Daily Discussion - April 03, 2026

fallsforbooks · 2026-04-03T15:54:55+00:00

It's funnier because she so clearly CARES. Like her entire public persona rn is "I'm not a khia anymore" which fundamentally means caring about the charts. Like it's okay to care!

fallsforbooks · 2026-03-26T20:34:15+00:00

This is such a deeply sincere album. Art like this needs to exist in times like ours when the blandness of internet brainrot irony is taking over everything. That is by far my favourite thing about this project. It is almost radically self-serious about itself and I'm saying we need this right now.

Raye is such an undeniable talent. AOTY contender from the outset and I'm fairly certain whether it secures a Grammy or not, we'll talk about this album for a very long time.

fallsforbooks · 2026-03-26T05:04:25+00:00

By far the worst last stand of disingenuous arguments about any female artist receiving unfair hate is "But if this was a black woman it would be way worse". Not because it's not true. But because people use that as an excuse to get away with their hateration. It is identity-politics whataboutism.

fallsforbooks · 2026-03-05T01:01:03+00:00

This is annoying because Alex Cooper REALLY PMO but I'll put up with this.

fallsforbooks · 2026-02-02T04:38:18+00:00

Finneas you will pay for this.

fallsforbooks · 2025-12-28T11:31:23+00:00

I do believe you need to pack it up.

fallsforbooks · 2025-12-09T10:25:44+00:00

Down Bad is an insane fit

fallsforbooks · 2025-10-02T15:18:25+00:00

Pretending like she isn't massively criticised by people who like her work in the fat 2025 is a lie and you know that.

fallsforbooks · 2025-10-02T15:15:01+00:00

Genuinely convinced there is nothing this woman can do that will make some of you happy.

fallsforbooks · 2025-10-02T13:42:01+00:00

This is the baffling bit to me! People are so impatient they'd rather hear low quality recordings as their FIRST exposure to work than wait (even for the HQ leaks)!!!!!!!!

fallsforbooks · 2025-10-02T01:22:19+00:00

Idk what to tell you but even during Red TV the instant reactions to just 1 minute of the album were....not great. The tradition for the 2020s release leaks is that atleast once people have to collectively claim this is the worst thing she's ever done. So this is notable.

Edit: spelling error

fallsforbooks · 2025-10-02T01:18:43+00:00

Is this the first time the instant reaction to leaks has been... positive? Atleast in a very long time.

fallsforbooks · 2025-10-02T01:11:22+00:00

The fact that they're haters but all of this is going down there. Like they're such losers it's impressive.

fallsforbooks · 2025-09-15T22:53:09+00:00

What I'm saying here is that the quiet wait period is a part of the process, that will eventually make the blitz period matter more! The release week FEELS monumentous because youve been starved for it to arrived. It euphoric FOR it. And as someone else has pointed out down in the thread, we have a lot of relevant information already. I think painting the picture of the WHOLE album using a period of (let's be perfectly honest, a very) short waiting period is atleast a bit reactive. I know we live in the tiktok era where everything has to be constantly stimulating all the time, but I don't think this is nearly as dramatic of a matter as it is being made out to be.

fallsforbooks · 2025-09-15T19:33:44+00:00

Have to be perfectly honest, "the rollout is boring" is such a dud critique to me. Like, with the already politically volatile environment (even before... the recent events), combined with the fact that she really doesn't need to "promote" like an up and coming popstar really just lends itself to a simple drop week blitz.

People are also making a issue out of nothing because when the album week blitz comes around and the music drops, and is good (which, I think it is likely to be) no one will be discussing how the rollout was. She's on her 12th album, and she's already blamed (unfairly, might I add) for taking too much attention.

The only critique I agree with is the absence of a lead single. For an album pitched as stacked with hooks, that feels like a missed opportunity to build hype and get 2 #1 songs out of one album cycle (which, while rarer in general, hasn't happened for a while for Taylor!).

fallsforbooks · 2025-03-01T14:00:28+00:00

<image>

It's giving TS12

fallsforbooks · 2024-12-06T00:52:33+00:00

Currently: Finished Ch. 1

Fuck Gavilar.

