Recent books, fiction -

K-Ming Chang, Bestiary - a coming-of-age story about a Taiwanese-American girl contending with legacies of intergenerational trauma within a web of Taiwanese folklore. I wanted to love this but ultimately didn't - I found it extremely overwritten, not controlled or deliberate enough in its structure or use of imagery, and far too enamored with its own engagement with the grotesque. There was a lot that was interesting here, but I found it unfortunately nearly unreadable. It seems to be part of a definite trend I've noticed of new novels by authors with a knack for vivid and memorable imagery but who seem to string those images together one upon another rather than giving any attention to sentence-by-sentence construction of prose. I think most of you reading this can probably recognize the style I'm trying to describe here; it's getting increasingly common in contemporary fiction, and I have noticed my own tolerance for it waning significantly. This has been frustrating.

Hannah Chapin, Foul is Fair - YA Macbeth as a rape-revenge story. Very very bad on every level. Skip this.

Kristen Arnett, With Teeth - claustrophobic study of parenthood and unreliable pov characters, following Sammie, a lesbian mother struggling to parent her son and maintain her relationship with her wife over the course of a decade in her life. This was tight and enthralling, but a deeply unpleasant reading experience; Sammie's inability to see the people close to her as full people made me chafe to get out of living inside her head, but it held my attention all the way through. Kept coming to the edges of saying something sharper about parents' denial of their own capacity for violence, but didn't quite go there. I'll be thinking about this for a while, but not sure how much I actually liked it.

Allison Saft, Down Comes the Night - YA fantasy; a disgraced healer gets involved in sinister political magicians to make it up to her aunt, the queen. Solid but unexceptional YA fantasy, enlivened by some gothic tropes it never fully committed to.

Emily Layden, All Girls - panoramic study of the impact of a sexual assault scandal in a girls boarding school. This should have been trite, but was in fact sharply observed, insightful and unsentimental about teenage girlhood. The world of fancy boarding schools is quite foreign to me (though the milieu inhabited by the pre-professional dancer character was not, and Layden draws that with unerring accuracy), but Layden brings that world to life vividly. Likewise, the structural device of writing each chapter from the point of view of a different student could have become irritating but somehow never did. I was pleasantly surprised by this.

Catriona Silvey, Meet Me In Another Life - time loop novel about two people who keep finding each other in different versions of reality. At times touching, but didn't quite land for me; I found something about its focus on questions about determinism versus free will a bit alienating.

Kiersten White, Slayer - I keep reading White's books hoping to enjoy them as much I as I did her girl!Vlad Tepes trilogy, but I haven't yet. This one is published (official? canonized?) Buffy fan fiction, about two sisters born into a family of Watchers after the events of the tv series. It was fine, but didn't draw me in, and I know my lack of familiarity with Buffy canon outside of the show itself put me at a disadvantage.

Sophie Macintosh, The Water Cure - three girls raised in seclusion by parents who taught them to engage in painful and humiliating rituals have to make sense of the world after their father's death. I am always interested in these kinds of narratives and there were parts of what Macintosh was doing that I found moving and elegant, but I didn't find this psychologically plausible. It treads an uncomfortable line between hazy allegory and psychological realism, and I don't think it succeeds. I think Dogtooth did this a lot better.

Something something the way that Crowley introduced himself to Aziraphale the first time they met in the garden and reacted as if they had never met before. Something about him later behaving as if he did actually have those memories of their time in Heaven together and trying to pass it off as being someone different now. Something about Heaven's way of punishing angels that go against the plan by erasing their memories. Something about Crowley seeing Gabriel without his memory and saying "ask him properly." Something about "remember it now" "it hurts, to remember. my head isn't built for that" "I know. Do it anyway"

Something about "I know. Looking at where the furniture isn't"

Something about I know

This joke came to me in a fit of laughter (ALT description provided :3!)

I only just now realized what a shame it is we never got to see Al and Greedling really interacting

sillies!!

I just want to see him again.

"this is regrettably the best kiss of your life, you understand?"

✦ 2023 summary of art ✦

polymer broadcast signal hijack

i need ghoap frantically making out against a door finally taking the leap on their feelings. need ghost grinding against soap, expecting to find him just as hard as him, only to feel nothing

and in all his wisdom and experience, he concludes soap was tortured and never told him

he’s trying to think of a delicate way to say he understands, that he’s been through it and it doesn’t change anything about how he feels (and who the fuck touched him so he can hunt them down and rend them limb from limb)

meanwhile trans!soap’s just trying to find the best angle to grind his cunt on ghost’s thigh

just it never even entering ghost’s head bc he’s never known a trans person but he has met plenty of people who’ve been tortured - himself included - so of course that’s his logical leap

soap takes off his shirt and he sees his top surgery scars and ghost asks if he wants him to kill the one who did it and soap just hums like, “actually, man did pretty good, they healed real well,” and ghost’s just teary-eyes with awe at how well he’s coping, “looking on the bright side, that’s my johnny.”

imagine he thinks johnny was fully castrated but sees he’s determined to still have a sex life with him so he buys packers and straps to help him bc hell yeah healing and soap’s just like, “holy shit i’ve never had such a thoughtful partner before, such a sweet man, lt.”

