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a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual · 10 months

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More Nimona headcanons because these dorks have taken over my brain

I feel like Nimona tried really hard to hate Ambrosius

The first month they knew each other Nimona tried so hard to antagonize him and poke fun at him and remind him of the shit he’s done wrong

But it’s kind of hard to hate someone who’s slow to anger and quick to forgive

Reminding someone of their past mistakes with the intent to hurt them kind of stops being fun when the person is constantly aware of their mistakes

And owns up to them without making excuses and is constantly trying to undo the damage their mistakes caused

After a while, he grows on her and she starts to trust him and in return he trusts her

This one is based heavily on me and my best friends

Nimona and Ambrosius will talk shit loudly in public

They won’t use code names and if they don’t know the person they’ll start describing them like “Did you see that dude in the yellow shirt? He just pushed that kid out of line what a dick!”

They won't check to see if the person is out of earshot either they simply don't give a fuck

And this gives Bal so much fucking anxiety enough that he starts pleading with them to stop

You hear them going off about something and Bal saying “Ambrosius love hun sunshine I’m begging you to keep your voice down”

“Nim Nimona starlight hi I would like to remind you that they’re still behind us and I don’t want to explain to Ambrosius why you’ve gotten into another fight this week so please stop”

To which Nimona responds with “Tell him he’ll probably laugh”

Whenever Nimona and Ambrosius want to rant they rant to each other

Because Bal is the type of person to give advice in the middle of a rant

Talking some “If you explain this to them in a calm and compassionate manner I’m sure they’ll stop”

And while that's excellent advice sometimes you just want to scream your most unhinged thoughts at someone

And they never judge each other either

Nimona can look Ambrosius dead in the eyes and go “Have you ever gotten so angry during an argument that you’ve considered lighting their car on fire?”

And Ambrosius won't even think about it he’ll respond immediately with a “Who hasn't?” while Bal slowly backs out of the room and silently vows to hide his car the next time they fight

Whenever Ambrosius comes home from a stressful day at work he just walks into the house and lets out the most dramatic drawn out sigh

And whenever Nimona hears that noise they’ll run to the living room and sit on the couch patiently waiting for their daily rant session

Whenever Nimona gets home and wants to rant he’ll walk around until he finds Ambrosius

And if he can't find him he’ll sit by Bal and stew in his anger while he waits for him to come home

He can't even take one step through the door without Nimona saying something like “How dare you make me wait”

And Ambrosius will always respond with something like “Oh I’m so sorry firecracker it’ll never happen again”

And encourage them to tell him the information they’ve been patiently waiting to spill

Bal doesn’t rant unless he’s literally at the end of his rope

Like you have to royally screw him over for him to go home and rant to his family

When he finally rants to them they don’t make a big deal out of it

But they do however try their best to take care of him without raising his suspicions

Nimona will conveniently make Bal’s favorite dinner

Ambrosius will just so happen to pick up his favorite dessert on his way home (cause they both know the signs of a Bal rant and they plan accordingly)

They listen to his rant and let him eat his favorite food in peace while they play his favorite movies

You know real wholesome shit

All the while they’re coming up with plans in their head to destroy this person's life

#nimona 2023 #Nimona movie #nimona headcanon #nimona #ballister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin #ballister x ambrosius #goldenheart #I love protective Ambrosius and Nimona #they both love bal so much #and would shank a bitch for him #and if that isn't the pinnacle of love I don't know what is #i love this stupid little family #I know they've had to fight people for each other #Nimona would get into a fight to protect her dads prove me wrong #they stress Bal out #all the time every day #he’s not surprised by anything anymore

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the-oc-lass · 5 months

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Nimona OC - Charlotte Swiftheart/Corova

Alright. My break (from school) is officially over and I'm heading back to the dorms today (I don't know how to feel about that, honestly). But it's fine. I just have three more weeks and then I'm off for a month for Christmas. We'll be alright, lads.

And now, for more stuff.

First, Previous, Next

To keep herself from pacing, she busies herself with taking care of the children. She hasn't heard anything from Ballister or Nimona yet, and they weren't at the tower when she checked. She's worried that something happened to them after they fled the market. Is the Squire dead? Did they have to dispose of the body? No, no, surely not...

