#it’s what Tamsyn would want

[chekhovs-tantrum]

Soup Day: a proposal for a TLT fandom holiday

Because Mean Girls wear pink on October 3rd. Star Wars celebrates May the 4th. Hitchhikers and Discworld fans don towels and lilacs (respectively) on May 25th.

Locked Tomb friends, we need a holiday.

I propose that 9/9 of every year is Soup Day. We celebrate, of course, by consuming soups. We share photos, recipes, and if you have a group of irl bone bitches, the soup itself.

If you can’t eat soup, put bread in a drawer. If you can’t eat bread, stare in anguish at a cup of lukewarm tea while contemplating the ways your God has disappointed you. Use your own moral judgment on whether you consume cow products on that day, as cows do exhibit mourning behavior.

Anyways that’s my plan for dinner on September 9th and you’re all invited! 🖤🖤🖤 I’m telling everyone nice and early so you can start hoarding bones. For stock, of course.

[nina-the-ninth]

If I get the motivation I’ll do the whole chapter

[puffywiz]

you can crown this bitch with so many crowns

[automatonwithautonomy]

girl help i accidentally made myself emotional about the eighth house---

fuckkkkk. i mean.

imagine you are born and raised to die. prepared for slaughter in every way, designed to be used and used until there is nothing left. you are nothing but your sword and your honour and a battery. the only thing you have is your word and you cling to it will all the twisted want of someone raised to be no one.

and you meet your necromancer, and he's a scared little kid thats going to kill you. he will murder you, suck you dry and burn all the things that make you a person. the weight of a house rests on his shoulders and his life haunts yours.

he looks at you like your every word is gospel, the writ of the Emperor Himself, and it is the worst thing he could do. he loves you. he loves you in the way an uncle loves a nephew and the way a child-cult-leader loves a scion of his house and the way a necromancer loves a cavalier and he is going to eat you, lyctor or not.

but he gets older and wiser and he pulls the life out of you and he forgets when you seemed the cleverest person he knew. there is something worse. this is worse. you were born and raised to be a battery. but you are no longer a beloved one.

the

only

thing

you

have

left

is

honour.

[iti-iskuna]

listen. i've had this idea for a botw/totk zelink au fic, but i seriously do not have the time or energy to write it, so i'm giving to y'all for free:

the locked tomb AU zelink

[barit0wned]

Just thought everyone should know that I’m writing a series of awful meme-inspired Locked Tomb drabbles on AO3 and I’m happy to take requests

[rosalesbeausderholle]

Girls, gays, I've read The Locked Tomb books and I have to say this... everytime Gideon shows up I just want her to shut up. I'm so glad everytime she's gone again it's like omg the cringey humour is gone... bless... John is like that too but at least I'm supposed to hate him...

[dangertitties]

I think I've block/reported all the porn bots except maybe one. They have like three posts; a selfie, a nude photo, and a Gideon the Ninth comic.

So yeah, I follow one porn bot because yeah.

[chekhovs-tantrum]

Everyone I've met in this fandom is a decent, kind, wonderful person and so I'm not sure how some of you finished a work about the horrors of consuming one's beloved and the destructiveness of capitalism — and then promptly went off to "jokingly" badger/threaten/nag your favorite author's boss because she isn't providing content fast enough for you?

I'm being overly snarky and I know that in a lot of cases this is just an expression of how excited people are: “Starving for Alecto news” translates to “I'm so excited for the next installment of this series!” But let's maybe work on phrasing? If your post sounds like your parent being passive-aggressive about why the dishes aren't done, maybe take a shot at some edits.

I am also beyond stoked for Alecto but I don't go to a restaurant and bitch at the waiters because the chefs are taking a little too long to get my dessert just right. Good art takes time. Grab a snack.

