thelibrarian25

[thelibrarian25]

sapphic remus lupin

[thelibrarian25]

Is it a sign that I'm in too deep the Marauder's fandom when Euphemia Potter shows up in my dream and tells me off for leaving my shoes out- the James Potter red converse classics, might I add?

[thelibrarian25]

"So what do you recommend to encourage affection?"

"Dancing, even if one's partner is barely tolerable"

[thelibrarian25]

Here, There Be Sirens: A Review

Overall Review: ☆☆☆☆☆

‘Here, There Be Sirens’ by J.W. Holmes is a historical fiction set on the seas where a British Merchant ship discovers a burning Spanish ship with only three survivors out of the entirety of the crew. 

The novel opens with the discovery of a Spanish ship in the middle of the ocean. However, soon after strange things begin to occur following by rumours of what happened on the Spanish ship and what the story is behind the strange chest that the survivors brought along with them. The crew soon paranoid with the thought of whether curses truly to exist. 

I adored this book from beginning to end, reading more fervently as the mystery of the supposed curse increases. I’ve always had a soft spot for adventures that take place on the high seas, I absolutely loved the Pirates of Caribbean as a child so that makes sense. The slowly unraveling mystery of the curse over twenty chapters was just what I needed for the weekend, especially from the impending doom of exams that I don’t want to take. 

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction and anything similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean alongside a mystery and curse. 

~The Librarian 

Thank you for reading! It’s been a slow week when it comes to reading but there was another book I planned on writing a review on but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have to be able to write a review on it. Once again, if you notice any errors please let me know.  

[thelibrarian25]

Silence please! My show is on!

I promise I didn't disappear, I just don't have any impulse control and started several at once again haha

[thelibrarian25]

marlene @ sirius

[thelibrarian25]

Book Reviews: 24.03.25~ 30.03.25

Overall Review: ☆☆☆

It’s not that I don’t like Shakespeare, I absolutely love ‘Othello’ and ‘Macbeth’ (Lady Macbeth that is) but ‘Hamlet’? Not so much. I tried. I really tried. I read my physical copy and when I got tired of that I found an audiobook to listen to while I continued living life. I tried to understand it but I couldn’t keep track of what was going in and who was who. I mean the mother married the uncle? I had to re-read that part three times and then go to Google to see if I had understood that part right. I think I completely missed the mark on this one, I see the potential but it just wasn’t quite reaching me this time. 

Overall Review: ☆☆☆.25 

I don’t typically like contemporary romance novels, not that there's anything wrong with, I’ve just always found them a bit two dimensional. When I am reading a book I pretty much always need gut-wrenching heartbreak but it’s nice not to be crying into your pillow at two in the morning. And honestly I’ve always loved an enemies to lovers trope even if Violet and Eli are completely clueless more than half of the time, it does make their characters more realistic because in real life are we ever aware of our feelings all of the time?

~The Librarian 

Thank you for reading and if you notice any errors please let me know. 

[thelibrarian25]

Just the normal amount of relief upon seeing your best friend is still alive after the summer holidays.

Prongsfoot being dramatic at the train station, as usual (get a room)(they're platonic)(knowing Sirius' parents the dramatics are justified)

This one's just a quick thing, because life is getting in the way. How dare they try to make me work :|

[thelibrarian25]

Regulus: James' birthday is coming up. Sirius: Yeah, we planned something for him- Regulus: I'm gonna propose to him. Sirius: Oh. Propose what? Regulus: No, sirius, I'm gonna propose to him. Sirius: Like, propose a business deal with him? Regulus: No, i'm going to ask him to marry me. Sirius: Your-YOU'RE GONNA PROPOSE TO HIM?!? You aren't even dating!! Regulus: Regulus: We've been dating for 2 years. Did James not tell you?! He told me he told you!! Sirius: NO?! Regulus: Sirius: Regulus: I'm gonna kill him. Sirius: Oh, So am I.

