thought from the hyper fixation queen

30. Reader. K-pop Stan. Swiftie. Non-toxic Star Wars Fan. Crafter. Gamer. I like to talk about the books I read. Here for good vibes.

[sammystruggles]

To all the Stay that got tickets to see Stray Kids today: congrats! I hope you have so much fun!

But also fuck you I hate you (no I don’t) IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME (they aren’t coming close enough to me)

[sammystruggles]

Reading banned books is my new life goal.

[sammystruggles]

I just want to read books and talk about them all day but I'm forced to work a full time job. The definition of hell.

[booksinmythorax]

I'm already seeing advice from people in the US to purchase queer books and other banned or "controversial" books on paper as a way to combat the wave of government censorship that is coming. While this is a good idea (it is! absolutely!), it's not accessible to everyone, and truly, we're not going to be able to consumerism our way out of this one.

If you can buy the books, do. Whether you can buy the books or not, borrow them from your library.

Borrow the paper versions. Borrow the ebook or audiobook versions. Request the titles you want that your library doesn't have. The more a title circulates or is requested, the better librarians are going to be able to defend keeping it if and when it's ever challenged.

Use libraries like @queerliblib too. The more members they have, the better they'll be able to fundraise.

Your community resources depend on you using them. Borrow the books before they go away.

InB4: Piracy is not the solution here. We're trying to keep community resources available, not make sure individual people can read individual books. Different problems.

The books are still available. Borrowing them from your library and returning them on time and in good condition will help keep them that way.

[perpetuallyexhaustedlibrarian]

This this this!

Libraries and librarians are going to be under attack in the coming years.

Please help us by showing the people in charge that these materials are important in the only way they really understand - the number of checkouts.

We need your help now more than ever.

[thewonderfulwizardofwords]

For some additional context, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the primary funding mechanism for libraries on a national level. It distributes grants to State Libraries (every state has one, though it may not be called exactly that) who then distribute that money further to individual libraries in their states. It's a federal entity that has to be reauthorized every year or that huge chunk of funding goes away, and every year of the first Trump administration the fight for reauthorization was a white-knuckle event. We got it through by the skin of our teeth each year, but it was harrowing.

Libraries are mentioned on page one of Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership (the big book of horrible policy plans). Choosing not to reauthorize the IMLS will be an easy way for the incoming administration to gut library services nationwide, especially in small communities that don't have a thriving donor base to fill those budget gaps. They'll be able to stop the "porn peddlers" and "groomers" at the cost of vital services to those communities.

One of the best tools we have to try and avoid that outcome is to prove, definitively, that libraries matter by presenting robust use statistics. Checking out books, using library spaces, attending library programs, all of that gets captured and reported to the IMLS each year. They're imperfect measures of the value the library provides to the community, but they're what we have.

At the local level it's going to be just as, if not more important to educate the community about what the library does. Your local governing authorities aren't going to be persuaded by the librarian alone, but they can be persuaded by vocal community support. That will also inoculate your community against "grassroots" attempts to shut the library down, like almost happened in Dayton, Washington in 2023.

To bring it back around to OP's original point, the imperfect nature of the stats gathered can work in libraries' favor on both fronts. It might actually be detrimental to present record-breaking circulation numbers for queer titles to the incoming administration, but the IMLS doesn't collect that level of detail. Any book you check out adds to the bottom line total that gets reported, queer or not. At the local level librarians have more control over the stories they tell with their data. If you're in a progressive community, they can be open with those more granular numbers as a way to underscore their importance as a resource to queer community. If you're in a conservative community they can lean on the bigger picture to show the impact on everyone, while knowing internally what materials are actually circulating and how best to curate the collection to serve their patrons.

[laziestgirlintown]

In times of fascism support libraries until the bitter end. Support your library, check out books, attend events. The library will be one of the last defences.

[todaysbird]

Never forget that acceptance of far-right ideals (ie tradwives, terfs, casual racism) in liberal spaces is a huge part of why today’s radicalization is so widespread and unquestioned

[todaysbird]

It’s all or nothing. If you are against trans people, you are not fighting for progress. If you are against people of a different race than you, you are not fighting for progress. If you are against anyone for a factor of their being they cannot control, you are not fighting for progress despite what you might tell yourself

[sammystruggles]

“There is a video on the internet of me dying and I can’t stop watching it.”

The Depths by Nicole Lesperance 4/5 stars

Trigger warnings: Death/thoughts of death, drowning, child death, lots of bugs. 

This book sucked me in from the very first line.  “There is a video on the internet of me dying and I can’t stop watching it.” Like girl WHAT??

After literally dying and having the video posted on the internet for all to see, Addie is dragged on her mom and step dad’s honeymoon as they are worried about leaving her alone. On Eulalie Island, she meets two boys, Billy and Shawn, and becomes fast friends with both. but the island is weird. The birds are calling her name, she starts sleepwalking, and she finds a little girl who wants to play hide and seek but is… dead… 

The atmosphere of this book was so immersive. The island was so creepy with how things changed and reacted to Addie. When the birds started making sounds that were clearly Addie’s name, that should have been the sign for her to LEAVE but alas, for the plot we stuck around.

I really liked Addie and Billy's friendship and how they both loved Violet and wanted to help her reunite with her sister. SPEAKING OF THOSE TWO, the story of Violet and Lenora was heartbreaking from the way they died to the way they were trapped on the island.

I enjoyed this book a lot and definitely recommend it!

