build-a-problem-musical · 1 month ago
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Random new decision: Miranda’s therapist is Rachel Clark. I originally didn’t give her a first name, but because of “Late to the Party” (peak Theo-POV Miradore anthem), she gets to be Rachel.
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neil-gaiman · 2 years ago
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My friend the brilliant author Rachel Pollack is coming to the end of her life. She won the Nebula, World Fantasy and Arthur C Clarke awards. She is a world renowned expert on Tarot, and her books on Tarot are still regarded as the gold standard. She created the first trans superhero, in Doom Patrol in '93. I will miss her very much when she goes. I am writing this at the request of her wife Zoe, to let her friends know that the end is soon, and to let the obituarists know too. (I saw her yesterday and hope to see her again before the end.)
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libraryleopard · 25 days ago
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Basically, I can’t take any posts lamenting about people reading below their age levels seriously because I think they’re all written in a judgmental way that would make the people discussed in the posts defensive of their reading tastes instead of like, actually encouraging people to branch out in their reading habits. Like we could talk about how people who think classic literature is all stuffy and dry could try picking up some short gothic horror works like Carmilla or The Picture of Dorian Gray to disprove that preconceived idea. Or we could recommend that people who think all adult literature is about sad people getting divorced read funny and heartfelt books like Greta and Valdin or The Rachel Incident. Or how people who enjoy fantasy aimed at teens or children but haven’t made the jump to reading fantasy aimed at adults could be encouraged to check out the works of authors like Nghi Vo and Zen Cho and P. Djèlí Clark who write interesting and fantastical novels and novellas for older audiences. But instead I feel the vibe of these discussions is more interested in being disdainful than actually spreading a love of literature or encouraging people to read a variety of books!
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thebiggerbear · 10 months ago
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"I hate you." "You have a weird way of showing that." - Jason Teague Prompt Response
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Summary: When another student makes an unwanted move on you, Jason's not above flexing his assistant coach authority muscle a little to get the guy to leave you alone and send a message.
A/N: Prompt from @creativepromptsforwriting (#941). I absolutely adore early s4 Jason Teague. He's such a cutie. I always loved him and Lana together until the dark turn happened & he chose to keep seeking the stones for his mom. This was something that just popped into my head for the prompt line. Hope it's okay.
Reader is 18 (similar dynamic setup to him and Lana in the show). This is meant to take place during s4.
Thank you to my beta @rieleatiel for her services. You rock, girl!
Pairing: Jason Teague x Female!Reader; Jason Teague x Student!Female!Reader
Warnings: guy gets a little too close for Reader's comfort and he gets handsy for a second
Word Count: 4725
Taglist: @avada-kedavra-bitch-187
Jason Taglist: @heartlessdelusions; @nancymcl
Jensen Taglist: @samanddeaninatrenchcoat; @deansbbyx
This was recc'ed by @winchestergirl2 here.
"I hate you." "You have a weird way of showing that."
Soldier Boy version ✨ Beau version ✨ Dean version ✨ Jenny version ✨ Tom version ✨ CJ version ✨ Rachel version ✨ Anael version ✨ SDV Leah version ✨ Alec version
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You closed your locker only to jump as an undesired face appeared beside you. Said face of the unwanted senior broke into a wide grin. 
“Derek,” you chuckled nervously. “You scared me.”
He gave you what he seemed to think was his most dazzling smile. “Sorry.” He seemed anything but. “So, I was just wondering if you were going to Trav’s party later?”
“Um, I don’t think so,” you offered as you rearranged the books in your arms, gesturing towards them. “Gotta study.”
His smile faded a little. “That sucks. Wait… Today’s Friday…”
You could see him working it out in his head and you hurried to find another excuse. “Plus, you have the big game later.”
“But Trav’s party is after the game.”
You nodded, internally rolling your eyes. “Yeah, it is.” Why couldn’t this guy just take no for an answer? He’d been after you for most of the semester and you wanted nothing to do with him. You never flirted, never gave any signals or showed even a sliver of interest in return, so why was he so persistent? You’d turned him down and made excuses time and time again. 
You might feel bad if Derek was a genuinely nice guy, but he wasn’t. He’d bullied you all throughout most of your middle school years — knocking books out of your hands, purposely tripping you in the hallways, calling you horrible names, and even shoving you into lockers as he passed you by. He’d even smashed a tray of food into your clothes once in the cafeteria; he and all of his buddies laughed as mashed potatoes and gravy dripped off of your sweater. Lana would always ask if you’d tell your parents or the principal, but you refused; your parents were dealing with enough thanks to their divorce, and the principal would only make it worse.
Lana would then give you a hug and be there for you as much as she could. Chloe offered to handle it for you, but you begged her not to, swearing her and Lana to secrecy. By the time Clark joined your friend group in freshman year, Derek had moved on, giving you a reprieve for a few blissful years. Before then, however, there were many days you went home and sobbed into your pillow, hoping beyond hope that the next day he’d just decide to act like you didn’t exist instead of continuing to torment you. Thanks to him, you learned how to become invisible and you were good at it… Until you grew up and became a Smallville High senior. Now, all of a sudden, Derek was dogging your every step for some reason.
“You can come watch me play and then join me at the after-party.” Derek actually looked as if he had given you the solution you had been hoping for. “No test tomorrow,” he added proudly. 
“Actually, I have plans later, so I’m sorry, but I can’t make it. Good luck at the game, though.” You went to turn to leave when he grabbed your books from you and tossed them behind him with a grin, not caring in the least that a passing student had to duck to prevent a possible head injury.
Derek boxed you in against a locker, both arms on the sides of your head. He leaned in and your heart began racing, half in fear and half in anger. You usually tried to keep things civil so that his bullying wouldn’t start up again before you could graduate and get out of this godforsaken high school, but this jerk was getting on your last nerve.
“You don’t have any plans now,” he said in what he must have thought was in some sort of sexy tone. All it did was cause a knot to form in your stomach and increase your anger. “Come on, Y/N, come to the game and then we can head to the party together. Whaddya say?” He playfully wiggled his eyebrows at you and you reached your limit.
You took a deep breath, looked him square in the eyes, and stated firmly, “No.”
That took him aback for a moment. “No?”
“No.” You went to move under his arm when he stopped you.
“What do you mean no?”
“Exactly what it sounds like: no. As in nope, nein, nyet, negative. As in never going to happen.”
“But…” You could see him trying to understand how you could turn him down. “Why?”
“Why?” You laughed in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Why won’t you go out with me? I’ve been asking and asking.”
You had to restrain yourself from asking him again if he was really serious. Apparently he was and, while you had so many potshots you wanted to take at his ego and so many horrible things you wanted to say, you decided against the alluring idea of being petty and just gave it to him straight. “I hate you.”
His jaw dropped. After a moment, however, he gave you that creepy smile again. “You have a weird way of showing that, though. Seems to me you like playing hard to get. I can dig it.” He went to move closer to try and kiss you when you quickly slid out from under his arms. You swiftly picked up the books he had thrown and you were about to start down the hallway when Derek’s voice stopped you.
“So I’ll see you at the game later? Then you and me, we can go to the party together.” 
You knew you should ignore it but you’d had enough. You’d been dealing with this for weeks and in your bid not to stir the waters, it had only gotten worse. Time to pull the pin on that grenade and hit him with the cold hard truth that no one else in Smallville was aware of. 
You blew a wayward strand of hair out of your face and took a deep breath, spinning on your heel to face him. “I don’t know how you keep missing the fact that I’m not going with you, that I will never go out with you, but that’s your problem. As it so happens, I’m already seeing someone.”
He stiffened at that. “Who?”
“Someone and that’s all you need to know. And even if I wasn’t, let me just make this perfectly clear: there is no way in hell I would ever go out with you, especially not after all you did to me back in middle school. You’d have to be crazy to think I would.”
Derek waved a hand dismissively. “Come on, I was just playing around with you back then, not to mention it was like a million years ago. You don’t need to make such a big deal about it.”
Your eyes widened. Wow, this guy was even more of a jackass than you imagined. If you didn’t despise him so much, you might actually feel bad for him, or at least you’d feel bad for the future girl who did decide to give him a chance one day. It was a real mystery to you why any girl in this school, cheerleader or not, would ever date him for anything other than his football jock status. “Do you have any idea what you put me through?”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay now, you’re just overreacting. So we played a couple of pranks on you when we were kids, big deal. They weren’t that bad. Just get over it and get under me already.” He smirked at you and waggled his eyebrow again. You began to feel nauseous, disgusted and in disbelief; did he really just say that? Did he really say something that crass and suggestive after telling you that you were overreacting and needed to get over his bullying you?
“Wow.” You blinked. “Derek, you are…something.”
“Don’t I know it, babe.” Derek stepped closer to you, instinctively making you hold your books in front of your chest as if they were some form of shield. “Come with me to the party tonight and you could know it, too. See why they call me the D-train, on and off the field.”
