Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 54
May 22, 2022
Biggles Flies East, by W. E. Johns
"I'll keep an eye on you, my chicken."
Biggles is James "Biggles" Bigglesworth, ace pilot and adventurer. Biggles is a boys' adventure series of widely varying quality, but the good ones are legitimately good. Johns flew in WWI, and the series features realistic depictions of aviation and aerial combat from that time period, though the series later extends into WWII and post-war adventure. If you click on the author tag, you will find a post with more context on him and Biggles.
The other thing about Biggles is that he uses some truly unique epithets and exclamations. Maybe they were real slang? But no one else in the books says stuff like "Suffering rattlesnakes!
Biggles Flies East features the fantastic opening hook of Biggles getting mistaken for a different British pilot, a shady malcontent, and offered a job spying and flying for the Germans. Next thing he knows, he's been inserted as a double agent - a job which he isn't qualified for and which he dislikes very much, but which he turns out to be surprisingly good at.
Biggles has an extremely nervewracking time on every possible level. Not only does he need to maintain his cover, gather information, and regularly report back to his own side without getting caught, but the Germans quickly discover his piloting skills and want him to fight. For them. Against his own side. And that's not even taking into account his nemesis Erich von Stalhein, a spookily perceptive intelligence agent who seems to sense something off about Biggles...
This is basically an adventure story with elements like spies being given signet rings as identifiers, but if you take that stuff as a given, the book is surprisingly well-plotted, with some excellent twists. It plays the spy/undercover aspect to the hilt and is legitimately tense. It's extremely full of incident, and leans into the premise to an astonishing degree. Whatever your favorite undercover/imposter trope is, this book probably contains it.
Biggles is a very human character in this installment. He's uncomfortable with his job all the way, is terrified a lot of the time, and has a lot of compassion and fellow feeling for other soldiers, even if they're the enemy. He and von Stalhein have a fascinating relationship, very heavy on mutual respect and slashy vibes.
This makes the unintentional innuendo-by-language-drift moments even better. I'm talking about stuff like, "Not so fast, my cock," Biggles ejaculated.
I don't recall von Stalhein appearing in the books I read as a kid, which is too bad as one of my absolute favorite things is honorable enemies who would be friends if they weren't on opposite sides of the war, and sometimes are friends anyway but they must still meet in battle. I am pretty sure I got this from the Mahabharata, which I also read as a kid.
Von Stalhein is the archetype of the noble and honorable enemy. You see this type of character a lot in WWI fiction, especially when focused on aerial combat, and he's a very appealing version of it. His introduction in this book is GREAT.
He appears in that context in the WWI books, then makes some appearances in WWII books where he's completely different and basically an evil thug, then vanishes from the series only to reappear when it's safely post-war, where he picks up from where he left off in the WWI books and continues to be the dashing and honorable enemy/crush.
Here's what I think happened. W. E. Johns created a classic WWI archetype, then the books became smash hits, then he continued them into WWII and realized that his honorable enemy character did not work in that setting TO SAY THE LEAST, tried writing him as actually terrible, found it deeply depressing, then jumped him ahead in time to a setting that suits him better. At least I assume that's what happened. If so, I feel for Johns.
For my continued fannish enjoyment, I shall consider that von Stalhein was a double agent in WWII and that's why he was so out of character, which would actually make sense with his roles in both earlier and later books.
These books are very hard to find in the US and I obtained my copy at this odd site.
You can also find a few Biggles books and several Worrals books at Faded Page.
Worrals was Biggles' female counterpart. I'm excited to read some of the Worrals books, as those have previously been impossible to find (as opposed to difficult).
General content note for Biggles books: Levels of racism/colonialism range from zero to a line or two of mild stereotyping along the lines of "The Arabs are a noble warrior race" to holy shit I didn't know you could pack that much racism into a two lines of dialogue. In general, I recommend avoiding any books with titles like Biggles in Australia.
