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angel-maldonado-enthusiast · 6 months

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Cesar Chavez (2014), dir. Diego Luna.

#cesar chavez #cesar chavez 2014 #2010s #diego luna #michael peña #rosario dawson #wes bentley #america ferrera #jacob vargas #michael cudlitz #yancey arias

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strinak · 1 year

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just had the revelation of how into witchblade the reverse harem girlies would have been

#witchblade #reverse harem #the live action starring yancey butler not the anime #let's see #hot doomed past life lover #cold mysterious billionaire who's probs a villain but also shares some kind of mindlink with you #sunshine new cop partner has no idea what's happening but has your back anyway #hot ghost of your former partner/best friend #sexy badass full of unspoken sadness protecting you from the shadows #truly we feasted

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crowclubkaz · 5 months

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💚👁️🕸️ In honour of The Magnus Protocol releasing today, here are some book recommendations based on The Magnus Archives Fears!! 🕸️👁️💚

Detailed list of books below the cut!

For more book recommendations, especially queer horror, check out my Bookstagram @hauntedstacks

The Buried ⚰️ - Into the Sublime by Kate A. Boorman - Stuck by Ben Young - The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - The Deep by Nick Cutter

The Corruption 🦠 - What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher - Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris - The Honeys by Ryan La Sala - She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

The Dark 🌑 - Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes - Nightfall by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski - No Power by Todd Kirby - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The Desolation 🔥 - Firestarter by Stephen King - Burner by Robert Ford - Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta - Burn the House Down by Kenna Jenkins

The End 💀 - Funeral Girl by Emma K. Ohland - Pet Sematary by Stephen King - Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune - This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

The Extinction 🦴 - Lost Signals by Max Booth III - Bride of the Tornado by James Kennedy - No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz - The Rules of the Road by C.B. Jones

The Eye 👁️ - Video Palace by Maynard Wills - Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie - A History of Fear by Luke Dumas - The Watchers by A.M. Shine

The Flesh 🦷 - You’ve Lost A Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca - Carnivore by Justin Boote - A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers - Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

The Hunt 🏹 - Hunt by Alexandra Nisneru - The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins - Survive the Night by Danielle Vega - The Hunger by Alma Katsu

The Lonely ☁️ - Red River Seven by A.J. Ryan - Solitude by Michael Penning - Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Slaughter 🥩 - Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin - Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine - American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis - The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas

The Spiral 🌀 - That Darkened Doorstep by Catherine Jordan - Mind the Mirrors by Amanda Leanne - Grey Noise by Marcus Hawke - Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling

The Stranger🕴️ - It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames - My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix - The Deep by Alma Katsu - The Outside by Stephen King

The Vast 🪂 - From Below by Darcy Coates - Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant - Floating Staircase by Ronald Mafi - Nightmare Sky by Red Lagoe

The Web 🕸️ - The Taking of Jake Livingston - The Fervor by Alma Katsu - The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig - Come Closer by Sarah Gran

If You Like The Magnus Archives 💚 - Thirteen Stories by Jonathan Sims - Family Business by Jonathan Sims - Gas Station by Jack Townsend - Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

#the magnus archives #the magnus protocol #tma #tmp #Jonathan sims #rusty quill #martin blackwood #jonmartin #booklr #bookstagram #books #horror books #queer books #horror book recs #book recs #mine

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wheatfalls · 5 months

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The crucifixion didn’t put an end to suffering; what it meant is that God entered into suffering. He is a God of wounds. “No one escapes this life unmarked by suffering. We are broken people who live on a broken planet, and grief is part of the price we pay,” the author Philip Yancey has written. Last year I asked Philip, a follower of Jesus, why he thought God allows suffering, especially for the young and the innocent. He told me, “I don’t know why God allows for suffering. All I know is that God is on the side of the sufferer.” I don’t believe there’s a satisfactory answer to the questions posed by Ivan, and Dostoyevsky, to his credit, doesn’t try to provide one. The problem of evil, for him, has no cut-and-dry solution. The Brothers Karamazov doesn’t give us a solution to suffering but a different way to look at it, and a way of life we can choose to take in response: active, incarnational love. A kiss is all we have for now. But a kiss is enough for now.

Peter Wehner, "Why Does God Allow the Innocent to Suffer?"

#text #quotes #jesus #dostoyevsky

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planetofsnarfs · 2 months

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When a child dies – any child – the loss is incalculable. There’s the loss of a son or daughter, a sibling, a cousin, a best friend. There’s a loss of a life, snuffed out before its time. The loss of a future – who knows what that child could have accomplished?