If your heart wasn’t pounding in a mix of fear and anger right now, you would have laughed right in his face. For someone involved in sports, he sure didn’t have any game. You really couldn’t believe this was happening. And to think, when you woke up this morning, you thought it was going to be a halfway decent Friday, especially when you got a sweet good morning text from a certain someone.
“Not happening,” you seethed.
“You say that now,” he said in a throaty murmur. “But you’ll be saying something different later, trust me.”
Your jaw tightened and you turned to leave when he grabbed your arm. “Let me go!” You yanked your arm out of his grip just as Clark appeared seemingly out of nowhere and stepped between you.
“Derek, leave her alone. She said she doesn’t want to go with you so just let it be, alright?”
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do, Kent?” Derek bit out, not one bit happy about the interruption. A crowd had started to gather and you could hear the whispers and feel everyone’s eyes on you — which was exactly what you didn’t want. You nervously buried a hand in the back of Clark’s t-shirt and tried to tug on it to get his attention so he could walk away with you. He didn’t budge and continued to stare down Derek, unperturbed.
“Alright, break it up. Break it up.” Assistant Coach Teague suddenly appeared and he quickly glanced between Clark and Derek. “What’s the problem, fellas?”
“Nothing, Coach,” Derek answered. “Just a little misunderstanding between me, Kent, and my girl.” He glared over at Clark.
“Oh my God, I’m not your girl,” you snapped. “Get it through your thick head already!” You leaned into Clark a little, asking “Are you sure there’s enough padding in those football helmets you guys wear? Because I’m going to start worrying about you if this,” you gestured towards Derek, ”is the end result.”
A hint of a smirk played on Clark’s face, but he tamped it down and immediately echoed you. “She’s not your girl, Derek. She never has been. Just leave her alone and we’ll be cool.”
“It’s not your business, Kent,” Derek hissed, yet his cheeks had darkened a shade in embarrassment, having become aware that more people than Coach Teague were carefully watching the scene.
“No,” the coach agreed. “But it is mine.” Your eyes widened and your heart rate picked up a little at that. Still, you did your best to hide your reaction from the student populace currently congregating in the hallway. “And I gotta tell you,” the blond took in Clark’s determined expression and protective stance in front of you. His green eyes roved over you and landed on your fingers buried in the tail of Clark’s t-shirt before looking back over at Derek. “This doesn’t look like nothing. I pretty much already have an idea of what’s going on, but because I like to be fair, I’m gonna give you one chance to tell me what’s really going on here, Deakins. And you better make it good.” The coach had his arms crossed and he stared down his player, a stern expression on his handsome face. 
“Look, Coach, it’s nothing. Y/N and I were just talking when Kent—”
“Derek was having trouble with the word ‘no’ and what it meant so I stepped in to make sure he understood it loud and clear,” Clark interrupted. Coach Teague’s eyes widened and snapped over to you. You subtly nodded, biting into your bottom lip and hoping he recognized the nervous gesture for what it was: that you wanted this to stop and go away already. You’d been through enough over the years where Derek was concerned; you’d be damned if the idiot was going to ruin your senior year for you, too.
The coach’s jaw tightened and he gave you an almost imperceptible nod in return before glancing between his two players once more. “Okay, that paints a pretty clear picture. Deakins, you’re going to head straight to Quigley’s office right now and tell him why you’re not playing tonight.”
“Coach, that’s not—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Coach Teague growled. “As a matter of fact — Hopkins!” Another player emerged from the growing crowd. “Escort Deakins to see Coach Quigley. Right now.”
Hopkins nodded. “Yes, Coach.” He moved next to Derek who was glaring at you over Clark’s shoulder.
“Stupid bitch,” he muttered. “Not worth my time.” Clark tensed against you and you noticed Coach Teague’s hand clench underneath his crossed arms.
“Get going,” the latter spat. “Or I’ll see that you’re benched the rest of the season.”
Derek spared you one more heated glare, but turned at Hopkins’ urging and began walking away. Clark relaxed slightly and you let go of his shirt, letting out a small breath of relief. Thank God a fight hadn’t happened. You were grateful that your friend stepped in and had your back, but you didn’t want him getting hurt on your account and you really didn’t want a huge dramatic scene. Of course, the small crowd that had gathered around you might prove you wrong on that last account. You snuck a glance in Coach Teague’s direction to find his green gaze already intent on you. You quickly snapped your eyes back to Clark, the one person you were allowed to be looking at without drawing too much attention.
“Alright, show’s over. Everyone, get to class!” The coach urged. People began to disperse, talking loudly once more as they milled the hallway. Great, what happened between you and Derek was now bound to be the talk of the school for the next week at least.
Clark spun around to face you. “Are you okay?”
You gave him a small, grateful smile. “Yeah. Thanks for having my back like you did.”
He returned the smile. “Of course. What are friends for?”
Coach Teague appeared and clapped a hand on Clark’s shoulder. “Alright, Kent, I appreciate what you did and I’m sure Y/N does, too, but you need to get to class. I can take it from here,” he assured the younger man.
Clark nodded, glancing back and forth between the two of you, and adjusted the strap of his backpack. “Sure. Call you later?” He asked you, suddenly seeming unsure which was strange for your usually confident friend. 
You didn’t know why he appeared to be so uncertain all of a sudden, but you nodded, your smile as kind and as reassuring as you could make it. “Yeah, definitely.” 
He gave you a nod and turned to head in the opposite direction. Confusion furrowed your brow as you watched him go.
“Miss Y/L/N.” Coach Teague’s voice right next to you snapped you out of your thoughts and you turned to see his gaze burning into you once more. Unlike Derek’s leering stare, these eyes were warm and made you feel safe. “If you want to report Deakins to the Principal, I can escort you. Or if you want to go to the nurse’s office first to get looked at…”
Your eyes widened slightly. “What? No, no, I’m fine. No need for the nurse.”
He arched a brow over at you. “The principal then?”
You pressed your lips together and rearranged the books in your arms. “No. No need,” you answered quietly. Honestly, you just wanted this whole thing to go away, especially Derek himself. You’d like him to go away most of all.
Coach Teague’s jaw tightened and he gently took your books from you and indicated for you to start slowly walking down the hall. He kept an even pace with you. “What Kent said sounded serious.”
You shrugged a shoulder. “It wasn’t. Derek was just being a jerk like usual.”
The coach thought on it for a moment and then licked his lips. “What class do you have now?”
“I don’t. I have a free period. I was just about to head out actually.”
He nodded in approval. “Early Friday. Not bad. Perks of being a senior.” He shot a grin over at you.
You couldn’t help but return it. “Something like that.”
He came to a stop and handed you back your books. “Well, before you go, would you mind helping me out with something?”
You slipped the books into your bag and dug your teeth into your bottom lip. “Gee, I don’t know,” you teased. “I’m supposed to be meeting this guy I’m seeing for a quick lunch before he has class in about an hour. And I need to swing by my house first, so that might be kind of cutting it close.”
Coach Teague furrowed his brows as he considered your words. “You’re right, that is kind of cutting it close. Any chance that this guy that you’re seeing is good-looking? You know, to make it worth the trouble?”
You pretended to think over it for a moment and then shrugged a shoulder. ”He’s…fairly handsome, I guess.”
His jaw dropped. “Fairly? Really? That’s—” Jason quickly glanced around as you snickered behind your hand. He saw that there were still a couple of students in the hallway. He quietly cleared his throat and Coach Teague was immediately back in place. “Well, be that as it may, I only need a moment of your time and then you’re free to go meet this guy who sounds way more good-looking than you’re giving him credit for.” He ignored your grin and gestured over your shoulder. You turned to see the door to his office. He opened it and held out a hand towards the office in open invitation. “After you, Miss Y/L/N.”
“Sure thing, Coach,” you quipped. You stepped inside, hearing him mutter under his breath, “fairly handsome” followed by a scoff as you passed right by him. You bit your lip to keep from laughing.
Once you heard the door close, you spun on your heel to face him. “So, what is it you need my help wi—”
He was already on you, cupping your face and kissing you. Once you needed to breathe, he laid his forehead against yours. “What Clark said… Did Deakins put his hands on you?” He panted out. “Tell me.”
Still dazed from the kiss, you fought to answer his question. “Only for a minute.” Whoops, that hadn’t been what you’d meant to tell him. Damn Jason and his talented kissing… not that you’d ever admit that to him. His ego didn’t need to become any larger.
Sure enough, Jason’s eyes went wide. “Only for a minute? What the hell does that even mean, Y/N?”
You wrapped your arms around his neck, trying to pull him back into another kiss, but he resisted. He wanted answers and he wasn’t going to give in until he got them. You were quick to assure him, “He grabbed my arm for a second, but I immediately pulled away and then Clark was there. It was barely half a second, I promise.”
