Me, listening to the Peggies jams™ from back in the day, while playing Far Cry New Dawn and killing Lou and Mickey’s men: And we will set those sinners free-eee!
this list does not include j*hn green or any of the usual bad books that are on “best of” lists for teenagers, these are actually good. i don’t remember trigger warnings so check those yourself
1. It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood romance, coming of age, anxiety rep, body image issues, there is basically no plot in a good way, the emotions and character interactions are so realistic
2. Dangerous Girls by Abigail Hass
did she kill her best friend. read it and find out.
3. If I’m Being Honest by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka romance, coming of age, retelling of taming of the shrew, i don’t care about shakespeare and i avoid retellings but i still think this was fantastic, the main character doesn’t just go from mean -> nice, she has to go through soooo much development
4. Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon romance, told in a 24 hour period, scavenger hunt around town, has good rep without feeling like characters are tokens
5. As If on Cue by Marisa Kanter romance, coming of age, band kids and theater kids in one, i skimmed some of the band and theater descriptions, but the development is very good and there’s some cute sibling moments, there is an instance where the main character does something truly awful and i was rolling my eyes but it also felt very genuine, definitely some second hand embarrassment but i really enjoyed how passionate the characters are
6. Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter romance, second hand embarrassment, very sweet overall
7. What’s Not to Love by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka the hating game but they’re teenagers, basically
8. Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers trigger warnings for sa and r*pe, i don’t remember much but this like 200 page book made me cry
9. The Upside of Falling by Alex Light so… this was originally on wattpad apparently…. but it’s cute i prommy, it’s fake dating, but it’s more about her helping him deal with his parents divorce, it’s short and sweet and the characters were very good, it’s a good palette cleanser and a good reminder that books can be… good
It had never been overt, but school had been the worst. Size was something that everybody noticed but no one really talked about. Being short, or skinny, didn’t mean all that much at the forefront of things, it was just another fact, but it had coloured perceptions, made people prone to condescension, even if she’d been one of the oldest in her year.
But she couldn’t help but see her frailty as an asset. She didn’t have anything to cushion his blows, but that also meant there wasn’t anything between him and her, no buffer, no comfortable cushion of flesh that would keep the sensation that little bit more dulled, that little bit further away.
The sex was the best, it felt like she was being split in half. A thick rod of an exclamation point, shuddering through her over and over again, as if making a point that she just wouldn’t listen to. It made her feel petulant, and that made her grin. She was stretched out, thin and tight, a balled bunch of muscle that may as well have been lightning in a bottle, just waiting to burst out and scorch the earth.
He saw her as a firecracker, that much she knew. She was rocket fuel, compacted and ready to explode, arch towards an apoapsis and burn for the horizon. He may have been in control, but she was the driving force.
Which is what it all boiled down to. Frailty was the asset, but only because it was somehow perverted by his influence, inverted and smirking, vulnerability turned into power, raw and unharnessed.
if you’ve never listened to osirois music’s orchestrations of the utdr soundtracks i recommend them wholeheartedly. they’re just plain breathtaking. they also made the only cover of “his theme” that STILL manages to make me tear up (yeah it’s that final bit where it goes in reverse. I don’t know why but it squeezes my heart like a dog toy).
Tumblr users have the same energy as Gotham citizens who refuse to move away after the fifth supervillain attack in a week.
At some point, staying becomes a weird badge of pride.
We are the loyal citizens of Mechanicsburg alternately fleecing tourists, repairing humorous death-traps, and hopefully anticipating the arrival of the next Dread Lord, who we will pack a nice lunch for and put a woolly hat onto before sending out to take over the internet.
