#whit young execution

[ratatouillestew]

my friend made emo whit cookie

[demodraws0606]

I'm making the prediction here that the reason why DRDTdev has been so reserved about Whit to the point where he hasn't had a singular sprite looking more than just a little upset makes me think they're just gonna pull a 180 on us in a very specific moment just to jumpscare us.

[mimikip4744]

episode 16 was wild

Like, that was the best episode this far

but also WHAT THE FUCK!!!

[whyisaperson]

CHAPTER 16 OF DRDT SPOILERS (My thoughts are all scattered so some just a warning)

⬆️Wow the parallels are crazy, Arturo bullies a short person once and now a stronger short person does the same thing to him but without the scalpel and more sexual tension (not for Arturo but Levi).

->Also this episode was fucking and probably one of my favorites besides the fact that Ace died it is still top 1.

->Chapter 3 is going to be a shit show episode 1 that’s going to be so funny to think about.

⬇️Also the new Whit sprite was wild and a little concerning… it’s his first actual sprite that shows some genuine fear.

Bitch was only scared when the elevator was locked, not for: Levi getting shot, Mins Execution, Arei’s Death, Aces upcoming execution (actually scratch that because nobody but Teruko fucking cared maybe Levi did, but he was so passed out), Xander’s Death, and literally anything that has to do with not Charles (who is 100% cooked next chapter)

⬆️Ace… baby… I’m so sorry, I need a bonus episode or a MV of him. And a 3rd? Since it says “going” in this case he had 2 deaths on his hands and is going to have a 3rd [being Levi]. I am going to assume be blames himself for Taylor’s death. Who we now know is officially dead

It’s believed that he died via sickness, because of this

but my only contradiction is that it was in the background and was not the only thing that popped up

The blood bag from the foreground also popped up (no img needed).

Anyway I would ramble more but it’s getting very laggy :(

[mystiqmemory]

An idea for your Swap AU

As sort of a counterpart to Charles' phobia, Swap!Arei would have hanging-related trauma, which Eden learns about in the first chapter and helps her through.

Oo, that's actually a great idea ! I actually thought of that once-

But I had NO idea how Swap!Rose (who's swapped with Xander) was gonna trigger her hanging phobia (or Idk how Swap!Hu getting shot would trigger that) at all, so I decided to give her something similar called "Algophobia" aka the fear of pain :')

Thanks for the suggestion though regardless, really appreciate it !

(Well since hanging is technically painful, maybe I can try to adjust both- just need to figure out how- thanks regardless -^-")

[ultimatematchmaker]

hi oomf did u know whit youngs gonna die in chp3 :)

“What if charwhit was doomed” Honest reaction??

[gooseagain8]

Bullseye!

♥

Whit Young Execution

(Commission for @/dreami)

[ccrisntok]

Your Masterminds, Whit Young, and Ace Markey! (mm! whace au)

(Spoilers lol)

what normal fellas ahahahahaha (I have poured my entire soul into these two there is nothing left of me)

A basic summary of their relationship:

Whit has spent like, over a year manipulating Ace into being complacent in his plans. In his own eyes, Ace is a sorta-stupid lacky, who he's constantly love-bombing to keep obedient. Although, he is a bit glad for the company... it was sorta empty when Ace was "dead" and they couldn't really talk. And maybe Ace almost dying from his fake execution was a bit disturbing. But he's sure its nothing! (He fell in love with him like a moron.)

Ace has fully fallen in love with Whit. He's not happy about it, but it happened. As a result, he's basically ruined any semblance of his own morality, just so he doesn't lose Whit, or the affection he knows is mostly performative. He's more than happy to kill his fuck-face classmates, after a... bit of prodding, and honestly, he'd do anything Whit asked at this point, even die. He'll still complain about it, though.

i tried to be as original as humanly possible, but I'm def giving credit to @talkativeanonymous, @acethehorseishere, and @a-blog-for-kat all for inspiring these two in one way or another (esp. a-blog-for-kat lol).

anyway there's the art, here's the promised lore. warning for like a million words. I'm serious. It's 1,400 words. you can stop here i don't blame you.

also sorry for the odd looking bullet points, didn't realize you couldn't have gaps lol!

