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madarauchiha's reviews
446 reviews
The Awakening of Insects by Bobby Sun
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
A very interesting sci fi short mystery story that left me wanting an entire novel out of it. No especial CWs that I noticed.
Ash by Malinda Lo
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
Finally! Lesbians can have mediocre, bland fairy tales! no I kid, mostly. Not at all, actually. I really don't like this book. Remember when you were a kid and young adult novels were really well written and interesting and had depth? I know not everyone can be Ursala K Le Guin but I feel so bad for kids who don't have anything challenging and mature to read. I just know this leads them to the adult section way earlier than they can handle such themes. But I'll digest.
What's really bizarre to me is that, despite being lesbian, the amount of female relationships is almost nonexistent. We get more time spent with a cis? man Fae Person than we do with any other woman character. The idea that a young girl in a dangerous, unhealthy situation doesn't try to seek out other people, especially women, is bizarre to me. The original fairy tale had, at least, Cinderella seeking out other people and ending up with a fairy godmother. I think having some scenes of her in the market trying to converse with people, esp women, trying to maintain relationships despite her stepmother trying to isolate and degrade her until Ash could only depend on her stepmother's whims. I'm not expecting much, it's a YA novel, I don't want to see explicit traumaporn. Just... something. Make an effort to expand Ash's world to make it a shock when the stepmother takes away Ash's freedom.
Like, that could have built up tension and make you really root for the main character! But no, we just get occasional scenes of the one other female servant doing chores until she gets dismissed. [Not a spoiler, it happens in a few portrayals of this tale]
No, the dead mother does not count. It's not an active living relationship.
Speaking of the Fae man person? Um, so that was resolvedout of no where, off screen, and out of left field. I know the fae are very mysterious and alluring, so they have to be written as such. But resolving an entire plot point off screen with a tiny teeny sliver of what really happened was such a huge wet fart to the face. Was there a set character limit? Was the publisher banging on the door? I don't know.
I'm not sure if the curse to love a lesbian was a metaphor or not, so no comment. Actually comment, someone explain that to me, thanks.
So the mothercursed the fae man because the fae man had a habit of luring women into the woods bc he liked the feeling of being wanted. When he tried to pull that woo trick on the mother, she cursed him to fall in love with a mortal woman. Except the mortal woman turned out to be her underage(?) daughter, and he's been stalking her since she was barely 13? Or something like that age? Ew? Lo, what the fuck, girl. So the the Fae man grants Ash two wishes, which would bind her to him forever as in a master slave situation, and she has to figure out how to break out of this wish debt. She also learns he's cursed by her mother to fall in love and his love turned out to be her? So Ash resolves this plot point by asking him to consider her wish debt paid if she agrees to 'be with' him for a single night, which somehow breaks his curse. And by sheer chance he only does this to break the curse. He's learned nothing, I assume, because there's nothing to stop a cruel fae man from continuing to do this to other mortal women. Also we never hear from him again so who knows if that's really resolved or not!
The way the girl child has to figure out how toappease the fae man and beg him to agree to a work around to her debt, which he only agrees to because it would get him out of this curse is pretty shitty. Like what does that tell lesbians reading this book? That they must appease men in order to be free to love and be with women? Fuck that shit. That's some hot doodoo kaka back in 2009 and it still is today. She should have killed him for trying to groom her into a relationship, esp a master slave one. The way that would have been so satisfying.... It would really reinforce lesbians aren't here to appease and satisfy men and their preferences. We are our own persons.
The love interest. I wish they used her name instead of title. It felt very dehumanizing and I couldn't get into the romance. I tried using a name replacer in my ereader, which replaced every 'huntress' with her name and made it seem like Ash had a polycule of lesbian lovers. Great, though incredibly confusing to read when fairy tales came up and she was in every one of them.
Maybe I should've read harder into it, but I didn't get the vibe Ash as falling in love with anyone, much less a woman. Like, listen. Lesbianically, I check out women. Not in a sexually harassing way, but I do notice and think to myself yeah she's hot, her bulge is pretty, I'd Winky Face her You Know What etc. That just doesn't happen in this book. I can't tell if that's just a lack of chemistry between the love interests. Is Ash asexual? Aromantic? Has her stepmother broken her mentally so she doesn't know what a normal healthy relationship or attraction is? I mean that's possible. The only 'healthy' relationships Ash has ever seen was her father with her bio mother, and then with her step mother. There's also the otherhouse's servant girl and Colin but it's incredibly off screen and mentioned twice, the second time in a negative light because Colin is a philanderer or something.
If there were scenes of Ash getting in trouble for her gaze lingering too long, and someone noticing, thus getting her in trouble. Like, I hate seeing lesbophobia in novels, but I'd trust an actual lesbian of color to portray this with tact. Ash is already in a toxic situation, being in the closet would make sense and be empathetic to readers who might also be in the same situation. And it wouldn't even be lesbophobia as much as it is the step mother not wanting to lose an indentured servant / slave.
I don't know why I typed out all this for a not quite old book from 2009. I really doubt the author will see this, why bother making suggestions? I do hope aspiring authors* see this and register how to make a plot more interesting, sensible, empathic, etc etc,
*not you fanficcers, you can choke. Unless you're minors, then never mind, explore your art but remember to get out of fanfic when you hit college age. You will only stunt your art, trust me, I learned this the hard way.
Diversity.
uhhhh lesbian? A lesbians? Two of them, at least. Judging by the cover, Ash is supposed to be white, and this is upheld by the incredibly white european world setting. So no, not really diverse, aside from two lesbians. I think at some part the huntress' skin was described as golden? Or golden in the sunlight? Which gave me some racist vibes. Like why'd you make the animal killing, supposedly butch character brown skinned? Are we really pulling that stereotype here? The author is an incredibly lightskinned asian woman, I'm not buying that there's no colorism here.
I think if there were no lesbians this book would get the worst ratings. No really. It's not like other cishet authors trying to use lgbt characters / plots / themes for brownie points because aiming for diversity points is 'what's in style' these days. No, it's that most people see lgbt characters and themes, and automatically think the book is great. Even if the book is the most bland, poorly written, time wasting, pointless book ever written. I wish people would understand that checking off 'lgbt' from a Diversity Plot Point Checklist does not make a good book. LGBT characters should be included yes, but with genuine intent. I think it was Gailey's 'upright women wanted' wherein there was a basic checklist of lgbt characters introduced and then their lgbtness was barely brought up or had an impact on the story at all.
