#the premonition

[mournfulroses]

Banana Yoshimoto, from her novel titled "The Premonition," originally published in 2015

[everythingdice]

Ｔｈｅ Ｐｒｅｍｏｎｉｔｉｏｎ ✨ Heed the omens of fortune and mayhem | webstore link

[winter-triumph]

🪷 novel review: banana yoshimoto, the premonition

potential spoilers (?)

yayoi sporadically makes incestuous innuendos regarding her relationship with her younger 'brother'. even after the fact she discovers that they aren't related, she was still raised as such and still refers to tetsuo as such. this also occurs with yayoi's 'aunt'– the manner she was made to perceive her as if she was (even) minutely infatuated with yukino was definitely an uncomfortable read.

i found the initial plot intriguing, but those factors deterred me from remotely enjoying it or even continuing the book.

[anne-bsd-bibliophile]

A sudden rustling in your chest. A premonition of understanding. You feel you might be on the verge of uncovering something . . . You’re a little fearful, oddly excited, and somehow forlorn . . . Like there’s something coming around the next corner that’s going to turn everything you know about yourself on its head.

- Banana Yoshimoto, The Premonition

[bughead-in-the-comics]

From The Premonition, Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #131 (1966).

[everydaym0nstrosity]

The Premonition (1976)

[ninjajustice]

The Premonition (1976)

Creature Features

I remember watching this one on the Commander USA show when it used to air on the USA Network

[elenichr]

Year of Lists

January Books

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (ToB Read) *3/5 - there's an ease in the storytelling, it gives you time to luxuriate in the plot. I loved the back-and-forth, the exploration of the past and of characters who were not central to the main goings-on, but just like in life, you can trace their influence through time. Despite the writing talent, and the much promising setup and characters, I had trouble connecting to this novel; most of my joy in reading this came from the observation of McBride's craft in putting this together.

Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur *3.2/5 - for a minute there I really thought this would be the great Korean novel I've been looking for. Firstly: one for the great covers list. The marrying of science and folklore/superstition/oral inter-generational storytelling: chef's kiss. I wish it amounted to more than it actually did. The novel opens in dreamy language, otherworldly imagery, beautiful, beautiful world-building. It unfortunately loses its coherence and promise about 30% in. It fizzles into a concept that begs for a better storyline to hold it together. I wish the protagonist's personality amounted to more than self-wallowing in pity and self-othering. There are nuances that could have been explored so deeply; I wanted her to see herself as the wonder I saw her as. Nonetheless, there is magic here, there is familial complexity, and beauty.

Notable quote: “The first generation who come are grateful, certainly. They can endure much, swallow their pride. Their children want more—the freedom not to be grateful, indebted, and beholden.”

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake *3/5 - it hasn't even been long since I read this and I can't even remember the plot. Positives: Blake's writing gets better and better, clearly not in the general, book-making sense, but in the pleasant-to-read, I-love-spending-time-with-your-words way. I did enjoy the reading of this, I just don't think this was written because the story was there, but rather, because the trilogy needed to end. I love the characters and I love the illustrations and the elements that make Atlas so exciting: magic, ambition, a sentient, secret, ancient library full of the deepest, darkest knowledge of the world - the dark academia of it all. Better luck with the prequel. We're suckers for it either way.

The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto *5/5 - a perfect little dream - I LOVE BANANA / Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls *5/5 - superb.

Both of these are 5 stars partially because they're novellas. They're dreamy and otherworldly, tackling their specific subject-matters with dexterity. Mrs Caliban is worth an afternoon, especially for fans of The Shape of Water.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke *4.7/5 - boy oh boy was this a surprise. I don't have much to say, THIS.IS.INCREDIBLE. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and perhaps wouldn't be mine if it was written by another author. I read this in a day.

The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (audiobook) *4/5 - this is a reread, first read-through was a physical copy; I'm listening to the series now because I'd missed that world. The narrator for this one is better than the first and his work is only improving. By the end of this one you can tell this is a narrator who truly understands King's writing, with all its humour and intricacies.

The Green Mile by Stephen King *4.7/5 - it's as good as you think it is, as good as everyone says it is. In case it wasn't clear I LOVE STEPHEN KING.

[misty-quigley]

FINAL DESTINATION (2000-2025)

[vampiristar]

GUYS, I WAS RIGHT! THEIR SEPARATION CREATED CHAOS BUT TOGETHER THEY CREATE ORDER. THEY ARE THE ORDER THAT EMERGES FROM CHAOS 😭😭‼️

[huli-jingg]

saw a headcanon on reddit saying momo is obsessed with actor ken takakura because young momo asked seiko who’d she marry/who her lover is in the future and seiko had answered “ken takakura”

[mournfulroses]

Banana Yoshimoto, from her novel titled "The Premonition," originally published in 2015

[espeonseal]

horror games yipee!!! (late late halloween art tho..)

[kerbrobro]

The semi-hidden apartment laundry room in Deadly Premonition has the single best sign in the entire game.

[ooooo-mcyt]

Does anyone ever find it a bit chilling that it was poppies?

Jimmy hands Scott a flower a poppy, a flower associated with death and grief (especially in context of war), to mark the beginning of their marriage, and Scott takes it, lovingly, before they find a valley filled with poppies (along with other flowers, but poppies were their flower) to build their home in.

And then Jimmy is swept up in the war (they both are, but jimmy is the one who wanted it, who burned to fight, and who argued with scott about it until scott gave in). Jimmy dies there. And Scott is left in a grief spiral, completely overwhelmed and choked by despair so heavy he can't survive it.

I know we often use poppies as a positive symbolism, a symbol of love, of the happy days before the war, making it bittersweet at worst if we want to go for post-relationship angst.

But personally I find it haunting that it was poppies of all flowers. The pure visual and implications of their 'proposal' being Jimmy handing Scott a poppy specifically, knowing the full context of how the season ends for them, gets me.

[forecast0ctopus]

psych episode where shawn begins to have psychic premonitions (carbon monoxide poisoning)