I Was Trying To Explain To My Mum That I Want To Be Cremated And Made Into A Reef When I Die And She

why you should read the fire and brimstone scrolls by nikole knight

HELLO y'all. you might remember me from this post where I went on about why people should read wolfsong, the first book in the green creek series, and it’s been two years since I made that post. it still gets notes, and judging by how many it has I’m guessing I got a good portion of y'all to read it. so I figured I’d try again with a new book series and a new author!! I completely devoured this series over the last week and a half, and as far as I know, it has almost no fandom on here or anywhere else I’ve seen and I need to fix that. SO, here we go:

it’s six books (the first one is called revelations, shown above), so there is plenty of content for you to absorb!

and the series is completed so there will be no agonizing waiting between books, you can just read the next one right away!

it’s a dark new adult fantasy/romance set in a world of angels and demons, heaven and hell

sloooooow burn at first. but oh my god the payoff. 

as of now there are only 2 (TWO!!) fics on ao3 and NOTHING in the tags here (except a moodboard I made hehehe) so just like when green creek was just starting to be popular, we all have the opportunity to build up the fandom and spread word of it around!

eventually ends up being a poly romance!!!

poly rep, ace rep (in a main character!), gay rep, bi rep, fluid characters (characters who identify with he/him pronouns but like to dress up occasionally/wear feminine things), just delightfully queer from beginning to end

begins with our hero riley shephard, sweet, sweet, sheltered riley, who has grown up in an abusive household and is away from home for the first time at college

in the first book you can tell that he’s very innocent and naive, he hasn’t been exposed to the outside world much due to his upbringing with an abusive foster parent, so to watch him grow and discover himself is just so incredible, and by the end of the sixth book you’re like WOW!! MY BABY GROWN 

a heart-wrenching journey of self-discovery, freedom, and love and acceptance that I just could not stop reading from start to finish, I literally finished every single book within a day or two and I can’t remember the last time I binged a series like that

will definitely not be for everyone, but if you can handle all the stuff listed below then I promise it is SO worth it to read because of the story at the heart of it

TRIGGER WARNING: the whole series contains graphic violence, gore, scenes of traumatic sexual assault both on and off page, child abuse, torment, and a couple other things that might be difficult for people to read, but the author includes a content warning at the beginning of every book!! 

hella, hella angst

but so many beautiful scenes too, scenes of coping and healing from trauma and incredible chemistry between the characters!!

did I mention the poly romance

it’s a long journey to get there, but it ends happily and in such a satisfying way!!

the development of the main character is just such a great thing to read, it made me cry to read how he changes for the better but also has to fight the darker parts of himself

if you liked the green creek series I truly believe you’ll like this too! and if I’m wrong you can come into my inbox and drag me! but this is one of my new favorite series ever and I have no one to talk about it with!

but seriously if you like gay werewolves and gay witches, try some gay angels!

I just love Riley Shepard so much

and the angels. oh my god the angels. jairus, noel and gideon. I love them all so much.

I don’t know what else to say I just want to spread this series around because it deserves the love!! it’s so good! so fucking good! 

I’m just begging y'all to give this series a chance so I won’t be alone in my little corner

Editing this to add: Kirt Graves, the same person who narrates TJ Klune’s audiobooks, will also be narrating this series!!

This blog is solely to help me remember funny things I encountered but wtf does this mean

My brothers just had an argument over if our mum is a vegatable

My mother brought kiwis home and I was eating one and mentioned how i like kiwis but they always hurt my tongue and long story short im allergic to kiwi

not gonna stop me from eating them

QPoC Reads of 2021

It’s June! Which for me means Pride Month, staying cool with endless smoothies, and posting a round-up of LGBTQ PoC young adult reads. This year, let’s take a look at some YA books centering QPoC characters that came out in 2021 so far… plus a couple launching this summer! Of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list. With that said, here we go!

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare.

The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore When two teens discover that they were both sexually assaulted at the same party, they develop a cautious friendship through her family’s possibly magical pastelería, his secret forest of otherworldly trees, and the swallows returning to their hometown, in Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Mirror Season… Graciela Cristales’s whole world changes after she and a boy she barely knows are assaulted at the same party. She loses her gift for making enchanted pan dulce. Neighborhood trees vanish overnight, while mirrored glass appears, bringing reckless magic with it. And Ciela is haunted by what happened to her, and what happened to the boy whose name she never learned. But when the boy, Lock, shows up at Ciela’s school, he has no memory of that night, and no clue that a single piece of mirrored glass is taking his life apart. Ciela decides to help him, which means hiding the truth about that night. Because Ciela knows who assaulted her, and him. And she knows that her survival, and his, depend on no one finding out what really happened.

Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan Zara’s family has waited years for their visa process to be finalized so that they can officially become US citizens. But it only takes one moment for that dream to come crashing down around them.

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee Felix Ever After meets Becky Albertalli in this swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Out now, as of yesterday! (or June 10th in the UK!) Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

Love & Other Natural Disasters by Misa Sugiura Out June 8th! When Nozomi Nagai pictured the ideal summer romance, a fake one wasn’t what she had in mind. That was before she met the perfect girl. Willow is gorgeous, glamorous, and…heartbroken? And when she enlists Nozomi to pose as her new girlfriend to make her ex jealous, Nozomi is a willing volunteer. Because Nozomi has a master plan of her own: one to show Willow she’s better than a stand-in, and turn their fauxmance into something real. But as the lies pile up, it’s not long before Nozomi’s schemes take a turn toward disaster…and maybe a chance at love she didn’t plan for.

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta Out June 29th Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they’re fighting for a common purpose–and falling for each other–in Zoe Hana Mikuta’s high-octane debut Gearbreakers, perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu’s Legend series.

Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson Out July 6th! Three days. Two girls. One life-changing music festival. Olivia is an expert at falling in love … and at being dumped. But after the fallout from her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and at home, she’s determined to turn over a new leaf. A crush-free weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her. Toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be. Unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling in the wake of the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed his life in hopes that following in his footsteps will help her find her own way forward. When the two arrive at Farmland, the last thing they expect is to realize that they’ll need to join forces in order to get what they’re searching for out of the weekend. As they work together, the festival becomes so much more complicated than they bargained for, and Olivia and Toni will find that they need each other, and music, more than they ever could have imagined.

Note: Images and summaries via Goodreads!

After the first book, I made a joke post about all the possibilities of what Arthur could have been doing for the 20 or so years befire returning to the island.

So glad Klune actually answered that question in sbts because while the post itself was a joke, I was genuinely so curious. And I love the answer. I should have known. Only a little disappointed that he wasn't a competitive Jenga player.

Here, have some ACTUALLY queer books to read if you too were disappointed by the supernatural finale

(links will take you to Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores instead of am*zon!)

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: scifi novella about time agents on the opposite side of a war who discover free will through love

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: domestic dads and their found family of monster kids (including the literal antichrist), with a side of rebelling against an oppressive government

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater: if you’re on book tumblr at all you know this one, but this has the deeply Catholic repressed gay and traumatized bisexual you’ve been waiting for

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan: chaotic bisexual who ends up in a magical world and won’t stop being snarky about it, with a YEARS long friends to lovers slowburn

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland: zombie killing Black girls in post Civil War America; author is a spn fan and this book definitely has the Feel, but with 500% more women, characters of colors, and queer people

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: chosen one who falls in love with his evil vampire roommate; more drarry than destiel, but its sequel Wayward Son (I know) has that Americana feel

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas: trans boy who’s trying to prove that he’s a brujo accidentally summons a ghost and they solve a murder while falling in love

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum: soft scifi with two girls listening for radio signals from space, found family rights, a love story that feels appropriately epic

Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden: graphic novel about two women road tripping across Texas and healing from trauma, with some fabulism and a cat

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian: I’m just gonna leave this one here for everyone who’s still hurting from Twist and Shout

A Summary of the Magnus Archives, written by someone who has never listened to it

So there’s an archive, and they keep scary stuff in it. The archive is one really long hallway like the one in the penitentiary episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, and I think every door has a monster behind it? It looks like this. The main character is just roaming around with a tape recorder. 

For the first few episodes you aren’t aware there are characters. Then later you meet the archivists. They have names like Peter Lukas, who is a rip-off of Peter Nureyev but also is kind of like Cutter from Wolf 359, Elias Pritchard I think is how you spell it, Basirah, who is a bad-ass I think, Martin, who is very soft and sweet and looks kind of like Aziraphale, and Jonny Sims. The guy who writes the show is also named Jonny Sims, like Night Vale. 

