july

August 03, 2019


Things I enjoyed in the month of July:
(Buckle in, this is going to be an epic one; I apologise in advance to your chosen browser...)

Patricia Briggs', Cry Wolf:

As I said in my review for Moon Called, Ilona Andrews has ruined me for all other female-led Urban Fantasy.
RUINED!
And that still very much stands.
Kate Daniels
is my number one girl, and it'll take a goddamn celestial miracle to prise that title from her sass-wielding, shifter-cuddling hands.
But that doesn't mean I won't make room for other ladies that bite... and their alpha-mallow bondmates, of course.
I'd run out of F-L UF really fucking quickly if I did that.
(It's genuinely killing me that this acronym spells out fluff. ... FLUFF!)
And Anna and Charles are such a welcome addition.
They're so soft with each other.


Hers. He was hers, whispered that part of her that didn't worry about human concerns. Whatever fears Anna had about rapid changes in her life, her wolf half was very happy with the events of the past few days.


So soft.
And I love soft.
Especially when it's coming from creature features with reputations for chewing faces off every full moon.
Unexpected softness is the best softness.
And these two?
Oh, boy, these two just about smothered me with their fuzzy lupine antics.


She sucked in another deep breath and tried to let it wash away all her insecurities. This was not a man who wanted to give up his mate. This was a man trying to do the honorable thing―and give her a choice, no matter how much it cost him. That was right, and the knowledge steadied her, and she let her wolf come back and give her the confidence she needed.

For her he shook like an alcoholic in need of his gin, because he felt she needed to know her options, no matter how his wolf felt about losing his mate. Her knight, indeed.


They may as well have been making heart eyes at each throughout the entirety of Cry Wolf.
And it's not even gross.
Not even a tiny bit.
It's just cute as fuck.
And I want more.
description

All the lycanthropic heart eyes, please.
Let's see how much I can take before I start barfing aortas.
...
Bit gross?
Accurate, though.

.............................................

Amy Haslehurst:


A post shared by Amy Haslehurst (@brokensundowns) on

I can't stop thinking about this photo.

.............................................

Patricia Briggs', Shifting Shadows:

I love shorts and novellas from a set series.
They're like little treats for good behaviour.
(Said good behaviour being not devouring the whole series in one monstrous gulp - the struggle is real)
I especially love when authors gather those stories and commit them to print.
My grabby hands enjoy this.
I'm a very tactile reader.
From dog-earing pages to leave a trail of favourite passages in my wake.
To inhaling the incomparable scent of infinite stories.
(see: further down for the reason why books smell so fucking good)
And then there's the desperate clutching that follows the close of a story and it filching yet another piece of my literary-loving heart.
(Sometimes you just gotta hug your book)
...
As I said, a very tactile reader.
And it's not often authors will collate these short, intersecting tales and make them physical.
Not that I mind reading them digitally... anymore.
(As long as digital doesn't kill the paperback - rioting will occur if this happens, but it will come with complimentary bookmarks and copious cups of tea)
But I'll always choose physical over digital.
And it's not an aesthetic thing before any fucker gives me shit.
You can fuck right off.
My collection is a testament to not doing that.
I buy books for their insides, not their outsides.
(Not wholly true; coming from an artistic background, the skill and artistry behind bookmaking is very important to me. So if given the choice between editions, I will take the one with a more appealing cover. Thus why I chose the mass market paperback version of the Mercyverse (in large part because of size and the stellar artwork of Daniels Dos Santos) over the paperback. It's why I have the older MMP version of the Kate Daniels series (again, size and the paperback covers are just goddamn ugly), and why I'll only buy the Josh Kirby editions of the Discworld until they flip over to the Josh Kidby editions (nostalgia and artistic preference); and furthermore, why I'll make a point of not deviating from my selected style throughout a series, unless I have no choice, because I like the way they look. So, yes, aesthetic is a notable part of my book selection process but if given a choice between an ugly book I could read and a beautiful book I was forbidden to? The uggo wins every. damn. time)
And most definitely not to sit on my shelves and look pretty but inexcusably unread.
That shit's vain and barbaric.
Aestheticism be damned.
There is no aesthetic to my books.
Unless a ramshackled orgy of fiction is an aesthetic.
If so?
I'm crushing it.
description

