#Neil josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag

[aelinsattitude]

I would kill a man to be able to read all the iconic Aftg lines again for the first time.

[hellonthengine]

re-reading the foxhole court on my flip phone as nora sakavic intended

[vellichor-lover]

Fun fact: it’s the one year anniversary of the day I first picked up The Foxhole Court 🥳🥳 Crazy how quickly this insane book hooked me in. It was the first time in a while I’d felt that real, all-consuming urge to just pick up a book and get lost for hours, and of course reading it for the first time was just the start! I’m so grateful to this series, especially for the characters I’ve fallen completely in love with and the talented, hilarious and passionate community I’ve joined on here! Love you all 🫶

Bonus: my calendar entry for today

[palmettoshenanigans]

Don't FUCKING argue with me. "Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag. He didn't want the nicotine; he wanted the acrid smoke that reminded him of his mother." Is a fucking dynamite intro!! Is it edgy as fuck? Yeah. So? Is it hella melodramatic? Probably. So? Is it bad writing? Motherfucking NO! It's damn near expert level execution of several writing principles!

Who is the story about? First two words, next question.

Catch the reader's attention as soon as possible? "Why the fuck is he wasting a cigarette?" Intrigue successfully demanded, next question.

Raise questions that will keep the reader hanging long enough to have answered? "Why the fuck does acrid smoke trigger his mommy issues?" + "Wait it's because he burned her corpse??" Many many more questions raised + blind sided reader via preconceived expectations being subverted, next question.

Character establishing moment? What other characters use for physical and emotional regulation, he uses to fucking reminisce and wallow in his feelings, next question.

Set the tone for the rest of the story? Edgy, melodramatic, and emotionally gut wrenching, NEXT. FUCKING. QUESTION!

The Muses asked Nora to roll for Hook and she rolled a nat 20 five times in a row in 30 words or less. Hook, Line, and motherfucking Sinker bitches

Some of y'all need to stop ragging on AFTG's writing and start using it as a fucking case study cus this shit has the addiction capacity of heroine and god help the goddamn saltine cracker throwing stones

[laurents-laces]

Neil Josten lets Andrew's his cigarettes burn to the filter without taking a drag. He hates vegetables. He knows all the places you can shoot a man without killing him. He doodles fox paws on his homework. He's not scared of knives or violence or the yakuza. He is scared of cellphones and therapists and his own reflection. His favourite colour is gray. He got told he couldn't play exy with a bloody nose so he sniffed back the blood until they let him. He doesn't like movies or loud music. He hitchhiked halfway across South Carolina by pretending to be a sociology student. He gets sad when Kevin watches exy without him. He wishes he had his mother's patience instead of his father's temper. He's brilliant at manipulation. He's stupid on purpose. He was every inch a lie but his friends made him into someone real. He doesn't wear a jacket to the roof when it's cold because he knows Andrew's body heat will keep him warm. He thinks the hardest thing he's ever had to do was opening a tub of ice cream after kissing his boyfriend and not like, all the torture he's been through. Nobody is doing it like him

[kefcioart]

„Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag. He didn't want the nicotine; he wanted the acrid smoke that reminded him of his mother.”

[ouijacine]

🦊“Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag” 🦊(1/6)

My boy, on the bleachers, unaware how hard life is about to hit him (ie Andrew with a racket)

this is the first (of six) designs I created for the @rainbowcratebookbox special edition books from Nora Sakavics (@korakos ) AFTG series!

This project has been going on since like January and I’m so happy to see people liking the endpage designs I did as I’ve been so excited for you guys to see them omg I’ve been wanting to peel off my skin

This drawing is the first one you see on the inside of the foxhole court.

Still incredibly grateful to have been trusted with this project by rainbowcrate and to work with the other fabulous artists and the fabulous author eep

[sethisonendgame]

every time I read “Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag” I just know that shits about to be a banger

[artershetried]

Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag...

[sunshineforjean]

now that i finished my tgr reread it's time for Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag.

[lunapiq]

Start. Pt.1 'Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag'.

[berryberrytaeberry]

Not to be THAT ungrateful bitch but obviously aftg is leading up to a Kevin trilogy rIGHt???

Ahem, i will present my case:

We begin our story with Neil, whose mind is essentially: exy, i have my father's eyes, and Kevin. He is so primordially entangled with Kevin that he has a scrapbook shrine to him and 34-57% of us thought this was a kevneil arc. (Not to mention that in another universe it actually is kevandreil). It's like we are getting the introduction to our true mc from the sidelines. In tfc we are also building up not so much towards Neil's healing (moreso his claiming of a personal self thats not Nathaniel) but rather towards Kevin's healing: he covers his tattoo, he confronts his father. We had to start with Neil pov at Palmetto to get this sideways glance at Kevin.

Then we move to Jean at USC. Someone who knows Kevin even more. Our sideways glance becomes direct. But, we still have distance because Kevin played with the plot and sent resident frenchboy to the other side of the country. But so many of Jean's choices, fears, and hopes are informed directly by what Kevin did or didn't do. We are still being toyed with about the unknowability of Kevin Day, yet he is the plot device causing all the strings to be pulled in this story. He calls Jean his brother. Are we assembling Kevin's family?

If trilogy 3 were to focus on Kevin, here's the payoff we would get: the now minor characters (Neil and Jean) have completed their arcs and its put Kevin on a stage to complete his own (you and me both know that man is TWEAKING despite the "ive never been skiing" and queen tattoo. Our man is not on solid ground). We also get to go back to the foxes and potentially watch more development towards some satisfying dismantling of the moriyamas(?) (Unless that happens in Jean's trilogy). Not to mention that the numerology counts down: Neil: 4, Jean: 3, Kevin: 2 all the way to the true number 1.... the inventor of exy: Kayleigh Day.

The last piece of the Kevin family puzzle: his mother.

Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag. He didn't want the nicotine; he wanted the acrid smoke that reminded him of his mother.

And wouldn't it be quite a full circle ending to how we began?

[lorasx]

im starting to reread aftg and can i just say that “neil josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag” is an absolutely banger starting line to a book. chills

[mrs8]

Mom can I get a bedtime story?

“Neil Josten let his cigarettes burn to the filter without taking a drag…”

[sharksliveontrains]

Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag. He didn't want the nicotine; he wanted the acrid smoke that reminded him of his mother.

What an insane way to start a book. I really dont think i appreciate that enough. What a guy

[tearsoftheseraphim]

"blue sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love" son or “neil josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking in a drag" daughter