And when that child dies, particularly under horrific circumstances, there is a loss of innocence for all of us, regardless of whether we knew that child or not. Among the first impulses for anyone with a heart who wishes to protect other children is to find a way – any way – to prevent a loss like that from happening again.

The hyper-cruel antithesis of this is what’s going on right now in Oklahoma in the wake of 16-year-old Nex Benedict’s death. As we first reported, Nex, a transgender sophomore at Owasso High School, was brutally beaten by other students in a school bathroom and died the following day. The incident has drawn national attention – but not nearly enough, in my opinion – with many attributing the violent act to a culture of transphobia they say is being stoked by state officials.

Days before Nex’s death, The Oklahoman reported that there were a whopping 50 bills in the state legislature targeting LGBTQ+ people. The state ranks 48th in both education and health care. Don’t you think the state legislature and state government officials have better things to do than sow queer hate among its citizens?

One of those state officials is the superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters. Even before Nex’s death, Walters was virulently anti-LGBTQ+. More than 350 LGBTQ+ organizations, activists, and celebrities urged his removal from office after Nex died, saying he has encouraged “a climate of hate and bigotry” throughout his career. Nex’s death didn’t stop him from fanning the flames of hate.

Walters poured salt into a festering wound, telling The New York Times, “There's not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us.” He added that he did not believe that nonbinary or transgender people exist and that the state would not let students use names or pronouns other than those matching their birth records.

It seems the goal of the official responses around Nex’s death has been to protect those who bullied and beat him. Police were quick to release initial reports saying that Nex "did not die as a result of trauma."

It’s important to note that school officials did not reprimand, sanction, or report to authorities the students who critically harmed Nex. “No report of the incident was made to the Owasso Police Department prior to the notification at the hospital,” Chief Dan Yancey told The Advocate.

The police jumped out over their skis with their initial statement, which raised eyebrows. In fact, Sue Benedict, who was Nex’s adoptive mother, told the news site Popular Information that a statement released by the Owasso Police was a “big cover."

Parents and other members of the public expressed outrage over how the school was handling the response to Nex’s death, particularly pointing out that protecting queer kids and making sure that it didn’t happen again was not a priority for the school board. “Apparently people don’t feel safe here. I can’t imagine why at all,” public commenter Walter Masterson said at the first Owasso school board meeting after Nex's death. “A more 'woke' school board would see the death of a child and work to make sure it never happens again. Not this board.”

Then, along comes the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma, which concluded that Nex died by suicide. The medical examiner’s one-page summary report identifies the cause of death as combined toxicity from diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and fluoxetine (Prozac). Noticeably absent from the report were all the injuries Nex incurred the day before.

My colleague Christopher Wiggins was once a paramedic. When he saw the cause of death was attributed to two very common medications, he decided to investigate. He’s a damn good reporter, and his suspicions regarding the report were justified. He reached out to two toxicology experts, who first made it clear that they weren’t privy to Nex’s autopsy report; however, they told Christopher that the risk of death from these medications, especially when used as directed, is extraordinarily low.

In response to the coroner’s report, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement, “Nex’s family accurately notes how the report released this week does not reflect the full picture of what happened to Nex and continues to urge accountability of those who failed to keep Nex and all students in Oklahoma safe from bullying, harassment, assault, and most brutally, death.”

Now you have this full picture of all those involved, coupled with a backdrop of hate. Taken in its totality, the reaction to Nex’s death shows that a corrupt, do-nothing clique is part of a deceptive lie and cover-up that shows they did nothing, zero, zilch to protect the life of Nex or any child like him. The authorities' only goal is to protect the perpetrators, not just those who attacked Nex but all those who will be emboldened to beat others just like Nex in the future in school bathrooms throughout the state.

The grossly deceptive response to Nex’s death makes the state of Oklahoma a breeding ground for the bullying – and for beating to injury or death – of LGBTQ+ kids. What the state is doing goes against all we know about protecting vulnerable children.

If the state legislature pushes hate bills, if state officials spew hate, if local authorities and administrators cover up hate, then you create this breeding ground. You create an atmosphere where that hate explodes, like it did with Nex, and you use hate to demean the victim and ennoble the haters.

Suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth are astronomically high. If Nex ultimately did commit suicide -- and this initial autopsy report does not make a convincing case -- then Oklahoma officials still deserve to be held accountable. Oklahoma's LGBTQ+ suicide prevention line saw a 230 percent increase in calls after the cause of Nex's death was revealed by the coroner. As transgender activist Ari Drennan noted, in a climate of anti-trans hate, "every trans suicide is a murder."