His jaw clenched and he stared into your eyes. “Did he hurt you?” His tone took you aback for a moment. You’d heard him irritated before, but you’d never heard something so…menacing. It actually made the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand up. “If he hurt you…”
“No, no,” you reassured him, stroking his cheek. “I’m perfectly fine.”
The unfamiliar fire in his eyes began to dim a bit and his jaw unclenched. Jason was usually a pretty easygoing guy and you rarely saw him get angry, if ever. Even in the few arguments you’d had, he never got mad, not really. While you understood his justifiable reaction, something told you that if Derek had had his hands on you for one more second or if he had seriously hurt you — and if Clark hadn’t intervened — you may have seen a new side of Jason that you hadn’t seen before. You weren’t sure why your instincts were screaming this at you, but they were. This was definitely something you filed away to discuss with him later, choosing instead to focus on reassuring him for now. 
“That creep better think twice before coming near my girl again,” he murmured, tenderly pushing your hair out of your face.
“I think you and Clark made that pretty clear,” you soothed. Because he certainly wasn’t listening to me. Talk about dense.
He gave you one of his charming smiles. “Gonna make it a lot clearer.”
Again, you felt a little perturbed but you quickly pushed the feeling back down and decided to recalibrate the situation. You tightened your embrace around his neck and moved into him more, giving him one of those smirks. “So, do you really have to go to class or do you think you can skip just this once?”
His smile brightened and you knew you had been successful in changing his thought track. “Look at you trying to be a bad influence, trying to persuade me to ignore the call of higher education.”
You leaned in and brushed your lips against his ear. “I’ll make it worth your while,” you whispered huskily. You felt him shiver slightly against you and you pressed your lips together to keep the triumphant smile off of your face. He was practically putty in your hands now and you knew it.
“When you say worth my while…”
You moved his collar away and placed your lips on that spot of his neck.
“Oh, you mean that,” he chuckled quietly. He briefly closed his eyes as you began to apply pressure and added your tongue into the mix. “You know,” he murmured, biting his lip as his hands glided down your back. “I really shouldn’t skip class.”
You lifted up to his jawline to plant kisses there. “True. So, how about we skip that lunch instead?” 
Jason pulled back to grin at you. “Now we’re talking.” He kissed you and when you both needed air, he placed his forehead up against yours. “But what kind of boyfriend would I be if I made my girlfriend go hungry just so we can make out under the bleachers?”
You snorted a laugh. “We are not going under the bleachers again.”
“Why not? You know it’s my favorite spot.” Seeing his adorable pout made you want to give in, to give him everything he wanted to make him happy since he made you so happy, but you couldn’t forget that you both had almost been caught the other day. The junior gym class had been running the required annual mile for their fitness tests. He had to pretend he had caught you smoking a cigarette under there just to cover up what you had really been doing. The stern talking to he gave you was beyond ridiculous, but you’d had to go along with it to keep up the charade. It was too risky and you didn’t want him to lose his job. You knew how much he needed it to be able to afford staying in college. 
You decided to dig your teeth into your bottom lip and tease him. “We could go to another one of your favorite spots,” you enticed. His eyebrows shot up and your smirk grew. When he realized which one you were talking about, his face brightened and his smile was so wide it had to hurt his cheeks. He looked like an excited overgrown kid who just learned he could open his Christmas presents early. 
“Really?” 
You held up a finger. “But no skinnydipping this time.”
He immediately deflated and you fully expected to hear another cute whine. Instead, he mumbled, “Okay.” You giggled at his reaction under your breath and he gave you his charming smile once more. There had been skinnydipping (all him though he didn’t realize it) but it had been dark and definitely nothing was seen. The water had been cold as hell and it had been a quick swim, the chill in the night air dashing Jason’s romantic plan for the evening.
“And then after the game tonight,” you continued, kissing his chin. “We can go back to your dorm,” You then kissed near the corner of his mouth. “And play your Xbox,” you hummed.
“I really hope that’s code for something else,” he whispered teasingly to your lips. 
Instead of answering, you just smiled. Truthfully, your relationship hadn’t reached that point yet. You’d only been dating since the summer when you two had met at a party where you both spent the whole night talking after hitting it off well. He was planning on traveling to Europe in the next week to spend some time in ol’ Paris on the advice of his mom since he was still hurting over losing the prospect of a football career due to his injury. However, he ended up changing his mind and instead spent all of his time with you. He enrolled at CKU once he got a job — funnily enough as an assistant coach at your high school (so he could still see you in between classes and be able to make money while also doing something he actually liked) — and he continued his relationship with you. Grand romantic gestures, stolen kisses during working hours… And throughout it all, he’d never pushed you for more than you were comfortable with. He’d been patient and understanding, even telling you “I’m good with where we are as long as you are, too.” And of course you were, how could you not be? He was an amazing guy who made you laugh, texted you every morning and night, insisted on taking you out and spending his free time with you, whose kisses made your knees turn to jello and your heart race. You could talk to him about anything; he was good and kind and everything you could ever want in a guy. Everything jerks like Derek weren’t. You loved everything about Jason (though you hadn’t exactly told him that yet). He was everything you wanted and somehow also everything you didn’t know you needed. You were beyond happy.
Jason cupped your cheek and leaned in, kissing you sweetly. When he pulled back, he whispered. “Hey, are you really okay?” All traces of humor and flirtation from a moment ago were gone; he was now completely serious.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I promise.”
He studied you for a minute, most likely trying to determine if you were being completely truthful (you were), and then he tenderly rubbed his nose against yours. “Okay,” he conceded. “But you just say the word and he’s out the rest of the season. I mean it. He will be riding the pine pony so long he’ll be getting splinters in places one really doesn’t want to get any splinters.”
You shook your head and gave him a warm smile. “Thanks, but I’m okay,” you hummed as you brushed your lips against his.
His eyes were still closed when you moved back. “How do you do that?”
Your brows furrowed in confusion. “Do what?”
“That.” Jason opened his eyes and he looked genuinely awe-struck which took you aback slightly. “You kiss me and my brain goes to mush.”
Chuckling, you shrugged and ran your fingers gently through his hair. “I could ask you the same thing since every time you kiss me, it also happens to me.”
A familiar warmth began to light up his eyes and a hint of a grin played upon his lips. “Well, that can’t be good for either of our studies. Maybe I should stop kissing you. You know, since we seem to have special kissing powers that have bad effects and all. You’re pretty bad, but me? You won’t have a single brain cell left if we keep going like this for another month or so.”
You lifted up in his arms and murmured to his lips, “Maybe you should stop talking instead.” He snickered into your mouth and tightened his embrace around you. You were on a timeclock, after all, and you intended on making good use of the time you had together.
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randomfoggytiger · 7 months ago
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Kibbe Body Types and Celebrities: a Beginner's Guide
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(Credit to: Aly Art)
David Kibbe, author of Metamorphosis, drew upon previous fashion systems to create his own Kibbe Body System, homing in on the yin-yang balance of the body and boiling his method down to the bare bones-- literally-- of the overall frame: length, width, height, and softness. Then, he divided each feature into two main categories:  the yin softness or the yang structure. The more “structure” a frame had, the more “visual weight” it presented; and the more “softness” it had, the less “visual weight” it presented. 
At first, Kibbe sorted each frame into five main types with two additional subtypes. However, his system recently caught on fire with popularity, leading to vast misinterpretations or reinterpretations through over analysis and hyper fixation. Because of this, David updated his system (and is reworking on an updated version of his book), resifting his old designs into a simpler order.  
This analysis will be working from the information I've gleaned mostly from Aly Art's channel here. She is incredible at stripping down each concept to its basics-- highly recommend. I also used Merriam Style’s channel for her body type test (here), which is an even more stripped version of Kibbe’s original body type quiz. (Aly's version of the quiz is here.)
**Note**: Kibbe Body Types are separate from the actual weight of an individual; and do not change with bodily fluctuations, changes, or even age. Example: Romantics will always appear softer compared to other body types their height or weight because of the “flesh” (natural padding of fat) over their muscles and bones, whereas Naturals will always appear more “mature” compared to older Gamines because of the visual weight of the bones (cheekbone, jawbone, etc.) in their face. 
KIBBE BODY TYPES
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(Credit to: Aly Art)
**Note**: The Kibbe Body System is a complete overview of the entire frame, not just the face: two different people can share strikingly similar facial features yet have completely different bodies. It’s important to assess more than one facet.
If we were to place the Kibbe Body Types on a left to right scale, Dramatics have the most yang-- sharpness, length, elongation, structure-- and Romantics have the most yin-- shortness, roundness, softness. In the middle would sit the Classics-- a balanced mixture of yang structure and yin softness; mid-left would be Naturals (yang elongation with blunted width); and mid-right would be Gamines (an uneven mixture of yin and yang.)