[image error]
[image error] comments
Biggles is James "Biggles" Bigglesworth, ace pilot and adventurer. Biggles is a boys' adventure series of widely varying quality, but the good ones are legitimately good. Johns flew in WWI, and the series features realistic depictions of aviation and aerial combat from that time period, though the series later extends into WWII and post-war adventure. If you click on the author tag, you will find a post with more context on him and Biggles.
The other thing about Biggles is that he uses some truly unique epithets and exclamations. Maybe they were real slang? But no one else in the books says stuff like "Suffering rattlesnakes!
Biggles Flies East features the fantastic opening hook of Biggles getting mistaken for a different British pilot, a shady malcontent, and offered a job spying and flying for the Germans. Next thing he knows, he's been inserted as a double agent - a job which he isn't qualified for and which he dislikes very much, but which he turns out to be surprisingly good at.
Biggles has an extremely nervewracking time on every possible level. Not only does he need to maintain his cover, gather information, and regularly report back to his own side without getting caught, but the Germans quickly discover his piloting skills and want him to fight. For them. Against his own side. And that's not even taking into account his nemesis Erich von Stalhein, a spookily perceptive intelligence agent who seems to sense something off about Biggles...
This is basically an adventure story with elements like spies being given signet rings as identifiers, but if you take that stuff as a given, the book is surprisingly well-plotted, with some excellent twists. It plays the spy/undercover aspect to the hilt and is legitimately tense. It's extremely full of incident, and leans into the premise to an astonishing degree. Whatever your favorite undercover/imposter trope is, this book probably contains it.
Biggles is a very human character in this installment. He's uncomfortable with his job all the way, is terrified a lot of the time, and has a lot of compassion and fellow feeling for other soldiers, even if they're the enemy. He and von Stalhein have a fascinating relationship, very heavy on mutual respect and slashy vibes.
This makes the unintentional innuendo-by-language-drift moments even better. I'm talking about stuff like, "Not so fast, my cock," Biggles ejaculated.
I don't recall von Stalhein appearing in the books I read as a kid, which is too bad as one of my absolute favorite things is honorable enemies who would be friends if they weren't on opposite sides of the war, and sometimes are friends anyway but they must still meet in battle. I am pretty sure I got this from the Mahabharata, which I also read as a kid.
Von Stalhein is the archetype of the noble and honorable enemy. You see this type of character a lot in WWI fiction, especially when focused on aerial combat, and he's a very appealing version of it. His introduction in this book is GREAT.
He appears in that context in the WWI books, then makes some appearances in WWII books where he's completely different and basically an evil thug, then vanishes from the series only to reappear when it's safely post-war, where he picks up from where he left off in the WWI books and continues to be the dashing and honorable enemy/crush.
Here's what I think happened. W. E. Johns created a classic WWI archetype, then the books became smash hits, then he continued them into WWII and realized that his honorable enemy character did not work in that setting TO SAY THE LEAST, tried writing him as actually terrible, found it deeply depressing, then jumped him ahead in time to a setting that suits him better. At least I assume that's what happened. If so, I feel for Johns.
For my continued fannish enjoyment, I shall consider that von Stalhein was a double agent in WWII and that's why he was so out of character, which would actually make sense with his roles in both earlier and later books.
These books are very hard to find in the US and I obtained my copy at this odd site.
You can also find a few Biggles books and several Worrals books at Faded Page.
Worrals was Biggles' female counterpart. I'm excited to read some of the Worrals books, as those have previously been impossible to find (as opposed to difficult).
General content note for Biggles books: Levels of racism/colonialism range from zero to a line or two of mild stereotyping along the lines of "The Arabs are a noble warrior race" to holy shit I didn't know you could pack that much racism into a two lines of dialogue. In general, I recommend avoiding any books with titles like Biggles in Australia.