But if Nex's death was ruled a suicide to avoid addressing anti-LGBTQ+ bullying, Oklahoma officials have crossed a line. Using suicide as a cover, as a deception, should be a crime.

It is worth repeating the ominous words of Walters that nonbinary or transgender people don’t exist. That means, in Walters’s world, Nex never existed. And if Nex never existed, how would Walters and other officials associated with him be able to objectively investigate Nex’s death?

All of which means that Nex’s autopsy report is a lie and a facade. Null and void. Plain and simple. Nex and his family deserve so much more, and we need to keep protesting loudly until we get the truth.

#nex benedict #children #teens #youth #public schools #public safety #republican party #christian nationalism #ryan walters #owasso high school #oklahoma

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hooked-on-elvis · 4 months

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Lisa Marie and daddy Elvis, the generous tooth fairy 🧚🏼‍♂️

When talking about how Lisa Marie Presley was bred, Becky Yancey (who was Graceland's secretary) was clear in state that Priscilla wanted to build character in little Lisa Marie, whereas Elvis was more such in a high with being a daddy that he just wanted to see Lisa happy all the time.

Since Priscilla was pregnant with Lisa, according to Becky, when she didn't even knew if the baby was a he or a she, Priscilla feared her kid would grow up not knowing the true value of things if she had everything granted to her that easily, with presents heaped on her all the time. According to Becky, some of Priscilla's words were on this matter were, "I don't want the baby living off Elvis' name". Daddy Elvis didn't care a bit for that talk. He spoiled Lisa to a fault, doing everything he could think of that could make his baby girl as happy as she could be.

To be fair, it's easy understand both sides. Obviously it's not that Priscilla didn't wanted Lisa to be a happy child but, as any caring mother normally does, her sight was way ahead in time and she worried about Lisa's personality in the future, not wanting a little brat walking around feeling all entitled to everything at a snap. This would help older Lisa to be conscious in understand about how privileged she was and the reality of the real world which is way apart from the "Elvis world" Lisa would grow up in. Elvis certainly was not a bad parent for spoiling his daughter either. He just couldn't help it. He loved seeing people smiling, thus it couldn't be any different when it comes to his little princess, his first born child. Who are we to judge parents and their parenting choices anyway, right?

The main point here is: I'd like to share a couple of stories on Becky Yancey's book about how funny-daddy Elvis Presley was excited and very proud of his child. To begin with, let's see how Elvis himself helped decorating Lisa's nursery at Graceland and how he loved to show Lisa around to his fans:

With the baby's arrival, the attention at Graceland shifted from Elvis to Priscilla to Lisa Marie. And Priscilla quickly learned that there was more spoiling to fear from the loving indulgences of the proud father and grandfather than from fans. Fans would have been happy to spoil Lisa, but Priscilla could keep them at a distance. Elvis and Mr. Presley (Vernon) were a more difficult problem. Elvis himself shopped for statuettes, pictures, and knick-knacks to fill Lisa's new nursery, which had at one time been a little-used conference room. Lisa wasn't old enough to toddle before Elvis had a gym set erected for her in the back yard. When she was big enough to play with it, Elvis often played with her. At other times we could look through the window or walk out the door and watch Elvis in a golf cart, with Lisa on his lap, driving slowly around the mansion grounds. One time he thrilled fans and gave his security goose bumps when he hoisted Lisa onto his broad shoulders and ambled down the driveway to greet the people standing in front of the Music Gate. It was one of the few times Lisa was photographed at Graceland by persons other than the family members. Priscilla may have had something to say about that incident, because Elvis never did it again.

February 5, 1968. Elvis and Priscilla presenting Lisa to the fans as soon as baby and mommy were ready to go home.

Second story, the title of the post. I found it so funny. This was after Elvis and Priscilla divorced (post 1973).

Priscilla laughs about the time Lisa was visiting her father in Las Vegas and lost a baby tooth. The tooth fairy left her five dollars. "I told Elvis that the tooth fairy usually left fifty cents, that five dollars was a little steep," she said. "He knew I wasn't angry, and he laughed about it. After all, who would expect Elvis Presley to know the going rate for a tooth?"

Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley. Circa July, 1973.

Stories come from the book "My Life With Elvis" (1977) by Becky Yancey & Cliff Linedecker.

