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sillyjellyfishenthusiast · 5 months

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THOUGHTS ON THE NEW PJO EPISODE

SPOILER WARNING FOR EPISODE 5 AND THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK(S)

this is all out of order because I'm writing in the order that I'm remembering

SPIDERS:

as we saw, they cut the spider scene. that's what I was most excited about, but the throne made up for (and replaced) that moment adequately enough. it was a great show of Annabeth and Percy's character development, which I love.

what also replaced the spider scene was Annabeth already disappointing her mother. the point of this scene, besides introducing Annabeth's and other children of Athena's phobia of spiders, was to have Annabeth have her "disappointing Athena" moment. Now, it's been over two years now since I've read the original series, so correct me if I'm wrong, but Athena didn't have much of a reaction to Medusa's head being sent to Olympus (at least not in a way that interfered with the quest at that point.)

FATES:

another thing I've been waiting for. I think its interesting that Grover didn't see them, while Annabeth did. I do like the "they're watching us" part, as it applied to multiple situations.

1. the gods. they're always watching them.

2. the authorities, reporters, etc.

3. the Fates.

Grover being focused on the second reason because he's supposed to be the protector is something I find interesting. Annabeth watching the fates and agreeing to what Grover is saying: because she thinks he's seeing the same thing, or because she's so focused?

TUNNEL

when they jumped in the water, Annabeth yelled for Percy. At first, I had a moment similar to Nico in TTC: "Why would she yell underwater and waste her breath if she obviously can't swim/is drowning?" Then I realized it was a show of her trust in Percy. She wouldn't have risked actually drowning and dying if she didn't believe Percy could help her. But then, that confuses me at the next part where she's like, "Did you just pull me out of the water with your water powers etc. etc.?" Was she trying to cover up the fact that she can't swim or something? Too proud to thank him, so she changed the topic to his newfound powers? I don't know.

DID NOT EXPECT THE FIRST SEAWEED BRAIN DROP

side note: some time ago, I heard someone say that "seaweed brain" is the perfect ship name for Percy and Annabeth (imo anything is better than anussy lmao), Percy being the seaweed, Annabeth being the brain. I think it's cute, but I'm more partial to Percabeth.

The whole thing with Hephaestus was another show of Annabeth and Percy's becoming friends. Obviously, she called him a friend, but actions speak louder than words. STILL, in I believe one episode, she went from "careful" to "my friend." I know her aforementioned comment was a teasing one, but it still shows how far they've come.

#percy jackson #percy jackson tv series #annabeth chase #percy pjo #pjo show #pjo tv #grover underwood #grover pjo #pjo spoilers

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ohbo-ohno · 8 months

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book recs pls? U have amazing taste

im gonna assume this is half in reference to the lilith vincent book i mentioned earlier so i'll give you some of my favorite romances 💞 i tried not to rec a book i've already suggested here before, so some of my very favorites ever are left out!

the authors I'll read like literally anything by are Tessa Bailey, Lily Gold, Ana Huang, J.T. Geissinger, Elsie Silver, Harley Laroux, Rina Kent... and probably someone I'm forgetting tbh but those are some of my favs

also i got a little out of hand and these are kinda all over the place lmao, but here we go! my standards for romance are very low btw so don't judge my taste

Darker romances:

Sticking with Lilith Vincent - I love her books Brutal Intentions and (to a lesser extent) Pageant. Brutal Intentions is a step-dad romance, Pageant (the first of two books, I think the second is wayyy better) is like... dark, mafia, reverse harem, kidnapping, a whole lot tbh. Look up trigger warnings!!! I think she lists them at the start of the book

I don't particularly like H.D. Carlton (I very much so disliked Haunting/Hunting Adeline) but I fucking LOVED her book Does It Hurt? If you want fucked up characters, toxic relationships, noncon, and a pretty well-written subplot for a self-published romance I would recommend this one! (tbh I'm half convinced it's ghostwritten, I cant fathom Haunting Adeline and Does It Hurt? being written by the same person)

Sinners Anonymous & it's sequels by Somme Sketcher. Mafia romance. Age-gap. Kinda trashy but very fun imo. Also read Danielle Lori's Made series if that sounds neat to you!