I do like looking at them, though.
I like being physically cocooned by stories.
They're safe, and inviting, and they take me places my own imagination couldn't possibly dream up.
And I like being able to hold them, smell them, but not lick them because, y'know... soggy.
So, I love that Patricia Briggs gathered these stories from the Mercyverse and let me put my greedy paws on them.
I love it even more that they're so damn good!
So good, that I read five of them in quick succession; something I try never to do because I like to make my series last.
But.
Uh.
Willpower failure?:


Alpha and Omega
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭐︎

Technically, this should be read before Cry Wolf.
It introduces you to Anna and Charles, and gives you direct knowledge of how they ended up where they are at the beginning of the Alpha & Omega series, which is a concurrent spin-off from the Mercyverse.
And for some reason, I read this first.
...
Before Moon Called.
...
And I even went so far as to buy the sixth book in the A&O series (the sixteenth in the Mercyverse) a year before I even contemplated reading Alpha and Omega or anything by Patricia Briggs.
...
I think I got distracted by the cover...
(Actively stopping myself from buying this as a print, and it's really fucking hard because... look how beautiful)

Idiocy was fairly rife that day apparently, but actually?
I'm glad I started here, because as it stands, I am deeply in ship with Anna and Charles, but not so much with Mercy.
I can feel it coming. It's definitely coming. But we've got some work to do before we're ride or die bitches.
So, starting with Alpha and Omega was happenstantially (not a word but my brain and trusty thesaurus failed me, so you get this mess instead) the absolute right choice.
It has everything I love about Urban Fantasy:


✓ Well-rounded characterisation
✓ Intriguing plot meted out at a moreish pace
(UF is almost solely mystery-based, so if your plot is lacking, my interest will wane. And that's coming from someone who never figures out the plot twist)
✓ A rich landscape with detailed creature lore and magic
✓ Love
(Not necessary but totally necessary? aka. this bitch is a sucker for the paranormal squishy heart stuff and won't be parted from it)
✓ Quality dialogue
(Anna and the rest of the pack are just the right side of snarky for me)
✓ Absolutely necessary side characters
(This might not bother other people but I don't want or need characters there just to fill a space. Especially in a series. Again, many might not agree but I pretty much believe every character should have spin-off/novella potential)
✓ HFN
(Even if my ship is together and staying together, I want turbulence, otherwise what's the point?)


 Alpha and Omega is a minuscule story but it delivers on all of these requirements and is probably the reason why I'm two books, four short stories and one novella into the Mercyverse.
(The paws signify the Alpha & Omega series. I don't know why it made me so happy adding them)

And finding it increasingly difficult to step away...
description



Silver
⭑⭑⭑⭐︎✩

Chronologically, this is the first story you're supposed to read.
A story focused on the origin of two werewolves, father and son, both main players in the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha & Omega spinoff.
It's also my first encounter with Patricia Brigg's Fae.
(I wasn't expecting the Fae to be so... Fae. Normally fairies in UF have been almost fully domesticated into modern living, so this was a nice throw back to the days of the Aos Sí and Elfhame)
...
And it's fucking heartbreaking.
But it does explain a lot.
The werewolf son, Samuel, is a character I met in Moon Called and... I can't say I exactly warmed to him.
He's not unlikeable.
I like him.
But...
No major spoilers, but he was a dick to the heroine and I didn't enjoy it, even if there were reasons for said dickishness.
Reasons I'm now more aware of and sympathetic towards, wholly because of this short story.
...
He was still a dick, though.
Don't use women, women you care about, as a Band-Aid for your own pain.
Not cool, wolf-bro.
Understandable.
But not cool.
...
The heartbreak, though...