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[image error] comments
May 20, 2022
Open Covid post
So I just went to a supermarket in LA, not even in Crestline, and the only people wearing masks were me, one checker, and one guy in a line, and the latter was wearing a surgical mask mostly off his nose. The ancient lady in line with me? No mask. Kids too young to get vaccinated? No masks. Literally everyone but us three? No masks.
AAARRRGGGGH WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL THAT YOU CAN'T WEAR A GODDAMN MASK FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC?! WHAT EXACT BENEFIT OF NOT WEARING A MASK FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES MAKES YOU SO HAPPY THAT YOU WILL RISK YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF NON-CONSENTING OTHERS FOR IT? DO YOU WANT MONKEYPOX? THIS IS HOW YOU GET MONKEYPOX. AND ALSO COVID.
Comments on covid and other communicable diseases go here.
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AAARRRGGGGH WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL THAT YOU CAN'T WEAR A GODDAMN MASK FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC?! WHAT EXACT BENEFIT OF NOT WEARING A MASK FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES MAKES YOU SO HAPPY THAT YOU WILL RISK YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF NON-CONSENTING OTHERS FOR IT? DO YOU WANT MONKEYPOX? THIS IS HOW YOU GET MONKEYPOX. AND ALSO COVID.
Comments on covid and other communicable diseases go here.
[image error] comments
May 16, 2022
Summer of Horror Fic & Art Exchange
![[personal profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1491408111i/22407843.png)
summerofhorrorexchange
is a low-minimum (one piece of art or one 500-minimum word story) taking nominations now. Its matching is similar to Yuletide's: you match on a character or a group of characters. You can request the ship version of a group, but you're not guaranteed it.
The tag set (linked above) is already filling up with intriguing nominations. Here are some that may be of particular interest to some of you:
Historical RPF: Carlo Broschi | Farinelli & Antonio Vivaldi, Carlo Broschi | Farinelli & Original Male Character, John Keats & Antonio Vivaldi, John Keats & Percy Shelley. (This looks like a Tim Powers novel.)
Annihilation (Movie). Characters: Josie Radek & Anya Thorensen, Lena & Lena Double, Lena & Ventress, Lena & The Shimmer.
Biggles - W. E. Johns. Characters: James "Biggles" Bigglesworth & Erich von Stalhein.
The Long Walk - Stephen King. Characters: Peter McVries & Ray Garraty, Peter McVries & Ray Garraty & Stebbins.
Near Dark (Movie). Characters: Mae & Jesse Hooker & Diamondback & Severen & Caleb Colton, Mae & Jesse Hooker & Homer & Diamondback & Severen, Solo: Homer.
Neon Genesis Evangelion. Characters: Akagi Ritsuko & Katsuragi Misato, Ikari Shinji & Nagisa Kaworu. Solo: Akagi Ritsuko, Katsuragi Misato, Nagisa Kaworu.
Red Eye (Movie). Characters: Lisa Reisert & Jackson Rippner.
Revelator - Daryl Gregory. Characters: Stella Wallace & God in the Mountain | Ghostdaddy & Sunny Birch, Stella Wallace & Motty Birch, Solo: God in the Mountain | Ghostdaddy.
Us (Movie): Adelaide Wilson & Red, Kitty Tyler & Dahlia, Wilson Family & Tethered Doubles. Solo: Red, Umbrae.
Watership Down - Richard Adams. Characters: Bigwig & Hyzenthlay, Fiver & Silverweed, General Woundwort & Silverweed. Solo: Bigwig, Black Rabbit of Inlé, Blackavar El-ahrairah, Fiver, General Woundwort, Hazel, Holly, Hyzenthlay, Nelthilta, Silverweed.
In Uncategorized Fandoms because there's no fic for them yet:
The Amulet - Michael McDowell. Characters: Sarah Howell & Becca Blair, Solo: Mary Shirley.