M.L. Marian's Claimed & Tamed series. Each book follows a different man in the same family where the tradition is that men kidnap their wives. My favorite is Caught <3

Romcoms/Lighter stuff:

I like most Mariana Zapata books, but my favorite is either Under Locke or Luna and the Lie. I've read 7 of her books and they're all basically the same structure with the same characters, so if you read one and like the dynamics you'll probably like her others

One Percent of You by Michelle Gross is my favorite single mom romance of all time. Tattoo artist who hates kids falls in love with his over-worked neighbor who's a single mother of two. SO cute and soft

Bittersweet by Morgan Elizabeth. tattoo artist x baker, this is one of my favorite romcoms ever.

Sunny Disposition by Deanna Gray. Amnesia, college, hockey, roommates to lovers, this is a very soft and fun read that I enjoyed as a bit of a palette cleanser. Iirc it was a little long, but a good time

Other??:

When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare. I don't like historical romance much, but this doesn't really feel like one to me! A woman makes up a soldier to write letters to so she can avoid getting married, and years later he shows up on her doorstep ready for their wedding. This is so much fun

Transcendence by Shay Savage - two words for you: Caveman Romance. This is told entirely from the caveman's perspective and tells the story of him meeting a woman who's very odd (because she's from the future) and their life together. It drags a little bit at times, but I think it's so so fun and the end had me crying

King by TM Frazier goes a little off the rails, but I had fun with it. The main character is called 'Pup' for like 90% of the book and that was enough for me. Our FMC has amnesia and is taken in by a local gang leader and the plot goes from there

Under His Heel by Adara Wolf - ok before I say what this is about, I cannot overstate how dark and fucked up this book series is. They're disturbing. I loved them, I've read them all at least twice, but they are deeply upsetting. It takes place in space in the far distant future and follows our main character Alex as he becomes an indentured servant for a sociopath named Captain Tracht. These books are a weird mix of porn and plot, but if you want fucked up smut and fucked up relationship dynamics, this is the holy grail

#asks and answers #recs #btw rina kent's books ARE NOT GOOD but i've read like 20 of them #just because i've read them doesn't mean some of them aren't terrible lmfao #stokeholdsblog

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bookishfeylin · 1 year

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what are your #anti sjm unpopular opinions? this side of the fandom is pretty similar in our opinions so i was wondering where you differ. asking this to a bunch of people btw.

Hi anon!

I have... several unpopular opinions for this side of the fandom, and it's a testament to how much better our side is that I haven't been harassed by anyone over here because of them.

My first and largest is that I love, love, LOVE (book 1) Feylin. Many people here still don't like Feylin, if it's not considered downright taboo. And obviously, on THAT SIDE of the fandom it is THE no-no ship, THE untouchable territory. But I go there anyway :)

My second unpopular opinion that I know differs from quite a few mutuals and followers of mine is that Tamlin did not redeem himself by resurrecting Rhysand, is nowhere near close to redemption by the end of ACOWAR (anyone who's reading ACOHAS probably already knew this was my feeling tho lol), and furthermore I believe that he should not receive a redemption arc in canon. Redemption arcs in fiction aren't about morality and what characters "deserve them", imo, but rather how it works thematically and if it fits the message the story is trying to convey. Rhysand being redeemed/having his assault of Feyre swept under the rug in ACOMAF was bad enough for this series' own themes about abuse and SA, but Tamlin being redeemed completely spits on them. It sucks, because as I've said time and time again Rhysand and Tamlin are the same in how they act and it's incredibly hypocritical to not call out Rhysand for abuse while calling out Tamlin, but Sarah has decided Tamlin is the embodiment of the abuser(TM) just as Feyre is the embodiment of the victim(TM) and Rhysand is the embodiment of the healthy love interest(TM) so Tamlin narratively can never truly gain "redemption" without screwing up the story's themes or questioning those labels, and frankly, allowing him to be redeemed would be incredibly insulting to this series' themes and message about abuse. In my fanfic ACOHAS it only works because I go the route of "everyone sucks" and call out everyone's abuse, Feyre and Rhysand's included, so as to even the playing field and Tamlin's arc ends in a way I THINK is narratively satisfying all things considered. But Sarah will never acknowledge that anyone aside from Tamlin is abusive, so a redemption cannot work for him in canon. So I don't think a Tamlin redemption will ever occur in the books, nor do I truly think it's a good idea from a narrative viewpoint.

