creature-reviews

[creature-reviews]

Recent mlm reads

The Boy I Am by K.L. Kettle* - Speculative YA set in a dystopian future where boys are sold off to the female elite. I loved the poetic writing style in this!

Briarley by Aster Glenn Gray - A World War II-era retelling of Beauty and the Beast between a dragon man and a parson. Short and lovely, with the best dilapidated manor house!

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune* -  I didn’t connect with this one as much as T J Klune’s debut, but it has the same type of lovely, gentle characters who you can’t help but root for. I really admire Klune’s creativity in the magical realism space, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

The Bachelor’s Valet by Arden Powell - I loved this ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ style novella about a noble lord and his valet, set in a world with magic. The protagonist is utterly clueless, in the best possible way. 

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun - Unexpected romance between a producer and ‘the bachelor’ on a reality TV show set. Super cute!

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell -  A incredible sci-fi romance with royal fake dating, ice-torn wilderness survival and sneaky political manoeuvring. This one is for fans of Lois McMaster Bujold (AKA, I adore it and need 17 more…)

Life of Melody by Mari Costa - A really imaginative graphic novel about magical creatures raising a daughter together - I read this in one sitting and it was pure joy!

*gifted by publisher

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Queer SFF books by POC authors. 

Edit – apparently transphobes, aphobes and the like have found this post. So official note: transphobes and other gate-keeping, exclusionist bigots are NOT WELCOME. This post is Not for You. 

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Stories with nb characters I read or beta-read and loved to bits

Here are some stories with non-binary characters (whether they are main or secondary characters) that I read (or beta-read) and that I really, really liked!

(Disclaimer: the plot will be like. loosely and kinda shittily summed up.)

- Our Blood Pearl by D.N Bryn, has non-binary sirens

Plot: disabled siren gets saved from a cruel pirate by a way nicer pirate who decides to help them - steampunk-ish fantasy, found family and also disability and asexual rep!! 

- Once Stolen also by D.N Bryn, has a non-binary MC who uses she/her and a non-binary secondary character who uses they/them

Plot: selfish mersnake and self-righteous human, chained to each other, trudge through the jungle to find a secret hoard of special stones and escape a cartel who also wants the hoard - fantasy, found family again and autistic rep! (It comes out in July but you can already pre-order it which I highly recommend you do :P)

- Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, aka one of my favorite books of all times, has a cool non-binary secondary character

Plot: in the South of the US, a young Black girl tries to find the truth behind her mother’s recent death by entering a secret and magic Arthurian Order that hunts down demons - contemporary fantasy, Black rep, queer rep, just so many powerful themes of grief, race, power, heritage, self-discovery, Arthurian legends retelling (just pls read it)

- The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo has a non-binary protagonist

Plot: a young cleric meets an old woman in the forest who tells her the story of how the Empress of Salt and Fortune rose to power despite the odds - Asian fantasy, queer rep, extremely cool storytelling, really slaps (it has a sequel more centered around the young nb cleric but I haven’t read it yet)

- The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso has a non-binary secondary character

Plot: girl who kills whoever she touches accidentally kills an emissary who had  activated a magical artefact that was 100% do not touch, and now she has to handle the political and magical consequences with the help of a magical expert group - fantasy, queer rep, found family af

- There’s Magic Between Us by Jillian Maria has a genderfluid secondary character

Plot: spunky city girl goes to her grandma’s little town for a week and think she’ll be bored but lo and behold she finds 1. a SUPER CUTE AF GIRL in the forest 2. magic 3. something to do: help the cutie in a treasure hunt and 4. … has anyone said ‘family secrets’? - contemporary fantasy, queer rep, ADHD rep, very fun (it comes out in July and idk if you can pre-order it yet but you can ask the author for an e-ARC copy in exchange of a goodreads review ;D)

There are more but either the character just makes a quick appearance, either the book is not Here In My Heart, either it’s already pretty known, like the Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan which features a genderfluid character. (Either I just… forgot.) And then there’s the books I haven’t read yet so I’ll def update that list when I do read another book with non-binary characters :P In the meantime, I recommend you check out those books! 

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Forgot to share but I saw this at the local pagan store and thought it might be of interest to some people here

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First library haul of the year 📚

Working my way through Just Mercy and The Sun Does Shine first and then moving on to the rest - not sure which one I’ll start next, but excited to jump in nonetheless. 😊

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character in a movie: Oh no, angry dog, please don’t bite me!

the dog: I’m at work! I’m doing so good at being at work! I’m barking because my handler gave the sign ‘bark’! I am going to get such a good grade in being a dog actor, which is completely possible to achieve, and normal to want! I am doing a great job! I am proud of myself for doing such a great job! I love this, because I’d make it physically impossible to get anything done if I wasn’t enjoying it! I’m barking!

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Mammals do a lot more murdering of babies than fiction actually portrays.

It’s not just lions that like to murder the kids of rivals. Bears do it, canines do it, rodents too. Bottlenose dolphins murder porpoises just because they look like baby dolphins.

And there’s plenty of mammal moms who just eat the kids as a stress response and go about their business and try again elsewhere.

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The way we portray animals in media is honestly SO weird.

