Hi! You may know me as woodburner. Or hey, you may not. Anyway, this is a mostly open journal - subscribe/unsubscribe at will, no need to ask permission. :)

Uh... BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, I guess? Also I'm just reposting my review, idk guys, I am dying of TOO MUCH TO DO. (Not that I have all that much to do. I just tend to discombobulate into a scattered mess at the least hint of frustration.)

Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 1/2 stars. Really fun YA paranormal with a touch of romance. Follows fairly standard patterns (except for, y'know, the whole pairing being two dudes thing, which is unfortunately scarce in YA).

Although the structure and story-beats are pretty straightforward for the genre, there are some pretty distinctive and original flares, I think. I, at least, haven't seen this sort of almost abstract and impressionistic approach to magic in a paranormal before. Pacing's a bit uneven, and I think Braden suffers from excessive bouts of too-stupid-to-live seemingly just for the sake of conflict, but this is fresh and fun enough that I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys paranormal YA.

Oh, and btw - this is clearly the start of a series, and while there is a solid conclusion to this book, it leaves a lot hanging, too. I don't see that as either a good or a bad thing, but y'know, seems like a good thing to note.

View all my reviews


Basically I agree with most of what Rachel said - it's nothing extrodinary except in that the central couple are gay dudes. It was, otoh, a fun read, and I look forward to the next book.

HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS, THE AUTHOR OF THE BUNNICULA SERIES JUST GOT GAY MARRIED. \:D/

Apparently the person who wrote the #YesGayYA rebuttal was not the agent in question, just another agent from the agency. Yeah, that clarifies things so much. :|d

Cleolinda wrote an excellent roundup of the whole mess over here.

K Tempest Bradford also has an interesting post here.

Rachel Manija Brown (rachelmanija) and Sherwood Smith (sartorias) come forward to reveal that they were offered representation for their co-written post-apocalyptic YA novel by an agent at a major agency - on the condition that they make their gay character straight. Here is the article on Genreville at Publisher's Weekly, and here is the article on rachelmanija's blog.

They are asking any authors who have had a similar experience to come forward over on the Genreville post (pseudonymously if neccesary) and tell their stories. (Chillingly, the very first comment to that post is an author revealing that they were not asked to erase the icky gay cooties - their editor just did it for them, without mentioning it to the author at all.)

They're also asking editors and agents who are open to gay characters and other minority characters to explicitly advertise as such. They're asking readers to fight with their wallets - to buy YA books featuring queer characters, to request their libraries carry YA books featuring queer characters, and so on. Here is a list of known YA SFF books with major queer characters as a handy reference, complete with annotations and links to Amazon.

(And, because intersectionality is important: Known YA SFF with POC main characters, author surnames A-L, and author surnames M-Z.)

Please reblog and retweet. (Twitter hashtag: #YesGayYA)

This shit isn't going to stop until the writers and the consumers stand up and say that this is unacceptable. It won't stop until we send the clear message that we, the readers, do want to read these books, that we will buy them and request them at our libraries - that they are by no means "unmarketable," and that we know that flimsy excuse for what it is: a flimsy excuse.

No. 6 ep7. WELL THAT WAS CERTAINLY A VERY HETEROSEXUAL EPISODE.

( spoilers are very heterosexual )

So like. A week or two ago I watched the first few episodes of No. 6 thinking it was going to be yet another crappy excuse for slashy boys, because sometimes those are fun, right. But then it was like. WHAT. DID I JUST WATCH. THIS IS ACTUALLY LIKE. GOOD?!! Also: EVEN GAYER THAN ADVERTISED, HOLY CRAP.

No. 6 is a futuristic dystopian sci-fi (with serious BL aspirations) crossed with an episode of Fringe (also with serious BL aspirations), running in the famous noitaminA time slot. Also, why aren't you watching it right now. Seriously, what is wrong with you.

Premise: When Nezumi (Rat) and Shion are both 12, Shion loses his chance at the high life by helping Nezumi, who'd escaped from a correctional facility, evade capture. In return, when Shion later gets into seriously deep shit, Nezumi shows up to save him. (He knows Shion's in trouble on account of his ARMY OF ROBOTIC RATS THAT SPY ON THE CITY FOR HIM.) Oh yeah, and there are also creepy parasite wasps that hatch in your body and cause you to age and die in a matter of minutes as they burrow out of your neck. Idek.

Here's the opening, which is awesome.

This is Nezumi.



