tulin
🥀 - 27 - she/they - lesbian - 🍓 I like horror books and weird books and stories about unhinged women 🦢 It’s always political; stand up for human rights! Minors, do not follow me 🔞
8611 points
October 2026
3.93 average · 83 reviews
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From the first few pages, I just knew this one would end up a 5/5 and in my My Taste section, it was SO up my alley omg !!!!!
This book is short, weird, confusing, and hazily dreamlike. None of the characters have real names and the narration uses a kind of royal “we.” You really need full attention to properly appreciate this one, and even then, you’ll probably want to take notes to keep everything straight. I loved the prose and all the graphic descriptions!! It felt very evocative to my lowkey-aphantasia brain.
I didn’t read the description before diving into this one, and if you haven’t yet, I suggest you do not and go in blind!! I feel like the description gives too many details away before you can get the weird vibes.
Here’s my less detailed but hopefully still intriguing description: Nine children go to their family’s lake house for a family gathering, and they are excited to spend time together, but something feels off. They can’t put their finger on it, or describe it, and every time they think about it, they can’t tell if there’s even anything off at all. Memories are unreliable, the adults are oblivious, and—no wait it’s always been like this. Hey, let’s go sit in the grass and look at the stars. Where have you been? Oh, that’s right, we’ve been here the whole time. We’re going to be just fine. ✨
If you’re okay with confusing books and body horror, read this book!! It’s short so if you hate it, you won’t have wasted too much time lol but I hope you don’t hate it!! There’s content warnings in the forum, so check those out if you need to.
A kind of weird comparison: if you’ve read Bunny by Mona Awad, this book wasn’t like that at all plot- or character- wise, and yet it did kind of remind me of the same disorienting, dreamlike vibe certain sections of Bunny had. If you didn’t like that book or hate books that are confusing and have a weird narration, you probably won’t like this one.
I hope you enjoy it if you pick it up! I definitely want to reread it sometime soon 👀
When I got back into reading this year, I noticed there were tons of commonly used acronyms that I had no idea what they meant, and I’ve seen other new readers have questions about them too, so I thought I’d make a compilation of acronyms and definitions!
ALC - Advanced listening copy (like ARC but for audiobooks) (thanks @redhead.rambles !)
ARC, eARC - Advance Reader Copy ; A copy of an unpublished book given to select readers to review before the publication date. A lot of people get these through Netgalley. (The “e” is for “electronic”)
BE - Bad ending (thanks @sitacchi !)
CNC - Consensual non-consent (thanks @Indie !)
CR - Currently reading
CTM - Crime, thriller, mystery (thanks @sitacchi !)
DNF - Did not finish
DNFfn - Did Not Finish (for now) (thanks @irmknitss !)
DNR - Do Not Read, books you don't want to read (thanks @Indie !)
DRC - Digital Review Copy (thanks @MaddiHunt !)
Dub-con - Dubious consent (thanks @Indie !)
GN - Graphic novel (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
HC - Hardcover (thanks @CaitlinByHerShelf !)
HE - Happy ending (thanks @sitacchi !)
HEA - Happily ever after
HFN - Happy for now (usually used to describe the ending of a book where characters are happy, but there is potential for future conflict)
JE - Juvenile early readers (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
JPB - Juvenile picture books (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
JMU - Juvenile moving up books (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
LFL - Little free library ; Designated bookcases in public areas where anyone can take a book or leave books for other people to enjoy!
LI - Love interest (thanks @maggiebogo !)
LT - Large type (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
MC, FMC, MMC - Main character, Female main character, Male main character
MG - Middle grade (thanks @proudraindrop !)
NA - New adult (thanks @Indie !)
NB - Enby/nonbinary (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
Non-con - Non-consensual (thanks @Indie !)
PB - Paperback (thanks @CaitlinByHerShelf !) and also Pagebound! (thanks @KittyFeathers !)
PNR - Paranormal romance (thanks @Indie !)
RH - Reverse harem (thanks @FairyPeriapt !)
RTC - Review to come (thanks @acidicchaos !)
SF - Science fiction (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
SFF - Science fiction fantasy
TBR - To be read
TK - To come ; When speaking about book content that's in progress, like images, dedications, and more, not yet included in the book. Examples: “Review and link tk” ; In ARC books: “Dedication tk ” (thanks @Myth.Ink !)
TW, CW - Trigger warning and Content warning
WC - Why Choose ; Romance between more than two people, in a polyamorous way (thanks @ctrlaltdelete !)
WIP - Work in progress
YA - Young adult ; Usually used to describe books written with a teenage audience in mind
Please let me know of other acronyms I’ve missed and I’ll add to the list!
P.S. When you use an acronym for a book title or author name outside of a relative context (like in the Pagebound club instead of a book’s forum), consider using the book/author’s full name first before the acronym so everyone will know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s easy to forget that a name acronym that is common to you, could be completely unknown to someone else. This way everyone will be able to fully follow what you’re talking about.
I hope this post is helpful for some people :3
I’m just looking for more people to follow who hold this belief. I recently made a comment on here on a quest that we as a community shouldn’t platform HP because of the harm JKR is doing to trans people like me and I’m being called a book burner for this when I never called for book burning. JKR enacts politically violence and has assaulted a trans woman (took upskirt photos of this woman) and I’m tired of being told I’m a book burner when I ask people not to platform for that. Her money she earns from HP is being used to hurt trans people like me. I just need other people to follow on here with the same beliefs because I’m tired and feeling ostracized in the book community for believing Trans lives matter more than a stupid book
© 2025 Pagebound
tulin commented...
Jumping in to also agree with you!!!! I absolutely LOVED HP growing up and it meant so so SO much to me, but as soon as I heard that JKR was a TERF I haven’t touched anything HP related since, and while it luckily hasn’t come up much irl for me, when it does, I mention how shitty she is, because if people don’t know about her, they need to be educated, and if they know or learn and still don’t care, then I know to never be friends with that person anymore.
I totally understand having a piece of media that has incredible meaning to you, but how can you know that the creator of said media is out there actively using their money and influence to kill a population of people, and still support the person? How can you look away when you know your money is going toward making other peoples lives unsafe??? It’s straight up transphobia, willful ignorance, and plain old selfishness.
TRANS LIVES MATTER MORE THAN A STUPID BOOK