#I absolutely love toadles

[salmonseagull]

Toadles!! My guy!

[asexualbookbird]

insert Imagine Dragons Radioactive Gasp Here

Hi. Coming up for air. I'm surrounded by yarn ends and fabric scraps I'm sweaty and covered in paint. I was a tiny bit productive this July! Made lots of progress on the Irish Lullaby Blanket, painted our balcony, started a few projects I really shouldn't have, and oh yeah! READ EIGHT BOOKS?? Who am I. I'm twelve books ahead of schedule according to goodreads, eleven by StoryGraph standards. It's wild. It helps that my library is holding an adult summer reading bingo contest and I fully intend to fill out the entire board.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐- WAOW. I initially rated this four stars, but sitting on it and coming back to it now, it was absolutely a five star read. I would love to reread it, the world was intriguing, and the AUDIO NARRATOR WAS STUNNING! I do try not to judge the contents of a book by it's narrator, but what a performance! When library bingo is over, I'm listening to book two ASAP.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oh look! A Classic I actually enjoyed! I don't want to judge horror on whether or not I'm scared, because it IS kind of tough to get to me, but this was fun! I could see the spooks! Even if it wasn't spooky For Me, Personally, it was still a fun time!

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oh. Ouchie. A shortie, but a goodie, I'm kicking myself for returning the ebook immediately because I would've liked to go back and reread bits of it if not ALL of it. A not exactly new take on fae, but an interesting one that I actually enjoyed.

Starling House by Alix E Harrow ⭐⭐⭐⭐- I did NOT intend to read this directly after Hill House but I am SO glad I did. THE PARALLELS!!!! The circular story!!!! THE STARLINGS!!!! I laughed, I cried, I yelled at Arthur, there were surprises I genuinely didn't expect, but made so much sense in hindsight. I don't exactly buy the romance, but I'll let it slide this one time.

Ghost Station by SA Barnes ⭐⭐- Two stars is Very Generous. And I'm sticking to it because the concept is still intriguing and if you squint there was some Leech stuff going on. Maybe I should just reread Leech. Sigh. Ophelia was hired to do ONE. JOB. To make sure none of the team members have Want To Murder Disease. And then Birch shows signs of Want To Murder Disease and she KEEPS IT QUIET BECAUSE *checks notes* HE KNOWS HER DAD HAD WANTS TO MURDER DISEASE. Everyone is stupid. They're scientists and everyone is fucking stupid. It wasn't scary, because EVERYONE WAS FUCKING STUPID. Biting all of them.

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Oh T Kingfisher, you have never disappointed me, why do I read anything else. Another fun take on the fae! It's so hard to get me to like a fae book, so GOOD JOB KINGFISHER! I liked the new take on Girl Locked In A Tower, I liked that Toadling was surrounded by love and still encouraged to do what makes her happy. Again, I almost reread (listened. Whatever) this immediately just for funsies. Another banger from T Kingfisher.

The Sun and The Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro ⭐⭐⭐ - I've been waffling on this rating a LOT. Disclaimer that I haven't read any of Riordan's stuff since the OG Percy Jackson series, and that was ages ago so I can't compare this to that. This was a fun little book, but it felt a little heavy handed with the themes even for a middle grade. It doesn't make me want to read more, but I'm not mad I read it at all.

The Scapegracers by HA Clarke ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Okay. Listen. Look. Look at me. Was this The Perfect Book? No absolutely not. Was it a banger? Did I have fun? YES ABSOLUTELY YES! It's a book I could've needed in high school, but I wouldn't have been mature enough to appreciate it so I'm glad I have it NOW. Angry Queer Teen Girls will run the world. And I'm here for it. So looking forward to the rest of the series, I need to know what sort of mischief these girls get up to. I hope they curse another fuckboy. They deserve it.

BONUS! I also watched The Haunting of Hill House on netflix! One bingo square said "read a book then what the movie" and I really thought Mike Flanagan's Hill House was a movie but no it was ten (10) hours of spooky fucked up family dynamics. Also Nate Ford was there. Naturally. It was good! It was creepy! I wanna watch it again JUST FOR THE TREE HOUSE. I was skeptical when I first started because who the hell are you people (Steve, Shirley) but no it was fun! But also. Fuck Steven and Shirley. Congrats to Theo and moving in with her girlfriend of one week, peak lesbian stereotypes. Biggest complaint is with Mike Flanagan and his need to not only kill cats, but get close up shots of said dead cats. What's up with that my dude. What did cats ever do to you?