This is like that book. LGBT has an inherent impact on an lgbt person's life. It changes how we interact with a cissexist, homophobic society. I didn't get that impression at all in this book. You could swap genders / pronouns for either Ash or the Huntress to make it a cishet relationship, and nothing would change the story.
You might say, so what? It's a YA genre novel, who cares if it's not that deep?
I think it's important that such things are reflected. Children aren't stupid or ignorant to how their sexuality influences their lives, especially LGBT children. To not have such a thing shown in a story about Lesbians is ridiculous.
Prose.
Ok. It was pretty, the writing was legible. The author did a lovely job of describing the forest scenes, anyways.
At this point I have run out of steam for this lousy book. It took an hour to read, so there's that positive, at least. This book was the equivalent of eating a bowl of white rice, but the serving is slightly too small to make you feel full. Also it comes with no other servings much less soy sauce so you're really left unsatisfied even though it's rice. Rice!!
content warnings
major animal death , animal cruelty, animal hunting, gore, dogs, confinement, medical content, death, child abuse, emotional abuse, grief, parental death
medium body horror, misogyny
minor dogs, dead animal, blood
Finally! Lesbians can have mediocre, bland fairy tales! no I kid, mostly. Not at all, actually. I really don't like this book. Remember when you were a kid and young adult novels were really well written and interesting and had depth? I know not everyone can be Ursala K Le Guin but I feel so bad for kids who don't have anything challenging and mature to read. I just know this leads them to the adult section way earlier than they can handle such themes. But I'll digest.
What's really bizarre to me is that, despite being lesbian, the amount of female relationships is almost nonexistent. We get more time spent with a cis? man Fae Person than we do with any other woman character. The idea that a young girl in a dangerous, unhealthy situation doesn't try to seek out other people, especially women, is bizarre to me. The original fairy tale had, at least, Cinderella seeking out other people and ending up with a fairy godmother. I think having some scenes of her in the market trying to converse with people, esp women, trying to maintain relationships despite her stepmother trying to isolate and degrade her until Ash could only depend on her stepmother's whims. I'm not expecting much, it's a YA novel, I don't want to see explicit traumaporn. Just... something. Make an effort to expand Ash's world to make it a shock when the stepmother takes away Ash's freedom.
Like, that could have built up tension and make you really root for the main character! But no, we just get occasional scenes of the one other female servant doing chores until she gets dismissed. [Not a spoiler, it happens in a few portrayals of this tale]
No, the dead mother does not count. It's not an active living relationship.
Speaking of the Fae man person? Um, so that was resolved
I'm not sure if the curse to love a lesbian was a metaphor or not, so no comment. Actually comment, someone explain that to me, thanks.
So the mother
The way the girl child has to figure out how to
The love interest. I wish they used her name instead of title. It felt very dehumanizing and I couldn't get into the romance. I tried using a name replacer in my ereader, which replaced every 'huntress' with her name and made it seem like Ash had a polycule of lesbian lovers. Great, though incredibly confusing to read when fairy tales came up and she was in every one of them.
Maybe I should've read harder into it, but I didn't get the vibe Ash as falling in love with anyone, much less a woman. Like, listen. Lesbianically, I check out women. Not in a sexually harassing way, but I do notice and think to myself yeah she's hot, her bulge is pretty, I'd Winky Face her You Know What etc. That just doesn't happen in this book. I can't tell if that's just a lack of chemistry between the love interests. Is Ash asexual? Aromantic? Has her stepmother broken her mentally so she doesn't know what a normal healthy relationship or attraction is? I mean that's possible. The only 'healthy' relationships Ash has ever seen was her father with her bio mother, and then with her step mother. There's also the other
If there were scenes of Ash getting in trouble for her gaze lingering too long, and someone noticing, thus getting her in trouble. Like, I hate seeing lesbophobia in novels, but I'd trust an actual lesbian of color to portray this with tact. Ash is already in a toxic situation, being in the closet would make sense and be empathetic to readers who might also be in the same situation. And it wouldn't even be lesbophobia as much as it is the step mother not wanting to lose an indentured servant / slave.
I don't know why I typed out all this for a not quite old book from 2009. I really doubt the author will see this, why bother making suggestions? I do hope aspiring authors* see this and register how to make a plot more interesting, sensible, empathic, etc etc,
*not you fanficcers, you can choke. Unless you're minors, then never mind, explore your art but remember to get out of fanfic when you hit college age. You will only stunt your art, trust me, I learned this the hard way.
Diversity.
uhhhh lesbian? A lesbians? Two of them, at least. Judging by the cover, Ash is supposed to be white, and this is upheld by the incredibly white european world setting. So no, not really diverse, aside from two lesbians. I think at some part the huntress' skin was described as golden? Or golden in the sunlight? Which gave me some racist vibes. Like why'd you make the animal killing, supposedly butch character brown skinned? Are we really pulling that stereotype here? The author is an incredibly lightskinned asian woman, I'm not buying that there's no colorism here.
I think if there were no lesbians this book would get the worst ratings. No really. It's not like other cishet authors trying to use lgbt characters / plots / themes for brownie points because aiming for diversity points is 'what's in style' these days. No, it's that most people see lgbt characters and themes, and automatically think the book is great. Even if the book is the most bland, poorly written, time wasting, pointless book ever written. I wish people would understand that checking off 'lgbt' from a Diversity Plot Point Checklist does not make a good book. LGBT characters should be included yes, but with genuine intent. I think it was Gailey's 'upright women wanted' wherein there was a basic checklist of lgbt characters introduced and then their lgbtness was barely brought up or had an impact on the story at all.
This is like that book. LGBT has an inherent impact on an lgbt person's life. It changes how we interact with a cissexist, homophobic society. I didn't get that impression at all in this book. You could swap genders / pronouns for either Ash or the Huntress to make it a cishet relationship, and nothing would change the story.
You might say, so what? It's a YA genre novel, who cares if it's not that deep?
I think it's important that such things are reflected. Children aren't stupid or ignorant to how their sexuality influences their lives, especially LGBT children. To not have such a thing shown in a story about Lesbians is ridiculous.
Prose.
Ok. It was pretty, the writing was legible. The author did a lovely job of describing the forest scenes, anyways.