[txttletale]

do you mind explaining what you mean wrt the none pizza left beef line in htn?

its the only meme reference in the series that is diegetic. every other meme in the books is tamsyn muir essentially having a little bit of fun sneaking in these 'low-culture' 'frivolous' intertexts using the exact same method she uses to invoke her 'high-culture', 'important' intertexts. when aiglamene says 'you are like a little baby', she doesn't know about memes, she is not refrencing anything, tamsyn muir realized it's a phrase that would fit into her speech patterns and smuggles it in as something she might plausibly just say. john gaius on the other hand is, in that moment, actually directly referencing a tumblr meme that he is the only living person to have seen.

he has been the only person who remembers this joke for millenia-- and the only person who remembers edgar allen poe, and the only person who remembers eminem or aoteaora, because he stole all of human history and culture away from everybody because he wanted control and having access to culture and history that he did not carefully curate and remix and prepare would give people too much autonomy. when he makes it to harrow, he knows she won't get it, it's a joke he's making for himself, a reference to a tiny meaningless part of an entire culture that he singlehandedly destroyed and buried and hoarded away from everybody else in the whole universe.

i think that a lonely genocidal god expressing this one bit of mirth from the world he came from and destroyed, something he's kept to himself to laugh at for thousands of years, is a really great moment of insight into john's character. there is such a huge amount of pathos in it--both in the specific situation of john gaius and more broadly in the idea that one day 'none pizza with left beef' will be a tiny curiosity of a moment of a culture totally lost to time, and that if by some freak chance it is still recorded in a thousand years' time itll be akin to that sumerian joke about a dog walking into a bar, contextless and incomprehensible to us but something that made people from long long ago laugh

[aldercaps]

how far did you get in harrow the ninth?

Uhhhhhhhh

Not very? Because of the way the book is written i was having a hard time keeping track of what was happening. I don't think I was up to the soup scene but I had definitely read quite a few "Harrow and ortus on the first house" bits, along with ianthe being Ianthe (tm) on the emperor's ship. I can remember having a very hard time keeping track of which lyctor was which though

Sorry I can't be more specific, it's been a few months since I last picked it up

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

see what i love about characters in the locked tomb series is that i can't just have one opinion on them. i turn them this way and that and the light catches different facets every time.

i write fanfiction about cytherea from loveday's point of view. cytherea is a tragedy. she is a hurting and kind person who was worn and worn and worn until she snapped. she didn't come back wrong, she just stayed and stayed and went wrong somewhere along the way. i love her. i am angry on her behalf.

i consider her in relationship to gideon, or palamedes and camilla, or dulcinea, or jeannemary. she is an unrepentant murderer. they were innocent. i fear and hate her.

i think about the way ianthe treated harrow in htn. i want to slap her.

i think about ianthe's experience of htn. i want to give her a hug.

i think about alecto as nona, as a sick child, as a vulnerable person who john took advantage of. i would guard her with my life.

i think about alecto as a primordial god stuffed into a mannequin, golden-eyed and weirdly proportioned, furious and weilding a sword. i would stay the fuck out of her way.

this can be done with almost all of them. hate, fear, love, protectiveness, annoyance, affection. none of them are ever just one thing. put them in a new situation and suddenly they're a whole different character. the same person, fundamentally, who can fulfill two totally different roles in a narrative. that's an absolutely crazy level of character writing and tamsyn muir is a mad genius.

[englishsub]

book rec by me

so you want to get back into reading books but have no idea where to start and disdain booktok (if you get me started on this however i will become an unskippable cutscene so that's for another day). understandable. there is so much out there and it is all so overwhelming and you don't even know what you like now that you've been a decade out of the game. again, understandable. it does not have to be scary. i will help you. below i have created some categories that can get you started.

i want to read Literature

literary fiction, with crossover from historical fiction and magical realism

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by melissa fu

THE VASTER WILDS by lauren groff

THE FAMILY CHAO by lan samantha chang

OUTER DARK by cormac mccarthy

SEVERANCE by ling ma

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by ryka aoki

IDENTITTI by mithu m. sanyal

PIRANESI by susanna clarke

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that won't break my brain

sci-fi and fantasy that is gentler on the brain cells. easier to grasp magic systems with multiple but not an overwhelming number of overlapping plotlines

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by heather fawcett

KINGS OF THE WYLD by nicholas eames

THE JASMINE THRONE by tasha suri

THE CITY OF BRASS by s.a. chakraborty

A RIVER ENCHANTED by rebecca ross

JUNIPER AND THORN by ava reid

BLACK SUN by rebecca roanhorse

THE FINAL STRIFE by saara el-arifi

THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that forces me to lock the fuck in

i would not recommend picking these up as your first foray back into books after many years of not reading recreationally, but i'm not your mom.

