Ramblings of a mood reader

In a flurry of thread and felt, I have finished my project and *checks notes* sixteen novels and five volumes of manga. Book club happened at some point. My birthday? Was that this month? It's been BUSY! Honestly, I felt very productive overall, and I look forward to finally being able to KNIT. Bummed because my energy levels are tanking again, but the month was full of good books and good food.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except for Me by Django Wexler ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Hm. Okay. Well. I think I can say for sure the problem is Me. Because everything I wanted from book one was here, the consequences, the character growth, the answers, and I thought this was less fun and more boring. Until the last quarter or so when it all came together, thus the extra star. This was also Less Horny, which definitely plays a role in my enjoyment. Maybe I'll reread the first one with these thoughts in mind, maybe I won't. They're still not Long Live Evil, and that's not really fair now is it.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin ⭐️ – I uh. Did not enjoy this. It's not even that I didn't understand it, I was just bored out of my mind. This was a bunch of numbers and math and physics on a page (in my ear?) and the audio made everything so dry and dull. Multiple times I wanted to drop it, but figured hey it must Get Good because everyone references this. It did not Get Good. The ending wasn't even satisfying.

The Two Lies of Faven Scythe by Megan E O'Keefe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Oh did I enjoy this. From the crystal people to the floating space armada that makes up a pirate city, this book was fun. While not Leverage-esque, I do feel like it was Leverage inspired, and while I don't entirely buy the romantic relationship, it reminded me of The Luminous Dead in that it is weird/cute/fucked up/interesting enough that I don't mind it. Would love to read again.

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki ⭐️⭐️ – This was not what I expected and I'm trying so hard not to hold that against it. It's fine as a Trans Story™️, cool as a Demon Contract story, and it's shit at being scifi. My hot take is the Stargate Donut angle was unnecessary and dragged everything down. I loved the scene with Katrina's final concert. Was bored by just about everything else. On top of it all, the narrator was so hard to listen to I went to see what else she has done and cancelled a hold I had that she also narrates.

Lost Souls Meet Under A Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Oh. Ouch. But, like, in a good way. Bittersweet is the best way I can describe this. It's not sad, exactly, but there is a melancholy air to it. But there is also hope. There is also love. I really liked the way this was told, with the different characters each chapter and then the final chapter pulling everything together. The translation never felt wooden either, enough so that I looked to see if the translator worked on anything else I may be interested in. Would read again.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Cute! Heartbreaking! Twisty turny! Endearingly hopeful! I loved trying to figure things out, I loved every single character, especially because everyone seemed real and well rounded. Flawed in a real way. I loved how everything came together. The world is big and scary, but you're not alone.

Slow Gods by Claire North ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️* – Stars subject to change, because I genuinely don't know how to rate this. I almost dropped it. I had trouble keeping up. I'm not sure I fully understood what was going on. I restarted it. I enjoyed what I comprehended. I got major autistic vibes from the main character, who may be an alien may be a god. It felt like Imperial Radch and also Murderbot. Still it was its own thing. I'd like to read it again to get a better feel for it, since rereading Ancillary Justice made me have a better understanding of everything.

Walking Practice by Dolki Min ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – I think? I mean I had fun, it was a good time, but also what the hell did I just read. I've been describing this as An Alien Sexual Predator, Where The Sex Is Consensual But The Predation Is Not. It's like if Someone You Can Build A Nest In had a Bad Ending. Weird. Fucked up. Mind the warnings.

Kill the Beast by Serra Swift ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Groundbreaking? No. Fun? YES. Third act plot twist was obvious and guess what! It still stuck the landing! It still hurt! Kind of reminded me of a Kingfisher novel, the way it wove tales and humor and self loathing. Sure there were some things we could've delved deeper into, especially among the Hound Wardens, but it's still a good book! Didn't think about that while reading, only upon reflection, and I'm okay with that.

The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ – Not my favorite SBD novel, but stil worth a read. I think the problem is I no longer care for Magical School plots when it revolves around the student learning. I don't find learning about the world through the lense of a student very interesting or engaging. HOWEVER! The world is in fact Very Neat, and the plot went where I had guessed but got there in ways that surprised me. The title alone. I don't want to spoil it, but it's doing some dual wielding. I'm interested in the sequels now that we (hopefully?) won't be following school life. I also love how the Mean Girl was treated.

The Reluctant Queen by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Made me reevaluate the first book, but in a good way. Yes, actually, that was done pretty well. This was too, but I still felt like we got the "here's your lesson plan" plot again. Sad that my fave was a traitor and died for it. Interesting to see the politics of this tree world. Wish we had characters interacting more with each other. I cheered every time Naelin did not choose Rennet. Still wish we had Merecot's story, she sounds SO interesting.

The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao ⭐️⭐️ – I was so excited for this but left severely disappointed. Many scenes felt like they were written around single lines for the sole purpose of having nice Quotable Lines for tiktok and instagram, regardless of whether or not the lines actually fit. None of the characters got to sit with their emotions, often moving on from one thing to the next almost immediately. That could work within the context of the book, be a choice to make a point, but the execution did not hit. The choppy scene breaks were annoying to read and made worse with the introduction of not only time jumps (forward and back) but time travel. Which I still don't fully understand how it works. I like the idea of it, almost like Alice In Wonderland, but it ultimately didn't work for me.

Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin ⭐️⭐️ – Another disappointment. I wanted killer plants. I wanted to look at the orchids in my house and feel Fear. I did not want relationship drama. There was a bit at the end with a car accident that was very neat and probably the only scene I truly enjoyed and felt engaged with. The audio did some neat things with the POV and overlapping narrators which was very cool, but otherwise completely Meh.

Vicious by VE Schwab ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Reread for book club! Keeping my old rating, because while I have more in depth opinions this time around, I did still have a fun time. The time jumping got to me in a way it didn't before. I don't know what to make of that. After reading ADSOM, I can now pinpoint authorisms of Schwabs that I do not vibe with. Like introducing characters for a page only to kill them. Lack of alive woman with any depth. I should read some of her later works. But overall, yeah I still had fun! Still love Mitch! Still think the ideas are neat!

The Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐⭐– A solid series, but this is definitely the weakest of the three. It set up this really neat conclusion of harmony among spirits and humans and then. Didn't commit. We're back where we started. This one introduced a new romance out of nowhere as well as had TWO weddings. In the middle of trying to save the world. You know how I feel about that. Felt like some character deaths for more for convenience than anything else. Still loved seeing the other kingdoms, even if most of them were brief.

Cinder House by Freya Marske ⭐⭐⭐ – Overall good! A fun twist on the Cinderella story! I was feeling four stars until the weird voyeurism at the very end. It didn't fit the rest of the vibe of the story at all. On one hand, I wish it were a little longer to flesh the relationships out. On the other hand, I don't think I could have sat through more of the fairy tale style narrative. That, at least, is a me problem. Glad I read it, would recommend, but nothing for me to go feral over.

The Lonely Castle In the Mirror 1-5 by Mizuki Tsujimura ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Yes I did go and read the manga because how could I not. It was a great adaptation, but obviously the novel was more in depth about some things. I don't know if it was unclear in the movel or if I just missed it or of the manga made artistic decisions, but some things were a lot clearer than in the novel which made all the connections hit even harder. I love this series a lot and very much want to watch the movie!

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Bingo Update!

I read 8 books this month, 3 of which fulfilled squares.

1. College/uni setting: An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Very interesting, enjoyable writing, and I loved the characters. Dark academia is probably not a subgenre I'll reach for often, but I'm glad I gave this a chance and do recommend it for dark academia fans.

2. Manga/graphic novel: The Liminal Zone by Junji Ito ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 Only my second manga, and it was fucking cool. A few of the stories messed with my head—a good thing—and I don't know much about Junji Ito's art mediums yet, but this was awesome. He's gotta do some of these on canvas paper, right? The results blew me away!

3. Romance: The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefluer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fucking delightful. I'm not usually a romance reader, but I devoured this book. Every time I thought I knew what was coming, Bellefluer drop-kicked me with something even more wild.

I'm working my way through Song of My Softening by Omotara James (2025 award winner) and House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson (blurb buddies for An Arcane Inheritance), so I might actually get a bingo soon!

Before voting, please understand that we're voting AS PARTICIPANTS for what we want to read together. This is not a passive poll. If you vote, please plan on participating. Even if you don't finish the book. Anyone is welcome to join. We'll be posting about the book and having discussions on August 31st.

We're keeping it short(er) in August with some short story collections!

** This Strange Way of Dying: Stories of Magic, Desire, and the Fantastic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Full title wouldn't fit.

@safirefire @lady-shikibu

Our August pick for the 31 Pages Later book club will be Bliss Montage by Ling Ma. I'm so fucking exciiiited!!!

Another photo set of this book cause it's just so pretty

Kudos and comments on AO3? Literally free. Likes, comments, and reblogs on Tumblr? Literally free! Even asks and messages? LITERALLY FREE FOR EVERYONE!

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Heyyy this is an announcement of the next installment of the novella series, SEASONS. WAKE UP! is the winter novella and all my books deal with queer and trans themes, but WAKE UP! is my book with the most explicitly trans characters/concerns. This story in particular is about gambling.

It's an unconventional trans-noir literary (???) thriller, following a middle-aged-ish trans lesbian at an uncertain point in her life. Her lot gets thrown in with a compulsive gambler; a dirtbag trans dude who worships a strange photograph and doesn't give a fuck about anyone, or anything beyond making a killing off of illegal underground games. Not long after she reluctantly takes him in, she is abducted one night to witness him play in a dangerous, high-stakes match.....

If you like a shorter read with trans characters where their transness is not the main tension of the story, if you're one of the five people on the planet who are like FINALLY THE TRANS MAHJONG THRILLER I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR, or if you know nothing about mahjong, and crave something a little more unpredictable with Lynchian elements, give it a go! The book will come out March 31st and is available to pre-order as a special-print paperback, a cheaper mass paperback. Once the book is out, the ebook will be free on Itch. <3 Thanks, all!! ^^