Gray
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭐︎

A domestic story of a vampire and her deceased husband... who happens to be a ghost.
...
Also fucking heartbreaking.
But in a completely different way to Silver.
In an entirely lovely way.
In an I hope I see them again in the series way.
It also happens to be my favourite of the shorts.
Briggs is one of those writers who just knows how to acknowledge the mundane, even the supernatural mundane, and highlight the beauty in it.
Not fuss with it.
Not embellish it.
But quietly celebrate it.
Gray is a lovely example of this and I'm so glad to have it taking up space in my brain.



Fairy Gifts
⭑⭑⭑⭐︎⭐︎

A vampire owed a life debt from a daughter of the Fae.

I found this one eminently creepy.
I don't really know why, because it's not actually very creepy at all.
Maybe it was the old school Master vampire behaviour.
Centuries old vamps chowing down on sacrificial pre-teens is never a good look.
The sire bond can get wicked creepy sometimes...

I did, however, very much enjoy the idea of a Fae lord rocking up in farmer garb to fetch his now rescued kid.
Supernatural authoritarians in casual wear is just something that will always please me...



Seeing Eye
⭑⭑⭑⭐︎⭐︎

A scarred werewolf finds his mate in the form of a mutilated White witch.
...
I like these two.
I like these two a lot.
And they appear in the next full book in the Mercyverse.
...
Yay!


.................


The overall feeling I'm getting from reading these shorts/novellas is that I want more.
More, more, more.
Briggs is apparently a master at siren calling me with new potential ships.
...
description

.............................................

Vanillin:

This makes so much sense.
I love vanilla.
Not the disturbingly clear junk that smells like flowery butthole.
No, no, no.
I mean the real, black as Hades' bedsheets, shit.
Preferably in Vanilla Bean Paste form, so I can sniff the bottle while one of my sisters is baking.
Or not baking.
This huff queen needs no excuse to inhale some sweet, sweet baking uppers.
It's no wonder I can't help but bury my face betwixt (yes, betwixt, fuck off) the pages of any book dropped into my literary-loving novel-graspers.
No.
Bloody.
Wonder.

.............................................

This tweet:
...
It hurts my heart so bad when behaviour I've been conditioned to believe is a "fault" is gently razed to the ground by soft digital strangers.
...
So bad.

I feel so seen.

.............................................

Good Omens:


Let's go back to October of last year and witness my reaction to watching the trailer for the Good Omens adaptation:


Super dramatic and curmudgeonly, right?
Well, I'm here to eat some serious crow(ley) ← I'm sorry?
Because I was wrong.
So damnably wrong.
But I'll take the hit.
Especially if it gets me a show like this.

I watched the first episode with the family and once the titles (oh, the titles) finished rolling, my eldest sister (also my partner in GO-based cynicism, it being her favourite book and all) and I both turned to each other and uttered these cursed words:


Fuck it...


Because we're idiots and it's perfect.
(And my other sister isn't smug about being right about this. Not even a tiny bit)
No, truly, I'm not being hyperbolic.
It's. Fucking. Perfect.
David Tennant as Crowley? Perfect.
(I'll admit I was wrong about Crowley as a ginge being a crime against Pratchett and Gaiman's unholy creation, okay? I mean, I'll do it with this expression on my face, but it's the admission that counts, right?)
Michael Sheen as Aziraphale? Oh good god, so perfect.
The rest of the cast? Perfect.
The score? You guessed it, perrrrrfffecccctttt.
The cinematography? The word's just becoming redundant now but y'now, perfect.
The costume design.
The humour.
The subtle but so not subtle love between a sass-mouth, marshmallow-centred demon and an adorably bratty angel with a bottomless belly, that makes the religious zealots so very unhappy and us, "the blasphemous", so very happy.
(Never has a petition been quite so entertaining)
...
Yup, I'm going to have to say it again.
...
PERFECT.