At this point I have run out of steam for this lousy book. It took an hour to read, so there's that positive, at least. This book was the equivalent of eating a bowl of white rice, but the serving is slightly too small to make you feel full. Also it comes with no other servings much less soy sauce so you're really left unsatisfied even though it's rice. Rice!!
content warnings
major animal death , animal cruelty, animal hunting, gore, dogs, confinement, medical content, death, child abuse, emotional abuse, grief, parental death
medium body horror, misogyny
minor dogs, dead animal, blood
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Body horror and Misogyny
Minor: Slavery, Animal death, and Blood
Return to Dyatlov Pass by J.H. Moncrieff
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
So a podcaster? I think she's a podacaster. She goes on a trip with a bunch of other hikers, not sure why they're also there besides being tourists, all the way to where this mass death happened. So far she hasn't done anything like take notes, journal, make visual archives like photos or video. This lady is pretty bad at podcasting. She also has done zero personal research on it besides going to the location. Also there's an antagonistic character called Steven and it's pretty obvioushe's going to be a plot twist identity reveal stalker cyber bully guy. Because he is. Steven/Cliff's deal is that his great grand aunt is one of the people who died in the original DP incident and he was cyberbullying the MC into investigating it.
Considering she's such a shit investigator, he would have been better off personally investigating it. His excuse is that he wanted witnesses and also he wouldn't have done a good job if he hired guides and went there himself. Ok sure.
fake edit ok wait she pulls out 'her gear' which isn't described and does a verbal interview with a fellow team members. This happens once.
People start dying after this. The lastfour try to pull a last stand in a ravine. It doesn't work and they all die except for the MC. At the least, the russian police find them, somehow. The MC thinks it's the snowmen, and accidentally kills one of them. It's left on a cliffhanger of the Russian police staring her down, guns raised.
I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I don't think it's a good book. I don't care for supernatural horror of the bigfoot variety, so I won't leave a specific star rating.
Characters of color
There's an Inuit woman. Shedies of screen but her body is shown and it's horrible.
There's a Mansi man. Vasily. Hedies on screen, very horribly and painfully.
Racism.
This uses racist old tired trope of silly indigenous people having a scary monster from their culture that's big and evil and kills indescriminately. Or it's actually Russian human experimentation. It's never really explained.
lesbophobia
there's a brief mention of a woman character pretending to be gay to avoid cis men advances.
major gore, stalking, injuries, gore, violence, eye trauma, death, murder,
medium stalking, peer abuse , bullying, alcohol,
minor alcohol, eugenics, rape, lesbophobia, suicidal thoughts, police,
So a podcaster? I think she's a podacaster. She goes on a trip with a bunch of other hikers, not sure why they're also there besides being tourists, all the way to where this mass death happened. So far she hasn't done anything like take notes, journal, make visual archives like photos or video. This lady is pretty bad at podcasting. She also has done zero personal research on it besides going to the location. Also there's an antagonistic character called Steven and it's pretty obvious
Considering she's such a shit investigator,
fake edit ok wait she pulls out 'her gear' which isn't described and does a verbal interview with a fellow team members. This happens once.
People start dying after this. The last
I wouldn't say it's a bad book, but I don't think it's a good book. I don't care for supernatural horror of the bigfoot variety, so I won't leave a specific star rating.
Characters of color
There's an Inuit woman. She
There's a Mansi man. Vasily. He
Racism.
lesbophobia
major gore, stalking, injuries, gore, violence, eye trauma, death, murder,
medium stalking, peer abuse , bullying, alcohol,
minor alcohol, eugenics, rape, lesbophobia, suicidal thoughts, police,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Stalking, Bullying, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Lesbophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
House of Stairs by William Sleator
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
4.0
I read this as a kid and it stuck it my head as being weird and cool long into adulthood. Give this to your kids, it won't fuck them up. Heart.
Noctuidae by Scott Nicolay
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
0.25
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
likes. Oh wow the author actually knows the names of indigenous people? that's literally shocking and surprising.
dislikes.
The author has made the mistake of using contractions in conversation to indicate accent and class status. Also the use of β characters instead of quote marks for speech is a little difficult to read.
To no one's surprise, yet another white male author writes a rape story. Because they don't know how to write horror so they resort to cheap scares.
Ok so basically the mc [korean american woman] goes on a camping trip with her boyfriend and his one male friend. The get to their destination, make camp and fall asleep. The MC is woken up by the male friend because he's straddling her, hand over mouth, with an erection. Apparently the boyfriend got up to pee and was eaten by a monster. He gets this point across in the most rapey way possible.
The mc plays along knowing this is sexual assault but trying to survive. She sees the monster outside the cave, some plant horror thing, and goes back further inside the cave. There the male friend sexual harasses her, sexually assaults her physically, says a lot of colonizer and racism shit, victim blames her for him wanting to rape her. She escapes to the front of the cave where she waits until sunrise to escape, threatening to scream and get the monsters attention if he tries to rape her.
Sunrise eventually comes. The monster magically vanishes. They both escape. The boyfriend is never found as is assumed to be dead. While they're driving off the novella ends with the ground turning into a sink hole created by the mosnter. Loud question mark. I think, I'm not thinking too hard about this.
Do I rec this? Fuck no. What was the point of this dumb shit?
major racial fetishism, racism, anti asian racism, sexual harassment, colonization, sexual assault,
medium anti indigenous racism, sexual content
minor gun violence, blood, insects, bats, classism, rape, death,
likes. Oh wow the author actually knows the names of indigenous people? that's literally shocking and surprising.
dislikes.
The author has made the mistake of using contractions in conversation to indicate accent and class status. Also the use of β characters instead of quote marks for speech is a little difficult to read.
To no one's surprise, yet another white male author writes a rape story. Because they don't know how to write horror so they resort to cheap scares.
Ok so basically the mc [korean american woman] goes on a camping trip with her boyfriend and his one male friend. The get to their destination, make camp and fall asleep. The MC is woken up by
Do I rec this? Fuck no. What was the point of this dumb shit?
major racial fetishism, racism, anti asian racism, sexual harassment, colonization, sexual assault,
medium anti indigenous racism, sexual content
minor gun violence, blood, insects, bats, classism, rape, death,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Racism
Minor: Gun violence, Rape, Blood, and Death
Dark Resurrection by F.G. Cottam
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
EDIT I edited my review of the very first book with some important info and how I feel about the entire series in general. Review spoiler, it ain't good at all. https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/fc9772df-41e1-4637-a4f2-7fe5f12679b7
Hm how do I explain this one? Ok so it starts out with a cop [ew!] investigating the disappearances of another group of people who were camping out on new hope island.