I also think that rather than merely complain about a lack of diversity in Sarah's books you should also try to promote alternatives (not that I don't complain myself but people who complain about something and then DO NOTHING to attempt a solution irritate me. The solution is simply to stopping buying Maas books and to promote more authors of color, and what I hate specifically is that I don't see enough critics of Sarah elevating authors of color as much as they complain, not the complaining in and of itself).

And my last unpopular opinion: neither Nesta OR Elain are that interesting. THERE I SAID IT. The complexity they had a little bit of in book one was flatted and removed in ACOMAF. And now BOTH of them are boring. Sorry.

#no matter how often i'm harassed for it or how many death threats i get i will ALWAYS love feylin haha #anyway thanks for the ask! and my askbox is always open guys :)#anti sjm #ask #anon #anti acomaf

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mermaidsirennikita · 2 years

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Hi Caroline! Idk if you've already answered this but, could you rec me some romance novels but in a dark way? Short of like tsh but more centered in the romance and detailing the drama or erotism, like involving incest/crime/drugs/pro*titution etc, cause those are the mature tw things that really catch me lol thank you!

Hey! I definitely think that you're looking for novels specifically in the Dark Romance subgenre. I have nothing against them myself, but I've been in a historical romance binge for like... the past two years... which I rarely diverge from, so I haven't read a *ton* of dark romances. With that being said, you may like:

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma--(Very mature) YA and NOT a romance as it doesn't have a happy ending. I read this years and years ago, and I still have very mixed feelings on it. Like, I read it almost a decade ago and I doubt I'd give it the same review I gave it then. I wouldn't say it romanticizes incest from what I recall, but it does depict it from the perspective of (teenage) siblings who are in love with and sexually attracted to each other and do not see their relationship objectively at all. It's quite dark, even aside from the incest (which is explicitly explored)--lots of child abuse happens.

The Secrets of Charlotte Street Trilogy by Scarlett Peckham--Not super dark, but they do deal with sex work, trauma, and kink. The first book features a duke hero who is sexually submissive (and not just in the "he likes to be spanked every now and then", type of way, he enjoys bondaged, canings, whippings) and visits sex workers for that purpose. The second book has a protagonist who has engaged in sex work as a paid dominant; the third is about a dominatrix in training and her (virgin) minister love interest soooo. Again, nothing super intense but I found it interesting.

The Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt--Another historical romance series, pretty graphic and can get quite dark. It takes place in a kind of seedy area, and imo Hoyt goes way further than most HR authors. I've seen people divide the series into "arcs" as it's preeeeetty long. The first 3 books or so have this backdrop of an orphanage run by this Quaker family; the next three center on these vigilante heroes who all share one identity, so there's a good bit of murder, vengeance, etc; then there's the backdrop of this pleasure garden for the next three; and finally the darkest arc that you might like most, which I saw one individual refer to as "Maiden Lane: Special Victims Unit" and WITH GOOD REASON. Those last three books heavily focus on the fallout of this like.... pedophilic rich guy sex cult, for want of a better term. The heroine of Sweetest Scoundrel (in the pleasure garden arc, but it segues into the NCIS arc) was sexually abused as a child by the cult and much of her book focuses on her recovering from that trauma--she and her hero take a lot of time building up to a "conventional" sexual relationship. Duke of Sin focuses on her brother, who was also victimized by the cult (in a different sense as they were trying to bring him into it). He's a very villainous hero, FULLY INSANE, killed animals as a child, could easily be a Ted Bundy type, kidnaps women on the regular. He and his heroine have an intense relationship. The hero of the final book, Duke of Desire, was also victimized by the cult. It's a pretty heavy series for HR overall, but some books are lighter than others. Imo, Sweetest Scoundrel, Duke of Sin, and Duke of Desire are the most intense.