This au operates on a probably un-canon assumption that I pulled out of my ass. That is that Mai Akasaki is both a student in the class of 27, and that she is the "time loop" student. She is usually a part of the killing game, but she isn't this time, for reasons I'll explain in a sec.

This specific loop, Mai is attempting to dissuade the (usual) mastermind from wanting to start a killing game in the first place. That mastermind is Whit Young.

She goes about this by trying to curb Whit's main reason for his descent into despair, his resounding loneliness, by giving him championship. Charles hasn't softened up to the others in any regard yet. But that wasn't the main reason, unbenouced to Mai.

In this loop, and this loop alone, Mai sets Whit and Ace up to be friends. She hopes they can help each other, since they usually end up more or less alone in their school life.

Surprisingly, it works. They get along decently well, although a codependency starts to develop on Ace's side.

Around this time, Whit takes up an internship at XF Future, which Mai doesn't realize. He innocently wants to explore other job options, "Matchmaking" not really being a stable career forever.

Obviously FX Future isn't a normal Tech Company. Whit starts to change, in a barely noticeable fashion, the longer he works there.

Ace notices Whit's contacts start looking a lot more vibrant after Whit takes a couple weeks off school for a "company trip." He thinks it's... sort of pretty.

(Whit's time at XF Future showed him a side of humanity he didn't realize existed. Insane levels of greed, using the concepts of "ultimates" to guide a stupid pubic where the Government wanted them, generally a dystopia. It feeds into his existing detachment from humanity, until he hits a breaking point, setting his sights on ending the "Ultimates" concept by killing the newest class in the public eye, including himself.)

(XF Future develops a new sort of technology, prosthetic "eyes" that basically turn you into a living remote control, able to connect to an entire building if its connected via a computer system. Security cameras, doors, fucking air conditioning- everything.

(Whit offers himself as the test dummy, and it goes perfectly.)

Anyway, Mai decides to talk to Ace, since she's starting to realize he's becoming a bit... softer after hanging out with Whit so much? And hopes like, for once, he'll actually accept help for his mountain of problems.

He doesn't take this conversation very well.

Mai, with knowledge from dozens of loops, accidentally brings up an extremely traumatic event, simply mentioning the name "Tyler" once.

In a blinding mix of rage and horror at Mai's knowledge of the event, that Ace has literally never even spoken about in this timeline, Ace shoves her away from him.

She falls backwards, and splits her head on a desk, killing her instantly.

Ace, in a horrified frenzy, calls Whit, literally his only friend.

Whit shows up. Ace expects him to freak the fuck out, call the cops, or something like that... But he doesn't.

Whit simply tells him they were going to hide the body together, not even remotely caring about Mai's death.

yeah that's a little fucking weird, and its terrifying, but going to jail is scarier sooo Ace goes along with it!

After this, Whit wraps Ace into uncharacteristically cruel pranks against some of their classmates and others at Hopes Peak, oftentimes resulting in physical injury.

He acts like these are completely normal and funny, while Ace is both freaked out by it, and sort of enjoys enacting pain on people he didn't like.

Along the way, Whit notices Ace starting to fall for him. Horrible news for Ace, since Whit plays into those emotions by becoming much more physically and emotionally affectionate. Which he doesn't enjoy, like, at all... not a bit...

Whit convinces Ace to assist him in greater and greater acts of violence until Whit just straight up kills someone (not a classmate, a stranger.)

Ace is of course tied into everything way too deep to stop now, and after all this... he doesn't really want to. So he stays as Whit's accomplice for months, up until Whit's weirdo behavior arrives at the idea of the killing game. He references the "First Killing Game", which Ace had never heard of.

The idea is a bit intense for Ace, but at that point, he didn't have anything beyond Whit. If it took this to stay with him... He'd do it. Even if in the end, they both were going to die.

So they get to work!

Ace had been taking engineering classes at Hope's Peak in hopes of getting out of jockeying, and he'd helped his family build sheds and shit since he was a kid, so he focused on the construction and executions.