You know. The place that had two different well known group vanishings, one having occured in the last 6 years. It's 6 years later, btw.
So ok in investigating the disappearances, it turns out the leader of the natest vanished group may have ties to someone involved with another mysterious disappearance decades earlier.
My question is why people are still allowed to go to the island.
Anyways, it was pretty consistent in themes and tones. It was a slow paced mystery with paranormal plots to it. I think you could read this one without needing to read the first one. If you want to skip the homophobia and racism in the first book.
major alcoholism, blood, body horror, confinement, copaganda, drug use smoking tobacco, drugging, eye trauma, gore, gun violence, incest, murder, physical abuse, rape by deception?, roofies, sexual content, violence
medium Bloody Sunday, cults, fatphobia, homophobia, homophobic language, murder, religious bigotry, starvation
minor war, ableism, ageism, animal cruelty, animal death, child death, death, death, drowning, fatphobia, gore, infidelity, kidnapping, sexual abuse?
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
EDIT I edited my review of the very first book with some important info and how I feel about the entire series in general. Review spoiler, it ain't good at all. https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/fc9772df-41e1-4637-a4f2-7fe5f12679b7
Hm how do I explain this one? Ok so it starts out with a cop [ew!] investigating the disappearances of another group of people who were camping out on new hope island.
You know. The place that had two different well known group vanishings, one having occured in the last 6 years. It's 6 years later, btw.
So ok in investigating the disappearances, it turns out the leader of the natest vanished group may have ties to someone involved with another mysterious disappearance decades earlier.
My question is why people are still allowed to go to the island.
Anyways, it was pretty consistent in themes and tones. It was a slow paced mystery with paranormal plots to it. I think you could read this one without needing to read the first one. If you want to skip the homophobia and racism in the first book.
major alcoholism, blood, body horror, confinement, copaganda, drug use smoking tobacco, drugging, eye trauma, gore, gun violence, incest, murder, physical abuse, rape by deception?, roofies, sexual content, violence
medium Bloody Sunday, cults, fatphobia, homophobia, homophobic language, murder, religious bigotry, starvation
minor war, ableism, ageism, animal cruelty, animal death, child death, death, death, drowning, fatphobia, gore, infidelity, kidnapping, sexual abuse?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Gore, Incest, Sexual content, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug use, Alcohol, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Fatphobia
Minor: Fatphobia, Death, Ableism, Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual violence, War, Gore, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, and Child death
The Colony by F.G. Cottam
The homophobia was a lot. And out of no where. Well not entirely out of no where because it's the two army men and yeah, that's what I expect out of british army soldiers characters written by a dude who encouraged shit like 'lad mags'. Homophobia and misogyny. Also the ghost, idk why the ghost is using the q slur. I guess they're sentient enough to learn homophobia. Yes there's blatant homophobic slurs used.
The finale was also a little... abrupt. Sad. Vague. The heros prevail, but heavily misogynistic because the woman needs saving and why is it always men who are the heroes? We can't have a woman character with a spine? At least say some witty, defiant lines before getting killed, in the least? All of the female characters, women and girls, feel like props for the men characters, to be real here.
Anyways, the last two? or so chapters were the ending. I assume the author was intending this to be a trilogy, hence the meandering slow plot and sudden ending. This was pretty much the set up and tease for the rest of the books. I understood this was a trilogy before heading into it, so I'm fine with the ending insofar as to be abrupt.
I do wish the ghost demon whatever confrontation took a little longer. We had the priest! Snaps fingers! And now we don't! Just like all the other deaths! For all the taunting the ghost does for the mainland characters [I think?] it doesn't waste a second with the island characters.
I'd venture you could probably skip this one and head straight into the 2nd and 3rd books if you just want horror. Don't quote me on that as I have only read 6 chapters into the 2nd book as of typing this up. Fake edit make that finished the second chapter. Yeah you could skip this, or come back to it once you're done with books 2 and 3.
Would I recommend this? Ehhhhh.... If you like mysteries that are historical, paranormal with a bit of demonic, and slow paced, yes. Otherwise you may be frustrated with the slowness and lack of prominent horror.
major alcohol, alcoholism, amputation, antiblack racism, drug use smoking tobacco, gore, homophobia, homophobic q slur, racism, religion catholic, scars, slavery, suicide, torture,
medium afganistan war crime, domestic violence, infidelity, medical content, murder, religion, slavery, torture, wars,
minor ableist c slur, alcohol, alcoholism, alister crowley, body horror, cancer, child death, drug abuse, excrement, forced institutionalization, gore, mental illness, murder, parent death, sexual content, suicide, suicide ideation, thatcherism, vomit, war crimes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
EDIT 2/8/2021 Hi. I'm from the future. Or past, however you wanna read this. So here's the thing, right? I kinda thought we left evil Black people / Magical N*gro shit back in the 1950s or whatever with TinTin Goes To The Congo and all the African stereotypes with the big red rubber circle mouths and chicken bones in their hair.
Yeah, sorry, medium spoilers but this book is that. All of the books are that. It never changes, there's no plot twist of oh, the slave ship captain actually was just christian evil, possessed by the devil, the other plot thing was a misdirection. I can't rec these books, and I'm leaving these reviews as a fair warning. Are they well writen? I guess. Were they scary? Not at all, to me. I'd say Pessl's Night Film or Nevill's Last Days novels were scarier. And even then those kinda dragged. If you must read a book from this trilogy, just read the last one. IT fills you in on the first two books so you don't have to waste 4-6 hours reading those, wherein jack shit really happens until the very end. And yes, that does consistently happen.
It was an interesting plot, but maybe a little disappointing. I started the book expecting a haunted island with paranormal themes going on. What I got was a mystery focused plot with rotating characters on and off the island. It was very slow paced and takes its time setting up the characters while it's unraveling the plot.
The paranormal plot twist? Pretty much antiblack racism. As you might've seen in the plot, Seamus Ballantyne was a slave ship captain until he had a 'sudden change' of heart. If you guessed that was due to the horrors of the slave trade, you're half correct. If you guess Magical N*gro, you'd be fully correct. Yes, it's that trope employed by Cottam.