Besides, Nimona talks big about killing, but she isn't really like that. She wouldn't kill someone. Not on purpose. Charlotte shakes her head slightly, looking down at where little Todd (she laughs internally as she thinks back to shooting knight Todd's crossbow out of his hands) is curling up in his bed. He has a raggedy teddy bear clutched to his chest, and Charlotte smiles softly as she pulls the blanket a little bit higher over him.

"Are you comfortable, sweetheart?" she asks softly. He nods, nestling a little further under the blanket, and she brushes some hair away from his forehead. "Alright. Good night, Todd."

"Good night, Chari," he mutters back. She turns away, making sure that all of the children are accounted for, then steps out and into the main area. Just then, a rhythm is hit into the pipe, echoing through the room. Her eyes widen, and she rushes toward the door, looking up at where Indrie is perched.

"It's them," she says, looking down at Charlotte. Charlotte quickly unbolts the door and opens it. As soon as she sees Ballister and Nimona, she yanks them both into a hug.

"Oh, thank Gloreth, you're okay," she says, squeezing them. Ballister relaxes in her grip, and Nimona awkwardly pats a hand against Charlotte's back. After a few moments, Charlotte steps back. "Sorry. Come in, please." She steps aside and allows the two of them to step inside, then closes the door behind them.

"Is it alright if we stay here for a few hours?" Ballister asks. Charlotte sets a hand on his shoulder.

"Of course, Bal. Stay for as long as you need. Do you want anything to eat? A place to sleep?" she asks. Ballister shakes his head.

"I'm alright. But thank you," he says. Nimona, however, leans around him and holds up a finger.

"I could eat," she says. Charlotte chuckles.

"Of course. Help yourself, Nim," she says. Nimona grins, then shifts into a rabbit and quite literally hops away. Once she's gone, Charlotte turns to Ballister, taking a moment before she loops her arm around his. "Walk with me." He nods, and they move away from the door. She watches him purse his lips, clearly thinking.

"We're going to see Ambrosius in the morning," he says. She almost recoils.

"What? Bal, why? He's in charge of looking for you! You'd be putting yourself and Nimona in danger," she says. He sighs.

"I know. But when we talked to the Squire, he showed us something. Something that can prove I'm innocent. Ambrosius needs to see it," he says. She frowns slightly.

"What did he show you, Bal?" He looks over at her.

"Right. Let me show you," he says. She releases his arm as they stop walking and he reaches into his back pocket, retrieving a phone. As soon as it's turned on, she can see a video, which she plays. On top of some rather embarrassing things that show how much this particular Squire admired Ballister, it also reveals who sabotaged Ballister's sword. The person who really killed the queen.

The Director.

"That witch!" Charlotte hisses. She looks back at Ballister. "Why do you need to bring this to Ambrosius? The entire kingdom needs to see this, Bal!"

"That's what I told him!" They look over as Nimona starts walking over to them, a small slice of Charlotte's most recent pie cradled on a plate in her hands. Ballister sighs.

"And like I said before, we can't. The Director is the problem, not the Institute," he says. Charlotte's frown deepens.

"Bal-"

"Look, I don't want to talk about this. Do you have somewhere I can rest for a bit?" Charlotte purses her lips for a moment, then sighs.

"Yeah. I'll have someone take you." She gestures for one of the sanctuary members to come over to them, then looks back at Ballister and holds up the phone. "Do you mind if I hold on to this for a little while? I'll give it back before you leave, I promise." He looks back at her for a moment, obviously considering. Then, he sighs again.

"Alright. Fine. Good night."

"Good night." He turns to follow the sanctuary member upstairs. They don't really have spare beds, but there's a couch that Nimona stays on when she's here.

"He's so brainwashed it's sad," Nimona says. Charlotte looks over at her, watching as she chomps on her slice of pie. After a moment, she looks after Ballister, feeling rather sad about it all. She hoped it wouldn't be like this.

"Come sit with me for a bit?" she asks, looking back at Nimona. The shapeshifter pauses mid-bite, then slowly pulls her mouth back.

"Okay? Why?" she asks. Charlotte takes a deep breath.

"I think there are some things you should hear."

