#anyway. yeah. i love the locked tomb series.

[jiishwa]

rereading gtn is so crazy because i remember having zero clue what was happening for the first one hundred pages or so and now that i know everything from the first three books it’s like. oh wow. that’s what they were talking about?? or oh shit, i know where this is headed!! but the craziest thing of all is, for as much as i absolutely loved and was addicted to it on my first read regardless of being confused most of the time, im enjoying it even more the second time around. probably gonna end up rereading harrow and nona too but damn. what a great book/series.

[wander-wren]

the locked tomb is the strangest book series i have ever come across bc i only encounter it when mutuals post about it and i DO want to read it eventually but piecing together context from memes is building the most confusing picture of any piece of media ever

but i refuse to look it up and if you attempt to explain it to me i will bite you because it’s funnier this way

[gunkreads]

WOW (breathe)

WOW (breathe)

WOW (breathe)

Look, I saw it coming from about the halfway point. It was written on the walls and floor, and even little hints on the ceiling sometimes. Fuck, dude, it's written on the cover of the damn book. (spoilers below) GO READ IT. HARD RECOMMEND.

But a perfectly-executed twist has values besides shock to carry it.

The beauty of the twist at the end of The Traitor Baru Cormorant is the steadiness with which Dickinson shifts the narration itself to make you question whether you could have ever believed Baru was really with the rebels. Around the midpoint of the Haraerod summit, Baru's internal monologue--i.e. the narration--begins to betray small hints that she's trying to re-distance herself from the Aurdwynni. From there on, Dickinson makes these

HANG ON I JUST LOOKED HIM UP, HE WAS A WRITER FOR

THE TAKEN FUCKING KING??????

okay we're back

AND FORSAKEN????????????? TAIN HU = SJUR EIDO CONFIRMED??????????

okay back for real.

makes these little "slip-up" hints appear constantly and with increasing frequency throughout the latter half of the story. By the time they're gathered before the battle, Baru is all but admitting to herself that she's trying to end the dukes. Dickinson plays with the fact that his writing is so deliciously tight and refined that any teeny little "misplaced" word sticks out like a gunshot in a church.

I love it, OK? I love when authors know how good they are and play chess games in which their own mastery is the piece that lands the checkmate.

But really, once I had a little chat about this book (thanks @pillowfriendly) and established that it wasn't meant to be a mind-bending political drama, I picked it up and blasted through the latter half. So it was also a teaching book! I now have a better idea of how to assess what a book is trying to be when I start it.

Also, what the hell is up with people comparing this series to The Locked Tomb? What's the similarity there? I'm asking because The Masquerade can be compared much more directly to another series that infected me with a nearly identical flavor of brainworm: Red Rising.

Like... come on, man. I could draw a Venn diagram of plot points between the first Red Rising book and The Traitor and you'd have to break out a microscope to find the places they don't overlap.

Probably ice fucking cold take: Seth Dickinson's first book is about two miles better than Pierce Brown's. Red Rising (the book) takes a HOT sec to get off the ground and is just so incredibly derivative in its structure that I have a hard time putting it up on the pedestal that Dickinson has just effortlessly launched himself atop. I love RR in a deep, unkillable type of way, but the first book isn't... all that. I'm not unpacking that shit right now.

Anyway, yeah... The Traitor Baru Cormorant is an all-timer for sure. Elicited a lot of soft "oh...."s from me, which is about twice as much as I ever ask for.

[librarycards]

the locked tomb?

added to TBR | on my TBR | couldn’t finish it | did not enjoy | it was OK| liked it | loved it | favorite | not interested

unfortunately, i have tried gideon multiple times and cannot stand it - mostly for the pacing/storytelling but also for the ??? reverse-anachronistic dialogue? anyway, /endrant, but yeah. no from me.

as such, i'm not 100% on what recs would be good, but here are a few you may enjoy. others are welcome to weigh in!

recs:

Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries (I like this series!)

Travis Baldree, Bookshops and Bonedust (This was 'pretty good' as an airplane book for me)

Mira Grant, Feed (I DNF'd this, and did so for similar reasons (the specific narrative style/on-the-nose dialogue, so maybe you will also like it?)