The full spoilers for the plot is as follows. Minor slavery, antiblack racism. This is narrated by the ship's temporary[?] medical officer. The ship Ballantyne commands has stopped at a port to load up on 'human cargo'. All the people who are being loaded into the ship are scared and cowering. Except for one man. He has tattoos and a strong unscared gaze and his teeth are sharpened into points and dyed crimson. This is the 'shaman' aka 'magical n word'. Long story short, the man says he's a magician and that they should treat him like a royal guest or else. Ballantyne abuses and kills this man. The man curses Ballantyne so his future daughter will be born then die young and become a demon to haunt him forever. However the man on his death bed admits he regrets this decision but cannot remove the curse. He dies, the curse comes true. Site note. The medical officer who is witness to all this is One Of The Good White Peoples, btw. To the point where he wraps the man's body in a bedsheet before he too is thrown over board like other people who were enslaved.
The thing that's irritating is that Cottam has to do this stupid magical brown person thing in the first place. The concept of the slave ship captain getting involved with Black Magic and potentially summoning something he shouldn't have, or couldn't control was RIGHT THERE. Hell, you could have made it that the Hope Colony disappearance was Ballantyne doing some human sacrifice with his followers to ensure that the Evil Demon never left the island and ravage the rest of the world. It's really amazing how authors can plot out entire worlds, but it never occurs to them hey, this shit is racist, and it's not the 1950s anymore. Maybe try something refreshingly new and interesting.
re African Slave Trade.
βͺ Capture would signal the same fate because captives are routinely sacrificed to their pagan Gods. The king ruling one country in West Africa will not trade a single slave with the white merchants, Captain Ballantyne told me. All of his war captives become victims of human sacrifice instead. This king is called Simonal. The land he rules is called Albache.
None of this is real / non fictional as far as I know. Like this just doesn't exist, historically. It's literally magical n word.
The one thing that does irritate me about this is how scenes abruptly changing and smoosh together. At least put a visual line break because goddanm it gets confusing to read about a lady smooching a man and abruptly we're in the POV of a discharged military man getting his ass beat by a ghost. Is the military man getting smooched suddenly? wth?! For non spoiler example, I mean.
It's very slow paced, but not because it's padded or doesn't know how to move the plot. It has a large rotating cast and in order to move the plot forward without feel like a deus ex machina info dump it needs to visit each one when it can. I don't mind this because it kinda maintains the tension and keeps things interesting.
Like another [disappointed] reviewer mentioned it takes a while to get going, and the haunted island location doesn't feature too heavily until the last third of the book.
The fucking weird thing is the racist / antisemitic character who thinks aliens abducted / recruited human beings away. Like... lok at this stupid shit.
"βͺ βNo. It was really the other way around. I looked, as a child, at the anomalies of history. The Aztecs constructed buildings of breathtaking intricacy yet an invention as fundamental as the wheel apparently never even occurred to them. Colossal sarsens hewn from a Welsh quarry somehow got to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire to form Stonehenge; a structure of such geometric complexity we still debate its true purpose. Hauled there by Bronze Age man? Erected by Bronze Age man? I donβt think so. I could go on. But your readers have most of them heard me argue this stuff already on their television screens.β "
By the way, if you were wondering why there's so much dated homophobia?
EDIT 2/8/2021 Hi. I'm from the future. Or past, however you wanna read this. So here's the thing, right? I kinda thought we left evil Black people / Magical N*gro shit back in the 1950s or whatever with TinTin Goes To The Congo and all the African stereotypes with the big red rubber circle mouths and chicken bones in their hair.
Yeah, sorry, medium spoilers but this book is that. All of the books are that. It never changes, there's no plot twist of oh, the slave ship captain actually was just christian evil, possessed by the devil, the other plot thing was a misdirection. I can't rec these books, and I'm leaving these reviews as a fair warning. Are they well writen? I guess. Were they scary? Not at all, to me. I'd say Pessl's Night Film or Nevill's Last Days novels were scarier. And even then those kinda dragged. If you must read a book from this trilogy, just read the last one. IT fills you in on the first two books so you don't have to waste 4-6 hours reading those, wherein jack shit really happens until the very end. And yes, that does consistently happen.
It was an interesting plot, but maybe a little disappointing. I started the book expecting a haunted island with paranormal themes going on. What I got was a mystery focused plot with rotating characters on and off the island. It was very slow paced and takes its time setting up the characters while it's unraveling the plot.
The paranormal plot twist? Pretty much antiblack racism. As you might've seen in the plot, Seamus Ballantyne was a slave ship captain until he had a 'sudden change' of heart. If you guessed that was due to the horrors of the slave trade, you're half correct. If you guess Magical N*gro, you'd be fully correct. Yes, it's that trope employed by Cottam.
The full spoilers for the plot is as follows. Minor slavery, antiblack racism.
The thing that's irritating is that Cottam has to do this stupid magical brown person thing in the first place. The concept of the slave ship captain getting involved with Black Magic and potentially summoning something he shouldn't have, or couldn't control was RIGHT THERE. Hell, you could have made it that the Hope Colony disappearance was Ballantyne doing some human sacrifice with his followers to ensure that the Evil Demon never left the island and ravage the rest of the world. It's really amazing how authors can plot out entire worlds, but it never occurs to them hey, this shit is racist, and it's not the 1950s anymore. Maybe try something refreshingly new and interesting.
re African Slave Trade.
βͺ Capture would signal the same fate because captives are routinely sacrificed to their pagan Gods. The king ruling one country in West Africa will not trade a single slave with the white merchants, Captain Ballantyne told me. All of his war captives become victims of human sacrifice instead. This king is called Simonal. The land he rules is called Albache.
None of this is real / non fictional as far as I know. Like this just doesn't exist, historically. It's literally magical n word.
The one thing that does irritate me about this is how scenes abruptly changing and smoosh together. At least put a visual line break because goddanm it gets confusing to read about a lady smooching a man and abruptly we're in the POV of a discharged military man getting his ass beat by a ghost. Is the military man getting smooched suddenly? wth?! For non spoiler example, I mean.
It's very slow paced, but not because it's padded or doesn't know how to move the plot. It has a large rotating cast and in order to move the plot forward without feel like a deus ex machina info dump it needs to visit each one when it can. I don't mind this because it kinda maintains the tension and keeps things interesting.
Like another [disappointed] reviewer mentioned it takes a while to get going, and the haunted island location doesn't feature too heavily until the last third of the book.
The fucking weird thing is the racist / antisemitic character who thinks aliens abducted / recruited human beings away. Like... lok at this stupid shit.