1/2

Lovely tagged people:

@ammonitetheseaserpent @perfectkittystranger @madlad06 @xxlunadrawsstuffxx @floxu

#nimona #nimona oc #nimona movie #nimona 2023 #nimona film #nimona netflix #original character #oc: charlotte swiftheart/corova #ballister boldheart #nimona nimona #nimona ballister

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jesuisici33 · 10 months

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Buddie kiss in a rush of adrenaline, please?

🥹👉👈💞🦛

you can blame the movie nimona for this au, friend!

Eddie sits down on the bench, laying his head back against the cold stone wall. With his eyes closed and arms crossed, he hopes it fools the guards into thinking Eddie is more calm than he really is. That they can’t tell how much his heart is pounding or how his skin itches to start punching things. Again. Just like how they found him when his hood fell off and people let out cries that the Princess Assassin is here amongst them.

In the back of his head, he knew street fighting was a bad idea. However, he needed some sort of outlet into what happened to him. When Princess Taylor was found alone with a masked vigilante wielding Eddie’s own sword, he had no choice but to flee. Eddie is innocent. He’ll admit he doesn’t like the princess all that much. Too self-entitled and egotistical in his opinion. Yet he made a sworn duty to protect her, and that’s a vow he takes seriously.

The moment he heard the news that Buck saved her from what everyone assumed was him, he fled as quickly as he could. Leaving Buck and Christopher behind is still one of the most devastating decisions he’s ever made in his life. But what choice did he have when all the palace guards - Buck included - were on a manhunt for him? No time to say goodbye, no time to grab any of his valuables besides the clothes on his back and steal away in the dead of night. Using his knight training to lose Buck and the rest of the 118 division.

It wasn’t until he met Lena and the underground fighting club that he was able to find an outlet to his anger.

Of course, that’s what led to his downfall.

Idly, he hears the steps of a man in armor come up to his cell and knows instantly who it is. Opening his eyes, he’s met with the wary, blue eyed stare of his love. Adorned in golden armor - because he’s Princess Taylor’s golden knight, her favorite amongst them - Buck looks even more beautiful than Eddie last saw him.

Buck doesn’t speak. Waiting instead for Eddie to break first. It’s part of their training to get the prisoner to speak first. Eddie meets Buck’s stare with a cooly raised eyebrow. He can play this game just as long.

After a few minutes, Buck speaks first. His voice breaks when he asks, “Why?”

Read More on AO3!

#buddie fic #buddie prompt #evan buck buckley #eddie diaz #911 prompts

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sweetnessreads · 3 years

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Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

spoilers: yes

i've recently started to read graphic novels as it's a form of reading that isn't heavy on my emotionally or mentally. nimona is a book that I have seen reccomend on platforms and in a few lists on goodreads that are related to other books i've read or am planning to read.

so, first let's talk about the book! nimona is a graphic novel about a young shape shifter being the sidekick to an evil villain, blackheart. she's overexcited about plans and schemes, whereas he is more serious and practical in his approaches. the story focuses on them uncovering an evil scheme run by the institution, the plot to destroy it whilst buying labelled as the bad guys, the uncovering of their back stories and the friendship they develop along the way.

at first I didnt really find myself enjoying the book too much, i'm not sure why, maybe it just wasn't the kind of story i was looking for at the time but once the plot developed i really started to enjoy it, like a lot! i thought nimona's backstory was heartbreaking but the display of it throughout the book and in her behaviours is so interesting and i really loved the backstory behind the "evil villian" and his issues and his relationship to his former friend and arch enemy.

i loved how to book ended, i think the noelle did it perfectly, it was all painful and sad, as we see nimona angry and we see her die, and how blackheart is still fighting for it as everyone calls her a monster, because she isn't one. but the ending isn't sad, well it is in a way. nimona tricks us, she isnt dead but alive and hiding, she checks up on blackheart whilst he's recovering and then disappears, never to see him again. the ending shows blackheart leading a life away from villiany, a good life perhaps.

star rating: 5/5

i really recommend it!

#nimona #graphic novel #books #book review

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kierongillen · 6 years

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Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 32

Spoilers, obv.

While I've done this in my Tumblr asks, I forget if I've put this in the actual notes or not. I would presume I haven't, because if I'd put the following caveat in the Writer’s Notes and I'm still being asked when the Writer Notes are coming when they're later than usual by people who presumably read the Writer Notes it would be more than a little rude.

