“Please don’t ever tell Jace I said he was a badass.”
This short story is just a transcript of voicemails that the Shadowhunters left for M
“Please don’t ever tell Jace I said he was a badass.”
This short story is just a transcript of voicemails that the Shadowhunters left for Magnus after the end of City of Lost Souls, when he and Alec broke up. It just wasn’t enjoyable and was a lot of harassment even though I know that it was coming from a place of good. I just, thought this was honestly a bit pointless, but I know it was supposed to be heartwarming. I will also say that I think it was a really poor choice for a concluding story, because it for sure finished the entire anthology on a low note.
“Even if it meant being wild on soil never meant to bear me.”
This was harrowingly heartbreaking and carmen is really such a gifted author and can evoke so much pain and so much healing, even with so few pages. This short story is told under the guise of a research paper from the future, and moves forward with a new article or new interview, researching children’s hand clapping games that gives clues about how a small Pennsylvania town, named Never-Again, was massacred by tigers in 1999, where only one child did not disappear. With the last interview in this research project being from that sole survivor, now very much an adult. And this reading like a real piece of nonfiction really just added a whole other layer.
But carmen always weaves this unexplainable magic of breaking my heart and simultaneously healing it with each piece they craft, and this short story was no different. To find freedom and power from your trauma(s) is something i deeply wish for everyone.
trigger + content warnings: a lot of off page violence to children, off page rape and sexual assault, off page pedophilia, mention of suicide, mentions of colonization, death, blood depictions, drawing blood, animal death. (i know these are some heavy tws but truly all were done in a very nongraphic way for me, personally. But still use caution for your own self and mindset.)
“He kissed the center of each of your palms, precisely where the priest said the Savior suffered the nails to be driven.”
in the last 24 hours, i have heard nothing but people screaming their love for this on social media… even including kpop social media circles! it has been a very long time since i have seen a story spread so quickly, with such high praise, via word of mouth before. so i knew i had to pick it up and see if these thirty pages were going to be literary life changing, and… you all were very right. this really is a heartfelt masterpiece.
i feel like i keep saying this in my mini reviews lately, but i do believe it would be best to go into this not knowing anything, because i really believe this helped my enjoyment of this short story. i do have some trigger and content warnings down below if you want/need them, but besides those - i highly recommend just picking this book up without looking at reviews until after you finish!
this is a very beautiful and emotion evoking story about a girl trying to feel needed, to feel seen, to feel love, to feel like she is not nothing, to feel anything that is real. but love can be exceptionally hard, especially when you enter into this world not knowing what love is. while also slowly figuring out what you will do in the name of it, mixed with the overwhelming feelings we all have of wanting to leave something behind, but to also belong so desperately in the time we are presently here.
but we are more than being tools for other people, but especially for their cruelty and destruction. and when we are truly loved and truly seen… that’s really the most powerful magic of all stories. we can be the saints of so many things, if we only allow ourselves to be.
“I wonder what the songs will say about the Devil now that she is covered in the blood of her own God.”
the writing is perfect, and these thirty pages of heartfelt pain and love will truly leave you feeling dizzy in the best way possible. this is a perfect example of why i love short fiction and how it can be so very powerful and inspiring.
“And you understood, finally, that there had never truly been a she or a you but only a terrible, lonely I.”
content + trigger warnings: war, battle, violence, a lot of blood depiction, gore, nightmares, codependency depiction, exploitation depiction, sickness/child sickness, medical things, death, child death, drowning, + suicide.
“Our words, like our hearts, are weapons still hot from the forging, beating themselves into new shapes each time we swing them.”
The first of bran
“Our words, like our hearts, are weapons still hot from the forging, beating themselves into new shapes each time we swing them.”