Sundial - Catriona Ward. Characters: Callie & Pale Callie, Callie & Rob, Callie & Rob & Annie, Rob & Jack, Solo: Callie.
Even if you don't plan to do the exchange, it has a list of horror subgeners (folk horror, cosmic horror, etc) with explanations and examples that makes for fun and interesting reading. Horror Subgenres
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May 13, 2022
Help Ukraine! Get a book review or fic from me!
sunflower_auction
is a fannish charity auction in support of Ukraine. Your winning bid will go to a Ukrainian charity of your choice from the list kindly compiled by mods.No giant bricks please.
If you're not sure if I'm familiar with a canon or able to write it, just ask.
comments
May 11, 2022
The Soup Macbeth
So apparently Daniel Craig is starring in a bizarre Macbeth production heavily featuring soup.
Please recount your favorite bizarre Shakespeare or Shakespeare-adjacent production choices in comments.
comments
Please recount your favorite bizarre Shakespeare or Shakespeare-adjacent production choices in comments.
comments
After Long Silence, by Sheri Tepper
The colonized planet Jubal is full of Presences: immense and beautiful crystal formations that shatter into deadly shards when people come near them. People can only travel past them when accompanied by Tripsingers, who sing melodies that either calm them down (if you believe the Presences are alive) or resonate at frequencies that prevent shattering (if you believe they're just rocks.)
A bereft Tripsinger whose wife and brother died trying to tame the one Presence that has never been successfully sung goes on a quest to find out what happened, joined by two apprentices and a woman who knows a secret that will change everything. They're pursued by a ridiculous number of assassins, some who are religious fanatics who want people to leave the Presences alone, and some who are sent by a corporation that wants to destroy the Presences so they can make more money off the planet.
There's also the beings native to the planet, the Viggies, who were my favorite characters - a convincingly alien race with its own culture, biology, and factions, sketched out fascinatingly in a relatively small amount of page time.
After Long Silence focuses on what Tepper does best, which is to create a weird, mysterious world and explore it. The plot is kind of wobbly and several plotlines and mysteries are either dropped or given somewhat unsatisfactory explanations, and the human characters are 50-50 between fine, and boring or annoying. The batshit quotient is relatively small and there's no eugenics, though Tepper does shoehorn in her favorite villains, misogynist religious fanatics.
I enjoyed this for the world, the Presences, and the Viggies, but Tepper has written both better books and books which make for better book reviews.
Content notes: rape, misogyny, ableism.
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comments
A bereft Tripsinger whose wife and brother died trying to tame the one Presence that has never been successfully sung goes on a quest to find out what happened, joined by two apprentices and a woman who knows a secret that will change everything. They're pursued by a ridiculous number of assassins, some who are religious fanatics who want people to leave the Presences alone, and some who are sent by a corporation that wants to destroy the Presences so they can make more money off the planet.
There's also the beings native to the planet, the Viggies, who were my favorite characters - a convincingly alien race with its own culture, biology, and factions, sketched out fascinatingly in a relatively small amount of page time.
After Long Silence focuses on what Tepper does best, which is to create a weird, mysterious world and explore it. The plot is kind of wobbly and several plotlines and mysteries are either dropped or given somewhat unsatisfactory explanations, and the human characters are 50-50 between fine, and boring or annoying. The batshit quotient is relatively small and there's no eugenics, though Tepper does shoehorn in her favorite villains, misogynist religious fanatics.
I enjoyed this for the world, the Presences, and the Viggies, but Tepper has written both better books and books which make for better book reviews.
Content notes: rape, misogyny, ableism.
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comments
May 9, 2022
Fan Auction to Benefit Ukraine
Tomorrow is the last day to sign up to offer something! I will be offering a fic and book reviews.
Details here:
sunflower_auction
comments
Details here:
sunflower_auction
comments
In the Dark, by Richard Laymon
"Maybe Rale and Swimp were sent by Mog."
