seema
head in the clouds, nose in a book 🪱✨🌈 she/her
75389 points
seema commented on a post
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4seema commented on seema's update
Post from the Girls Like Girls forum
Okay so the start was a bit bumpy, definitely took a second. I forgot it was going to be YA and had the audacity to be confused when that's exactly what I got, but that bit is a personal problem lol.
The main bumpiness is coming from the fact that the POV/voice is definitely a bit peculiar, and I'm only finally settling into it now. My apologies because I don't have the technical terms to identify it. Best I can describe it is as a stream of consciousness from a highly melodramatic teenage girl. Or like we are reading her diary, maybe, because she's kind of talking to the reader? For example, from the first chapter:
"And one day you learn: it's not that you're not like other girls. It's just that you've never met a girl like you."
Like it's very much giving main character which is a bit cringey, and the issue at hand was that for the first few pages I couldn't really tell if the "feels like it was written by a teenage girl" effect was good intentional writing or if it was unfortunately simply the quality of the writing, unintentionally. Jury is still a bit out as it's still early days, but my mind is adjusting to the flow of it and I'm settling in which makes me sincerely hope it's the former.
Also, now that the plot is going and giving me the first taste of a sapphic crushing I am absolutely kicking my feet and feel my inner teenage babygay girl totally reactivated and every bit as dramatic as Coley becauseeeee
"Her dark eyes—bottomless, endless, fearless eyes—meet mine, and it’s like almost getting hit all over. A cataclysm to the senses. I can’t zoom out. I can’t get perspective. She is the only thing I can see."
Like SORRY that is kind of iconically immediately down bad and I get it and I'm on board LMAO. It's just all so 2000s movie too like I feel nostalgic
0seema commented on a post
seema commented on a post
For some reason, when I heard "cozy" I heard "no conflict," even though I think getting over a hurdle is usually an important ingredient in the creation of a book, What would be a better understanding of "Cozy", without big emotions?–by that im picturing no angst, or negativity steeped in pain–or is it a slower pace? or a secret third thing?
And am I right in my thought of no book going without conflict or is there a read escaping my mind?
35seema commented on a post
Could we add “An Arcane Study of Stars” by Sydney Shields to this quest?
3seema commented on seema's update
seema commented on a post
hi!! i’m currently reading ‘field guide for the formerly villanous’ and it totally fits this quest!! it’d be super cool if it could be added ☺️
11seema commented on a post
I'd love to see "A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping" being added to the list, it got me hooked on the whole genre right now ♥
5seema commented on a post
seema commented on seema's update
seema started reading...
Girls Like Girls
Hayley Kiyoko
4seema started reading...
Girls Like Girls
Hayley Kiyoko
4seema wrote a review...
Another delightful cozy fantasy from Sangu Mandanna!! There was a truly stunning breadth of diversity included across the characters: mental health issues, physical disability, autism, queerness, in age, and in race and immigration, all of which not only were thrown in to satisfy a representation checkbox but actually directly interfaced with. The characters were charming and funny and heartwarming, and the found family themes were so strong in this magical inn where "at the heart of it, [they were] just a handful of people trying to be good to one another." I want to shout out in particular that thoughtful and respectful parenting/guardianship/caretaking was depicted in a really beautiful way which I feel so many could benefit from seeing and applying in relationships with their own younger loved ones. I enjoyed the plot and the pacing and the few twists thrown in, but I have to say the end fell off a bit for me. Very likely this had more to do with me and my current emptional era than it did the book; I think folks who are in a place where they are experiencing loss or change in a major aspect of their identity would find that story line much more compelling and moving.
0seema commented on a post
This book has been on my tbr list for years (thanks to a recommendation from a friend who has never once been wrong 🫶) and I am so so glad to be finally getting to it. My only wish is that it was winter because this is so perfect for a snow day. I am so enraptured by this story and the characters and am so looking forward to the rest of this book and the others in the series. From what I've read so far I'd call it cozy, but I'm sure that's in part influenced by the tidbits of Russian thrown in which is done really well and in a way that I think would feel comforting to other Russian speakers as well (entirely unlike Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone which I'll never stop being annoyed at, but that's a separate rant)
6seema commented on seema's update
seema finished a book
A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Sangu Mandanna
4seema commented on a post
Just having a teehee at this but omg I felt like I needed to start keeping a list of all the icy adjectives to describe Luke's eyes and also general demeanor. It was nonstopppp lmao. Here are the TWENTY SIX distinct instances I found:
Eyes (11 total)
- icy x2
- icy blue x2
- iciest cerulean x1
- glacier x1
- glacier blue x2
- arctic x3
Voice/demeanor (15 total)
- icy x6
- iciest x1
- arctic x4
- antarctic x1
- cold x3
12seema finished a book
A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Sangu Mandanna
4