[thelibrarian25]

A version of boys stumbling upon something truly traumatizing in that little book haha

[thelibrarian25]

Book Review

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide To Wizardry by C.M Waggoner

Overall Review: ☆☆☆.25

‘The Ruthless Lady’s Guide To Wizardry’ was sitting on my shelf for almost up two years- I’m not even going to try and make an excuse for this one. It’s a sapphic novel set in the city of Leiscourt which reminds me of a magical Victorian England for some reason. The protagonist Dellaria Wells is unfortunately down on her luck again when she sees and advertisement looking to hire a female bodyguard to protect a young bride-to-be from assassins. This is how she meets and begins to fall for Winn, another bodyguard as they face the fearsome assailants. I particularly enjoyed the coziness of the story as Dellaria and Winn go about Leiscourt while it still maintained it’s mysterious aire, I adored dear old Buttons and his foreboding ‘bongs’. However, I found at times that it felt like that Dellaria was using Winn for her money but I guess if she’s offering you might as well accept.

Powerful by Lauren Roberts

Overall Review: ☆

I read ‘Powerless’ last year after seeing people talk about it all over the internet but unfortunately absolutely couldn’t stand it- it sounds harsh but it’s true. With every turn of the page (with this one as well) I kept finding that the plot of the novel was nearly identical to the one of ‘Red Queen’ by Victoria Aveyard. I tried to excuse this as I continued to read ‘Powerless’ saying that it was most likely accidental as it was the authors debut novel however by the time I got to ‘Powerful’ it seemed like the author had done absolutely nothing to distance the ‘Powerless’ series from Victoria Aveyard’s own. I found that the similarities didn’t end, even a similar line from ‘Red Queen’ being repeated (something like sewing hands or fingers, I’d check but I don’t really want to look at that book again), of course in the English language you can argue that there are bound to have similarities to happen but with the other instances of similarities you can only start wonder if anything is original.

Modern Persuasion by Sarah Marks

Overall Rating: ☆

‘Modern Persuasion’ by Sarah Marks is a retelling of Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ in the 21st century. While I was initially skeptical when I discovered this book I decided to give it ago, and if you can’t tell already from the amount of stars I gave it or rather the lack of them I began to regret getting it immediately. I tried to find something I liked about it while reading but I found that I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried. And while I couldn’t find anything that I liked I can applaud the author for her attempt at bringing Jane Austen into the 21st century. However, while reading this I couldn’t help but find that all the character’s in ‘Modern Persuasion’ were rather childish- of course they were inspired by the ones in Jane Austen’s novel but at times the childishness of them was out of this world and I had to take a step back and think “if you’re going to make them childish make it realistic at least”. Furthermore, at times while I was reading I noticed that the grammar at times seemed to be off and the writing it self seemed to be rather stilted and repetitive, like it could have gone through a couple more rounds of editing to polish it off. The conversations between the characters as well also seemed to be rather stilted and lacked humanity due to the formality of it all. Overall, at times this book read like something me and my friends would have written on Wattpad at thirteen (if I had any friends at that age to write with but we’ll ignore that) and at other times it seemed to completely lack any coherence with the mixture of formality and informality.

~ The Librarian

Thank you for reading! And if you notice any errors, please let me know. This week’s worth of reading has been quite disappointing — it started off well and then really fell off after. So, hopefully it’ll be better next week.

[thelibrarian25]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Review

Overall Review: ☆☆☆☆☆

‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a historical drama that follows a young Evelyn Hugo as she pursues her dreams of becoming an actress in Hollywood and what life was like for members of the LGBT+ community who were in the spotlight during the time.

The novel opens with a seventy-nine year old Evelyn Hugo who has finally decided ti give up her life story to journalist- Monique- having decided to finally answer the age old question of who the true love of her life. As the story unfolds we follow Evelyn through her life as she tells the story of each of her husbands and why she married them. Despite the seven husbands we soon learn that none of them were in fact the love of her life.

I was completely enamoured with this book from start to finish- it turns out my best friend knows me very well because she’s been pestering me to read it for months- I was completely enraptured with Reid’s style of writing, while also having formatted the book in the style of a biography. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this one before. You fall in love with these characters even though in your heart deep down you know that it won’t end well, maybe they live happily for a while but in the end someone has to pay the price for that happiness. I loved the way in which Reid shaped each of these characters, usually when you read a book the main character has almost zero to no faults but in ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ each of the characters shown in the story had strengths and faults like real-life people do. You could be angry at a character for something but at the end of the day they are written to be just like us. Yes, the things Evelyn did was wrong but she was also doing those things to keep the people she loved safe, we can never know how we’d react in a situation like hers because a lot of us have are fortunate enough to have been in a situation like hers.

