FeralAcademic

Dorian. A modern maenad. Gnostic rabblerouser, part time hater, lover of terrible protagonists and niche theological texts. I have no excuse for how I am.

13637 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

29%

In the Shadow of Enlightenment: A Girl's Journey through the Osho Rajneesh Cult

33%

The Hobbits of Tolkien: An Illustrated Exploration of Tolkien's Hobbits, and the Sources that Inspired his Work from Myth, Literature and History

67%

78%

54%

FeralAcademic commented on a post

acidicchaos

Soffe Shorts for Gym 18% (page 56)

"In the changing room, the other girls are already in various states of undress, tying up oversized shirts with hair elastics to grant a peek of their belly buttons, rolling up their Soffe shorts one, two, three times."

Did I ever expect to see the customary rolling of the Soffe shorts for gym class in a book? No. Am I surprised this was a thing outside of my school? Now that I think about it, not at all haha

FeralAcademic commented on hades_daughter's update

hades_daughter TBR'd a book

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Edwin A. Abbott

This masterpiece of science (and mathematical) fiction is a delightfully unique and highly entertaining satire that has charmed readers for more than 100 years. The work of English clergyman, educator and Shakespearean scholar Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926), it describes the journeys of A. Square [sic – ed.], a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. "Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination." — Mathematics Teacher.

FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's review of The First Bad Man

FeralAcademic

Mar 15, 2026

The First Bad Man

4.0

Enjoyment: 3.5Quality: 3.5Characters: 4.5Plot: 4.0

👶

🍳

🥋

This one snuck up on me, as a lot of books do. I went into it knowing some vague things about it, mostly that it was "weird girl lit" and something about it having a toxic roommate situation in it, but forgot the rest by the time I read it, and I'm so glad. This one hit me like a ton of bricks for how weirdly poetic parts were for being so UTTERLY bizarre. If you want the full experience I highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by the author because hearing the opening lines

When I stopped at red lights, I kept my eyes mysteriously forward. Who is she? people might have been wondering. Who is that middle-aged woman in the blue Honda? I strolled through the parking garage and into the elevator, pressing 12 with a casual, fun-loving finger. The kind of finger that was up for anything. In her voice???? ICONIC.

This girl is like... Tina Belcher energy in her delivery. Now at it's core this is a lot about a woman who is a horrible people pleaser. She is obviously not emotionally mature at ALL, I mean I actually kept forgetting that she was middle-aged because she is so weird and immature and people-pleasing, she is a goddamn MESS of a human, but that isn't a fault of writing, it is just who she is. She gets into the WORST situations because of her inability to stand up for herself. She has a weird... kismet type thing going on with this strange belief that she has a soulmate that inhabits different bodies and different times, usually babies. I can not explain this. It is a recurring theme that is bizarre but also kind of... sweet at times. She gets into a weird.... I don't even know what to call her roommate situation.

This story genuinely goes in so many directions I did not expect, the writing is unlike anything else I've read before, I sent whole segments to my group chat regularly because I was so flabberghasted by it. It's WEIRD. And UNCOMFORTABLE. Everyone in the entire book kind of really sucks and are weird as hell. I'm rereading the quotes I saved from it to refresh my memory and am laughing all over again at the utterly bizarre style of writing. I'm sure a lot of people would hate it but I found it soooooooooo delightful, and it made the oddly profound moments stick out even more. I instantly put a hold on her other books when I finished this one.

Some day when I have some more books to put into it,I'm making a list of "Unwell girls assigning way too much meaning to everything" and this will be in here. My favorite genre.

FeralAcademic commented on a post

FeralAcademic

Thoughts from 40% (page 72)

Someone might read me, read us. There are times I think that none of this matters. Why put myself in danger with this book of the night? But I have to because if I write it, then it was real; if I write it, maybe we won’t just be part of a dream contained in a planet, inside a universe hidden in the imagination of someone ~~who lives in the mouth of God.~~ Each of these words contains my pulse. My blood.

I don’t have the time or words to convey to you how much this passage speaks directly to my heart because of my writing and experiences and spirituality and the multiverse in regards to fiction specifically. I will literally sound insane if I even try. But I saved this passage so quickly. It’s all real, baby, it’s all real and how do you know that you’re not in a book too? Passages like this give me the chills.

FeralAcademic commented on a post

Walie

Edited

Thoughts from 43% (page 94)

Why does brother in law keep describing his wife and Yeong-hye "child like" this is so gross!

FeralAcademic finished a book

The Unworthy

Agustina Bazterrica

The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos. From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe. But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened? A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.