This pulp thriller was recced by
scioscribe
for leaning into its crackerjack premise: Jane, a librarian, finds an envelope with her name on it, an enigmatic note signed "Master of Games" with a literary clue, and a $50 bill. When she follows the clue to the book it references, she finds another note from MOG with another clue, and a $100 bill. As the money gets bigger, the tasks MOG sets for her get harder, riskier, and darker.
This is a great thriller premise and it delivers what it promises. Jane gets lured into escalating weirdness, danger, and decadence, and discovers that she gets a kick out of it. It's all batshit and implausible, but in a fun and entertaining way. The conclusion doesn't tie up all the loose ends, but is generally satisfying.
( Read more... )
The other notable thing about this book is that it is one of the most "she breasted boobily down the stairs" books I've ever read. Early on, Jane puts a switchblade in her pocket, which is of course located under her breast; when she nearly collides with a hot male stranger, the switchblade pops open, ripping through her blouse and almost stabbing her in the breast. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but in this case the switchblade is definitely not just a switchblade.
I read the book while
scioscribe
was vacationing with me, and began reading her all the lines containing boob references, but eventually had to stop because there were just so many. (Using Kindle search, there are 3 uses of "tits," 3 uses of "bra," 4 uses of "boobs," 11 uses of "nipple," and 50 of "breasts.") Here is a very small sample.
He's talking about my boob!
She was very glad she had decided to wear a bra. She disliked the things, and avoided them when she could. But making a midnight trip to a bar in a sleazy section of town required one. So did her tight shirt, which would've shown every jiggle.
It whipped up against her nipple.
She quit fingering her breast and reached deeper into the pocket.
Another column thrust against her left breast as she squeezed by.
Brace had definitely seen a lot of her breast - and he was well aware that she wore nothing at all underneath the blouse.
The spider scampered downward onto her left breast. (No, I don't know why the left gets all the action. Poor right breast, it must feel left out.
She could see nothing of her breast.
Her breast was caught naked in Brace's beacon. The light jumped away from it. And came to a stop, as if by accident, aiming down at an angle between her parted legs.
I had a lot of fun reading this book. The booby breasting was so hilariously pervasive that it became almost charming, and apart from that Jane is pleasingly and even plausibly badass.
She scraped off the spider as if she was shaving the top of her breast with a straight razor.
Only $1.14 on Kindle!
Content notes: violence, rape, dog death, a particularly gross vomit scene that I hurriedly skipped, Jane wants to lose some weight, and of course there's the tittie fixation.
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comments
This pulp thriller was recced by
scioscribe
for leaning into its crackerjack premise: Jane, a librarian, finds an envelope with her name on it, an enigmatic note signed "Master of Games" with a literary clue, and a $50 bill. When she follows the clue to the book it references, she finds another note from MOG with another clue, and a $100 bill. As the money gets bigger, the tasks MOG sets for her get harder, riskier, and darker.This is a great thriller premise and it delivers what it promises. Jane gets lured into escalating weirdness, danger, and decadence, and discovers that she gets a kick out of it. It's all batshit and implausible, but in a fun and entertaining way. The conclusion doesn't tie up all the loose ends, but is generally satisfying.
( Read more... )
The other notable thing about this book is that it is one of the most "she breasted boobily down the stairs" books I've ever read. Early on, Jane puts a switchblade in her pocket, which is of course located under her breast; when she nearly collides with a hot male stranger, the switchblade pops open, ripping through her blouse and almost stabbing her in the breast. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but in this case the switchblade is definitely not just a switchblade.
I read the book while
scioscribe
was vacationing with me, and began reading her all the lines containing boob references, but eventually had to stop because there were just so many. (Using Kindle search, there are 3 uses of "tits," 3 uses of "bra," 4 uses of "boobs," 11 uses of "nipple," and 50 of "breasts.") Here is a very small sample. He's talking about my boob!
