Just finished #Pressure and I’m overwhelmingly curious about how #meteorologists and meteorology cinematographers feel about it?
Or just fans of weather, I suppose. I thought it was really captivating and the costuming was top tier
Y'all seemed to really respond to the last post, so this episode’s dress is another Lacemade dress of questionable availability.
The "antique dollhouse dress" by Lacemade (the Little Red Riding Hood style was similar, also questionably available.)
in case anyone else was going mildly insane over this dress, I found it.
it’s the ‘Vintage Rose Lace Frill Dress’ by Lacemade, by way of shop Romantic Fairytale.
Currently very sold out but! Helped me finally relax.
I will say that confirming Az as a master strategist explains a lot about him as we meet him. He’s always tinkering with something. Imagine being the brilliant tide-turning general in a celestial war then having 6000 years of relative peace. He’s a working dog without a job. He’s a border collie looking at you like this
“A task? A silly little overly complicated dance? Endless meticulously organizing of bookshelves?”
if I had a nickel for middle aged queer love story cut short for external meta reasons that ended with the main couple in a cottage, retiring their extraordinary personas and being just regular guys I’d have two nickels, which… Yeah, weird, but it checks out
with the current state of the Gaiman of it all, this year I’ve decided to shelve my reread of The Sandman to try something new.
This year I’ll be doing my first ever read through of Constantine with a reading list I had curated by a friend.
I’m familiar with Constantine via Sandman, of course, but also the Keanu Reeves movie and bits of the CW version.
I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get around to old boy since I love chaotic bi representation, urban fantasy, grumpy wizards and crushing religious trauma. But it’s a lot! Like, a lot! So I’m super grateful to get the foundation in place then go wandering off once I’m familiarized.
Excited to get the ball rolling and hopefully get all kinds of emotionally compromised!
Yoshi being born in NY and the first thing he did was get himself a pair of Timbs is only secondary to him being voiced by the artist formerly known as Childish Gambino
This is my review for You're No Better, the Tumblr edition. I was lucky enough to be able to read an ARC copy of the book for work related reasons, but this is different from my GoodReads review in a few ways, taking a few more liberties.
No spoilers ahead, but some allusions, some out of context quotes, some mentions of the gnarly stuff in the book and real life murderers.
"When we smile, neither of us does it correctly."
The concept for You're No Better promised glaring excisions of the True Crime entertainment industry (call it what it is, tragedy porn) and that was a big draw for me. It doesn't shrink from how skeevy the online world revolving around True Crime and the lives (and deaths) of very real people are reduced to mundane fandom-style giggling about blorbos (And don't we know a thing about that here, on Tumblr?). For that purpose I believe that the social media post-stylized slices really felt uncomfortably realistic. Like, that's not a "Wouldn't it be wild if someone said this!" it's quite literally reading like a very real-existing comment somewhere right now with user names edited for anonymity. Right down to the stomach-roiling countdown. (You'll see.)
"…Clawed until her nails splintered and came off in pieces."
It also crosses paths with the equally unsettling reality of modern day stage parents commodifying the journey of parenthood for online gratification at the cost of the child's well being. I abhor influencers that peddle their children like products, so this hit a nail directly on the head for me. What I didn't feel comfortable diving into on GoodReads was that it specifically goes after the type of mommy blogger that really leans in to being a martyr figure for overcoming the impossible task of raising an autistic child (this is sarcasm, as Morgan's mother really makes it sound at times like having an autistic child is worse than a serial-killer-rapist-husband in jail.). Morgan's mother encapsulates that kind of Autism Speaks puzzle piece mother clinging hard to the classic 'We look so alike we could be sisters' desperation of being Instagram-perfect at all times that tells you how hard she peaked in her younger years. She is grating on the nerves in several ways that only mildly mothers can be. Which, yeah, also brace yourself for the way that being an Autism-Mom and murderer-wife makes her a brave mama warrior but the idea of Morgan transitioning is just TOO far for dear Bellamy.
"…Her best butch-bait outfit, a picture-perfect femme-in-waiting with her crop top and pink corduroy overalls."
