Laughter Through Tears

I did end up reactivating my old StoryGraph account, BTW. If anyone here is using it and feels like adding me, let me know. Especially if you have a different username there and you want me to recognize you, heh.

Well, I've been sick since Monday/Tuesday night, and I'm still not entirely well, but I managed a shower and I'm not throwing up, so I'll take it. No fever, either. Time to try for breakfast, which would be the closest thing to a meal I've had since Tuesday night.

When my strength starts coming back, I'll write something about my recent reading binge.

It was alias_sqbr unsurprisingly who first got me into Beware of the Vilainess (now also a Yuletide fandom), and thus introduced me to an entire sub-genre of webtoons, much to my delight. "Villainess" comics (manga and manhwa, originating from a variety of countries and each with its own unique twist) that revolve around the isekai premise of a modern person "falling into" (or reincarnating into) a video game, except it's an otome dating sim, and the female protagonist is reincarnated as the game's catty and vain female villain. Basically, the rough equivalent of what USian hgh school shows call an "alpha bitch", on the model of Mean Girls' Regina George, but like, the daughter of a duke in a fantasy kingdom.

The in-universe game's premise revolves around the heroine being a "saintess", a model of feminine virtue who's gentle, healing (often literally), and preternaturally forgiving. She's instantly more beautiful and more popular than the alpha bitch villainess, sometimes despite being an adopted commoner. Often it seems one of the men who falls for her will be the villainess's fiance, who will then break off the engagement with his unpleasant betrothed, causing her to fall into a jealous rage and do everything in her power to sabotage the saintly heroine (who will then forgive her and tearfully insist that they could've been friends). The level of violence varies.

The reaction of the protagonist also varies. Some of them want to redeem the villainess that they were reincarnated as, and set her on a better path. I generally find this less interesting, because I'm me and a horrible little gremlin. A lot of these de-villification schemes seem to involve the villainess acting as wife or step-mother to a character who would eventually have become a villain, or even an older sister. By contrast, my favorite stories (from the ones I've read) give some kind of twist on the theme. Like "Beware of the Villainess", which starts with the protagonist cheerfully proclaiming that she intends to be neither saint nor villain, just to enjoy her life as a rich duke's daughter in the lap of luxury... until she opens a campaign to rescue the original saintly heroine from her sub-par male love interests.

I keep losing track of all the comics I'm following, and because so many of these are fan translations, the update schedule isn't always consistent. Labor of love, and all. The villainess tag also branches out from isekai stories to more general time travel and reincarnation ones, or other variations on second-chance tropes.

( Six recs and links )

I meant to note how many chapters each one has, but lost track. There are also a couple of others I've read through, but have decided not to link due to being ambivalent about their quality. I remain alert to emerging recs.

Now I'm going to sink into another one, and see if I have more recs for you later.

This is the end of week 4, as I count it.

( Read more... )

I'm getting by. I'm okay, really.

I don't know what is up with me but the year's end is approaching and things seem to be mostly kind of okay. I'm behind on a lot of things as usual. I'm fighting with medical issues as usual. I'm worried about work and about writing. Small measure of progress: I did some reading today. I go through long periods of drought when I can't seem to get any reading done or finish a book for the life of me, so anything that gains me even a little bit of momentum is welcome.

My last attempt to kickstart my reading didn't go great. I went for a fluffy adventure type romance from an author whose work I had enjoyed several times before, but at a certain point the characterization took a turn. I was reading in fits and starts, determined to just finish the book and be done with it, maybe write a quick review to vent my spleen. But a certain plot turn was just more than I could handle and I gave up.

Today I took a longish walk and then a longish nap. I didn't do much of anything else. I did spend some of the day trying to catch up on the fourth season of The Librarians but my internet connection was having none of it. Too much stuttering to buffer properly. And I read smallweed's thread about secondary characters, and wondered about the personal journeys of the supporting cast in my newest project.

Tomorrow is a work day and a new work week. And then the week after that things will start getting real. *shudder*

I'm on my third book! *\o/*

I got the LGBT+ BookBundle.

I'm making steady progress in Upside Down again. I set it down for a while, partly because of depression, partly from being very busy and stressed over other things. And partly because I read Alyssa Wong's story and it was absolutely-- beyond description.

At least I have my tablet back. It's much nicer to read that way than on my clunky old laptop.

Last night I finished The Cloud Roads, which I had intended to read for I don't know how long. Capped it off by downloading the preview for the second book of the trilogy, The Serpent Sea. I was reminded of it recently -- I had thought it was from a Writing Excuses cast with Martha Wells, but apparently they never had her on and I was confusing an episode about writing inhuman characters with the one where they recced the book. Probably because Ellen Kushner is another fantasy author I probably should have read years ago.

I enjoyed the book tremendously. The protagonist is male, which is usually a thing that would tamp down my interest. Because of the xenofic aspect, though (his species has about five biological sexes), there are aspects of his arcs which are.... Put it this way: you know how some people use slash fic as a way of examining vulnerability in detachment from femininity, to make it less personal? That. I am definitely working on a full review, but I was hoping someone in my circle had read it. Book's been out long enough that someone must have written on the subject, but I think I must be using the wrong search terms.

Yesterday while waiting for the dentist I finished God's War.

I'd been intending to review it immediately after finishing. I should have known better.

God's War is a dense, layered book that's not easily digested in one go. There's a lot going on, and even more going on under the surface. Add in the real-world subtext of choices made to characterization, relationships and most especially worldbuilding, and that's one hell of a chew-toy for the brain to gnaw on.

What's more is the book's been out for a good few years, now. The trilogy is complete and in fact I think Kameron Hurley has actually completed a second trilogy of novels since. My low reading habits during my years at uni leave me racing to keep up with current events in SFF. I'm severely behind the curve.

Meanwhile I also reinstalled the Kobo reader app on my phone, after installing an SD card and moving most of my apps to it borked the library access somehow and the app wouldn't start. In the course of my picking up and dropping innumerable books, I once started reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and got about halfwasy through before it depressed the fuck out of me (yes, I know, Anne Bronte, it's not like you didn't warn me). The book was mentioned recently in a discussion about male love interests and I decided it was maybe time to pick it back up.

This is not too unusual. I often read several books in parallel. Doing so on my phone just happens to be more convenient. My tablet is slim and light so long as I have a backpack, but if I'm carrying a handbag as I do now, I usually leave it at home. Except when I expect to spend an hour on the bus, or when I know I'll be waiting at the dentist's office. So I have a book I'm reading on my phone, and another one on my tablet.