The first of brandon sanderson’s secret cosmere projects was everything for me. This story is truly unlike any other that brandon has created before, for so many reasons, but mostly because it reads like a fairytale! This is inspired by The Princess Bride, which I actually have never read before, but it didn't hinder my reading experience whatsoever! And just seeing some long time favorites from the cosmere world, and some cameos and name drops that I was not prepared for, felt like coming home - even if this setting is one that I would have never anticipated! But… dare I say, because I know this is a keyword everyone is looking for these days… this was cozy fantasy perfection!
You do not need to read any other book in the cosmere to read this story, but you will miss out on so many easter eggs throughout and i am not sure if not having that appreciation will hinder your reading experience - so here is a little warning, in case!
To put this very briefly, this is a story about a girl who leaves the only home she has ever known to brave a very strange ocean, in a very different cosmere world, with a very sweet pirate crew (for the most part), for love. Because at the end of all my favorite types of stories, it’s always for love and it’s always worth it.
But I so quickly fell in love with Tress and her teacups and her story. Also, if you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you will know how much I adore a questing storyline and this book delivered that and more so! I also feel like every cosmere series has such a perfect and different found family, yet you always feel like you are a part of that family as well, and it’s so beautiful each time, but this one was extra close to my heart.
I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on the second secret project, because the bar has just been set so very high for me. (plus howard lyon is one of my favorite magic the gathering artist so it was extra perfect for me!) I also have a very soft spot for the character who narrates this story… and to keep being secretive… I loved the whimsy of this story extra, too! muhahahahah!
I predict this will probably make my best of 2023 list, because my heart overflows more and more each time i think about this story. It just felt so warm and cozy and was filled with so much light and hope - and that’s exactly what I want to be reading in my life right now.
trigger + content warnings: mentions of war, poison/drugging, vomit, captivity, murder, talk of cancer/tumors very briefly, brief weight loss comment, mention of slavery, and… lots of mentions of spores (i only say this because i think a lot of people are watching last of us right now and it might make you think about things lol)
Oh my gosh, this world is so cozy and the art and coloring is just extra autumnal and perfect feeling right now. We love a witch with little magical vOh my gosh, this world is so cozy and the art and coloring is just extra autumnal and perfect feeling right now. We love a witch with little magical vegetables, growing gardens but also growing within themselves too! We follow Garlic as she braves the woods, away from her family, to see if a vampire is truly living in the castle on the hill! And even with her anxieties, she knows she wants to protect her loved ones! This was really cute and sweet - and perfect for all ages!
tw/cw: anxiety depiction
thank you so much, destiny, for the recommendation ♡
“You made a forest in a place where NOTHING is meant to live.”
This graphic novel series is just getting better and ➽ Volume One ★★ ➽ Volume Two ★★★
“You made a forest in a place where NOTHING is meant to live.”
This graphic novel series is just getting better and better for me! I really loved this installment in particular, and I fell in love with Eros. Sometimes, you really just need someone to tell you it will be okay, but what happened to you was not okay.
As always, the art is beautiful and page styling choices are magnificent. I also found the banter in this one to be even better, and I found myself giggling at times even! I am truly so excited to read the next bind up upon release and I am finding a lot of joy physically reading these ones!
cws from the author at the start of this book: physical + mental abuse, sexual trauma, + toxic relationships
other tw/cw i wrote down: paparazzi, trauma depiction, death, implied cheating, talk of rape, drinking in excess
okay first REALLY QUICK thoughts: i loved this, it was prefect /for me/, but i still enjoyed the cruel the screams that are leaving my human form....
okay first REALLY QUICK thoughts: i loved this, it was prefect /for me/, but i still enjoyed the cruel prince a lot more (and jude and cardan a lot more). i also feel like some readers might not love that this is a quest storyline so they are constantly traveling throughout this, but that is also something i really enjoy in stories - so i extra feel biased. but i will try to write at least a mini review, and 100% trigger and content warnings (holly was really giving the creepy and dark fae side with this one), once i calm down from that final scene !!
[image] (i took this book with me to the oogie boogie bash!)
Rin chupeco is an author who means a lot to me, and their stories (the full spectrum of the[image] (i took this book with me to the oogie boogie bash!)