It's never felt quite so good to be so fucking wrong.

One thing, however.
Gaiman?
If you're listening.
Don't make more.
I beg of you.
I'm on my knees, here.
Even if Amazon bullies you mercilessly.
Don't.
Do.
It.
I...
I don't think could bear it.

Let's leave it to the wonderful and holy crap, plentiful world of fan art (and fanfic, don't you at me, Sarah, don't you dare!), yeah?:
Jane Pica

TentenTenten00

hachinana87

Бес

뭉지

kilgaaarra

mejev

드악이

Dahui Wang

Mimi

Anna Veltkamp

KaySD

Ariane Agocoy

arinich

Kasia Brzezinska

Wik Radz

Mary Cruz

Rachel X

アキラメラ

Xanthe Bouma

sandara

https://captainfrod.tumblr.com/post/185722192703
 
Fröd

https://halcyon1796.tumblr.com/post/186280966086
  
https://halcyon1796.tumblr.com/post/186609891406
 
Halcyon

https://s-u-w-i.tumblr.com/post/126925418944/crowley-and-aziraphale-commission-for-lovely
 
Zuzana Čupová
(To me, she's the successor to Tove Jansson, and I love her)



A post shared by Man Luo (@luoman_art) on
Man Luo
(I am OBSESSED with their work)

Chechula Čupová



A post shared by PLUS (@plusdesu03) on


A post shared by PLUS (@plusdesu03) on


A post shared by PLUS (@plusdesu03) on
PLUS
(Also OBSESSED with their work)



A post shared by sophia 😾☕ (@cattuchino) on
Sophia aka. cattuchino

Frey

Ksenia Svincova aka. IrenHorrors

Laura Vacca

So... that's was a lot.
And I did it twice.
You're welcome.
And if you want more and some actual insight into the show rather than my emotionally charged verbal vomit, then miracle your way over to the totally-not-smug-and-hasn't-been-rubbing-it-in-my-face-whenever-the-opportunity-arises sister's blog:

.............................................

This reaction to The Fountainhead:

.............................................

Santa Clarita Diet season 3:

...
They cancelled my show.
My Drew-Barrymore-eating-people show.
And they ended it on a cliffhanger!
(A cliffhanger I can live with but that's besides the point!)
How could you, Netflix?
How could you?!
It's so funny and violent and full of mildly fucked up marshmallowy feels.
How will I possibly survive without the look of pure, unabashed glee on Barrymore's face when she's tearing out Nazi throats with her teeth?
...
No, I'm not exaggerating.
This happens and it's as glorious as it sounds.

Just look at how cute she is:

...
I repeat, Netflix.
How could you?
How could you?

.............................................

Exit North:

My dad took way too much pleasure in handing me this album, with strict instructions not to look at it, only, listen and see if I could figure out who it was.
...
Cryptic much.
But I think it was probably worth the subterfuge to witness my almost instantaneous, and high pitched, reaction to Thomas Feiner's voice finally gracing my eardrums after years, years! of waiting.

.............................................



...

That is all.

Oh, and some fan art to celebrate the best Spider-Man movie ever made:
Eva Vilhelmiina



A post shared by Man Luo (@luoman_art) on
Man Luo

.............................................

It's Summer, therefore, comics:

Sarah Andersen's, Herding Cats

It's as simple as this, Andersen:
description

I love her.
I love her.
I
LOVE
HER
!

But almost my favourite part?
This:

So damn tactually satisfying.
Her poor belly will be jumper-less by the time I'm done rubbing it.
...
I know, odd.
But come on!
Don't fabric-line your books if you don't want me to go to town on them...
description
(gif by Sarah Andersen)


Will Staehle & Tania del Rio's, Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye

Take a finger of The Addams Family.
A shot of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
A twist of Howl's Moving Castle.
And you've got yourself Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye.

If you need more incentive, then I do not understand you as a human being.
...
Look how pretty!:
(Eloquent as always...)