Whit wired the building an all-encompassing computer system he could control, as well as stealing "Mono-TV" from XF Future, a robot he can fully control to be the "host" of the game.

He also steals the "mind wiping" technology from XF Future. It's weirdly easy to steal stuff from this company, hm? It's almost like they aren't protecting it...

Whit also uses another piece of experimental biological technology... on Ace.

A screen connected to his brain, a lottt less invasive than Whit's eye surgery. It doesn't impact Ace mentally, it just gives him the ability to produce visible projections for easy construction, communicate with Whit remotely, (and give Whit a way to always know what Ace's condition.)

The screen is unclipped when the game starts, but the brain implant is still connected to Whit, so he can detect Ace's condition.

After kidnapping the class of 27 and wiping their memories... It all starts. A killing game, streamed live to the entire nation.

Whit and Ace start off as a part of the class, interacting with the others like normal, a pretty decent show. Things go roughly as planned, putting everyone in the positions Whit wanted them. Untilll... chapter 2.

Ace gets his ass jumped, and almost dies prematurely. This is fine, Whit privately makes sure the wounds properly cleaned, but it does fill Whit with an... ominous feeling.

Ace still kills Arei, a part of the plan, and gets "executed", so he can more easily upkeep the executions and such behind the scenes.

After the screen playing the fake execution turns off, Whit checks to make sure Ace didn't get injured in his running around... but can't detect anything.

At all.

Ace's heart wasn't beating.

He actually, seriously, had a fucking heart attack.

(Ace's heart attack was for a combination of reasons. Firstly, his heart was actually in pretty bad condition as a result of his eating disorder, something Whit had figured was "over" by now. It wasn't!)

(Second, in that moment, the idea that maybe, just maybe, Whit could have been double-crossing him came to Ace. What if Whit loaded the guns? What if Ace's use was done, and Whit was finally getting rid of him? It was terrifying because he could die, and terrifying because... It'd make sense. It was all that ever happened to him.)

So he had a heart attackkk lameeeeee

This makes Whit tweak the fuck out, internally. (lol pretend his spooky ass sprite happens AFTER the execution, not before. shh its all made up its all pretend)

After Levi gets taken to the infirmary, Whit drops Charles off at his room as quickly as he can, then fucking BOLTS IT to a hidden passageway in his room to the like... Mastermind area, with the execution chamber.

Whit manages to resuscitate Ace in time, barely. And even after that, he's in pretty bad condition. But he's conscious and mobile.

Whit gets him as comfortable as he can, and after spending the night, he sort of... has to leave. He does some tweaks to Ace's brain screen thing, creating a functional heart monitor that Ace (and he) can watch.

As often as he can, Whit sneaks off to the Mastermind area at night to make sure Ace doesn't fucking die in his sleep. But Ace gets... decently better quickly, and returns to his duties overseeing the killing game.

Whit still visits almost every night to make sure Ace wakes up, which he can't really explain to himself. Ace was... supposed to be disposable anyway. Why would it matter if he died?

Anyway yeah the rest of the game happens. No clue there.

In the end, Whit and Ace come out as masterminds (happy pride).

I have a comic planned for how the end goes, soooo... that's it!

holy fuck! my fingers! hi the whole 2 people who made it down this far... uh... did you like my lore.....? do you want me dead now for having you read 1,400 words of two evil homsexuals...? 😅 love you thank you im sorry.

[iconsumedmygoldfish]

i do not trust whit young.

spoilers for drdt. like, all of it so far. as of ch2 ep16.

