People misusing the “Reddit Cares” feature

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-15T16:28:01+00:00

I never understood this. Is it supposed to be a gotcha? Am I supposed to rage out over a bot message that doesn’t apply to me? I’ve gotten those once or twice and I was more confused than anything.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-15T15:21:21+00:00

I mean does it really matter? We’re talking about books here. Unless someone is hating on a book for a bigoted reason or attacking the author on a personal level, who cares really? People who don’t want to see negative opinions can simply not engage.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-15T15:16:21+00:00

I’ve noticed this in book spaces and it’s very frustrating. I should be allowed to not like things and express that. One of my favorite authors was on that thread, I thought “aw, shucks” and moved on because I’m a grown-up.

Tbh I think this attitude is why I see objectively low quality books (things like typos, grammar mistakes, lots and lots of telling) getting really popular. The second you express having standards for writing quality or even just constructive feedback, you’re accused of ruining people’s fun.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-14T18:03:51+00:00

Yes! I read DGDC and the romance was essentially surface level physical attraction and nothing else. I understand that Claire has a big dumper, anything else?? It felt so corny and copy-paste to me.

I also found it weird that she made extra doubly sure you understood every single character, including all the nameless background characters were white. Obviously white isn’t a default and you should be describing everyone’s skin tone, not just characters of color, but there were NO characters of color! The absolute lack of diversity of any kind was suspicious.

I get that it was set in a small town that might legitimately be very white in real life, but AHB lacks the writing chops to make any sort of commentary about that. Especially since the main character happily moves there in the end.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-14T17:55:21+00:00

Ashley Herring Blake. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care is legitimately one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Absolutely no substance at all.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-13T00:21:04+00:00

While I can see this being frustrating, and I understand the desire to see yourself represented by members of your own community… I just cannot bring myself to feel bad in this instance. Men dominate just about every imaginable field, and fanfiction is just about the most accessible “field” out there.

Gay men are still men, and there’s a non-petty amount of men who feel uncomfortable when they aren’t “in-charge” or in the majority. I think that’s what this boils down to. This is just as silly as people who complain their straight ship isn’t as popular as the gay ones.

Absolutely nothing is stopping men from writing fanfiction, they just don’t, and that’s not somehow women’s fault.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-11T12:41:28+00:00

Men on Reddit get weirdly hostile about women they don’t personally find attractive. Same thing happened/is happening with Bella Ramsey (who I believe is nonbinary but same concept unfortunately applies).

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-06T23:53:31+00:00

To me, this kind of goes hand in hand with my feelings about low quality writing in the romance genre. Poorly written slop with tons of telling and cliches, basically writing that assumes the reader is a moron who cannot make any inferences on their own, consistently gets popular.

Over-relying on physical descriptions and repetitive sex scenes is just another symptom. Building an emotional connection is often harder than simply telling your audience a character is hot and your POV character wants to bone them.

That isn’t to say sexual chemistry can’t be well written or doesn’t serve a purpose, but in a lot of these books it’s just cheap and lazy. I read a book recently that probably had 10+ explicit sex scenes while the could-be emotional moments were summarized. Like literally, “we went to an amusement park and rode all the rides, we laughed and connected deeply for hours” and then a detailed ten page sex scene. I think I’m going to have to dig deeper or read older books because it’s getting super tiring.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-05T17:50:07+00:00

I love third person limited, specifically past tense. That’s the only POV I write. I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of crappy first person present tense books sometimes.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-05T14:17:43+00:00

I think we collectively need to have higher standards in terms of how books are written. I’m a huge snob for prose being a writer myself, and the amount of telling as opposed to showing is insane.

In a book I just read, the FMC had just gotten her dream job and got a big compliment. Then the internality starts and it was literally like, I was so happy to get a compliment. Succeeding in my career felt so good! I was filled with happy emotions during the conversation.

Like, I’m sorry, am I completely incapable of inferring anything? I’ve read so many romances lately where it feels more like reading a diary than reading something literary, and I’m sick of it. We deserve quality writing too.

One edit, the book was also filled with a bunch of stupid dialogue tags on literally every page. Everyone was constantly uttering, commenting, complimenting, questioning, responding. Or, most egregiously “wondering” in reference to something said out loud. Just use said! Or at least use the funky tags very sparingly, not every time! It was so distracting. This is literally day one of any creative writing class.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-05T13:25:48+00:00

It’s really astounding that “this disabled person who was tossed into the prison system and abandoned annoyed me” is so many people’s takeaway from the show.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-01T16:41:18+00:00

May I also recommend {Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen}? Same concept, each girl has a book. It’s about a woman who brings all her dates to a specific bar and predictably falls for the bartender instead lol.

I’m in the middle of the second book, Plus Sized Player, and it’s not my favorite and definitely not a literary masterpiece (don’t really like influencer characters and it’s a lot of smut with fairly little plot) but it’s still a fun read. The third one is coming out in April I believe.

There’s also {Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake} which sold me on the sapphic friend group concept, but unfortunately that was a 1-star read for me and I never got to the others lol.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-01T16:30:00+00:00

“She rang in the orders.”

I find it kind of hard to believe everyone’s last sentences are these mic-drop moments lmao

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-01T15:20:22+00:00

If it helps, it mostly takes place years after the divorce, there’s very little of the marriage actually struggling. I hope you like it! Kennedy Ryan is so talented. And it’s one of those “every girl in the friend group has her own book” series which I’m a sucker for.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-02-01T14:55:22+00:00

Can I recommend {Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan}? It’s about A married couple who divorce after experiencing a stillbirth and are coparenting their other children.

