#glitterland

[feywildfancypants]

Running Notes from Glitterland by Alexis Hall (from someone with bipolar)

Well that hit a little too close to home. So did that. Ah shit.

Cries, feeling seen

Cries, mad

Cries happy

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

📖 BOOK SCAVENGER HUNT 📖

QOTD: What’s something you’re reading, listening to, watching and/or playing right now?

[instagram]

📖 A name:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

📖 A Number:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

📖 A setting:

After the Forest by Kell Woods

📖 An animal:

The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles

📖 A colour:

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

📖 One word:

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

[ombwarrior47]

Title: Glitterland Author: Alexis Hall Series: Spires #1 Number of Pages: 326 Genre:  LGBTQ+ Romance Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca Date of Original Publication: January 17, 2023 ISBN:  978-1728265285

I recently read Boyfriend Material and Husband Material by Alexis Hall. Was a fan of Boyfriend Material but not Husband Material and was hesitant to read another series by him. Glitterland seemed to be the most hyped by fans of him and seems to be one of his first works so I decided to give the Spires series a chance.

There are a lot of similarities between the London’s Calling series and the Spire series. It seems that Hall likes to write characters who are just naturally unlikeable. In this book Ash is a depressive writer who rarely makes it out of bed, until he meets Darian Taylor, a flashy model who is full of positivity. Naturally just like Lucien/Oliver in London’s calling, Ash is a very negative person and tends to have a mean nature.

The overall storyline was okay. The supporting characters weren’t well rounded so I expected an appearance in Waiting for the Flood but it doesn’t seem like Hall continued with the same characters. It would be interesting to see if he went back to adding them, specifically Neil / Max and what happens to them.

I would recommend it if you are looking for an LGBT romance.

★★★★

~

Up Next:  

-Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall (Spires #2)

-The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

-A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair (Hades x Persophone #1)

Yearly Goal Markers:

Book Goal: 42/75  = 56 %

Page Goal:  15/15k = 100% (2024 goal achieved 7/5/24!)

Follow me on LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Amazon. Same handle: OMBWarrior47

[justapayneaway]

This week I'm reviewing Glitterland by Alexis Hall 🪩

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[monomatica]

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[jaronbraide]

I loved this moment in Alexis Hall's Glitterland. The narrator Ash is a jaded, wealthy, overeducated writer who's rather self-conscious—and not always so kind. His boyfriend Darian is an undereducated man from Essex who is quite the opposite: down-to-earth, kind, a bit naive, and takes everything in life at face value. In this short passage, we see all of Ash: his self-consciousness, his education, his self-doubt, and how he recognizes Darian's ability to do so much with so much less effort. It's in this moment that we see how Darian's attributes make Ash fall for him. Lovely.

[professionalqueerbookworm]

Queer Reviews: Alexis Hall, "Glitterland" (Spires #1).

CW: explicit sexual content, discussions of mental illness, unhealthy dynamics

Plot: Once the golden boy of the English literary scene, now a clinically depressed writer of pulp crime fiction, Ash Winters has given up on love, hope, happiness, and — most of all — himself. He lives his life between the cycles of his illness, haunted by the ghosts of other people’s expectations.

Then a chance encounter at a stag party throws him into the arms of Essex boy Darian Taylor, an aspiring model who lives in a world of hair gel, fake tans, and fashion shows. By his own admission, Darian isn’t the crispest lettuce in the fridge, but he cooks a mean cottage pie and makes Ash laugh, reminding him of what it’s like to step beyond the boundaries of anxiety.

But Ash has been living in his own shadow for so long that he can’t see past the glitter to the light. Can a man who doesn’t trust himself ever trust in happiness? And how can a man who doesn’t believe in happiness ever fight for his own?

7.5/10 on the Rainbow Scale™ 🌈: Alexis Hall seems to relish in making me care for assholes 😂 truly, there's something to be said for the way they write unlikable characters: their protagonists are deeply flawed and often make terrible choices, but somehow you still care about them and want them to do better. This was the case here: Ash is kind of a dick and there were times I wanted to throttle him and yell at him, but I also wanted him to get his shit together and be happy. His mental illness is never romanticized and it's never used as an excuse for his behaviour, he always has to face the consequences of his actions. This was an at times frustrating but still satisfying read.

[dracereads]

Holy Smokes! I just went to order something else off of AH's list for a physical copy, and I discovered they're doing a new release of Glitterland with a new cover. I really like this cover over the other two, I'm not gonna lie. Wonder if they're doing the entire spires series as well, or just Glitter.

It looks like the new physical editions will be coming out 1/17/23. Uh. I have a blurb written about Glitterland w/ it's old cover (Kindle, because physicals are uh... rare??) coming sometime soon. I'll link it here after the fact.