#briony larkin

[nocheinvernal]

Nothing in my story will absolve me of guilt. It will only prove what i've already told you, which is that i'm wicked. And i'm telling you, i ought to be hanged.

Franny Billingsley, Chime.

[melly-fox]

Shoutout to Franny Billingsley for perfectly capturing a feeling I'm sure a lot of women have experienced:

The dining room was absolutely littered with men... Men -- their great boots clogging up the floor, their greedy lungs sucking up the air, their stubbly faces filling up the looking glass.

Men, I don't like them a bit.

-Briony Larkin, Chime

[witchesarewitchesdo]

I remember the exact day I found Chime. I had been at a festival because of my violin class, and I had wandered off to a booth that had stacks of books all around. There was a lady there who explained that these were all old library books that- for one reason or another- had been given away. I remember sitting there for at least an hour, carefully searching through those stacks for something good. I walked away that day with four books.

A Kiss In Time by Alex Flinn

The Lost Sun by Tessa Graton

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillilier

And Chime, by Franny Billingsley.

I'm sure I considered more books than that, but this happened years ago. I remember however, that I started with A Kiss In Time, but Chime quickly became my favorite. If you had asked me then, I probably would have told you that I loved the fantasy. It read like a fairy tale. I loved it then, and I love it now.

However, asking me now? I love it because of the way it's written. Metaphor upon metaphor, and the descriptions were beautiful. I felt each word in my soul. The feeling in this book, it's raw. You can feel it as if Briony is right there, whispering her story into your ears. This is the book that made me want to write.

I wanted to write like this, have these mixed-metaphor characters and paint pictures with words. I can thank Chime for being my tutor, and I wouldn't trade this book for any in the world.

[traitorthot]

There are several kinds of silence. There's the silence of being alone, which I like well enough. Then there's the silence of one's father. The silence when you have nothing to say and he has nothing to say.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

[traitorthot]

Have you become a doctor, Father? How do you know it won't hurt? Or did you hear it from God? You don't talk to anyone else.

Chime by Franny Billingsley

[traitorthot]

"In any event where does she expect me to begin? The story of a wicked girl has no true beginning. I'd have to begin with the day I was born. If Eldric were to tell the story, he'd likely begin with himself, on the day he arrived in the Swampsea. That's where proper stories begin, don't they, when the handsome strange arrives and everything goes wrong? But this isn't a proper story, and I'm telling you, I ought to be hanged."

Chime by Franny Billingsley

[agentandeditorwishlist]

Bridget Smith

I love "unlikable"-yet-lovable heroines. Think Emma Woodhouse or Briony Larkin. (@elmify also nailed this, FYI.) 

@bredalot

[marquesses]

Chime Fancast | Holliday Grainger as Briony Larkin

Let’s hope she’s like the others, who look only at the surface. Let’s hope she’d never think that a girl with black-velvet eyes and cut-glass cheekbones could be a witch.