguin Classics

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i started divine rivals by rebecca ross last night. i'm currently only 3 hours into the audiobook, but i can already anticipate that i'm going to want my own copy of this book, and probably a second copy to annotate. i'm very intrigued so far

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Jacks's Apple Color

Did anyone notice whenever jacks thought about the valory arch open to get back to tella his apple turns into blue and when jacks is attracted to evangeline his apple's color is pink. I think the shade of his apple changes according to about whom he is thinking about. Tella's color is blue and evangeline's hairs are rose gold a shade like pink. And definitely his apple eating is representing the urge to kiss someone ig.

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daily reminder that jacks literally plunged the world in total darkness in his grief over evangeline's death

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I was an avid memory loss/amnesia trope hater until stephanie managed to sneak it into tbona and change my life

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spoilers for a curse for true love…

rant….solely about APPLES.

With the lil teaser via Stephanie:

“Apollo hated apples”

i’d like to state that this is sooooooo important to the breaking of the curse.

from the first book it’s established that Evangeline has a connection to Jacks… which I believe is stronger than true love to start his heart, but to break the archer/fox curse that has kill almost everyone he’s loved (Donatella being the exception).

Within the first 20 pages we are told that Jacks is her greatest heartbreak…

And then the motif continues once Evangeline gets to the North and well well well… the evidence is overwhelming. Not only is Jacks her biggest heartbreak (the past of his curse killing those he loved and the loss of her memory in the last book) but he is also her true love.

—-this we already know, but Evangeline will not… she will smell and taste the apples with a hinting sensations of love and affection but will not know what it means…

Further proof of her subconscious reminding her of Jacks

BUT

WHAT DO THE APPLES MEAN!??!?? To jacks.

truly I believe that since the apples taste like true love, they curb his instincts of kissing people to kill them- because all the fates can’t fight their feelings. So Jacks obsession with apples is just another form of his love for love but also his restriction to love anyone. Maybe he knows the apples taste like Evangeline…and that’s why “she’s better off not knowing” - to save her from kissing him and dying…

HIS IMPULSES BEING EVANGELINE??? I’ll die.

And lastly… Evangeline’s association with apples also causes… impulses too…

So, Apollo’s hatred of apples will send little alarm bells going off in her head/gut on her true feelings and memories. Maybe after coming into contact with Jacks again she’ll realize something is drawing her to him…

…

And a bonus moment that is overlooked…

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So, I have an interesting idea as to what I want to happen in acftl.

What if Evangeline is put into another situation in which she’s dying? But, this time Jacks is gonna confess his love to her and then Evangeline is gonna say she loves him too (because it’s so obvious) Then he kisses her. His thought process is “well she’s already going to die.”

But, this time, his kiss doesn’t kill her, it actually saves me. Their love for each other is so true that it not only un-did his curse but saved her life. I’m saying this based on the thought process that your true love can’t be pre-determined but you can only experience what true love feels like when you find someone who truly loves you.

I feel like this would have such a nice parallel to the fact the curse Jacks had always killed the girl and would almost feel like a full circle moment if Evangeline does someone turn out to be his first fox like many believe.

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literally can't stop looking at this evajacks fanart i'm mesmerized

(art by: @mybookishdoodles on instagram)

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sometimes i finish reading a book and can just feel the hyperfixation sinking into my bones

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Hello people haven’t posted anything here for ages but I still love tumblr can’t help it

anyways here is Lore Olympus fanarts I painted in the past in procreate

Please do not use this art as prints or sell them thank you ^^

Lore Olympus comics created by Rachel Smythe

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i have been reading once upon a broken heart and the ballad of never after by stephanie garber and it's so good, i lament every time i am forced to put the book down

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aces wild: a heist

by amanda dewitt

i really liked this book!

i enjoyed the dynamics between jack and his friend group.  they were all very interesting characters, and i liked that jack was deeply flawed.  did he make bad choices?  constantly.  but i still thought that he wanted to do better, and was overall a good person when his true character had the space to shine through.  jack's narration and the character interactions all added some humour to the story, which i loved.  dewitt's writing style allows for jack's narration to have a distinctive tone, which i thought was really fun—it was like i could hear him telling the story to me.

the aspec rep was very important to me, and i thought it was well-done.  it made me want  an aspec friend group even more than i already did.  each of the characters also had different experiences across the romantic and gender spectrums, which alluded to the fact that being ace is not a monolith.  i liked that everyone was already confident in their ace identity, so there was space for ace jokes and other nods to ace culture.  could dewitt have gone into more depth about the nuances of the spectrum?  yes.  but i don't think that was necessary, or even very possible considering the amount of information there would be to cover.

now i can't wait to read dewitt's second book wren martin ruins it all when it comes out this year!

⭐️4.5/5

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Everyone, go and admire this stunning piece of art on Instagram 🖤💙🤩