[racefortheironthrone]

Hey there,

So I read the Locked Tomb series a few months ago and one thing that occurred to me after reading Nona the Ninth was that the John Gauis’s account of the end of the world could not be fundamentally trusted.  While I believe that Tamsyn Muir intended for these passages to be “true” or “Accurate” to what happened I found unable to accept the chapters due to the number and severity of lies told by John.  It also led to me notice any inconsistency, irregularity, or any implausible scenario and to see it as evidence of another lie by John. 

My question I suppose is if an author uses an unreliable narrator when (or if) should the audience trust said narrator again.  

In part my extreme skepticism started when John mentioned the oxygen crisis, that such a scenario would be so sever and immediate that there would be little time for John’s necromantic schemes.  It was further stoked by John’s impractical cryogenic plan (why would you send frozen people to the Kuiper Belt), and later on John’s  mis-remembering when and how original-Gideon died and that he was telling this story to Harrow hark trying to convinced her to join him.

I am quite certain that my extreme distrust is unwarranted and that Muir intended for us to believe John’s tale but I cannot help but notice the inconsistencies and find John utterly dishonest and unbelievable.

I'm glad you asked this question, because it allows me to talk about how to apply historiographical methodology to literary analysis.

One of the terms that I was exposed to during my training as a historian is the "hermeneutics of suspicion" - the practice of reading texts such that the on-its-face meaning of the text is false and that you have to read the text solely for its deeper, hidden meanings. The problem with the hermeneutics of suspicion is that, taken to a logical conclusion, all texts and meanings become false, and for lack of evidence, all academic inquiry shuts down and we wind up sitting on the floor with our hands over our mouths.

Now, this doesn't mean that you have to take texts as 100% valid either, but rather that good methodological practice requires a careful weighing and balancing of bias, rather than simplistic binaries.

So in the case of John's narrative in Nona the Ninth, is John meant to be an unreliable narrator? Yes. However, because Tamsyn Muir does actually play fair with the readers, she makes it quite clear when John is lying to Harrow/Alecto:

"I said I made a mistake. She let it go eventually because the others were telling her to lay off. Just said Guys as careful as you shouldn't have accidents. If you've got a gun learn how to aim it. This is too big for fuckups now... "Did you ever find out what happened? With your accident?" He turned to her and he smiled a funny little smile. It only used one half of his mouth. In the dream his new eyes did not show happiness or unhappiness. And he said, "Come on, love. Guys as careful as me don't have accidents."

And here again:

"I did need to do it, Harrow. There was no other way. Once those bombs were going off, there was no hope for Melbourne anyway-- G- was dead meat." She said-- "You said that G-'s bomb went off first." "Yeah, it did," he said impatiently. "Of course it did...Look-what does it matter? In the end, why the hell does it matter?"

Unfortunately for John Gaius, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is smarter than he is when she's in her right mind and she catches the discrepancies in his story - just as we are meant to do.

So what I would say is that, unless it's something where Tamsyn Muir gives us clues like this where other characters are calling John out on his bullshit, you should treat worldbuilding issues like the population of Earth, or the logistics of cryocans, or the speed of shuttle transports in the Nine Houses, etc. as either mistakes on the part of the author (when they actually are mistakes) or just part of the overall willing suspension of disbelief that comes with speculative fiction.

[rcrisdraws]

I love seeing the results of these polls. I'm in a queer bookclub and we were discussing as a group a similar thing: some of us were adamant about preferring canon queer material over all others, and some of us preferred better writing even if it was for het or even queerbaiting.

I'm personally here for strong narratives and my preferred writing style, or a genre I enjoy more than the gender or sexuality of the characters but it was a fascinating conversation. I'm also in the minority bc I don't really "ship" in books or movies, so I know that affects my position on it. But anyway, neat to see a wider poll than my bookclub!!!

I feel pretty confident in my character/narrative writing, even though I'm always looking for critiques and while definitely just a rough draft you can message me to show you the story so far (it's a near future sci-fi racing romp), regardless of that i felt like there's definitely a certain form of... reticence when it comes to canon wlw media or media focused primarily on women, which is why I phrased the question the way that I did.

