#sizzy

Thank you for the ask!

After looking through some of my playlists :

Heart Attack by Demi Lovato for Isabelle Lightwood - about how she wants to protect her heart from heartbreak. I heard this song the other day and it made me start a Sizzy playlist.

Not strictly about book characters and more about a book/TV show ship but after seeing this edit of Hollanov to Siren Sounds by Tate MacRae I think of them whenever I hear the song

The Albatross by Taylor Swift for Zoya Nazyalensky - about how people see her as dangerous and a monster and she finds a love who sees her for who she is (I’m a multishipper I have space in my heart for both Zoyalina and Zoyalai btw)

To state the obvious, every time I hear Riptide by Vance Joy I think of Percy Jackson either PJO or the character himself

Jealousy, jealousy by Olivia Rodrigo for Sadie Kane - ok this takes a bit more explaining I think. I hc that if TKC were written/set today Sadie would be a BIG Olivia Rodrigo fan. And I have a fic idea written down in my Ellipsus doc about her and Carter (from her POV) called jealousy, jealousy about how she thinks Carter has everything she doesn’t have and Carter thinks the same of her.

Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo for Alina Starkov, Zoya Nazyalensky and Genya Safin vs the Darkling - pretty self explanatory, I put this in their playlists when I made them

The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift for Luli Wei (from Siren Queen by Nghi Vo) - both are about how difficult it is to make it in show business even if Siren Queen also dives into questions of racism and queerness and I feel like the triumphant ending of life of a showgirl has a similar voice in my head to how powerful the MC in the book feels.

Simon, needless to say, is slightly shocked by the proposal, especially because he fears that she might be acting in the heat of the moment and might later regret it. However, the two end up having a sincere conversation in which they clarify things: Simon makes sure that Isabelle is aware of what she is doing and that she genuinely wants it, while she reassures him that it is entirely her choice. In the end they still decide to go through with it, but only after establishing clear boundaries and mutual understanding. The result is a scene built on trust and communication, a scene that does not come across as disturbing, but rather surprisingly tender in its strangeness.

And I find it interesting and even intentional that just one chapter earlier cc showed us something similar, but with Sebastian as the protagonist. While reading, I could not help but draw a direct parallel with the scene involving Sebastian, the vampire girl and the mundane girl he brings back to his apartment to have fun.

Sebastian and the vampire have the mundane to offer herself as well like a walking blood bag. And superficially, the situation might seem like nothing more than an unconventional kinky encounter, but the point is that the mundane does not understand what she is consenting to, and Sebastian himself admits that she was frightened at first, only to dismiss it afterward by saying that in the end she liked it. But the fact that the bite eventually produces pleasure does not change anything, because that pleasure is artificially induced. Vampire bites essentially function like a drug, and a person under the influence of a substance cannot be considered capable of giving consent, a chemically altered pleasure cannot be used as proof of consent, on one side we have Simon and Isabelle build intimacy through communication, mutual understanding and conscious choice; on the other Sebastian operates within a dynamic in which a person's will is distorted and ignored.

And that's why one scene feels intimate and even strangely tender, while the other comes across as unsettling, despite the fact that on the surface both can be read in the same way

Although, of course, these books themselves have nothing to do with the complexities of consent, it is interesting and nice that co has added references to reality here and there, which give depth to the story without weighing it down: such as the difficulties faced by gay people in a closed and bigoted society, or the issues Maia faced during adolescence for being the daughter of a white woman and a black man... or this.

Simon: *cuddling, stroking Izzy's hair* You're so tiny and adorable

Isabelle: *half asleep* I could literally kill you with one hand