#the presleys #elvis presley #lisa marie presley #priscilla presley #priscilla beaulieu #elvis and priscilla #elvis #elvis the king #elvis fans #elvis fandom #60s elvis #70s elvis #elvis history

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bookishjules · 2 months

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one of the series i've recommended recently to the 12yo i babysit was the 5th wave by rick yancey. and she loved it so much that she chose to write her longass literary essay for school on the last book. unfortunately she was having a bit of a hard time figuring out a main topic, something to tie all these phenomenal quotes about humanity together. so the other day she handed me my own copy of this book with all her little tabs sticking out the side and asked me to help her find connections. we spent the rest of the evening just getting so excited about symbolism and message and what defines humanity and how the main character's ending tied it all together, and my 12yo actually ended up crying at her desk because of how beautiful it all was.

anyway, today she showed me the outline she made in class for this essay and how she's going to use the nine quotes she chose and how she's threading it all together. she kept saying she couldn't have done it without me. and she said that she's changed her mind from two days ago (when admittedly she was also in a depressive mood) when she said she despised literary essays, and she might actually love them now!

and ... i don't know i just. i love literature. i love the way it ties us together across generations and i love the conversations that can come from it. i love that, even if i'm not in school right now, even if my english major wasn't even about literature, i still get to do this shit every day. like we may not be writing proper literary essays, but my 12yo doing this assignment on a ya book i loved so much in high school, focusing on the themes and the intricacies, pulling quotes and being gutted by them, the way it all felt so natural.. made me realize just how cool it is that we still get to do that in fandom. we're still writing analyses about books we loved when we were twelve. we just do it for ourselves now. and for our friends. and i think that's what made the difference for my kiddo tbh, what made her realize how fun writing a literary essay like this could be. it's not about the teacher at all. it's about you and the book and humanity.

#this got long oops lol #babysitting woes #literature #books

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mariacallous · 5 months

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The internet sucks now. Once a playground fueled by experimentation and freedom and connection, it’s a flimsy husk of what it was, all merriment and serendipity leached from our screens by vile capitalist forces. Everything is too commercialized. We commodified the self, then we commodified robots to impersonate the self, and now they’re taking our damn jobs. We live in diminished and degrading times. I miss when memes were funny. I miss Vine. I miss Gawker. I miss old Twitter. Blogs—those were the days!

Stop me if these gripes sound familiar. In 2023, the idea that the internet isn’t fun anymore is conventional wisdom. This year, after Elon Musk renamed Twitter “X” and instituted a series of berserk changes that made it substantially less functional, complaints about the demise of the good internet popped up like mushrooms sprouting in dirt tossed over a fresh grave. Some people even complained on the very platforms they were mourning. Type “internet sucks now” into X’s search bar, you’ll see.

The New Yorker published an essay by writer Kyle Chayka on the subject, calling the decline of X a “bellwether for a new era of the Internet that simply feels less fun than it used to be.” People loved it. (Sample comments from X: “Relatable.” “Exactly right.”) Chayka claims that it’s now harder to find new memes, websites, and browser games than it was a decade ago. He also argues that the rising crop of platforms popular with young people—Twitch, TikTok—are inferior, enjoyment-wise, to the social web of the 2010s.

Both of these arguments are baffling. Memes fresher in the past? Yes, it’s tiresome to see Tim Robinson in a hot dog costume for the 500th time, but c’mon. In the early 2010s—the years Chayka longs for—the internet was all doge and doggos. It was the era of reaction GIF Tumblrs, the Harlem Shake, the Ice Bucket Challenge. Give me literally any still from I Think You Should Leave over “You Had One Job” epic fail image macros. Only glasses of the rosiest tint could recast the 2013 internet as a shitposting paradise lost.

The argument that the 2010s social web was superior amusement to the platforms now popular with Gen Z is even stranger. TikTok has major issues, but being unfun is not one of them. It’s been a springboard for some genuinely talented people, from comic Brian Jordan Alvarez to writer Rayne Fisher-Quann to chef Tabitha Brown. Binging Twitch streams certainly isn’t my thing, but people aren’t being held at gunpoint and forced to watch seven straight hours of Pokimane. They like it! They’re having fun! And how can one say with a straight face that gaming got worse? Roblox alone is a gleeful world unto itself; to pretend it doesn’t exist and isn’t a vibrant digital hangout is goofy and obtuse.

