Conceptual theme — Villain
Twosome — Dreadful and Deadly
Do you think that books can send us messages?
I've been re-reading Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl -
so that I can finally move on to the second book in the series with some sort of familiarity with these characters because my brain is swiss cheese
- and I'd forgotten that there was a scene, in the library, where the books are 'talking' to the main character.
'He’s engulfed in the shadow of midnight wings. In the dim lantern light, Izzy examines the damage.'
Yes, I'm rec'ing an Our Flag Means Death (OFMD) fic for the second week in a row.
(You can check out last week's F3 here, if you want.)
It's just what the universe wanted, dearest nerdlets, what can I say? The blogger is beholden to the universe's whims 😅
So, this is the fic the universe gave me for this week.
I don't know why - presumably someone, somewhere, needs to read it. Which is weird, but we live in a weird world, and I was raised by hippies.
It's Thursday, it's too damn hot here, let's get some comics-y superhero-y goodness!
'She walked over to Thea and pulled one of the games out of the box. It was an old fashioned wooden box with the game’s name actually carved into the front. “Jumanji?”
“I’ve never heard of that one,” Ollie said. He joined them to take a look.'
Sometimes, you gotta give points for creativity, y'know?
And there ain't no-one more creative than fic authors! 😉
'He had slept every night since they’d defied Heaven and Hell and it was becoming a bit of a habit.'
A lot of Good Omens (GO) fanfiction tends to revolve around the ship 'Ineffable Husbands'
- and this week's fic rec is no different.
'“Um,” said Sam, looking from Bucky to the golden retriever, “Do you know the dog?”
“Uh,” said Bucky, picking the honestly very large dog up, and walking around Sam, “Sort of? Could you… wait a moment? Watch the soup.”'
This is a weird fic.
Like, it's completely batpoop.
...And you know I love that 😉😅
'The night wore on, and Merlin still hadn't found anything. The words were beginning to blur together on the page no matter how much he tried to clear his vision, so he finally gave in and went over to wake Lancelot.'
I love the BBC TV show Merlin - and even years after it ended, it has a thriving fandom online.
...which, lucky for us, means that there are fic writers busily scribbling away to this day.
'The great fairy incident of 1822 was depicted in many paintings, the most famous of them being The Seelie Siege of London by an unknown painter with a penchant for alliteration.'
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke is a behemoth of a book.
It's over 1000 pages of alternate history, set in a world where the titular characters are bringing magic back to England, against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.
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'If Aziraphale didn’t know better, he might have thought his friend was crying, but it had been centuries since he’d seen Crowley do that.'
This week's fic is from the Good Omens fandom - the Amazon Prime TV series based on the book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman that I still haven't gotten around to reading (*gasps*!)
And I think what impresses me the most about this fic is the way that it somehow manages to weave the content of the fic almost seamlessly into the canon.
* = commission link
'The massive box of 64 crayons calls to me, every one of them waiting to be picked and pressed to a page. (I could have gone for the box of 120, but that seemed like too much.)'
This week's fic is from a fandom that is super-popular, but also not especially well-known outside its core fanbase.
...which is why I'm going to do a very brief explanation of Carry On* aka the Simon Snowverse just so's we're all on the same page.
(I realise that a lot of die-hard fans are probably screaming that how could anyone not know about Simon Snow?! But we do not gatekeep here at Dora Reads, dearest nerdlets.)
(Fandom notes:
gatekeeping - also a non-fandom term, when used in fandom this typically takes the form of 'you're not a real fan of [insert fandom or genre or author, etc.] unless you've [insert arbitrary benchmark]')
It's Thursday, somehow it's only February, let's get some comics-y superhero-y goodness!
Everything is once again in the 'other stuff' category (dammit Loki!)
It's Thursday. Let's get some awesome-sauce comics-y, superhero-y goodness!
***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US***
Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.
Note: For the foreseeable future the only Harry Potter fanfiction I'll be rec'ing will have Trans+/NB+ characters.
I understand if you don't wanna read any posts about Harry Potter whatsoever, and I hope I'll see you when I'm rec'ing from a different fandom.
“Sirius, when is the last time you slept? Or ate a proper meal? Or took a bath? Don’t even bother answering that last one. You smell like something died in your hair..."
To rec this fic, I basically just wanted to go:
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...until you read it.
But I realised that's both exhausting and requiring of context. (Dammit!)
(Warning: this post references racism and police brutality)
***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US***
Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.
There are three important reasons for me writing this post:
1. Black Lives still Matter.
2. It's always a good time to highlight diverse books.
and 3. There are so many amazing Black creators out there, who don't always get the recognition they deserve.
So here's a small selection of some of the Young Adult (YA) and Middle Grade (MG) books on my TBR list that were written by Black authors.
For those of you who don't know the book-blog lingo - a TBR is a 'to-be-read' list. Mine is immortal and cannot be stopped. Send help.
For those of you who are British like me, and/or haven't heard the book blogging term, Middle Grade books are those aimed at (roughly) ages 8-12, or 8-14, depending who you ask.
(Quick disclaimer: obviously, I haven't read these books, just their synopses, so I don't know what they're like in terms of content, quality, etc.)
I hope you find something to add to your own TBR, and remember to support Black authors, and other Black creators.
There're so many talented Black authors out there who deserve our attention!
***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US***
Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.
They stand in another stretch of silence before a great screeching sound reverberates throughout the elevator.
'Ginny started to laugh. The Death Eater stopped walking. He was speaking angrily now, growling or snarling something.'
