Back at it Again

Tumblr on 2026...life comes at u fast

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Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett : Quick Review

3.5/5

Fun. cozy, nothing particularly wrong with it. A nice way to spend an afternoon. Nothing stood out from it good or bad for me.

I will say that the people comparing the book to (movie) howls moving castle are underselling that comparison. I would be shocked if this did not start its life as a fanfiction. Which isn't "bad" but could get distracting at times.

One nice divergence was the subplot of the MC being a widow. I thought that was a genuinely nice element seldom seen in fluffly romance/fantasy and it was tactfully done in a way I thought really elevated the character and book beyond "Howl Clone". 

I am glad I read Emily Wilde first from this author, because I might have dismissed her as too derivative for my tastes if I had started with this, and that would have been a shame. But I think she just writes what she likes and what she likes is vaguely autistic type-A adult women and their kinda prissy love interests and good for her on that. 

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The truth is that fields of Mistria 1.0 came out pretty half baked and idk if people are ready to talk about that.

Like, yes. It's $15 and queer or whatever but that doesnt mean it's criticism proof.

I had a lot of fun with it, and I would love to be proven wrong and have the creators fix all the shit I have complaints about! But I really think it's destiny is to fade out into "fad" status.

[mikeyfuckinway]

"cozy bookstore" "cozy cafe with a bookshelf" "omg imagine if there was a place you could just sit and read at" we have this its called the library. you guys want to go to the library. the two college libraries near me have cafes inside and they are open to the public. people need to go to the library

[daylight456]

@official-library-posts

[official-library-posts]

official library post

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Rejecting nihilistic infighting in the queer community by going home after a group event with your partner and having a laugh because yes, those people that have never ever introduced themselves with pronouns choose to do so "casually" at the one event with a trans guy, but appreciating and understanding that they did so out of genuine kindness and a yearning to make you feel welcome even if it was done clumsily.

[ginnie-darling]

I think all of Dinios Kol’s former lovers should unionize

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I know that "cats with hands" from a Trade of Blood are almost certainly more lemur-like. But this is the only image I can have of them

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A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett: Quick Review

This is the third book installment of the Ana and Din series and quite frankly, this is one of my new favorite series. I'm very far from objective on these books.

I think it was fantastic. Robert Jackson Bennett has (to me) clear skill when it comes to writing. His books are adult, but easy to absorb. They have a complicated and unique world that does not require pages of weird exposition to understand. His mystery writing is satisfying and tight. I have never felt blindsided by a villain, but it is not comically obvious. His characters are all nuanced, with flaws and strengths. There are portions where I laugh out loud and portions where I feel genuine dread or disgust.

Overall, a strong continuation to the series. This one really starts to delve into some of the complicated parts of the empires present and past, as well as Meat Politics and Creepy Trees. My beloved.

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YEs I know she's a creepy gray spindly long white haired woman with yellow eyes but I'll tell you what: Ana from Ana and Din will always live in my mind as the mean as fuck cheerleader coach from glee

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Tell me you cant hear her fucking saying this shit

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YEs I know she's a creepy gray spindly long white haired woman with yellow eyes but I'll tell you what: Ana from Ana and Din will always live in my mind as the mean as fuck cheerleader coach from glee

[orteil42]

unconvinced i'll ever find "the vitamin" that makes me all better so i can get real work done but i do expect they'll elucidate whatever my deal was post-mortem, after which what i did manage to accomplish with my life will be regarded on the level of Beethoven composing despite being deaf or Gordon Ramsay cooking despite being british

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Cant explain it properly and it's not actually a real life issue but the trend of people artificially inflating their review scores for books just for having queer characters and disregarding the actual quality of the books entirely is homophobia targeted at me. I am tired of being tricked by reviews and recommendations into reading terrible books just because two girls kissed.

[valtsv]

forget age gaps or differences in rank or whatever the most potently dangerous power dynamic in any relationship is "people like you more than me"

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This is WLW socialized feminine competition erasure.

True suffering is the emotional juxtaposition between wanting a hot girlfriend and still having feelings of inadequacy due to being less hot than your girlfriend.

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Finally got around to reading The Shadow over Innsmouth to add to my historical horror kick and I dont know what I was expecting but it wasn't that.

I feel crazy saying it, but if it was written by a modern author I would genuinely think it was a parody to make fun of racists and xenophobes.

I guess it's one of those things where sometimes reality feels farcical. Lord knows if someone wrote the cheetofucker into a book I'd say it was clearly an anti-fascist parody.

[isuggestforcemasc]

Nobody ever talks about body masculinization surgery I mean ok top surgery is great but body masculinization surgery is genuinely super baller and nobody talks about it. The results are great also. It gets talked about less than phalloplasty and that’s already a lot to say

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The transmasc experience is so widely ignored in queer pop culture spaces that there is a large swath of people who genuinely believe "HRT" means "estrogen" and only estrogen.

[liesmyth]

enough about books you love. tell me about a book you fucking hated

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Cackle by Rachel Harrison is a book where a woman leaves a bad relationship and then ends up in another different abusive relationship but this time it's an abusive friendship with another woman who's a witch. The friend frames the abuse and control as her "encouraging the MC to gain independence and confidence" in a very stereotypical "and "men trash, mean women good" girl power gatekeep gaslight girlboss way.

The entire time I powered through the annoying main character because I was certain that her character growth was going to be recognizing this new abuse for what it was and finding confidence in herself free of both relationships to start defining herself on her terms.

Nope. Book was 100% sincere. Not only that but loads of reviews rave about it, loving the "fuck you men" and then apparently turning off all further critical thinking.

If the actions of the MC's best friend were done by another man rather than a woman, nobody would be defending them. It is exclusively the infantilization of women's actions that lets the behavior slide.

Lest anyone think I'm just being a feminine book hater: I actually love Rachel Harrison's other female-friendship centric horror: The Return.

[thelibrarybat]

Controversial take maybe but “Weird Girl Lit” to me feels like one of those terms that starts out well-intentioned but rapidly veers into belittling territory. What do you call it when a woman writes something subversive and dark which unsettles the status quo and makes cis men uncomfortable…? Oh dw it's just the girlypops being weird again.

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As someone who enjoys using "___ -girl" verbiage because I find it fun and also it's sort of a healing embrace of femininity for me because being a girl was an insult or associated with negativity while I was growing up I actually completely agree.

To me "girl" when referring to adult women fall into the "reclamation" territory where I have zero issue when individuals use it for themselves/their interests, but it gains new and unfortunate context when it becomes popular enough that capitalism and pop culture notices and starts to use them for selling purposes and without the human connection.

Social media blurs those lines as well. Private people using potentially divisive language in conversation is not the same as choosing to post the same language online.

[hagiomoto]

People across all classes and ethnicities seem to lack a genuine sense of curiosity or interest in women's lived experiences. Few people want to know what it feels like to be a professional woman in any field. Even in fiction, there are very few opportunities for women to be whoever they want to be.

For example, hardly anyone wants to read about the daily life of a single mother raising a quirky child, while we can find plenty of manga and comics about single fathers, both gay and straight.

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I find this criticism interesting because there is certainly a real criticism of the lack of focus on women in some media ("historical" movies in particular imo) but there is absolutely a wealth of books about motherhood, single motherhood, and professional women. Is it equal to the focus on men? No, but it's far from missing.

So you absolutely can read "about the daily life of a single mother raising a quirky child" for either fiction or non-fiction.

This sounds more like a selection issue tbh