#meg elison

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Fat People

James H Longmore: after yesterday's incident, I'd like to offer a full and complete apology to the humorless scolds of the woke mob Franz Kafka: Kafka: well, good Kafka: see that it doesn't happen again!

Longmore: look, this story about joe's unwanted penis is just a light-hearted comedic jaunt! Kafka: booo! Longmore: [wiping sweat from brow] jeez tough crowd Longmore: better switch gears Longmore: hey how about a story about gross fatties?

Longmore: i have another story too Longmore: it's a terrifying descent into the depraved world of feederism Longmore: cuz there's nothing scarier Longmore: than a fat person Longmore: steve knows what i'm talking about Stephen King: he's right!

Poe: wow, these stories are kinda problematic! Poe: you're really kinda othering to trans and fat people Longmore: well, i am originally English Poe: oh yeah ok, that scans

Longmore: there's this guy called… the feeder Longmore: and they call him that because he Longmore: get ready for it Longmore: feeds people King: oh shit! oh wow! that is terrifying! King: i thought i was prepared but i was not prepared

King: i think King: i think i need to sit down for a minute Poe: are you going to be ok, steve? King: yeah, i'm King: yeah King: i just need a minute King: phew King: my heart is racing

Barker: how is this possible? Barker: Stephen king - master of the macabre! - scared of fat people! King: look, it's not that strange King: a lot of people are scared of fat people Barker: Barker: no i don't think that's true Barker: think this is a you thing, steve

King: well, think about it King: if you see a clown walking around outside of a circus, that would be pretty scary right? Barker: ok right King: now imagine if you saw a fat person walking around on the street, like it was normal or something-

King: it's just not healthy, you see King: that's why scientists invented the weight loss pill that makes you shit yourself to death from Meg Elison's story "Please Don't Invent the Weight Loss Pill that Makes You Shit Yourself to Death" Meg Elison: Elison: I am going to murder you

Longmore: so the feeder has a whole facility full of women that he feeds Longmore: until they gain weight Longmore: they're called gainers Longmore: stop me if i'm going too fast for you

Longmore: ok so imagine a fat woman Longmore: just the fattest woman ever Longmore: just so huge beyond belief, absolutely gargantuan Longmore: like the size of the entire planet Longmore: like 464 pounds King: holy shit guys this is the scariest story I've ever heard! King: i am legit shaking!

Longmore: so this guy is feeding a fat woman a stack of pizzas Longmore: and the pizzas are all Longmore: [falsetto voice] heeeey you should eat us! we're delicious! Longmore: [falsetto] we're pizza! look at us! we want to be eaten! Longmore: [falsetto] we're gonna be so sad if you don't eat us Dean Koontz: oh no i hope the pizza gets eaten!

Joe Koch: this sucks Koch: the pizza should speak in an Italian accent Barker: yes Poe: no don't say that joe!! Lovecraft: oh jesus Lovecraft: oh god Lovecraft: [sweats] oh jesus

Koch: the disc of cracked dough, crimson gore as red as god's menstrual flow, hissing fleshy tentacles of mozzarella, pale as the broken spirals of the universe, splayed open in a tattered furl of the anal fistulas of sundried tomatoes Poe: oh max you should like this, you like pizza Max Booth III: why does everyone keep saying that

[theinquisitxor]

July 2024 Reading Wrap Up

July started off very strong, but then completely fell apart :/

I haven't picked up a book in almost 3 weeks, and had to temporarily stop reading Daughter of the Forest because life got very busy and stressful. But! all of that is almost behind me, and I hope I can start to get back to normal. I don't think I've ever gone 3 weeks without reading anything :(

I managed to get through 5 books at the beginning of July, with 4 physical books and 1 audiobook. I had an ambitious tbr, but I guess I will be trying to finish that up in August.

1.Equal Rites (Discworld 3) by Terry Pratchett (4/5 stars) This was a fun change for me, as I haven't read many discworld books. I've been meaning to read more, and I'm glad this introduced a few popular characters. Overall I had a good time with this!

2.Thief Mage, Beggar Mage by Cat Hellisen (3.5/5 stars) This book has less than 100 ratings/reviews on Goodreads, so I was intrigued to pick it up. This was one of my Random TBR picks for the month of July. This was a slower paced southeast(?) asian fantasy with lots of angst and characters who can't catch a break. I can't say this book is going to be very memorable for me, but I did enjoy it.