DRAMATIC TYPES
Dramatics
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Dramatic Types have longer, angular, more narrow bones-- a vertical column, if you will-- that curve into points instead of “blunt” edges. They are moderate to tall (5’9"/173cm and up), and have prominent, straight, sleek features. If plus sized, they accumulate weight in their hips and upper thighs. 
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sean Connery, Charlton Heston, Ricardo Montalban, Errol Flyn, Daniel Craig
Katherine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett, Angelica Huston,  Diane Carol, Faye Dunaway, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristen Wig, Maggie Smith, Taylor Swift
Soft Dramatics
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Soft Dramatic Types have more softness in their bust and hips, giving them a powerful voluptuousness (as opposed to the Romantic Types delicate pure yin.) They are moderate to tall (5’7”/170cm and up), with a moderate waist and fleshier facial features, arms, and hips. If plus sized, they get heavier on the fleshiest parts of the body: bust, hips, waist, thighs, upper arms, and the face.
Dean Martin, Christian Bale, Matthew McConoughy, John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Clark Gable
Adele, Ann Bancroft, Ava Gardiner, Barbara Streisand, Kim Novak, Maria Callas, Mae West, Rachel Weiz, Rita Heyworth, Sofia Vergara, Sofia Loren
NATURAL TYPES
Naturals have longer, blunted, wider bones-- a T-shape, if you will-- that curve into blunts instead of angular or softened edges. 
David Kibbe no longer believes in the pure Natural Type, placing clients or celebrities into either Flamboyant or Soft Natural.
Flamboyant Naturals
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Flamboyant Natural Types have a touch more structure: blunt, long, wide bones; wide, T-shaped shoulders; and a figure that narrows in a flat, straight line down their waist, hips, and legs. They are moderate to tall (5’11”/180cm and up), with features that are broad and angular, but not sharp. If plus sized, the body tends to become squarer. 
Calvin Klein, Dick Van Dyke, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, Tom Sellack (maybe), Michael Landon (maybe), Joe Biden  
Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway (had work done to disguise), Bea Arthur, Brooke Shields, Cameron Diaz, Carly Simon, Cindy Crawford (quintessential, imo), Emma Stone, Farah Faucett, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ingrid Bergma, Jane Fonda, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Lucille Ball, Linda Carter, Michelle Obama, Nicole Kidman, Katie Homes (probably), Princess Diana Spencer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tracey Ellis Ross, Uma Therman, LOTS of supermodels (broad shoulders, long and straight waist)
Soft Naturals
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Soft Natural have a softness to their long, blunt, wide bones, narrow hips. They are moderate to tall (5’5”/165cm and up), with smaller, rounder softness to their blunt facial features and frame. Their T-shape is less pronounced because of their more proportionate shoulders (in comparison to Flamboyant Naturals, at least.) If plus sized, SNs thicken in their upper arms, thighs, and hips.  
Alan Alda, OJ Simpson, John Wayne, Robert Redford, Robert Conrad, Bing Crosby, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Gene Kelly, Brad Pit, Gene Hackman
Bette Grable, Carol Lombard, Chloe Sevigny, Doris Day (icon), Goldie Hahn, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lopez, Julie Andrews, Kamala Harris, Kat Dennings, Katy Perry, Kim Bassinger, Marisa Tomay, Renee Zellweger, Sandra Bullock, Scarlet Johanson (had work done), Sissy Spacek 
CLASSIC TYPES
Classics are an even mixture of both skeletal structures: their frames are mid-height or tallish-- symmetrical angles or edges-- with a “balanced” appearance: their arms, waists, and legs are proportionate in length and width to their overall frame (not too angular, curved, or blunt); and can handle more visual weight than Romantics but less so than Dramatics or Naturals. They appear naturally polished; and often are dragged down by elements in their wardrobes that skew too much in any direction (appearing overwhelmed or overdone.) 
Kibbe no longer promotes pure Classic Types, insisting that no person can be a perfect mixture and discouraging his clients or followers from trying to fit themselves into an impossible mold. 
Dramatic Classics
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Dramatic Classic Types are an even mixture of yin and yang with just a touch more of yang’s structure, giving them either slightly sharper features, slightly longer limbs, or a bit less softness overall. Their height is moderate (5’5”-5’8”/166-172cm or thereabouts); and their figure and features are symmetrically squarish (more rectangular compared to Dramatics’ long and narrow vertical column and Naturals’ long and wide T-shape.) If plus sized, they gain weight in the hips and thighs (rarely around the bustline), becoming more pear-shaped overall.  
Carey Grant, John Ham
Diana Rig, Gina Rollins, Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, Jill Biden, Lana Turner, Olivia Munn, Phylicia Rashad
Soft Classics
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Soft Classic Types are a symmetrical mixture with just a touch more of yin’s softness, giving them either slightly softened features, slightly shorter and wider limbs, or slightly more “fleshiness” overall. Their height is moderate (5’5"-5'6”/164-169cm); and their features are slightly small and wide. If plus sized, SCs lose their waist definition and become fuller in the face.  
John Slattery, John Glenn, Gregory Peck, Bryant Gumbel
Barbara Walters, Carolina Herrera, Donna Reed, Emma Thompson, Grace Kelly, Joan Fontaine, Kirsten Dunst (maybe), Marion Cotillard 
GAMINE TYPES
Gamines are an uneven mixture of both skeletal structures: their frames are usually short or rarely tall-- unsymmetrical angles or edges-- with a “youthful” appearance; and the mismatch of their skeletons give them an appearance of eternal youth instead of “womanly” or “mature” beauty. The endless combinations of their features-- long arms, short arms, long legs, short legs, long torso, short torsos, visual weight in the face, no visual weight in the face, etc. etc.-- thrive in the chaos of mismatching, color blocking, differing clothing silhouettes; and are often dragged down by too much polish or restriction. 
David Kibbe no longer stands by the pure Gamine type, filtering people into either Theatrical or Soft Gamine.
Theatrical Gamines
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Theatrical Gamine Types tip the scales in a more yang than yin direction, giving them a broadly angular frame composed of shorter lines (compared to the Dramatics’ and Naturals’ long, angular, and broad lines.) They are moderate to short height (5’6”/168cm) with square, slightly wide features. Structure gives them very defined musculature-- ala Dramatics and Naturals-- and a longer, “leggier” look. If plus sized, TGs collect weight from the waist down, turning squarer or “stocky.” 
Jimmy Kimmel, Frank Sinatra, Neil Patrick Harris
Audrey Hepburn, Coco Chanel, Debbie Allen, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Kelly Osborne, Liza Minelli, Lucy Liu, Penelope Cruz, Tina Turner, Twiggy, Zoey Deschenel 
Soft Gamines
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Soft Gamine Types tip the scales in a more yin than yang direction. They are the short Gamines (5’2”/157cm or thereabouts): delicately broad-- a combination of delicate and small, broad and angular-- with width dominated by an overall “fleshy” softness in their arms, hips, and thighs. SGs often have “doll" like features: rounded face shape, fleshy cheeks and big eyes. If plus sized, their figure becomes more rounded, mainly in the bust, hips, arms, and face area. (Soft Gamines often think they are overweight-- when more often they’re not-- because of their natural roundness and lack of pronounced hips and waist.)
Fred Astaire, Robert Downy Jr. 
Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Claudette Colbert, Debbie Reynolds, Eartha Kitt, Halle Berry, Judy Garland, Leslie Caron, Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, Octavia Spencer, Natalie Wood, Reese Witherspoon, Sally Field, Winona Ryder 
ROMANTIC TYPES
Romantics
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Romantics are dominated by yin softness; and, therefore, have the least visual “weight” to them. Their frames are mid-height or shorter (5’5"/166cm and under) with “rounded” and curved angles or edges-- sloped or petite shoulders, rounded facial features, and “fleshy”, shorter arms, waists, and legs. If plus sized, Romantics keep their waist definition while their body and face become more rounded and “full.” 
Colin Firth, Leonardo DiCaprio, Elijah Wood, Simon Baker, Richard Gere, Michael Jackson, Omar Shereef, Billy Dee Williams, Elvis Presely
Kate Winslet, Drew Barrymore, Christina Ricci, Arlene Dahl, Bernadette Peters, Beyonce, Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lollobrigida, Helena Bonham Carter, H. E. R. Gabbie Wilson, Gene Simmons, Madonna, Maryln Monroe, Susan Sarandon
Theatrical Romantics
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Theatrical Romantic Types differ from pure Romantic Types in their width: while both are delicate, the touch of yang to a TR’s frame gives it a narrower waist, slightly sharper features, and a bit less flesh over their arms, hips, or even hands. Their moderate to petite height (5’2”/157cm or thereabouts) is voluptuous, but small and narrow as opposed to wide and “bulky.” If plus sized, their figure retains its defined waist while the arms, thighs, and face become quite “fleshy.” 