This is such a beautifully presented book.
The attention to detail is staggering.
The illustrative style is so bloody charming.
And the story inside is equally so.
Not gonna lie, but I could vomit from happiness just owning this wonderful, wonderful creation.

Authors?
Illustrators?
Publishers?
Please never stop producing this magic.
It'd be a crime...

Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples', Saga Vol. 8

Are these two even capable of producing anything but sheer fucking genius?
Truly.
I'm honestly asking.
It's frightening...
But...
description

Bonus-you-have-no-idea-how-happy-this-makes-me-content:

My heart...


Kim Smith's, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

...
The cute.
Oh sweet baby slayers, THE CUTE!
My sisters bought me this for Christmas and it's sat on my shelves until now.
Seven months of me not knowing the level of squee contained inside.
...
Curse my overwhelmingly ginormous TBR pile.
CURSE IT TO HELL(mouth)!
description


Kurtis J. Wiebe & Roc Upchurch's, Rat Queens: Sass & Sorcery

So... I'm in love with a quartet of mega-violent, foul-mouthed, supernatural bad ass bitches and I can show you exactly the moment it happened:

Be still my heart...
description
...
Sometimes I worry about my love of curse-happy females shedding tankards of blood and banging everything with a pulse.
But then I think...
NAH.
description


Okushuo & Shizumu Watanabe's, Real Account Vol. 1

Battle Royale for the digital age.
...
Cute.
And pleasingly violent.
For example:

I'll never tire of Manga drama queens.

Ne-ver.

Etorouji Shiono's, Übel Blatt Vol. 0

I... really enjoyed this.
Stellar visuals.
Compelling story arc.
Complex but not overly confusing world-building.
Enjoyable hero.
...
BUT.
Stronger females, please?
It's truly not that hard to write/draw a heroine without having her scantily clad and solely there as fuckable scenery for lust-added manga-bros with certifiable control issues.
I shit you not.
It can be done.
It has been done.
Behold! A list!:

» Claymore
» 1/2 Prince
» Variante
» Tokyo ESP
» Red River
» Basara
» Yona of the Dawn

And probably a fuck-ton more I haven't even heard of.
See.
Totally, entirely, completely possible.
So there's no excuse, now is there?
...
Goddamn, manga-bros.
description

.............................................

Stranger Things season 3:

...
I have only six words for you, Duffer brothers:

I'm fine.
Totally fine.
But I'm going to need one these, stat:

Here's some fan art to soften the devastation and not to distract you from the distant wail of me sobbing my heart out... totally not that...

Nathanna Érica

Mike Mu

Diana Novich

Giada Carboni

Karl James Mountford




A post shared by Hannah Hillam (@hannahhillam) on
Hannah Hillam
(Not technically Stranger Things fan art but it felt appropriate. Poor Will)

Man Luo

Trish Nagaara
(I loved this scene. More evidence that Steve Harrington is a gift)

.............................................

[spoiler] I'm in mourning.
But... no body? No death.
Try and convince me otherwise and witness some truly epic bargaining.
...
I will not suffer a Hopper to die! [spoiler]

.............................................

You Me Her season 4:

...
I got cliffhangered, people.
I got cliffhangered, hard.

So... until next year, I guess?

Note to self: Stop watching your stories as soon as they drop. No good ever comes of this!

.............................................

Trumpet Kid:

I love this kid.
But I'm so pissed I didn't catch him playing Star Wars this time around.

.............................................

Sending my sister this gif because it makes me so fucking happy:

And getting this in response:

Sister. Win.

.............................................

Shirley Jackson's, We Have Always Lived in the Castle:

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.


Decided on a re-read after watching the very promising looking trailer for the first ever (?) screen adaptation of this beguiled tale of suburban witchcraft.

