#Lia is the secondary protagonist

[lil-oreo-cookie]

Background information regarding Ovelia is complete, it’s time for the true protagonist to take his place… it’s time for the story to begin

Next

[wolfgirl-sister]

A lot of times, I have people ask me for recommendations for incest media, or just don't know where to start, so without further ado:

Cocteau Azaka's Incest Reading List!

Books

Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block

Incest Rating: 9.5/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Drama, Tragedy, Coming of Age

Overall Rating: 9/10

Wasteland is a beautifully written, albeit heartbreaking, book about love, loss, and growing up as an outsider. The book utilizes multiple points of view, signified by changes in font and narrative distance, to paint the picture of three teens in 1980s SoCal who are looking for answers. The first time I read this book, I finished it in tears and immediately read it a second time, just because I wanted more of it.

Hale by K Webster

Incest Rating: 9/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Drama

Overall Rating: 5/10

Hale is... Not a great book. The characters are so painfully cishet and neurotypical that, while they're ostensibly fleshed out, they're so perfectly, stereotypically normal that I legitimately felt alienated. I suppose the point is that it's not always the fucked up people who can be in a forbidden relationship, that even the girl next door can fall in love with her brother, but in execution the only reason the characters weren't boring is that they wrapped around to being fascinating if only because this was what being "normal" is like.

Overall quality aside, the romance itself is not only convincing, but spectacular. It's a poignant depiction of the line between siblings and lovers blurring until it's inevitably crossed, and it has an explicitly happy ending— a rarity in incest media.

Love's Forbidden Flower, by Diane Rinella

Incest Rating: 6/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Will They Won't They, Explicit

Genre: Romance, Drama

Overall Rating: 4/10

To be blunt, this book was a letdown. I appreciate what the author was going for, and I felt that it did achieve that, somewhat?

But I could not stand the characters, particularly the secondary love interest that's introduced after the main character is let down by her brother time and time again. The reason why this book is on here at all is the end of the second act/early parts of the third, where the protagonist's brother is redeemed and they finally are together, even if it's only temporary when they find that they're not able to withstand the challenges of a socially unacceptable relationship. Rinella wrote a fascinating turn in the plot with a bravery not usually becoming of Western authors of the genre, and for that I applaud her.

Kara no Kyoukai: Records in Oblivion by Kinoko Nasu

Incest rating: 6/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Unrequited, but Explicit, Sub-plot

Genre: Urban fantasy, neo-noir

Overall rating: 7/10

Obviously, I have a fondness for Kara no Kyoukai, and for Azaka specifically, but I'll admit that this isn't the most incestuous book on the list. It does have some payoff with a platonic date at the end, but primarily it's on this list because it does a good job of exploring Azaka's feelings and not invalidating them or downplaying them. I would recommend reading the KnK books prior to this one first, or else you'll most likely be hopelessly lost.

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Incest Rating: 4/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Questionably Requited? Auxillary to the Plot

Genre: Chuck Palahniuk, Drama

Overall Rating: 8/10

Like most of Palahniuk's works, Invisible Monsters is about fucked up people doing fucked up things, driven by self-destruction until they enter todestrieb. As usual, it's fucking glorious.

Invisible Monsters focuses on themes of beauty, identity, attention, disability, and the way that all of these intersect with womanhood. It's not for readers who are squeamish about depictions of transphobia or a narrator who is somewhat transphobic herself, but if you're able to stomach it I highly recommend it.

If you're reading it just for the incest, you'll probably be disappointed, but if you want a fantastic book with some small amount of explicit incest feelings, I would say go for it.

Not Forever, but For Now by Chuck Palahniuk

I'm putting this on the list because though I haven't read it yet, I know that it's explicitly incestuous. I cannot promise that the incest is good, I can't even promise that the book is good, but I can assure you that those brothers are fucking.

Manga

Sayuri-San no Imouto wa Tenshi

Incest Rating: 10/10

Incest Type: Explicit, Sisters, Focal Point

Genre: Yuri, Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy

Overall Rating: 9/10

This manga is very short, but focuses on the day to day life of a young woman and her estranged, sickly younger sister, who re-enters her life suddenly with a halo and wings that only the protagonist and her friend can see.

It's an extremely sweet, funny and lighthearted manga that is nonetheless deeply touching.

Citrus

Incest Rating: 5/10

Incest Type: Step-Sisters, Focal Point, Explicit

Genre: Yuri, Romance, Drama, Gyaru

Overall Rating: 6/10

Citrus is the queen of sister yuri, earning the rare privilege of an anime adaptation, which in this genre is rare! However, just because Citrus is queen does not make it the best, not even by a long shot. The plot is extremely melodramatic, the kisses questionably consensual for most of the first acts, and with the strict uniform standards, a lot of the tertiary characters can be difficult to discern in black and white. It has it's redeeming qualities, but mostly I've found that it's over-hyped.