Rin chupeco is an author who means a lot to me, and their stories (the full spectrum of the range in which they write) always feel like coming home to me. But a queer polyamorous with vampires and vampire hunters Castlevania inspired tale… it just felt extra good to read. The atmosphere was everything and i knew from the first chapter i was really going to adore this one.
Also, bonus extra i suppose: this book has like my favorite cover art of all time. I am obsessed.
tw/cw: death, murder, a lot of blood depiction, gore, violence, needle depiction, brief mentions of miscarriages/still births, a lot of talk of medical experimentation, a lot of talk of virus and mutated strands, ableist language (always in a negative light), parental abuse, unwanted sexual acts/forced prostitution/implied rape, and an animal death (horse).
“She is a full glass submerged in water. Neither nor both full and empty. The inquiry, though kind, has no meaning for her.”
oh, i adored this. i f“She is a full glass submerged in water. Neither nor both full and empty. The inquiry, though kind, has no meaning for her.”
oh, i adored this. i feel like i have never read anything quite like this before, and that is something i find myself unable to say very often in 2022. this was fresh, and unique, and unsettling, and so, so, so smartly crafted and written - with such a haunting setting and atmosphere.
i feel like a lot of reviews talk about the twist being spoiled for them, but i caught on very quickly - and it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all! but please know this and maybe... don't dig into too many reviews until you've read this one yourself! but i highly recommend it and i know it will stick with me for a long while.
(view spoiler)[ i see a lot of people offended by this book, but i interpreted it as men do horrible things in the name of god, not... the other way around lol! also, like... lots of dots (and big waving red flags) to the US right now in the year 2022. ahhhh, but anyways - we do love a good lilith mention though, always! (hide spoiler)]
cw/tw: death, murder, mention of blood, abusive relationship depiction, codependency depiction, and... talk of food/eating in a way that i believe could potentially be triggering even though it is done in a metaphorical way - so just use caution!
“I am saying that with you, I have no armor. I feel everything. For better or worse.”
my first read of 2023...
I still haven’t written a mini review yet, but i just feel like i never am fully in love with cassie’s endings, sadly. But I still had a good time reading this and being back in the world. Here are potential triggers that I found while reading for you all though! Hopefully more review to come though <3
trigger + content warnings: loss of a loved one, trauma, alcoholism, extreme alcohol withdrawals,, vomiting, seizures, grief depictions, anxiety, abusive parents/bad parents, grey area cheating, blood depictions, violence, gore, homophobia, misogyny, self harm, mention of loss of a child in the past, possession (against one's will), enchantment (against one's will), insect horror, kidnapping, harming of a baby (kind of spoilers but… (view spoiler)[a rune put on a baby forcefully)
[image] ♡ thank you so much, tor, for sending me a finished copy!
i truly loved this. it felt like i was stepping foot and having a long rest inside the[image] ♡ thank you so much, tor, for sending me a finished copy!
i truly loved this. it felt like i was stepping foot and having a long rest inside the very walls of the waystone inn, the journey's end, and even harth stonebrew's tavern. these are some of my favorite places, some of my safest escapism, and some very large sums of my heart. this story was just perfect for me, and i am very thankful for this book.
building something you want, the way you want it, with the people you want it with... there is a lot of power in that, especially when it creates a found family and/or community. and healing and living and loving the way you want to too? so powerful and so beautiful, and my favorite magic in all the galaxies.
i hope you're able to build and find communities filled with unconditional love, because you deserve that always. <3 (bonus points if a succubus + warm cup of coffee are involved)
i have loved everything tessa has ever written, but sadly the possession in this one just did not work for me at all... i thought it was going to go in another direction, and it didn't and... ahhh, i dont know but i just was not vibing with it... even if i loved every other aspect of this story.
tw/cw: parental abuse, animal death (bird), misgendering (always in a negative light), possession + unwilling possession, blood depiction, getting blood for a spell/magic, drowning depiction, assault, loss of a loved one.