Plans for August (how am I saying that) are The Bone Season side by side comparison with the first edition and the tenth anniversary edition. I'm counting that as two books, I think, because it IS two books, and looking at them next to each other, there's a pretty sizable difference in page count! No clue about word count. This is part of book bingo (reread a book you didn't enjoy the first time), and this has helped me realise that I've been avoiding this for a Reason. I truly and surely did not enjoy The Bone Season and have no desire to experience that again. Don't know what to do with this information. So. I'm rereading it. Yay.

I have a few sewing projects I'm working on, and I am SO CLOSE to finishing the Irish Lullaby Blanket! It's exciting! So lets go!! Bring it on, August!!

[ghosthermione-reads]

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

There's a princess trapped in a tower. This isn't her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

If only.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold...

I'm a HUGE fan of T. Kingfisher. Although I personally favour her romantasy and horror over some of her retellings, I still enjoyed those I've read. Seventh Bride and Bryony and Roses were both great.

I put this under "reading the hugos" because it's been nominated for best novella, but actually I've read this one as soon as it came out. The twists on the Sleeping Beauty story were all that I hoped from such a book, and Toadling was such a great protagonist!

It was perhaps a bit shorter and simpler than I expected, but still makes it quite high on the list of "T. Kingfisher books I enjoyed".

That being said, so far I can't help but think it's on the ballot because T. Kingfisher is always on the ballot, and not for its own merits. For me, an award-worthy book reaches either super high on the entertainment scale, or on the blow-your-mind scales (whether for plot or writing) and this comes close, but not quite. I would have much rather seen A House With Good Bones on this list, because that was absolutely brilliant and a lot more complex.

[kelpiemomma]

Wild West Train Gang AU Jackie!

I love them.

Jackie and Akari are HIGHLY antagonistic towards each other. It started off as genuine antagonism where Jackie would straight up bully Akari (then going by Dawn) for whatever they could find. Her shirt wasn’t tucked in, her pants were too loose, she fed the horses too late, she was too slow, etc etc. Dawn/Akari never spoke back, just did her best to not let them find fault with her. When she did everything perfect and Jackie STILL criticized her one day, several months down the line, she went to the next level.

She isolated Jackie by saying she needed to speak to them and then just tried to fuckin beat the shit out of them. Jackie being like, twice her size, was not beat. However they DID find it amusing and courageous and reeled back on the bullying until it was eventually just teasing needling. Jackie and Akari snip and snap at each other a lot but it’s never serious anymore.

Upon first arrival and intending to mock Jackie, Akari kept calling them “Slim Jim” due to their height and super slim build. Jackie responded by calling her “Mighty Mouse” and “Ankle High to a Cricket” bc of her short height. They still hardly ever refer to each other by their actual names, saving that in case of emergency.

Jackie is most protective of Akari after Ingo and Emmet, though they absolutely ride the twin’s coattails on “most protective”. Neck and neck. Jackie is the first person to keep an eye on Akari when they’re gone for work and always has her back. They’ve managed to ward off many people who think they can mess with Akari because she’s short and slim by just being around- their height and expressions can be pretty unnerving. It’s like a fuckin scarecrow staring at you. In return, Jackie is the first person Akari goes to if the twins are gone. Sometimes if she needs help covering something up or buying something in secret (or sneaking off the ranch) she goes to Jackie first.

They have the kind of sibling relationship where one of them would put hair dye in the other’s shampoo. They’re the kind of siblings where they can pick on each other but as someone tries to join in on the needling they turn around like a rabid dog to defend each other.

Ingo and Emmet just hope they don’t one day accidentally kill each other.

transcript under the read more!

upper left, above left full body image: Jackie

Middle left, directly below left full body image: “Slim Jim” 6′8″ x ???

Directly under middle full body image: “Mighty Mouse” 4′6″ x 10 y/o

Directly above right full body image: Protective Older Sibling Mode: Activated

Directly below right full body image: Akari 5′6″ x 17 y/o

comic:

Left panel: Hey, hey! Twiggy, c’mere! (Akari) arrow pointing to Jackie that says “doing chores” with a question mark above Jackie’s head

Middle panel: What’d you see, toadling? (Jackie)

Right panel: THIS, SUCKER! (Akari)

Lower left panel: Ahahaha! You fell for it, you fucking idiot! (Akari)

Lower right panel: *screaming* (Akari) You little shit! (Jackie) Jackie, put her down and get back to work. (Ingo)