The whole show is kind of a weird mash-up of Night Vale, Wolf 359, The Bright Sessions, and Death by Dying. It takes the oh-no-weird-paranormal elements of WNTV and DBD and the oh-no-Capitalism-is-going-to-kill-us-all elements of TBS and W359. Everyone has a British accent. (I’ve listened to one audio clip and the guy had a British accent so I assume they all do.)

The man that built the archives was named Magnus. I think. Magnus must have been a really f-ed up guy. Then he died. He got eaten by the big crab thing, because apparently there is a big crab thing. Now the archives are run by the Johnny Sims guy, and he has major depression. He’s in denial over the fact that he is gay for Martin. Martin knows he is gay for Johnny but won’t tell anyone. There are lesbians but Elias somebody is lesbophobic. The fandom fights over this a lot. 

Basically, the show tells you about the ways that people have died by the monsters, especially the crab-monster, and some other monster that I think is called the Silencer? I imagine it as looking like the Nightmare from Metroid Fusion. I mean look at this goddamn thing. 

That’s what the archive is hiding. It’s clearly hiding something. I think Elias and Peter are the bad guys? One of them dies, or maybe both. The Silencer eats Peter I think. Elias gets eaten by the crab. All I know is someone gets eaten by the fucking enormous crab. 

I think the show is very diverse, but I see a lot of people yelling at each other about it, so maybe it has issues? Maybe it’s like Voltron. Is this show like Voltron? I used to really like Voltron. Then Season 5 happened and I stopped liking it. I’m not sure how many seasons this show has. Six, I think. 

I think the archives are set somewhere where there is snow, because I see snow in fanart a lot, and big sweaters. Maybe like Northern Ireland. That explains the British Accents. 

BRIAN’S BOOKSHELF | SEPTEMBER 2021

So, I recently rediscovered my love of reading and delved head-first into the LGBTQIA+ genre, specifically looking for books written by members of the community. Considering I read 9 books last month, I’d say I was pretty successful. 

(Note: Boyfriend Material was actually a re-read this time, but I’m very much looking forward to the sequel, Husband Material, which is expected August 2022.)

My TOP THREE for the month were: One Last Stop (wlw, found family, queer and trans POC characters that I absolutely L-O-V-E-D), Cemetery Boys (mlm, trans Latiné lead, truly the *perfect* October read), and The Witch King (mlm, trans lead, BIPOC side characters, modern fantasy aspects that worked really well, PLUS a sequel - The Fae Keeper - slated for a May 2022 release).

I also really enjoyed The Darkness Outside Us, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and The Charm Offensive. 4/5 stars for all of them, very solid books.

I struggled through the first half (yes, 200+ pages) of Winter’s Orbit, but found the second half to be much better, I zoomed right through to the end. I never really got into We Are The Ants, which I’m fairly certain is the oldest book on the list, but I ultimately did finish it. 

Serial Killer Au

Where Adam has been killing off abusive assholes for years, and the FBI brings in special agent Ronan Lynch to help find the Killer . But (surprise) Ronan and Adam end up falling in love, and Ronan needs to help Adam get away from the FBI

So since tomorrow is Halloween, I decided to make a recommendation list of my favourite horror podcast episodes to recommend on Halloween as a way of celebration, and for anyone looking to get into podcasts but maybe being too intimidated by starting a whole series at once and just wanting a taste. As such, all of these episodes can be enjoyed as a stand alone and without needing the context of the rest of the series' story.

1) Penumbra Podcast

( 1.13 Home)

Summary:

When a family is preparing to move out of their old house in a week and the parents are away for a night, siblings Jake and Lily find out their home has a lot more heart than they may be comfortable with.

This was the last stand alone oneshot episode the Penumbra Podcast did, and one of the only horror ones. I'd say it's more spooky than scary with a wholesome twist to it, which makes it welcoming for any newcomers to the horror genre or someone looking to listen to something for Halloween that isn't as dark as the other recommendations on this list. It does get intense in certain parts, and while it isn't a story about domestic abuse it may be disturbing to those who find those themes triggering.

Runtime: 30mins

2) Old Gods of Appalachia

( 0.5 The Witch Queen)

Summary:

They say there's a witch in that valley, and you'd do well to stay away from there. Journey back to the settling of the central plateau and witness the power of mountain women.

