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minsuni

Min ☀️🪻🐝 ☆ she/her ☆ 25 ☆ pt ☆ i'm your meemaw and i think it's going to be sapphic

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Sapphic Across Genres
Sapphic Vampires
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Bone of My Bone
12%
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1
38%
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender
42%

minsuni commented on mariangello's update

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Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender

Kit Heyam

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  • Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender
    Thoughts from 38% (chapter 4: 'A Feminine Soul Confined by a Masculine Body'/page 127)

    If queer attraction and queer sex had gendered meanings in particular historical periods and cultures, I can't — no one should — just ignore that because it doesn't sit comfortably alongside the ideals I personally hold today.

    I really like the point Heyman makes here in reinforcing that just because a part of history in the past was something we now may disagree with and find uncomfortable to look back upon, it doesn’t mean it’s not important to talk about and that still belongs in queer history.

    In this chapter, Heyman directs our attention to how sexuality was once inevitably entangled with gender and how people’s sexual behaviors would depict their genders. Because desire for men was seen as a female characteristic, AMAB people that were attracted to men were seen, in a way, as female. People's roles in society, roles that were gendered, and even their behaviors during sexual acts would also have a big impact in this aspect.

    And while today we make this separation of gender being one thing and sexuality another, and that don't necessarily have to be intertwined, it's still important to understand that this was once the case and how it has evolved since. Not only that, but the fact that this also goes beyond trans history and is also important and a part of queer history as a whole.

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  • minsuni commented on a post

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  • Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender
    Thoughts from 53% (page 125) - Note on the Schwules Museum

    OK, I'm a liiittle bit annoyed with Heyam's handling of the German language, continously misspelling German words that contain Umlaute, but now I need to jump in: While I get why in chapter 4, they don't want to use the words "gay" or "homosexual" in reference to Ulrichs' model, translating the "Schwules Museum" to "Queer Museum" is simply wrong. "Schwul" means "gay", as in homosexual men; it is very specific. And if you look at the museum's website, it is explained there that it was founded in the 1980s to display the history of gay men. Which is why I never went there. Other subgroups of the queer community, even lesbians, are too often overlooked and ignored in favour of homosexual men; I'm not interested in a museum all about them, thank you. Even though they today probably offer a wider variety of info, I think it's important to recognise the museum is still called "Schwules", and not renamed something more inclusive.

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    Breakout Year

    Breakout Year

    K.D. Casey

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    Lapvona

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    Ottessa Moshfegh

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    A River Enchanted

    A River Enchanted

    Rebecca Ross

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    minsuni commented on keyaunna's update

    keyaunna completed their yearly reading goal of 100 books!

    12h

    keyaunna's 2026 Reading Challenge

    100 of 100 read
    A History of My Brief Body
    Beyond the Gender Binary
    Rodrick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, #2)
    They Called Us Enemy
    Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Dead Bodies
    Don't Let the Forest In
    Piñata
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    The Wolf and the Crown of Blood (The Broken Accords #1)

    The Wolf and the Crown of Blood (The Broken Accords #1)

    Elizabeth May

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    The Wolf and the Crown of Blood (The Broken Accords #1)

    The Wolf and the Crown of Blood (The Broken Accords #1)

    Elizabeth May

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    minsuni commented on minsuni's review of The Fireborne Blade (The Fireborne Blade, #1)

    14h
  • The Fireborne Blade (The Fireborne Blade, #1)
    minsuni
    Aug 07, 2026
    The Fireborne Blade (The Fireborne Blade, #1)
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 3.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 2.5
    🗡️
    🐉
    🧙‍♂️

    ahhh I’m a little disappointed with this one. I liked the characters and the plot and I specially liked the plot twist and how well it was introduced and how it changed the trajectory of the story, but I found it a little slow paced for a novella, the The Demise and Desmesne of Dragons chapters didn’t really make much sense to me and I wish they would’ve been incorporated better into the story and have more importance in the main plot.

    The sapphic aspect was really lacking and I wanted more from it, and some things were left without explanation, though I’m presuming these might be addressed in the sequel which, despite everything I didn’t like about this one, I’m actually kinda interested in.

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  • minsuni commented on burntsunflowers's review of Just for the Cameras

    16h
  • Just for the Cameras
    burntsunflowers
    Aug 11, 2026
    Just for the Cameras
    4.0
    Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 3.5Audiobook: 4.5
    🦩
    🎨
    📲

    View spoiler

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    Thoughts Be Bloody

    Thoughts Be Bloody

    Auden Patrick

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    minsuni commented on acidicchaos's review of The Poisoner

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  • The Poisoner
    acidicchaos
    Aug 10, 2026
    The Poisoner
    3.5
    Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 3.0
    🥀
    🐍
    🖤

    In some ways, it felt like this premise was designed for me in particular. A book has to have pretty bad craft work for me to not enjoy a romance that reminds me a bit of Penny Dreadful so I had a good time overall here! Final Score: 3.5

    Content Disclosure: As with all dark romance, I would encourage you to check the content warnings, but I will touch on the books “dubious consent”/ consensual non-consent. I’ll format the review to give you a warning when that is about to come up if you prefer to skip that part!