Definitely feeling like the 'good writing' bit is a double edged sword depending on people's preferences in terms of romantic tropes and character tropes in general (and I'm feeling as a writer rather predictable in terms of tropes that are to be put forth because that's what I enjoy writing), but it's double especially whenever it comes to women characters. The anxiety is that even though the trope is a well established, well liked, celebrated even, trope for queer/queerbaity media it'd either be extra scrutinized or disregarded bc of the gender of the characters. Having books like The Locked Tomb series and the flagship ship of the newest media obsession be wlw (Farcille from Dungeon Meshi) is making things hopeful though bc it is kinda the vibe i'm striving for

But yeah it's a big big big convo to be had on the topic

[keplercryptids]

hello I feel like we have in some ways very similar book tastes - personally I've always been a fantasy reader and since I've grown up I've branched out to include sci fi and can say that SFF is definitely my favourite genre. I also prefer to read books where at least one prominent character is some flavour of lgbtq+ & (sorry I've been combing thru your book tag a bit) some of my favourites have been the teixcalaan duology, everina maxwell's books (prob some of my all time favorites actually), tlt... you get the gist. so I'd love to hear some recommendations for more SFF books that I might enjoy if u are up for it(I read a lot via audiobooks bc I'm a biologist and it helps me keep focused during menial lab work, and I'm always hunting for more books!!!). I also have a couple recommendations of my own to offer up: the sound of stars by alechia dow (currently reading it and have rlly enjoyed it, ya features apocalyptic alien invasion type stuff, a really great mc who is either demi or gray ace I can't remember which, lots of interesting world building & MC also loves books a lot) & also Hench by Natalia Zina Walschotts (about a henchperson working temp jobs for super villains who is disgruntled by superheroes' ignorance to how their work keeps fucking up regular citizens just for the sake of their own images. uhm it's just really good) anyways have a good day and may the next books you read be 4 stars or above :)

hi! yeah! i do indeed have recommendations!

the locked tomb series by tamsyn muir. you're on tumblr so you're probably aware of this series lmao. but it's a fun queer necromantric romp in space. i call it "fun" because the books are legitimately funny and fun to read, but they pack a punch too.

silver under nightfall by rin chupeco. this is a very recent read for me and i liked it a lot! a vampire hunter joins a vampire triad instead of doing his job. well, he does his job too lol. it's got mystery vibes and good polyam rep.

lots of stuff by the author neon yang, if you haven't read anything by them already. the tensorate series of novellas is one of my fave series ever, and their most recent novel, the genesis of misery, is a nonbinary joan of arc retelling in space and i really liked it.

the amberlough dossier series by lara elena donnelly is great, and i'm especially recommending the audiobooks because they're a delight. the books are kind of a mix of spy thriller/noir.

the space between worlds by micaiah johnson. multiverse travel. doppelgangers. flirtations with an aloof handler. some of my favorite things lol.

i'm also gonna link my shelf of queer sff on goodreads (link here) because there's dozens more i didn't mention!

[mblematic]

ten books to know me

the way @broomsticks tagged me and I immediately threw myself into bed to answer this!!! books define me for better or *cough* extremely worse. okay here we gooooo these are a mix of older and recent-ish to avoid my usual Top 10

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff — had to start with an all time fave, a book that pretty much defines what I'm looking for every time I pick up something to read. Characters you get mad at and root for anyway. A love story that's truly a love story, but much more than it appears. The writing!! The writing!!!!

On Beauty by Zadie Smith — This was the book that turned me into a contemporary literary fiction nut I think? Before I read it I was mostly reading fantasy.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman — speak of the devil!!! The Magicians, for me, defined that awkward phase where you grow out of Harry Potter but like. not really?? in retrospect I should have known I was going to be writing HP fanfic when this series became my whole goddamn personality. (Discord is my Free Trader Beowolf btw. Friends in my phone hehe)

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir — this series (The Locked Tomb) defines my life RIGHT NOW. Discovering TLT was like scraping back a layer of my calcified cynical adult self and discovering the child that still lives in my innermost easily-delighted soul. It took me two tries to read GTN and reading it the second time was truly revelatory in a way that I haven't experienced in years ........... cannot explain but I cried several times reading Harrow the Ninth and sometimes I get weird and shivery about how fucking good and special and unique this series is.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason — I just loved this and it ALSO made me cry.