David and Susan Kibbe, Orlando Bloom, Prince, Johnny Depp 
Ann Margret, Heidi Lamar, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jane Seymor, Jean Harlowe, Mila Kunis, Morgan Fairchild, Salma Hayek, Selena Gomez, Vivian Leigh
COMPARING THE CELEBRITY BODY TYPES
There's a great vid on Aly Art's channel (here) comparing female celebrities to each other, highlighting the differences of each individual type.
Dramatic, left; Soft Natural, right.
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Soft Classic, left; Flamboyant Natural, right.
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Soft Gamine, left; Dramatic, right.
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Romantic, left; Theatrical Romantic, middle; Soft Natural, right.
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CONCLUSION
Not much at present-- just needed this primer written down so I can start my David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Kibbe posts.
Thanks for reading~
Enjoy!
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thereadingchallengechallenge · 10 months ago
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🔎 YA Under the Radar 7 🔍
I have been working on this list in the series all year 😂 it just took me that long to read a decent amount of underrated YA - but I got there in the end and I'm pretty happy with the recs on this list 🥰
there are rainbow flags next to LGBT+ rep, wheelchair symbols next to disability rep and koalas next to Australia YA simply because there's a lot of that on this particular list
so take a gander and maybe consider picking up a title or two (or ten) in 2024 to support lesser-known authors and books 😊
Take Me With You When You Go by David Levithan & Jennifer Niven 🏳️‍🌈
Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl by Brianna R Shrum & Sara Waxelbaum 🏳️‍🌈♿️
Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli 🏳️‍🌈
To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames 🏳️‍🌈
It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames 🏳️‍🌈
Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson 🏳️‍🌈
Grace Notes by Karen Comer 🐨
The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch 🏳️‍🌈
Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew
After Dark With Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis
Blind Spot by Robyn Dennison 🐨
Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan 🏳️‍🌈
The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst
Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest ♿️
What We Harvest by Ann Fraistat
All Eyes On Us by Kit Frick 🏳️‍🌈
When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey 🏳️‍🌈
The Lightness of Hands by Jeff Garvin ♿️
Then Everything Happens at Once by M-E Girard 🏳️‍🌈♿️
The Buried by Melissa Grey 🏳️‍🌈
Because of You by Pip Harry 🐨
The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl 🏳️‍🌈
Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson
Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June 🏳️‍🌈
Out of the Blue by Jason June 🏳️‍🌈
Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball by Jason June 🏳️‍🌈
Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko 🏳️‍🌈
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala 🏳️‍🌈
Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee
It Will End Like This by Kyra Leigh
Extasia by Claire Legrand
Ryan and Avery by David Levithan 🏳️‍🌈
Starlings by Amanda Linsmeier 🏳️‍🌈
The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones
A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo 🏳️‍🌈
We Didn’t Think It Through by Gary Lonesborough 🐨
Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over by Miranda Luby 🐨
None Shall Sleep series by Ellie Marney 🐨
The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh ♿️
Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall
These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall 🏳️‍🌈
The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall 🏳️‍🌈
Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore
Mask of Shadows duology by Linsey Miller 🏳️‍🌈
Sugar by Carly Nugent ♿️🐨
All Our Hidden Gifts trilogy by Caroline O’Donoghue 🏳️‍🌈
The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton
Lucky Girl by Jamie Pacton
The Vermilion Emporium by Jamie Pacton
Accidental by Alex Richards
Some Kind of Animal by Mar Romasco-Moore
Luminous by Mara Rutherford
The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford
The Midnight Lie duology by Marie Rutkoski 🏳️‍🌈
Can’t Take That Away by Steven Salvatore 🏳️‍🌈
When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw 🏳️‍🌈
If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So 🏳️‍🌈
Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon ♿️
Breathe and Count Back From Ten by Natalia Sylvester ♿️
Cold by Mariko Tamaki 🏳️‍🌈
Outrun the Wind by Elizabeth Tammi 🏳️‍🌈
The Weight of a Soul by Elizabeth Tammi
Wild and Crooked by Leah Thomas ♿️
Violet Ghosts by Leah Thomas 🏳️‍🌈
The Comedienne’s Guide to Pride by Hayli Thomson 🏳️‍🌈🐨
The Siren, the Song and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Sweet and Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley 🏳️‍🌈
Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley 🏳️‍🌈
Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken by Nita Tyndall 🏳️‍🌈♿️
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White 🏳️‍🌈
This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde 🏳️‍🌈♿️🐨
Where You Left Us by Rhiannon Wilde 🏳️‍🌈🐨
Two Can Play That Game by Leanne Yong🐨
Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia
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lothirielswandc · 2 years ago
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Clark Kent: What IS your relationship with Constantine? Is he like…a parent?
John Constantine: NO.
Rachel Roth: ABSOLUTELY NOT.
John Constantine: NO. NO TO ALL. I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS. BUT NOT OLD ENOUGH FOR THIS GOTH CHILD TO BE MY SPAWN.
Rachel Roth: John is like...a wine aunt. Yes, a drunk wine aunt that has the illusion of authority but secretly doesn't.
John Constantine: And Roth is...
Harley Quinn: The lovechild of you and Zatanna?
John Constantine: ...An armrest. Because she's a dwarf compared to everyone else in this series.
Rachel Roth: I'm normal-sized. I just happen to be fraternizing with you giants.
John Constantine: The platform boots you constantly wear say otherwise, love.
Damian Wayne & Conner Kent: I thought it was cute.
Damian Wayne & Conner Kent:
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augustheart · 1 year ago
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DC Pride 2023 Tribute to Rachel Pollack
This is a transcription of the text that appears at the end of DC Pride, written by a variety of authors in memory of trailblazing writer Rachel Pollack. I've done my best to copy everything exactly as it was written, and I apologize for any errors. It's over 3,000 words, so I'm going to put it under a cut outside of the foreword. The rest of the tributes are in plain text and not italicized except in places where they were by the original authors.
(If you would like a PDF of the following transcription, one is available here.)
“On April 7, 2023, the legendary writer and Tarot expert Rachel Pollack passed at age 77. Her work for DC's Vertigo imprint—including the celebrated Vertigo Tarot deck and a long run on Doom Patrol that was a deep influence on the property's recent HBO Max series—was profoundly meaningful for generations of comics fans. She was a trailblazing trans woman in comics and sci-fi communities that were frequently male-dominated, and her lifelong love of both superheroes in particular and the comics medium in general allowed her to confidently turn their storytelling tropes inside out, truly queering her comics in every sense of the word.
In the months before her passing, the editors of DC Pride were speaking to Rachel about writing a new story for this very issue, and her enthusiasm for the project was boundless, as she planned to return to her themes of the superhero and the secret identity, of the "kink" of costumes, and of the revelatory freedom that she found in these characters. Unfortunately, just as work was set to begin on the script, completing it became impossible for her. In the absence of that last great work, but with gratitude for the incredible stories she did give us, we've opted to turn the pages we reserved for Rachel's story over to her friends, and to the fans whose lives she changed, to share their memories of her.”
—Unspecified Author or Editor
“I met Rachel Pollack in 1985, at a convention, where I was interviewing her about Salvador Dali’s Tarot, and then I met her again a couple of days later at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference, and we became friends fast. She was smart and funny, she was a brilliant writer, and she was the first person I’d met who knew more than I did about obscure Jewish mythology.
She told me off for writing a line of dialogue. ‘But that’s the only thing in the whole story that’s actually true,’ I told her, and she explained that art truth and reality truth were two very different things. And I knew she was right.
I don’t know how much I learned about writing, but listening to Rachel and Gwyneth Jones and John Clute and Lisa Tuttle and the rest of them, I learned so much about reading, and what I learned would change me as a writer.
Rachel was my friend. I had never met a person who had transitioned before and I had so many questions and, patiently, she answered all of them. She decided I needed to know Roz Kaveney, and Roz and I have been friends for decades now.
In 1988 I was writing Books of Magic and knew I needed a Tarot reading in the comic. Rachel was in London, and I asked her what the reading should be. She took me out to buy a Tarot deck that spoke to me, and I saw what happened when Rachel Pollack walked into a Tarot shop. It was a little like what happened when The Beatles went on Ed Sullivan. And then she gave me a beautiful reading of four cards, which encapsulated the whole of the story I was trying to tell.
She won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1989 for Unquenchable Fire, and I read it and suspected Rachel was creating her own school of fiction, her own brand of magical realism.
We argued, gently, about Wanda’s fate in A Game of You, and Rachel did what I wish everyone who had an argument about art would do, which is she took what she wanted to say and put it into a comic. Tom Peyer had asked her to write Doom Patrol after Grant Morrison left, and she did a remarkable job. I loved the delirious joy of her comics, the magic and the sense of fun, in Doom Patrol and in the comics that followed Doom Patrol.