(I write the following, and then bounce back here to put a caveat on my caveat. Don't worry if you've done the following. It's not the end of the world, it's really only a minor annoyance in the larger scale of things, and you didn't know.)

I've done Writer Notes for every single issue of WicDiv. That's 34 (with the Specials), including this one. They appear before the next issue drops. I've gone as late as the day before the issue is released. I don't believe I've ever gone any later. That's how it's always happened.

“Before the next issue.” That is when to expect my Writer Notes. It is not “late” until the next issue drops.

I write them as soon as I have time. If I haven't done it earlier in the month, you may safely assume that I've got other commitments that have to be prioritised above writing something which is, in a very real way, not part of my job.

If you're worried whether you've missed them, the Writer Notes are always tagged on my tumblr. You can click this link and see if they're there or not. There is no need to ask me.

I do not appreciate anyone asking where they are and when I'm going to do it. Please, don't do it. It stresses me out, both in the frustration at the entitlement in believing I should be writing it instead of many of the other things I should be doing, and in the simultaneous and entirely contradictory response of I SHOULD BE DOING THEM WHY THE HELL AM I NOT DOING THEM I AM LETTING EVERYONE DOWN!!!!

There is only so much a creative can give.

Er... and that appears to have segued into this issue's theme, hasn’t it?

Jamie/Matt's Cover

We finally reach full bleed on the Imperial Phase covers. By this point, I suspect pretty much everyone has seen what we're doing with the covers, and the implicit question of “how can you follow something that's doing this to full bleed”.

This is one of my favourite WicDiv covers. Jamie and Matt have excelled themselves here. The nonchalance of Dionysus, a return of the Acid House badge and so on. It's completely different to all the other gods – as is the nature of Dio – but is also the most visually magnificent. I love this.

Noelle Stephenson

Is a force of nature, and doesn't really need me hailing her here. Suffice to say, BUY NIMONA IF YOU HAVEN'T. She jumped at Baal/Minerva, and we just sat and let her do her thing. Clearly with this issue's content it rubs up unusually.

Walking Dead Cover

Homaging their issue 150 cover. We did it with 32, which makes it kinda funny. Persephone in her issue 22 costume.

IFC

With the double-length of Imperial Phase, we're very much reaching the recap page's breaking point in terms of working out what information to include. I smile that I managed to fit “He is such a shit” in there though.

Page 1

Return to the three panel of the start of last time. Immobility remains the point. I had a slightly more writer-y line for Sakhmet in the second panel, but I generally find it's best to strip her back to Just The Facts. There's no need to fence with Sakhmet.

Jamie's addition of a bloody-handed yawn is a perfect way to add a secondary reveal to the scene.

Reading people's commentary. I find it interesting that people seem to have Persephone's expression in the last panel to be bored. It reads pretty clearly as a wince to me. It's a very small response – which is, of course, the point – but it's definitely not ambivalent. One of the things in comics is how much for characters to verbalise, and how much you can just leave to the art. This is not a thing which has any one solution.

Pages 2-4

There's a craft thing here of note – we only explicitly introduce the idea that there is a sexual consent issue at this point in the Woden scene. We don't think leaving that sort of threat across a month is either ethical or useful. In a serialised narrative, we try to weigh these things up.

(It's still relatively quiet. There's twelve Valkyries. The thirteenth Asian girl is Cassandra.)

The page transition of Dionysus kicking in is the sort of thing I love as a storyteller. Repeats with a tiny difference.

The dialogue was moved a little after drawing, so as to leave the final panel on page 3 silent. Jamie's expression was perfect and didn't need disruption – more so when Matt pops the reds.

The glo-stick nunchaku first appeared in Rising Action, and make a return here. They were inspired by Christian Ward and Catherine Rooney's wedding, when they distributed a bunch of glo-sticks during the 90s rave set the DJ dropped. I was spinning them around, and it got me thinking.

Page 4 is obviously the key image, capturing Dio's hamartia in the same way as Amaterasu's final panel in 31 captures her. I get upset to even think of this panel. Futile acts of bravery when all hope is lost is something which almost always makes me cry.

Anyway – just wonderful. Jamie and Matt nail it. The oppressiveness of the mass of green, the crowd against Dio, the soar of his body. Perfect. Nice work.