Corrosion of specific platforms on the internet—X, to pluck the most obvious example—is an observable phenomenon. (I, too, mourn old Twitter.) Musk’s changes to how X operates have made it harder to surface and verify information; his antics have driven away both advertisers and power users and allowed the cryptogrifter class to spam inboxes with invitations to NFT drops and meme coins, resulting in a digital space that feels abandoned and crowded at once. Other platforms, though, are flourishing.

Look at Discord, for instance. Its siloed structure is a throwback to the pre-Facebook internet era, when socializing online often meant logging on to specific forums. The disintegration of the Big Tech-dominated 2010s internet is creating a more balkanized social web experience, what Kickstarter cofounder Yancey Strickler calls the “dark forest” theory, where people turn away from big, open mega-platforms in favor of more private or niche digital spaces, from nonpublic Slack channels to invite-only WeChat groups or special-interest podcasts. While some people might find that boring and hard to navigate, it’s not universally boring, or inherently difficult to navigate.

There are serious problems with the internet right now. Platform decay—“enshittification”—is real, and it’s not limited to X. Search is in shambles. Plus, the flood of AI spam has just begun. But there were serious problems with the internet 10 years ago too. Arguing that the decline of certain corners of a previous version of the internet means that the entire internet isn’t entertaining anymore is a preposterous leap.

The impulse to describe the internet as being in a dire existential crisis is an understandable one, especially if you love going online—it’s easier to get people to pay attention to emergencies, isn’t it? All sorts of decidedly not-dead things get declared dead periodically, from literary criticism to monogamy to Berlin. “My favorite platforms are faltering and I don’t like the new ones” isn’t as compelling a pitch as “The basic experience of goofing off online is on the brink of extinction!!!”

But the basic experience of goofing off and being creative online is not on the brink of extinction. Ten years from now, there will be writers—even if they’re AI chumbots churning out shitty prose on SubstaXitch, the demonic merged iteration of Twitch, Substack, and X our poor children will use—earnestly reminiscing about the good old days of 2023, when that affable menswear guy showed up on everybody’s feeds, and TikTok wasn’t banned in the US. I know this. I know it because during the era that Chayka is now nostalgic for, people were also complaining that they missed the old, good internet. (Real headline from 2015: “The Modern Internet Sucks. Bring Back Geocities.”)

This brings me to my theory about the internet. To understand how people feel about being online, look at how they feel about the long-running sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live.

Bitching about how SNL is so much worse than it used to be is a time-honored tradition. It has been declared “Saturday Night Dead” regularly since it debuted in 1975, nearly 50 years ago. In 1995, for instance, a New York magazine writer bemoaned the “slow, woozy fall of a treasured pop-culture institution.” The cast at the time included Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Norm Macdonald, and Molly Shannon, all widely considered comedy legends in the present day. In 2017, in fact, New York ranked that cast’s run as the third-best era of SNL, ever, describing it like this: “At its peak, it’s hard to argue the show was ever better.” Quite the reassessment!

In 2014, writer Liz Shannon Miller examined the impulse people have to favor whatever era of Saturday Night Live they grew up with and watched during their formative years. “It’s a generational problem that leads to parents and kids just not being able to agree on the talents of John Belushi versus Will Ferrell,” Miller wrote for IndieWire.

A similar sort of generational problem is playing out right now about what it’s like to spend time online. Millennials grew up logging on in the 2000s and 2010s, maturing alongside Facebook. The internet from this era is the internet of our salad days. Of course watching it get eclipsed by a different iteration hurts. Of course some of us look at TikTok and wish it was Twitter—it’s the same impulse that propels family squabbles about whether the Lonely Island guys were funnier than the Please Don’t Destroy boys. Saturday Night Live has always been wildly uneven. Every era now heralded as golden was once pilloried as corny dreck.

To insist that the fun is over is to adopt an overly nostalgic stance, and one that rests on a pathetic fallacy: Just because you aren’t having fun on the internet doesn’t mean the internet itself is broken. It’s what it always has been, a flawed mirror of the cultural moment. It’s fine not to like it. But don’t pretend there aren’t young people alive right now who are having the most fun they’ll ever have online, just as there are young people alive right now who will be raving to their kids about how hilarious Bowen Yang was on SNL—especially compared to the synthetic clones of Gilda Radner and Jimmy Fallon the AI programmed to imitate Lorne Michaels cast in the 2061 season. We don’t need to make the present sound worse than it is. The future will come, soon enough.

