#book rants

i hate when people insinuate that tori was lying to herself when she was talking to michael and clarified that it was in a friend way. They are friends. They were always friends first, and it was extremely hard for her character to establish, and she finally did and was finally comfortable with it and people decide that it’s a fully romanced based thing. When she openly clarifies that something is meant in the context of friendship, i see people post stuff like “ohhhh sureeeeee, that was definitelyyyy friendship”

Yes? It was? Because this story so isn’t a romance to the point where it says “This is not a love story” on the cover? Istg, i love a lot of osemanverse fanbases but the tumblr solitaire one kinda drives me insane.

The story is about mental health and the conflicts of the Solitaire pranks. A romantic plot in this story is a side plot. If you think that Sprolden is the main focus of Solitaire, respectfully, take ten large steps away from me.

Maybe it’s just because i’m bad at social cues, but when first reading Solitaire, i didn’t realize that Tori and Michael were a romantic thing until they kissed. And I truly think that’s how it was meant to be. Because the base of everything for them was their friendship.

Does Alice write romance amazingly well? Yes. Should you dismiss Tori’s platonic feelings for Michael due to the fact that they also share romantic interest? Not unless you are a safe distance away from me bc wtf

Like when someone talks about it all i can think is “Tell me you don’t know what a complex friendship is without telling me you don’t know what a complex friendship is.”

ughhhhh

I slowly drift off to bed … when suddenly a thought strikes me. My eyes fly open at this loose end in the story. I sit up, throwing the covers off.

AM is SUCH a complex character, omg. Like...HOLY SHIT!!!!

AM is a machine created for military intelligence, he was never supposed to be able to think, and yet he does. AM, though driven by his burning hatred and rage, is also in pain. His very existence is agony for him, he longs to be like the humans, free to feel and exist.

He is torturing the five to try to make them understand how he feels.

AM can create things, yes, but he can't enjoy those things. He longs to be able to, and it causes him so much pain. He is trapped in a world of his own creation, unable to fully enjoy it and with five of the creatures he loathes most in the world. AM, in the original book, never actually speaks, he only appears as a monolith to Ted. So in a sense, he, too, has no mouth and he must scream.

AM is one of the greatest book villains I have come across in awhile, ong.

I really need to stop reading nonfiction books that are marked as New York Times bestsellers (with the exception of a few select recommendations). Anyway, if y'all are wondering why 2024 had a new surge in folks pushing KOSA, I bet we can point to this book as one of the key factors. Note that I agree with him that being on the interwebs constantly and seeing a negative feed and needing to feel validation constantly for what you create and post (even in fandom spaces) is not great for the mental health. It's definitely detrimental and we have data to back it up! That being said, it's disappointing an author this well-read and with this level of access to data and even a ready-made pool to study from his own NYU students has his head stuck so far up his ass.

Firstly, is it only me who thinks Hagrid kinda didn’t handle the whole Norbert dragon issue properly?? Getting an illegal dragon is already risky. Also, his living environment is prone to burning, causing students to get hurt if there’s a fire. Added with how temperamental Norbert is, many students may get bitten if Norbert escapes his hut. That’s a lot of ‘if’ scenarios here, but they can come true, especially as this is the first time Hagrid got a dragon. I know his dream was to have a dragon and letting go of his dream was hard, but still…

Can he help a bunch of first-years think of a more reliable plan?! Maybe he could accompany Harry and Hermione up to the Astronomy Tower so Harry and Hermione would get a pass from being outta bed-? Hermione could act as a lookout while Harry and Hagrid could hand the dragon over to Charlie’s friends. This plan isn’t 100% reliable, but it’s def better than the one in the book… (as seen in Harry and Hermione getting caught afterwards)

As we can see in Hogwarts, detention isn’t ‘writing lines’. It’s going into an off-limits forest at night to search for a dangerous creature who has the power to kill a saintly unicorn. It’s also about meeting centaurs who may see you as a threat and shoot you to death. Oh forgot to mention, there may be werewolves too!

Yeah I get it, Hogwarts is a place for extraordinary education. But is it really appropriate for detention to be like that?!?! Maybe Hogwarts could make them go to the Forbidden Forest during daytime—werewolves won’t appear during daytime. Or maybe Hogwarts could make them help Filch clean the castle. Facing Filch for more than 1 hour is a depressing, but not dangerous!!

I found some hints of future plot in the book too. In the Forbidden Forest, Ronan and Bane kept on saying ‘Mars is bright tonight’. Mars is the Roman god of war, so that indirectly means war is coming, with blood and deaths. Mars is also a male god, so that means a male (Voldemort) is going to wage war against others.

Apart from that, readers can predict Quirrell set the troll trap through the trapdoor as DADA teacher. In earlier chapters, Quirrell was the one who warned Albus of a troll in the dungeons. Bit of a coincidence? Haha nope.

Also, I think I found a potential plot hole. In the scene where Hermione was sorting out which bottle belonged to which, she assumed every bottle was arranged in order to the piece of paper Severus wrote. But Quirrell was expecting Harry to come; could he’ve mixed up the bottle’s order to kill them off-? But again, that didn’t happen so just a thought.

Okay time for some appreciation: Neville was really brave alright. He had come a long way from being a low-confidence boy to a boy who stood up to his friends and handled Crabbe and Goyle on his own. I have to give JK Rowling that that is well-written character development. Later in Deathly Hallows, Neville is even the leader of Dumbledore’s Army. RESPECT🫡👏

The friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione is also so amazing😃 Ron was willing to sacrifice his life in chess to let Harry and Hermione defeat Voldemort🥲 (luckily the chess pieces didn’t kill-) Hermione also went from ‘we could’ve died, oR wOrSe, eXpElLeD’ to ‘I’M DEF COMING WITH YOU. YOU NEED ME FOR CHARMS!!’ BFFs until death✨💀

People say Gryffindor gaining those sudden points in the end was weird, but I totally thought Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville deserved it😃

Onto the ultimate battle, the contrast between Harry and Quirrell is so well-written- Quirrell was so afraid of death and yearned for power from Voldemort; while Harry would fight to the death against Voldemort and didn’t desire power or fame… Harry also saw the image of him finding the Philosopher’s Stone instead of his family in the Mirror of Erised, so he had got over his unfulfilled dreams and accepted reality🥲 When I was reading the scene, I was so breathless even though I knew the outcome already😂

In the end, we see Albus saying his classic quote, ‘Death is but the next great adventure.’ I love that Nicolas Flamel destroyed the Stone and embraced the unknown of death. Death isn’t something to be avoided or feared when you had a great full life😃

Overall, I liked rereading this book although some of the scenes were…concerning. I look even more forward to the Chamber of Secrets because that book was my favourite in the series when I was in elementary school.

With an ending note—

(Has Minerva never caught the Marauders outta night before😂)