the most compelling thing a guy can ever say is to another guy and it's "i wish you were a girl" . like record scratch. wow the implications that this phrase has. i think it needs its own bechdel test

I have a Probably Terrible idea about The Mars House. We know it's the same universe as Mori, right, because of January's phone? And January's mum had a vineyard in Cornwall. So I think that Merrick is maybe January's ancestor. Anyway it amuses me to think so.

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

An old Green House

Courtesy: Deserted Places

I’ve been trying to draw this bloody little watchmaker for years. For anyone who’s read Natasha Pulley’s Watchmaker of Filigree Street, I hope you recognise this as the precise moment Thaniel decides what to do on his wedding night✨

I can’t recommend these novels enough. They’re fucking magic.

There had never been anyone, though, and he couldn't see why it was striking him as all tragic and gooey now. Some people didn't get a person. It wasn't a right; it was a gift...

The Mars House, Natasha Pulley, pg 169

i just finished the mars house, here are some thoughts about it:

- it's so silly?? like pulley's books are always a little funny but this one is funny constantly. this is a neutral observation

- theodore sturgeon my beloved. theodore sturgeon pulley's beloved. i feel like we're all holding hands and debating gender over a slice of strawberry pie (i'll make an extra post about that. i'm already combing though the literaturé)

- somehow i didn't really warm up to gale. like yeah they're cool and a nerd and a sad little lump with issues but they didn't hit as hard as some other protags -- but i didn't really warm up to mori until pepperharrow came out either soooo

- wasn't as new wave-ish as i imagined it would be, i thought it'd be a lot more 'out there' and a little less hard sci-fi technobabble. like the gender abolition of mars or the fact that they can speak to animals ?? idk. it's not very pulley i guess but i'd have loved to see it

- how can a human being be so fucking stupid. january, love, please. i love you but please just talk to your spouse/colleague

- somehow kasha was one of those big mountain dogs in my brain. woof woof. no husky in sight

- and as always i think some of the goodreads reviewers are huffing paint because what the fuck is going on over there

On chapter 14 of The Mars House.

My thoughts boil down to:

-I think January might be God’s stupidest creature.

-I’m obsessed with the idea that he’s getting Keeping Up with the Kardashians-ed.

-how are the breathing? Is it explained early on and I just missed it somehow?

-Mammoths?

-No pronouns, only chickens.

I'm still not done with the mars house, but I just gotta say, the fact that January and Aubrey are both scared of each other for various different reasons has me climbing the walls. I love this kind of stuff so much! The walking on eggshells in every conversation and the added physical risks of their specific scenario is So Good.

I can't wait to see where this is going.

Art by Dick Calkins from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, 1933

ok i'm gonna make a comprehensive post about this once i finish the book BUT part of the mars house lore is definitely inspired by venus plus x by theodore sturgeon and it makes my nerdy little heart jump with joy

It makes me weirdly happy that chapter 1 mentions dolphins. Like yeah London is sinking to the bottom of the sea but at least the water is clean :)

yeah no i tried to reorder it at another store and their website is saying delivery could take 2-3 weeks :^) ebook it is

Guess whose local bookstore fucked up their order 🫏 grrrrr

Guess whose local bookstore fucked up their order 🫏 grrrrr

⚔︎ favourite ocean related books that i read in 2022 as penguin classics ⚔︎

Devotion by Hannah Kent - Ship on Stormy Seas by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake - Maine Coast by Winslow Homer

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley - Lighthouse on the Coast of Brittany by Théodore Gudin

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield - Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom by Ilya Repin

'They had lived together for three years and never once had Mori knocked on Thaniel's door. It was always the other way around, and Thaniel agonised before he did. He was never sure he was welcome. Mori let him in, always, but Mori was Mori; he wasn't English, wasn't a Christian, had grown up in a place where a knock on the door between friends was unremarkable. It didn't mean he was in love, only that he was being polite. Thaniel didn't dare ask him which it was. It was cowardly, but if he didn't know, he could live hoping.'

'Mori kissed his forehead. Thaniel bumped forward against his chest and felt safe again, but ashamed too. It had been the sort of kiss you might give to a child that had got itself flustered about a spider.'

(The Eel Singers, Natasha Pulley)

Thaniel "I can't breathe when you're not here" Steepleton being terrifically stupid.