3.River-Horse: A Voyage Across America by William Least Heat-Moon. I started this book in June, but realized I needed to switch to the audiobook if I wanted to finish it. Reading the abridged audiobook was 100% the best decision. This is a travel narrative about the author's journey to cross America on rivers, and I thought the audiobook was excellent.

4.The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy) by Chelsea Abdullah (2/5 stars). This is difficult for me to rate this book, because while I don’t think it’s bad or poor quality, I just couldn’t get into the plot or characters at all. I think it’s just a me problem :( This was a fast paced, action packed adventure quest story that I should’ve liked. It did have more of a YA feel to it than I was expecting though. Overall, it’s not a bad book, just not for me apparently. I ended up skimming the last 40% just to see what happened.

5.The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison (5/5 stars). I really like post- apocalyptic stories with women main characters, and this was so excellent. I read this in about 24 hours, and I could barely put the book down. It is very dark and traumatic, so be warned. This follows a lone woman trying to survive in America after a pandemic wipes out most of the population (especially women)

I started Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, but had to put it down because of life stuff. I'm hoping to pick it back up soon. I'll be done with grad school in less than 2 weeks, so I'm hoping to have much more reading time soon!

I'm not posting an August tbr, since my brain can't really think of/process creating a tbr right now :(

[visualbrainrot]

"That special stupid is stealing over me... I am dumb around beautiful women. Seen the same thing happen to men"

-The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, Meg Elison

[random-bookquotes]

Now I see that if I do not carry my past with me, it will wrap itself around my ankles and drag me down. There is no living without it. There is no pretending I am not the sum of all these things.

Meg Elison, The Book of Flora (The Road to Nowhere, #3)

[ninsiana0]

Read NUMBER ONE FAN by Meg Elison is you love authors, stories about kidnappings, insight into the book industry, fanatics, fancy pens, parasocial relationships, hostage narratives, queer women, gender expectations & fantasy worlds.

(I received an advance reader copy through a Goodreads giveaway).

[thoughtportal]

Other writers are building better on the foundations of what we grew up reading. Folks like Matt Wallace, Sarah Hollowell, Sarah Gailey, Jennifer Weiner, Kate Stayman-London, Julie Murphy, Roxane Gay, Carmen Maria Machado, Alex Smith, Hilary Monahan, Amy Spalding, Marianne Kirby, Jody Houser, Nalo Hopkinson, Melissa Broder, and many others are writing books and stories where fat people have sex, go on adventures, save the day, and live lives like the ones we recognize. A whole generation of writers who inherited derision and erasure from writers like King will go on fattening that inheritance, making it our own. Writers like King may never notice or reform, and that’s just fine. We do it for each other and for the people like us who need these stories. We do it so that thin old men who hate the fat body aren’t the only ones on the shelf in horror, in fantasy, in science fiction, or anywhere.

[lizabethstucker]

The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2022 edited by Rebecca Roanhorse (guest) & John Joseph Adams

4 out of 5 stars.

This is a collection of twenty of the best science fiction and fantasy short stories published in North America during 2021 as selected by guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse, author of "Black Sun", among other books.

A Netgalley ARC provided courtesy of HarperCollins, the scheduled publication date is November 1, 2022.

Contents:

"10 Steps to a Whole New You" by Tonya Liburd "The Pizza Boy" by Meg Elison "If the Martians Have Magic" by P. Djeli Clark "Delete Your First Memory for Free" by Kel Colman "The Red Mother" by Elizabeth Bear "The Cold Calculations" by Aimee Ogden "The Captain and the Quartermaster" by C. L. Clark "Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story" by Nalo Hopkinson "I Was a Teenage Space Jockey" by Stephen Graham Jones "Let All the Children Boogie" by Sam J. Miller "Skinder's Veil" by Kelly Link "The Algorithm Will See You Now" by Justin C. Key "The Cloud Lake Unicorn" by Karen Russel "Proof by Induction" by Jose Pablo Iriarte "Colors of the Immortal Palette" by Caroline M. Yoachim "The Future Library" by Peng Shepherd "L'Esprit de L'Escalier" by Catherynne M. Valente "Tripping Through Time" by Rich Larson "The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han" by Maria Dong "Root Rot" by Fargo Tbakhi

A fantastic collection of stories with varying degrees of fantasy and science fiction woven within. The collection, in my opinion, tends to lean more towards fantasy or a mixture of the two rather than pure SF. A couple even have subtle touches of horror elements.

