going for blood today, are we, Violence?

reader | writer | gamer | 22 bookish blog - mainly FW @askthequadrant | minors dni read my ao3! follow my bluesky! Current Read: When the Moon Hatched 🌕

[fictionalrelapse]

lowkey forgor about tumblr

i have read 12 books this year though :3

how is everyone else? are my moots alive?

[fictionalrelapse]

I need to put y’all on an ongoing book series.

Lion of Zarall by Eddy Rose

In a world where dragons once soared alongside gods and fiends lurked in the shadows, Lion of Zarall is the most feared gladiator in history. Branded, collared, and forced to kill for the entertainment of nobles, he’s known only as property — a “purebred” slave without a soul, without rights, without hope.

But when everything changes in a single night of dark magic and political betrayal, Lion finds himself cast into a world that wants him dead. His past fame is now a curse, his name an insult to the new order.

Hunted by the king and ailed by a deadly injury, he must survive in the harsh North where his very existence is a sin — and confront the invisible chains that bind him. But if his obedience shatters, he’ll face a fate far worse than death.

What if a living weapon broke loose?

What if a man who knew no mercy held the power to destroy the world?

Lion of Zarall is a low-magic grimdark fantasy that drags you deep into its unforgiving world. Perfect for fans of Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie.

my disorganized insane thoughts post book 2 because i haven’t had time to write a proper review:

MY YAOI AND MY HETERO IS DOOMED, MY STEAK IS DRY, MY LOBSTER IS UNSEASONED

when i tell you guys THIS IS MY TOP BOOK SERIES. EVER. MY GOD. it’s fucking brutal. it’s fucking beautiful. it’s everything i’ve ever wanted and everything i want to hide from.

i won lion of zarall in a giveaway and started reading it bc i didn’t have any other books. i’m so fucking glad i found it. the themes explored in this book were so beautifully gutwrenching and fulfilling in a way no other book series has made me feel. eddy rose is not afraid of confronting really harrowing themes and making you confront your own humanity in the process. she is a psychologist by day and my GOD does it show in this series.

i did not go in expecting to get so attached to a grown ass male character who is basically getting tortured for the entire series. but lion represents hope, resilience, and the human spirit in ways that no other main character has ever done for me before. in a way that i’ve needed in the current state of the world.

you stay with lion through thick and thin, unraveling what happened to him throughout book one by jumping back and forth from past to present, until the true weight of what humanity has done to him comes crashing down by the end of the book. you watch him break down and build back up over and fucking over in a way that should seem impossible for any human to endure, but is somehow so relatable.

i won’t make an extensive comment on book 2, beast of zarall, because you just have to experience it. but the entire series thus far has been hit after hit after hit.

we got:

extensive worldbuilding

politics and stakes that actually make sense and are grounded in reality

real world parallels and allegories that feel similar to both our history and our present

a psychological journey you undergo with the main character in real time (i am so fucking emotionally attached to our mmc y’all)

doomed romance as a subplot MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES AhHHHHHH

dark themes and stakes (please read the TWs)

and of COURSE we have magic!!! and dystopia!! and rebellion!!! the best!!!

this series is genuinely up there with the hunger games and attack on titan for me in terms of commentary on politics and humanity through a fictional and sometimes fantastical lens. PLEASE read it if you can handle the dark themes and trigger warnings. it will change your life.

reblog if you feel like doing so; this book needs to find its audience here!!!

[wallsofparadis]

sometimes I scroll back on my blog and stumble upon the one month where I read onyx storm and went through psychosis

[fictionalrelapse]

no LITERALLY i still don’t think i’ve recovered

[fictionalrelapse]

questioning why i reblogged this bc i STILL have not read onyx storm i just looked up the spoilers bc i literally don’t think i can handle actually reading it until we have book 4 more on the horizon

[fictionalrelapse]

It Is Spring

(almost)

and you know what that means

i am getting the itch to escape into books and fanfic again

(grad school is kicking my ass rn ngl)

ALL MY MUTUALS/FOLLOWERS: how we doing? i missed everyone!! did anyone forget i existed 😭

[fictionalrelapse]

coming back on tumblr after a few months hiatus and remembering the dumpsterfire i left my dashboard in after the byler queerbait debacle of dec 2025

[fictionalrelapse]

i actually love the idea of ridoc being such a hoe that he’s bugging the shit out of vi and xaden with jokes about being their third, much to xaden’s chagrin, but behind the jokes he’s actually being so serious.

he wants to be in riorgail’s bed soooo bad.

[nicenotkind]

“The other” - when the moon hatched

Spoilers ahead

I saw people discussing on other plataforms about who is the other and to me is obviously Slátra, Elluin/Raeve former moonplume dragon.