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jimenez

JADE CITY by fonda lee

THE FIFTH SEASON by n.k. jemisin

THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by evan winter

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by arkady martine

GIDEON THE NINTH by tamsyn muir

THE ART OF PROPHECY by wesley chu

THE GRACE OF KINGS by ken liu

horrify me!

there is far more to the horror literary canon than stephen king and dean koontz, i promise. consider looking up warnings for these.

TENDER IS THE FLESH by agustina bazterrica

THE RUINS by scott smith

CONFESSIONS by kanae minato

EPISODE THIRTEEN by craig dilouie

REPRIEVE by james han mattson

MARY by nat cassidy

DEAD SILENCE by s.a. barnes

AUDITION by ryu murakami

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by cassandra khaw

don't care, i want romance

some of these feature crossover genres, like fantasy and horror.

VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by isabel cañas

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by sue lynn tan

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by tia williams

HAPPY PLACE by emily henry

ONE DARK WINDOW by rachel gillig

i want QUEER romance

again, a mix of historical, fantasy, and contemporary crossover genres.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by cat sebastian

IN MEMORIAM by alice winn

MOST ARDENTLY by gabe cole novoa

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE by foz meadows

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by freya marske

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by justinian huang

SPELL BOUND by f.t. lukens

SORRY, BRO by taleen voskuni

ONE LAST STOP by casey mcquiston

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE by ashley herring blake

i haven't felt anything since i read percy jackson/the hunger games in middle school/high school

adventure is still out there.

SCYTHE by neil shusterman

WE HUNT THE FLAME by hafsah faizal

SIX OF CROWS by leigh bardugo

GEARBREAKERS by zoe hana mikuta

i'll read anything that's not straight or white

many books in the above categories fit this, but here's even more, across a variety of genres.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by malinda lo

BABEL by r.f. kuang

WHEN THE RECKONING COMES by latanya mcqueen

THE UNBROKEN by c.l. clark

IF YOU'LL HAVE ME (graphic novel) by eunnie

LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE by sher lee

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by shelley parker-chan

"all ya books suck"

like any other genre or book age group, there are duds and there are standouts. ya is not special in this regard. try some of these!

DIVINE RIVALS by rebecca ross

STRIKE THE ZITHER by joan he

THE RED PALACE by june hur

A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid

EMPIRE OF SAND by tasha suri

LEGENDBORN by tracy deonn

i check out and read a lot of these books for free via my local library by using the libby app (you can even add your friends' library cards to gain access to libraries in places you don't live). when i'm feeling like reading via audiobook, i use libro fm!

look, no one HAS TO read diversely. no one is going to be reverse fahrenheit 451'd and locked in a room with no fanfic and only books and not let out until they work their way through the entire literary canon. but reading, and reading widely, and reading diversely, is what teaches people to form their own opinions and question the things they are told. it's why they hang up stuff like "READ READ READ!!" in grade school classrooms.

we live under systems that increasingly benefit from going unquestioned. no, of course reading ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by robin hobb is not going to dismantle these systems tomorrow, nor probably even in our lifetimes. but doing it will help set up a world capable of doing it in the future. and until further notice, we are all part of this wretched world. might as well read a good story while we're here.

anyway, i'm reading THE WEST PASSAGE by jared pechaček and the new cmq book this week.

[darlingian]

The locked tomb books just keep showing examples of true love in all its extremes. In a couple examples: Abigail and Magnus who would have died rather than go through the lyctoral process. A sweet and tender sort of love. Ianthe and Coronabeth who keep making decisions to come back to eachother for better or for worse (usually worse) regardless of who they hurt or use in the process. Palamedes and Camilla who are two halves of one whole, who show over and over the meaning of real loyalty and absolute commitment. 

And then there’s Harrowhark and Gideon. Messy, mean, awful, hurtful, beautiful, scathing, riotous, bruised, devoted, desperate, and despairing, to the ends of the universe, sort of love. These books show all kinds of love outside of the romantic, often easy, sort of love. I absolutely adore what Tamsyn Muir has explored in these books. That in the life and death of it all, who wants to kiss who is not nearly as important as who would you kill god for? 