The Victorian Rebels series by Kerrigan Byrne--Another darker HR series. The hero of the first book, The Highwayman (one of my very favorite books) is recovering from sexual abuse as an imprisoned child, among other things, and runs a criminal organization as an adult/is a full murderer. The hero of the second book, The Hunter, is a full assassin sent to murder the heroine (but he thinks she's hot so nah). The hero of The Highlander, a book that has parts I love and parts I hate and is DEEPLY problematic is a full... war criminal.... Hero of The Duke had to like... have his hand amputated due to abuse in prison? And so on and so forth.

Desperate Measures by Katee Robert--Katee Robert writes pretty high heat, sometimes wild romance novels. This one kicks off her Wicked Villains series, which is basically like, "what if Disney Villains fucked, but modern day and sex clubs and organized crime?" This book is still my favorite in the series, but they're all good. Anyway, it's Jafar/Jasmine but with an organized crime twist. He kills her dad in the beginning and then immediately... basically rapes her, but she's into it. There are plenty of TWs in the beginning of the book to let you know what to expect further.

The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre--This series isn't quite romance... It's borderline romantic suspense, I'd say, with a somewhat erotic twist. The heroine was super traumatized by an event in her childhood, and now is so drawn to murder that she never leaves her apartment and works as a cam girl, has all of her groceries and goods delivered, etc. She has a thing with the delivery guy but doesn't feel like she can be in a room with him physically because she wants to murder THAT badly. Anyway, through her camming she begins to suspect someone of murder and is like "I can Dexter this shit".

#romance novel blogging

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savrenim · 3 years

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hi hi hi. so I just got into the Hamilton fandom, I swear I am four years late where did everybody go, and, well. I am apparently a hamburr shipper. bcs that is my life now. anyway I saw your fic ifmlam and I swear it is my favourite of all the fics I've ever read (and trust me I've read literally thousands). I love it so so much, how do you write fics like that??? I cried about four times during the whole thing, I stayed up till 4am reading it even when I had to wake up at 7 because it is just. that. good. I could not stop thinking about it for days afterwards and ifmlam has just ruined me. I can't think of listen to Hamilton without thinking of ifmlam anymore.

on to my qursttion: is it abandoned? of course it's perfectly FINE if it is. don't let anyone tell u differently, your fic is YOURS and u are amazing.

but pls I really need closure from ur fic, it has been haunting me if its abandoned or ongoing and I've read ur other fics and they are just chefskiss and thank you so much for writing them all. thank you thank you thank you, I will never be able to thank you enough for writing this fic and for everything it's done for me. I am probably thousands of miles away but I am sending you virtual jugs through a co.puter screen right now.

(don't feel pressured to reply to this or update it flam, I know how overwhelming it can get with so many messages and after a while u get desensitized to it. u can literally reply "thx. itfmlam is abandoned" and I would still be amazingly star struck. anyway has gotten way too long and I need to sleep and I'm sorry u probably won't see this so I'm just talking to myself right now but bye!!)

and thank you so so much for writing itfmlam.

aaaah hello anon!

thank you so so much???? I am so??? honored??? that ifmlam rates so highly to you, and also that you've read my other fics??????

the answer to the "is ifmlam abandoned" question is probably the worst possible one, which is pretty much "I do want to finish it, both for the folks that still want closure as well as it bothers to me have abandoned projects that are in the public eye/ already partially published, but also, it is last on my current writing projects list"

my current actually active writing projects list, kind of in order of priority, is

I'm literally three chapters away from being Actually Fully Done with the not-quite-first-not-quite-second let's call it 1.5th draft of an actual?? full?? original?? novel?? Opus which of course then goes out to beta readers and then gets who-knows-how-much edited and then maybe beta readers again if a lot does change and then a copyeditor my mom, my copyeditor is my mom, and maybe my little brother he's one of the betas but is very good at catching typos and then I!!! get to publish it!!!! which is the single thing I am most excited for!!!!!!!!! this should be closed up in the next week or two, and then take a while for people to actually read the draft and get back to me.

I really desperately want to finish my open-but-like-90%-written fic, which means we raise it up, the final chapter of to the bottom of the river bc I realized that it was kind of incomplete, and the second chapter of a buried and a burning flame because any more work there will need to wait until the author publishes the next book in the series. this should be closed up in the next month or two.