I Met My Sister On A Dating Site

Incest Rating: 7/10

Incest Type: Sisters, Focal Point, Explicit

Genre: Yuri, Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance

Overall Rating: 7/10

This is a really cute and short manga with a great premise, but honestly it's very lacking in substance. That's okay though, because it does exactly what it sets out to do: be something short and sweet that ends with sisters dating.

Oshi no Ko

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Twins, Explicit, Ostensibly Requited? Sub plot

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Revenge, Idols

Overall Rating: 8/10

I've written my thoughts on Oshi no Ko elsewhere, but to keep this brief, this is a fantastic series, and reading/watching it was the time of my life. The art is glamorous and over the top, with visibly heightened emotions that really sell the drama of it all.

We've only just started to get to the incest as of this chapter being written, but Ruby's reaction to her brother are so endearing that I'm preemptively rating it very highly

Koi no Kaze

Incest Rating: 7/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Slice of Life

Overall Rating: 6/10

I don't have too much to say about this one— it's your basic, straightforward sibling love story played straight, with not too many twists or turns. I do appreciate that it includes an outing scene, so I'm rating it a bit higher, but it also hits on public acceptance, which for some people is a really important part of the fantasy.

1 x 1/2

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Mother/Daughter, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Romance, Drama, Yuri

Overall Rating: */10

Taiyaki, the mangaka who created 1 x 1/2, is in my opinion one of the greatest mother/daughter writers and artists out there. 1 x 1/2 is a complicated work to judge as an English speaker because what's currently on Mangadex is an excellent fan translation of an unfinished, no longer canon first draft. This is phenomenal, and does a great job of everything it sets out to do, until it ends very suddenly. When Taiyaki restarted 1 x 1/2, she partnered with an (incredibly mid) translation partner called Yuri Hub, which means that her work can no longer be fan translated, and the translation published is pretty clearly machine-based. It's honestly very disappointing, as I would love to have a proper translation of the new 1 x 1/2.

Visual Novels

Full Metal Daemon Muramasa

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Siblings (Explicit? Implicit? Somewhat unrequited?), Parent/Child (Explicit)

Genre: Fantasy Mecha, Action, Drama, Samurai

Overall Rating: 9/10

Muramasa is an epic, and I don't know how to impress the drama of the fight scenes throughout, and the way that they combine real swordplay theory with imagined mecha combat, crossed with samurai tropes. It can be really difficult to get through, as the game is not even in the slightest for the squeamish. There's a lot of rape, both implied and explicit, however the antagonist's motivation is that she wants to ascend to godhood so that she's no longer bound by the rules of morality and therefore can marry her father. Additionally, her relationship with her brother is extremely sexually charged, and their fight scenes often involve comparisons to sex.

This is one of the best mecha VNs ever written, with a truly fantastic ending.

Tsukihime

Incest Rating: 7/10

Incest Type: Siblings, Explicit, Focal Point (of one route)

Genre: Action, Urban Fantasy, Horror

Overall Rating: 7/10

This game is a touchy subject for me. I've had the misfortune of playing Tsukihime after having it hyped up for literal years, so it not measuring up to that hype is less a statement on my objective assessment of the VN, and more a statement on how beloved it is.

Having said that, the Akiha route is fantastic. I'm not sure that I have much to say on the subject that hasn't already been said, but believe you me, Tsukihime is worth playing.

Love Ribbon

Incest Rating: 8/10

Incest Type: Sisters, Explicit, Focal Point

Genre: Slice of Life, Drama, Romance, Comedy, Yuri

Overall Rating: 6/10

Love Ribbon is a short, sweet VN that's a really solid 6/10 and is worth the $15 it costs to support an indie dev. It focuses on two sisters who were raised apart, and only meet when they share an apartment to attend a prestigious high school. The romance is cute, the plot is uncomplicated, and there are only two routes, but there's a long epilogue where they're explicitly dating and ostensibly get symbolically married. If you have unresolved daddy issues that you can't touch for fear of untangling something massive, this is a great read because so do those girls.

Thank you for reading, I hope that this list helps people!

[writingquestionsanswered]

Do you think it will make sense if I were to write from the secondary character's POV? I'm writing a story where the protagonist dies in the end and I tried writing from the protagonist's POV but everything just seems too obvious? What are some tips in writing from the secondary character's perspective?