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beneaththetangles · 1 year

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Letter: Why We Won’t Be Covering the Rurouni Kenshin Reboot (And Why You Maybe Shouldn’t Watch It, Either)

Dear Friends,

The new anime season is just around the corner! And one that stands above the rest for fans of a certain generation. Running for two consecutive cours and premiering July 7th, the new Rurouni Kenshin anime is the latest classic series from c. 2000 to receive a reboot. The original was a precious show to me (as was the original manga), which made it all the harder when I decided that I wouldn’t be tuning in. Neither will Beneath the Tangles be generating any content related to the series beyond this letter as we seek to best live out the principles we espouse and encourage you to deeply consider the entertainment you consume.

But before I explain further, let me take you back to 2002. Though I’d grown up in the church and in a Christian family, I’d only recently come to understand the weight of what Christ did for me on the cross and how truly amazing his grace is. I was learning about Christ as the living Savior and not just the wonderful teacher I’d grown up reading about. He had come alive to me.

I was reading the Bible voraciously, but I was also learning about Christ from others, namely, writers like Philip Yancey, C.S. Lewis, and John Piper. And though I didn’t realize until I started Beneath the Tangles, I was also forming my conception of Christ from non-Christian media that helped illustrate biblical principles in ways that were imaginative and unexpected. Two characters from anime illuminated Christlike actions to me in particular. Yep, you guessed it—they were from the two recent reboots, Vash the Stampede (Trigun) and Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin).

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river-kodai-supremacy · 10 months

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ITS FINALLY HERE!!

(please keep scrolling to read!!💖⚠️)

this is some fan promotional art I made for the novel I have been waiting for!!!

YALL NEED TO CHECK OUT THIS BOOK *NOW*

here's the silly link to the amazon page!

💙💜💫here's the blurb:💫💜💙

""Show me where it says that some stories are forever and always off limits, just because of who we are."

Recently out of foster care and diagnosed as a Dissociative Identity Disorder system, Yancey Love and his fellow alters are simply trying to navigate life day by day. However, Yancey can't help yearning for a chance to be a part of something bigger than his own routines.

When a simple errand turns into a psychic-powered back alley brawl involving a telekinetic teen named River, Yancey gets way more than he wished for!

River claims his sister has been kidnapped by a mysterious agency of espers seeking out people with powers. That really wouldn't be Yancey's problem-until he discovers he and his headmates have psychic powers as well.

And they might be just the sort of abilities River needs...

Hoping for answers, Yancey agrees to team up with River. With enemy espers hot on their tail, and a dangerous world of secret organizations brewing ahead, this unlikely friendship is put to the test as the two struggle to work together.

Sci-fi with a bit of superhero meets mental health issues in this YA adventure exploring friendship, teamwork, courage, and the power of meaningful healing. "

- The Parallel by Kyra R. Croninger

this book is an amazing adventure that is full of great representation and has a fun and diverse cast of characters, all of which I have a hard time NOT falling in love with!

if you see this post, PLEASE go give it a try!! the kindle eBook is only $0.99 right now so its very cheap and I promise you its worth every penny and more! 💜💙💫

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kimberly40 · 7 months

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BACK HOME

lf I had the power to turn back the clock,

Go back to that house at the end of the block,

The house that was home when I was a kid,

I know that I’d love it more now than I did.

If I could be back there at my mother’s knee,

And hear once again all the things she told me,

I’d listen as I never listened before,

For she knew so well just what life had in store.

And all the advice my dad used to give,

His voice I’ll remember as long as I live,

But it didn’t seem really important then,

What I’d give just to live it all over again.

And what I’d give for the chance I once had,

To do so much more for my mother and dad,

To give them more joy and a little less pain,

A little more sunshine - a little less rain.

But the years roll on and we cannot go back,

Whether we were born in a mansion or in a shack,

But we can start right now - in the hour that’s here,

To do something more for the ones we hold dear.

And since time in its flight is traveling so fast,

Let’s not spend It regretting that which is past,

But let’s make tomorrow a happier day,

By doing our ‘good to others’ - today.

— unknown

Pictured is Yancey County, North Carolina

#appalachian #appalachian mountains #north carolina #appalachian culture #western north carolina #appalachia #the south #nc mountains

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swede1952 · 5 months

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Good morning. ⛈️⛈️⛈️

6 January 2024

Here we are in the solitude of Saturday morning before dawn. Sipping coffee and thinking about times in the past. It's natural this early to stifle a yawn. Remember the years gone by were a blast.