I was thrilled to see Rachel when I moved to Upstate New York, and then I didn’t see her for years. I did that thing where you think you’re in touch with your friend, but really you’re just on social media at the same times. I was stuck out of the country during COVID, and Rachel had cancer. I was thrilled when I returned to hear that she had beaten the cancer, and then I was going to see her and she hadn’t beaten the cancer. A whole new cancer had turned up on the day she had beaten the first one.
I got to see Rachel more in the past few months than I had in the previous few years. She was as funny as ever, as sharp and as wise. I got to know her wife, Zoe, and to appreciate their love. I got to tell her bad Jewish jokes that, I suspect, I’d probably first heard from her. ‘Everywhere I went, people said ‘Look at the schmuck on the camel!’’ Some people die well—not necessarily bravely, necessarily, but gently and wisely and kind. Rachel was going to be one of those. She asked me to come to her funeral, and I said that I would.
Her funeral, several months later, was in the sunshine. It was filled with friends of hers from comics, from fiction, from Tarot, from writing, from teaching, from family, from the world, and Rachel lay above the grave on a wooden plank, wrapped in white winding sheet. We said true things about her, and we were funny and honest and there was so much love, and then we shoveled the earth on her, and cried, and said our goodbyes.
I’ve never met anyone like her. I’m glad she was my friend.”
—Neil Gaiman
“Rachel Pollack and I had the same favorite comic book—why, Doom Patrol, of course—and for a while she was its writer and I was its editor. She followed Grant Morrison, whose name was big and growing even then, and for years it seemed like Grant’s era might totally eclipse hers in memory. But DC released her Doom Patrol omnibus in 2022, and in the process unwrapped the radiation-proof bandages from her work, exposing the piercing and radiant appreciation that so many fans felt for it. On top of that, this year Dennis Culver and Chris Burnham, the creators of the excellent Unstoppable Doom Patrol, paid a moving in-story tribute to Rachel’s cast of broken-but-healing heroes.
I’m glad she got to see the omnibus, and I’m grateful for the chance it gave us to relive her perceptive, ironic, unsettling, and revelatory run. It was known for being strange and surreal, but there was so much more going on. Doom Patrol had been weird before, and funny, but never quite as wise or kindly meant.
A story that I always think of when I think of Rachel featured yours truly. At the end of my time as an editor—I had decided I wanted to write full-time—I called the creators I worked with to let them know I was leaving. Most of them, quite understandably, reacted with some implied variation of ‘What’s going to happen to me?’ It made me start to think I was being horrible and selfish. But when I called Rachel and nervously told her what I had decided, there was a silence, and then she said, ‘Quitting is good for the soul.’”
—Tom Peyer
“I met Rachel Pollack in the late ‘90s at WisCon, the feminist science fiction convention where we were both guests. It was the first day of the con, and they were introducing all the guests. I had read Rachel’s Doom Patrol comics and at least one of her books, Unquenchable Fire, and was excited about meeting her. She must have felt the same about me, because when the introductions were over, we headed straight toward each other as though we’d been magnetized, and we became friends immediately.
We lived on opposite sides of the continent, so we didn’t get to see each other that often, but thank the Goddess for email. I visited Rachel’s house once and she visited mine once. Her house was nicer. She took me to visit Hyde Park, Franklin Roosevelt’s old home, now a historic site—we were both FDR fans—and I taught her a Yiddish World War II song. We were both into our Jewishness, but from different angles. Rachel was interested in the mystic side, and I was into Yiddishkeit. Rachel had a bat mitzvah, and I studied Yiddish.
Rachel and I discovered we had the same birthday—August 17, which we shared with Mae West and Davy Crockett. So we sent each other birthday cards that also included happy birthday wishes to Mae and Davy.
I knew Rachel had written many books on the Tarot, so when one day I found a complete set of Tarot cards lying in the street, I decided the Goddess wanted her to have them, and I sent them to her on our birthday. After that, the Goddess would put out Tarot cards for me to find almost every year, often just in time for Rachel’s birthday presents. In return, she sent two Tarot cards that she had drawn for me when I was being treated for cancer. (I’m cancer free now!) I saved them and put them away safely—somewhere.
Last year a neighbor who was a collector of stuff died and left his collections to us, his neighbors, to take for free. Among all the stuff in his stuff-filled rooms was an unopened set of Tarot cards. Shortly after I found the cards, my Romani neighbors who lived around the corner put a book on Tarot out on the street, so I took that for Rachel. I mailed the book and cards to Rachel for our birthday.
For the first time, I got no answering card. I didn’t know that Rachel’s lymphoma had come back.
And somehow, it all got away from me.
Periodically, I would think, ‘Phone her—must phone Rachel,’ but something would come up and I’d forget to phone, or it would be too late to phone because of the time difference between New York and California. Damn it!
I miss you, Rachel. In our next lives, I’ll try to be a better friend.”
—Trina Robbins
“I first met Rachel Pollack when I was the assistant editor on The Sandman and she was the new Doom Patrol monthly writer. I shared an office with Tom Peyer, who was Rachel’s editor, and when Rachel swept in like a redheaded bohemian priestess, I always wound up putting aside my own work so I could chat a bit with Rachel as well. She had the rare gift of wielding her considerable expertise about comics and mythology in a way that made the person talking to her feel smarter.
After I left DC Comics to write full-time, I moved to Rhinebeck and discovered that Rachel lived there, too. We formed a small writing group that met once a week, usually in my kitchen. Always as kind as she was insightful, Rachel spent more time celebrating what worked than critiquing what didn’t. She did a lot of celebrating, of others’ writing and of her own, delighting in the words and worlds that moved through her.
She was, pre-pandemic, a frequent guest at my Passover Seder, the only person besides myself and my mother who knew all the Hebrew and all the traditional melodies. Her vast knowledge of midrash and Kabbalah made her comments more delicious than the charoset she made, and let me tell you, that was pretty damn good. 
In October, when she started to get really sick and I started to visit more frequently, often with Neil Gaiman, Rachel defied any expectation of how a dying person ought to act. She cracked Borscht Belt jokes and talked about writing and writers, and then I went with her wife, Zoe, to pick out a grave. We discussed the Tarot, which I had belatedly begun to study along with her seminal book on the subject, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. I asked, ‘What does it mean when you get an auspicious card in a place that means it’s negative?’ ‘It means that’s what you’re struggling with,’ she replied.
I am struggling with this turn of the cards. I cannot fully fathom that she will not be sitting at our favorite local café, writing, but ready to put down her antique fountain when she sees me. Yet when I turn back to her writing, I feel her still with me: Doom Patrol Rachel, Writing Partner Rachel, Rachel of the Passover Seder, Rachel Poet, Rachel Priestess, Rachel Friend.”
—Alisa Kwitney
“Rachel Pollack loved comics.
When we first talked about comics, it was about her own. Eight years ago I asked Martha Thomases if the Doom Patrol run after Grant’s was worth checking out, as I hadn’t heard much talk of it. She said ‘Yes. Read it.’ I adored the run and reached out to Rachel via email to let her know. To my surprise, I heard back from her within 20 minutes.
Over time we talked about the comics and creators that she loved. Carl Barks and the Duck comics, particularly the characters of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, meant a great deal to her. Little Lulu was high on her list. And The Fox and the Crow inspired a whole arc of her Doom Patrol run. The works of Jack Kirby (particularly on Fantastic Four and the Fourth World saga), Steve Ditko, and Gene Colan were brought up often, as were series including Xambi and Promethea, which she revisited often. She had even reached out to Marvel back in the early ‘70s inquiring about writing opportunities, two decades before writing at DC. 
Rachel saw the inherent queerness in superhero comics back in the Silver Age. One example she would reference was “The Town That Hated Superboy!” from 1967’s Superboy #139. In it, the citizens of Smallville turn against Superboy for nearly two pages. What stood out to Rachel was how Ma and Pa Kent pretended to hate Superboy out of fear that if they didn’t, those around them might suspect that Superboy was really their adoptive son, Clark. Though taking this sequence and relating it to an idea as heavy as the violent consequences of inadvertently outing someone by simply treating them with kindness was unlikely Otto Binder’s intention, the subtext was picked up on by many queer comics readers at the time in addition to Rachel.
Through the years I got to have a greater understanding of Rachel’s unbelievable kindness as well. She saw the world as a positive place and held out hope for just about everyone. Rachel discussed how attitudes with London’s Gay Liberation Front turned against the trans community in the ‘70s, but she would also talk about how some of the same people came back around and were vocal advocates for trans rights by the ‘90s. Whereas most, understandably, would allow themselves to be bitter and resentful, Rachel’s capacity for love and compassion was too strong for that.
I was devastated knowing just how many projects Rachel had in the works and how many stories she still had to tell. But after taking time to think on it, I know that no matter how long she stayed here with us, her work would never be done. Her stories will continue through those who love her and those who haven’t found her yet but will love her just the same. 
I love talking about Rachel’s work and her kindness. I plan on doing so for the rest of my life.”