Beowolf: A New Translation by Maria Dhavana Headley — I really like Beowolf, I think it's so bizarre and funny, and this translation is hilarious and so special.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan — I love books set in New York City (SORRY) and Jennifer Egan is wonderful, and this book especially is like. so sexy and good

The Raven Cycle (but specifically The Dream Thieves) by Maggie Stiefvater — haha. Yeah. Well, u kno

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — just love it!! a love story!!

Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides, translated by Anne Carson — hard to pick an Anne Carson so I went with the Tumblr fave lmao. Give Anne Carson The Nobel Prize In Literature 2023

ANYWAY this was fun I could go on but I'll stop. Tagging some bookish pals: @femme--de--lettres @billsfangearring @tahtahfornow @pancakehouse @maybebabyplease heheeeeeee can't wait to read all ur lists

[transmutationisms]

saw in your latest ask that you just read the locked tomb series and i’d love to hear some of your general thoughts on it! for me it’s pretty cogent thematically and exhibits occasional brilliance (harrow the ninth in particular comes to mind; it’s very technically deft imo) but there are issues wrt execution that i can’t overlook, no matter how much i love the series.

yes i am a locked tomb enjoyer >:) i started gtn on a whim at 3am when i couldn't sleep in surgery recovery lmao and then got pretty sucked in around the halfway mark. readmore so i don't have to worry about spoilers.

honestly my main gripe prior to nona was that i was concerned muir was just going to elide a lot of the imperial violence that her worldbuilding implied. having now read ntn i'm much more enthusiastic about the whole series. i've gathered from seeing some Posts that nona did not get a universally positive reception jfdjshfjd but i really liked it. obviously there's a lot that muir needs to pick back up in alecto, and i agree that harrow had some extremely banger technical moments, but also, nona had the john passages, so....

anyway. it's hard for me to be concise here because there's a lot going on in these books and their intertexts. i think to me the centrally clever thing muir has done is use necromancy, the necromancer/cavalier relationship, and lyctorhood (really just the higher expression of this same relationship) as interpersonal representations and echoes of imperial violence. to me this is what makes nona so good, and even allows nona to re-contextualise harrow and gideon in retrospect. if lyctors are "half-dead cannibals," then so, in some sense, is the empire itself and any imperial subject. death is then not a stopping point of violence but a necessary production of empire; also, there is a really fascinating essay to pull together here about the use of cannibalism as a metaphor in discussing political violence (i'm thinking especially of the french long nineteenth century; invocations of 'bloodthirst' eg during the first revolution; and the social role of butchers and butchery, in relation to tlt's necro-bio-politics and use of the body as a locus and articulation of violence.... yum).

problems-wise i would say the comedy doesn't always land for me. i think muir is trying to do something with memes and internet jokes akin to how cervantes used high/low language and humour in 'don quixote' (obviously a major intertext for both dulcinea and ortus, and arguably also harrow's bubble universe in the river), but sometimes i just don't like it lol. also, i saw a post circulating recently that said ianthe was pre-written for fanfic tropes, and like... true lol i find her mostly uninteresting except for the incestuous and abusive implications (maybe just explicit text at this point) with corona. also i'm interested to see whether muir is intending to do more with race in alecto.

in general, though... yeah i'm really excited for alecto; i think muir has potentially set herself up well. that shift from essentially the limited perspective of a marginal but still imperial subject, to the hints we get of the broader empire on the mithraeum, to actually opening up blood of eden and the process of conquering people (not just harrow flipping planets) was well done. also to do that in nona through alecto's eyes, which are of course physically the eyes of a teenage girl...! and i didn't even get to her own body being modelled on a barbie that she hates. like i said, there's a lot to say about these books lmao. i love you pyrrha dve and i'm dying (haha) to know what muir is planning to do with kiriona.

[utilitycaster]

Can you talk more about why you like 2nd person POV?

How do you read it without arguing with the author about what happens? Like, "Even though you don't kniw him, you smile at him." Excuse me, author, I've never smiled at a stranger in my life. I know there's supposed to be suspension of disbelief, but when the author uses 2nd person, isn't the whole conceit that they're telling me what I did?