    What Worked Well For Me

    Victorian Gothic setting + horror elements + the two leads trying to kill each other and being able to maintain tension throughout the book = a good read for me. This is the type of book that I get to turn my brain off and just enjoy the story, so while I have some critiques I think it’s important to warn you that this was my mindset going into this book. I haven’t calculated my final score yet, but I have a strong feeling personal enjoyment is going to skew the score a bit.

    I appreciated the light horror elements and the take on the creature’s lore. While there are some tried and true aspects to the lore, there were enough new/interesting twists that it made the creature feel a bit more fresh, or at least not over played.

    Even if this series wasn’t part of the new Dark Romance quest on Pagebound, I would continue on in the series on my own.


    Where It Fell Short For Me

    The next two paragraphs discuss the “dubious consent”/consensual non-consent (CNC) I debated where to place this in my review because I did like/appreciate the author’s note and the fact the author's note was at the start of the book. I’m paraphrasing, but the author’s note included that in real life BDSM elements should be clearly discussed outside of any scenes/sexual activities, but that those conversations are not necessarily written on the page here. While it’s a small thing, I appreciated the direct callout by the author which gives me more faith/trust in their handling of BDSM elements in books. As a dark romance reader, dub-con/CNC comes up a lot due to the nature of a lot of the premises/plots. I always do my best in any romance book to separate out the fantasy aspect of romance books, even when I don’t have that fantasy personally. However, dub-con/CNC is probably the most difficult one for me to navigate which has led me to DNF some books that have this setup.

    To be clear, I have no issue with people having this fantasy in their real life or enjoying it in their fictional stories - that is totally valid. I think my unease comes from many books where the author either unintentionally includes dub-con/CNC in their books or it’s portrayed as just hot without any discussions around safety. I get that consent discussions aren’t the hottest thing to read/write about, but I always appreciate when consent is handled well on the page. So while it wasn’t explicitly talked about on the page, the author’s note, characterization/setup, and that the book didn’t open on dub-con immediately made it so I didn’t DNF this one. TL;DR of this part of the review: If you get icked out by the MMC’s nature in the beginning of the book, you might want to dip out early because his nature gets worse before it gets better.

    I always appreciate a competent FMC and in all the ways I would expect Alina to be competent, she is! There is one thing to note with this though which is why it’s under the “where it fell short” heading - there is an element to the plot that relies on miscommunication. It’s not egregious - it makes sense for the characters/situation, but one direct conversation would have spun this in a completely different direction. This can be a deal breaker for me, so even though I rolled with it here, I wanted to note it.

    When I’m listening to an audiobook only with strong narrators, I often miss craft hiccups because the narrators’ performances can cover them up and when you add in the fact this was a “turn off my brain and enjoy” book, the fact I caught some continuity errors/potential plot holes isn’t great. Take the plot hole critique with a huge grain of salt because this was a casual listen, but between the miscommunication and other errors - I trust my gut that I didn’t fully miss something.


    Audiobook Experience

    Both narrators had solid performances here! Their accents/character work landed for me and I felt like they both had good pacing throughout the book. I also didn’t note any technical issues with the audiobook.

    One thing I wanted to flag - I avoid graphic audio because I find it overwhelming, so when a sound effect was added early on in the audiobook - I was nervous. However, not only did the sound effect work for me, I actually think it helped elevate my experience with the book. It didn’t feel overpowering or over stimulating and where some audiobooks can use sound effects/music as a bit of a crutch, I don’t feel like that was the case here!


    Final Thoughts, Opinions & Recommendations

    Dark romance definitely isn’t for everyone and while this one isn’t my favorite dark romance, I definitely enjoyed my time with it and I’m looking forward to continuing the series!

    If you like to pair your sexy/smutty books with “smart” books, I highly recommend The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris! Not only does it stay on theme with the darker sides of the Victorian world, the book references germ theory directly so this feels like a solid follow up!

    You Might Like This If: You like dark romance, enjoy the Victorian Gothic vibe and a romance where the “enemies” don't evaporate when the second feelings show up.

    You Might NOT Like This If: There are any elements on the content warnings you don’t vibe with (particularly dub-con/CNC), if any amount of miscommunication-driven conflict drives you up a wall, or potentially not airtight plotting is going to ruin the vibe for you.

    My thanks to my local public library for having this audiobook and the sequels available with a very short wait!! GO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIES!! We are so lucky to have them!!


    TL;DR

    Would I Recommend it? I’m not screaming from the rooftops about this one, but if the premise sounds interesting and you check the content disclosures, I think it’s worth a shot! Would I Reread it? Probably not. Would I Continue the Series/Read More From This Author? Yes. Spice Level: 4+ Hot & Heavy - Highly explicit, vivid, and detailed descriptions of multiple intimate scenes. The encounters feature explicit language and map out multiple acts, serving as a core driver of the plot and relationship development. (Note: I could argue this as like a 4.5 because of the dub-con/CNC, but a 5 doesn’t feel right to me here)

    Star Score Breakdown

    Personal Enjoyment: 4.25 Overall Execution: 3.25 Craft & Writing Quality: 3 Characters: 3.5 Plot: 3.25 Final Score: 3.5

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