silver.dichotomy

chris | she/they. 30+. boricua. capricorn. intj. coffee. mood reader. gmt-4. usa 🫩 💛 SFF & mystery 🆕 cozies, romance, poetry & essays ✨intersectional feminist & antifascist 🍉 💬 same @ on discord

961 points

0% overlap

My Taste

The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Reading...

The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy, #1)

26%

How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, Revised Edition

20%

40%

The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth

21%

16%

silver.dichotomy commented on jordynreads's update

jordynreads started reading...

Yesteryear

Caro Claire Burke

A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive. Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

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silver.dichotomy commented on OhMyDio's review of Till Summer Do Us Part

OhMyDio

May 12, 2026

0.5

Enjoyment: 0.5Quality: 0.5Characters: 0.5Plot: 0.5

When I started the Summer of Swoon challenge I said I would assume the problem was me until proven otherwise, and BOWHOWDY did this prove otherwise!

• I'm all for a quirky goofy plot where you just need to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride, but this was entirely too much. Nothing about this plot makes sense. Aside from there being dozens of other ways Scottie could have navigated the fallout of telling the lie that she's married, literally a company operating this way would be shut down so fast. This is straight up cult behavior that is not only wildly inappropriate from an employer, but like, absolutely illegal. • I will never understand why m/f romances with a dual pov have SUCH different tones in their characters. Scottie is reserved and conservative in her demeanor and approach, while Wilder is just foul mouthed and crude (but framed as sexually confident.) Of course different people have different talking styles, but you don't have to make the MMC drop f bombs every other sentence to establish he has a different voice. • Aside from the swearing, though, basically all of these characters did talk the same. The "wit"/banter across all characters follows the same basic structure and style, making it feel very stale instead of funny and engaging. • We're still making prison rape jokes in 2025 and this shit needs to stop. I cannot fathom why that was left in. • I am wildly uncomfortable with the framing of "innocent, blossoming woman coming into her own" as a result of MMC's ministrations. It's disgusting and sexist and offputting. Wilder is just a fuckboi in a beanie, he is not some magical awakening. His basic ass behavior is lauded as the pinnacle of how men should treat women and it's exhausting. The bar is in hell. • Throughout the entire novel (literally until the last page) Wilder says that things are up to Scottie - she's in charge, it's her choice, he's there for her, she can do whatever she needs or wants - but at literally every step Wilder overrides Scottie and takes control of the situation. Be that what they talk about in the fake therapy sessions or in their sexual encounters, he is constantly saying one thing and then doing the opposite, and for some reason this is framed as sweet and caring and considerate. I know this sounds tin foil hat-esque, but this constant erosion of Scottie's preference and agency really feels like a targeted choice to subtly and slowly wear down the reader's idea of what "no" means. Does no mean no? Or does it mean "try harder" until she realizes you were right all along? I fucking hate it. • This is maybe just personal preference rearing up but I am so over MMC's telling the FMC's she's "a good girl" and "perfect" - it's just so damn cringe and surely we can expand? Does it have to be in literally every m/f romance?? See also anything related to "claiming" and "owning" which only ever seems to be the MMC over the FMC. my guy you just met her and you will never own her. its so GROSS the way straight dirty talk plays out in these books!! • The entire end is awful. Everything about it screams danger to me. It's manipulative, coercive, creepy, and just actually fucked up. I didn't care for the way Mika's mental health is handled, the way their mother is handled, the way Wilder woos Scottie - all of it was just gross and a giant pile of red flags. Not to mention the reveal about Sanders. wtf.

There are many many more smaller points, but you get the idea. This is meant to be a wild and whacky tale but I was just Concerned™️ the entire time.

silver.dichotomy commented on silver.dichotomy's update

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10h

The Invasion (Animorphs, #1)

K.A. Applegate

Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw the strange light in the sky. He may even tell you about what happened when they realized the "light" was only a plane -- from another planet. Here's where Jake's story gets a little weird. It's where they're told that the human race is under attack -- and given the chance to fight back. Now Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Marco have the power to morph into any animal they choose. And they must use that power to outsmart an evil that is greater than anything the world has ever seen...

silver.dichotomy is interested in reading...