She was very glad she had decided to wear a bra. She disliked the things, and avoided them when she could. But making a midnight trip to a bar in a sleazy section of town required one. So did her tight shirt, which would've shown every jiggle.
It whipped up against her nipple.
She quit fingering her breast and reached deeper into the pocket.
Another column thrust against her left breast as she squeezed by.
Brace had definitely seen a lot of her breast - and he was well aware that she wore nothing at all underneath the blouse.
The spider scampered downward onto her left breast. (No, I don't know why the left gets all the action. Poor right breast, it must feel left out.
She could see nothing of her breast.
Her breast was caught naked in Brace's beacon. The light jumped away from it. And came to a stop, as if by accident, aiming down at an angle between her parted legs.
I had a lot of fun reading this book. The booby breasting was so hilariously pervasive that it became almost charming, and apart from that Jane is pleasingly and even plausibly badass.
She scraped off the spider as if she was shaving the top of her breast with a straight razor.
Only $1.14 on Kindle!
Content notes: violence, rape, dog death, a particularly gross vomit scene that I hurriedly skipped, Jane wants to lose some weight, and of course there's the tittie fixation.
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comments
May 3, 2022
Rachelcon 2022
I have
sholio
and
scioscribe
here with me!
They arrived at LAX and we went to an AirBnB in a very pretty LA neighborhood near LAX. It had all these marvelous little space-saving cabinets, a luxurious lovesac in a glassed-in porch, very comfy deck furniture, and a truly glorious shower. The jacarandas were in full purple bloom, so excellent timing on that.
Needless to say, we focused on the important things in life: food and dinosaurs.
Before
sholio
arrived,
scioscribe
and I had lunch at Metro Cafe, a Serbian restaurant in my old neighborhood, and got chevapchichi sandwiches. We then headed to the nearby comic store before picking up
sholio
.
We rambled around Sawtelle, had delicious ramen and bread pudding, and visited several Japanese plant nurseries, one of which I will visit again after dropping them off at the airport to pick up some plants. We also went to one of my favorite places in LA, The La Brea Tar Pits, where we saw a giant wall of dire wolf skulls and many jacarandas.
After a mad search for a bottle opener ending in a visit to BevMo, we settled in and
scioscribe
and I got
sholio
to watch Malignant. I can't say that it is a good movie, but I have now seen it twice with great enjoyment. It is best watched once unspoiled, and once again with an unspoiled friend.
And then we drove to Crestline, stopping at a giant mall in Arcadia containing Din Tai Fung and a ton of hobby shops, game shops, miniature shops, figurine shops, and a Sees candy. I went a little berserk in the miniature shop. Dollhouse pics to follow.
At Din Tai Fung, we had soup dumplings, cod dumplings, a giant wad of spinach, garlic green beans, pork buns, and strangely disappointing kimchi dumplings. I ended up feeding the latter to my chickens, who were unenthusiastic.
I was gratified to note that
sholio
and
scioscribe
were impressed by the terrifyingness of the drive up the mountain to my house. It is very beautiful right now with sunflowers and some unidentified yellow flower.
We are now at my house, which hopefully they will praise in comments. The cats rotated among us all night, which was very sweet of them.
comments
sholio
and
scioscribe
here with me! They arrived at LAX and we went to an AirBnB in a very pretty LA neighborhood near LAX. It had all these marvelous little space-saving cabinets, a luxurious lovesac in a glassed-in porch, very comfy deck furniture, and a truly glorious shower. The jacarandas were in full purple bloom, so excellent timing on that.
Needless to say, we focused on the important things in life: food and dinosaurs.
Before
sholio
arrived,
scioscribe
and I had lunch at Metro Cafe, a Serbian restaurant in my old neighborhood, and got chevapchichi sandwiches. We then headed to the nearby comic store before picking up
sholio
. We rambled around Sawtelle, had delicious ramen and bread pudding, and visited several Japanese plant nurseries, one of which I will visit again after dropping them off at the airport to pick up some plants. We also went to one of my favorite places in LA, The La Brea Tar Pits, where we saw a giant wall of dire wolf skulls and many jacarandas.