whit as a character just isn't adding up for me. his reactions to things have been wrong up until now, or at least not as prominent as other characters. not necessarily saying he's a mastermind, or evil, or a david-chiem-type character, but i don't think he's who we think he id

whit has been shown to struggle to hold in his laughter in the middle of a class trial about the murder of one of his classmates, which is definitely an inappropriate reaction, but the fact that he's holding back a laugh at an unintentional joke shows that he isn't forcing amusement in the complete wrong situation. charles seems used to it by now to be honest, but uhhh idk

he's also become a fan favourite, being paired alongside charles as a good ship dynamic. understandably, whit has become a lovable character, serving (slaying) as some form of comic relief. but his reactions seriously give me a weird feeling. even if he's masking his emotions, to do it to this level, in this situation, feels wrong to me. it might just be a personal feeling about him, i do think he's funny and i like whit, but cmon man that is THE MOST SUSPICIOUS MAN IVE EVER SEEN

for example:

whit appears nonchalant after the gruelling, emotional class trial that him and his classmates have sat through for hours? hours game time and real time, i believe. whit is so casual here, and it bothers me - he doesn't look tired at all, worn out, he doesn't even seem to CARE.

more of whit's apathy:

this is the most concern i remember whit showing until this point, and it's directed towards charles. and not their classmate who has just been shot and is, like, violently bleeding out.. it's a bit inappropriate? he doesn't express shock about levi's sacrifice, he just seems to be anxious for charles.

this makes me wonder if whit is maybe more detached than other characters? sure he acts as a comedic character, but is he doing this deliberately? it's not making the mood better, no matter how much he tries, he should've figured that out by now. how is he capable of just keeping a mostly straight face (or, well, happy face) throughout two whole class trials? and an execution (one one so far)

then, there's the first instance of something extreme from whit:

im not sure what to interpret this emotion as. i initially took it as whit being utterly shocked, taken aback, maybe he has claustrophobia? looking into it more i still don't know what to think. he might be hateful, or having some sort of flashback or whatever, but whatever it is it looks dangerous.

this is more emotion than he shows towards xander's death, min's execution, arei's death, levi's sacrifice. and it's towards a locked door. that's why he could have claustrophobia, maybe some that's trauma-related. this could be explored further in the upcoming chapters if we're lucky. :)

sorry if im going into too much detail!!! he's just sus to me at the moment!!! and i miss levi and i miss ace and i am a very very very sad person and i want them BACK!!!!!!!! anyway hope this was fun to read i guess idk maybe perhaps

[acevid]

DRDT MASTERMIND AU!

Every DRDT was a past participant of a killing game. Now, they are all being forced to play in one more killing game.

The only unknown thing..? They’re all masterminds. (An AU made because of the mass amounts of mastermind aus on Tumblr right now and honestly I’m a huge fan of all of them.)

Teruko Tawaki - ..Actually the only one who hasn’t participated in a killing game. The mastermind who was supposed to participate (her brother from the orphanage) mysteriously disappeared. So they went to..other measures.

Xander Matthews - Survived by defeating the mastermind (canon Danganronpa endings).

Eden Tobisa - Escaped due to a motive where if someone got away with killing, they could bring someone with them. (Was horrified and ran away into society to distract herself from the killing game. This ended up being her downfall as it gave the producers ideas as to where she was.)

Min Jeung - Survived because the mascot had decided to revive a random participant as the blackened ending up stabbing themself as everyone got executed

Hu Jing - Survived because the mascot was broken (chapter 4). This is why MonoTV is so strong now, since the killing game had ended before because of the mascot being destroyed.

J Rosales - Survived by defeating the mastermind

Charles Cuevas - Survived by winning the trial (the matter was so traumatizing for him that his brain completely blocked out the fact and makes blood repulsive)

Arturo Giles - Survived because he wasn’t an actual participant in the killing game, but rather a helper to the mascot

Arei Nageishi - Survived because she ended up killing her sister who was a fellow participant in the killing game and won the trial by guilt-tripping everyone

Ace Markey - Survived by defeating the mastermind

Nico Hakobyan - Survived because they were a traitor in their killing game

Whit Young - Survived because outsiders ended up saving the killing game participants during chapter three

Rose Lacroix - Survived because she was brought into a killing game late because she was caught sneaking around the facility (her sibling was in the killing game) before helping defeat the mastermind (though her sibling died in the process)

Veronika Grebenschikova - Survived because the mastermind got defeated

Levi Fontana - Survived by being a blackened

David Chiem - Survived because he was a ‘traitor’ for the mastermind (ended up pulling strings so that the mastermind also died whilst the execution for everyone happened)

[fatherfigurefusion]

As a bit of a follow-up to the Alternate Chapter 2 idea...

