#i finished the book like an hour ago....

[mellkellyismyhero]

Spoilers for Tress of the Emerald Sea (this is a meme but it does spoil something)

[theworstcreature]

Hgrgravityf fallkfs

[funsizedcrow]

[wordsgood]

so there’s this martian senator—

[whocouldstayyy]

finished the sunshine court and im forever changed. i love jean and want him to be okay and happy more than anything

[moths-in-a-coat]

calling house of leaves a horror book is a bit misleading. yes, there are horror elements but the house itself doesn’t really belong in the horror genre to me.

the house is really only scary to the occupants because it defies what they know to be true. it breaks the fundamental laws of physics and is just something unexplainable. it doesn’t do much outside of that to be honest.

the house to me feels more like a lonely being that only scares people because it’s very existence causes fear. the house only significantly changes and reveals itself as something that can be feared once the occupants leave for a month on vacation. it’s almost like the house is crying for attention. a way to say “hey! look at me!” in the only way it knows how. by changing. it feels unintentionally scary, not something malicious

the house doesn’t even harm anyone outside of tom. it only ends up killing tom when they try to leave the house for what seems like good. it doesn’t want to be alone again so it tries to keep its people with it for as long as possible.

it even interacts with the occupants by changing itself to suit the expectations of them. navidson once he makes his final expedition into the house finds the journey to be surprisingly easy at first, but only after he wishes for it to be like that. the house seems to only become difficult to navigate once navidson tries to leave as evident by the staircase elongating when he tries to leave after they rescue the others.

i feel like if the house was purposely malicious, there would have been foreshadowing through sinister vibes of the house or it being off putting in some way, but that’s never present before the fact its bigger on the inside is shown.

again, the house is scary because it seems like defying what you know (or think) to be fundamental truths that you don’t question about the universe to be the only reason it’s scary in the first place. and this is where i would like to draw a comparison to pelafina and her experiences with mental health.

as seen through her letters we can see thar she suffers from delusions and warped perspectives of the world. despite that, she views her delusions as incredibly real and unquestionable when she has them.

when things start to change though (ie the appearance of the“new director” and how pelafina is convinced he is going to harm her at one point despite being the old director who she liked and said was a good to her) she becomes distressed and scared. she finds the world something to be feared in her times of delusions as evident by her reasoning behind attempting to kill johnny before she was institutionalized.

to be more clear, she rationalizes killing johnny as something good because it will save him the pain of living in this world. when pelafina goes into this state of distortion, she becomes paranoid and as seen in her letters has trouble differentiating reality from her delusions. she goes through a time where she thinks the workers at the institution are only changing her bedding once a week when they change them once a day, and once she views it that way she wants to get away from the institution.

simply put, she’s scared of the world because it defies what she thinks to be true. it lies to her and deceives her and tricks her. which is so incredibly similar to how the occupants of the house view the house itself.

and the world, similarly to the house, is not an inherently malicious thing. yes, bad things can happen in the world but that doesn’t mean there is no good. yes, the house can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be.

to me house of leaves is a book told through a story from a boy to his mother about a house that lies to you but doesn’t mean to hurt you. it is about the tragedy of your mind lying to you and how rightfully scary that can be. it’s about how despite the fear that comes with living, it can be worth living if only to meet people, no matter how fleeting your interactions may be.

it’s about the love shared between a mother and a son, between you and the strangers on a street, between you and your friends and family, between you and every single relationship you’ll have in your life and how they stay with you for as long as you live and then some

no, the house of leaves does not read like a horror story to me at all

[piningpercussionist]

Some book 2 extras while I keep going through for panels!

[greaseonmymouth]

The books in question

For context, recent reads I’ve LOVED:

And a few I’ve read and enjoyed in past years…

[yakny]

ARE YOU READY TO LET YOUR HEART REST AMONGST THE EVERLASTING, MY LITTLE CHAMPIÑON FRIEND?

[calebs-hangout-corner]

Wake up babes new reaction image dropped

[leucoratia]

I just finished watching the 2022 adaptation of All quiet on the western front and holy shiiiiit guys another movie that just changed me fundamentally

[lovvelorrn]

i’m in between jobs atm + waiting for a phone call that may or may not be a super cool opportunity but rn i’m like. what do i do with my free time???

[moe-broey]

Therapy notes

[lazarus-james]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Gran Turismo (2023) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jann Mardenborough/Jack Salter Characters: Jann Mardenborough, Jack Salter, Caroline Salter Additional Tags: Family, Finding Meaning, Domestic, mother - Freeform, son - Freeform, Mention Of Homophobia, maybe slightly OOC, I Don't Know Anymore, I've been writing this for the last 7 hours, Angst, Nervousness, Shovel Talk Summary:

Jack invites Jann to meet his mother and along the way discovers new things about him.

[skylilac]

I THINK THE GUY IN MY BOOK IS FR IN LOVE W HIM LIKE AT THE BEGINNING I WAS JUST MAKING UP ROMANTIC SUBPLOTS FOR FUN BUT THIS FEELS REAL???????

[oceanic-recollection]

what if the moon was a giant malevolent eye in the sky and wherever it looks it changes to unrecognizability

<APIS> This is literally the plot of The Magnus Archives final season. I'm not even exaggerating that's LITERALLY the plot of the final season.

<APIS> Like literally johnny sims opens the door for elias bouchard to take over the world as the ruler and the eye in his panopticon and fucks everything up and all the fears go haywire and kill people except the ones who cant see and also cant fear and also are avatars and there's SOO much fucked up stuff you can't even BEGIN to imagine

<APIS> The episodes that fucked me up the most were probably the one where I think it was Martin? Made someone an avatar to save him and had to grapple with that for a while and the meat plant one and also the extinction one.

<GRP> I REMBER THE LAST ONE

<GRP> WE WRRE PLAYIN STARBOUND and and i went to a scorched planet the SECOND tht dude started describing and you wre like O|O and I was like oO _ Oo AND IT WAS SO WEIRD

<APIS> REALLY immersive....