He's a rather violent chap who's in a CONSTANT HAM-OFF with the ENTIRE UNIVERSE (which, as moonsheen pointed out, he wins by virtue of having his VERY OWN ARMY OF ACTUAL ROBOTIC RAT SPIES), and waves his arms around so exuberantly and grandly it's a miracle he doesn't put someone's eye out. He's also a Shakespearean actor and literature nerd. I feel this explains so much about his personality.

( Mildly spoilery evidence )


This is Shion.



He's a sweet kid. He's the naive and sheltered genius type. If you can ignore the fact that he reacts COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATELY AND FEARLESSLY to life-threatening situations, you might be tempted to think him the only sane character in this show. MISTAAAAAKE.



(There are no sane characters in this show.)

So anyway, last night I watched ep5 of this show, and I legit cannot interpret this narrative as anything other than a romance anymore. I mean.

( They are... dancing... together. At the end of the world. IS THIS THE REAL LIFE. )

This show. THIS SHOW.

STILL ALIVE

SORT OF

:SLDKJF:LDSKJ

So anyway, more shit happened with the Wicked Pretty Things anthology. Including a press release in Publisher's Weekly from the president of Running Press (who is openly gay, which to my mind makes it even worse) that attempts to paint Jessica Verday as a troublemaker and whines that they're being cyber-bullied. No really, what a douchebag. cleolinda has been reporting on the situation and has a convenient recap of the events. Suffice it to say that the anthology has now been canceled due to the number of authors pulling out. Way to serve as an example of how NOT to do damage control, guys. Seriously, what the hell, I don't even.

*burrows back into hole*

Deathless is out!

(ALL THE BOOKS are coming out right about now. Have I mentioned my frustration at this? COME ON PUBLISHERS, I'm out of gift card $$$ and I have almost none of my own! CAN'T YOU SPREAD OUT THE AWESOME A LITTLE???)

This is Cat Valente's Koschei the Deathless book, and it looks badass, and she is also doing a Deathless prize package giveaway to promote it. One of these days, I will win one of these things! ONE OF THESE DAYS.

---

Via inkstone, your regular dose of publishing WTF: Jessica Verday pulls her story from the upcoming Wicked Pretty Things anthology because she was told her story, which featured a G-rated romance between two boys, would be unacceptable to the publishers due to the gay content.

That's not even the WTF part. The editor Trisha Telep's response is the WTF part:

Oh dear. Might as well give you my two cents. Not that it really matters but... Don't take it out on the publishers, the decision was mine totally. These teen anthologies I do are light on the sex and light on the language. I assumed they'd be light on alternative sexuality, as well. Turns out I was wrong! Just after I had the kerfuffle with jessica, I was told that the publishers would have loved the story to appear in the book! Oh dear. My rashness will be the death of me. It's a great story. Hope jessica publishes it online. (By the way: if you want to see a you tube video of me wrestling a gay man in Glasgow, and losing, please let me know).

I... wrestling... gay man... WHAT? I just. WHAT???????? I would be more offended than I am, but I'm too busy boggling at the surreality of it.

In an update, Verday reveals that the publishers apologized for any offense caused and asked if she would consider having it appear in the anthology again, but since Telep is still in place as the editor Verday quite understandably refused. Also, while I somewhat understand the publishers' decision from a business standpoint (though I certainly don't approve), I'm not exactly pleased w/their doublespeak, either. Which is it? Is it all a "misunderstanding" and you "stand behind" Telep "100%"? Or do you have "no direct association" with her? You can't distance yourself from someone's grody bigotry while still endorsing them, people.

Anyway, since this happened a load of authors have pulled out of this anthology and others Telep is involved with (and at least one author refuses to have anything to do w/the publishers so long as Telep is working for them).

My advice to Trisha Telep: APOLOGIZE. Profusely. Unequivocally. Immediately. Not this offensive non-apology bullshit quoted above, but a real apology. And if you still don't see why what you did and said was bigoted and wrong, educate yourself, and do it in a hurry.

Guys, I just want to read some gay/lesbian sff that primarily consists of KISSING and SHENANIGANS. Why does this not seem to exist? I keep checking out gay books here and there and... they're not scratching the itch. None of them. I mean, some of them are pretty good! And I am all for a good story that happens to have gay main characters! But. I really, really want to read about some silly shenanigans and kissing, you guys. Silly shenanigans and kissing between two dudes or two ladies. (eta: Or you know, more than two dudes or two ladies. OT3s ftw.)