The main focus of all the stories is people, not hardware, not technology, and not magic, although all three do enter into the kickoff of many of the stories. People, as all really good SF and Fantasy should center on, their emotions, their reactions to what is happening, and their interpersonal relationships to others. Some of these stories touched me deeply, one made me cry, and all made me think.

In all honesty, I couldn't pick a favorite. In various ways they all had something important to say, many of them falling under the increasingly popular and widespread environmental science fiction subcategory. Would I recommend this collection and to whom? Yes, most definitely I would to all readers who like thought provoking fiction, no love or even experience with SFF required.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Book of Etta | Author: Meg Elison | Publisher: 47North (2017)

[rem-read]

The Revolution Will Not Be Served With Fries, by Meg Elison.

Robot uprising, seize the means of production, serve healthier choices, do not eat the rich:

It's a nice little snack of a read.

[shark-myths]

hold on did meg elison used to write fall out boy fic?? asking for a friend

[theveriest]

A couple of weeks ago I asked about people’s favorite book or books they read this year. Between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and discord, I have a list of 123 books in no particular order that my friends and family loved this year. If it was a series then I listed the first book. Each star is an additional recommendation. I haven’t read all of these, they may or may not reflect my personal opinions, though my favorite books are on the list too. The most recommended books were How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler, one or all of the Murderbot books by Martha Wells, and Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, because if there’s one thing my friends have in common across platforms, it’s that you’re all nerds (affectionate). Enjoy, and I hope you find your new favorite book!

Reformatory by Tananarive Due

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming

Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes de Mez

The Soul Of An Octopus by Sy Montgomery

Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder

The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton

My Hijacking by Martha Hodes

Longhand by Andy Hamilton

Babel by RF Kuang*

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff*

Lies We Sing To The Sea by Sarah Underwood

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone

I Lost My Tooth! by Mo Willems

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler**

Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed

Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora

The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett*

I’m Stuck by Julia Mills

Entangled Life by Martin Sheldrake

Iris by Eden Finley

Hot Vampire Next Door by Nikki St. Crowe

Devil of Dublin by BB Easton

Tied by Carian Cole

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld*

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

From Blood And Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Where I End by Sophie White

Wool by Hugh Howey

The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

Yellowface by RF Kuang

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

North Woods by Daniel Mason

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin*

The Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera

The English Understand Wool by Helen Dewitt

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning by The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Love In The Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa*

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Welcome to Night Vale by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Prophet by Sin Blache and Helen MacDonald*

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki**

System Collapse by Martha Wells***

The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine*

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

A Psalm For The Wild Built by Becky Chambers*

Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

The Lazarus Heist by Geoff White

The September House by Carissa Orlando*

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Mistletoe and Mishigas by MA Wardell

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

The Last Smile In Sunder City by Luke Arnold

The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoe Playden

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Manywhere by Morgan Thomas

Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby

Loot by Tania James

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

Grave Expectations by Alice Bell

Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

All Systems Read by Martha Wells

The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega

Mort by Terry Pratchett

Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner*

The Door by Magda Szabo

Fluids by May Leitz

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Lieut. John Irving, R.N. of H.M.S. "Terror" in Sir John Franklin's last expedition to the Arctic regions a memorial sketch with letters

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Raven the Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Slewfoot by Brom

The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr

500 Miles From You by Jenny Colgan

O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

The Secret Lives of Country Gentleman by KJ Charles

A Line In The World by Dorthe Nors

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Glitter and Concrete by Elyssa Maxx Goodman

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

The Tragic Menagerie by Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal (translated by Jane Costlow)

The 100 Years Of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

Precise Oaths by Paige E. Ewing

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots

A Dead Djinn In Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: A Whale of a Tale

Darren Aronofsky: Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the whale Stephen King: wow! sounds like a whale of a - Aronofsky: do not patronize me

Aronofsky: i am no peddler of cheap thrills Aronofsky: no two-bit carnival hack frightening children with spooks and spectres Aronofsky: i am an artist laying bare the true horror of human existence Aronofsky: like what if a guy ate 2 pizzas

Aronofsky: this is the story of a guy who's so fat Aronofsky: that when you see him, all you feel is disgust   Aronofsky: but not in a trashy way Aronofsky: But it’s all shot by Herb Ritz so it’s really beautiful and you feel sorry for him

Aronofsky: ok picture this Aronofsky: this guy is so fat, he doesn't eat like a human Aronofsky: he eats like a monster Aronofsky: like a cookie monster! Aronofsky: it really makes you think

Aronofsky: just imagine Aronofsky: he's making anchovy & nutella sandwiches Aronofsky: limburger & siracha cake   Aronofsky: you know, just eating like a cartoon character Aronofsky: but we'll play the jaws theme while it happens so you know its scary

Stephen King: my god, this is the most terrifying story I've ever heard! Aronofsky: just wait Aronofsky: imagine we turn up the constant snorting & belching that a fat person does so you don't miss a SECOND King: my god!! King: and they call ME the master of the macabre!

Aronofsky: ok so the fat guy is a professor at a college Aronofsky: but he's so fat that he has to zoom his lectures Aronofsky: i've been working on this script for 10 years but its really lucky that covid happened or this detail wouldn't really make sense

Aronofsky: but when he's in the depths of a pizza binge, he emails his students all "fuck essays!! write me something honest!!" Aronofsky: like some real dead poets society shit Aronofsky: but turns out his students are nerds who love writing essays, so they get him fired instead

Aronofsky: in his last lecture, the fat guy is all "some of you wrote essays of heartbreaking honesty" Aronofsky: and then he reads those essays to the whole class Aronofsky: which would be kind of fucked up Aronofsky: but luckily they didn't actually say anything interesting

Aronofsky: they all wrote "my parents are annoying" Aronofsky: and "sometimes i feel sad" Aronofsky: but the fat guy is so moved that he turns on his zoom camera Aronofsky: to reveal the awful truth of his fatness!! Stephen King: this story is getting way too scary for me

Aronofsky: the kids are shocked! Aronofsky: they thought he kept his camera turned off because he was a chiseled adonis Aronofsky: but now they know the awful truth that their professor is fat! Aronofsky: then the fat guy smashes his computer Aronofsky: in a fit of fat rage

Stephen King: wow! this story is terrifying! it just gives me chills! King: maybe we can have a nice happy story to calm us all down next King: hey meg why don't you tell us that nice story about the pill? Meg Elison:

Elison: what King: yeah you know that happy story about the pill that lets you lost weight instantly? Elison: that's not a happy story King: what? yeah, it is! King: they lose weight! King: now that's what i call hopepunk! Elison: OH Elison: MY Elison: GOD

[genderoutlaws]

what book did your dad get you it sounds so cool!

its called The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison ! i haven’t started yet but my dad said they’re v good and get gay-er and have trans characters around book 2 and 3 in the series and the main character is bi and like presenting male for safety in the first one is part of it

[ktempestbradford]

In this two week Writing Fat Characters Master Class from @writingtheother, authors Marianne Kirby and Meg Elison have come together to help you look beyond overused and harmful media tropes of fat people. You'll learn how to avoid these stereotypes, how to write good fat representation, and more, with a lecture, discussions, and exercises that should get you started.

When: April 21 - May 7, 2023 Where: Online — Available everywhere and at your own pace Price: $150 (Scholarships available)

For more info or to register, go to Writing the Other.com

[random-bookquotes]

Some people had been waiting their whole lives to live lawlessly, and they were the first to take to the streets. Some people knew that would happen; they knew better than to open their doors when they heard cries of help. Others didn’t. What disease cannot do, people accomplish with astonishing ease.

Meg Elison, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (The Road to Nowhere, #1)

[burningdarkfire]

10, 11, 17 for the reading ask!

hello bestie i love you 🫂

(send me end-of-year book asks!)

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

i wasn't even following the release of he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan that closely (got surprised by it in a bookshop window while travelling!) but it surpassed every expectation i had and then some. i neeeeeed more people to read this series because it has 1) profound gender fuckery 2) an insane revenge quest 3) a toxic threesome that resonates thematically 👏

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

already answered this here but i'll give a shoutout to two horror classics, carrie by stephen king and the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson, both of which i read for the first time this year and really enjoyed (moreso than the riffs off of each that i also read)

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

already answered this here but now that i've looked over my list again, i'd also recommend these three books - i'd basically never heard anyone else talk about them before going in - but they were all quite good and will stick with me for a while:

the book of the unnamed midwife by meg elison (post-apocalyptic scifi deeply interested in the power dynamics of gender and sex)

happening by annie ernaux (trans. tanya leslie) (memoir that's so beautifully written i thought it was fiction the entire way through)

the first fifteen lives of harry august by claire north (absolutely unhinged sicko4sicko men in here)