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Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

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July 2023 Book Wrap-Up

Belated, but been on holiday.

'They Both Die At The End' by Adam Silvera - 4/5 - the big cry book, and while I did not bawl my eyes out, it was still very emotional and I loved the worldbuilding details to make it feel more real, how this version of Earth would react to Death-Cast. The characters and their relationship were sweet and sad and ultimately very human.

'Heart Of The Sun Warrior' by Sue Lynn Tan - 3/5 - Sadly I liked this one a lot less than the first, and it's hard to say why. Maybe the charm of the first wore off, or maybe I just really did not mesh with the final love interest at all. Still, I enjoyed a lot of it, especially the family stuff.

'The Ballad Of Never After' by Stephanie Garber - 4/5 - This series is kind of insane with how Evangeline is as dumb as a sack of bricks and there's nonstop plot twists, but damn if it isn't weirdly fun to read, and Jacks is genuinely quite entertaining. Definitely file this one under 'guilty pleasure'.

'Shadows For Silence In The Forests Of Hell' by Brandon Sanderson - 4/5 - short and sweet, cool spooky setting and an interesting protagonist who's a nice change from Sanderson's usual upstanding heroic types.

'Something Wicked This Way Comes' by Ray Bradbury - 4.5/5 - read this one as an audiobook, and the narrator combined with the prose makes an immensely evocative experience, capturing so much autumnal wistfulness, eerie horror and the experience of growing up.

'Painted Devils' by Margaret Owen - 5/5 - Absolutely adored this, this is 100% the book that if I had a time machine to send something back to my preteen/teen self it would be this one, and I can only hope it's doing as much for modern teenagers reading it. Loveable and complex characters, great sense of humour, and excellently plotted, I have no idea how the author manages to juggle it all but somehow it works so well!

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Finished Red Rising, and while I have mixed feelings on certain aspects, overall it was good and gripped me.

My main takeaway is that Sevro is best boy, if he dies in the next book, or at all, ever, in the entire series, I’m rioting.

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About 300 pages into Priory and 3 of the 4 plotlines are good, with Ead's being the standout, but Tane's plotline feels kinda undercooked right now. Hoping her plot gets more interesting, cause its a shame given how good the others are.

Also I cant get over how Ead/Sabran is literally the much memed 'handmaided/feudal lord' ship (but still good).

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Darrow has acquired yet another unintentionally homoerotic heated-rival-turned-intensely-loyal-'brother'

Truly a shounen manga

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I'm reading Red Rising, and am just so conflicted.

On one hand, most of it is very interesting and engaging.

On the other, dear God this book has issues with female characters. Don't get me started, the writing has a severe case of unchecked bias.

I'm gonna keep going and hope that it improves, but otherwise I'm treating it as a shounen battle manga wrt the disparity between it's male and female characters.

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let me remind everyone who recommended acotar to me under the "it's the only good one" tagline that the ninth circle of hell is reserved for betrayers.

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Well… Danganronpa 3 was very dumb. Or rather, there were good bits but it got increasingly insane towards the end. I’m gonna be sitting in my corner aggressively cutting out the bits and characters I liked and patching them together for my new personal canon on how it goes.

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Sometimes I see someone describe a book/thing as 'character-driven' and I recognise it/go check it out and go 'bitch, what characters? Those bland cardboard cutouts who get bounced around by the plot?'

I'm seriously confused by your definition here

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Danganronpa 3 episode 17 is a big WHAT THE FUCK HOW DARE YOU SHOW, IM READY FOR THAT FAKEOUT NOW, ANY TIME SOON

And then episode 18 is, awww Mitarai you absolutely useless dumbass, look at how much the show bullies his pathetic ass, he can’t even crawl out of the mud properly <3 <3 <3

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I don't know how Cassette Beasts isn't more popular on here. It has everything your average Tumblr user could ask for... and more.

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Danganronpa 3 episodes 13 and 14

Ooh yeah basically an Ultra Despair Girls episode! Wait, is this an Utena reference?

So the whole teasing Monaka as a major villain went absolutely nowhere, but it’s totally worth it because Komaeda completely failed at turning her into Junko 2.0 and she became a shut-in out of spite. He Komaeda’d too hard but we wouldn’t have it any other way u_u

Loving all the horrible and dysfunctional Junko and Mukuro content!

Lmao they know what they’re doing with that Komaeda scene.

Okay the massacre is weird. It feels like it happens way too early and Junko is being so blatant about it. Like the events were only implied how they happened in the games, but it still feels off to what was implied. They know we’re here for the teens killing each other, but kinda forgot what made it work so well, which was that most of the characters required more pushing to final snap and kill someone, whereas here it feels a bit too fast and easy. Also, wow the school security sucks, even more than expected.

Idk maybe I’m just salty that we still haven’t gotten a corruption arc for the DR2 class yet. I was hoping Junko would pose as friendly while slowly exploiting their weaknesses until she had them wrapped around her finger.

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What is typical in a magical girl?

Magic Knight Rayearth's twist about the meaning of saving a person? The inclusion of the writer himself in the narrative he writes in Princess Tutu? Heavy use of symbolism in Utena? The coming death of a teen girl in Full Moon wo Sagashite?

The discovery of lesbian attraction in Flip Flappers? The confusion between stage & reality, play & life in Revue Starlight? The meaning of the sacrifice magical girls have to make in Yuki Yuna? The singular friendship that a teenage girl develops with a goddess in Inari Kon Kon?

It is said that Madoka Magica deconstructs the magical girl genre. While there's no denying that this anime has a certain uniqueness, isn't that the case with many anime of this genre before and after it?

The deconstruction of magical girl is a part of the magical girl genre itself!

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Book anon again: opinion on raptor red?

A classic!

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when you find a fic that actually addresses the consequences of all the fucked up shit your favorite character(s) went through

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Lmao reading Painted Devils here and run into Suez Canal meming.