"βͺ βNo. It was really the other way around. I looked, as a child, at the anomalies of history. The Aztecs constructed buildings of breathtaking intricacy yet an invention as fundamental as the wheel apparently never even occurred to them. Colossal sarsens hewn from a Welsh quarry somehow got to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire to form Stonehenge; a structure of such geometric complexity we still debate its true purpose. Hauled there by Bronze Age man? Erected by Bronze Age man? I donβt think so. I could go on. But your readers have most of them heard me argue this stuff already on their television screens.β "
By the way, if you were wondering why there's so much dated homophobia?
F.G. Cottam was born and brought up in Southport in Lancashire, attending the University of Kent at Canterbury where he took a degree in history before embarking on a career in journalism in London. He lived for 20 years in North Lambeth and during the 1990s was prominent in the lad-mag revolution, launch editing FHM, inventing Total Sport magazine and then launching the UK edition of Men's Health. He is the father of two and lives in Kingston-upon-Thames. His fiction is thought up over daily runs along the towpath between Kingston and Hampton Court Bridges. https://us.macmillan.com/author/fgcottam
The homophobia was a lot. And out of no where. Well not entirely out of no where because it's the two army men and yeah, that's what I expect out of british army soldiers characters written by a dude who encouraged shit like 'lad mags'. Homophobia and misogyny. Also the ghost, idk why the ghost is using the q slur. I guess they're sentient enough to learn homophobia. Yes there's blatant homophobic slurs used.
The finale was also a little... abrupt. Sad. Vague. The heros prevail, but heavily misogynistic because the woman needs saving and why is it always men who are the heroes? We can't have a woman character with a spine? At least say some witty, defiant lines before getting killed, in the least? All of the female characters, women and girls, feel like props for the men characters, to be real here.
Anyways, the last two? or so chapters were the ending. I assume the author was intending this to be a trilogy, hence the meandering slow plot and sudden ending. This was pretty much the set up and tease for the rest of the books. I understood this was a trilogy before heading into it, so I'm fine with the ending insofar as to be abrupt.
I do wish the ghost demon whatever confrontation took a little longer. We had the priest! Snaps fingers! And now we don't! Just like all the other deaths! For all the taunting the ghost does for the mainland characters [I think?] it doesn't waste a second with the island characters.
I'd venture you could probably skip this one and head straight into the 2nd and 3rd books if you just want horror. Don't quote me on that as I have only read 6 chapters into the 2nd book as of typing this up. Fake edit make that finished the second chapter. Yeah you could skip this, or come back to it once you're done with books 2 and 3.
Would I recommend this? Ehhhhh.... If you like mysteries that are historical, paranormal with a bit of demonic, and slow paced, yes. Otherwise you may be frustrated with the slowness and lack of prominent horror.
major alcohol, alcoholism, amputation, antiblack racism, drug use smoking tobacco, gore, homophobia, homophobic q slur, racism, religion catholic, scars, slavery, suicide, torture,
medium afganistan war crime, domestic violence, infidelity, medical content, murder, religion, slavery, torture, wars,
minor ableist c slur, alcohol, alcoholism, alister crowley, body horror, cancer, child death, drug abuse, excrement, forced institutionalization, gore, mental illness, murder, parent death, sexual content, suicide, suicide ideation, thatcherism, vomit, war crimes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Gore, Physical abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Medical content, Murder, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Torture, Slavery, and War
Minor: Ableism, Excrement, Gore, Mental illness, Sexism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Murder, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, and Forced institutionalization
Her Scales Shine Like Music by Rajnar Vajra
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Cancer, Death, and Racism
In the Court of the Yellow King by Lucy Snyder, Robert Price, Glynn Owen Barrass
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
β¨π my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara π β¨
Fave stories
Masque of the Queen β Stephen Mark Rainey
The Yellow Film β Gary McMahon
Lights Fade β Laurel Halbany [absolutely furious this is the only published work of theirs]
Future Imperfect β Glynn Owen Barrass
The Sepia Prints β Pete Rawlik
Nigredo β Cody Goodfellow
MonoChrome β T. E. Grau [I read this author's other novella 'They Don't Come Home Anymore' and rec it if you enjoyed this one]
Total content warnings from every story. Individual CWs are attached to each story title.
Major animal death, anti feminism, antiblack racism, arson, beastiality rp, blood, body horror, bosnian war, child abuse, confinement, cults, death, demolition, drowning, drug abuse, drugging, elvis presley, excrement, eye trauma, fire, genocide?, gore, gun injuries, kidnapping, lesbophobia, medical abuse, medical content, mental illness, murder, necrophilia rp and not rp, pedophilia, police, prisons, psychiatric institutions, psychosis?, rape, religion catholic, self harm, sexual assault, sexual content, spree shooting, suicide, suicide attempt, suicide ideation, torture, transmisogyny language, unsanitary, violence, vomit, wars
Medium alcohol use, anti indigenous racism, blood, child death, colonization, confinement?, cults, death, drug use smoking marijuana, drug use smoking tobacco, fire, gangs, genocide, incest, injuries, medical content, mental illness, parental death, suicide, unsanitary, white mafias, xenophobia
Minor ableist language, ableist language? heightism re littlw people, alcohol, antisemitism, antisemitism lizard people shit, beastiality?, blood, child death, colonization, concentration camp / Dachau camp, death, drug abuse, drug use, excrement, fire, forced institutionalization, grief, hitler / antisemitism context is mentionibg the mine kampf in passing, indigenous racism, indigenous racial slur [esk*mo], injuries, islamophobia, kkk member, murder, nazi, overdose, parental death, pedophilia, police brutality, rape, religious bigotry, scars, self harm, sexual content, suicide, suicide attempt, unsanitary, vomit, wars, whorephobic language
β These Harpies of Carcosa β W. H. Pugmire
a brief story, an artist inspired by the yellow king meets his inspiration.
major animal death, suicide, blood,
β The Viking in Yellow β Christine Morgan
a multi view point of a village beset by Vikings spurred on or led by a yellow viking
major animal death, suicide, child death, murder, religion catholic, gore, injuries, mental illness,
medium unsanitary, suicide,
β Who Killed the King of Rock and Roll? β Edward Morris
a monologous meandering through a radio dj and music reviewer as he recounts meeting elvis presley, the king of rock in yellow
major body horror, elvis presley
medium medical content,
minor alcohol, drug use, child death,
β Masque of the Queen β Stephen Mark Rainey
a 28 yo actress is hired to play Cassilda in a play, to very real results.