Well, because, and this might seem like a wild stretch, I'm capable of distinguishing fiction from reality and I understand that the author is not speaking to me, M Utilitycaster, M.Sc., first of her name; but to a role that I as the reader shall assume for the duration of this book. It's no different from the fact that I know, for example, that Middle Earth isn't real, but Lord of the Rings is presented as a history, and Quenya is presented as a real language from that world, and that's part of the conceit. Like yeah, there is supposed to be suspension of disbelief; so why should I stop suspending my disbelief just because it's not asking me to imagine the map and the history of the world are different than they are in reality, but rather that I am different?

Also you are on anon and I don't know how you came upon this post but if you follow this blog for its primary focus...how is this any different than making a D&D character and the DM saying "you come upon a broken bridge that looks over a deep canyon, shrouded in mist. It is gray and rainy"?

Major spoilers for two series I love dearly (Locked Tomb, The Broken Earth) and would hate to spoil for others below a cut since those have really good illustrative examples, but in summary: much as the choice to use first person should be about viewing a story from a particular perspective; second person should be about who is telling the story, and who their audience is. It can definitely be poorly executed, as can anything, but good use of the second person is supposed to make the reader perhaps feel a little on edge or disoriented. [also: if you've read one of these books but not the other feel free to ask me for the one you don't mind me spoiling].

If you don't want to get spoiled but do want an example, I mentioned Bright Lights, Big City, which I'm happy to spoil because it came out in like the mid-80s. Anyway the "you" of that story is a young, professional, and fairly privileged man going on a full 1980s bender (there is a lot of cocaine involved), and it's revealed that it's because his wife recently left him, and then it's revealed that his mother died a year ago and he hasn't really grappled with it and his relationship was mostly at his mother's behest. It's someone going through a lot of turmoil and taking a lot of drugs and the "you" of it makes it feel very alone and somewhat distant, almost as if he is watching himself do all of this without feeling it. It's a very deliberate choice and it would not be as notable a book without it.

So for the examples in question:

The Locked Tomb's second book, Harrow the Ninth, is in second person. This is ultimately revealed as the story having been told by Gideon, protagonist of the previous book, whose soul is alive within Harrow and partitioned away [long story, not the point]. It serves a secondary purpose of creating this somewhat dissociative feeling for Harrow (since the reader knows 'you' refers to Harrow), who is experiencing physical illness, unreality, and hallucinations throughout the story: "you" are Harrow, but Harrow doesn't really feel like "I" right now.

In the Broken Earth trilogy, there are sections in second person throughout; there are a few different timelines and character POVs that converge and one is consistently in second person. It is revealed at the very end that the story is being told to the newly awoken reincarnation [kind of, anyway...long story, not the point] of the character who is referred to as "you" in the novels, by someone who knew her in her previous life, who is trying to remind her of who she was. It's also a fairly intense series of novels and I do find that "you" puts the reader into the action in a visceral way that "I" or 3rd person would not.

[lesbianjesuslovesyou]

oh dear god. Dear god. Fuck. Dear lord. Dear lord have mercy.

I have fallen through a fever dream of a rabbit hole and indubitably gotten drunk in your fanfics. Like I don’t say this often. But your fanfics legitimately manage to incorporate ALL of my kinks. And theirs like. So fucking many of them.

Your fics + name swapping sites have been legit the only thing that’s kept me going for like the past week. It’s like a drunk haze except I’m not drunk I’m just insanely horny (I recently started testosterone as I’m transitioning. So yeah. That’s why)

but holy FUCK. You’re like some fucking Angel sent from above. You have spanking overstimulation, degradation AND super dom tops + whiney pathetic bottoms??? It’s just. God. So fucking good. I feel delerious just thinking about it. You’ve made me delirious.

Sorry for that long ass intro. I think I just came here to metaphorically ask/ beg if you take requests or any type of prompts or anything?

