#every exquisite thing

[clockwork-carstairs]

Friendly reminder of one of Brother Zachariah’s most badass and deadliest moments. “But you are kind. You are famous for it.” While Jem knows he could kill her in a hundred different ways from where he is.

Although it’s really sad that he associates his kindness with his old self like he isn’t still kind as a Silent Brother

[shxpeshifterr]

Obsessed!!

[darcyolsson]

they met literally a day ago by the way

[horrorgirlreads]

My top 5 reads of 2023

(I wanted to include all new books as I did a lot of rereads this year)

[bones-clouds]

books i read in 2024:

"every exquisite thing"

laura steven

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️, 5

genre: dark academia, thriller, wlw

synopsis:

A feminist YA horror-thriller-romance retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray by the TikTok sensation and author of The Society for Soulless Girls. Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out... A seductive and searing exploration of beauty, identity, and what the pursuit of perfection can truly cost.

[pansexual-lilychen]

how i imagine anna & matthew’s first conversation went after the events of every exquisite thing

[clockworkbee]

platonic/romantic love language <3

—Matthew Fairchild, Cast Long Shadows

—Anna Lightwood, Every Exquisite Thing

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Penny Paxton is the daughter of an icon. Her supermodel mother has legions of adoring fans around the world, and Penny is ready to begin her journey to international adoration, starting with joining the elite Dorian Drama School. When Penny’s new mentor offers her an opportunity she cannot refuse, to have a portrait painted by a mysterious artist who can grant immortal beauty to all his subjects, Penny happily follows in the footsteps of Dorian’s most glittering alumni, knowing that stardom is sure to soon be hers. But when her trusted mentor is found murdered, Penny realises she’s made a terrible mistake – a sinister someone is using the uncanny portraits to kill off the subjects one by one. As more perfectly beautiful students start to fall, Penny knows her time is running out . . . A seductive and searing exploration of beauty, identity, and what the pursuit of perfection can truly cost.

"Girls don't want beauty. Girls want power. And sometimes beauty is the closest substitute".

Laura Steven's Every Exquisite Thing is a YA feminist and sapphic retelling of The Portrait of Dorian Gray, with elements from the classic being woven in an interesting way. Without getting too much into spoiler territory, the link isn't as tenuous as one may think at first. The book comes with a much appreciated note at the beginning, detailing the book's trigger warnings.

The narration in first person serves the novel well, highlighting the main character's growing unease with the very real threat to her life and with the supernatural happenings around her. We get to feel her helplessness and see her struggle with anorexia in a way that is disconcerting and unnerving.

The book delves deep into the themes of beauty, control, and identity, aided by a prose that is stunning in its simplicity. The execution is lacking in some parts, especially in the second half, but the book makes up for it with its heart; perhaps the revelations towards the end might have been foreshadowed better.

Queer longing permeates the pages, with the tension between the two leads coming to an end in a frenzied scene that works all the better because the ending softens the edges and makes this novel a very real journey of self-discovery that can only end with healing. But while the main trio, and the relationship they shared, is well-developed, the other two recurring characters in Penny's set of friends end up being criminally underdeveloped. The adults, on the other hand, are written better, especially the tragic figure of Penny's mother.

Every Exquisite Thing is a book that helps young women.

✨ 4 stars

.

📚📚📚 IF YOU LOVE THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE:

* I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, by Jamison Shea

for: deals, sacrifice

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[dailyquotes6563]

There are a lot of lonely kids in this world, but the problem is that they don't know about each other. If the lonely kids could just team up, a lot of good things would happen, but the world is incredibly afraid of lonely people teaming up, and so it does its best to keep them apart.

Matthew Quick, Every Exquisite Thing

[angelusgabriella]

if i saw me

i would follow the obvious path

the poetry behind the consequences of the past solidifying the present and the future

the glaring clearness of a Being unbound

my favorite things are the stars in our universe

it is no wonder my curiosity lays infinite

my seemingly vacumus aura like that of a black hole

the center of my own world yet absorbing, internalizing,never satisfied

-AGM 2024

[lgbtqreads]

July 2023 Book Announcements

Adult Fiction TikTok creator, CEO of Beegrizwrites, and romance book ghostwriter Becca Grischow‘s HOMETOWN ADVANTAGE, a queer twist on the traditional small-town holiday rom-com, where two former classmates reunite for a drunken, banter-filled night and a long weekend of hijinks, falling hard along the way; and a second novel, pitched loosely as Bridesmaids meets Ashley Herring Blake, to Nidhi…

[helenofblackthorns]

who is this man. why does Charles seem nice here what is going on

[maxalotlxl]

What I've Read this October

I have made independent posts as reviews for these books so I won't be making this long.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. 5 stars. Finished Oct 5th. *

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake. 3 stars. Finished Oct 14th.

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. 3 stars. Finished Oct 16th.

Every Exquisite Thing by Laura Steven. 4 stars. Finished Oct 18th.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake. 3 stars. Finished Oct 30th.

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron. 4 Stars. Finished Oct 31st.

I have not finished Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff, and I'm probably going to put it down for a bit as I'm enjoying the world and the adventuring feel to it so I don't want to just DNF but I'm not feeling it at the moment.

*By far my favourite this month, and tied for my favourite this year so far with Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

[robinberries]

listening to your favorite songs and reading can be something so personal

[horrorgirlreads]

Love love loved this book

[jamieisnotrich]

i don’t think i ever fully processed christopher’s death

im rereading every exquisite thing and i just started crying randomly