I've never been able to pin down exactly why We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of my take to the ends of the world books.
I know I love it.
I know it fulfils the near constant yearning I have for Magic Realism, fucked up family dynamics, and cuttingly fierce female characters.
But I don't how or why Shirley Jackson's blearily languid writing of societal cruelty and consumptive love affects me the way it does.
Why it means so much to me.
Is it actual witchcraft?
Maybe.
I just know I'd sell my soul to the devil himself for more.
So much more.


Bonus-squishhead-content:
Because of course he had to be involved again.
It's like the having the cutest, fluffiest stalker ever.
...
Would you like to hear this befluffed demon sneeze?
Dumb question.

.............................................

New Amsterdam:

Medical dramas are not my thing.
As I explained in my review of Kathryn Ann Kingsley's, King of Flames, I don't do non-supernatural bodily injury.
Unless you're covered in fur and howl at the moon, or enjoy sinking your teeth into the necks of willing/unwilling Happy Meals with legs, I don't want to see that shit.
Nuh uh.
Keep your could-so-easily-happen-to-my-soft-and-vulnerable-meat-sack nonsense away from my eyeballs.
Unless you like being projectile vomited on, that is?

So, I normally avoid medical tv shows like the plague.
I mean, sure, I watched ER when it was on (hello, Hell and High Water); who didn't?
Nurse Jackie remains one of my favourite tv shows of all-time.
And I'll always have a special place in my grossed-out-by-cutting-people-open heart for Scrubs, M*A*S*H, House, Offspring, The Knick and No Angels.
(I feel like I should add Green Wing because it's majestic, but... medical? Hmm, not really. Bonkers? Ah yes, yes, yes)
I even gave Grey's Anatomy a shot but holy fucksticks, it's just the worst. I genuinely vomit a little in my brain when I hear the words McDreamy ... Ew.
So, when I found my sister watching New Amsterdam, it was a strange experience for me to want to keep watching.
Liking the characters.
And not having to curb my insatiable need to throw sharp things at the screen because "You're medical professionals for fuck's sake, go cry in a supply cupboard, not your patient's open wounds!".
...
Yeah.
Strange.
And I think it's because, and brace yourself for this, they actually practiced... medicine!

I know! Almost unheard of.
Even ER, arguably the greatest medical drama ever made, couldn't stop itself from having an emotional breakdown every two seconds instead sewing body parts back together.
And it's always pissed me off.
No medical whiners for me, thanks.
And that's not to say New Amsterdam isn't an emotional show.
It is.
How could it not be when in the opening episode the lead character starts a brand new job as Medical Director at New York's oldest hospital, is diagnosed with throat cancer, and his pregnant wife is admitted to hospital with prenatal complications.
...
Can you say, clusterfuck?
But the show doesn't let itself get overwhelmed by the sentimental elements most medical dramas drown themselves in.
They do their work and handle their shit.
And it was a pleasure to watch.
I want more.
Especially after the mother of all cliffhangers (my third one this month; I'm cursed) they left us on at the end of the season.
Five words, screenwriters, five words:

Emotional sadists!

.............................................

This sick burn:
...

.............................................

Dannie Abse's, Ask the Bloody Horse:

It's rare for me to read a collection of poetry and enjoy every one.
And this is no exception.
But there are passages within Ask the Bloody Horse that tugged loose the particular ache only poetry can coax from me:

I'll never look at my thumbnail quite the same way again.

.............................................

Menstruation Nation:
Libby Frame

Ariella Elovic of The Cheeky Blog

Gross but accurate.
Will this stop be from devouring spoonfuls of Bonne Maman's raspberry jam straight from the jar?
Pssssht.
By the power of my sadistic, fuck-witted uterus, it will not!

.............................................

Ana Godis is everything.

.............................................

On the 29th of July, Kiki's Delivery Service turned 30 and Tristan Cooper blessed my unobservant eyes with this:

I love this movie.
I love the fact that these details exist.
And I somehow love that they pass me by while I watch and I can discover them later.

Being alive in the era of Studio Ghibli means so very much to me.
So very much.

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