Hilarious madcap misadventures! Crossdressing spies! Dashing thieves! Jaded detectives! Mad scientists and magicians! Explosions! Airships! Swordfights! Gunfights! Pirates! Ninjas! Mind-exploding sexual tension! Snarky OTPs! Conversations held entirely in subtext! KISSING, FOR GOD'S SAKE, KISSING!

I WANT A GAY BOOK THAT IS ENTIRELY MADE OF THIS.

Does... does anyone know if this exists? T___T

(Smut completely welcome but optional. What I am really craving is the CHEMISTRY. And, uh, kissing. And shenanigans. I mean, basically what I am saying is I like smut but I don't want smut that gets in the way of SHENANIGANS and SNARKING and EXPLOSIONS and doesn't allow for the whole mind blowing sexual tension bit because that's what I'm really after here.)

- Re: Lost Girl ep 8: OMG. OMG. OMG.

( Spoilerific screecaps, NSFW. OMG!!! )

O. M. G. THANK YOU SHOW FOR LISTENING TO MY PRAYERS.

I hope it's not too long with the angst before they get back to... that.

(Incidentally, the sex scene with Dyson at the beginning renewed my curiosity as to WHAT THE HELL DON'T THEY ALLOW ON CANADIAN TV???)


- This movie. This movie, you guys. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE. (This movie had green dream doors. Universal unconscious, you are creepy and awesome.)




- Watched the first 7 eps of Undercovers, upon discovering it existed, which I only did because people were wailing about it being canceled. Woe! For it is adorable. Fluffy caper show with bickering married couple spies! And the leads are POC! WHY.


- Watched the first two episodes of this kdrama full of puppies and kittens and and all that is adorable in the world and also a perpetually drunk Jang Geun Suk giving a girl a cabbage bouquet. It is called Mary Stayed Out All Night/Marry Me Mary and I think my insides may have rotted out. You should all go look at darkeyedwolf's picspams of the first two episodes because they are hysterical.

Sookie. Honey. You are crazy as a moonbat.

I'm gonna be honest here and say I kinda like the idea of Sookie/Eric (it is certainly more interesting than Sookie/Bill), but nevertheless, if she actually goes for something with him, SHE IS COMPLETELY FUCKED IN THE HEAD.

Aside from that. Eric. Goddamn he is hilarious. HEE-LAR-EE-US. I have such a thing for flamboyant assholes. First season he was kinda dull, but from the beginning of the second season on he like. Totally rocketed up to my second favorite slot? Idek. He and Pam make the best evil duo ever.




Also: Jesus. Jesus, I am very dubious of your sudden about face. How do you go from OMG YOU DEAL V? THAT SHIT RUINS LIVES :<<< to OMG I WANNA DO V WIT UUUUUU BB ♥♥♥ in such a short span of time? I am also dubious of Jesus's eerie habit of knowing things. If he turns out to be evil or dying in some freaky ritual because he's ~POWERFUL~ ala last season, I will not be pleased. :( (Otoh, I do appreciate this OMG Layfayette maybe has ~POWERS~ himself subplot.

Also, Jesus, I would appreciate it if you would develop a little more personality b/c seriously, the make outs with Lafayette are totally hot but all you've really got going for you personally is your ~spooky intuition~. I do however approve of your name (and the fact that Lafayette's mom calls you GEE-ZUS instead of HAY-SOOS), because I get to squeal GEE-ZUS IS A FAGGGGG in gleeful tones whenever you and Lafayette make out.

("I'll be damned. Maybe God loves fags." AHAHAHA THIS WOMAN.)

I would appreciate a little more AIDS-BURGER style bad-ass queening it up from Lafayette though, 'cause man is hilarious, and drama hasn't given him much time to do his thing lately. I mean, he's amazingly awesome under duress too and all, but a little variety?


OH AND HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH I LOVE SOPHIE ANN

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST LESBIAN VAMPIRE QUEEN WHO LIKES WATCHING DUDES DO IT

SHE IS SO META

I LOVE HER SO MUCH OMG

YAHTZEE! (NSFW, CONTAINS... YAHTZEE)

"Ugh, this alpha male posturing. You two should really just fuck each other and get it over with. I could watch. :3" OMG WOMAN MAKE LOVE TO ME

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be watching from the new anime season. I er somehow I forgot most of what I was originally interested in. The only two things I've tried so far are Uraboku and House of Five Leaves.

