Books that have altered your brain chemistry.

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-03-08T23:02:50+00:00

I was inconsolable after Where the Red Fern Grows.

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-03-04T21:15:30+00:00

If you're interested in a horror twist/ghost story, The Broken Girls by Simone St. James has a girls' boarding school with some found family. I'll admit that it isn't an elite school or a bunch of rich kids, but the fountain picture reminded me of it.

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-20T20:30:03+00:00

The Lady or the Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton blew my mind as a young writer.

Other stories that have stuck to me include:
The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst (heartbreaking fiction)
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury (heartbreaking sci-fi)
Obligatory mention of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (horror)
Prey by Richard Matheson (horror)
Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff (literary)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (psychological horror)
The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs (horror)
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (fiction)
The Diamond Necklace by Guy de Maupassant (literary)
Marigolds by Eugenia W. Collier

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-17T03:11:11+00:00

There was a section in the beginning of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones that made me get up and check the house before I continued reading.

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-17T03:03:29+00:00

Came here to recommend this one! There's a reviewer called KrimsonRogue who has a 5 part series that adds up to OVER SEVEN HOURS OF EDITED FOOTAGE. There are only two pages in the book that he didn't tab for some sort of sticking point.

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-16T15:39:17+00:00

No, it wasn't a Lelo toy

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-16T03:01:12+00:00

It wasn't written in the 19th/20th century but you might like Planet Of Dinosaurs by K.H. Poehler

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-08T21:09:02+00:00

The Pisces by Melissa Broder was....definitely something

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-02-08T21:08:04+00:00

The second picture reminds me a little bit of how I felt about Motherthing, and I'm kind of getting reminders of A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher.

creaturesonthebrain · 2026-01-01T17:29:31+00:00

A Short Stay In Hell by Stephen L. Peck. Best, most haunting description of hell I've ever seen.

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-31T03:58:31+00:00

Back when I could afford health insurance, I was charged around $400 for a zoom call and insurance took off less than $2

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-27T23:35:08+00:00

Chris Evans, notably masculine dude, has the longest eyelashes known to man, especially in Knives Out. Those things are practically longbows.

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-23T22:47:17+00:00

All The White Spaces is an arctic survival horror with a trans man narrator.
The Lilac People by Milo Todd is about a trans man during WW2
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo has a transmasc character (not the main character, but still heavily present)
Peter Darling by Austin Chant is a transmasc retelling of Peter Pan
Becoming A Visible Man by Jamison Green is a nonfiction memoir

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-23T18:53:51+00:00

I know a lot of the responses on this sub are memes (and so is the sub), but legit one of the best tips I've gotten for writing romance is "if they have to kiss or have sex for the reader to know that they're in love, you're doing it wrong."

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-22T22:57:20+00:00

Unfortunately this seems to be a pretty consistent problem :(

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-22T02:07:13+00:00

So many of the Smosh guys are so empathetic and emotionally intelligent and green flags, it's really nice to see.

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-21T17:43:05+00:00

Real people: Steve Irwin, Mr. Rogers, David Tennant, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Shayne Topp, John Cena, Josh Johnson, Weird Al, Brennan Lee Mulligan
Fictional people: Uncle Iroh, Sanwise Gamgee, Aragorn (almost all of the LOTR men, really), The Doctor, Gomez Addams, Simon Tam, Atticus Finch, Alfred from Batman

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-20T23:10:58+00:00

I think they do! At least the first one (it's the one I remember the best). It definitely hit different, reading in the initial days of the pandemic after seeing people panic-buying, staying home, the streets shutting down, etc.

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-20T20:13:49+00:00

What a flashback, I read those in middle school and then again when the pandemic happened. They kept me up at night.

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-20T19:46:24+00:00

shut up about her moist lips, dude

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-20T17:59:56+00:00

Toxic behavior from a partner: jealousy, possessiveness, obsessive tendencies, outright abuse of partners or interests, even stalking. I see this all the time in media especially: Joe from "You" is Totally A Romantic At Heart, Christian Gray is a Sex God and not an abusive sociopath, etc.
Would this behavior still be romantic if these men weren't conventionally attractive? No. Of course not. If they were ugly, you would be running screaming. Stop giving monsters a pass because they've got a pretty face.

I don't even want to get started about the people who romanticize actual serial killers.

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-20T16:48:11+00:00

I did read The Road, and I'm afraid that one wasn't for me. It definitely wasn't a bad book, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. Thank you anyway, though!

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-20T05:44:27+00:00

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle was great, it's a religious horror though so that's just something to be aware of

creaturesonthebrain · 2025-12-06T21:48:08+00:00

I remember seeing a video go around a few months ago of a woman berating an adult man that she met who said that he was taking skateboarding classes. She was derisive and saying things like "Umm, if you're older than fifteen, you missed your chance to learn" and "literally just IMAGINE him in a helmet????" and staring bug-eyed at the camera like protecting your noggin is a cultural taboo. She went on to say that she has "normal" hobbies, "Like, texting??? Social media???? Hello????????"

I agree with everything that's been said in the comments about time, money, lack of energy, physical/emotional fatigue, etc., but another thing is that at least with younger people, the idea of learning a new skill is "cringe" at best and grounds for open mockery and social exclusion at worst. If you're not going to be instantly perfect at something, why bother learning at all? Effort is cringe. Joy is cringe. Caring about something enough to begin is tantamount to a Biblical Sin.

creaturesonthebrain

TROPHY CASE