#obviouslyending
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Thanks for recommending Gideon the Ninth! It was so good! Do you have a book rec tag I could check out? :)
honestly i should, huh? i’ve read more books than probably ever before this year and i’ve talked about ‘em intermittently, but not with a consistent tag. i’ll recommend some right now, though, with a healthy dose of recency bias!
sf/f
the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon - a truly epic fantasy novel with one of the most beautiful, satisfying f/f romances i’ve ever read. the novel takes account nearly everything i hate about fantasy as a genre (overwhelmingly straight, white, and male centric, bland medieval European settings, tired tropes) and subverts them. incredible world-building, diverse fantasy cultures, really cool arthrurian legend influence. one of my favorite books i’ve ever read tbh.
gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir - which you’ve read, obviously, but for posterity’s sake i’m keeping it here! sci-fi + murder mystery + gothic horror. genuinely funny while still having a super strong emotional core and more than enough gnarly necromantic to satisfy the horror nerd in me. makes use of some of my favorite tropes in fiction, namely the slowburn childhood enemies to reluctant allies to friends to ??? progression between gideon and harrow. absolutely frothing at the mouth for a sequel.
the broken earth trilogy by nk jemisin - really the first book that helped me realize i don’t hate fantasy, i just hate the mainstream ‘medieval europe but with magic’ version of fantasy that dominates the genre. EXTREMELY cool worldbuilding. i’ve definitely described it as like, a GOOD version of what the mage-vs-templar conflict in dragon age could have been, with a storyline particularly reminiscent of “what if someone got Anders right?”
this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone - i’m not usually big on epistolary novels, but this one really worked for me. spy vs spy but it’s gay and takes place between time traveling agents of two opposing sides of a war. the letter writing format really plays to el-mohtar’s strengths as a poet, the unfolding love story is weird and beautiful. it’s a really quick read, too, if you’re short on time or attention.
empress of forever by max gladstone - i just finished this one this week! if you’re in the mood for a space opera, look no further. imagine if steve jobs was an asian lesbian and also like not a shitty person. this is where you start with vivian liao. you get the classic putting-the-band-together arc with beings from all across the universe, your romances and enemies-turned-friends and uneasy alliances all over the place. really satisfying character development and some extremely cool twists along the way. it’s just a fun good time.
the luminous dead by caitlin starling - this one rides the line of horror so it’s closest to that part of the list. it reminds me of the most inventive low budget horror/sci-fi films i’ve loved in the best way possible because it makes use of the barest narrative resources. it’s a book that takes place in one primary setting, featuring interactions between two characters that only meet each other face-to-face for the briefest period. the tension between the two characters is the most compelling part of the story, with competing and increasingly unreliable narratives and an eerie backdrop to ratchet things up even higher. the author described it as “queer trust kink” at one point which is, uh, super apt actually and totally my jam. the relationship at the center of the book is complicated to say the least, outright combative at points, but super compelling. plus there’s lost of gnarly sci-fi spelunking if you like stories about people wandering around in caves.
horror
the ballad of black tom by victor lavalle - we all agree that while lovecraft introduced/popularized some cool elements into horror and kind of defined what cosmic horror would come to mean, he was a racist sack of shit. which is why my favorite type of ‘lovecraftian horror’ is the type that openly challenges his abhorrent views. the ballad of black tom is a retelling of the horror at redhook that flips the narrative by centering the action around a black protagonist.
lovecraft country by matt ruff - more of what i just described. again, lovecraftian themes centered around black protagonists. this one’s especially cool because it’s a series of interconnected short stories following related characters. it’s getting a tv adaptation i believe, but the book is definitely not to be missed
rolling in the deep / into the drowning deep by mira grant - mermaids are real and they’re the ultimate deep sea predators! that’s really the whole premise. if for some reason that’s not enough for you, let me add this: diverse cast, a romance between a bi woman who’s not afraid to use the word and an autistic lesbian, really cool speculative science tangents about mermaid biology and myth.
the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson - it’s halloween month so i’m thinking about hill house again. one of the greatest american ghost stories ever written. especially worth the read if you follow it up w the 1964 film adaptation (the haunting) and then the 2018 netflix series.
the hunger by alma katsu - i’ve always been fascinated by the donner party even though we now know the popular narrative is largely falsehoods. still, this highly fictionalized version of events scratched an itch for me and ended up surprising me with its resistance from the most expected and toxic racist tropes associated with donner party myth.