;___; for sure my favorite or 2nd favorite wayward children. mini review and tw to come soon - use caution with this one, friends. seanan does a reall;___; for sure my favorite or 2nd favorite wayward children. mini review and tw to come soon - use caution with this one, friends. seanan does a really good note at the start <3 but i really loved this even though i felt like i was constantly crying or experiencing the feeling of being on the verge of crying
“I’m frightened of this feeling that consumes me and promises to rip free of my body and set the entire palace ablaze. Of the way I want to ta
“I’m frightened of this feeling that consumes me and promises to rip free of my body and set the entire palace ablaze. Of the way I want to taste every part of her. Devour her whole.”
sleeping beauty, told from a fae villain's perspective, and completely for the sapphics. this was truly one of the best books i've read in a long while. i loved the writing, the setting, the descriptions, and obviously the characters. this was so well done and so impressively crafted. and i was absolutely living for the twists and turns. i don't necessarily know what i was expecting from this, but all i know is that i was delivered so much more that i could have ever dreamed to imagine! but that ending, whewwww! one of the best debuts, retellings, and just books i've ever read. i loved this completely and with my whole heart.
trigger and content warnings: a lot of blood imagery (human blood, animal blood, getting blood for spells), kidnapping, talk of child abandonment, talk of child experimentation in the past, loss of a loved one, anxiety depiction, captivity, mention of slavery, drug use, brief mention of suicide, torture, gore, violence, murder, death. (also themes of homophobia and misogyny - always in a negative light)
"The world is built on who carries what and for who"
2022 has truly just been the year of me devouring and loving all things by nghi vo, and this third installment was no different. i am very in love with cleric chih and their bird companion. i love seeing them pass through new parts in their journey and being told new stories. this entire series is truly a love letter to the power of stories and how they can be healing, escapism, comfort, knowledge, and remembering and retaining your history that would be rewritten and forgotten. but this installment has an extra emphasis on the power of remembering our past, too. while also the power of community and the power of preserving your communities stories.
and also good discussions on even within your communities, which stories are deemed more worthy of remembrance. and if those things could be based on the beauty and youth of the stars of the story.
i truly cant wait to see where this story goes next, and i'd follow chih through all the past and present adventures to come. i hope tor releases these forever. happy halloween, friends!
tw/cw: harassment leading to physical altercation, blood mention/depiction, murder, death, gore, violence, abandonment, and dead body descriptions. (some very brief mentions in the stories in this book of: kidnapping, assault, mention of what could be thought of as cannibalism.)
“When you love a thing too much, it is a special kind of pain to show it to others and to see that it i➵ The Empress of Salt and Fortune ★★★★★
“When you love a thing too much, it is a special kind of pain to show it to others and to see that it is lacking.”
oh, this was a complete and utter masterpiece. 128 pages of power and perfection. not only a love letter to love, but a love letter to stories being told through generations and the power of stories being audibly passed down. and how those stories get distorted over time when others write them down, sometimes trying to make them fit in boxes they never belonged in.
and if you all are looking for sapphic yearning, and angst, and one liners that you will physically feel in your heart and soul, i recommend this story with everything. truly unforgettable, and the layers and depth to it all is so expertly done. nghi vo is actually out of her mind for these novellas, and i am blown away way passed the point of coherent words. but i can't wait to see what stories our cleric experiences next!
“Being close to her was like being warmed by a bonfire, and I had been cold for a long time.”
impoh, such a powerful first read of 2022 !!
“Being close to her was like being warmed by a bonfire, and I had been cold for a long time.”
impactful, lyrical, and so so so powerful. truly a masterpeice of a novella and the story is told in my absolute favorite way - where we get to see a character be told the story alongside the reader. the memories were beautiful and haunting and everything in-between. and the last line had me gasping for air! truly i loved this with my whole heart, and lake scarlet is now one of my favorite settings in literature.
