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i finished the trilogy of his dark materials late last year and told myself i'd eventually get to the second trilogy, the book of dust. a year-ish later we are ready to gooo (totally not influenced by the fact that the last book was released last month so i don't have to wait on a cliffhanger)

they put those maze runner movies on netflix and im thanking god for it bc now my younger brother actually wants to read them (hes 15 and never reads)

"Somehow, despite knowing better, part of me still believed he would pull a killing blow. Madoc, who was my father ever since he murdered my father. Madoc, who taught me how to swing a sword to actually hit someone and not just their blade. Madoc, who sat me on his knee and read to me and told me he loved me. "Jude," Madoc says, and for the first time that I can recall, there's fear in his voice." BROOOOOOOO

"And so I eat with Madoc one final time. (...) and if I am particularly kind that evening, particularly deferential, if I laugh particularly loudly, it is because I know I will never do this again. I will never have him behave like this with me again. But for one final night, he's the father I remember best, the one whose shadow I have-for better or worse-become what I am." familial trauma goes crazy in this series

"The three of you have one solution to every problem. Murder. No key fits every lock." Cardan gives us all a stern look, holding up a long-fingered hand with my stolen ruby ring on one finger. "Someone tries to betray the High King, murder. Someone gives you a harsh look, murder. Someone disrespects you, murder. Someone ruins your laundry, murder."
actually hilarious hes right

"I give her a long look. Taryn doesn't like conflict. Her manner of dealing with all the terror and confusion in our lives has been to become immensely adaptable, like one of those lizards that change color to match their surroundings. She's the person who knows what to wear and how to behave, because she studies people carefully and mimics them."

"You don't believe that I could care about you, even after you betrayed me?" He watches me with cat eyes. "I'm still your father."
"You're my father's murderer," I blurt out."
"I can be both," Madoc says, smiling, showing his teeth.

madoc continues to be one of the most interesting characters in this series btw

"So we've sworn. So they let me swear, even though my words don't bind me the way theirs do, by magic. I am bound by honor and by their faith in my having some."

realizing ive been actually consistently reading a book a week??? kinda love that for me

"There is little good in me," Madoc says. "But I owe you a debt, and I have sworn to do the best by you that I know how." I rise, crossing the room to put one gloved hand against the pallid green skin of his face. He closes his cat eyes. I cannot forgive him, but I cannot hate him, either. We stand like that for a long moment, then he looks up, takes my unbandaged hand, and kisses the back of it, mouth against cloth.

something something about the inability of Jude and Madoc to fully enter the daughter and father roles with each other, and its clear she loves him despite his violence and he loves her with gifting her the sword and not sending her away. reminds me of seraphina by Rachel Hartman. in that book, seraphina is raised by her uncle of her dragon mother and its just rlly fascinating...

Her fingers brush my face again, stroking back my hair. It should be a tender gesture, but it's an evaluating one instead. "He must have loved your mother very much," she says. "He's besotted with you girls. If I were him, I would have sent you away a long time ago."
I don't doubt that.

nothing like reading 200 pages in a dayyyyy

nothing like a random visit to the library and coffee to have me pick up a random book

Dads, as a concept, have always felt as irrelevant to my daily life as astronauts. I know they're out there, but I rarely think about them. Suddenly though, I can almost imagine it. I can almost miss it, this thing I never had. "That's really nice." It feels like not just an understatement, but a complete mistranslation for something vast and unruly.

okay. so. I will say that i haven't really delved into romance as a genre, aside from you should be lucky by cat sebastian last year. I like science fiction and fantasy and if there's a side of romance, cool. I thought it'd be fun to try! but going from the ursula leguin to this style of writing is....definitely........... A LEAP. but i'm going to give this book 50 pages of grace and just try to have a good time

this book is so good, i utterly am taken with it. the narration is so much more emotional when its tenar's POV like in tombs of atuan, so heavy with the weight of being a women underneath the patriarchy, the different identities she's had - a priestess, then tenar who was ogion's ward, then a mother, and then a widow. i'm all over the place but man. this is REALLY GOOD!!!

oh i really like this one. oh tenar im so happy to read about you again

its sad to finish a series knowing it was so good. ill never read this for the first time again

"You will lie to your king?" my uncle asked.
As you lied to him. We are liars, all the Erondites. (...)
"Pheris." I had already started down, but I paused to look over my shoulder. "My brother was the best of the Erondites. He would be honored that you share his name." Sejanus climbed on and I began the dangerous descent, hoping my pony was still waiting for me.

CHAPTER TEN. my goodness, this is my favorite chapter in the entire book. i am fascinated by the way wheeler weaves the history of the erondite's terrible family. pheris did a horrible thing, we know, but still we think pheris is different. still, he himself calls the family of erondites liars. but what he did for the king was meant to protect him from himself... ough. ough. wheeler. you've done it again.

"After a while, the sound of my king's gasping and crying lessened and he fell silent. I lifted my face and saw through the tears in my own eyes that were none in his. He was looking back at me with a face like an open grave. Then he smiled, and a chill like the ones I felt in Hephestia's temple shuddered down my back."

that son of a bitch erondites I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING

something so funny about eugenides, the literal king, getting on his horse and charging into battle just to beat nahuseresh's ass. lol. lmao even

there's no way the eddisians got the attolian servants of gen to bet on who could catch the king, only for gen to proceed to BOOK HIS ASS away and to have servants chasing after him. WHAT. "at one point, the tail of his pursuers grew so long that he came up on it from behind, tapped the last person in the line on the shoulder, and then sped away." eugenides you hilarious brat

Eddis nodded. This time she didn't lift her hands to cover her fractured composure, and she didn't wipe away her tears.
"I'm sorry," the king said softly. "If there was another way than this, I couldn't find it."
She brushed off the apology. "I've always known I was the last Eddis," she said.
She left soon after, and the king rolled back down to lie staring at the canopy over his head.

"Kamet sered his purpose," she said, and even Orutus winced at her pregmatism. Costis blanked as he stared straight ahead and the muscles in his jaw jumped. But the queen wasn't finished. "To risk Costis as well as Kamet is poor tactics, I agree. However, wemust consider that if we order him to remain with the guard, his heart is unlikely to be in his work." KAMET AND COSTIS MENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!