[theriverbeyond]

Just finished ch 23 in my Nona reread and i think Ianthe dismissing Blood Of Eden as "terrorists" is especially jarring because of the evolution of how BOE is presented in the text

like first in GtN, Gideon never mentions who or what she could be fighting if she had succeeded in her dreams of joining the Cohort. she wants to be part of the "invasion force on whatever", and her fantasies of violence are exclusively oriented around perceived personal freedom and making Harrow feel bad

And then in HtN, Blood of Eden is finally named as the Empire's enemy, but they're very specifically never called "terrorists". they're "insurgents" per both John and Judith, which not only has a wholly different definition (revolutionaries!) it's also an interesting intentional choice on the part of the *writing*. It would make in-universe character sense for Cohort Captain Judith Deuteros to call BOE "terrorists" in the personal notes she takes while prisoner, and it would make in-universe character sense for Emperor John Gaius to call them "terrorists" when he is explaining to Harrow that they are The Enemy. and i feel like it is narratively important that Blood of Eden is very intentionally *not* presented to us the readers with the kind of aggressive dehumanization/dismissal connotation combination that the word terrorist has.

and then like, obviously, the first BOE character we meet is a hot MILF with a gun. and sure she's trying to kill God, but Augustine and Mercymorn also try to kill God like 3 pages after we (properly) meet Wake so it's not like killing God is presented as a negative thing.

So going into NtN, I feel like the general impression of BOE is revolutionaries who hate the Empire and hot ladies with guns. which as far as impressions go is like, pretty positive, and that impression is only emphasized in the first 300 or so pages of the book. You have more hot women, you have more hot women with guns. There are factions of BOE that hate Our Protagonists more than the ones we meet, and there's infighting and hostages and burning suspected-necros in the park, but the BOE members we meet are explicitly sympathetic to the characters that we the audience care about, so the "scarier" parts of BOE are in many ways de-emphasized to the reader. We're *also* given an up-close-and-personal view of how bad it is for the people living under the Nine Houses' rule/resettlement via Hot Sauce and the gang, which further solidifies BOE as *at least* bordering on (if not outright!) "someone to root for", even for resistant readers.

and then Ianthe shows up and calls them terrorists and it feels a bit like a slap to the face. It serves to emphasize and perhaps consolidate what has been building for the series, which is essencially that the protagonists of the previous books are on the wrong side. Necromancy is on the wrong side. the Empire is doing bad fucking things and they are calling the revolutionaries who resist them "terrorists" as a way to delegitamize their resistance and dissuade support, something that no longer works on the *reader* because of the way Tamsyn Muir has hansel-and-gretled the fuck out of that story arc. send post.

[mendingbone]

i keep seeing people in their late teens/early twenties having a "[X] content intended for younger audiences does not feel satisfying to me anymore but i don't know where to start to branch out into adult fiction" moment and i thought i would give some recommendations for adult fiction for my fellow creepy crawly queer people. all or at least a LOT of it will be on the darker and more fucked up side bc i primarily engage with horror and thriller media personally but feel free to add on with more or recommendations from other genres :)

edit: i am continuing to add to this list so there might be new recs (highlighted in pink) in here every once in a while! also want to add that there's a variety of POC, queer, and disabled authors in here as well, i am also all of the above (asian, aro lesbian, poly, disabled) and tried to incorporate as many wickedly talented, compelling narratives as possible. that's all, happy reading!

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E Schwab*

A Dowry of Blood, S.G Gibson

Animal, Lisa Taddeo*

A Ripple of Power and Promise, Jordan A. Day*

Bunny, Mona Awad*

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi*

Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh*

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk*

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh*

Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan*

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro*

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha*

Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Jackal, Erin E. Adams*

Juniper and Thorn, Ava Reid*

Kindred, Octavia Butler*

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin*

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee*

Rabbits, Terry Miles*

Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy*

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

She is a Haunting, Trang Thahn Tran

Slewfoot, Brom

Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

Supper Club, Lara Williams*

The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi*

The Change, Kirsten Miller

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling*

The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher*

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter, Soraya Palmer*

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling*

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan*

The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy*

Vicious, V. E Shwab

Wake, Siren, Nina MacLaughlin*

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher*