#the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making

[autumnmobile12]

In a fantasy book series I read a while back, the main character encountered a pair of witch sisters who shared a husband. The husband was a 'reverse werewolf,' so he was a wolf most of the time, but during a full moon, he turned into a man.

One witch sister said she was married to the man while the other said she was married to the wolf.

...

...anyway, this is how I imagine these three explain their relationship when they're tired of explaining their relationship and they just want to confuse people for kicks.

[fiction-quotes]

Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. This is why we must close them up into thick, solid books, so they cannot get out and cause trouble.

  —  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Catherynne M. Valente)

[lovelifeanon]

HOWDY!

Have you been searching for a long YA series that gave you the same ecstatic experience as reading a novel under your covers with a flashlight? (While avoiding modern YA that’s rank with bad smut) (and also trying not to read something that’s made for fifth graders)

DO I HAVE SOME SERIES FOR YOU!

*whispers seductively in your ear*

“Four books or more in a series…easy to find at your local library.”

Straight fucking banger. Neurodivergent children infiltrate an oppressive school to take down a machine of misinformation and propaganda.

This book blows most autistic representation out of the water for me. It is absolutely phenomenal and so witty and funny to read. The whole series is AMAZING. The prequel series is genuinely a jaw dropping emotional experience about love and appreciation for the universe. Sci fi at its wittiest.

Fantasy that kills ACOTAR and Fourth Wing stone dead. A girl called September goes on an epic and absurd quest through Fairyland to overthrow its Queen. When I say the world building and mythology is good for this, you won’t understand. All I can say is Neil Gaiman fucking loves this book.

Historical fantasy that will make you froth at the mouth to wear a cloak in the wilderness. It’s a long series compared to these other two, I think about fourteen books in total? Maybe more. Will is chosen to become a Ranger, part of an elite group of the King’s men that serve as scouts and sheriffs in the effort to prevent war growing between nations.

Where most historical fantasy authors sort of throw vague descriptions of weapons and military methods at you, Flanagan will literally spend two paragraphs just describing the beauty of an English longbow in tender, loving detail. It’s witty, it’s fun, it has suspense and some top notch whiny teen with pissed off mentor moments. Plus short king rep.

In conclusion!

[bigjinx]

my favorite thing to draw is very niche fanart :)

[dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night]

I remember reading this when I was thirteen or so and feeling so understood. Thinking about how quickly my heart had grown, how I never got on well with my heartless cousins and classmates, always in the mood to do nothing more than read or study.

This book always comforted me, as a neurodivergent kid/teen. It understood better than any story explicitly about neurodivergence ever did, in that special way fantasy stories so often do.

[literary-illuminati]

Grudgingly handing it to the spotify discover algorithim for pointing me at a whole filk album for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

[rabid-catboy]

My parents read the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making to me when I was like.. 10? And I haven't been normal about it since. Incredibly formative media

[weathertheraine]

Some rare non-haikyuu content!! Nobody goes here, but this series is close to my heart and I’ve loved coming back to it as an adult ! I don’t think Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland residents would have much use for strict human gender binaries.

[a-ramblinrose]

7 books 7 days day 2

Rules: every day, I will post the cover of a book that I love and nominate someone new to start the challenge

Tagged by @booksandrandomfandoms Tagging @godzilla-reads

[comfort-devil]

Even if you’ve taken off every stitch of clothing, you still have your secrets, your history, your true name. It’s hard to be really naked. You have to work hard at it. Just getting into a bath isn’t being naked, not really. It’s just showing skin.

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1)

[fictionadventurer]

I saw your tags about A-Through-L and !!! Another person who’s read the Fairyland Chronicles hello!

You've read them, too??? Wonderful!!! I haven't read them in years, and I never did read the fifth book, but they're such a delight, and it's so fun to find another person who knows what I'm talking about!

[iphigeniacomplex]

reread the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making last week. i used to carry that book around with me everywhere as a kid; still don't like being in a new space without it, but i haven't actually reread very frequently. very pleased to announce that it still makes me feel crazy in the same ways it did when i was nine and twelve and fourteen. i have to find my younger selves and scoop them up and tell them all. like you know what september singing her death to sleep with the lullaby her mother used for her as her body decays in the worsted wood WAS gorgeous! the house without warning WAS delightful and tragic! the repeated theme of the precise nature of the story being uncertain, culminating in the marquess being able to escape by altering the tone of the story and then using genre conventions concerning the archetype she would fill within the type of story she presents WAS insane and you WERE real as fuck for feeling an uncomfortable sort of identification with her! THE ENDING OF THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE WAS REALLY SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lordofthemushrooms]

S. J. Tucker was so real for reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making (one of the greatest books of all time) and deciding to write and entire album about it. So true queen I see you I hear you

[vifetoile]

Calvin Anagonye-Shellstrop and Hobbes

Eleanor Shellstrop becomes the first woman to get knocked up in Hell.