Speedwrite the draft of the second book of the Opus series so that hopefully by the time book 1 edits are happening, I have an almost complete draft of the second book. this is mostly me side-eyeing myself about taking nearly four years to write the first book, but that is solidly in part because I had so many other open projects which point 2 is about clearing that docket. this should be done in the next year.

And then just have my major projects be, at least until books 1-5 are written and published, books 1-5 of that because that is arguably the first major 'plot arc' of the series, so if I'm looking for a pause point on writing, that's probably where to stop.

There are two or three other short side projects (a weird fun second person short story tentatively titled witch-queen, a collection of four short stories Memoirs about a not-so-evil necromancer and the shenanigans he gets up to trying to rule a kingdom, working title Perfectly Normal Recipe Blog which is a collaborative project about a perfectly normal recipe blog that definitely doesn't include anything out of the normal) that will happen when they happen

There are other projects that are on the backburner -- The Numanok Files, a series of probably 12-15 short novellas about a mercenary/ bounty hunter esque person in space whose specialty is dealing with hauntings, but, like, 80% of their jobs is actually "you are effectively a space home inspector pointing out faulty wiring reacting to solar flares/ there's a weird alien fungus/ it's carbon monoxide okay change your atmosphere filters" and 20% of it is punching ghosts; there's a post-post apocalypse novel that I want to write that I know characters and general pacing and half the setting but need to work out the other half and figure out how much aesthetic I want to commit to; there's Strangeside7 aka spacerace book that is my reaction to how much I love how Redline the anime movie commits itself to "no we are about a race, like 60% of the screentime is just fully going to be an utterly ridiculous sci fi space race"; there's even a ridiculous YA trilogy that I would have to completely transplant the setting but might end up writing because the interplay between angel-physics and physics-physics was one of my favorite things in the world. and I guess the weird ridiculous technically a sequel series to ifmlam that was going to be published as original books that was basically me having fun with 'okay I fucking love star wars prequels old rotting space bureaucracy galactic republic style' except with seers and that also still might happen because it does have some of the coolest sci fi concepts and honestly I thiiiink that's all?

but the tl;dr of that timeline is I'm trying to finish a punch of projects Right Now, so that I can write books 2-5 of Opus, and then when I'm done that (which honestly, my average fiction-writing output is close to 100k a year. if I'm concentrating purely on one project, and writing books that are about 100k, we are talking four years. although my job situation is super up in the air in that period and writing might get put solidly on the backburner as I try to make it in academia, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) I will re-evaluate which projects go next, and that's when ifmlam is likely to come up for review.

I do not have any expectations that I will make it as an original author. I'm planning on posting all of my stuff online for free, but, like. it is incredibly difficult to convince people to try out even a piece of free and easily accessibly original work even if one has a huge following, I am a very small fanfiction author, and from what I can tell the majority of the people who are interested in my work are mostly interested in me finishing ifmlam. writing is a hobby for me, and while I'm writing mostly for me--and hence the for me bit at least for the next five years is pretty solidly going to be this series that I am deeply excited about and have sunk my heart and soul into every single aspect of--I'm human, and I don't really like shouting into the void, and I expect if I spend five years publishing to absolutely no response I will either stop writing for a while and do other things gods know my life is busy enough, return to fandom in general to write some other fanfic about whatever I get deeply into, or return to a work that I actually get response to. so ifmlam will probably start getting worked on a bit at that point one way or another. unless, of course, we are in the incredibly rare timeline in which I do make it as an original author, there are people who are deeply hyped for my original works and an actual demand for them, in which case as you may have noticed there are enough ideas there to keep me busy for a decade or two, and they will just get my full attention instead of fanfiction*. in this timeline, I will do what I was considering doing a few years ago, which is officially declare ifmlam otherwise abandoned and make one more giant chapter update which is a full and cleaned up outline of what I was going to write, interspersed with the scenes already written, and have ifmlam be given at least that closure.