wounds / north american lake monsters by nathan ballingrud - nathan ballingrud is my favorite horror writer of all time. one of my favorite writers period regardless of genre. in ballingrud’s work the horror is right in front of you. you can look directly at it, it’s right there. but what permeates it, what draws your attention instead, what makes it hurt is the brutally honest emotional core of everything surrounding the horror. the human tragedy that’s’ reflected by the more fantastic horror elements is the heart of his work. it’s always deeply, profoundly moving for me. both of these collections are technically short stories, but they’re in the horror section of the recs because delineations are totally arbitrary and made solely at my discretion.
short stories
her body and other parties by carmen maria machado - tbh i almost put this in w horror but there’s enough weird fiction here for me to be willing to straddle the line. it was really refreshing to read horror that centered queer women’s perspectives. the stories in this collection are really diverse and super powerful. there’s an incredible weird fiction piece that’s like prompt-based law and order svu micro fiction (go with me here) that ends up going to some incredible places. there’s the husband stitch, a story that devastated me in ways i’m still unraveling. the final story reminded me of a more contemporary haunting of hill house in the best way possible. machado is a writer i’m really excited about.
vampires in the lemon grove by karen russell - my friend zach recommended this to me when we were swapping book recs earlier this year and i went wild for it! mostly weird fiction, but i’m not really interested in getting hung up on genres. i don’t know what to say about this really other than i really loved it and it got me excited about reading in a way i haven’t been in a while.
the tenth of december by george saunders - i really like saunders’ work and i feel like the tenth of december is a great place to start reading him. quirky without being cloying, weird without being unrelatable.
misc
the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid - there’s something really compelling to me about the glamour of old hollywood. this story is framed as a young journalist interviewing a famously reclusive former starlet at the end of her life. the story of how evelyn hugo goes from being the dirt-poor daughter of cuban immigrants to one of the biggest names in hollywood to an old woman facing the end of her life alone is by turns beautiful, inspiring, infuriating and desperately sad. by far the heart of the book is in evelyn finally coming out as bisexual, detailing her decades-long on/off relationship with celia st. james, another actress. evelyn’s life was turbulent, fraught with abuse and the kind of exploitation you can expect from the hollywood machine, but the story is compelling and engaging and i loved reading it.
smoke gets in your eyes by caitlin doughty - a memoir by caitlin doughty, the woman behind the popular ‘ask a mortician’ youtube series. it was a super insightful look into the american death industry and its many flaws as well as an interesting, often moving look at the human relationship with death through the eyes of someone touched by it early and deeply.
love and rockets by los bros hernandez (jaime and gilbert and mario) - this was a big alt comic in the 80s with some series within running on and off through the present. i’m not current, but this book was so important for me as a kid. in particular the locas series, which centered around two queer latina girls coming up in the punk scene in a fictional california town. the beginning starts of a little sci-fi-ish but over time becomes more concerned with slice-of-life personal dramas.
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obviouslyending replied to your post “it drives me up a fucking wall that this guy doesn’t use ANY of his...”
How did this guy make it this far without powers?
by exclusively using his guns (and by playing on Normal)
I think I only ever saw him use Adrenaline Rush once and it was by accident. I think he doesn’t like the slow-mo effect. the only time he uses powers is to swap his ammo type depending on what enemy he’s facing
#obviouslyending#it's also really frustrating watching him set up his squadmates#granted I don't blame him for not knowing exploits
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Happy birthday! I hope you have a great day! 😊
late responses, but thank you!!! i had a wonderful birthday and am looking to finish out 2020 well and happy :)
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Happy birthday!! 🎂 🎆🎇🎉🎊🎂 I hope you have a wonderful day!!
I did!!! thank you!!!
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lucky-santangelo replied to your post “Just finished marathoning Stranger Things. What a ride.”
Did you like???
obviouslyending
did u like???
Yes! A lot.
I really liked the group dynamics and the slow build. Those precious babies, ugh. have they been sorted into Hogwarts Houses?
Protect Lucas as all costs. He’s very important to me.
Joyce’s interactions with Eleven? My feels.
When the credits started, I was like, “MARTINE!” because I forgot Cara Buono was in it and I got excited all over again.
Sweet, precious Barb. My heart hurts.
I’m going on about an hour of sleep, so sorry if this doesn’t make sense.
Would recommend.
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happy birthday!!!! i hope u have absolutely wonderful day!! :)
Thanks! I had a wonderful day relaxing with food and friends--wouldn’t have it any other way :)
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8, 61, and 81! :)
8. Describe your crush
incredibly lovely. very passionate about what they talk about, which i find very endearing. witty, and very well spoken. let’s just say anyone who catches their eye is a very lucky person.
61. What is the first thing you notice in someone?
definitely smiles, but eyes come in at a very close second.
