yeah

28 | Engineer | Book Blog

[omghotmemes]

Terry understands if you feel sad

[theinternetarchive]

pictured in 'the art of the american snapshot.'

[papenathys]

Love how people wouldn't give speculative / literary fiction by authors of color a fair chance AT ALL but are willing to write thesis statements justifying the poor characterisation, navel gazey plots and banal commentary of some of the worst bestsellers by white authors in existence. Their casual racism, shoddy writing and overall shit doo doo works are all justified!!! Addie LaRue is an experiment of creativity!!!! If We Were Villains was MEANT to have flat one-dimensional characters!!! Of course Evelyn Hugo has racist microaggressions, it's morally grey and flawed and realistic!!! Sally Rooney's works are about the mundane complexities of young working class people, it's supposed to be boring and frustrating!!

But. Caleb Azumah Nelson using stream of consciousness prose in Open Water is pretentious. Akwaeke Emezi writing consensual age gap relationships and exploring grief through taboo sex is problematic. Amal El-Mohtar did not have "a real point" writing Honey Month, she was just showing off her skills. Sayaka Murata's works are pointless and meandering. Why did Jade Song use purple prose for Chlorine. Why was Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers so manic pixie dream girly.

This is how you guys sound btw. It feels like a problem that starts with R and ends with "acism" at this point. You are willing to give endless, boundless approval and make up justifications for anything your fave fandom white authors do. But you won't give a single chance to authors of color. Ever.

[basicallyicarus]

And by "bad" here I mean "I was severely depressed last year and only recently got on medication to help manage that, my anxiety, AND my OCD...this is gonna be bad for me" lolol

[thebookwormdaydreamer]

Calling it classist not to like popular and not well-written books is annoying as fuck considering the cost of new books. I monitor kindle sales and have an everand subscription (which still limits the amount I read) if I want to read contemporary. Kindle Unlimited is also way more expensive than Everand for imo, less quality. No, I cannot simply go to the library either due to the lack of them in my country. Seeing this discourse again and again over the years really grinds my gears.

I literally read classics in the public domain when I don’t have money to buy books. Getting an ereader saved me so much money because there is plenty of good books in the public domain. Many of them aren’t that difficult to read either. Plus, if you’re not from the us which has draconian copyright terms, many modern classics are in the public domain like Animal Farm, 1984 (or if you’re in a country with life+50 copyright The Bell Jar or The Haunting of Hill House).

Reading quality books literally has never been easier, cheaper, or more accessible. You can read whatever you like but kindly do not frame reading whatever booktok book you like as an accessibility or class thing.

[throwawaydracula]

Some Random Vampire Reading

While y'all are waiting on the next updates for Dracula, I thought I might suggest a few short vampire stories. OK, I'll be honest, these are Edwardian, not Victorian. Latest is from 1912, earliest is from 1903. They're still excellent examples of Gothic vampire fiction, and I figured those feeling deprived might read one a day, starting today, the 27th, and ending on the 29th. In order of publication: Luella Miller, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. This is one of my favorite vampire stories of all time. Not a drop of blood is actually drunk; the method is much more sinister. Set in rural New England and a far cry from the polished style of our diarist pals in the UK, the vampire in question is also about as far from the Count as you can get-- but she's no less deadly, and the narrative is no less compelling.

For the Blood is the Life, by F. Marion Crawford. Set in southern Italy, this one leans hard into the erotic aspect of vampirism, although it's not sexually explicit. Also plays with the folkloric detail that becoming a vampire could be the result of suffering injustice, which to me adds an extra layer of horror. Do note, there is a single use of what some might consider an anti-Romani slur, and the general portrayal of southern Italians isn't what you'd call flattering.

The Room in the Tower, by E. F. Benson. Benson is one of those writers who can come very close to writing the way a nightmare feels. Nightmares are, in fact, the better part of the story-- recurrent bad dreams that our protagonist, another genteel Englishman, has never been able to escape. The screw turns slowly in this story, and we feel all of it along with the narrator.

Just put this together on a whim, and I chose the stories at random. Hope they entertain, and might scratch that itch for vampiric content.

[theinternetarchive]

creative illustraion, andrew loomis, 2012.

[basicallyicarus]

In Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia was like "does anyone wanna see two bisexual disasters fight off magical Nazis" and then didn't wait for an answer

[basicallyicarus]

Best part of the new year? Thinking about all the new books I get to read

[sarielsnowings]

🦋 The Lepidopterist 🦋

[toomuchhorrorfiction]

Born June 6, 1923—eternally prolific V.C. Andrews (d. 1986)

[vulpinae-deactivated20241020]

“I have been in love with no one, and never shall,” she whispered, “unless it should be with you.” - Carmilla, 1872

[garlandedspirits]

Cover art for the paperback edition of Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" - by William Teason

[themakeupbrush]

Paolo Sebastian “The Nutcracker”    

[basicallyicarus]

People be like: I like Gothic fiction, but if any characters are meaner and ruder than Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice I WILL be crying and throwing up

[memeuplift]

[leonardcohenofficial]