My father was a sailor and when I was a child, we were stationed at Yokosuka, Japan. We lived on the Naval Base. Near the sea wall, there was a playground, and on the playground, there was an old, scraped sea plane that was mounted with a slide going out the back. We spent much time playing make believe in the old plane. I'm certain that old hulk is gone now because there were lots of sharp and rough edges. Today society would judge it as being too risky a place for children to play.

“You're never perfectly safe. No human being on Earth ever is or ever was. To live is to risk your life, your heart, everything.” - Rick Yancey, The Last Star

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #birds #birdwatching #morning #safety #cloiuds #birdsphotography #birds of north america #birdlovers #birdphotography #birds nature

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violettduchess · 9 months

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I have a very different kind of question. I am wanting to improve my English and would like to read something which a little darker, like the Hunger Games. Can you recommend any books which are not too hard? Maybe something you have read with your students?

Ahh looking for some good dystopian fiction?

I read The Giver by Lois Lowry with my 11th grade and they have always really liked it, even the students who don't like reading. We also read Dry by Jarrod Shusterman and Neal Shusterman which I really really enjoyed.

Other good dystopian YA books that I have read and can recommend are: The Maze Runner by James Dashner, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.

#book recs

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volturialice · 1 year

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Do you have any dark gothic/horror book recs? I’m trying to get out of thrillers at the moment. also looking for some dark classics. any ideas?

I was waiting to answer this until after the Bella's Book Club summer reading reclist went live and now it's live!! and I must say, full of some Choice gothic recs. But I'll list my personal faves here!

Dark™ things from my part of the BBC reclist:

Jamaica Inn (and My Cousin Rachel) by Daphne du Maurier - iirc I described Jamaica Inn as gothic + adventure in my recs, and yep, that's what it is. definitely part of the specific "the book cover shows a woman in a nightgown running from a scary building" gothic heroine tradition. I also gave a brief nod to My Cousin Rachel because it's another of du Maurier's works which I think is underrated (that one's more of a slow-burning gothic mystery featuring a hero of the 'little wet babygirl' variety.)

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Also as I said in my recs, it's very like Jamaica Inn in structure and genre, though of course the writing, the specific characters, and the central mysteries are different. But MG is (of course) Mexican and has more fun Get Out/Ready or Not vibes with its themes of class and ethnicity.

Girls Running from Houses by tanaudel on redbubble

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind - Villain protagonist villain protagonist! This one I love mostly for its flowery prose and sheer aesthetic commitment. You're telling me this 18th-century French serial killer turns his victims into perfume?? Say more

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey - Seriously the most underrated YA series of all time. Also so gory and terrifying I sometimes cannot believe it's YA. To this day some of the scariest written horror my eyes have beheld, not to mention it's got banger prose. Most people know Rick Yancey from The 5th Wave which is such bland cookiecutter 2010s YA dystopia love triangle nonsense that I just want to shake everyone and go NO, READ THIS BRILLIANCE INSTEAD! ngl the last book in the series is Not Good (you can 100% tell he had switched all his energies to 5th Wave, which is a shame) but the first 3 are absolutely good enough to make up for it.

Other people's reclist recs that I too have read and enjoyed: Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson), Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

More classics: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (short and easy read!), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (a must-read for aesthete gays everywhere. I mean cmon it's Oscar)

Extremely melodramatic "classics:' I loved reading Louisa May Alcott's little known "flops" A Long Fatal Love Chase and Behind a Mask (short story collection.) I might make Book Club read Love Chase at some point because I think we'd have way too much fun with it. We'll see.

My personal favorite that I think everyone should read: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (short story collection of gothic fairytale retellings!)

Not exactly what you think of when you hear 'gothic' per se but definitely Dark and it's my OTHER favorite: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (I never shut up about this book and it's for a reason. Very different from the movie, which I also love!)

My favorite gothic/horror authors:

Shirley Jackson - I've definitely talked about her before but both The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are straight bangers (and short, easy reads to boot!) Do NOT think you can watch the Mike Fl*nagan Hill House show of the same name and call it a day—they're completely different stories. (also let the record show I'm censoring his name out of personal dislike he hasn't done anything 'problematic' afaik calm down)

Stephen Graham Jones - Insanely good writing oh my god. I have so far only read the My Heart is a Chainsaw books but his entire oeuvre is on my TBR because he cannot lose. Also he lives in my town and I'm starstruck just knowing this fact. Indigenous (Blackfoot) author who writes about indigenous characters!

