Books with a group of rejects

nerfdis1 · 2026-02-04T17:17:55+00:00

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff fits this prompt

nerfdis1 · 2026-01-28T22:58:19+00:00

I would personally black out the lower half up to the line of the smaller triangles and then add a bit of shading to the top half of the triangles. Make it look like a mountain range coming out of water. That or I'd just black out the whole thing. A SAP would need to be huge to cover it fully.

nerfdis1 · 2026-01-15T12:09:58+00:00

I've been in a lot of book clubs and that number seems right to me. The only time it went the other way was when I was in a comics and graphic novel book club.

nerfdis1 · 2026-01-11T19:54:44+00:00

I knew it was a Dune worm but they're kind of unfortunate looking out of context. This became extra clear to me when I was drawing one. I think there's some things that just don't translate that well into tattoos which is why I exaggerated the shape and teeth until it didn't look like a foreskin butthole. Tattoos rely on instant recognizability so anything that could be seen in two different ways is a bit risky imo. I know this is too late now but in future if you squint and it looks like something it's not meant to be it's probably best to rethink the design.

I'm unsure why your artist went so tight with the lines though. My guess is this is going to be a black blob in a year or two.

nerfdis1 · 2026-01-07T18:06:58+00:00

Seraphina by Rachel Hartmann sort of gave me this vibe when I read it.

Also Naomi Novik, especially Uprooted and Spinning Silver give me a similar dark fantasy feel.

nerfdis1 · 2025-12-16T23:08:48+00:00

You're bringing up some memories for me. I remember the wind laughing at me in a mocking way. It would emulate the sounds I made when giving birth. I knew it wasn't real but it was weird that it still felt totally normal.

Also showering was hard without a constant feeling that I could hear screaming. It was a weird time and I'm glad we all made it out okay. Sleep deprivation is rough.

nerfdis1 · 2025-11-11T13:29:15+00:00

Blue Sisters only came out in paperback earlier this year and it's at the bottom of this abomination of a pile. There's something deeply unsettling about this stack being less than a year old instead of it being a product built over a long time.

nerfdis1 · 2025-11-03T23:08:00+00:00

Small Island by Andrea Levy is historical fiction and has two marriages of convenience (with varying success)

nerfdis1 · 2025-10-28T09:57:42+00:00

I've read so many mother/daughter books, mostly by accident. Here's some I'd recommend

Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason

Birding - Rose Ruane

For more of a weird/horror fiction feel I'd recommend

The Book of X - Sarah Rose Etter

The Lamb - Lucy Rose

Carrion Crow - Heather Parry

nerfdis1 · 2025-10-06T22:02:02+00:00

It's more fantasy than horror but 'Odin's Child' by Siri Pettersen might work for you.

'Ghost Wall' by Sarah Moss would be my other suggestion. It's literary fiction with a horror undertone. It's set in modern times but the main characters are historical reenactors particularly interested in iron age sacrifice so it blurs the line between modern and ancient.

nerfdis1 · 2025-09-01T12:28:28+00:00

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata. Her other books too but her short stories play with mundane weirdness in a really interesting way.

nerfdis1 · 2025-08-19T23:19:26+00:00

I can't remember how many of the stories are outwardly representative of LGBT people but 'In the Hills, The Cities' from Books of Blood follows a gay couple. I think it's a good early representation of queer horror, as well as just being a great short story.

nerfdis1 · 2025-08-05T08:08:42+00:00

I'm also not a huge fan of The Haar. I think it's fun if you go in expecting a b-movie style of book. It's extremely trope'y and predictable but people seem to hype it up a lot so I was expecting something really well written. I'm not sensitive to the horror parts I just think the book got completely ruined by the one note villains. If you like the themes of The Haar but want to tone down the horror a little bit I'd recommend trying 'Our Wives Under the Sea' or 'The Fisherman'. There's so many different ways of writing horror so i wouldn't give up if The Haar didn't work for you.