Secondary Character POV

Writing stories from the POV of characters other than the protagonist is pretty common. One I can think of off the top of my head is Mary E. Pearson’s Remnant Chronicles series. Lia is the protagonist, but other characters have their own POV chapters to help tell the story. If I’m not mistaken, there’s also another popular YA series where the bulk of the series is told from the POV of the protagonist, but it switches to a secondary character’s POV after she dies. Not mentioning the name of this series so as not to spoil anyone. My point is just that this is fairly common and there are lots of great examples of it out there. And yes, if switching to another character’s POV makes sense for your story, it’s definitely worth doing. In the case of the protagonist dying before the end, I’d definitely say that’s a situation when it would make sense. :)

The main “rule” for switching to another character’s POV is to make sure this character’s POV truly offers something to the story. Their perspective of events (both their actual observation/participation in events and their thoughts on them) should help to move the story forward. You should choose a character whose perspective offers the most benefit to the story and to the reader.

When switching to a different character’s POV, it’s very important to make sure you immediately establish the fact that the reader has left the main POV and entered a new one. This is typically done by keeping different POVs separated by chapter, and by labeling chapters with the name of the POV character. Alternatively, if your character is in an obviously different location, time, or situation, it may be enough to simply establish those things in the first couple sentences. For example, if one character is in a Civil War-era Virginia farmhouse, and the other is on an active battlefield, it would be pretty evident whose POV you’re in right away without having to label it. You can read my post Giving Your Characters a Unique Voice for help with making sure your POV characters sound different.

One last tip: it can be jarring to switch to a different character’s POV once or twice in the middle of the story and never again, so it’s best to establish your POV characters near the beginning, or to do something like you’re talking about and switching over completely, either for a several chapter stretch while the protagonist is “out of commission” or until the end.

Best of luck with your story!

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Have a question? My inbox is always open, but make sure to check my FAQ and post master lists first to see if I’ve already answered a similar question. :)

[bacchira]

Meet the character: Liam Part 1

Basic facts and appearance:

Full name: Liam Hytes

Age: 20

Date of birth: 06.11

Eye color: blue.

Hair: big honey curls

Body Build: Average height. Muscular but not bulky. Mostly just lean.

Secondary Gender: Omega.

Clan: Theta.

Family: step brother Jonah + adoptive parents living back in the clans village.

Other relations: Most notably his best friend Aliyah, also living back in the village. Knows lots of people in the village, and is generally well-liked. Has an older cousin who fights in the war, called Fenja.

Nickname(s): Tiny (By Jonah), Kyon (By Kaizer & Genesis), Lia (Teasingly by Genesis), otherwise people generally just use his first name.

Who is he?

Liam is the main protagonist of the first installment of the Alpha / Omega trilogy. Liam followed his brother to the war, when Jonah went to take care of the sick and wounded of the Theta clan. The warriors of each clan has each their camp set up in a frontline, guarding the clans' villages, and when Jonah went to follow his medical passion, Liam followed. Liam however, hates the sight of blood and does i no way understand his step brothers passion, but somehow he couldn't help himself, when Jonah announced that he was going. This both due to a selfish need to prove himself to be as good as Jonah and to a feeling that he needed to be useful however possible. Even if he, as an omega, was pardoned from the war.

Liam did have a little training in battle before going with Jonah, but never really got as good as he'd wanted. Or as the warriors in the camp. Just enough to protect himself, should an enemy make their way to the camp. Because that was were he was, and he was actually okay with that. He felt useful for the most part, when he helped with all the practical tasks of the daily life in the camp.

Being the only omega in the camp, or in any of the camps for that matter, he was chosen to seal Thalia's magic by becoming mates with her, hereby locking her pheromones which are the key to the magic (more on that in another post). The two strongest warriors are picked out to go with him and protect him on the travel there and to help the mating progress, that Thalia no doubt would not agree to on her own.

Liam is slightly cocky and likes to prove himself to others. Never backs down from a challenge. That's how he learned the skill of throwing cards, when his best friend Aliyah challenged him to beat her.

[choccos-database]

Pillia/Lia

 —BASICS—

PROJECT:  Project: Proclo

NAME: Pillia Katru, better known to close friends as “Lia”

DESCRIPTION: The young scavenger who becomes April’s first friend upon meeting her.

!!!POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!! ROLE: Protagonist !!!END SPOILERS!!!

IMPORTANCE: Secondary

—LOOKS, ETC—

GENDER: Female

AGE: Early teenager (14 in Stawdish years?!)

HEIGHT: 145cm

RACE: Uvra, Somasrian

BASIC APPEARANCE: Basic uvra physical characteristics >>here<<. She is short and chubby. Her skin varies from yellow to green and her antennae is red. 