Kelly Link - Writer of banger short fiction. I particularly enjoy Pretty Monsters because it's 100% written for the Twilight girlies and clearly made with love and silliness

Grady Hendrix - I didn't loooove Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but I adored Hörrorstör and especially My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is a total masterpiece IMO. Another writer whose entire oeuvre is on my TBR.

#asks #books #bella's book club

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dramoor · 2 years

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"God loves us because of who God is, not because of who we are. That is grace."

~Philip Yancey

#God loves us because He is love #grace #Virgin Mary #Madonna and Christ Child #Lord Jesus #Theotokos #Christian art

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fawnhoards · 2 years

Text

A collection of dialogue from Rick Yancey’s The Final Descent. To be used as sentence starters. As per usual, feel free to change pronouns or whatever you see fit. Mentions / implications of death, murder, violence, alcohol.

“ It would be humorous if it weren’t so painful to watch. ”

“ I have no idea what you’re talking about. ”

“ It’s positively reckless going back in there. ”

“ I strive against the dark that others may live in the light. ”

“ Do you think your tears will bring them back? ”

“ I was a child; what choice did I have? ”

“ When was the last time you had something to eat? ”

“ Speak plainly. I haven’t the time for riddles. ”

“ The bridge of trust has been burned. ”

“ I’ve made a tactical error. ”

“ I thought you might like another cup. ”

“ What if I fail? ”

“ Don’t you have anything better to do? ”

“ This is excellent brandy, by the way. ”

“ You’ve no idea what trouble it is. ”

“ What in heaven’s name have you done? ”

“ Every second is precious now. ”

“ It is not fame I crave; it is immortality. ”

“ You are now resisting the urge to brag. ”

“ You are the most even-tempered man I have ever met. ”

“ You aren’t coming? ”

“ I can see that your heart is troubled… ”

“ The less who know about the find for now, the better. ”

“ Stop that. Don’t be childish. ”

“ I believe I am in charge of my own death. ”

“ I’ll stay here, if you don’t mind. ”

“ It isn’t my fault you don’t have a sense of humor. ”

“ You aren’t half as clever as you think you are, you know. ”

“ I should very much like to kiss you now. ”

“ I should very much like for you to kiss me again. ”

“ May I ask you something? ”

“ You are the first and only girl I’ve ever kissed. ”

“ I wonder what other intelligence he may be privy to. ”

“ Where do your fascinations lie? ”

“ Your passion carries the seeds of damnation, not deliverance. ”

“ I’m beginning to think you’re merely full of shit. ”

“ I would suggest getting some sleep if you can. ”

“ She annoys the hell out of me. ”

“ Cursing is the crutch of an unimaginative mind. ”

“ You are the last person I expected to see. ”

“ Tell me what to say, and I will say it. ”

“ I can’t help but feel that we got off on the wrong foot. ”

“ Of course I pray. I won’t bother asking if you do. ”

“ I’ve no obligation to explain myself to you or to anyone! ”

“ Do not say such things! ”

“ I’d no idea you were a killer. ”

“ You always were a terrible liar. ”

“ You may very well have just signed my death warrant. ”

“ I don’t recall requesting the pleasure of your company. ”

“ I do not think you should lecture me about arrogance or simple human decency. ”

“ You’re easier to read than you may think. ”

“ I don’t care what you want. ”

“ You’re not being honest with me. ”

“ This was an act of revenge: rash, vindictive, heartless, monstrous… ”

“ I never asked to be this. I had no choice or say in it! ”

“ I sacrificed everything for you! ”

“ I owe you nothing. ”

“ I think I’m going to be sick. ”

“ I have no home to return to. ”

“ Of course, you are always welcome to stay with me. ”

“ I am a burden, a hindrance. ”

“ I have saved you from yourself for the last time. ”

“ I shall decide if and when to end her misery. ”

“ You are my eyes in the dark places. ”

“ I haven’t killed anyone for a very long time. ”

“ I am glad to see you. I was afraid you might be… gone. ”

“ It was worth a try, wasn’t it? ”

“ You ask questions when you should be quiet and hold your tongue when you should ask! ”

“ Do you think it means anything that I’ve murdered three times before I’ve fallen in love once? ”

“ I’ve always thought, if heaven is such a wonderful place, why is entering it so absurdly easy? ”

“ So you see there is no need for anyone to keep me human, for there is nothing human in me to keep. ”

“ You know next to nothing about the matter, and I would appreciate it if you dropped it and never brought it up again. ”

“ Please don’t begin the conversation by saying you had nothing better to do or some other insulting remark that you mistake for wit. ”

#sentence starters #rp starters #rp meme #ask meme

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