I have this irrational dislike for rabbits, squirrels, mice, frogs, and honestly a lot of similar Small Woodland Creatures To This Day because of having them forced down my throat as the Good Animals that were worthy of fulfilling protagonist roles in every piece of children’s media ever. Like half of all children’s stories with animal characters are about mice, for reasons that are totally inexplicable to me.

Even as a kid I just had this immense disdain for the weird moral categories animal characters always followed in children’s books. Mice, rabbits, squirrels, dogs, bears, turtles, ducks, frogs, and most birds are invariably Good, whereas cats, wolves, crows, foxes, rats, and snakes are either evil or kind of morally neutral. I hated it.

Most animal fiction just sucked complete ass too because the authors developed the characters’ qualities all around their species and not even in a way that showed awareness of the animals’ real instincts and lifestyles. They really were just like “mice and frogs and bunnies are all normal, relatable and british and drink tea in their dinky little cottages, rats are evil, foxes are untrustworthy and morally grey, cats are vain, narcissistic and evil, and snakes psychologically manipulate their prey and are evil” and we just straight up let them.

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 I think the reason we see so much 80′s nostalgia is just because new ideas were valued so much more. New things feel special and the pop culture landscape of the 80′s was absolutely packed with ideas so new it still feels hard for me to fully appreciate, and I was there! Imagine Super Mario being so new people were calling it “INSANE!” and joking that it was “ON DRUGS” because a plumber ran around jumping on turtles. Imagine people being wowed by the idea of both supernatural elements and sci-fi technology in the same franchise: that’s what Ghostbusters normalized and that too was so unusual at one time it was “crazy!!!” to reviewers. Toys that transform between robots and cars??? UNBELIEVABLE. Kids and adults couldn’t believe that a toy could possibly have moving parts that intricate and not cost an entire paycheck.

Imagine a world where even fucking *Garfield* is new. Garfield! Not just new but seen as almost EDGY for his sarcastic personality! People weren’t used to a cartoon cat smugly insulting his owner! That’s why he made a million zillion dollars, because people thought that was the freshest most hilarious shit in Sunday strips at one time!

You know why there’s a billion takes on a zombie apocalypse now? Because, while the concept goes back to the 60′s, the broader public had never considered the doomsday horror potential of a mass zombie outbreak scenario or the “survival fantasy” aspects until 1978′s “Dawn of the Dead.” Gremlins was the first horror-comedy about nasty little creatures running amok. Films like “Child’s Play” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” were some of the first mainstream cases of a wisecracking horror villain. E.T. was the first successful fantasy science fiction drama about child protagonists befriending a benevolent paranormal entity. 1979′s “Alien” on the other hand successfully wrung tense psychological horror from the concept of a “space monster” just when most audiences were dismissing the idea as corny and juvenile. The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” though intended as parody characters, were the first mainstream case of anthropomorphic animals marketed as “cool” action heroes instead of completely jokey characters like “Mighty Mouse.”

The 80′s feel like the last decade with such a ratio of new, novel concepts and bold decisions to just endless remakes, sequels and homages. Shit came out in the 80′s that invented whole subgenres, character archetypes and everyday household concepts everybody just takes as a given now. This sort of slowed down over the course of the 90′s, and then Pokemon was possibly one of the last things that was like mind-blowingly world-changingly “different” in the eyes of the most audiences. Now I have a hard time thinking of any entertainment media from over the last 22 years that made half that big a difference, and even less over the last 10. :(

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Love, Death & Robots - Season Two: The Drowned Giant

Director - Tim Miller, Art Direction - Dan Milligan

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10,000 BC 2008

I get this was made over a decade ago, but geez…

If I wanted to watch two hours of boring, cishet romance, I’d go watch Twilight.

There’s little to no attention to detail with regards to the location, bc they’ve got Smilodon, terror birds, and mammoth, which suggest an American setting, but they’ve also got horses, which weren’t introduced to the Americas until 1493.

Bonus for freakishly outsized sabertooth.

Also, every main actor is wearing ratty brown dreadlock wigs, even though the main cast is white as hell, so add in cultural appropriation.

This movie is just a mismash hell of culture and setting.

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The ‘turned off because it was boring and hard to follow’ list of shame.

- Rise of the chupacabras (2003)

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Just watched Countrycide! It’s pretty good, and has some solid kills and gore! Plus a wolf.

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Review for: Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

This is the most fun movie I’ve seen in a while. This movie doesn’t take itself seriously, and there were so many funny moments! There aren’t any creatures, and only two kills, but this is still an excellent movie with very nice voice lines.

Acting: 10/10 I have no clue how they keep a straight face.

Creature design: null bc there weren’t any

Sound design: 8/10 it was overall ok

Characters: 10/10 I love them

Plot: 7/10 I have no clue what’s going on and I love it.

Gore: 1/10 not very gory

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seeing all the 14-17 y/o queer kids who don’t know what v for vendetta is…. u mean the blockbuster film written by two trans women about a masked vigilante who decides to singlehandedly take down a fascist alternate version of england set in the distant year of 2020… and his driving force was getting justice for a lesbian who he never met but whose diary he found, who was separated from her wife before being killed by said fascist gov…. and it stars natalie portman…. okay

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every word out of guillermo del toro’s mouth is the most hardcore thing i’ve ever heard and he says it all so casually like he doesn’t even realize how much of a gothic visionary he is 

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