#there are people in my book club

[tlbodine]

Trans Horror Authors

My January reading challenge is to read a book by a trans author. Luckily, there are many out there to choose from! Here are some who write in the horror genre, because that's my area of expertise. If you know of others, whether in horror or other genres, reply with your recommendations!

In no particular order...

Caitlin R. Kiernan

A genderfluid Irish-American paleontologist who also writes spectacular cosmic horror, what's not to love? They've been repping queerness since the 80s and have a robust library to choose from, so you're bound to find something you'll like!

Poppy Z. Brite

Billy Martin, whose work is published under the name Poppy Z. Brite, was a big name in the Gothic horror scene of the 1990s and continues to be a frequently-recommended author, although he doesn't publish as much horror these days.

Julya Oui

A Malaysian trans woman and prolific short story author. She has several collections out that you can browse, if short stories are your speed! Maybe start with Taiping Tales of Terror, which draws heavily on her native folklore and influences.

Rivers Solomon

A nonbinary, intersex Black author now living in the U.K., Solomon has three books out and they all look spectacular. Their books lean more toward sci-fi/fantasy, but their newest title Sorrowland looks to be pretty solidly Gothic as well.

Gretchen Felker-Martin

Trans woman, film critic, and unapologetically outspoken. Her best-known book is Manhunt, a post-apocalyptic horror tale that doesn't pull any punches. She's got another new release slated for 2024 to keep an eye on.

Hailey Piper

One of the most prolific authors I can name off the top of my head, Hailey also has several novellas out in the world + a few novels. If the intersection of queer fiction, body horror, and cosmic horror sounds like your thing, you can find something in her backlist. Also she's here on tumblr, go learn more at @haileypiperfights

Eve Harms

A bit of a new player on the field, but well worth checking out. Eve is a Jewish trans woman. Her debut novel, Transmuted, is a breathless body horror romp. She also makes a bunch of handmade zines, which I just think are neat :)

Natalie Ironside

One of Tumblr's very own better-known names, Natalie is queer, disabled, trans, hilarious, and author to at least three novels I can think of plus some other stuff too - go scope her out on @natalieironside for the details.

.....I know I'm missing a ton of people but these were the first ones that came to mind. I have to get back to writing, but I hope this inspires y'all to pick up a book you haven't read yet, and to add to my list down in the notes.

Happy reading, y'all :)

[someoneimsure]

Can you imagine if Jason actually was in a book club during high school and met a person there who very much remembered him like super fondly? Like he comes back to life thinking no one remembers and then this friend from school randomly recognizes him on the street and greets him like an old friend and tells him exactly where they last met and the books they would talk about and says “Hey, I heard you were kidnapped and everyone thought you were dead. I’m glad you’re doing better” and during their small talk this person suddenly laughs and says “You haven’t changed a bit!” and now suddenly Jason is stalking this person for weeks trying to figure out how to salvage the only friendship he apparently ever had in his entire life and somehow completely forgot about.

[raycatz]

I'm not including a situation where someone might be injured because in that case I'm thinking the bed goes to them by default or they are nominated for it. anyone who wants to be chatty goes to join the living room floor gang.

What are your thoughts and headcanons? Do you have thoughts on how the boys tend to approach assigning beds in inns? Who do the chain choose to sleep near when camping and why? What are their dynamics like when settling down for the night and getting ready for the day?

In "Mirror Vs Open Closet Door: Fight!" by Gintrinsic (here) Four refers to the chain's decision on how to split up between inn rooms as the "Link-per-room ratio" which I find very funny. He, Sky, and Time also talk about their thought process behind why they do or don't want to sleep in a room with some of the others which I find fun and interesting.

So! If you have thoughts and want to share them! *gestures to the post!*

[nefertiti-fooling-fellow]

LISTEN LISTEN, I know we’re all sad and disappointed at Mal’s reunion. BUT we need to talk about how this man did whatever he could to keep the memory of MC close to him when they were gone.

Lord Wesley of RIVERBEND????? Mal claiming to be from MC’s hometown?? People died, I am people.

Him telling stories about MC to his kids????????

Building the orphanage when MC disappeared because he needed a purpose?? And the one he picks is the one he wanted to achieve, WITH MC. (for my fellow Mal-romancers out there)

I know we were all expected a big, dramatic reunion, but I honestly think this one was pretty good too. I think the emotions we were hoping for was THERE, it was just subtler.

[crowlore]

vash the stampede + unflirty sim actions because i felt like giving him a hard time today

bonus wolfwood:

[obscenicon]

everybody owes plaidos the biggest fucking apology btw yall have been fucking vile to her over literally nothing

[estravenlover]

seeing anyone draw or reference armand as a creepy red headed white kid is ssosos ossooo fucking scary to me it’s literally like a jump scare

[n1nthrule]

can't watch fight club with other people anymore i squeal every time anything happens

[13eyond13]

there is a happy medium between maddening condescending queerbait and "bury your gays" tragedies and unrealistic unsatisfying corny gay fictional romances I don't relate to at all because of how little anxiety and loneliness and feelings of otherness they include, and it's just super hard to find the ones that hit the sweet spot hahaha

[starryalpacasstuff]

LITBC: Jaehee, and why she matters so much to me

Ok, I don't have a lot of time, so this is going to be messy, apologies in advance

When you're queer and living in a country that is generally homophobic, the default expectation one has is for people to be homophobic, hence Young's shock when Jaehee doesn't seem surprised or disgusted when she finds him kissing a guy. The two of them bond quickly due to their mutual status as social piranhas, and I can't stop thinking about why Jaehee matters so much. To be honest, Jaehee is everything one could want from a straight friend in a conservative country. Not only is she completely fine with Young being gay, I want to stress how important it is that Young can talk to her about his flings and one night stands openly. In asian society, it's typical for queerness to be something that people know about but never acknowledge, and for openly discussing it to be taboo. I've had experiences where friends that know I'm queer simply don't acknowledge the fact, choosing to act as though I'd never come out to them. That's the standard for 'acceptance' in asian society; tolerance. People don't stop associating with you, they simply act as though your queerness doesn't exist (and get visibility uncomfortable when you bring it up). That's why Jaehee is so important. Jaehee talks with Young about sex, his flings, and sizes up his dates from behind a coffee shop counter. She doesn't treat Young's queerness as something she has to tolerate and ignore.

