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Book Rec List if you love Carry On

Thanks for 500+ followers on this little side blog!! As a thank you, here is a book rec list for Carry On lovers! Most of the books have queer male protagonists and possess noted other similarities to Carry On. (It goes without saying you should also read everything else Rainbow Rowell has written). Happy reading!

Young Adult Lit 

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan Why you will love it: ✓ Sarcastic bisexual mess of a protagonist  ✓ Takes place in a magical training camp (mermaids! trolls! elves! harpies!) ✓ Enemies to lovers ✓ Boyfriend with wings! ✓ Subverts gender norms within fantasy genre

The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman ✓ Takes place at magical grad school ✓ Sarcastic bisexual mess of a protagonist  ✓ Read the books first but the TV adaptation is pretty great too!

Openly Straight and Honestly Ben by Bill Konigsberg ✓ Raf is a sarcastic gay mess, Ben is a sweet confused bisexual mess  ✓ Takes place at (non-magical) boarding school  ✓ Friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee ✓ Sarcastic bisexual mess of a protagonist (from the 18th century) ✓ Friends to lovers (with angst for days) ✓ Fun/romantic/exciting/hilarious/touching and amazingly clever writing ✓ Tight breeches/bandits/pirates/drunken shenanigans

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness ✓ Sarcastic bisexual mess of a protagonist  ✓ Subverts tropes of “the chosen one” stories ✓ Deals with protagonist’s anxiety disorder in a moving and beautiful way

I also recommend:

Thirsty by MT Anderson  Every Day by David Levithan I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak  The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray Timekeeper by Tara Sim A Darker Shade of Magic Trilogy by VE Schwab The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich Whatever...by SJ Goslee The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

New Adult/Romance 

A Charm of Magpies series and Jackdaw by KJ Charles ✓ Enemies to lovers ✓ Takes place in Victorian-esque England…but with magic! ✓ Mystery plot and sexual tension for days

An Unnatural Vice (Sins of the City) by KJ Charles ✓ Enemies to lovers ✓ Takes place in Victorian-esque England…but with (fake) magic!

The Ruin of a Rake (#3 in The Turner Series) by Cat Sebastian ✓ Enemies to lovers ✓ Sarcastic bisexual mess of a protagonist  ✓ Courtenay is a dead ringer for Baz

Mature Content (Cyberlove series) by Santino Hassell and Megan Erickson ✓ Enemies to lovers like whoah

Winning Bracket by Annabeth Albert ✓ (Non-magic) college setting ✓ Frenemies to lovers ✓ Sweet and not too smutty

Love Lessons by Heidi Cullinan ✓ (Non-magic) college setting ✓ Roommates to lovers

—EDIT: due to information about Santino Hassell’s catfishing I’m taking these off the list!!!

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I do not understand this “male privilege" bullshit.

What. Fucking. Privileges. Do. Men. Have.???????

Name them. I swear, I challenge you to name these “male privileges" and be able to prove them. 

Come on, I fucking dare you. 

Name them!

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teaching children that they are allowed to walk away and cool off if they are feeling overwhelmed might literally save their life as teens/adults

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Me, in tears, halfway through writing a 300 word essay: I can’t do this anymore

Person on A03 who’s writing for fun:

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May your next period be light and end quickly

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“Jinn…”

aaaa why has rwby gotten so tense I can’t deal with this

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trans guy: i feel dysphoric cis ally: ur literally the handsomest manly dude guy bro dude man i ever seen before in my life my guy dude! just because you’re biologically a woman doesnt mean you aren’t super manly and handsome!! honestly wow your jawline is so sharp cut me with your jaw daddy father sir

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Glimmer, @ the girl who is a half foot taller than her even when not in giant She-Ra mode: i must PROTECT!!! 

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Hello there, Tumblr.

Gogol isn’t dead, here is exactly why.

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BE THE HOT GAY AUNT YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

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uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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Another fucking bone thief?

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Jemel Roberson, a real life hero, was murdered by police. For being black.

What command did he refuse? Why was deadly force needed? Why are police acting without any training?

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I think the best piece of character design advice I ever received was actually from a band leadership camp I attended in june of 2017. 

the speaker there gave lots of advice for leaders—obviously, it was a leadership camp—but his saying about personality flaws struck me as useful for writers too. 

he said to us all “your curses are your blessings and your blessings are your curses” and went on to explain how because he was such a great speaker, it made him a terrible listener. he could give speeches for hours on end and inspire thousands of people, but as soon as someone wanted to talk to him one on one or vent to him, he struggled with it. 

he had us write down our greatest weakness and relate it to our biggest strength (mine being that I am far too emotional, but I’m gentle with others because I can understand their emotions), and the whole time people are sharing theirs, my mind was running wild with all my characters and their flaws.

previously, I had added flaws as an after thought, as in “this character seems too perfect. how can I make them not-like-that?” but that’s not how people or personalities work. for every human alive, their flaws and their strengths are directly related to each other. you can’t have one without the other.

is your character strong-willed? that can easily turn into stubbornness. is your character compassionate? maybe they give too many chances. are they loyal? then they’ll destroy the world for the people they love.

it works the other way around too: maybe your villain only hates the protagonist’s people because they love their own and just have a twisted sense of how to protect them. maybe your antagonist is arrogant, but they’ll be confident in everything they do.

tl;dr “your curses are your blessings, and your blessings are your curses” there is no such thing as a character flaw, just a strength that has been stretched too far.

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