10h

The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House

Joanna Davidson Politano

It is 1901 when clockmaker and brilliant tinker Sydney Forrester inherits Blakely House, the eclectic estate of an estranged uncle she's never met. The well-known but mysterious industrialist has left behind a stunning array of peculiar inventions--and a couple of nephews intent on removing this interloper from the estate. Convinced that Sydney has something to do with their uncle's death, the late master's nephews contest the will and work against their cousin at every turn. Sydney finds a sometimes-ally in the estate's butler, an ex-adventurer who ran aground on the island years ago. But when a mysterious man washes ashore with a stunning surprise that upsets everything, Sydney must prove she has inherited the late master's brilliance as well as his property--or someone else will.

silver.dichotomy is interested in reading...

10h

Shadows on the Heart

Elizabeth Oldham

When her brother dies suddenly and she’s named legal guardian to three children she’s never met, Lita Bravo, a tattooed, thirty-two-year-old amateur mixed martial arts fighter, leaves her high desert home in Arizona to pick up a future she never wanted. Upon her arrival, she recognizes her estranged mother who has dementia and nowhere else to go. For Jade McGovern, a serious twelve-year-old who color-coordinates her clothes with friends she’s had since kindergarten, life becomes unhinged when her parents die. Forced to move to a new town and home with a foul-mouthed, incompetent aunt, Jade will try anything she can to get back to California. Evie Long, whose life, loves and libations have always come first, really wants a drink. She doesn’t recognize the daughter who ran away nearly twenty years ago and wonders when she’ll see her husband and children again. As Evie falls deeper into her memories and Jade takes steps down a troublesome path, Lita struggles to parent and cope with a mother she never thought she’d see again. SHADOWS ON THE HEART, told from the perspective of three unique narrators, explores the bonds of family and friendship and the rippling impact of loss, grief and addiction across generations.

silver.dichotomy is interested in reading...

10h

The Invasion (Animorphs, #1)

K.A. Applegate

silver.dichotomy is interested in reading...

10h

The Starving Saints

Caitlin Starling

From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror. Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls. As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.

silver.dichotomy commented on a post

13h

tortuguita21

The Last Move (5%)

I find the tension between the version of herself that was single and the version of herself in a new relationship quite interesting, especially the comparison of that old version of herself to a body at the bottom of a cistern.

Why do you think some of the lines are placed in parentheses?
What do you think she means by “the great heavy chest of live animals I had been dragging around for years”? Are these meant to be versions of herself she is still running from or something else?

silver.dichotomy commented on a post

14h

tortuguita21

During the Impossible Age of Everyone (4%)

I really like the emphasis on being connected to the greater expanse of individuals both past and present while balancing that with the fact that just because something has been done before doesn’t mean it has been by you. Everything can be new for you, and exalted as such.

How do you think the three sections work together?
To me, her comparison to a fence, cow, or yonder means that she is deeply connected to the endless nature of everything that came before her and everything that will come after her, and how she can’t possibly contain all of that without spilling over. What do you think it means?

silver.dichotomy commented on a post

14h

tortuguita21

Edited

How To Triumph Like a Girl (3%)

Similarly to her other bodies of work, Limón never loses a focus on her connection to nature. She is always able to align her own experiences with something she finds beautiful or leaves her awestruck, or something she would like to emulate more of, like a lady horse.