—Joe Corallo
“‘It’s so cool that you created the first trans superhero,’ a very nice person told me recently. Writing feels like stuffing a message in a bottle and lobbing it out into the open sea, so to meet someone who had caught one of my bottles and read what was inside was extremely exciting. Unfortunately, I am a nerd first and a lover of accolades second, so I had to correct them. 
Galaxy, the character I created, is not the first out trans superhero in the DC Universe. Kate Godwin, created by Rachel Pollack 30 years ago, is. Kate is important, but more than that, she’s important to me. 
I was a teenager 30 years ago. That’s also important.
There’s a lot of talk of firsts in superhero comics, most of it meaningless. Dick Grayson absolutely deserves the ‘Sensational Character Find of 1940’ label trumpeted on the cover of his first appearance, Detective Comics #38, but you don’t need to read it, even as a die-hard Robin fan.
You can’t say that about Doom Patrol #70, the first appearance of Kate Godwin. That issue changes everything. That issue changes lives. Because Kate, a kind and funny woman, with an amusing power set and questionable taste in superhero outfits, who is beautifully, unapologetically trans—Kate is the viewpoint character.
Imagine the power of that. Holding up a trans woman—a lesbian trans woman, at that!—and saying ‘This, this is who you, the reader, should identify with.’ To have a trans woman be smart and pretty and likable, and not an object of scorn or pity, or a side character. She was the hero! I can tell you from experience, that is a tough sell now.
Reading that comic in the 1990s felt like a lightning bolt from heaven.
It was too powerful for my teenage self to handle. It was radioactive, and yet I would read my copy ragged to bask in its glow. I can call up its panels from memory. When I finally began my transition, many years later, I wore a lot of black tank tops and jeans, unconsciously aping Kate’s unofficial uniform. I didn’t put it together until recently, rereading those 30-year-old stories that I had imprinted upon like a baby bird. Early on, I wasn’t sure of the kind of woman I was, but clearly I knew the kind of woman I wanted people to see. Someone like Kate Godwin.
I never got the chance to meet Rachel Pollack and tell her how I had received her message in a bottle. How I had held it close to my heart until I finally found the strength to absorb its message. How she showed me I wasn’t alone, and I could be a hero, even if that just meant saving myself.
But I hear people say those words to me, having read about Galaxy. Which will have to do.
Thank you for being first, Rachel.”
—Jadzia Axelrod
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battyaboutbooksreviews · 2 months ago
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🗞️ Bookish News: August 2024 Edition
🦇 Extra, extra. Read all about it! Good evening, bookish bats! A lot happened in the publishing industry this month, but here are a few highlights you may have missed! ⤵
📺 Adaptations 💜 The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires: limited series on HBO 💜 His & Hers - Alice Feeney: limited series for Netflix 💜 The God of the Woods and The Unseen World - Liz Moore: series for Sony 💜 My Lady Jane cancelled by Prime after one season 💜 Mark Hamill has joined the highly anticipated adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk 💜 Court of Thorns and Roses series faces another setback - showrunner exits the production 💜 Trailer for Season 2 of Pachinko 💜 Britney Spears’ memoir is being made into a biopic 💜 Tom Blyth and Emily Bader starring in Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 💜 The Games of Thrones prequel promos are out 💜 Burn Book: A Tech Love Story - Kara Swisher optioned as a series 💜 Every Summer After - Carley Fortune - Amazon series 💜 Regretting You - Colleen Hoover - McKenna Grace to star ppposite Allison Williams 💜 Verity - Colleen Hoover - no casting yet 💜 Percy Jackson season 2 is currently filming, and Sandra Bernhard, Kristen Schaal, and Margaret Cho have joined the cast of the Disney+ series 💜 Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt - Sally Field to star 💜 Bridgerton cast Yerin Ha as Sophie Beckett, Benedict’s love interest 💜 The Picture of Dorian Gray is getting a contemporary TV series adaptation 💜 Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel A Pale View of Hills is getting an adaptation
📕 Cover Reveals 💜 When We Were Real - Daryl Gregory 💜 Blood on Her Tongue - Johanna van Veen 💜 Frenemies with Benefits - Synithia Williams 💜 The ABCs of Democracy - Hakeem Jeffries 💜 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke 💜 Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us - Jennifer Finney Boylan 💜 The Silent Emperor - Snorri Krsitjansson 💜 Nothing Bad Happens Here - Rachel Ekstrom Courage 💜 Open, Heaven - Seán Hewitt 💜 And, Too, the Fox - Ada Limón & Gaby D’Alessandro 💜 On Again, Awkward Again - Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia 💜 Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One - Kristen Arnett 💜 Stage Dance - Torrey Peters 💜 The Hymn to Dionysus - Natasha Pulley 💜 Time After Time - Mikki Daughtry 💜 Pizza Witch - Sarah Graley & Stef Purenins 💜 A Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett
⏰ Upcoming Releases 💜 Young Sheldon actress Raegan Revord is publishing her debut young adult novel, Rules for Fake Girlfriends 💜 Liza Minnelli has announced a new tell-all memoir 💜 Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old - Brooke Shields 💜 Maureen Johnson has announced a new book which she describes as “a case file in book form,” with a sealed solution in the back of the book: You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder 💜 Olympic track star Allyson Felix has sold North American rights to a memoir, Fast and Slow, to the Dial Press 💜 Meghan Markle is allegedly planning on releasing a tell-all memoir 💜 House of Blight - Maxym M. Martineau 💜 Tor acquired Talia Hibbert’s romantasy debut The Last Thorn
🗞️ News 💜 Francine Pascal, author of the Sweet Valley High books, died at 92 💜 This year’s longlist for the Booker Prize has been announced 💜 Flatiron is debuting a new imprint, Pine and Cedar Books 💜 New GMA Book Club pick: The Seventh Veil of Salome - Silvia Moreno-Garcia 💜 Algerian boxer and gold medalist Imane Khelif has filed a cyber harassment lawsuit against Elon Musk and JK Rowling for their disparaging comments about the boxer’s gender during the Olympics 💜 Kristen Bell will be reuniting with her Frozen costar, Josh Gad, to narrate his upcoming children’s book PictureFace Lizzy
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dailykafka · 1 year ago
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for contemporary authors i would rec suzanna clarke, anthony doerr, rachel cusk, jeff vandermeer, banana yoshimoto and mona awad off the top of my head! this is a weird mix of people lol
Thank you for these, I'll check them out😄
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i-love-u-bunny · 2 months ago
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Please feel free to recommend any authors, my bookshelf is empty.
Key:
✅ = Finished reading
❎ = Not read yet
••• = Currently reading
•Reading list•
Bunny - Mona Awad | ✅ |
My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh | ✅ |
White Oleander - Janet Fitch | ✅ |
Lapvona - Ottessa Moshfegh | ✅ |
Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh | ••• |
Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder | ❎ |
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - Eric LaRocca | ❎ |
You've Lost a Lot of Blood - Eric LaRocca | ❎ |
Red White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston | ❎ |
Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller | ❎ |
Circe - Madeline Miller | ❎ |
Flowers in the Attic - V.C Andrews | ❎ |
Petals on the Wind - V.C Andrews | ❎ |
If There Be Thorns - V.C Andrews | ❎ |
Seeds of Yesterday - V.C Andrews | ❎ |
Boy parts - Eliza Clark | ❎ |
The Days of Abandonment - Elana Ferrante | ❎ |
Tender is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica | ❎ |
Paradise Rot - Jenny Hval | ❎ |
A Certain Hunger - Chelsea G. Summers | ❎ |
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Joanne Greenburg | ❎ |
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triscribe · 10 months ago
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WIP Tag Game
Tagged by @crystalshard, which may prove to be a miscalculation, 'cause boy-howdy do I have a lot of works in progress...
Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.
/cracks knuckles
Star Wars: -Fulcrum & Family, the new Tano & Twins re-write -Dreamwalkers Luke and Leia -History Reversed with sequel trilogy Ahsoka, Luke, Ezra and students dropped back in the Clone Wars -Birds Fly sequel Can We Start Over, Bly's pov -Something Big is Happening (Misc/Understudies crossover) -Clone Wars Cass (DC/Batman crossover)
Marvel -The Big One (5+1 Spidey saves Morgan, Pepper meets Doc Strange, Another Chance conclusion with Wanda) -Kids Club, post-Civil War kidnapping fixit -MCU Miles Morales, title tbd -Spider Assassins AU, multi-continuity-combination -X-Fire, Laura/Wolverine, Gabby/Honeybadger, and Rachel/Phoenix -Heroes of Tomorrow re-write with way more kids from different superhero groups/families
DC -Pantheon AU -the revised Alf-verse (22 Bat-grandkids and counting) -Rotten Luck re-vamp (Young Justice season one Team in the Justice League Unlimited universe) -Continuations: The Batman "seasons six and seven" if I ever get around to re-writing the early stuff (my very first fan fic ever, I've improved a lot since those high school days) -Teen Titans meet Robin's horde of younger siblings (original cartoon) -Battorian AU (Diana is human, Clark's a demigod, Bruce came from another planet) -Mandalorian/Star Wars AU (Mando Alfred adopts orphaned Bruce. This is the Way.)
