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✨️Night of Wands✨️

@nightingaelic.bsky.social

Adult, bi, very into Fallout, currently into AEW, The Sopranos, Control, the evolution of feminism, my cats, and running a book club

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✨️Night of Wands✨️@nightingaelic.bsky.social · 3w ago

My 2.5-star review of The Haar by David Sodergren — The Shape of Water (2017) for fans of Iron Lung (2026), is what I would say if I was a book publishing executive trying to snag an audience using words in formations they already know: Anyway, support indie authors

Cover of the book The Haar by David Sodergren.Text: If you're a fan of low-budget slasher movies and want that kind of atmosphere in book form, David Sodergren has you covered. It's funny, it's gory, it stars an octogenarian heroine in an odd couple romance with a horrifying sea creature, every bad person is a cartoon villain, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. The story even has some deeper themes beneath its slimy skin about the nature of love and life, if you're into that sort of thing. I won't deny I enjoyed the read, but it was definitely more of a microwaved popcorn indulgence than a balanced meal.
✨️Night of Wands✨️@nightingaelic.bsky.social · last mo.

My 4.75-star review of Parable of the Sower (Earthseed No. 1) by Octavia E. Butler — According to the timeline, we are currently in Chapter 10 of this book, and you have until October 10, 2027, to jump in and read along with the USA collapsing around Lauren Oya Olamina in real time

Cover of the book Parable of the Sower (Earthseed No. 1) by Octavia E. Butler.Text: Octavia E. Butler might not be able to write a fully-convincing teenage girl's diary, but she sure can write a story that forces readers to share in protagonist Lauren's joy and pain as if they also had hyperempathy syndrome. More than that, she can make up a religion, its mantras, and its foundational verses in a way that both makes sense for something penned by a young person in a crumbling empire, and also makes sense to the reader as something destined to grow beyond its humble beginnings. It's incredibly impressive. Butler's chosen backdrops for Lauren's journey do occasionally feel dated, even if you don't take into account the fictional events happening in real years that have already ended. The public panic over intensely-specific recreational drugs and their unintended consequences for drug users' children, for example, feels very of-the-time for a book originally published in 1993. On the other hand, the displacement of huge populations due to catastrophic climate change, the failure and privatization of public services, and the never-ending exploitation of the desperate are all still incredibly relevant today. I wonder if there will ever come a time where this book feels like a complete bygone. And hell, maybe there will be something like Pyro on the market someday. By the way, if you're reading a copy of the book with an afterword by N. K. Jemisin, skip it until your second read-through. She spoils some major plot points from the next book.
✨️Night of Wands✨️@nightingaelic.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I need a Car Talk for writers so badly: Some radio show I can call into to ask things like "where can I find a map of NYC storm drains," and "what was the daily diet of someone living in Cuzco circa 1262," and of course "how long does it take someone with a gut wound to bleed out"

alix e. harrow@alixeharrow.bsky.social · 2mo ago

said it before and i'll say it again: the number one writing hack is just to make friends. you can either spend an hour in an obscure & contentious reddit forum trying to figure out what a 2012 camaro sounds like or you can ask your buddy, the Car Guy