Concept: What if Min was the one who received the note to kill Teruko, instead of Xander, flipping their narrative positions? And, relating to that, what if Whit was the one with necrophobia and hemophobia (due to his mother's death), instead of Charles?

In this alternate Chapter 1, Min asks Teruko to meet her in the computer lab, and Teruko, none the wiser, obliged.

Before doing that, Min forged a false motive that was assigned to Whit Young, intent on framing the matchmaker for the murder, having quite the vendetta against the guy who flows through life frivolously and without a purpose.

Once the two girls were in the computer lab, Min apologized to Teruko, just before she drives a knife into Teruko's abdomen. However, Teruko proclaims with full confidence that, as the Ultimate Lucky Student, she can't die.

Whit, curious about his motive, peeked inside the computer lab, only to see Teruko's bloody and unconscious body. In an uncharacteristic panic, Whit ran away, allowing Min to snatch some of his belongings, to frame him for the crime.

What the student was not expecting, however, was for a certain rebel to happen upon the scene. Min, fearing for her life, ran over to try and stab Xander too, and managed to slice open Xander's palm with her knife (which ended up implicating him in the end).

However, Xander, being much bigger and stronger than Min (even with a bleeding palm), managed to wrestle control of the knife, and stabbed Min several times in the front. With barely much time to act, Xander tried to clean up the scene, but not before swapping out his bloody clothes and torn glove with new ones (but nothing could erase the wound on his hand).

Meanwhile, Charles happened upon a scared-silent Whit. While he claims to not care less about anybody in this killing game, much less Whit, for some reason he felt a not-entirely-foreign emotion towards the scenario before him: concern. This led him to testify on behalf of Whit, but it's only because he's sick of the other students not using their heads in this trial, and definitely not out of sympathy for the annoying matchmaker.

(In response to this and upon learning of his trauma, Whit would start to take the killing game more seriously and be more emotionally honest/open with others, while Charles would grow to genuinely appreciate Whit's presence and start to genuinely lighten up.)

For someone with as much fire and drive as Xander, the rebel's internal fire was quickly doused, once the trial moved along, and he was backed into a corner, after the framing attempts on both Teruko and Whit fell through.

But fighting and arguing in his steed was David Chiem, arguing on how Xander is a "good person" and would "never resort to murder", leading to an Argument Armament against him.

(Note: Hu would fight on Nico's behalf in the alternate Chapter 2, with the Argument Armament being against her.)

By the end of the trial, Xander was harshly executed, and Teruko would still turn her back on the rest of the class, feeling as though they can no longer be trusted, with the only slightly-softening blow being that Xander actually vouched for Teruko's innocence, in the face of the class's opposition.

[demodraws0606]

You know I've seen no one point out how Whit really has the Tsumugi-syndrome of constantly pointing out "how normal I am guys, i'm so normal, nothing has happened in my life ever like-"

With Tsumugi of course it's a lot more obvious but like Whit constantly points out how "normal" he is and how "nothing happened in his life" like...

Sir do you have something to share with the class ?

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

It Should Happen to You

Pauline Kael used to say that screwball comedy was killed by pressure groups that didn’t want to see their demographics held up to ridicule. I don’t know how true that is, but certainly the more serious bent in American life following World War II helped create a world where nobody wanted to see themselves as screwballs. Then along came Judy Holliday. She had no trouble assuming Carole Lombard’s mantle as “the daffy Duse,” even if her films kept making us pay for laughing with her. For most of George Cukor’s IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1954, Criterion Channel, Tubi), she’s deliciously demented as a young woman determined to become famous for being famous. Unlike in BORN YESTERDAY (1950), where we’re asked to pay for all the fun by having her learn the error of her ways, this film’s resolution isn’t all that traumatic. In fact, she’s allowed to remain as screwy as she was at the start.