[sammystruggles]

Obsessed with the physical copies of Under the Oak Tree by Suji Kim. I read some of it on Manta but fell off for some life reasons and I'm SO excited to get back into both the manhwa and novel versions!

[runawaymarbles]

Reading Mockingjay as an adult is extra devastating because. Of course the plucky teenager and her ragtag friends aren't going to sneak into a government building to kill the president with a bow and arrow. That's absolutely ridiculous. It's the kind of thing that's only possible in the kind of propaganda that Coin developed. But she's so good at it that in some ways she tricks the reader into thinking that's the kind of story this is, too--even after 3 books reminding us that pretty much everything that Katniss does the second she volunteers is manipulated by adults pulling strings to make propaganda in some form or another.

[runawaymarbles]

I'm sorry I keep thinking about this. Madge gave her the pin. Haymitch told her and Peeta to act like friends. Peeta and Haymitch worked out the star-crossed lovers angle. Rue decided she trusted Katniss (because of the pin Katniss didn't choose) and saved her from the tracker jackers. Snow made her get engaged to Peeta. Cinna made her the mockingjay dress, and the mockingjay suit. Haymitch made Finnick&Co her allies. The rebels broke her out of the arena. She didn't know most of this was even happening!! Makes me insane.

I feel like a case could be made that the only real choice she made without someone's life immediately under threat was to cover Rue in flowers. And maybe that's the only one that mattered.

[cynicalclassicist]

Yes. The Hunger Games is very much around things being staged and propaganda on both sides. Katniss from the moment that she volunteers has to play to a crowd.

[ekjohnston]

Katniss makes 2 choices for herself after Volunteering: the flowers and the final shot. After that she can make more choices, but she wasn't thinking that way when she released the string.

[sammystruggles]

A Yakuza member discovers K-pop

The Yakuza's Bias 5/5 stars

If you’re a K-pop fan and a manga lover, you NEED to read The Yakuza’s Bias. It’s ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me.

Ken Kanashiro is dragged to a K-pop concert by the bosses daughter and immediately falls in love with the entire concept of K-pop. He's so dedicated to his bias, Jun, that other members of the clan mistake his conversations for some serious clan business.

I scream laugh so many times. Watching a top lieutenant of a Yakuza clan actually sob over their bias in a K-pop group was absolutely something I needed in my life. To me, it shows how slippery of a slope K-pop is. Once you start learning the names of a group, its OVER. I devoured both volumes last night and I’m so obsessed.

[sammystruggles]

Sapphic, K-pop, Thriller? Sign me UP.

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng 3.5/5 stars

I will consume any K-pop inspired book without question and enjoy all of its flaws and wonderful moments. This was such an interesting story and it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

Sunny is very traumatized after losing one of her best friends and fellow member of their K-pop group, to an apparent suicide. She has been questioning how true that is ever since it happened. Something was off about the entire situation and she is determined to figure out what really happened. Candie, the third member of her group and now an estranged friend, has a secret that she is clearly not telling Sunny. After joining the same workshop, they are forced to deal with their past and maybe reconcile their relationship.

This book was pretty much what I expected it to be, but with less K-pop. I heard about this book on Tiktok and was sold by the K-pop storyline but it definitely wasn’t the main plot (imo) and that is totally okay. I like that it was just a setting and not the main focus. This book gives the same vibes as I Feed Her To The Beast And the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea. Both are about ambitious young women who will do what it takes to get to the top and deal with controlling gods who want more. In my opinion, there were some pacing issues, like the beginning was pretty slow but then ending was so fast that I found myself going back a few times to make sure I caught everything. But overall I enjoyed the book!

[sammystruggles]

Enemies to Lovers. One of my fave tropes.

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen 4 / 5 stars

Were the characters absolutely insufferable? Yes. 100%.

Did I eat it up anyway? Yes. 100%.

Violet is a seer to the kingdom that Cyrus is set to be king of one day. They have a very complicated relationship and are at each others throats every time they talk. The thing is, Cyrus was supposed to die when they were kids but Violet had a vision and saved him. Now the spirits are telling her that he needs to die and if that doesn't happen, she will go in his place. One or the other. With the feelings she thought were hatred changing into something else entirely, she has to decide if she can take control before its too late.

Cyrus and Violet hating each other but not being sure how they feel throughout the entire book was maddening and had me beating on the metaphorical glass screaming at them to just kiss. They were so flawed and so blind to what they thought they wanted/needed to be that they never accepted their feelings until the simmer turned into a boil and they had no idea how to handle their feelings. I'm so interested in where the series will go.

Violet was an EXTREMELY flawed character who dealt with the struggles of being too confident but questioning what she wanted when it came to love. She was unlikeable, but it was nice to see her confidence sway like a normal person would. She was playing her part to keep her position in the kingdom and that weighed on her at times.

This OwlCrate Exclusive is GORGEOUS. I'm so happy I snatched this up when the Emporium went on clearance.

TLDR, definitely not for everyone but I enjoyed it a lot.

[spectre-six]

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Star Wars: Rebels - 1.05 Rise of the Old Masters (2014)

[pruzan]

diagnosed with crush on a dark haired man disease

[nowritingonthewall]

[incorrectanything]

Jake: Okay, so get this. Jake: You make ten meals, you're not a cook. You make twenty paintings, you're not an artist. Jake: But you kill oNe pErsON-

[calkestis]

The Planets from ANDOR (Season 1)

[nyx-beloved]

marc spector I would die for you

[feuntes]

The Amity Affliction - Chasing Ghosts