Oh I do love a good witch character, and the Witch Queen is one of my favourites. It feels somewhere half between a fairytale and a ghost story. This is the prologue to the main series (and the first chapter in the Witch Queen storyline). It's well written, performed, and genuinely creepy. The setting of the story is an alternate Appalachia (that draws from the real life events and history of Appalachia) where the supernatural is real and impossibly strange, with what lies beneath the mountains and the power that dwells within the forests.

Runtime: 24mins

3) The Silt Verses

( 1.04 Of Lovers, Gods and Beasts)

Summary:

We follow Sister Carpenter, worshipper of an outlawed river god, travelling up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As she attempts to locate the Trawler-Man's church in the woods of Penda's Slake she runs into trouble instead, in the way of a strange elk.

This was the first episode of the Silt Verses that gained the series a level of attention, and it's through that I came to hear about the series. This is certainly one of the more dramatic episodes, and it's worth listening to for Méabh de Brún's performance alone, but if you like allusions to greek myth and themes of religious existentialism interwined with body horror, then this episode is an absolute delight.

Runtime: 55mins

4) The Magnus Archives

(1.32 Hive)

Summary:

Statement of Jane Prentiss, regarding… a wasps’ nest in her attic. Original statement given February 23rd, 2014. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.

"There is a wasps’ nest in my attic. A fat, sprawling thing that crouches in the shadowed corner. It thrums with life and malice. I could sit there for hours, watching the swirls of pulp and paper on its surface. I have done. It is not the patterns that enthral me, I’m not one of those fools chasing fractals; no, it’s what sings behind them. Sings that I am beautiful. Sings that I am a home. That I can be fully consumed by what loves me..."

I am sorry. Every other episode on this list is fantastic, but Hive will always be my favourite. The nature of the Magnus Archives as a horror anthology podcast that has an overarching meta plot means I could've picked any episode from the first two seasons that would've worked well for this list to jump into. But it had to be Hive. This is the kind of thing that reminds me why I love horror. The structure of the episode devolving into Jane's mind, the blurred lines between human and monster, the powerful imagery squirming it's way into your brain, crawling under your skin, the way Jon's voice shifts as he's recording the statement, slipping further and further away, becoming more intensely hypnotic, I just... please listen to it. It will deeply unsettle you. (warning for trypophobia). Also, for anyone curious about getting into the Magnus Archives, this episode is filled with a lot of foreshadowing and symbolism, so it's a great one to listen to on its own and also within the context of the series!

Runtime: 20mins

5) I Am in Eskew

(Ep4: Culpability)

Summary:

In a city of steep and winding streets, where the mime artists prance in their ghastly masks and the rain never stops, is the monstrous kafkaesque city of Eskew. David Ward, our protagonist, records his strange experiences with the city that was not built or made, but born.

David meets a murderer - and hears the story of a horrific, life-altering childhood experience.

I almost feel guilty for including this one, since I already have Of Lovers, Gods, and Beasts from the Silt Verses on this list, which is by the same writer Jon Ware. Buuuut I just really like this one and think it's a shame it sometimes gets overlooked. I liked listening to I Am in Eskew, but it wasn't till this episode that I was truly intrigued by it. Culpability feels like a murder mystery being unravelled where you're waiting for the unexpected twist round the corner only to find the knife was sticking out of your back the whole time.

This was also the first time the series made me sit down and think about what it was trying to say, the potential metaphors of depression, guilt, disassociation, and isolation. As well as the idea of becoming so accustomed to pain and fear that hope and comfort become the greater and unfamiliar terrors to be used against you. You can probably summarize from that this is the bleakest episode on this list, though not the goriest (though there is some child violence/abuse/body horror) but not bleak to the point of pointlessness.

Runtime: 28mins

6) Tales from the Gas Station

(A Murdxr at the Gas Station)

Summary:

While working the nightshift at the gas station at the edge of town, Jack Townsend is used to having encounters ranging from weird to downright horrifying. Tonight is no different, when a crow suddenly flies in.

This series is just some fun horror comedy that pokes fun at horror tropes while leaning into them, maintaining its own sense of unsettling and weird. There are a few intense and gory moments in this episode, but I picked this one simply because it's the stand alone episode in the series that made me laugh the most, and the one I relisten to the most frequently. It's dark, it's fun, it's spooky, plain and simple. (This one is only available on YouTube to listen to and not on any other usual podcast platforms)

Runtime: 30mins

And with that, I hope there is something on this list for everyone who loves or is new to horror podcasts to enjoy!

And I wish you a very Happy Halloween!