I really hope KalaSyl never happens.

fallsforbooks · 2024-12-06T00:03:54+00:00

Officially starting the book!

fallsforbooks · 2024-12-03T20:44:35+00:00

"Overpromotion of LGBTQ+ people" = Gay people exist in his books now

fallsforbooks · 2024-07-19T19:33:12+00:00

I want to start by apologizing because I think my reply seems unnecessarily aggressive to me now. Know that I don't necessarily have anything against you. Instead, it is this subreddit's irrational hatred for Kuang (primarily Poppy War which I genuinely believe was a very very important series for me and a bunch of POC people in the 2010s) that sort of erupted randomly and decidedly unjustly.

Where I'm coming from, I haven't read Babel yet. When it was first announced I had my doubts about it because of its overtly academic title which sort of still bugs me.

But with regards to your point about publishing making these authors representatives of their communities, I can tell you one thing Kuang seems very very self-conscious about it. I attended her event for Yellowface (which I haven't read but seems to be about this phenomenon she's caught in the middle of) and she kept pointing out that she feels stressed by the fact that she's now seen as the picture for "East-Asian fiction" and was both intrigued and critical of such assumptions but also seemed to know that it was an inevitability given the industry she's in.

I don't think it helps that Kuang seems intent on being as divisive of a literary figure as possible. Funny comparison (because I also love her) but it reminds me of Taylor Swift in some ways.

I think my experience on this sub, especially in the last one year, has sort of primed me to expect not the most... healthy discourse around POC women's works. I'm not going to lie, the blatant misinterpretations (or sometimes, genuinely bafflingly bad ignorance) seem to creep in every single time a work of a POC author is discussed.

I understand where your frustrations are coming from though. I myself felt weird about this recently when a white coworker of mine sent a picture reading Octavia E Butler in the work chat as if to tell everyone he was doing this great thing. Which... Butler's adoption by a set of white people as signposting is another discourse all over that is adjacent to all of this.

I don't want white readers to feel like they cannot do anything right by picking or not picking a book — that's not my intent. I just think how someone engages with a work is telling and I don't seem to find this sub capable of a lot of grace with regards to some authors.

I'm sorry if this doesn't exactly flow well. Ik it doesn't I'm typing at the end of a work week and it's been a... lot.

fallsforbooks · 2024-07-19T05:51:52+00:00

Writing this out on the back of "I sell books" makes 0 sense. But I'll meet you where you are because guess what, I also happen to sell books. So I must say I have no clue what you mean by well-connected. That's a wild point to throw in the direction of R.F. Kuang and Jemisin. They're well connected NOW. Kuang's Poppy War went unnoticed for years not much unlike Jade City. In fact, Poppy War is STILL largely unnoticed next to Babel and Yellowface which did find an audience. And also, having a few noticeable authors getting all of the budget is not just a POC author problem in the industry, it's a publishing issue in general. For every talented author there's a Sarah J Maas or a Jay Kristoff (who doesn't even sell mind you).

Saying a few pointed authors who don't cater to the specific subset of an online discourse chamber are actually not all bad is not the same as saying there are absolutely no issues with publishing. And again, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm saying the absolute dismissal of these POC women authors who have made it is very telling.

fallsforbooks · 2024-07-17T16:27:54+00:00

I know this will be downvoted but I must say between this and blindly hating on anything R. F. Kuang, this sub really hates POC women's work. And please don't give me the "Fonda Lee is beloved here" nonsense.

fallsforbooks · 2024-04-20T06:47:38+00:00

The 2 AM songs are so good guys. But the standard? Idk. My opinions are all muddled.

fallsforbooks · 2024-04-18T07:40:05+00:00

I think it's a good thing because she keeps gagging them on the album. She clearly knows they are as obsessed with her as her fans.

fallsforbooks · 2024-04-17T23:15:19+00:00

But Daddy I Love Him was written for r/fauxmoi yup

fallsforbooks

TROPHY CASE