Shortly after uploading this I saw a post where someone mentioned how Mr. Qi is canonically a creepypasta character now. And like. Surely. If you've read my webcomic. You know I can't resist that.

wow these bitches are really fucking gay

I actually love movie theatres so much. no matter how many ppl are in the room with you it’s always fun. if you’re the only one there then it’s your own little private show. if there’s one or two more people then you feel like you’re sharing a little secret with these strangers you will never interact with. if the whole place is packed then you get to listen to the audience collectively laughing or gasping or ooohing in reaction to the fun bits. going to movies is just such a good time.

[WVW Exchange Event 2023!]

"The kisses on your lash, your ears, on the nose that keeps scrunching. The kisses on your hand, on your cheeks, and the exchanging soft words waiting for the break of day."

----- ID under break -----

A total of 6 pages of comics, starting with a close up shots of vash kissing sleeping wolfwood's nose, eyes, lashes, and he furrows them a bit. an overhead shot of the two of them in a motel room, on the bed with vash leaning over wolfwood from the left, laying soft kisses on him. their legs tangled. their normal outfits are thrown haphazardly on the floor, instead donning comfortable clothes. on the outside, the very first ray of lights are yet to shine.

"what a face you're making pfft" - vash says as he grabs both of wolfwood's cheeks, squeezing them a bit. wolfwood mumbles, "There's something that keeps landing on my face, it tickles." he grabs the hand that is on his right cheek. "Well you're letting it happens anyways right?" Vash muses, bringing the hand up to kiss on its knuckles. "Good morning Wolfwood. It's almost dawn"

"… Isn't it way too soon?" - wolfwood asks, but keeps to himself the prayers he's sending to god because the the boy on top of him was such a sight to behold. Vash flops down onto him, leaving the hand hanging and lace his own hand into Wolfwood's hair, peppering kisses to the side of his face. "Yep" - he answers - "But you woke up on your own tho" - facetiously. He giggles, saying that it was a joke after a beat of silence. A sigh, "don't make me upside you first thing in the morning." Wolfwood closes his eyes, hand combing through golden strands. "Heh, how merciful~" "We have a meet up with Milly and Meryl today, remember?" Vash reminds him, which does raise some vague memory. wolfwood hums, the other hand reaching around vash's torso, hugging him. " So, the sooner we arrive, the less likely she'll chew through my head." - Vash adds. "riiiight. And you were SO urgent in waking me up." in wolfwood's hold, both of them slowly turn to the right, towards the edge of the bed.

Well, you were just soooo cute, I couldn't help it! didn't thinkk you'll actually wakE UAA-!"

the bed creaks under the sudden shift in weight as wolfwood tosses vash over and under him, arms firmly hugging him, one at his back and one at his head, hungrily dives down to kiss. "!! Wolf-! Wait-!" Vash yelps, leg instinctively curls around the other's man hip to hang on, trying his damnest to grip on his shirt as HE is now half airborne, barely has any contact with the bed on his upper body. However, wolfwood seems to have another idea as he keeps deepening the kiss, pointedly holding Vash close, hands spread guarding the back of his head as both of them are sliding off the soft fabric.

"THUD!" a resounding fall, possibly enough to wake the room downstairs, followed shortly by laboured breaths amist wet smacks of lips. Heaves and huffs of air exchanging between the two bodies when the need to breath made itself necessary. They press close, cradling each other, and are lost to their own world. After a while they had to part. Metal arm shifts through black locks, caressing down to his nape and they hold eye contacts there, with lidded eyes, strands of saliva thins then breaks.

Wolfwood pushes up on his arms, looking smugly down at his now disheveled partner: "Now this is how it's done, Needlenoggin." he remarks. Vash tries to wrangle his thoughts back in order, but strings of Wolfwood's name and a wonderous question keeps filling his mind, of whether he should risk it all and have fun for a bit more. Regardless, snapping out of his trance, Vash sourly asks, with a wry smile and an aching head: "But did you really need to roll off the bed?" "Wrong side, whoops" - Wolfwood anwers unseriously, laughing as he finds the situation quite amusing.

----- End of ID -----

borrowed my wife’s characters 🤭