It's not to say that Jaehee is the perfect ally. She still doesn't fully understand Young's queerness, and she outs him to her fiance, saying that he's basically a girl because he likes men (there's a whole host of issues to unpack with that, but as much as i'd like to, I don't have the time). But it remains a fact of the matter that Jaehee is incredibly progressive by asian standards, for the simple reason that she doesn't treat queerness as a hush-hush topic. And, I think, that's part of the reason that Jaehee outing him to her fiancé hurt Young so much. Young says it himself, his anger and feeling of betrayal was funny if he thought about it, because he'd never really cared about being outed before. He says it himself, the only explanation that he has is, "Because she was Jaehee". He says that he wasn't used to feeling betrayed because he expected so little of others. But his situation with Jaehee was different because Jaehee was different, and unlike the others, he'd come to expect her to understand him, to stand with him no matter what. Because Jaehee wasn't like the others, so Jaehee shouldn't have done what others would have. It hurt him when he realized that Jaehee was choosing to fit fit into society's expectation of her over him.

But that's something I can relate to so much; expecting people to understand you, especially those you hold close, until reality hits. Mistaking tolerance for acceptance, acceptance for understanding. I mentioned that the default expectation for I have when meeting people is that they will be homophobic, and I learned that through finding out, over and over again, that people I held close to me simply did not accept me, or understand me. And even if you do your best to not care about it, once you've figured it out, the crack in the relationship only widens with time, because you simply can't bring yourself to think of the person the same way as before. And that's what happened with Young and Jaehee. Because Jaehee accepted Young, he expected her to stand with him no matter what. But she didn't, and that's what hurt him. Jaehee accepted Young, yes. But she also chose to fit in with society's expectations over him, which ultimately caused the two to drift apart.

To me, Jaehee is a bittersweet character. She's loud and unapologetic, and she accepts Young in a way that seems almost too good to be true; because it sort of is. Because she also represents how people in asian societies have a long way to go before they understand queerness, and how queer people lose friendships because of it, which is something I know painfully well.

[nrcbookclub]

Heres my nerd brother(jk i love him)

we're both adopted :3

i might find an image of our moms too, cause i love them

(Hers the picrew btw :) https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/94097)

[fridayiminlovemp3]

i neeed to stop obsessively hating on people but like if it’s bad why does it feel so gooddddddddd 🤨🤨

[winchestersickness]

What's your favourite headcanon of something that happened in the Impala?

Hiiiii <3 thank you for sending me this!

I've just watched Swan Song for the first time, and the Impala montage is the part that fucked me up the most. The line "they were never, in fact, homeless" destroyed me and put me back together. So I think I'll say something soft, that my favorite headcanon with the Impala is how much it functioned as a home for two kids who grew up on the road, jostled from case to case. How they probably learn to fall asleep with the rock station in the background, lulled by her motor. How many games of "I spy" they've played with the great plains or the rocky mountains or the fields rolling by. How much pride Dean felt in teaching Sam how to drive (even though I'm sure Sam learned how to drive at like, 12), and how ecstatic Sam felt whenever he was riding shotgun, and not in the backseat (much to say about this. Anyway.) The fact that when Dean put her back together he stuck a toy soldier in the astray and a piece of lego in the ventilation, same way you'd hang your favorite posters and photos in all your apartments in the course of your life. In all that uncertainty and sorrow and instability the two of them managed to create a home for themselves, and to carry it with them, always. Even when they had nothing, when they were cut off from the world, when the only certainty was the monsters lurking in the woods, in the cities, in every street and in every bar, they had each other, and they had their Baby ❣️

[sciralta]

human and orc MCs having to deal with tyril’s racist grandmother

[moodymisty]

I would love to hear more about your blorbo Alexis Pollux

Finally, an excuse to talk about one of my wall husbands.

I guess I just enjoy him most of all because he feels like the most accurate representation of what a space marine is to me personally.

Like if I needed to pick a space marine to talk about to someone who knew nothing about them, I'd show him.

He's stalwart, focused, and kind to baseline humans without being too out of character for an Astartes nor pointlessly cruel to the point where you reach the 'too bleak stopped caring' thermocline. (Which is very hard to reach in 40k given the setting, but a few things have done it, the Daemonculaba being an example. I love some of 40k's darkest stories, but they have to at least be entertaining to read. Night Lords trilogy for example.)

He's also fucking MASSIVE, and surprisingly humble (for an Astartes). And I really just overall enjoy his story. To slowly grow from being doubtful in yourself to being the chapter master of the Crimson Fists is a really rewarding progression to read.

Also, as someone who is 158cm (5'2 in freedom units) the idea of having an absolutely gargantuan Imperial Fist for a bf is the dream. I want him to kick heretics into outer space for me.

[gideonisms]

Me every time I'm sad and I don't know why: well an iced coffee probably won't fix this but let's find out