What kind of tone do you think opening the collection with this poem set?
What do you think her desire to be like these horses says about her & her other desires?
What do you think about the contrast between the “delicate skin of my body” and describing the female horse’s heart as “giant with power”?

silver.dichotomy commented on a post

14h

tortuguita21

Unofficial Readalong Bright Dead Things- Week 1, Part 1

Week 1 of our readalong begins today- feel free to refer back to the schedule post for more info (I don’t know how to link things yet so if anyone wants to link it in the comments feel free)! I have already started gradually posting the questions for each poem in Part 1, so feel free to read the poems at whatever pace is most comfortable for you. As a reminder, the way I have sectioned weeks for May is a little weird, and I will be posting at the start of each week/part to make sure everyone knows! This week will run from today, Friday, May 1st, to Saturday, May 9th. Feel free to use this as a home base for overall thoughts on Part 1 as a whole, or for any questions/thoughts/concerns that don’t feel like they fit neatly into the discussion posts for this part! I’m super excited to chat with you all on the first 17 poems in this collection :))

silver.dichotomy is interested in reading...

18h

Vicious (Villains, #1)

Victoria Schwab

A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

silver.dichotomy commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

18h

Steerpike7

Resurrection! (You Have the Power)

I was thinking about this last night as I watched the last episode in the Vera TV show from the UK and felt they left too many avenues unexplored even though they had a long run.

If you had the power to resurrect:

A. A book series, for at least one more book; and B. A TV show, for at least one more season,

which would you choose, and why?

A. For television shows, in addition Vera, there is of course Firefly (the characters and world are wide-open for further exploration, given how limited the run was). Also, I quite liked Fringe, with John Noble and Anna Torv, and I would certainly have watched more episodes of that. I don't watch tons of TV so I may not have as many here as others.

B. For books, I don't know if a Song of Ice and Fire is technically dead, but if so I'd resurrect that so I can actually read the ending. Also, more Conan stories, if I could save Robert Howard from his sad fate. I'd bring Octavia Butler back to finish her Parable books. Also, Rosemary Kirstein's Steerswoman books (which I'm hoping will still be finished).

I could name more, and of course there are plenty of authors I'd love to bring back in general, but I'm limiting this post specifically to series.

silver.dichotomy commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

18h

KelpieCersei

📚 Bookish question #5

Honestly, my mind is foggy so I have no clue if I have asked this question yet 😂 This is one of my favourite questions I see, I love seeing all of the different/similar opinions for this one!

✨ What is your LEAST favourite book trope and why?

For me it definitely has to be memory loss tropes. Nope, cannot stomach them. Memory loss tropes have me stressing the whole time, I’m more stressed than the actual characters are 😩 I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a memory loss trope, I personally just do not see the appeal in them

silver.dichotomy commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

18h

acidicchaos

Tuesday Trivia & Tidbits - What did your reading teach you this week?

Hello my big beautiful Boundling brains! It's that time of the week to show off what you learned through your books this week! Whether it's a quick trivia bite, personal insight, or deep dive - we wanna know!!

My tidbit this week - I learned that I might be a fan of sports romances as long as the couple is about 30+ as someone who notoriously hates sports this is a shocking revelation to me haha

What cha got this week, Boundlings??

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19h

Sweat

Zora Neale Hurston

The short story Sweat by American author Zora Neale Hurston was first published in 1926 in Fire!!, a single-issue magazine published during the Harlem Renaissance. Hurston was an anthropologist and writer whose works included many essays on anthropology and folklore focused on African American communities in the American South and the Caribbean, as well as novels and short stories. Hurston often wrote dialog in vernacular to capture the everyday diction and idioms, and with adapted phonetic spellings to capture the sound and rhythm, of the English spoken by Black people in the rural south, specifically Florida, in the early 20th century.

silver.dichotomy commented on sharky_97's update

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19h

Level 10

17000 points

251

141

silver.dichotomy commented on a List

19h

Pagebound User Book Cameos

by ayzrules

57 books

For when your PB friends share the same name(s) as a book character! (See pinned comment for master list! Please feel free to chime in if you want to be added and/or if you want a different book assigned to you; I didn’t want to step on toes and add people I haven’t really talked to without their permission ❤️ also my brain is smooth and I forget book character names all the time lol)

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