Ashkiryn > Recent Status Updates

this writing may drive me crazy; if it was just the prose being weirdly phrased, that'd be one thing. I could even deal w/ the occasional incomprehensible bits. But the inconsistencies & the missing pieces of crucial connective tissue are killing me. She drops her dagger, then it's suddenly in her hand again, w/ no mention of how it got there. It was nighttime, but now it's twilight w/ nothing described in between

gotta admit, I'm on the struggle bus w/ this book already. the writing style is coming off as what I call try-hard purple prose, when it feels like the author is trying to force it to be more lyrical than it actually is, & you stop being able to understand what it's even trying to convey to you. also not a fan of the "instant irresistible attraction w/ the LI that makes me emotionally cheat on my current SO" trope :/

17/17 stories read. I give "Nobody Cares Who We Kiss At the End of the World" 4/5 stars (I liked it, but the lack of communication between the main characters was very frustrating to me, & much of the angst and drama felt avoidable and unnecessary; also wish we were given more answers about the community they found, what happened to cause all those disappearances, etc).

16/17 stories read. I give "Fractal Eyes" 3/5 stars (this one was just a bit too out there and vague for me to really get into, which is a shame bc there were some potentially interesting concepts; it was like reading an acid trip, and it just felt all over the place, with no understandable progression through the story).

15/17 stories read. I give "H O M E" 3/5 stars (this was kinda bland for me, it felt like the story kept skipping over all the interesting aspects of being stuck in a time loop, their escape attempts & developing relationship all happened offscreen, & then the time loop just ended abruptly, w/o feeling like the characters ever actually did anything, so the resolution feels unearned; world-building was also lacking).

14/17 stories read. I give "Concerto" 4/5 stars (it's interesting, but the dad really triggered me by embodying far too many of my own dad's worst traits, & the existential threats in the story are also all too resonant; the mention of Iran particularly jumpscared me, even tho this book was published before the current crisis. I suppose the takeaway is meant to be that love prevailed, but I'm just left depressed).

13/17 stories read. I give "Beauty Sleep" 5/5 stars (listen this story is made for me: lesbian retelling of specifically Disney's Sleeping Beauty? Lesbian Maleficent fighting the system that took her lover from her? Philippa extending compassion to her, w/ all 3 lesbians teaming up to right the wrongs of tyrannical men? Getting consent for the true love's kiss? Adding "make it black" to the dress color debate? LOVE).

12/17 stories read. I give "Crash Landing" 4/5 stars (the writing is very engaging, and overall it's a solid story, but I'm really not a fan of the ambiguity in the ending; being in the wheelhouse of "it was all maybe just a dream" is something that rarely works for me).

11/17 stories read. I give "Nick and Bodhi" 3/5 stars (this just barely got 3 stars; I feel very meh about this one, it's like too much is being thrown at you all at once, yet at the same time like nothing at all was achieved, but it's got some interesting ideas, & isn't bad enough for a 2 star to feel warranted, so a 3 star it is).

really loving this so far! I'm glad that we're getting to experience the nitty gritty of Viv's struggles in actually starting the business, rather than just time-skipping ahead to when she's already successful. it's not often that I get to feel like I'm truly living in a fantasy world alongside the characters as they go about their daily lives, so I'm enjoying this change of pace.

10/17 stories read. I give "Present: Tense" 4/5 stars (an interesting take on the idea of the Rapture happening & taking all the straight ppl away & leaving all the queer ppl behind, & how amidst the grief of losing some ppl, there's an almost bigger sense of relief in being freed from having to deal w/ bigotry; there's not enough time to fully flesh things out, but there's decent depth & it doesn't feel too rushed).

9/17 stories read. I give "The Undeniable Price of Everything" 3/5 stars (objectively nothing wrong w/ it, & decently intriguing, but I hate being left w/ absolutely no answers to anything that happened in this story, so this is a VERY begrudgingly given rating).

8/17 stories read. I give "The Department of Homegoing Affairs" 4.5/5 stars (very well done, I love that it felt like a complete story, w/ a satisfying level of world-building, resolution for the FMC, nice social justice elements, & I really appreciate the focus on family, w/ a great supportive gf in an established relationship; also really loved the self-confidence, "she knew she was beautiful & she should say it").

7/17 stories read. I give "Reshadow" 4/5 stars (trippy, but in a good way; the MC was pretty unlikable to me, but since it was intentionally done and he got called out for it, the story still worked and didn't get too unbearable for me).

6/17 stories read. I give "Translating for the Machine" 3.5/5 stars (I'm always down for stories about reclaiming agency, but I wish it had a bit more depth, and that there'd been more clarity on why the Machine glitched now of all times; the concept of the Council was super cool tho, and not something I've ever seen done before).

5/17 stories read. I give "Like Sunshine, Like Concrete" 4/5 stars (just a really solid story that I liked, and was filled with tropes and messages that I also liked; I wish the author had built a stronger relationship between Will and Frank, but the story had enough going for it in its critique of the military/capitalism to still make it a worthwhile read).

4/17 stories read. I give "Renaissance" 2.5/5 stars (really did not like the ending of this one---the social commentary through most of this was good, but with that ending, I'm struggling to understand what the takeaway was supposed to be; I would've rather had the story go the bittersweet route, instead of a cynical one).

3/17 stories read. I give "The Rift" 5/5 stars (this story is a fucking masterpiece, and I would KILL for it to be a full-length novel, and to know what Gianna's choice was and see Kiara's plan come to fruition, but it's still flawless as it is; Kiara is genuinely one of the best MCs I've ever seen, which is a feat in a mere 26 pgs, & if I buy this book (I'm reading this as a library copy), it would be for her).

2/17 stories read. I give "Aesthetically Hungry" 3.5/5 stars (lots of interesting ideas about an incredibly complicated topic, and I feel that, as a cis person, it's not really my place to judge the quality of trans rep...but there are a couple of things about this story's conclusion that could be interpreted as anti-medical transitioning, so I'm not sure if I'm fully on board w/ the ending).

1/17 stories read. I give "Doublers" 4/5 stars (the premise was highly intriguing to me, but at times it was a little hard to figure out what was going on).

17/17 stories read. I give "Once Upon a Seastorm" 3.5/5 stars (I liked the premise of this story and thought it had interesting themes, but as a reader I don't really vibe with ambiguity, and prefer to have a more definitive conclusion or answers, so this story didn't hit the mark for me in that regard).

16/17 stories read. I give "The Coronation" 4/5 stars (I enjoyed it, but the pacing of the relationship was far too rushed---she goes from hating him to practically agreeing to marry him within a nanosecond, and that whiplash was very off-putting to me; plus, I wish McKenna had been able to save herself. The lore and world-building was interesting tho).

15/17 stories read. I give "Far From Home" 4/5 stars (I really liked the premise of this story, but there's just not enough time to truly do it justice within the constraints of a short story; nice to get some contemporary scifi to spice things up, tho I suppose it could maybe be considered as adjacent to a queer Superman re-imagining).

14/17 stories read. I give "One Spell Too Many" 4/5 stars (I really liked this story, but the magic system is what intrigued me most of all, and I would've loved the chance to dive further into this world).