Uraboku 1&2: Oh my god why is this so dull. Dull, dull, DULL. I watched the 2nd episode in hopes that it would pick up, but it was, if anything, duller than the first. It is so dull and dragging, not even Takahiro Sakurai can leaven it. Are we really so starved for BL-ish anime that even this will do?

It's like they pulled out the Book of BL Cliches and the Book of Fantasy Cliches and wrote everything out verbatim. "Okay, let's see... Reincarnation, kind and pure-hearted heroine hero, orphanage, scary uncontrollable powers, monsters from another dimension, dude that will protect the heroine hero at all costs, person who tries to hurt the heroine hero out of jealousy, ominous suggestion of upcoming catastrophic battle, the betrayer friend who wants to destroy the world... Do we have everything we need here?"

Guys, I have no problem with these things. (Well, okay, so I am a bit sick of "enemy of the heroine/hero who's really just jealous" thing.) I love me some fun BL and fantasy cliches. But you have to do something with them! You can not just plop them on a plate and serve them! You have to, you know, cook them in interesting ways, I don't know, PUT SOME SAUCE ON THAT SHIT, serve it with tasty sides! As it is, the characters are made of cardboard, the plot is also made of cardboard, and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. (Seriously I sat restlessly fidgeting all through ep 2 in hopes that something, ANYTHING would happen, and when something FINALLY did happen... the episode ended. What the hell.) Also, the main character irritates me like nails on a chalkboard. Yes, sweetie, we know you are so, SO ~*~sweet and good and pure~*~, now could you please tone it down a little, because I'm starting to feel the urge to punch you repeatedly in the face. Possibly this might induce you to actually show a little actual personality.

It doesn't help that even the actors' performances sound bored and listless. These are mostly actors capable of doing amazing jobs; the only explanation is that no one involved with the production actually gave a shit.

Usually in this situation ("this situation" being a BL-ish show with Takahiro Sakurai as one of the leads) I would try at least one more episode, but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to sit through another one.


House of Five Leaves 1&2: The new noitamA artsy-fartsy show, based on a manga by Ono Natsume/Basso. This seems pretty promising so far. A bit meandering for my tastes (well, Ono Natsume is generally a bit slice-of-life-y for my tastes), and the 2nd episode was a bit slow, but still interesting and different. Also, Takahiro Sakurai plays one of the leads, bonus!

Plot: Masanosuke Akitsu is a timid ronin who nobody wants to hire because his limp personality makes everyone think him unreliable. Yaichi is the leader of a group of bandits who make a living by kidnapping officials for ransom. Yaichi needs a bodyguard in name only, so he hires Akitsu; only Akitsu unexpectedly turns out to actually have skill and strength in plenty. Thereafter Yaichi sets about trying to get Akitsu to join his group.

Thing that keeps repeatedly occurring to me as I watch: "Is this really not BL? REALLY?" I just keep dot dot dotting at the screen every time one of the two of them start musing on how much he's drawn to the other. And that - that lovingly rendered scene with the knife. You know the one. DOT DOT DOT.

Well, I guess that's just the author's tendencies showing through...

ANYWAY, I'm going to have to expose myself as hopelessly pedestrian here and say that although the animation is very lovely and fresh and the art style is different and original, I'm not terribly fond of the character designs. I prefer a sleeker look, and Ono Natsume's eyes and mouths kind of freak me out a little. (The mouths! They take up the entire FACE. And the eyes. They like. HAVE NO WHITES. Augh.) So really I'm kind of caught between the satisfaction of looking at something visually different from the other 28394827394827 cookie-cutter shows out there, and being mildly put off on account of my boring need for a more conventional prettiness.

Well, it's not enough to keep me from enjoying the show, at any rate.

Oh my gosh you guys, Cadbury owns my soul.

And now, for some books that I have read! (*) indicates 50books_poc eligible books.

*The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin (aka nojojojo):

I was a bit excited about this because it kept popping up on my f-list. I was kind of expecting a somewhat different story than the one I got, but that is not to say that I was disappointed. It was incredibly fun! A real page-turner. I tore through it in two and a half days, and this is book is a tome.

( In which we revisit why it's never a good thing to be favored by the gods. )

But anyway, overall verdict = CRAZY FUN READ, I recommend it.


Soulless, by Gail Carriger:

Another ridiculously fun read! This is a mashup of paranormal romance, steampunk, and Victorian comedy of manners. Basically it is about an acid-tongued spinster - who just so happens to lack a soul - having madcap adventures as she gets tangled up in vampire and werewolf politics (and also a bizarre scientific cult!) while attempting to navigate polite society.