Page 5

The Red Shoes being the Hans Christian Andersen story about a girl who gets a pair of ballet shoes and can't stop dancing. It doesn't end well for her either.

It's been used all over culture – Kate Bush is an obvious one, but I tend to think of the 1948 movie.

Pages 6-7

We basically keep the rhythm of the last issue going. As in, hard cuts between multiple scenes when the drama is highest. I'll be interested to see how this works in the trade – page 1's refocusing of the action here is the stepping stone back to this location, but it's quite the jump.

Anyway – Sakhmet and Persephone's final conversation. I needed something like this.

Standard-y me structure of a two-page scene with the first row of the first page merged as is the last row of the second page.

Lots of great expression work here, especially in how tight Jamie is choosing to cut things. It's not just as simple as a slow zoom to the character's features, but there is a gradual increase. I like how Sakhmet starts in a neutral position... and then when she laughs at the first answer, she gets a little further away... and when she gets the response to the second question, she's very close. That also means we also get a great pull away.

Expressions again. Sakhmet's three close-ups are my everything, in how much she's saying – the downcast eyes in the third! Especially compared to the deadness of Persephone.

“I think we only get to hurt ourselves and maybe people who want to be hurt” is just :(

Pages 8-11

Reprising of issue 8, which was Dio at his most iconic. These four pages “count” as two pages in terms of page budget, in that only 4 panels are drawn on each page. That we spread it out over a larger space means it's much more emotionally impactful.

My brain is failing, but I believe Dio and Woden are the only two characters other than Laura who've ever had internal dialogue captions. That strikes me as interesting.

Cutting the dialogue short enough to make it vaguely keep to the beat was obviously important. It ticks along, relentlessly.

Matt's colouring here is, like Dio's first one, a story in and of itself – the fading colour as Dio is dragged down in the first page, the glitch on page 10, the third panel of page 11.

The “One more time” came to me as writing it, and I was genuinely horrified at myself. I can make any cultural allusion depressing. It's a gift.While at this year's Thought Bubble dancefloor, this issue was at the printers. Various friends had read it, and were there. When I dropped ‘One More Time’, I glanced at them, and thought about the unique awfulness of WicDiv, in that they knew and no one else did.

Pages 12-13

I wish I had a page or two more in the budget here. There's a couple of beats I wish I'd been able to linger on.

The drop of Dio in the first panel brought to mind the fall of 455 Lucifer.

Woden's line is harsh as fuck here, but also not entirely wrong. As we see, Cass was unaffected by Woden's power. He didn't need to do anything.

The last panel on page 12 originally had much more dialogue, and it was bullshit. I moved that to the next panel, and keep it sharper. WicDiv isn't a comic where people can shout speeches as they do stuff.

I'M A FUCKING CRITIC is much better anyway. Jamie and Matt did great stuff with the multiple levels.

“One More” makes me feel bitter too. Brunhilde's excitement is also telling. More anon on this, I suspect.

More exposition than I'd like in the last panel with Cass, but I suspect we lose you if you don't know why she's phoning Persephone.

Page 14

Yes, Persephone hasn't changed her ringtone.

We don't have space to go far into the fight here, but we have to give the two big beats. Baal's burst of power, and the specifics of the terrible speed of Sakhmet. The colour choices are what scream to me here. Each of those two central panels are so much about the individual god who is dominating them. There’s just such direct choices here.

We start on the phone, and end on Minerva's owl, to try and get a transition to...

Page 15

...Minerva. Clearly for where the story goes, we have to see Minerva in the nearby area. We wanted to show the emotional journey towards going there – that's a great conflicted last panel by Jamie. We discussed what method to use in terms of communication – specifically, we needed Minerva to have ‘READ’ notes on her phone so she knows Morrigan has seen the messages and is ignoring them. Which sets up Minerva to make her decision.

After the colours of the previous page, the low light of this one is also really striking.

Pages 16-17

The fight scenes in the Underground were all written Marvel Method, with more ideas than would fit in the space. As such, it was a question of choosing where to edit, both in terms of Jamie's choices on the page and my choices at lettering. There was certainly more possible lettering in the script... but, as I say above, I don't like fight scenes to talk too much. When this is all happening as quickly as it is, it seems to undercut it.