*I want to make it clear that I very much love fanfiction and am proud to have been a fanfiction author and in my heart of hearts would keep writing it forever, I just also have a lot of ideas for characters and settings and magic systems and Aesthetics and I have been biting at the bit to write something that is //mine// and all mine and only mine for a while, I don't see original work as superior so much as there are a dozen fandoms that I am currently in and bursting to make content about except oops these fandoms currently only exist in my head, and I want to correct that

of course given how much as writing is my vent activity and I write what I'm in the mood for, there's a chance I'll feel ifmlam cravings before then, just... expect it to take a couple of years for an update, but also for there to be an update one way of another in a couple of years? but as for right now, I'm turning to original writing, because that is what brings me joy.

but I am really deeply honored that it brought you so much joy!!! and while I will never publish spoilers in a public place, if you message me off anon I am perfectly happy to give a run-down of my current plans for the ending, bc I know "wait a couple years and see" is not the most satisfactory of answers! and hey maybe you'll be like me and once you've given Opus a try you'll decide you like it better too, it does have Seers although they are deeply different Seers than in ifmlam but imo it's very gay and fun and at least politics on one side

#my life #my writing #ifmlam

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sendnotes · 3 years

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books i read in april.

this is going to be my thing from now on. i'll compile a list of all the books i read in a month and share my thoughts on each one every end of the month.

just so you know, i'm a little forgetful, and i have a tendency to forget names, plots, and other details. i'm hoping that writing these will aid my memory in recalling how i felt about each novel.

you can also find me on goodreads

so, let’s begin, shall we?

101 essays that will change the way you think (wiest, brianna)

self-help book

this book got off to a good start! some of the essays written (or should i say a collection of articles originally published on the thoughtcatalog website) made me think and consider my outlook on life, love, and so on.

the title overstates the case though. when i think of an essay, i picture something more argumentative and philosophical. not to mention that the majority of the ideas in this book are redundant. it made it difficult to get through. nonetheless, i was able to get past it because there were so many fantastic concepts and topics discussed.

overall, it's an interesting & worthwhile read for those who enjoy thinking outside the box.i lost count of how many times this book gave me aha moments. i swear, most of the entries soothed my mind and provided a great pick-me-up when life seemed to be frustrating.

the midnight library (haig, matt)

science fiction, fantasy fiction, psychological fiction

regrets, self-remorse, what ifs, family approval, drugs, dreams, love, passion, hatred, death, afterlife, multiverses, quantum physics, and a plethora of possibilities packed into a 304-page book.

i'll be honest: this book is already on my list of favorites. i'm simply blown away by how well-crafted and diverse the entire story unfolded.

a sci-fi novel with a dash of fantasy and a smidgeon of philosophy. if that's your thing, you should give this book a shot.

the first few pages of the book gave me an impression and led me to surmise it was going to be a cheesy ass chick lit novel that i'd only read and find enjoyable in high school. i was completely off base. it proved to be very mature, full of lessons, but delivered in a fun and entertaining manner— exactly my cup of tea.

it reminded me of a disney pixar film called soul, in which the afterlife is depicted in vivid detail. they differ on so many levels, but they both imagine life after death for people who are unsure of their path, purpose, and passion.

every chapter served a significant concept, so this book is well-deserved of a 5-star rating!

norwegian wood (murakami, haruki)

fiction, romance novel, bildungsroman

as i read the book and neared the end, all i could think about was how this book became one of murakami's most popular and influential works.

murakami offers a sprawling glimpse into the lives of a group of severely damaged youths grappling with the realities of what emptiness entails. take what you will from it.

i know a lot of people like it, which is fine. but please keep in mind that this book hit me square in the gut. it alternated between making me angry, sad, annoyed, and disgusted almost constantly. there isn't much else.

this book should come with a warning: "this is not a good place to start if you're new to murakami's works. this is not a representative of murakami's brilliance."

fist and foremost, the characters in this book are all repulsive.

toru watanabe was a fuckboy and a softboy rolled into one. what could possibly be worse than that? he'd have as many casual sexual partners as he could while also buttering a girl up by appealing to her emotions and displaying a "sensitive" and "vulnerable" side.

this book was made even more depressing by the fact that each female character was needy, weak, dysfunctional, and dependent. since they're all the same, i'm not going to go over each of these female characters one by one. you already get the idea.

reiko ishida, imo, was one of the best rendered sections of the novel. most likely because she had a better grasp on her emotions and goals than the still seeking youths... until, *spoiler alert* she wanted to do it with toru as well. a big disappointment.