Here’s my theory on how: I believe Slátra took Elluin with her to the sky and breathed live inside her for one century. She also transferred her conscious to Elluin during the process (if it was intended or not, it is not clear). When the process was over, Slátra fell from the sky and Raeve’s life begun. Sadly, she was captured by Arkyn (apparently an older half brother of the Vaegors) and tortured with flames, latter being called Firelark and forced to fight for her own life.

Slátra still tries to protect Elluin/Raeve how she cans, keeping difficult memories concealed under the “ice lake” with her or taking over Elluin/Raeve’s body to fight for things important to her. She also protects Elluin/ Raeve from her own abilities with fire/Ignos, because she can’t tolerate the flames after the years of torture.

Does it make sense?

[fictionalrelapse]

This makes a LOT of sense.

[pannamara]

“𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝑹𝒂𝒆𝒗𝒆 …” — When the Moon Hatched, Sarah A. Parker

[fictionalrelapse]

going on r/StrangerThings is crazy because of the stark contrast in reception to the final episodes of ST

anyone who posts anything about byler gets downvoted and told that they’re seeing what they want to see and that there was never any indication of byler becoming canon and the bi erasure when they say that mike can’t be gay because he was dating el???

it also appears that all bylers have been lumped into one category titled “Crazy”

and we are apparently fetishizing gay people by wishing that will at the very least didn’t end up in just a fucking gay bar ??

[apurplesloth]

byler will always be endgame to me idc

[changemyprophecy]

Will: What matters is that you're still here, and you think we can still be friends.

Mike: Friends? No thanks.

Mike: . . .

Mike: Best friends.

This is queerbait. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

[90sclubbingbyler]

byler was infact queerbait and if you disagree, you're wrong.

queerbait is when the creators deliberately frame same-gender relationships using romantic or queer-coded tropes to attract queer audiences, but never follow through with it. so basically byler.

if byler didn't have a chance of being endgame, they would've made a statement years ago. they know their fanbase and they know majority of it is filled with bylers. and before u say, "if they made a statement it would've spoiled it." exactly. if it would've spoiled the show, that means there was a VERY CLEAR chance of it happening.

byler was 100% queerbait, it wasn't just us getting our hopes up.

not to mention, they dragged out will's love for mike for 5 seasons straight and then watered it down to a silly hallway crush only a couple days later of him asking robin how she knew vickie wanted to date.

netflix has used byler as promotion MULTIPLE TIMES! such as using the crazy together scene in a slideshow of "101 ways to say i love you without saying it", using mike and will for 'bf material' slideshows, and calling el a thirdwheel and saying byler was the real couple? that IS queerbait. it's relationship framing and they framed byler romantically.

[bi-disaster-kit-herondale]

the fact that they could’ve showed future Will in an apartment making art or having a career as an illustrator, and then a guy walks in and leans over his shoulder and they kiss. but no. half-assed ending in a gay bar. and mike was imagining it too, where is my creative out-of-the-box storyteller, MY mike would always picture Will as an artist and see that side of him.

[phosphorusab]

“Byler wasn’t queerbait” mfs when I pull up receipts

[justlikeheavenbyers]

Let me get this straight, you don’t wanna make the queer ship canon because “crushes don’t last and we don’t want our younger audience to think they need that”, but then made Mike cry harder for a relationship (important but relationship nonetheless), harder than he cried for his parents being in the hospital or his little sister being missing.

And then to make it seem like Mileven was this dreamy relationship that was always the heart of the show as if one of the actors part of the relationship described their relationship as “It’s like a fucking leach you can’t get off” 💀

Queerbaited till the end and propped up a straight relationship by the pain and suffering of one of your only queer main characters.

Please do not give any spin offs by the duffer brothers or other projects they will make any attention because this is actually sick

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

yes, I’d love for my ship to be canon too, but I feel like fandom culture today focuses too much on “my ship must be canon or else I will be a bitch and harass people about it” energy that we’ve lost the main point of shipping two fictional characters together, why we do it in the first place, which is that it’s fun. it brings us comfort and joy. and even if the ship isn’t canon, we have fan contents, so many amazing fan art and fanfics. you can create whatever you want about them. make them kiss. make them yearn for each other. make them confess their love under the rain.

“but it’s not canon” THEY ARE ALREADY FICTION. canon or not. they are a fragment of imagination forged by their canon creators, meaning YOU can create your own art about them too.

canon = art made by canon creators, they created it, it’s out there, it exists, it’s valid.

fan contents = art made by you, you created it, it’s out there, it exists, it’s just as valid.

[fictionalrelapse]

going into st5 finale with this mindset

[dnlrrr]

A golden ticket for every member of my fav community