Boiling the exchange to the “Predator or Prey” call back seemed to be the right call to make. Boil it down.

(The other options were a reprise of Persephone's “We only get to hurt ourselves and people who want to be hurt” in the last two panels, which I felt would be too much. I'd hope it would be subtextual in it anyway.)

Page 18

We leaned into implication here – choosing the moments. The slump of the hands in the second panel is the key one for me. That's just horrible, as is Persephone's distress in the third one.

Pages 19-21

Yeah, this scene is hard, with the characters' frustrations and anger at themselves crossing back and forth. It's telling that we go to eight panel grid structure for the first two pages, which is my standard one for this kind of more emotionally grounded scene.

Worth noting the other Norns aren't there. I suspect Cass hasn't been exactly gentle with them either. Still – Cass echoes a significant proportion of the readership regarding Persephone, I suspect.

Explicitly closing off the “No Person” line from back in Imperial Phase.

Eventually Persephone reaches a point and pushes back. For both of them, it's not the lies that hurt. It's the truths. And... yeah, that argument is totally not over.

I kind of wish I had the machine go BLEEP! Rather than BEEP!

Pages 22-24

Yes, it is very much our beeping device on the mantelpiece.

Odd hitting the last page, in that it's one of the end-of-episode beats I've known seemingly forever. It is a particularly frustrating one, clearly.

We did have a bunch of chat over exactly what should that final line be. It was as mild as “Oh my” at one point, but I like the last one.

Beep Test being a fitness thing.

And that's it. A few more weeks and issue 33, the end of Imperial Phase and moving onto Year Four of the book. Just re-reading all of WicDiv so far in preparation for scripting of that year, and it's a strange thing to look at how far we've come. If you have never done a WicDiv re-read, I suspect this is a perfect time to do one.

Thanks for reading.

#WicDiv #writer notes #The Wicked + The Divine

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soggywarmbooks · 7 years

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According to Goodreads, I read 106 books in 2016, which is a lot. Instead of having you scroll endlessly through my Goodreads to find my reviews, I thought I would make a nice little wrap-up post of my favorites and recommendations.

NOT PICTURED (because I only own in ebook format thus far): Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, and the Jem and the Holograms graphic novels by Kelly Thompson.

More on these titles and why I chose them below the cut!

An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir:

The first two books in what will be a four book series written by former Washington Post author and editor (who is here on tumblr @sabaatahir!). These books are exceptionally good, featuring a diverse cast with a good amount of social commentary and good world building. The first book (Ember) focuses on Laia, a girl who goes undercover as a slave in a prestigious military academy as part of a deal to free her brother from prison. There she meets Elias, a specialized soldier known as a mask, who happens to be the son of the very woman Laia was sent to spy on, and who wants nothing more than to be out of the school and free of the Martial empire. I can’t say much more without giving anything away, but these books pulled me in and had me absolutely captivated from page one and I cannot wait for the rest of the series:

Some things to be aware of: Yes, slavery is a theme in this book, but it is never glorified or romanticized. Rape is mentioned and threatened, but never occurs or is used as a plot device, and is presented in only an absolutely negative light. There is a lot of violence in this series, and it gets a tad graphic at times, so be careful of that. This series falls victim to a few common YA tropes (the “chosen one” and a love triangle or two) but I personally found they didn’t detract from the story too much.

A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab:

Let me start by saying that this is hands-down the best series I have read in a long time and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The books follow Kell, a magician with the power to travel through worlds using his blood, who gets himself into a bit of a bind through his love of smuggling artifacts from other worlds into his own, and Delilah, a skilled thief who dresses as a man to avoid detection, and who happens to steal a dangerous artifact from Kell when she meets him in the street one night. nearly destroying his world and draining hers of the little power it has left. This series has the most interesting characters I have encountered in a long time, with amazing personalities, and great representation all across the board (disability, sexuality, and race all represented well and in a positive light). And with the release of A Conjuring of Light in February, the series is blissfully complete! No months of waiting for the next book, not that you’ll be in any hurry for the series to end. Author on Tumblr as @veschwab.

Things to be aware of: Seeing as the series deals with blood magic, there is a fair amount of violence and bloodshed.