medium incest, fire, injuries,
β Grand Theft Hovercar β Jeffrey Thomas
set in a future, a man and his coworkers get a little too invested into a gta like vr video game, infected with a Yellow Sign Virus.
major sexual content, violence, gun violence, suicide, spree shooting,
minor murder, death,
β The Girl with the Star-Stained Soul β Lucy A. Snyder
a very superficial story about a mary sue white girl picked to be sacrificed to the elder gods and survived, but also she was picked by the yellow king yo be sacrificed and a bunch of Black(?!) characters are a very gross bad weird minstrel cheerleaders to support her character. terrible all around
minor kkk member, death,
medium cults, death, parental death,
major drugging, medical abuse, murder, gore, sexual assault, antiblack racism, murder, gore,
βͺ The Klan would lynch any negroes found in Fensmere after dark, so Georgia and her family had taken a terrible risk coming to the old stone church... unless theyβd been pretty sure the Klansmen were all dead. Penny guessed that blowing up the church made a bit of noise
major antiblack racism. Skip this one.
β The Penumbra of Exquisite Foulness β Tim Curran
a woman's encounter with the play bound into a book leads her to murder her child, and be haunted by the yellow king.
major child death, drowning, murder, blood, suicide attempt, confinement, medical content, prisons, suicide, eye trauma, gore, self harm,
β Yield β C. J. Henderson
A monologue of a nihilist mad about kids these days and how only he can see that madness is actually true sanity, maaaan! *takes hit off meth pipe*
βͺ Why donβt I get any of that? When do I get to join in? Whereβs my ignorant bliss? When do I get to feel excitement watching millionaire thugs play childrenβs ball games?
antiblack racism ?
β Homeopathy β Greg Stolze
a series of psychiatric sessions between a man and his psych, involving the KiY manuscript as a form of treatment.
major medical content,
minor parental death, hitler / antisemitism context is mentioning the mine kampf in passing, suicide,
β Bedlam in Yellow β William Meikle
a classic story round the campfire albeit a fireplace wherein a group of bougie men listen to one man recount a tale of how he tried to exorcise or summon a patient in a psychiatric who had gone mad from reading the king in yellow play. Its suppose to be a call back yo the ye olde cosmic horror stories back in like the early 1800s
minor alcohol, drug use smoking tobacco, suicide attempt,
major medical content, psychiatric institutions, confinement, psychosis?,
β A Jaundiced Light at the End β Brian M. Sammons
a suicide hotline worker receives endless, escalating calls from those afflicted by eldritch, yellow curses.
major suicide, suicide ideation, mental illness, suicide, death, blood, self harm, injuries, murder, gore, unsanitary,
medium drug use smoking marijuana,
minor scars, self harm, excrement,
β The Yellow Film β Gary McMahon
a amateur film maker searches out an obscure film of a king in yellow play acted out by patients at a mental asylum during the bosnian war. fave.
major demolition, wars, bosnian war, drug abuse, drugging, gore, torture, sexual content, medical abuse,
minor ableist language? heightism re little people, nazi, antisemitism, concentration camp/ Dachau camp,
β Lights Fade β Laurel Halbany
an all womens theatre is hired and then drafted to portray the yellow play.
minor blood, injuries, sexual content,
medium death,
major violence, murder,
β Future Imperfect β Glynn Owen Barrass
a fed agent working for a secret fbi division handles exchanges between his world and carcosa.
major gun violence, body horror, confinement, medical abuse, kidnapping?, murder,
minor rape, murder, vomit, alcohol, sexual content, unsanitary,
β The Mask of the Yellow Death β Robert M. Price
a parody of hugh hefner and the playboy mansion wherein a final party is thrown, with an expected uninvited guest.
major sexual content, anti feminism, lesbophobia, excrement, pedophilia roleplay, rape rp, beastiality rp, necrophilia rp and not rp, death,
minor beastiality?, pedophilia,
β The Sepia Prints β Pete Rawlik
A war veteran is given a suicide victim's photograph folio of actors who conducted the yellow kings play, and he tries to find out more information about them.
major death, gore, murder, gun violence,
medium mental illness, confinement?,
minor fire, death, forced institutionalization, wars, ableist language,
β Nigredo β Cody Goodfellow
a cult victim deprogrammer realizes he has gone too far deep into deprogramming a certain cult abuse victim.
major pedophilia, child abuse , transmisogyny language, violence, medical abuse, drug abuse, torture?, murder, gore, death, drug, kidnapping, cults, gun violence, vomit, drug abuse,
medium colonization, genocide, anti indigenous racism,
minor Islamophobia, religious bigotry, drug abuse, grief, death, drug abuse, overdose, suicide attempt, indigenous racism [esk*mo],
β MonoChrome β T. E. Grau
an ex cop now journalist runs onto a developing story as a great death overtakes los angeles. fave to a degree.
major police, genocide?, murder, death, body horror, gore, arson, fire, demolition,
medium xenophobia, alcohol use, drug use smoking tobacco, blood, gangs, white mafias, child death,
minor whorephobic language, colonization, indigenous racism, antisemitism lizard people shit, police brutality,
Fave stories
Masque of the Queen β Stephen Mark Rainey
The Yellow Film β Gary McMahon
Lights Fade β Laurel Halbany [absolutely furious this is the only published work of theirs]
Future Imperfect β Glynn Owen Barrass
The Sepia Prints β Pete Rawlik
Nigredo β Cody Goodfellow
MonoChrome β T. E. Grau [I read this author's other novella 'They Don't Come Home Anymore' and rec it if you enjoyed this one]
Total content warnings from every story. Individual CWs are attached to each story title.