81. Who are five people you find attractive?
LORDY FRIEND EVERYONE WHO’S FACE HAS EVER CROSSED MY DASH; LIKE OH BOYYYYY MY FRIENDS ARE SO ATTRACTIVE LIKE CONGRATS ON YOUR EVERYTHING HONESTLY
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i have the macbook pro 15" and tbh sometimes i wish i went with the air bc it's smaller, lighter and easier to fit in bags, especially if u have to fit the textbooks/lunch/etc in too. bc after walking around campus all day with it, it just starts to get heavy. just something to think about :)
dang tru as hell u right
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happy birthday!!!!!!! I hope you have an absolutely fantastic day!! and i hope you have lots of birthday cake!!! :)
thanks a million! it was a great day and there was cake!!!!
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happy birthday!!!!! I hope you have a wonderful day!! :)
Thank you so much c:
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obviouslyending replied to your post:has anyone made a Clexa “When the sun has set no...
i could be wrong but i don’t think anyone has made it
well that settles it then
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happy birthday!! i hope you had a wonderful day!! :)
I did!!
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11 and 26 :)
11:Talk about the best dream you've ever had.
It was a really elaborate dream about me and my squad, but instead of living in washington we were living in Alaska, and we all decided to go out to this night-ski event that a local ski resort was having. In it I also had like the most fucking adorable girlfriend of all time, and like in my dreams unless the person is a real person, I don't ever really remember much about what they look like, but I just remember the absolute feeling of warmth that I felt looking at her and being with her in the dream, which was a huge influence to it being one of my best dreams. So my friends and I just drank beers and snowboarded/skied for hours. At the end me and my girlfriend were at the bottom of the run, and I mean the place was packed, but all I could focus on was hugging her and laughing and just the overall feeling of happiness was astronomical. Plus it was dark, so the northern lights lit up the mountain and made everything such pretty colors. It was really peaceful. I wasn’t so happy waking up from it, but still. The only other dream I can remember that even came close to being this happy was my only lucid dream.
26:Talk about things you do when you're sick.
I usually mope around quite a bit when I’m sick, and I complain a lot. It makes me feel better when I’m just feeling like slightly shitty, not like death. When I feel like death I’m usually silent. When I’m too sick to be sitting upright I bundle up on the couch and binge netflix until I’m better, drinking tea and eating chicken noodle soup. If I don't have a sore throat I smoke weed about it, but I almost always get sore throats when I’m sick.
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I hope it's okay that I reblogged your last textpost! Cause man, I legit do that all the time too! I tell my friends I fall in love at least once a day lol!
Hey there friend! It’s totally okay if you reblogged that post! It’s always wonderful to see others feel the same way tbh!
#asks#obviouslyending#text#BELIEVE ME I FALL IN LOVE WITH ALMOST EVERY GIRL THAT WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR
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do you mind talking about ur ocs in ur witches universe? (i'm sorry i forgot their names!!) like what's ur favourite thing about them? what's are their lil quirks? are they left or right handed? i need to kno!! :)
I LOVE TALKING ABT WITCHES VERSE PLS
my favorite thing abt poppy is her maternal, calming presence. she reminds me a lot of a younger molly weasley imo. she’s very soft and loving and caring and she feels like she has to take care of everybody and she’s incredibly selfless and wants to take care of everybody before she takes care of herself. she’s so kind i love her.
with piper, it’s her stubbornness actually. she’s so stubborn and stuck in her ways and it’s hard to change her mind. like convincing her to stay in good’s hollow was bordering on impossible. and a lot of piper’s main storyline is the fact that her whole world is abut to be shaken up, in more ways than just this mbig move and discovery of magic, so her reluctance to change her ways and her opinions is a big plot point for her and something im really excited to play with!
poe!! my lil son. idk i like his passion. how ready he is to throw himself into this magic thing like he accepts it so easy and quickly because it’s like yes ok finally a reason i can accept that im different. he was always kind of singled out because of his dyslexia in school and this really gives him a sense of belonging and he clings to it.
(i would do ivy and isobel too but i don’t have them quite as developed yet).
lil quirks!! omg poppy bounces. she bounces when she has something to say but she won’t ever interrupt people to say it so she’ll end up bouncing like she has to pee until she can say what she needs to say.
piper is much calmer but like her quirks are probably the way she plays her bracelets that she wears when she talks. just as a way to keep herself grounded.
poe is a literal doll i love him so much he’s like james potter he messes with his hair all the fucking time it annoys the shit out of piper she tries to get him to stop doing it constantly but he won’t.
poppy is right handed, piper is left handed, and poe is right handed. i think probably ivy is left handed and isobel is right handed.
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okay, so i found a song for a modern clexa au and i had to share it with you, because of this part!! "Are you alive or are you just livin'?Cause some of us are lookin' at the stars" and i died!!! the song is LA Love Song by XYLØ btw
ooooh TRU those lyrics are v v clexa oh boiiii
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