In the main story, she is seen wearing a button jacket, gloves, and her old hiking boots.

—NATURE—

MOTIVATIONS: The big building is the only home that Pillia and her hometown has left. 

PERSONALITY: Playful, talkative, curious

GOOD TRAITS: Outgoing, resourceful, optimistic

BAD TRAITS: Rebellious, foolish, pushy

LIKES: Drawing & animating, tomatoes, exploring the building

DISLIKES: Talking to her parents, being unoccupied, being “too naïve”

 —HISTORY–

BIRTHDAY: 12th of October ? 

BACKSTORY: Before Pillia’s time at the home building she and her family lived in a town in a Somasrian country, on planet Stawdos. Since the invasion of an alien race from planet willing to search for elements buried in their grounds, Pillia and the rest of her hometown had to evacuate. 

Since the alien race was willing to explore the lot of Stawdos’ grounds, Pillia and her hometown decided to fly over to their much bigger, neighbouring planet, Imest. Imest was known to be so full of un-owned land and the hometown decided to find some open space there, even despite Imest’s unpredictable oceans. 

Pillia and her hometown landed somewhere on the continent of Dipuen, and found Proclo’s building by meeting some of the fisher bots while they were out fishing.

INTERESTING FACT: [LATER XD]

[siavahdainthemoon]

Children’s + YA books That Have Rowling Beat for Queer Rep

This is specifically a list of children’s and YA books written before Rowling’s infamous (and pathetic) announcement that Dumbledore was gay in 2007. I’m making this list to demonstrate that Rowling had no excuse for not putting Dumbledore’s sexuality on the page, even aside from the wild success she enjoyed that really would have let her ‘get away with’ pretty much anything.

This isn’t even CLOSE to an exhaustive list; please feel free to reblog with additions!

Without further ado;

Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey (1987). Queer rep: Keren, a lesbian lifebonded to Ylsa and later Sherill, both of them women.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block (1989). Queer rep: multiple gay secondary characters.

The Last Herald-Mage trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (1989-91). Queer rep: the main character is a gay man who has long-term relationships with men.

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden (1993). Queer rep: lesbian protagonists.

Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue (1997). Queer rep: multiple lesbian characters.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky (1999). Queer rep: openly gay secondary character, closeted gay secondary character.

I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block (2000). Queer rep: gay secondary character.

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez (2001). Queer rep: all three of the protagonists are queer boys.

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan (2001). Queer rep: bisexual and lesbian protagonists.

The Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan (2001-03). Queer rep: gay secondary character.

Tithe by Holly Black (2002). Queer rep: gay secondary character.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (2003). Queer rep: gay protagonist, gay love interest.

Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray (2003-2007). Queer rep: multiple lesbian/bisexual characters.

Luna by Julie Ann Peters (2004). Queer rep: protagonist’s sister is trans.

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan (2004). Queer rep: multiple queer protagonists.

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson (2004). Queer rep: lesbian and bisexual protagonists.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson (2005)(picture book). Queer rep: gay penguins.

The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce (2005). Queer rep: multiple lesbian characters.

Wide Awake by David Levithan (2006). Queer rep: gay protagonist. 

Tripping to Somewhere by Kristopher Reisz (2006). Queer rep: lesbian protagonist.

Inda quartet by Sherwood Smith (2006-2009). Queer rep: gay, bi, and lesbian characters throughout.

Hero by Perry Moore (2007). Queer rep: gay protagonist.

Parrotfish by Ellen Witlinger (2007). Queer rep: trans protagonist.

Vintage by Steve Berman (2007). Queer rep: gay protagonist.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (2007). Queer rep: gay and bisexual secondary characters.

[worldswewrite]

What’s your book about

EXCELLENT QUESTION

Tl;dr: the consequences of a kingdom obsessed with blood magic.

It’s about a whole kingdom built on blood magic. The kingdom is split into the lands above ground where the lower class live, Upper Orrdholm, and the lands underground where the upper class lives, Lower Orrdholm. Lower Orrdhers impose a tax, the saktta, on the Upper Orrdhers that takes their blood instead of money.

Our main protagonist, Lia, is an Upper Orrdher who is an apprentice healer. He and his mentor are the only people left that can read the ancient language of the region. A rebellion tries to convince him to help them translate ancient texts that could unlock mysteries of the world and help them end the saktta.

The secondary protagonist, Oli, is the princess and the regent of the kingdom. Her father has an illness that blood magic can’t cure and through that anger she wants to scale back the saktta so that the Lower Orrdhers’ biggest secret can come to light: the Upper Orrdhers have natural magic. And she wants to find someone who can cure her father.