#'hey steph are you slacking off at work to answer tumblr messages' shhhh its 1.5 hours before the long weekend ok

[sixofravens-reads]

3. a stand-alone that you wish was part of a series, 24. a book on your nightstand, 44. your favourite fantasy novel, 53. a popular book/series that you hate, 71. your favourite LGBTQ+ fiction, 125. your favourite autumn read :3???

Hi!

3. a stand-alone that you wish was part of a series

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders! The ending is really wild, and while there is technically a short story that follows 2 of the characters after the novel, I'd love a sequel to explore things a bit more.

24. a book on your nightstand

Shockingly, my nightstand is free of books at the moment (more room for allergy meds and fans lol), but my current read, The Left Hand of Darkness, lives on the floor beside my bed at night

44. your favourite fantasy novel

oh man you had to, huh? the most difficult one......(jk jk)

Gideon the Ninth is really on the line between sci-fi and fantasy, but I'm counting it as my favourite fantasy novel haha. Also honourable mentions to Tamora Pierce (all...all her books lol I couldn't choose), His Dark Materials, and the Dragonlance series, which is not good but I love it anyway.

53. a popular book/series that you hate

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. it was SUCH a disappointment to me. The marketing led me to believe it was a dark academia contemporary fantasy with really in-depth worldbuilding and a cool magic system and mystery and murder and....it's very shallow. The characters are all bland stereotypes (like the author just pointed at them and went "you're the smart one, and you're the slut, and you're the rich boy, and you're the master criminal...") . Most of the male characters are interchangable. The interesting (imo) characters get ignored in favour of the most unmotivated rivals-to-lovers romance I've ever seen The magic is only described in past tense vaguely while one of that couple whines about the other. ANYWAY...yeah it's been over a year and I'm still mad I spent money on it. A pox upon Tor's marketing for that one.

71. your favourite LGBTQ+ fiction

aaaggghhhhh another tough one. tougher than the fantasy question actually, I'll list a few by genre:

The Locked Tomb series - Tamsyn Muir (sci-fi/fantasy, adult)

The Serpent Gates duology - A.K. Larkwood (fantasy, adult)

Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh (sci-fi, adult)

Silver in the Wood - Emily Tesh (fantasy, adult)

Some Girls Do - Jennifer Dugan (contemporary, YA)

Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches by Kate Scelsa (contemporary, YA)

Tripping Arcadia - Kit Mayquist (gothic horror, adult)

Loveless - Alice Oseman (contemporary, new adult (the first book i read that made me feel Seen, once i stopped being afraid it was going to dunk on me))

Even Greater Mistakes: Stories - Charlie Jane Anders (various genres, adult. extremely poignant, i think about it almost every day)

Witchmark - C. L. Polk (fantasy, adult)

Everything Leads to You - Nina LaCour (contemporary, YA)

125. your favourite autumn read

This is actually difficult bc I don't think I have one yet?? I used to always crave That Series We Don't Talk About Anymore in the fall bc of the back-to-school/halloween vibes, but....yeah, haven't felt that for a few years now. I need to reread some of my other childhood favourites and choose another series to replace it. Maybe A Series of Unfortunate Events...