don't let the forest in has made me. a little feral. a little bit desperate for someone to love the part of me that's vicious and sharp and a little obsessive and has teeth and claws and a hunger for blood. a little bit desperate for someone to read my dark cruel fairytales and my drawings that are both wrapped in rot and thorns. just. i'm a little irrevocably fucked up by that book.
Just bought the physical version of "dont let the forest in" and I think I finally get the ending. So, its pretty obvious the monsters in the forest are a metaphor for the forest becoming something "dangerous" after Dove's death, or at least something they should avoid, but the whole "burying their hearts" thing is about how, to make the forest less threatening in their own eyes, they would have to accept that Dove's life had ended right there, in the forest. Dove is their hearts, and by burying them, they would be letting go of the idea she was still with them. Except Andrew didn't let go. Only Thomas buried his heart, symbolizing how he let go of Dove as well, but Andrew kept his, because he never truly believed Dove was dead, choosing to live in denial and self-deception instead. Thats probably really obvious but i'd seen someone say it was a metaphor for a double suicide and that just..... Didn't sit right w me. So maybe it's me who isn't willing to bury their own heart but i prefer to believe theyre alive and being eaten up by grief instead
category: books with romances where they want to crawl into each other's skin
disclaimer: there will be quotes to showcase the writing/relationships and their insanity
hazelthorn by cg drews
literally just finished this, inspired this list. botanical horror with a little enemies to lovers (kinda)
quotes:
"God was stronger than me when he made Adam and didn’t fall in love with him.”
“He would core him like a pear and throw away the soft, rotted skin until he saw him as he really is: horrible and beautiful and real.”
“He is Icarus with wings of swan feathers, who chose to fly into the sun because it looked like a pretty boy.”
“There is nothing else to me but the hollow spaces I've carved out for you. I knew I'd cut myself to pieces on you if we ever had the chance to touch, but I wanted to. Let me ruin myself on you.”
icarus by k ancrum
absolutely love this one, about a teenager secretly visiting his neighbor and art thievery, not as intense as some of the others
quotes:
“I was yours before we even met and I’ll be yours until we die.”
“I was made for you; I was born for you, and you’re still standing before me acting like you’re not worthy.”
“Meeting him feels like learning about a part of myself that I haven’t been allowed to understand until now.”
“He wondered at the picture they made. Icarus dark and small, in the water, head tilted back in devout wonder. Helios, red like the sun, gold in the light, standing above him.”
these violent delights by Micah nemerever
oh my God. THE queer dark academia novel. super unhealthy and toxic but so good
quotes:
“He couldn’t stand to look at the truth, even now. All they were—all they had ever been—was a pair of sunflowers who each believed the other was the sun.”
“He remembered the way love had burned through him like a flame under glass, grasping outward, devouring what air it had left before it choked.”
“They wanted each other in the way of flesh wanting to knit itself together over a wound.”
a series of rooms by aj barlowe
not as intense, rlly sad and check tw
quote:
“For weeks, they had been climbing higher and higher, every accidental brush of skin, every smile, every laugh, every secret bolstering the wind beneath their wax wings until they had flown too close to the sun. The view from the ground was unforgiving.”
don't let the forest in by cg drews
body horror with oblivious artist and pining writer, best friends to lovers
quotes:
“You could cut me open and devour everything that I am. I would let you, I'd ask you to. But I have no idea what it means to you. What I mean to you.”
"They'd be forever together, rib against rib, fused in gore and bone and adoration.”
“He needed Thomas, needed their lungs sewn inside each other so he could remember how to breathe. He needed to take words from Thomas's mouth and put them in his own so he had something to say.”
i can’t get over how romantic season 8 of supernatural is. what do you mean it starts with dean thinking he is hallucinating cas, when in actuality it’s cas, in brief moments of respite of being brainwashed, just. visiting dean. wanting to be near him. and dean knowing in his deepest guts that something is wrong, but praying to cas regardless. changed his entire memory because he couldn’t cope with cas willingly not coming with him. and somewhere in the middle a mind controlled cas beats the hell out of dean and he breaks fully free after dean tells cas he needs him (he loves him). and it ends with them meeting at a bar where a cupid shoots their love arrow at two butch, manly men.
Imagine pulling the world’s most suicidal man out of hell and realizing you’ll never be happy until he has a chance at peace. So you stay by his side; fighting alongside him, dying for him, and raising a son with him. Ultimately sacrificing your life for his so he can finally be happy and live his life. But he isn’t, because you’re not there, and he dies.
You’re the angel of Thursday, the same day the righteous man leaves this world for good
“your friend is dead, and their corpse is inhabited by something only you can see for what it truly is" is already good horror. but "you begin to love the thing that wears their face"? the blasphemy of it. terror turning into desire. grief turning into longing. being enticed by what should repel you. it twists the knife deeper, because the horror is not based on deception anymore. the fear comes from recognizing the monster in its raw form and finding beauty there. you're not clinging to scraps of your friend, you're surrendering to something other, something wrong, and loving it. you're not holding onto a ghost of the past, it’s the monster itself that you choose
no dude it's so cool how attached you are to that character who is singled out and ostracized due to the external monstrousness that clashes with their internal spark of humanity. and i love how drawn you are to themes of horror and love, nature versus nurture, otherness, isolation, and the abject. i bet you have normal feelings about your own personhood
absolutely flabbergasted that i’ve seen NO ONE bring up the most important callback of the season
THE ENIGMA?? ALAN TURING???
oh my god i just know she made will feel so safe with that one line like. comparing will to a gay historial hero that he made a whole presentation about 🥺
that’s the subtle importance of queer community right there
Still processing and realizing at random times again that the main plotline of season 5 is that a gay man accepting himself gives him the power defeat evil.
That's the main plot.
We've never had this. We've just- we've just never had this.