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken:

I never thought I’d be into a book about time-travel, but this one proved me dead wrong. This book reads like historical fiction mixed with modern young adult romance. Henrietta Spencer is a talented violinist, who hopes to make her professional debut soon, but her plans get derailed when she is literally thrust into the past and soon finds herself in a race to find a valuable artifact hidden by her mother somewhere in the past before her mother is killed by the family seeking it. On her adventures she meets Nicholas, a freed slave turned privateer who has just narrowly escaped the clutches of the same family holding Etta’s mother hostage. He makes a deal with the family to accompany Etta and bring the artifact to them in exchange for a share of their fortune and the promise of his true freedom, but will he be able to keep his promise when he starts to fall for his travelling companion?

Things to be aware of: Slavery and racism are definitely themes in this one, but both are handled delicately and not glorified or celebrated. One of the few interracial pairings I’ve seen in YA and it was done amazingly well. Book 2, Wayfarer introduces some more characters with diverse backgrounds and sexualities, so this series gets good marks for diversity.

Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys:

Two excellent historical fiction books set during World War II. I listed them together because not only do they have overlapping timelines, but they also have related characters. Between Shades of Gray focuses on a young girl and her family who were rounded up and sent to various labor camps because of their anti-Stalin stance, while Salt to the Sea follows the journeys of four young men and women who ended up on the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff, a massive ship that went down in the Baltic Sea on January 30th 1945 while attempting to evacuate German citizens, refugees from other war-torn areas, Nazi officials, and military personnel.

Things to be aware of: There is an instance of rape in Salt to the Sea, and one of the characters in Salt to the Sea subscribes to Nazi rhetoric, however neither are romanticized and both are shown in an incredibly negative light.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson:

A wonderful graphic novel which collects and updates the pages of the webcomic of the same name. The story here is complex, dark at times, funny at others, and utterly satisfying to read.

Illuminae and Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff:

Two extremely good young adult sci-fi novels, told in one of the most unique formats I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Rather than being told in prose, the events of these novels unfold through a series of confiscated emails, chats, interview transcripts, and detailed descriptions of surveillance videos. The events of these books kick off when a major corporation launches an attack on a small planet which is home to an illegal mining operation by their rivals. Thousands are killed, but a few ships manage to escape with refugees, including Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, two teenagers who just happened to break up hours before the attack and now find themselves on the run from a destroyer intent on blowing up their escaping fleet to ensure that word of the attack never reaches the light of day. The first book, Illuminae, contains the only plot twist that has ever made me scream out loud, and Gemina continues the story by bringing in two new teenage characters to kick ass and take names.

Things to be aware of: One co-author; Jay Kristoff, has come under fire for serious butchering and appropriation of Japanese culture and language in another series he has written. While I myself did not notice anything of the sort in Illuminae or Gemina, as a white woman, I wholly admit that I am not the best judge of such things and can understand why some people may not wish to read anything he is involved with. As for warnings applying to these books specifically: there’s some violence and gore in both and some drug use and organized crime in Gemina that some may want to avoid.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer:

A wonderful fairytale spin-off that tells the tale of how the Queen of Hearts became the way she is, and how she got her instantly recognizable catchphrase. This was one of those rare books that I simply could not tear myself away from. I read the entire thing in just over 24 hours and have not stopped thinking about it since. If you like fairy tale retellings, give this one a read.

The Valor Anthology:

This collection of comics and short stories all feature fearless women stepping up and being their own knights in shining armor. Brought to life on Kickstarter and featuring numerous Tumblr artists and content creators, this book is a treasure trove of badass heroines, LGBT representation, and characters of diverse backgrounds and cultures. I love how many of the stories draw on folklore and mythology from around the world, and how many are completely original as well. The anthology can be purchased here. The ebook option is just $5!

Jem and The Holograms Comics/Graphic Novels:

If ever there was a perfect example of rebooting something and making it modern while still keeping the charm of the original, this is it. Kelly Thompson and Jen Bartel took our favorite pastel and punk ladies and brought them into today’s day and age with more diversity than you can shake a stick at. This comic series has so many different body types, cultures, and sexualities represented that I don’t even know where to begin. Just read it! Need more convincing? Digital editions are on sale up to half-off through Comixology until 3/20/2017!

#best books of 2016 #favorite books read in 2016 #book recommendations #book recs

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