Fuck I do love the Cytherea and Gideon fics don’t get me wrong I also love the Harrow and Gideon stuff too. I just like a little non/dub con in my smut fics sometjmes. Brings an extra rough element. And you always have Cytherea give off such perfect ‘Mean Mommy Don’ vibes ifnejdjsjdjd.

something even wacker? I’ve never read a single tomb book. I had no idea what it even was. I still haven’t read it yet. I just know the characters single-handedly from your fics. I typically replace all the names with my current favorite ship which is Toradeen. Aka Toralei x Clawdeen from monster high. With Toralei as the bottom cause girlie ain’t topped a single thing in her life and she not about to start now lol.

but what’s so fun is that you’ve seriously gotten me interested in reading those books. I have a severe backlog of books I need to read. But I’m definitely adding the series to the list just cause of you! So uh? Win for the tomb series?

anyway sorry this was long. I just got excited to see you were on tumblr

sa/lkdsnkkgdjhfallbjsfbdsk vjghfdkbjvnskz Oh my GOSH, you are the sweetest!!! I am SO glad you've enjoyed my fanfiction. Truly, that means the world to me. <3 And you haven't even read the series! It is definitely worth looking into; Gideon the Ninth is legitimately one of the best books I've ever read, and it sparked over 130 fanfictions in less than two years... being able to combine my favorite book series with my favorite BDSM tropes and kinks has genuinely made me so happy. I haven't written this much in my whole life, and it's all thanks to this series with the silly goth nun and butch swordswoman.

I do take requests! Sometimes I post on Twitter (@utilitywhiskers) with a "drop # kinks and we'll see what happens" and try to create a fic with the first ones that pop up in the comments.

I'm not on Tumblr as much as I used to be back in my pre-fandom days (when the interface was still easy! and didn't make my computer lag!), but you're also welcome to shoot me a request in my Askbox here. I tend to only write Locked Tomb fics, but I love exploring new kinks.

And since you made me blush like a schoolgirl with your super sweet message, here's a sneak peek of some future fics that I hope to finish once the fandom-wide Holiday Exchange is over: -Dollification -Human Slave AU -Littlespace/Ageplay -T-Dick Blowjobs -Circus AU -Hypnokink -Freeuse Noncon -Judicial Punishment -Serial Killer AU ...and so, so, so many more <3 Thank you again for the super sweet comment. I am sincerely so happy that my fics have brought you joy (and kept you warm at night!).

[panthera-tigris-venenata]

what is the best book you have ever read?

what is your least favorite genre?

do you fold the pages or use a bookmark?

would you want your favorite book to be a movie?

what is the first book you remember reading?

what book do you feel most connected to?

what’s the most you’ve reread a book?

do you use libby? (or other)

What is the best bookyou have ever read?

Best book? Just one??

Also, like, subjectively or objectively? Because rereading some of my favourites from when I was younger physically hurts. (Star-crossed by Josephine Angelini. Why did I think rereading it was a good idea?)

Anyway. Let me list some:

Six of Crows. The Locked Tomb series. Hooked by AC Wise. The Song of Achilles.

What is your least favourite genre?

...Non fiction?

Other than that, I have to be in the right mood to read pure romance. That said, certainly fantasy-romance type of books is starting to get annoying.

Do you fold the pages or use bookmarks?

I never fold the pages.

Bookmarks, well, that's questionable, but I'd rather memorise the number than fold a page.

Do you want your favourite book to be a movie?

Absolutely not, thank you for asking!

Though I did hear the idea of TLT books animated in Arcane style and I'd kill for that.

What is the first book you remember reading?

Look, my perception of time isn't okay. So, let me list more of them?

Mach a Šebestová, which is written by an author famous for his run-on sentences. My dad made a deal with me: You read a sentence, I read a page. (We both ended up reading a page.)

A beautifully illustrated Bible for children, which, looking back, is pretty weird reading material to give to 7yo from my deeply atheist family.

A book called something like Long May the Knights Live, which was an adaptation of my favourite TV series at the time. It had about 200 pages and some photos from the series in the middle. I read this after second grade, and I loved it.

What book do you feel most connected to?

Loveless by Alice Oseman hurt me on an offensively personal level so I'm gonna go with that.

What's the most you've reread a book?

... Yeah, I reread stuff a lot. I'm pretty sure the number is at least seven.

Do you use libby?