to summarize, this book is primarily concerned with two topics: sex and death.

hidden meanings are everywhere, but when you get to the core, that's all that remains.

the four agreements: a practical guide to personal freedom (ruiz, miguel)

self-help book

first agreement ⏤ be impeccable with your word

this essentially means that you should not spew gossip or use words to harm others. because words have tremendous power and can cause significant harm. you are not only negatively affecting others with your hateful and thoughtless words, but you are also hurting yourself. this is something with which i generally agree. how i see it, when people are unhappy with themselves, they turn to others to make themselves feel better. as a result, they gossip about others in order to divert attention away from themselves.

second agreement ⏤don't take anything personally

alright. sure. don't let what others say about you bother you. it has everything to do with them and nothing to do with you. well, i don't entirely agree, but i think it's a fantastic idea in general. however, achieving this goal will be extremely difficult. i believe it would take a lot of practice to reach this level of zen. plus, i honestly believe that other people's opinions still matter because they keep you in check. the best advice is to not be swayed by these opinions, but to consider why they were expressed in the first place. see what you can do to improve yourself from there. sure, it can be difficult to deal with; after all, no one likes being told they're wrong or whatnot. but it's not all bad news because you can sometimes use criticism and judgment to give you a competitive edge. i mean- don't you think hearing someone else's point of view is also an opportunity to learn and progress? ruiz should have stressed that it's not just about "not taking it personally because you know you're not that person," but also about not retaliating with an extreme knee-jerk reaction even if you believe you're being unfairly criticized.

third agreement ⏤ don't make assumptions

this is a real eye-opener for me. i've noticed that whenever i become enraged by someone's words, it's usually due to my tendency to assume. personally, i can't help but make assumptions. i don't know what other people's motivations are, and i can't help but draw conclusions based on the information i have. even if the other person had no intention of causing me harm, it's too late. the thought has become ingrained in my mind, and i never ask for clarification out of pride or fear of appearing overly sensitive.

fourth agreement ⏤ always do your best

this section did not seem particularly useful to me. i mean, aren't we all reminded of this all the time? this section is filled with sloppy writing, in my opinion. as if he badly wanted to finish the book and impulsively thought: "okay, fourth agreement: always do your best. that should suffice. lmao"

overall opinion: the third agreement was my favorite, but the rest were a no-go. don't get me wrong, i appreciated his ideas, but i've heard them all a hundred times before. basically, the book's sole takeaway is that we are all suffering in some way in our daily lives, and we are all dealing with different issues. regardless, we all need to be kinder and gentler to ourselves and others.

the song of achilles (miller, madeline)

romance novel, historical Fiction, war story

i'll keep it short and sweet:

i really wouldn't have had this book any other way. miller's writing is breathtaking, so rich and full of lovely detail. it's incredibly a unique concept to me that authors are rewriting such ancient history and stories to make them lgbt+!

some suggest it's tedious, but i disagree. it isn't slow; rather, it is just right.

'cause at the end of the day, it's not about war, tragedy, or heroes - it's a slow-burning, organic love tale between two young men and their inevitable connection.

it's sad, tender, and painful, but in the best way possible.

circe (miller, madeline)

novel, historical fiction, fantasy fiction

"greek mythology, but with a feminist twist"?! sign me the hell up! this piqued my interest... only to leave me feeling completely let down. seriously now. circe was described as a "badass empowered woman," which was the single most compelling selling point for me, and thus the most wrenching disappointment, i must say.

sure, it demonstrated the value of feminine power, but it also did represent how this power can be a force of good or evil.

not to mention the fact that circe fucked a married man or two in this book- i mean- how is that an ~empowered woman~?

let's be clear right off the bat: madeline miller's follow-up to the song of achilles is epic in scope but not necessarily in execution. to me, this read more like a tedious island tale. regardless of how many five-star reviews this book has received... i just don't think it's well-deserved. don't get me wrong here. miller is a fantastic author with a lush writing! istg- i'm blown away by how beautifully she wrote and carefully chose her words. even the most mundane phrases were written poetically. after-all, it’s greek mythology. but how did she manage to make circe seem so... bland?

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