May 8, 2020
Are you thinking ace cake cuz I'm thinking ace cake....
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Are you thinking ace cake cuz I'm thinking ace cake....
Olivia Gray will not Fade Away by Ciera Burch
What if feeling invisible at school… made you actually disappear?
Pre-Reading Thoughts
The premise hooked me immediately — social invisibility turned literal is SUCH a perfect metaphor for early teenhood. I was expecting awkwardness, feelings, maybe some magical realism shenanigans, and a lot of secondhand “oh no, not middle school” empathy.
Post-Reading
As I thought…
It absolutely nails that seventh-grade emotional chaos where everyone suddenly speaks Romance™ and you’re standing there like you missed a memo.
The friend dynamics feel painfully real — the drifting, the new crush obsessions, the way your people become strangers overnight.
Olivia’s internal voice is spot-on: observant, dry, a little defensive, very “I swear I’m fine actually” (she is not fine).
The asexual rep is handled with a lot of care and gentleness. It feels exploratory and uncertain in a very authentic way, not neat or preachy.
It surprised me by…
How hard the invisibility metaphor hits. Flickering out whenever romance comes up? That’s SUCH a sharp, clever device. It’s funny and then suddenly it’s devastating.
How emotionally raw it gets. This isn’t just “cute magical quirk” — it’s loneliness, isolation, that gut-punch feeling of everyone else got the handbook and you didn’t.
Not fully explaining the magic. Which… mildly annoyed me brain-wise, but emotionally? It kind of works. Middle school doesn’t explain itself either. Things just happen to you and you deal.
🎵 Music Pairing
Featured Song: “Liability” – Lorde Tender, isolated, very “I’m too much / not enough / both at once.”
Vibe Album: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? – Billie Eilish Whispery, anxious, bedroom-dark, big feelings in small spaces.
Artist Recommendation: Girl in Red – soft, messy, diary-entry honesty.
Vibe Check
Colour Palette: locker grey, notebook blue, highlighter yellow, disappearing pale
Soundtrack: hallway chatter, phone notifications, the fluorescent buzz of the library
Season: early autumn semester
Mood: lonely but hopeful, awkward, tender
Scent: pencil shavings + library books + cafeteria pizza
Tarot Pull
The Hermit immediately jumped out. This is such an inward, self-discovery story — stepping back, figuring yourself out while the world rushes past. Not isolation as punishment, but as reflection. Quiet truth-seeking.
For fans of
El Deafo
Rick
Eighth Grade (same “please let me evaporate” social anxiety realism)
Last part of my little series of posts about my characters' IG pages! 📸 Swipe to see what Kim and Alec's pages look like in September 2022, so a few months after the end of their book, "When we were out of the ordinary." Let's be honest, judging by his IG profile you wouldn't tell that Kim is the grumpy one, would you? 🤣 #newadultfiction #newadultromance #acebooks #acecharacters #asexualrep #pansexualbooks #pansexualrep #characterprofile #lgbtreads #lgbtbooks #indiereads #readqueer #queerbookstagram #queerbookstagrammer #queerbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CiVWL6HrzS3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