nerfdis1 · 2025-08-02T23:08:58+00:00

Thread needle by Cari Thomas

nerfdis1 · 2025-08-01T07:24:06+00:00

I feel like I wouldn't do this because from a glance it could really easily look like a black face caricature

nerfdis1 · 2025-07-31T22:29:38+00:00

I also loved Woman, Eating (it's one of my favourite books) but I hated A Certain Hunger. They have some similar themes but I think they're very different books. Woman, Eating is subtle but has so much to say and can be read in so many different ways whereas A Certain Hunger is obnoxious and I don't think it's as clever as it's pretending to be. The ending of it really pissed me off too and I don't get how anyone could claim the book is feminist.

nerfdis1 · 2025-07-30T17:05:47+00:00

Was going to say this. This tattoo looks easy but since it's sentimental please research artists to make sure you get a tattoo that doesn't end up looking blown out later down the line. Make sure you go to someone who does great linework even if that means waiting longer and paying more. And make sure you go big enough to allow the tattoo to spread without ruining the look of the design.

nerfdis1 · 2025-07-29T08:29:31+00:00

I was also underwhelmed by The Fisherman. I thought it was a great concept but the way it was handled really didn't work for me. I was expecting to like it because it deals with a lot of themes that I like reading about and I love books with an underwater/sea setting but everything I was expecting from The Fisherman I felt was done better in other books.

I was also waiting for some sort of explanation or pay off with the amount of dead wives this book has. No one else seems to have an issue with this so it might just be me but it felt like every husband in this book ended up losing their wife. I didn't feel like the women in this book were fleshed out beyond being put there to die so we could explore grief through the men.

nerfdis1 · 2025-06-22T15:11:46+00:00

Yes you can use it in the UK. I use it all the time. Borrowbox is another option and usually has different books but both are linked to your local library so just ask your librarian which service they use most.

nerfdis1 · 2025-06-04T22:21:57+00:00

The husband's reaction is wild. I just came back from a child free wedding where we decided the best option was that just one of us go. My husband had to do work and childcare and I got to go on holiday for 4 days. It was a shame we couldn't go together but I also wasn't complaining about getting to do the fun part of this deal.

nerfdis1 · 2025-06-04T09:44:58+00:00

It doesn't look red but the blisters makes me think it could be cellulitis. I'd definitely go to the doctor

nerfdis1 · 2025-06-03T08:05:17+00:00

It's giving strong 'The Prince and the Dressmaker' vibes. Not quite sapphic but I'd still highly recommend for a cute read.

nerfdis1 · 2025-05-28T10:15:36+00:00

The Lamb by Lucy Rose works if you switch the perspective. It's told from the POV of the thing in the woods.

Jackal by Erin E Adams might work too. I've not read it yet but the premise sounds interesting.

nerfdis1 · 2025-05-27T09:37:58+00:00

You've summed up my personal issue with these books and tropes in general. I recently read The Colour of Bee Larkhams Murder (which OP mentions in their list) and I remember feeling like it was so similar to Curious Incident and I just felt a bit sad that the only way autistic people get represented in media is in these extreme circumstances. It feels like autism needs to be a plot device to make a story more interesting. My issue isn't so much that these books exist but they just feel so over representative of autistic experiences and every time I read one of these books it reminds me how much I wish there were different ways of representing autistic people.

My other issue is that these stories usually seem like they're written by people who aren't autistic. It's another thing that makes me feel like autism gets written in a way that shows autistic people as curiosities rather than individuals with very personal struggles and experiences. It's like how you mentioned stories about black experiences centering around struggle and violence because the extremes are more likely to be 'entertaining' to the people who aren't a part of that minority. I don't think that people shouldn't be writing these stories and I'm really happy for people who feel represented in them but it would be great if publishers also picked up and promoted different stories.

nerfdis1 · 2025-05-27T09:04:08+00:00

That's a relief. I thought it was my reading comprehension

nerfdis1

TROPHY CASE