I don't think so? What's libby?

[havocmadden]

oh love all of those choices!! i have to say i really enjoyed best friends whenever when it was on. i'm not sure if i've seen all of it but it was a cute show!! i know it's one of your favorites!! and the tea is cyd x shelby was done better than riley x maya I SAID IT anyway gmw is lowkey dead to me so haha okay so some of my favorites are:

the rotten four, mal x evie, troyella, austin x dez, austin x ally, alex x harper, miley x lily, ben x mal, kimron, candace x jeremy, christopher x jessica, liv x holden, gordo x lizzie, amy x jake, amy x hartley

if this gives me away oh well 😅

okay so what were some of your favorite things from this year? favorite songs, albums, tv shows, movies, books, experiences, anything! and if you just rewatched older things that counts too!! -gcwca secret santa

i will say i definitely have some IDEAS now but i'm not very good at guessing so i could be wrong

also yeah gmw was like. i like gmw a lot but mostly i like the version that exists in my head and not in reality. i should finish my gmw/btvs crossover au actually,,, and i should write some bfw fic. i can't believe i've never written best friends whenever fic actually

some of my favorite things in 2022:

noah kahan's stick season

xana's tantrums

the locked tomb/gideon the ninth series!

getting to see a bunch of ghibli movies and the dark crystal in the theaters

arcane!!

getting to go see wicked the musical

watching movies with the gcwca. ik i'm not there very much but when i am i always have a great time <3

writing!!! idk if this COUNTS but i am very proud of myself for getting out two longer fics this year, both for people's birthdays and for doing nanowrimo and for my word count overall this year (currently 151k; hoping i can get to 155 before the year ends)

exandria unlimited calamity! it was just. augh. i loved it. i think about it constantly

movie night with peter and getting to see peter in november!! always a highlight of every year 💕💕💕💕

i feel like i didn't do a whole lot this year in terms of things that were interesting but. i hope you had a lot of good/favorite things happen this year too

[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...

[diamondsandlemons]

Hi sorry for being the least normal person on the planet about this but I saw you rbing some The Locked Tomb stuff and it's only been like a week or two since I got extremely into the series and it's nice to see someone I follow also show interest in it around the same-ish time as me! Can I ask abt your take on the books so far n fav character/s?

well I've only read the first book (I'm definitely interested in continuing with the series but I probably won't get to it for a while, esp. since I wanna get back into playing Ace Attorney games, as playing a visual novel kinda takes up the same time slot in my day as reading a novel, yk?) so there's def stuff I don't know abt yet.

but anyway yeah! I did really enjoy it. I appreciate the comedy in it, which I wasn't really expecting since like the cover art is so grim and it opens with some really dense politics stuff and a bunch of long names (that I just know should be pronounced with a british accent but I can't really make my head voice do that) and like the actual plot is very serious with deaths and stuff but nonetheless This Book Has Jokes

and its best when they're the dumbest, simplest jokes you could think of and Gideon says them out loud because thats the kind character she is. love her

Palamedes is great too because he entertains Gideon's antics while also being the one most focused on solving the mystery castle puzzles. (this girl who's been here for like a month and has never spoken a word to anyone is talking to me now? and she's rude? thats fine I'll just roll with it). he's also like the most normal dude in the whole cast. you feel comfortable when he's around

(btw what the hell was up with the thing he discovered about the rooms in Canaan House being from different time periods? like the different rooms are literally different ages? I don't think that was ever explained or brought up again???)

Also, for "lesbian fiction" being basically the one thing everyone says about this series, I was kinda surprised at the lack of a romantic plot in this one? I mean maybe there will be more of that in the other books idk, but like. ok so from the beginning it's very clear that Gideon and Harrow are gonna be the main pair here. and I was a little skeptical they were gonna be able to sell me on that because of where their relationship started, but nahhh I had nothing to worry about. they were meant for each other and enemies to lovers works great it turns out. but like. their relationship definitely improves a lot over the course of the story, but most of the time they don't talk to each other about anything but their jobs. its all bones and skeletons and locked doors with them.

don't get me wrong it has strong gay vibes all the way through (and Gideon is constantly commenting on how hot other women are, which is great) but at no point are Harrow and Gideon actually like. dating. closest they got was when I think it was implied they fucked once, after the pool scene. which like, good for them, I'm glad they got the opportunity to do that before, ah, y'know.

speaking of which I have NO clue what'll happen next based on how it ended. and the brief glimpse of the emperor at the very end was not at all what I expected, so that's curious as well...