( This book is *hilarious*, y'all. )

Verdict: If you like or at least do not outright hate the paranormal romance genre, and you like steampunk and irreverent hilarity, it's difficult to go very wrong here.


*Ash, by Malinda Lo:

This is the one the internet has dubbed "Lesbian Cinderella". Well, that is certainly what it is! The book's major conflict boils down to the heroine having to choose between the King's huntress and her childhood dream of being stolen away by the fairies. Kaisa, the huntress, basically represents down-to-earth, real-world happiness, while Sidhean, the fairy, represents forbidden attraction, escapism, the appeal of the dangerous and the strange, and all that jazz.

My feelings about this novel are rather mixed. ( Longwinded! And very vaguely spoilerish. )

Final verdict is, I do recommend this book - it was a very enjoyable read - but it was a little lacking in some areas.


Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld:

You guys. You guys.



Deryn. Oh my god Deryn. ♥__________♥

So this book is set in a steampunk AU WWI and follows a teenage girl that crossdresses as a boy so that she can enter the Royal Air Force. A swashbuckling, slightly batshit nuts teenage girl. Do I really need to say more? Oh, and there's also a young mech-piloting Austrian prince, I guess.

...Okay no really, the prince was adorable and I loved him, but he was up against a crossdressing girl who throws herself off the side of airships to save people and holds royalty hostage with a pocketknife in front of enormous mechs, so I can be forgiven if I maybe didn't notice him as much. Basically what I am saying is Deryn is pretty much the greatest thing in the history of EVER.

( I do not even know what to say about this book, it's like being repeatedly punched in the face with AWESOME so many times I've been rendered insensible. )

Verdict: I have nothing particularly intelligent to say about this book because I am too busy FLAILING WITH GLEE. :DDD Why are you not reading this book right this minute.

So basically what I am saying is that I, too, want Hazuki's tongue down my throat.

Oh my god why, why are you so hot Hazuki. Why.


Also BEST EVER (mildly spoilery re: Yin):

Yin (to Qin): Shut up.
Hei: o_o
Qin: :SLKDJF:SLDKJ?!!
Hei (also to Qin): Shut up.
Qin: T__________T

So I have finally watched the Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series. I know, I know, wth, get with the times, etc. But anyway, I loved it! (Well DUH, I hear you saying, isn't this the sort of thing you generally lap up? Okay, so it is. I don't know what made me put it off for so long; maybe it was just the retro-shoujo art style.)

It was totally brilliant and I loved all of the surreal imagery, the commentary on the whole whore/Madonna complex in media, the subversion of female character stereotypes and fairy tale tropes and shoujo genre tropes (and the deliberate comical parodying of shoujo fanservice, omg, it killed me) and so on. I adored how complex all the characters were - especially Anthy, omg that girl was terrifying, I mean TERRIFYING, and I loved her and all of her subtle expressions and inflections and EVERYTHING to death. (Her facial expressions! Oh, they gave me chills. There were several times I gasped out loud at her changes of expression.)

Kind of wondering whether we are supposed to assume Touga and Saionji were banging. Pretty sure we're supposed to assume Touga and Akio were banging. Maybe we're supposed to assume they were all banging? Idek. The line between metaphorical implications and literal reality is never very clear in this show. But considering that Akio bangs anything that moves it is probably fairly safe to just go with "they were all banging," which I would kind of like to do because it is hilarious and also sort of embarrassingly hot.

The ending? Uh. Srsly bizarre and confusing and I only have a vague grasp on what all happened, though it was mostly satisfying; I mean, y'all know me, I love me some Weird Shit(tm), and I have seen and loved much weirder.

...And then I watched the movie.

...

......

Okay, you guys, I have seen a lot of Weird Shit(tm) in my life. But I don't think I've ever had to ask myself, "Did I seriously just sit here and watch somebody turn into a car? Did I just watch a random carwash pop up out of nowhere, suck somebody in and turn them into a car?"

I just.

What?

What?

What the hell did I just watch? No really. Nothing made any sense in this movie. Nothing.

On the upside, it was pretty? And that "let's draw Utena naked!" scene was pretty hot? And gives us a serious relationship text upgrade, since you don't get much more textual than naked kissing. But really, you guys, City of Lost Children is one of my favorite films, and yet the only explanation I have for the Adolescence of Utena movie is "deranged fever dream". I just don't even know.

Not that I wouldn't recommend watching it. Just. After the TV series. After.