HP -Pair of Potters sequel, year two for Heather, official year one for Harry, the beginning of a long headache for Dumbledore -Founder Foundlings, reincarnation fic -Cheers to the Wish, more Guardian Ghosts Lily and James -Philosopher's Mirror, canon-divergence of the unintended resurrection variety -the third effing chapter of Muggle is as Muggle Does -Thief!Harry AU, my all-out middle finger to the Author Who Shall Not Be Named
Transformers -Terratron AU (Bee meets Dragonfly, Elita makes Artemis, Bee and Fly stumble across Megatron and Rion, Prowl and Beats, Beats finds Jazz, accidental babysitter Serrate, Hornet and her big race, etc etc) -Hard Facts and Simple Truths, humanformers AU -TFAnimated swapped 'verse, with Elita Prime and her team of spacebridge technicians: Arcee, Ironhide, Wasp, and Jazz -G1 sparkling-Starlane AU -TFPrime crossover with Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five
Atla -follow-up to A Small Condition, aka the "Monk Gyatso goes into the iceberg with Aang and Zuko assumes *he* is the Avatar" AU -continuation of Ursa leaving royal life and stumbling across a dying dragon who entrusts her with a baby and two unhatched eggs -Avatar!Yue learns airbending from Aang's grandkids and that whole big mess of world-altering changes
My Hero Academia -Doubles AU (finishing Brand New Day and getting a move on with Double Take as a canon re-write with Pro Hero Shimura Tenko) -continuation for Great Beasts of the Mountain -third chapter of Instinct, my first A/B/O attempt -more next generation fluff, the Archive and Guardian saga
Misc -Sea Beast fic where Crow gets injured, suffers total amnesia, the doctor who patches him up sends for Jacob, and there's a very awkward dance between them and Maisie and Blue as the old man slowly gets his memories back -The Faceless Wolf, a mildly (make that incredibly) ambitious Game of Thrones canon-divergence attempt -Jamie Reagan and the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day, a Blue Bloods whump idea I've had rattling around for a while -Milo and Claggor Survived AU from LoL Arcane -Grandboss Gibbs, a bittersweet NCIS fic that would, in my opinion, have been a better end to the series than trying to go on without the main character of the show -Storm Hawks past-and-present-collide idea with some previous generation OCs -Edge Chronicles TWIG GETS TO MEET HIS MOTHER DAGNABIT -may as well throw in what will be my second self-published book, Trials of Youth, because the current draft is definitely a work in progress
Aaand we'll call that good. Now to see if I get any nibbles...
(I know the game says tag a person for each WIP but I don't think I've got that many writing acquaintances on here, so instead I've got one person per fandom grouping)
@wafflesrisa @eirianerisdar @jinxquickfoot @theredscreech @resamille @tarisilmarwen @icarussmicarus @gallusrostromegalus
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franticvampirereads · 1 year ago
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Twenty Books Challenge
Hypothetically, you are only able to keep 20 of your books. Only one book per author/series. So what books are you keeping?
Tagged by the lovely @dkafterdark! Thank you for the tag, this was literally the hardest thing ever 😭💕!
1. Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce (this one has my heart and always will)
2. The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards
3. I’ll Be The One by Lyla Lee
4. Therapy Game Restart vol 1 by Meguru Hinohara
5. On The Ice by Amy Aislin (it’s so hard to pick just one!! 😭)
6. On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
7. Network Effect by Martha Wells
8. White Trash Warlock by David R Slayton
9. The Scapegracers by H.A. Clarke
10. In Strange Woods by Claire Cray
11. Blank Canvas by E.M. Lindsey
12. Taproot by Kezzy Young
13. Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak
14. Wolfsong by TJ Klune
15. Psycho by Onley James
16. Cherry Picked by May Archer (it was so fucking difficult to pick just one May Archer book 😭)
17. Charisma Check by Charlie Novak
18. Bite Me! By Fae Quin
19. Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish
20. Role Model by Rachel Reid (I love Shane & Ilya but I love Harris & Troy just as much! 😭💕)
Tagging: @glaciya @therefugeofbooks @godzilla-reads @sleepyphilia and anyone else who would like to do this tag and hasn’t yet!
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staud · 10 months ago
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Tag Game: Get to Know Me
thanks for the tag my love :D @sharkboyandlavalieb
Name: erin Pronouns: she/her Star sign: virgo number of siblings (+ any fun facts): 1 stupid ass brother (affectionate) number of pets & their names: 1 precious adorable sweet dog named rufus Fandoms: hbowar! Favourite colour: uhhhhhhhh orange Favourite song: SO MANY! lately a lot of tracy chapman & november rain cuz it reminds me of my dad. right now Im listening to mrs officer which has always been one of my favs. spotify wrapped said this was my number 1
Favourite author (books, fanfics, zines, webtoons, etc): ishiguro, donna tartt, teju cole, camus, susanna clarke, rachel aviv, etc Favourite fic type: anything by @ackackh Favourite holiday: anything that gives PTO Do you have a partner (romantic, qpr, etc)?: noo where r all the hot rich single ppl?? Hobbies: makin gifs n edits, clothes shopping, hello kitty island adventure Fun facts about you: this morning i hit my pr squat of 120 lbs! that's more than I weigh!!
tag youre it! (no pressure) @supervalcsi @lamialamia @ep6bastogne @blood-mocha-latte @neptunes-blue @mutantmanifesto @ackackh also my lovely secret santa ppl @mollynoble @oscartwofoxtrot
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isfjmel-phleg · 10 months ago
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Fortnight of Books: Days 9-11
Favorite non-romance relationship
I'm behind on posting this because I haven't been able to figure out how to answer this one. I've already talked about characters I liked, which included a lot of ensemble casts, so those would be some high contenders. I've posted a lot about YJ last year, and I have a particular affection for that team's close but complicated dynamics. Did a whole very long post on Clark and Kon's complicated relationship, which fascinates me in just how atypical it is (neither the invested and attentive mentor you might expect, nor the utter rejection of one adaptation's version)
An absolute favorite, though? No idea.
Best non-fiction book
I didn't read a lot of nonfiction, but I did really appreciate Beyond Authority and Submission: Women and Men in Marriage, Church, and Society by Rachel Green Miller, which addressed a lot of misgivings I've had without going too radically in the opposite direction.
The book you read but have already forgotten
I don't have very strong memories of The Stonewalkers or The Mysterious Mr. Ross, both by Vivien Alcock, probably in part because they were read around the beginning of last year.
Book with a scene that left you reeling
I don't know if I could pinpoint one such scene. After a while, this list of books is starting to feel like a blur.
Book you can’t believe you waited till 2023 to read
None of them? A lot of them I didn't know about until recently. Although it might have been nice if I hadn't dragged my feet so much on Bellwether, I think I read it precisely when I needed to.
Book you read in 2023 and are most likely to reread in 2024?
Oh, that's easy. I've been rereading Space Boy now that I'm caught up and know all the currently revealed plot twists. It's fun to return to the beginning of a good story with new context.
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thereadingchallengechallenge · 10 months ago
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Read in December 2023
what better way to end the year than with a reading spree 🥰 I got through so many wonderful books this month and was able to give my TBR a good clear out before the new year too. I even managed to write some reviews lol
here's to more wonderful reads in 2024!
Series read:
Monk and Robot by Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild Built - DNF
A Prayer for the Crown Shy - DNF
Familiar authors:
Imogen Obviously by Becky Albertalli - 4/5 (audio)
The Lightness of Hands by Jeff Garvin - 5/5
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo - 5/5 (audio)
A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo - 5/5 (audio)
You’ll Be The Death of Me by Karen M McManus - 3/5 (audio)
Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman - 5/5
The Vermilion Emporium by Jamie Pacton - 4/5
Wild and Crooked by Leah Thomas - 4/5
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White - 5/5 (audio)
Other reads:
To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames - 3/5 (audio)
After Dark With Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis - 3/5 (audio)
I’ll Let Myself In by Hannah Diviney - 5/5 (audio)
All Eyes On Us by Kit Frick - 3/5
The Return by Rachel Harrison - 3/5
It Will End Like This by Kyra Leigh - 3/5 (audio)
Starlings by Amanda Linsmeier - 4/5 (audio)
The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones - 4/5 (audio)
Some Kind of Animal by Mar Romasco-Moore - 4/5 (audio)
Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk - 4/5 (audio)
Accidental by Alex Richards - 2/5
You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao - 3/5 (audio)
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner - 4/5
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