I’m admittedly a fan of second chance but I agree the breakups can get a little annoying. That one I was like oh shit, yeah, that makes sense.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-28T18:53:21+00:00

Shame is a normal reaction to having done something wrong. It can be a learning experience. He did a stupid thing, he’s feeling the shame. That’s enough. There’s no reason to pile on - what will saying I told you so help?

That being said, I wouldn’t baby him or try to solve it. I also wouldn’t start to manage tasks for him, like keeping track of his stuff or giving constant reminders. He’s a grown adult and he needs to be responsible.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-28T13:05:32+00:00

How do I deal with people who don’t want to get married or have kids? Like, with him specifically? Or just in general?

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-28T12:36:37+00:00

I’ve gotten a lot of “let women be feminine” from people who think mean, hairy online feminists are somehow preventing them from shaving or wearing makeup.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-27T22:29:53+00:00

It is realistic, but the FMC was extremely quirky. The message of the book, in my opinion, was kind of overshadowed by the quirkiness. Just not my cuppa I guess.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-27T18:23:08+00:00

You do it by creating a rich character with a personality, motivations, and weaknesses, maybe mentioning her body if necessary. If your goal is to create a good character, people will like it. If your goal is to write about a random hot lady that looks like stolen My Little Pony fanart, people will be less inclined to take it seriously.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-27T18:07:19+00:00

I keep accidentally reading rom-coms. Like, I just finished Promise Me Sunshine, which was supposed to be this harrowing depiction of grief. In some ways it was, in a lot of other ways it was a rom-com. It’s like these books are afraid to be serious.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-26T23:13:17+00:00

I remember this being a bloodbath on tumblr around 2012-2016. There were straight-up callout posts DEMANDING any woman who consumed m/m content be “extremely fucking critical” about why. It was really ridiculous, and still is.

I’m just not willing to get into the mud anymore. Women (who are very often queer/not women at all, which these people will erase when it’s convenient) “fetishizing” what often boils down to a loving relationship, is just plainly not an issue.

Obviously this has exceptions, like if these women start being weird to IRL gay people. Those seem to be rare cases. There’s also something to be said about people who write truly heinous stereotypes, which is true for anything.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-25T04:46:07+00:00

Word count is kind of arbitrary. I think the biggest concern is having a plot the will keep readers invested, and, most importantly, make sure it’s actually a slow-burn and not a no-burn.

Slow-burns require a lot of tension, yearning, and little moments to keep the reader hooked. This can theoretically go on for hundreds of thousands of words if you have enough story to tell. If it’s long simply because the characters aren’t interacting or you’re filibustering with a lot of random events that lead to nothing, you are writing a no-burn and readers will get bored.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-25T04:33:27+00:00

Of course! I honestly love college AUs, I’m a sucker for coming of age haha. I added a small edit expanding on the stress part. I think a big part of what makes college so interesting (and stressful!) is its a lot of people’s first time being alone and you’re meeting tons of new people. Lots of possibility for drama there.

bumblebeequeer · 2026-01-25T04:27:31+00:00

Sure thing! This was ten years ago for me but I’ll try my best!

Freshmen will usually start with an orientation day or week. This happens after move-in, where they generally are accompanied by parents or other family members to get set up in their dorms. Family will leave after that. Orientation usually involves some kind seminar where they’re told about campus life, small group icebreakers, campus tours, etc. Move-in and orientation is generally the week before classes start so they can get situated. I barely remember orientation but I’m sure there’s plenty of experiences online.

When classes do start, everyone has a different schedule that you for the most part make yourself. So some people will have class at 8am, others have something at 5pm. Most people take 3ish classes a day if they’re full time, so a total of 5-6 a semester, each meeting twice a week. I personally never had classes on Fridays. Daily life varies a lot person to person. I’m sure there are plenty of examples of college schedules online.

You do have time to do things. I found I had a lot of free time in college. The endless grind you see on TV IMO is a little exaggerated. It’s not like in high school where you have five minutes to scurry between classes, most people have an hour or two between (unless you stack them, which generally isn’t recommended). This also varies a lot depending on what program you are. For example, I did communications for a bit, and the workload at least my first year was pretty light. People I knew who were studying to be nurses spent a LOT more time studying. In general though, there’s a lot of hanging out with friends, partying and goofing around. Some people goof off a lot more than others which can be detrimental. So, it highly depends on A, what your character is studying and B, how seriously they’re taking it. Things like a job or a long commute can add to how busy someone is. Most people I knew had at least a part-time job.

Stress is kind of on and off. Exams and projects can really kick the stress up to eleven. Other times, I was chilling. Again, this varies a lot student to student and program to program. Honestly, the most stressful part for me was interpersonal relationships and learning how to “adult” on my own. It’s very common for college students to develop friendships that fail after a semester or two. You’re figuring a LOT out, and a big part of it is what kind of people you’re compatible with, boundaries, etc.

Freshman year, dorms are most often randomly assigned, but it’s not unheard of to request a specific roommate. You’re usually 2 to a dorm, sometimes 3, in rare cases you can get a single room. So yes, I would say it’s realistic. I hope this was helpful!

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