OH yeah and speaking of the empire. uh at least the copy of the book that I have has a bunch of bonus material at the end, like in-universe essays and reports (and a pronunciation guide where I frustratingly learned I'd been reading half the characters' names wrong). and ONLY in that bonus material was it ever acknowledged that other inhabited planets exist outside of the empire. like for the whole book it kinda seems like there are nine planets that comprise the empire, and that's it. no humans anywhere else in the universe. no life outside the empire.

sure, the Cohort supposedly fights "enemies of the empire" but that's all that's ever said about that. could be like evil skeletons or some other kind of space monster for all we know. but no there ARE other civilizations, which I guess might be at war with the necromancers? it's cool to know that, that this story's universe is bigger than we've seen, and if I had to guess I'd say bigger than we probably ever will see, since there's still so many ghost/death mysteries and House history stuff our beloved necros have yet to solve.

ok thats probably everything I have to say about Gideon the Ninth for now. thanks for giving me an opportunity to put it all into words, lol

[grumfield]

If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Hi!! I don't mind at all, thank you so much for this ask!! I'm always happy to talk about my favorite ships :) These are in no particular order...and there's a lot lol so sorry in advance!

Mo Ran and Chu Wanning from 2ha ( Canon): dumb little mass murderer horndog is his pathetic depressed teacher who couldn't regulate his emotions if his life depended on it. They make me want to bite something and tear it to shreds.

Gideon and Harrowhark from the Locked Tomb series (Not canon...yet): Gideon is like if Utena was a big beefcake butch lesbian and Harrowhark is like what if Anthy was anemic and utterly swagless

Damen and Laurent from Captive Prince: (Canon) I read their story at an impressionable age and they changed my brain chemistry. They're the best enemies to lovers couple and I will die on that hill.

Enkidu and Gilgamesh from The Epic of Gilgamesh: (either or bro it's your interpretation) ancient story about a goat man who's sole existence is to kill a king and he becomes friends with him instead...what's not to like bro???

You Miao and Li Zhifeng from LSWW (Canon): Ouuughhh...i love them so much...spoiled little tea merchant's son and the mysterious Quanrong dude he hangs with...shit gets so crazy and political I love it and I love them

Hannibal and Will from Hannibal: (Canon) omg what if i was a suit-wearing pun-loving freak and i was psychosexually obsessed with a sweaty little fisherman who knows allllllll the ways I'm fucked up ahhah then what

Villanelle and Eve from Killing Eve: (Canon...?) bro don't even get me started

Shefali and O Shizuka from The Tiger's Daughter: (Canon) fantasy mongolian warrior woman and her soulmate a fantasy japanese woman. They fight demons together and it's GREAT.

Asako Minami and Kuroiwa Hiroto from Stigmata (Canon): Detective Guy whose body recreates the injuries of people who were recently killed in the area he's in and his detective partner

Jaime and Brienne from Game of Thrones: I fuck with the manlet/giant woman who tops combo

An Zhe and Li Feng from Little Mushroom: (Canon) they remind me a lot of the characters from No.6 which was really formative for me in middle school...except i find them more endearing bc they're both kind of like unexpressive dudes!! love their dynamic

Mizusawa and Takatsu from Young Bad Education/Young Good Boyfriend: (Canon): OUGH!!! pathetic pathetic teacher and his fucked up weirdass student...I love them...their relationship is so incredibly cute wah

Hector and Achilles from...the Illiad...: (Not Canon) yeah yeah yeah flame me all you want I think they're superior to Patroclus/Achilles yes i read fic about them (they're the only couple I read fic of)

I haven't read the series since I was 12 but I think Tessa, Will, and Jem from Infernal Devices should have gotten together period

Whatever the fuck Phoenix Wright and Edgeworth have going on

Those chicks from the Handmaiden

Anyways there we go LMAO