So.

Spoilers for the end of The Good Place, however, no spoilers for Good Omens (this does not incorporate season 2) and Calvin & Hobbes and Fairyland, they need no spoiler tags.

Post-Season 4. Eleanor and Chidi are in the process of overhauling the afterlife; the process is going well but there are still holdover-demons who prefer the old regime. Chidi and Eleanor are happily together and Do It a lot; they visit the old Neighborhood and have a quickie in Eleanor’s old house, and two months later Eleanor realizes she’s pregnant.

The first person she goes to is Janet, who confirms it and says that the chance of a woman conceiving in the afterlife is astronomically low. She congratulates Eleanor on beating the odds. Eleanor asks Janet to keep it a secret and asks for help— how will she tell Chidi without him freaking out? Comedic advice sequence ensues.

Eleanor tells Chidi, he has a few minutes of shock but once it’s confirmed he’s surprisingly chill. He asks Eleanor what she feels about it.

Chidi and Eleanor have a long talk about parenthood. While keeping the idea of abortion fully on the table (Janet can do it), they decide they want to try being parents together.

Furthermore, Chidi says that he would like their child to live on Earth, if that’s possible, with a normal experience of time and space. 

So this is the news they break to Jason and Tahani and Michael. Jason is delighted at the prospect of being an uncle; Tahani offers sincere congratulations and sends for champagne; Michael is surprisingly morose. The idea of Eleanor and Chidi returning to Earth really bums him out. But Jason manages to talk Michael 'round. It'll be fun to be a godparent.

So Eleanor and Chidi resume their lives on Earth, and move to Maine. When they marry they take the surname Anagonye-Shellstrop. When their son is born, they name him Calvin. 

Tahani and Jason also choose to resume their Earthly lives.

Meanwhile, back in London...

Aziraphale and Crowley get notices from their separate authority figures: this kid Calvin was conceived in Hell. A kid like that… could have all kinds of strange powers. He could even fill the role that Hell wants, the role of the Antichrist.

Remember how I said there are those who want the old regime, and the old plans for Armageddon? Yeah, not all of them are demons. 

Plenty of angels would like to put Armageddon back on the calendar, and this kid might be their way to do it.

Aziraphale packs up his books, and Crowley packs up his plants, and they head out to Maine. The Arrangement has a new form.

Artwork by Ana Juan, colored by me

By a completely unrelated train of events, there is the realm known as Fairyland, as described by Catherynne M. Valente. There is a young Tiger by the name of Hobbes. He is kin to the Leopard of Little Breezes and the other great cats of Fairyland. 

Hobbes hasn’t quite found his domain yet. As he vagabonds along from one port to another, he finds his way to the world of humans, where he appears as a stuffed toy to most. However, even under this glamor, Hobbes possesses a debonair charm which catches the eye of Tahani al-Jamil. She introduces Hobbes to Calvin and they become fast friends.

Calvin will come into his powers when he reaches seven, the age of reason. However, the year before Calvin’s seventh birthday never seems to end, it just… sort of loops. Jeremy Bearimy never saw it coming.

Artwork by Bill Watterson

How will this all end? Will the Maine sea-air prompt Crowley and Aziraphale to confess their long-buried feelings? Will Hobbes ever go back to Fairyland? I don't know, it's a mystery, but isn't it fun to think about!

This all could be a long-running Ao3 series with 100k words and dozens of chapters and interludes, but in this part of Jeremy Bearimy, it is a humble tumblr post.

[bigjinx]

“You see, the future is a kind of stew, a soup, a vichyssoise of the present and the past. That's how you get the future: You mix up everything you did today with everything you did yesterday and all the days before and everything everyone you ever met did and anyone they ever met, too. And salt and lizard and pearl and umbrellas and typewriters and a lot of other things I'm not at liberty to tell you, because I took vows, and a witch's vows have teeth. Magic is funny like that. It's not a linear thinker. The point is if you mash it all up together and you have a big enough pot and you're very good at witchcraft, you can wind up with a cauldron full of tomorrow.”

-Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Hello, Goodbye, and Manythanks.

[dismemberment-on-a-tuesday-night]

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making did something to my brain.