tullycat

Procrastinating writing, aka the perfect time to update.


Books

• The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo
  • I kind of knew going into this that it would be mid based on my friends' reviews. I'm sad I wasn't more into it. To me, it felt like it was trying too hard to be an adult book, just with some of the language used and the sexual content. It just felt kind of out of place. I also didn't really buy into the plot...so Luzia has magic and trains to enter a torneo that I guess the king is using to find magic users to....put in his employ? The stakes really weren't there for me, the preparation was like two chapters and then it never really felt like she did anything special with her magic. I think most damning is that I didn't care about the central romance, rip.
• If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio
  • So this is The Secret History if they studied Shakespeare. Genuinely beat for beat I feel like I could've mapped this onto TSH. Did I have fun while reading? Well mostly yes...because it felt like I was reading a TSH au. Instead of the homoerotic undertones of TSH, this one was a bit more explicit, but still not that gay, so that really wasn't a selling point for me. Beware that there are pages of Shakespeare plays just written as dialogue here. Spoilers ahead, if you want to look away: so the ending was so confusing - not because I didn't understand the Shakespeare reference, but because if James really is alive like the reference implies, there is literally no point? There's no point for him to have faked (I guess?) his death.
• The Will of the Many, James Islington
  • I liked this with some caveats. The first 30% nearly made me DNF, though after finishing the book I can see why it was mostly necessary. (I also saw a couple other reviews saying something similar.) I think you just have to have the mindset that you're being introduced to a potty world that will probably have 1800-2000 pages so you need some set-up. Other caveat is that Vis is the most special boy to every special and is always good at everything, even things that other people are supposedly the best at. This may annoy you. I can't promise you will like Vis. With that out of the way, I did like the rest of the book. I do think the other students in the book are interesting and I was more engaged once Vis started interacting with them. I've seen people compare it to Babel, which I haven't read, but it reminded me of The Hunger Games and The Poppy War. I will continue the series but I wish I had waited closer to book 2's release to read because I will forget all the details before then so I know I'll have to reread. A final note - Vis is concealing his true identity which means that he is constantly thinking about how he is perceived. The author constantly describes him as being so aware of his facial expressions and micro expressions and constantly Thinking about them and I am curious if any autistic readers would head canon Vis as autistic.  Not that you really need a reason to head canon a character as anything, but it reminded me of writing I've seen about emotion recognition with autism?
• Heaven's Official Blessing Vol 1 (TGCF), Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
  • I finally got past chapter 3 or whatever on my third try! There are sooo many names here. Every time I put the book down for a few days I'm like damn who are all these people again. But Hua Cheng is already deliciously obsessed with Xie Lian which is enough to keep me going. Also the only way I can remember how to spell the letters is by calling it 'the golden closet film' so thanks Jungkook, I guess.
• The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister
  • The best word for this book is atmospheric. It reminded me of Our Wives Under the Sea (not the gay part) but because the whole book is essentially a metaphor for family trauma/abuse. I think less obviously there were also themes of 'white supremacy is a poison' which made me put on my thinking cap because the author doesn't hand hold you to it. Wasn't a 5 star read for me but if a bog as a setting interests you, I say go for it.

Music

• Artists
  
  • The Boyz (277)
  • Ateez (213)
  • A.C.E (104)
  • Billlie (60)
  • WayV (44)
• Tracks
  • Trigger, The Boyz (42)
  • Work, Ateez (38)
  • Bite Back, The Boyz (37)
  • Slip Away, The Boyz (31)
  • bAd, The Boyz (30)
  • Re-Wind, The Boyz (29)
  • They See Me Dream, The Boyz (25)
  • Ice on My Teeth, Ateez (19)
  • Deep Dive, Man On Fire, Selfish Waltz, Ateez (16)
• Albums
  • Trigger, The Boyz (192)
  • Golden Hour : Part.2, Ateez (90)
  • Golden Hour : Part.1, Ateez (45)
  • piñata, A.C.E (40)
  • 30, Sungjin (39)

Wow, what a boring track listing this month. I just put albums on repeat what can I say...

Concerts

• Kiss of Life
  
  • Getting tickets for this was hell and a half...I thought they had sold out in 2 minutes but no, it was just the venue not displaying tickets. So I snagged some a few hours later when it started working, but it was definitely nearly sold out by that point. And yet the seats next to us were empty the whole concert. It worked in our favor because the people in front of our original seats would've blocked my view, so we stood in the other seats the entire time and I could see pretty well. Igloo was one of the first songs and it's so fun. Great way to start the show. The girlies were very fun - lots of ass shaking, they felt confident on stage, and have 3 members either native or quite fluent in English which keeps a show more snappy if you're not waiting for translations. (Please let it be known that I appreciate all translators at shows tho.) Tentative bias Belle because I love a singer who sings.
• Billlie
  • I had a fansign and high touch for this show and was #3 in my level, so when they brought us in for the signing, I got to watch the girls finish up the fan chat from the VVIP+ level. They were very cute! Tsuki was playing RPS and doing the chicken dance. I admit I love their music but had only learned Tsuki and Moon Sua's faces so when we had the group photo, I had to figure out who I made a hand heart with later (it was Siyoon). This ended up being an omen because she definitely caught my eye during the show itself. Sua is still my bias, though. And Tsuki has so much stage presence. I love them so I can't really be objective but I thought the show was so good. All their covers were great choices too. I only teared up during ~3 songs which is better than I thought. (I know I'm not alone in being sad about Moonbin or associating the Moon siblings, but I saw Billlie on The Show a little more than 24 hours before Moonbin's death so it was hard for me to listen to Eunoia (or I've IVE) for a few months.)
  
  Fic
  • November was for wrestling with my Yuletide fic so nothing posted and word count is secret.