SIGH. Actually, it was a bit more than that, since I forgot to add a couple of snippets before the deadline, but it wasn't much more than that. (Shame I couldn't count my notes. I had a good 2500 words or so of notes.)

I'm going to try a different tact. I'm going to try requiring myself to write for at least an hour a day this month, not counting the week of Christmas. Automatic writing, fanfic, original, notes, doesn't matter what I write, so long as I'm writing something. (Well, blog posts and the like don't count, but you know what I mean.)

Maybe I'll post a snippet or two of what I wrote over November to my writing journal. If there's anything that isn't completely mangled and/or incomprehensible to anyone who isn't me, that is...

...

SO, ABOUT THAT VASSALORD. You know how we all keep saying, "how does she keep making it pornier while still stopping short of actual porn?" Yeah.

STILL A MYSTERY.

( Cut is so nsfw. )

?!?!?!?!!

I. I may have screamed.

Also...





Oh my god, those two. I think I may have fallen in love with them.

But why isn't that song that played at the beginning of episode 18 of Pandora Hearts on the 2nd OST? Anyway, my animes, let me show you them.

- Watched ep 3 of Darker than Black. Seriously, the new season of Darker than Black is weird. Have there been any contractors that manifested weapons before? Why does Hei keep getting into skeevy-looking positions with that girl? And why does it seem he's gone from binge-eating to binge-drinking? Also, cats are more expressive than squirrels, is all I'm sayin'.

- Why is no one releasing the 2nd episode of Aoi Bungaku? I really enjoyed the 1st episode - unexpectedly, as I am pretty snub-nosed when it comes to deliberately depressing realist fiction, and when it comes to depressing realist fiction, no one freaking tops the Japanese. (Also, the original author of the first story seemed to be trying to set some kind of world record for number of attempted suicides in one lifetime. No seriously, look at the wiki, it starts getting almost funny after a while.)

Congratulations, Japan, through pretty, dream-like visuals and a compelling story-flow you're making me enjoy a genre I usually hate with a vicious passion. But nobody's subbing it!

- Fairy Tail ep 1 & 2: Nothing outstanding, but it's fun, and for a shounen craving it manages to hit the spot. Check it out if you like uber-cracky shounen.

- Kuchu Buranko (aka Trapeze) ep 1: Unexpectedly highly comedic. Amusing diversion, but eh, nothing mind-blowing. Nurse is so over-the-top, oh my god. The animation... Well, I don't know, it seems like they had about a million things that they said "Hey, you know what would be AWESOME?!" about, and then used them all at once, and it's a little too much. An interesting artistic exercise, certainly, but I feel like it doesn't quite hit the mark.

All I want to know is, why, for the love of god why does the doctor cream his pants every time someone gets an injection?

Next episode: Takahiro Sakurai has a chronic erection problem. Oh, Japan.

- The Sacred Blacksmith ep 1-3: Old-fashioned high-fantasy anime that begs for breastplate jokes. While it's nothing all that special so far, I'm really enjoying it - though I hope they intend on having Cecily toughen up enough to match Luke (or at least not be so utterly and completely out-classed by him). Luke is an adorable grumpy tsundere boy and you guys know how I am about adorable grumpy tsundere boys.



Look at the cute little McGrumpy face! Don't you just wanna pinch his widdle cheeks? Also, girl-lovey subtext, I can smell it.



Can has?

- Hanjuku Joshi - a yuri manga I really like! Yet another high school girls setting, but even so, it's very sweet and funny, and I dig the subversion of icky tropes. Pretty art, too.

So! Darker than Black S2! Did not do much to endear me by akdsjf;alkjing killing off April in the first damn episode! Also I have no idea what's going on! I didn't even finish the last few eps of the first season!

HOWEVER.



LADY. SUIT. NINJA.

ALSO:



I-it wasn't even her remuneration or anything, either...

- I want story/manga/what-have-you where the Pied Piper and the Mad Hatter are arch nemeses. They will of course be ridiculously hot and there will be Subtext. Lots of Subtext. Optionally, they may be women instead of men; either way would be fantastic.

- Pandora Hearts ch. 42: BREAK ;__________; Stop making me sad, PH.

- One thing I keep wondering though. People who get injured in manga are always waking up after however many days and then proceed to have, y'know, a conversation and all that. Shouldn't they like, desperately need to pee?

- Kuroshitsuji ch. whatever the hell we're on now: Sherlock Holmes crossover y/y?

- You know, Sherlock Holmes would be way more interesting if Holmes and Watson were both women in disguise.