Gladys Glover (Holliday) originally came to New York to make a name for herself. When she loses her job as a girdle model, instead of using her savings to return to Binghamton, NY, to marry the second man who proposes, she rents a billboard on Columbus Circle and plasters her name on it. A big-time soap magnate (Peter Lawford), who wants the sign for his company, trades her six other prominent billboards, and suddenly she’s a celebrity. That doesn’t sit well with her boyfriend (Jack Lemmon, in his first billed film role), a documentarian who finds her thirst for celebrity distasteful, but it lands her an unscrupulous manager (Michael O’Shea) only too happy to make a fortune off her.

Garson Kanin’s screenplay is smart. He takes his potshots at celebrity culture, TV and advertising without lingering over them, and having written three earlier films with Holliday knows exactly the kinds of lines that work for her high-pitched, perpetually surprised delivery. Cukor directs all this gracefully. His tracking shots are almost musical. And he helped Lemmon adapt to film acting by showing him how to keep his performance grounded in reality. The two stars work beautifully (they’d reunite later that year for the very good divorce comedy PHFFFT). His offhand line delivery matches up with her pixilated line readings to give their scenes an improvisatory sense. Most of them feel lighter than air. Even Lawford comes off well, in a mostly thankless role. When he tries to seduce Holliday, his physical grace is sexy but also funny.

It's a curious thing, though. Holliday was typed as dumb blondes, but it’s really grating to hear her called “dumb” on screen. Broderick Crawford had to pay for it big time in BORN YESTERDAY, as do the crooked executives who don’t take her seriously in THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC (1956). So, when her fight scenes with Lemmon lead to his calling her stupid, it feels wrong. She’s given us too much fun for us to accept that she’s merely stupid, particularly since she’s been smart enough to get what she wanted. It’s a major accomplishment that Kanin and Cukor get the film back on track quickly and regain the buoyancy of Holliday’s earlier scenes. With Connie Gilchrist as a wise-cracking landlady, Whit Bissell as an advertising executive, Jack Benny foil Frank Nelson as, what else, a floorwalker, John Saxon in an early bit as a teen in Central Park, and Constance Bennett, Ilka Chase and Wendy Barrie as themselves. It’s some kind of comment on celebrity that even cast as herself, Barrie can’t play a believable human being.

[nichknack]

Wandering Witchbreed AU: Wade Wilson, That Damned Dead Fool

AU MASTERPOST

Armour

Wade's outfit in this AU is rather intricate. He wears a black and red jester's outfit that covers most of his body, complete with a jester's hat. His face covered with by a white porcelain mask with red diamond-shaped detailing around the eyes. He carries a set of Katanas with him wherever he goes, their scabbards are strapped to his back by black leather which crisscrosses over his chest.

Sexuality and Relationships

Wade is openly pansexual and polyamorous. At it's core, the AU is focused on Poolverine, but his relationship with and engagement to Vanessa also plays a massive role. This version of Wade also has feelings for Peter Parker (Amazing Spider-Man version), which I hope to explore once The Avengers and spider-men are introduced.

Past

Wade was born in the Kingdom of Kanata. Growing up, his family was extremely cruel and abusive. From a very young age, Wade learned to use self-depreciation and jokes as a coping mechanism to deal with his trauma. At the first available opportunity, Wade left his family and enlisted in the kingdom’s army. While he proved to be an extremely talented swordsman, his attitude and lack of respect for authority resulted in him being given an ultimatum: return home in disgrace or be executed. Not wanting to go back to his family, Wade strove out on his own. He spent years scraping by, taking whatever mercenary jobs he could get. Eventually, a job made him cross paths with Vanessa Carlysle, a prostitute with whom Wade found an immediate kinship with thanks to their shared sense of humour and sharp whit. While their life was hard, it was beautiful, and the two eventually became engaged. However, soon after their engagement, Wade’s health began to decline. Eventually he collapsed and was brought to a city healer who declared that there was nothing that could be done, he’d be dead within the year. Wanting to spare Vanessa the pain of watching him die, Wade abandoned her. Eventually, he was reached out to by a group of mages and sorcerers, who claimed to not only be able to cure his illness, but also give him abilities beyond his wildest dreams. Wade accepts their offer, believing he has nothing left to lose. Unknowingly, Wade had signed himself up for cruel arcane experimentation under the eye of a sadistic witchbreed, Ajax—who Wade quickly deduced was actually called Francis. The experimentation did in fact save Wade’s life, giving him the ability to rapidly heal and peer through the very fabric of reality itself, but also left him horrifically disfigured. While he was able to escape Francis, Wade felt that his disfigurement made him unworthy of Vanessa’s affection and fled from her once more, eventually crossing the boarder into the Kingdom of Ventra.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #24 – When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