I came into this book having high expectations, having heard only wonderful things about it and having also seen some absolutely masterful edits on TikTok. Usually when I have high expectations of a book I finish the book feeling a bit disappointed but there was almost nothing that I didn’t enjoy about it. The ending left me completely devastated and unable to function for the next two days, not very good when I have to be mentally present for my day to day life but it was completely worth it.

Overall, I would definitely recommend it if you haven’t read and even if you have already read it you should probably read it again.

~ The Librarian

Sorry if it was a bit sloppy and late. But thank you for reading and if you notice any errors please let me know. I haven’t really been reading much since but I am slowly making my way through a book right now.

[thelibrarian25]

pov waiting in line for books

sirius: james, this is my brother, regulus- can you just stand with him for a sec while i say hi to moony? thanks, bye

regulus: ..i don't need a babysitter??

james: hi! nice to meet you, i'm-

regulus: didn't ask and also, don't care

james:

*later*

sirius: oh, james! how did you like regulus? he's a little shy sometimes so-

james: i'm in love with him

sirius:

sirius: what

[thelibrarian25]

When you see it, REBLOG IT.

Depression Hotline: 1-630-482-9696

Suicide Hotline: 1-800-784-8433

LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743

Eating Disorders Hotline: 1-847-831-3438

Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673

Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272

Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253

If you ever want to talk: My Tumblr ask is always open.

[thelibrarian25]

The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Review

Overall Review: ☆☆☆.5

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde is a gothic horror published in 1890. The novel follows themes of homosexuality, youth and corruption, which for the time was largely unseen and brought criticism towards the novel and the Oscar Wilde himself.

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ follows the young and beautiful a young Dorian Gray who is adored by all, especially by his friends like Basil and Henry. However, Dorian soon sells his soul for eternal beauty after being captivated by his own portrait and devastated by the fact unlike him the portrait will never age past the day it was completed. Through this and his actions later on in the novel he brings forth his own demise and must ultimately decide whether he wants to remain young and horrible forever or age and admit his wrong doings. ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ ultimately focuses on the destructive nature that scandalous London and how it destroys young gentleman with its tempting nature of crime and corruption.

While Oscar Wilde’s writing at times seemed to be a little dry in my opinion, his world building was beautifully complex from the characterisation of all the characters from the fast friends Dorian, Basil and Henry to the unfortunate Sibyl Vane. While I didn’t really like the character of Dorian Gray, I could feel some sort of empathy for him while still also despising him to a degree for the things he did to his friends and the people who loved him, so I guess that it’s only a testament to Oscar Wilde’s writing ability. While, I didn’t necessarily enjoy this book I did especially enjoy seeing Dorian Gray becoming more and more depraved as the novel progressed and his increasing fear as his portrait continued to change while he did not.

To conclude, while I didn’t really enjoy the book, I can see the appeal for why thousands of people before me have enjoyed it. So if you think you’d enjoy reading about corruption and eternal beauty then it’s certainly for you.

~The Librarian

Once again thank you for reading and if you notice any errors please let me know. I’ll have another book review out soon sometime this week. It’s ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I’m absolutely loving it so far.

[thelibrarian25]

Selected Works from Nasta Rojc

Nasta Rojc was born in Croatia in 1891 and left an enduring legacy as both a pioneer in the arts and a courageous figure in the Croatian resistance movement during World War II. Her life story is marked by resilience, creativity, and a commitment to women in the arts.

As a lesbian who lived in a time when LGBTQ+ rights were virtually nonexistent, she entered into a lavender marriage with fellow artist Branko Šenoa, which allowed her to attend art school and maintain her safety. As an artist, Rojc broke barriers by becoming the first female solo exhibitionist at the prestigious Salon Ullrich. Her art, characterized by bold colors and depictions of traditional Croatian folk wear, captivated audiences and earned her recognition within the Croatian art world. It is possibly because of her talent and uplifting of Croatian culture that she is remembered.

After Croatian independence, there has been a resurgence of interest in Rojc's works, with exhibitions and retrospectives celebrating her contributions to Croatian art and history. Her paintings serve as a testament to her talent and vision, while her legacy as a pioneer in both the arts and activism continues to inspire future generations. Nasta Rojc's life is a reminder of the power of art to transcend boundaries and its use as a tool to discuss and fight oppression.

You can find these works and more in our gallery!