After a mad search for a bottle opener ending in a visit to BevMo, we settled in and
scioscribe
and I got
sholio
to watch Malignant. I can't say that it is a good movie, but I have now seen it twice with great enjoyment. It is best watched once unspoiled, and once again with an unspoiled friend.And then we drove to Crestline, stopping at a giant mall in Arcadia containing Din Tai Fung and a ton of hobby shops, game shops, miniature shops, figurine shops, and a Sees candy. I went a little berserk in the miniature shop. Dollhouse pics to follow.
At Din Tai Fung, we had soup dumplings, cod dumplings, a giant wad of spinach, garlic green beans, pork buns, and strangely disappointing kimchi dumplings. I ended up feeding the latter to my chickens, who were unenthusiastic.
I was gratified to note that
sholio
and
scioscribe
were impressed by the terrifyingness of the drive up the mountain to my house. It is very beautiful right now with sunflowers and some unidentified yellow flower. We are now at my house, which hopefully they will praise in comments. The cats rotated among us all night, which was very sweet of them.
comments
May 2, 2022
The Never King (Vicious Lost Boys # 1) by Nikki St Crow
I checked this out because it's all over TikTok as a romance book, but the cover is not romance genre-y at all.
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I was curious, so I looked it up. It's billed as a dark romance take on Peter Pan. You can also tell how huge it is on TikTok specifically because of this odd bit in the blurb on Amazon:
You can expect hate kissing, fighting, bickering, and ‘touch her and I’ll unalive you’ vibes.
TikTok bans the words "kill," "dead," "death," etc, so if you need to use them in book blurbs, you either talk around it or use "unalive."
All this made me curious, so I gave it a try.
It opens with the heroine, who we later learn is nicknamed Winnie Whore, fucking a football player.
Anthony shoves inside of me and I make the porn star face for him because I know he likes it.
I pretend to orgasm with him.
I am not a porn star, but I am the daughter of a prostitute so I think that's close enough.
Winnie Whore is a Darling. All the Darling women are kidnapped by Peter Pan on their 18th birthdays. They get returned a couple days or weeks later, insane.
Sure enough, Winnie is kidnapped by a hot, grown-up Peter Pan and wakes up chained to a bed in Neverland. She's surrounded by hot, grown-up Lost Boys who darkly warn her of vague terrible things while not actually doing anything bad to her beyond the kidnapping and chains. In fact one of them cooks her pancakes.
He is gorgeous in his own right. Different from Pan and Vane. They're all gorgeous.
It makes the basketball team look like a bunch of ferrets.
As you can tell, each sentence, or at most three, gets one paragraph. There are multiple first-person narrators and they all sound exactly the same. At one point I thought I was reading Winnie's POV and then I hit My cock takes notice and I have to fight the urge to readjust and I was briefly interested until I realized it was actually one of the dude narrators.
(When I searched for "cock" to find this line, the next two usages, in order, were My cock takes notice and When I readjust my cock, it almost hurts.
Winnie enthusiastically fucks all the Lost Boys. The sex scenes are boring and wham bam thank you ma'am, but there's a lot of them and the appeal of this book is pretty obvious. It's porn, porn, porn, porn, with a lot of talk about darkness and danger...
Is he going to fuck me too?
Fill me with terror and cum?
...but in fact, she only ever gets filled with cum. And she enthusiastically consents to everything. And they feed her pancakes and berries and coffee.
It's honestly the best cup I've ever had. Better than Starbucks.
The author seems way more sincerely enthusiastic about the food than the sex, in fact.
I swallow down my last bite of buttery, flaky, oh-so-delicious croissant.