I tossed this on my TBR entirely sight-unseen at the start of the year, entirely on the basis that I was trying to expand my horizons a bit and it showed up on my public library’s ‘staff recs’ page with zero context whatsoever (also just an absolutely lovely title). This was, as it transpires, not a particularly good way to choose a book I’ll particularly enjoy – which is entirely on me, to be clear. It’s a well-executed and often charming story, and if it was a novella I would probably thoroughly enjoyed it. At 400 pages though, I’m just so incredibly and entirely not the target audience.

The story is a historical fantasy set during the tail end of the 19th century, principally about the angel and demon who call a minuscule shtetl in the Pale of Settlement (so small it doesn’t even have a name) home. Neither is a particularly impressive example of the type, and they have largely spent the previous centuries arguing over scripture with each other. After hearing that one of the girls of the schetl who had left for America might be in danger, they take it upon themselves to travel first to Hamburg and then to New York to rescue her. Along the way they make a friend, discover who they really are, and become trade union activists.

So this is shelved by both my library and Goodreads as YA, but it’s feels very much written for the young side of young adult – just generally very much read like a children’s story. A good one! But still – the narrative voice and the portrayal of the world felt like something more suited to 6th -7th graders than 16-17-year olds, I suppose? Though I might be projecting off my own childhood tastes here. There’s even a ten-page glossary of difficult or unusual vocabulary at the back. So all to say that really getting into a critique here based on my own preferences would just be a waste of time for everyone involved.

That said, this is actually one of the first YA books I’ve read that feels like it meets the whole stereotype of YA being written with Providing Good Representation as a key guiding principle throughout the process. Not in any didactic or lecturing way, but the three main characters are a nonbinary angel with a recurring beat of feeling awkward and uncomfortable whenever its dress/presentation/forged papers cause it to be treated as a man, a demon with obviously inhuman feet that make walking in shoes very painful and are a recurring inconvenience, and a teenage lesbian whose whole arc centres around figuring out why she felt so hurt and betrayed when her childhood BFF fell in love with a guy instead of emigrating to America with her and spending their lives together (also all but like 2 characters of any consequence in the entire book are Jewish, as just follows naturally from the whole premise). It all feels written with an eye towards taking prospective readers by the hand and assuring them that their feelings are normal and not something to agonize over. It’s all well-done and fairly graceful – and, like, such things are a large part of what children’s books are for – but was just amusing to finally see an example of the stereotype.

I actually did quite like the narrative voice and general style, though. It had very sort of storybook or folkloric sensibility to it, seemed exceptionally well written for reading out loud to someone before bed. Which fit very well with the very casual don’t-worry-about-it inclusion of the supernatural and its place in the world.

The book was honestly most interesting to me as a window into this whole rich cultural mythology of Ashkenazi emigrants leaving behind the Pale of Settlement and seeking new lives in New York/the USA. A mythology I am aware of but have only the most surface-level actual familiarity with (to whit ‘There are no cats in America’ and not much else). It’s always, I guess fun?, to read someone referencing and playing around with what are clearly stock characters and tropes but which are entirely new to you. The whole book at least felt very well-researched and absolutely drenched in little touches to ground in the specific place, time, and cultural milieu.

So yeah. Competent, well-executed book I really probably shouldn’t have bothered with.

[accirax]

I was thinking about this the other day and realized that I really had no idea what the stats were for the fandom as a whole....

Please note that I'm asking about the blackened-- AKA who would be executed-- for this poll. In the case of "Levi was Eden's accomplice," "David manipulated Hu," etc, I want to know who you think is Going To Die.