FeralAcademic commented on a post

Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)

CaitlinByHerShelf

Thoughts from 28%

spoilers

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FeralAcademic commented on hades_daughter's update

hades_daughter TBR'd a book

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Edwin A. Abbott

FeralAcademic commented on saturnpierrot's update

saturnpierrot set their yearly reading goal to 10

saturnpierrot's 2026 Reading Challenge

3 of 10 read

FeralAcademic commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

rizqah

wattpad/ao3

did all of us readers have our wattpad/ ao3 era?? and did it all start at like 10-12 bcz i feel like we are all living the same life over here😪

120

FeralAcademic commented on a post

Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 2

ruiconteur

Edited

Thoughts from 24% (additional hualian scene from the revised edition)

spoilers

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FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's update

FeralAcademic paused reading...

The Vegetarian

Han Kang

Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether.

FeralAcademic paused reading...

The Vegetarian

Han Kang

FeralAcademic is interested in reading...

Perfume & Pain

Anna Dorn

A controversial Los Angeles author attempts to revive her career and finally find true love in this hilarious nod to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Having recently moved both herself and her formidable perfume bottle collection into a tiny bungalow in Los Angeles, mid-list author Astrid Dahl finds herself back in the Zoom writer’s group she cofounded, Sapphic Scribes, after an incident that leaves her and her career lightly canceled. But she temporarily forgets all that by throwing herself into a few sexy distractions—like Ivy, a grad student who smells like metallic orchids and is researching 1950s lesbian pulp, or her new neighbor, Penelope, who smells like patchouli. Penelope, a painter living off Urban Outfitters settlement money, immediately ingratiates herself in Astrid’s life, bonding with her best friends and family, just as Astrid and Ivy begin to date in person. Astrid feels judged and threatened by Penelope, a responsible older vegan, but also finds her irresistibly sexy. When Astrid receives an unexpected call from her agent with the news that actress and influencer Kat Gold wants to adapt her previous novel for TV, Astrid finally has a chance to resurrect her waning career. But the pressure causes Astrid’s worst vice to rear its head—the Patricia Highsmith, a blend of Adderall, alcohol, and cigarettes—and results in blackouts and a disturbing series of events. Unapologetically feminine yet ribald, steamy yet hilarious, Anna Dorn has crafted an exquisite homage to the lesbian pulp of yore, reclaiming it for our internet- and celebrity-obsessed world.

FeralAcademic is interested in reading...

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

Dan Barker

One man shares the story of his transformation from evangelical Christian to atheist and examines the train of thought that brought him there. After almost twenty years of evangelical preaching, missionizing, and Christian songwriting, Dan Barker "threw out the bathwater and discovered that there is no baby." In Godless, Barker describes the intellectual and psychological path he followed in moving from fundamentalism to freethought. Godless includes sections on biblical morality, the historicity of Jesus, biblical contradictions, the unbelievable resurrection, and much more. It is an arsenal for skeptics and a direct challenge to believers. Along the way, Barker relates the positive benefit readers will experience from learning to trust in reason and human kindness instead of living in fear of false judgment and moral condemnation. Advance Praise for Godless: "Valuable in the human story are the reflections of intelligent and ethical people who listen to the voice of reason and who allow it to vanquish bigotry and superstition. This book is a classic example." —Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great. "The most eloquent witness of internal delusion that I know—a triumphantly smiling refugee from the zany, surreal world of American fundamentalist Protestantism—is Dan Barker." —Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion. "Godless was a revelation to me. I don't think anyone can match the (devastating!) clarity, intensity, and honesty which Dan Barker brings to the journey—faith to reason, childhood to growing up, fantasy to reality, intoxication to sobriety." —Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia. "In Godless, Barker recounts his journey from evangelical preacher to atheist activist, and along the way explains precisely why it is not only okay to be an atheist, it is something in which to be proud." —Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine. "Godless is a fascinating memoir and a handbook for debunking theism. But most of all, it is a moving testimonial to one man's emotional and intellectual rigor in acclaiming critical thinking." —Robert Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

FeralAcademic commented on a post

FeralAcademic

Thoughts from 34%

spoilers

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FeralAcademic commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

prongsreads

Reading Villains

I just finished Break Room by Miye Lee where the characters are "break room villains" or people who basically do mundane annoying things in an office break room like leave dishes unwashed, take up too much room in the communal fridge, steal office snacks, etc. And, ironically, I kept getting interrupted by my mom while I was listening to the audiobook on speaker which felt was something one of these "break room villains" would do. So my question, inspired by the book, is who are your "reading villains" and what mundane yet deeply annoying things do they do?

FeralAcademic commented on FeralAcademic's update

FeralAcademic made progress on...

The Vegetarian

Han Kang

47%

FeralAcademic made progress on...

The Vegetarian

Han Kang

47%

Post from the The Vegetarian forum

FeralAcademic

Thoughts from 34%