Major animal death, anti feminism, antiblack racism, arson, beastiality rp, blood, body horror, bosnian war, child abuse, confinement, cults, death, demolition, drowning, drug abuse, drugging, elvis presley, excrement, eye trauma, fire, genocide?, gore, gun injuries, kidnapping, lesbophobia, medical abuse, medical content, mental illness, murder, necrophilia rp and not rp, pedophilia, police, prisons, psychiatric institutions, psychosis?, rape, religion catholic, self harm, sexual assault, sexual content, spree shooting, suicide, suicide attempt, suicide ideation, torture, transmisogyny language, unsanitary, violence, vomit, wars
Medium alcohol use, anti indigenous racism, blood, child death, colonization, confinement?, cults, death, drug use smoking marijuana, drug use smoking tobacco, fire, gangs, genocide, incest, injuries, medical content, mental illness, parental death, suicide, unsanitary, white mafias, xenophobia
Minor ableist language, ableist language? heightism re littlw people, alcohol, antisemitism, antisemitism lizard people shit, beastiality?, blood, child death, colonization, concentration camp / Dachau camp, death, drug abuse, drug use, excrement, fire, forced institutionalization, grief, hitler / antisemitism context is mentionibg the mine kampf in passing, indigenous racism, indigenous racial slur [esk*mo], injuries, islamophobia, kkk member, murder, nazi, overdose, parental death, pedophilia, police brutality, rape, religious bigotry, scars, self harm, sexual content, suicide, suicide attempt, unsanitary, vomit, wars, whorephobic language
β These Harpies of Carcosa β W. H. Pugmire
a brief story, an artist inspired by the yellow king meets his inspiration.
major animal death, suicide, blood,
β The Viking in Yellow β Christine Morgan
a multi view point of a village beset by Vikings spurred on or led by a yellow viking
major animal death, suicide, child death, murder, religion catholic, gore, injuries, mental illness,
medium unsanitary, suicide,
β Who Killed the King of Rock and Roll? β Edward Morris
a monologous meandering through a radio dj and music reviewer as he recounts meeting elvis presley, the king of rock in yellow
major body horror, elvis presley
medium medical content,
minor alcohol, drug use, child death,
β Masque of the Queen β Stephen Mark Rainey
a 28 yo actress is hired to play Cassilda in a play, to very real results.
medium incest, fire, injuries,
β Grand Theft Hovercar β Jeffrey Thomas
set in a future, a man and his coworkers get a little too invested into a gta like vr video game, infected with a Yellow Sign Virus.
major sexual content, violence, gun violence, suicide, spree shooting,
minor murder, death,
β The Girl with the Star-Stained Soul β Lucy A. Snyder
a very superficial story about a mary sue white girl picked to be sacrificed to the elder gods and survived, but also she was picked by the yellow king yo be sacrificed and a bunch of Black(?!) characters are a very gross bad weird minstrel cheerleaders to support her character. terrible all around
minor kkk member, death,
medium cults, death, parental death,
major drugging, medical abuse, murder, gore, sexual assault, antiblack racism, murder, gore,
major antiblack racism. Skip this one.
β The Penumbra of Exquisite Foulness β Tim Curran
a woman's encounter with the play bound into a book leads her to murder her child, and be haunted by the yellow king.
major child death, drowning, murder, blood, suicide attempt, confinement, medical content, prisons, suicide, eye trauma, gore, self harm,
β Yield β C. J. Henderson
A monologue of a nihilist mad about kids these days and how only he can see that madness is actually true sanity, maaaan! *takes hit off meth pipe*
antiblack racism ?
β Homeopathy β Greg Stolze
a series of psychiatric sessions between a man and his psych, involving the KiY manuscript as a form of treatment.
major medical content,
minor parental death, hitler / antisemitism context is mentioning the mine kampf in passing, suicide,
β Bedlam in Yellow β William Meikle
a classic story round the campfire albeit a fireplace wherein a group of bougie men listen to one man recount a tale of how he tried to exorcise or summon a patient in a psychiatric who had gone mad from reading the king in yellow play. Its suppose to be a call back yo the ye olde cosmic horror stories back in like the early 1800s
minor alcohol, drug use smoking tobacco, suicide attempt,
major medical content, psychiatric institutions, confinement, psychosis?,
β A Jaundiced Light at the End β Brian M. Sammons
a suicide hotline worker receives endless, escalating calls from those afflicted by eldritch, yellow curses.
major suicide, suicide ideation, mental illness, suicide, death, blood, self harm, injuries, murder, gore, unsanitary,
medium drug use smoking marijuana,
minor scars, self harm, excrement,
β The Yellow Film β Gary McMahon
a amateur film maker searches out an obscure film of a king in yellow play acted out by patients at a mental asylum during the bosnian war. fave.
major demolition, wars, bosnian war, drug abuse, drugging, gore, torture, sexual content, medical abuse,
minor ableist language? heightism re little people, nazi, antisemitism, concentration camp/ Dachau camp,
β Lights Fade β Laurel Halbany
an all womens theatre is hired and then drafted to portray the yellow play.
minor blood, injuries, sexual content,
medium death,
major violence, murder,
β Future Imperfect β Glynn Owen Barrass
a fed agent working for a secret fbi division handles exchanges between his world and carcosa.
major gun violence, body horror, confinement, medical abuse, kidnapping?, murder,
minor rape, murder, vomit, alcohol, sexual content, unsanitary,
β The Mask of the Yellow Death β Robert M. Price
a parody of hugh hefner and the playboy mansion wherein a final party is thrown, with an expected uninvited guest.
major sexual content, anti feminism, lesbophobia, excrement, pedophilia roleplay, rape rp, beastiality rp, necrophilia rp and not rp, death,
minor beastiality?, pedophilia,
β The Sepia Prints β Pete Rawlik
A war veteran is given a suicide victim's photograph folio of actors who conducted the yellow kings play, and he tries to find out more information about them.
major death, gore, murder, gun violence,
medium mental illness, confinement?,
minor fire, death, forced institutionalization, wars, ableist language,
β Nigredo β Cody Goodfellow
a cult victim deprogrammer realizes he has gone too far deep into deprogramming a certain cult abuse victim.
major pedophilia, child abuse , transmisogyny language, violence, medical abuse, drug abuse, torture?, murder, gore, death, drug, kidnapping, cults, gun violence, vomit, drug abuse,
medium colonization, genocide, anti indigenous racism,
minor Islamophobia, religious bigotry, drug abuse, grief, death, drug abuse, overdose, suicide attempt, indigenous racism [esk*mo],
β MonoChrome β T. E. Grau
an ex cop now journalist runs onto a developing story as a great death overtakes los angeles. fave to a degree.
major police, genocide?, murder, death, body horror, gore, arson, fire, demolition,
medium xenophobia, alcohol use, drug use smoking tobacco, blood, gangs, white mafias, child death,
minor whorephobic language, colonization, indigenous racism, antisemitism lizard people shit, police brutality,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Drug abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Torture, Transphobia, War, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Suicide
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Genocide, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, and Suicide
Minor: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Death, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Vomit, War, Ableism, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, and Racism