Oh, wait. There is one bit of danger. Winnie, still in Neverland, wanders off to some sort of frat party (I don't get this either) and fucks some random dude. Pan literally rips out his heart with his bare hands mid-fuck. Winnie is mildly miffed but gets over it fast.
Oh, and Peter Pan sleeps in a tomb and is allergic to sunlight. Nothing really comes of this. It;s never explained why all the other Darling women went insane. Neverland is an interesting HOOK but the book really could take place anywhere, any time.
This book is pretty terrible but I think it appeals strongly to the rather large market of readers who 1) like the trope of lots of talk of danger and darkness but nothing actually bad ever happens to the heroine, 2) like reverse harem (one woman, lots of hot men), 3) want porn with dirty talk.
Here is the even more sexy and appealing cover of the sequel.
[image error]
comments
[image error]
I was curious, so I looked it up. It's billed as a dark romance take on Peter Pan. You can also tell how huge it is on TikTok specifically because of this odd bit in the blurb on Amazon:
You can expect hate kissing, fighting, bickering, and ‘touch her and I’ll unalive you’ vibes.
TikTok bans the words "kill," "dead," "death," etc, so if you need to use them in book blurbs, you either talk around it or use "unalive."
All this made me curious, so I gave it a try.
It opens with the heroine, who we later learn is nicknamed Winnie Whore, fucking a football player.
Anthony shoves inside of me and I make the porn star face for him because I know he likes it.
I pretend to orgasm with him.
I am not a porn star, but I am the daughter of a prostitute so I think that's close enough.
Winnie Whore is a Darling. All the Darling women are kidnapped by Peter Pan on their 18th birthdays. They get returned a couple days or weeks later, insane.
Sure enough, Winnie is kidnapped by a hot, grown-up Peter Pan and wakes up chained to a bed in Neverland. She's surrounded by hot, grown-up Lost Boys who darkly warn her of vague terrible things while not actually doing anything bad to her beyond the kidnapping and chains. In fact one of them cooks her pancakes.
He is gorgeous in his own right. Different from Pan and Vane. They're all gorgeous.
It makes the basketball team look like a bunch of ferrets.
As you can tell, each sentence, or at most three, gets one paragraph. There are multiple first-person narrators and they all sound exactly the same. At one point I thought I was reading Winnie's POV and then I hit My cock takes notice and I have to fight the urge to readjust and I was briefly interested until I realized it was actually one of the dude narrators.
(When I searched for "cock" to find this line, the next two usages, in order, were My cock takes notice and When I readjust my cock, it almost hurts.
Winnie enthusiastically fucks all the Lost Boys. The sex scenes are boring and wham bam thank you ma'am, but there's a lot of them and the appeal of this book is pretty obvious. It's porn, porn, porn, porn, with a lot of talk about darkness and danger...
Is he going to fuck me too?
Fill me with terror and cum?
...but in fact, she only ever gets filled with cum. And she enthusiastically consents to everything. And they feed her pancakes and berries and coffee.
It's honestly the best cup I've ever had. Better than Starbucks.
The author seems way more sincerely enthusiastic about the food than the sex, in fact.
I swallow down my last bite of buttery, flaky, oh-so-delicious croissant.
Oh, wait. There is one bit of danger. Winnie, still in Neverland, wanders off to some sort of frat party (I don't get this either) and fucks some random dude. Pan literally rips out his heart with his bare hands mid-fuck. Winnie is mildly miffed but gets over it fast.
Oh, and Peter Pan sleeps in a tomb and is allergic to sunlight. Nothing really comes of this. It;s never explained why all the other Darling women went insane. Neverland is an interesting HOOK but the book really could take place anywhere, any time.
This book is pretty terrible but I think it appeals strongly to the rather large market of readers who 1) like the trope of lots of talk of danger and darkness but nothing actually bad ever happens to the heroine, 2) like reverse harem (one woman, lots of hot men), 3) want porn with dirty talk.
Here is the even more sexy and appealing cover of the sequel.
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