"And there is nothing more dangerous than love, is there? People fight for it. They die for it. They commit acts of war and treason and all manner of sin in its name."
Whew, what a rollercoaster again! Kingdom of the Cursed picks up immediately after the events of Kingdom of the Wicked, and with Emilia trying to pick up the falling pieces of her life. Her main priority is to still avenge her sister and discover who was killing witches in her Italian town, but this time she is looking for clues in the land of actual heck, where she is promised to one of the seven demon rulers, and not the one she already has feelings for. Yet, Wrath escorts her back to his personal heck kingdom, and Emilia soon realizes there is much more she has to be in search of if she ever really wants to live a normal life again.
I feel like talking about my thoughts on this series is just so difficult. Let me start out by saying that this was the most easily consumable book I’ve read all year, and there wasn’t a moment I wasn’t thinking about it while not reading. The atmosphere, setting, and entire vibe is perfect, especially for the autumn time! The main character and her quests for vengeance and for her own discovery really is phenomenal. The writing is lush and descriptive and feels like its own sort of magical teleportation. And the story itself feels enthralling at every turn, and plot points are constantly being set up to leave the reader anticipating that next page, while also begging for the next book.
"When the demon responsible for Vittoria’s death finally felt the flames of my fury, I’d hopefully have burned this House of Sin to ash."
But there was just a horrible chapter that really dampened my entire reading experience and it really breaks my heart because this is one of those situations where I truly believe if publishing houses would just hire beta readers who review critically, this could have been such an easy chapter to fix. I actually believe that if chapter 17 did not happen, this could have been a five star book for me and you could have seen me holding it up as a new profile picture in 2022. But that scene just 1.) made me wanna throw up and 2.) made it so hard to root for the romance after, even though the author constantly tries to make an excuse for the behavior, but it honestly just makes it feel even worse. Also, I wouldn't make excuses for anything that happened in that chapter, but once I finished the book I realized that the “training session” was so unnecessary, at least in this book, and again it just ruined my reading enjoyment.
For the sake of the rest of this review, I’m just going to ignore this chapter. But in my review of Kingdom of the Wicked, I said how this series is the first series in so many years to remind me of those fantasy series I read when I was younger and truly could not put the books down, and I would look forward to their next installments being released months and months in advance, while trying to devour to story when it hit my kindle at midnight!
And this story was extra reminiscent of those feelings because this second book takes a very large jump in the adult or new adult fantasy genre. This book is very steamy, and Emilia and Wrath have very sexy thoughts on the brain 24/7. This author also makes full use of this series being about demons inspired off the seven deadly sins, and this story uses very public displays to showcase this. (I do scream at Emilia not knowing about oral sex though, especially when she claims to have read such naughty romance books in her past though!)
Overall, again, this is just a hard one for me to review and rate. I will for sure read book three and see how it all wraps up, because I am actually unhingedly invested in everything, especially with how this second book closes! I really loved all the new developments with Emilia’s powers and with all the witches and the history of witches, actually. I loved a lot of the side characters we were introduced to too, and maybe one demon prince will actually pull a Rhysand, which would be insane but I’d really welcome it at this point. I also want to see all of the different lands and castles of hell, too, because so far every exploration has felt magical and so exciting! I do apologize for this review being all over the place; middle books are always a bit more difficult for me to review, especially ones where I am trying to pretend an entire chapter didn’t happen. I’m going to be very curious what everyone thinks of this book once it releases!
"Not all stories end happily, Emilia"
Trigger + Content Warnings: a lot of blood descriptions + depictions, grief, gore, violence, mention of loss of a loved one, brief mention of the topic of rape, drugging, a lot of sexual themes and scenes, and a full warning that chapter 17 has very questionable physical consent involving mind control powers using magical compulsion - truly full dubcon vibes but sex does not ultimately happen, but it is just a very uncomfortable scene that actually made me nauseous, so please use caution while reading.
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