I couldn't really go into this either on GoodReads, but when it comes to Alyssa, Morgan's childhood friend, I felt an echo of Manhunt by Gretchen Felker Martin in the palpable tension of friendship as it can only exist in that perfect pressure pot of high school, conservative surroundings and girlhood. Morgan is a trans boy, but his friend Alyssa is a trans girl that was embraced and allowed by her family which really created that atmosphere of saying 'I'm so happy for you' through gritted teeth. The echo was mostly that ugly feeling of jealousy towards the person you're also clinging to like a buoy for survival while you can't have the privilege of looking and being yourself the way they can.
I felt an immense satisfaction as usual when it comes to reading from the perspective of an autistic protagonist, specifically written by White. The sensory details, whether delicious (the paperclips) or grating (door lock clicking into place), felt satisfying and I found myself also getting stuck on the idea of dirt under my nails on many occasions.
I will say that I felt very sad when I realized I was reaching the end of the book. I didn't feel ready to let go of Morgan or his journey. Which I guess ultimately really plays into the closing feeling of his life no longer being plastered online. But also if I'm allowed to say, I will say, I wanted more. AJW doesn't hold back on violence or gore or darkness, but the climax felt a little bit like it was padded, if that makes sense? Like the point of impact wasn't as hard as it was building up to be. Which is perhaps a wild thing to say when multiple deaths still happen. (Spoiler? Not really. We put highly emotional people into a box and shook it up, death was bound to happen.)
"My husband and my child were monsters, here's how I survived."
Coming fresh off White's previous book, You Weren't Meant to Be Human, I will say that it definitely felt like being reeled back into young adult territory (I wont go into more comparisons because this is a reflection on You're No Better, not a side by side). BY NO MEANS DOES THIS MEAN IT'S A WALK IN THE PARK. But you can definitely feel where some parts perhaps had more room to poke around and how it had to scaled down just a bit to fit the rating (14 and up, according to Google). I would personally say that this is very much a book for a seasoned horror/thriller reader for the violence AND psychological themes, it's not a starter book at all (this hypothetical morbid precocious adolescent certainly exists as I deffo remember being 14 and unsupervised on the internet). I don't think it crosses solidly into Adult Reading territory, but I can imagine pearl-clutching at some of the themes that pop up like underage drinking (don't worry parents, the narrative goes out of its way to remind the reader that this is a Bad(TM) thing, and in this setting it is not presented as a Fun thing to do but actually rather miserable in context), intimate scenes (nothing super explicit)(I feel comfortable saying FUCK on Tumblr, so yes, there is one mild scene of glossed-over adolescent fuckery, fully consenting, charmingly awkward), and of course the murder(s)(Varying detail, lots of gruesome little moments).
"Felicity says, "I would've killed myself if I were you." I choke on my water. "What the fuck?"
It also relies (not relies, actually, more like leans on a familiarity) on some baseline knowledge of things like True Crime podcasts/documentaries/exploitation, the Saw movie series, and the hardest part for me was already being familiar with the similarities between Morgan's father Graham Nathanial Slaughter and the real life case of David Parker Ray, who I find so revolting that I wasn't honestly sure if I'd be able to stomach reading continuously (Have to mention this because although we are told from the get-go this is about a child and their serial killer father, the specific kind is not in the general summary). But I did, because the worst part is that intentionally or not (probably intentionally because Andrew Joseph White knows ball when it comes to writing intrusive thoughts/feelings) the character of Graham Nathanial Slaughter is strangely fascinating in that hypnotizing-snake-stare way and I am still not totally sure how they managed to dilute that into writing. But yeah, it was awful to feel myself sinking into the same morbid fascination that True Crime exploitation mills thrive off of.
"So I've just got to keep raw-dogging existence, I guess."
This read is definitely YA, but not the shallow end, and I would definitely say it earns its place in the Andrew Joseph White pantheon. I can't give you a full placement rating on the AJW scale because I haven't read Compound Fracture yet, but I'll say: Gory and Compulsive-inducing as The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Sensory as Hell Followed With Us, and as Intrusive-thought-leaning as You Weren't Meant To Be Human, though scaled down for the YA rating I imagine.
Don't worry, I'll have my no context meme round-up coming soon.
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
annaxmalina
romaincrisis