lotesse | Reading

Recently Finished
The Treehouse Library
The Last Bookwanderer
Last two books in the Pages & Co series. I really enjoyed these books!

What Kind of Paradise
This was good enough but extremely predictable. A girl has been raised alone with her conspiracy theorist/isolationist father in the woods and told her mother died when she was a child. Then one day her father takes her on a trip with him and she finds out everything she knew was a lie. ( spoilers but I don't think anyone would be surprised )

Murder at the Orpheus Theatre
Fourth in the Tate and Bell series. This time I remembered not to get the audiobook because I don't really like the narrator, and it was a much more pleasant experience. The library doesn't have anything but the audiobooks, which is why I kept getting those, but I recently signed up for Kindle Unlimited, and these are on there, so I can read them for "free" that way.

Death of a Hollow Man
Second in the Midsomer Murder series. The beginning of this was verrrrrrry slow and the murder did not happen until well after the halfway point. I prefer my mysteries to get started with things sooner, but I did enjoy it well enough in the end.

The Witches of Silverlake vol. 1
Graphic novel about a group of queer teens who play at being witches but then suddenly supernatural stuff starts happening for real. I liked this okay. It did end on a huge cliffhanger, so if another volume is released at some point I will probably check it out. I couldn't find any info about further volumes, though.

senmut

AO3 link | Her Turn (300 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer [TV]
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Willow Rosenberg & Buffy Summers
Characters: Willow Rosenberg, Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers [Buffy & Angel Universe]
Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, Post-Canon
Summary:

Willow left a letter...

Her Turn

This one, it's not for you. You get that, right? This time, it's about me. It has to be me. You can't… you can't keep reaching. I know you love me. I know you would want to step up, to take my place. You've always been the one making the sacrifice. That's who you are, the One. You changed the game to begin with, and then when that wasn't enough, you changed the whole playing field.

Okay, maybe I had something to do with changing the gameboard up. But I was only able to do it because of you, because you had so much faith in me. I need you to have that faith in me now. I need you to be the stronger one, the one who has to live, to keep facing the evil.

Hopefully it won't be as bad, not once I do this.

All my love.

Dawn wasn't used to seeing her sister frail, not even after all the losses they had faced. She'd guessed, though, that this one might be the breaking point, and hurried to get to Buffy's side. She saw the paper crumpled in a fist, but ignored it, just turning her sister to hold her.

At first, Buffy was stiff. The grief broke to Dawn's coaxing, a howl of pain and denial. Dawn just held on, petting her hair, tears streaming on her own face.

"Maybe… maybe it didn't end her?" Dawn suggested once the crying gave way to the heavy silence.

Buffy pushed the crumpled paper to her sister, letting Dawn read Willow's own words. It made Dawn swallow hard, as the pain and finality gripped her all over again.

She couldn't give into it, though. Buffy needed her. Buffy had lost Willow, and Dawn needed to step up even more.

sunnymodffa posting in

fail_fandomanon

IMDb trivia: in The Exorcist (1973), the chimera-like anthropomorphic animal demon['s line] was changed because 1970s audiences weren't ready for such a mirror to be held up to their so-called society.

Did you forget about Darth Vader's locustsona?

All the fail_fandomanon Rules and Information (and Ban Requests): https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/1076.html. The short version: no embeds, don't out people's real names, don't be that much of an asshole, body fluids are off topic, Mods reserve the right to freeze, screen, and delete the fuck out of stuff. FFA discussion covers a wide variety of topics and has a very flexible view of 'fandom' that includes politics, current events, and cooking techniques. FFA is a Choose NOT to Warn experience. Meme away.

Other posts on meme:

Personal Issues, Off Topic Conversation, Religion, & Everything Else post (PP #31)
Fic and WIP Post
Book Clubs, Watchalongs, & Readalongs
Prompt & fill fests: for FFA Post #1000, FFA's 10th anniversary, FFA Post #1500, & FFA Post #2000

Search

Unofficial FFA archive & search: Dememe.info Username/password pairs are nonnie/pony, nonny/seal, or ayrt/velociraptor. As of 2025, Dememe is geoblocked for the UK.
If you have a DW account, you can use DW's content search. Don't forget to tick the box to search in comments. You can also use FFA Rocks.

Related communities and additional resources

New unofficial FFA wiki (archive: ffawiki_backup)
New unofficial FFA Writers Tips & Recs wiki
Unofficial Fyeah FFA tumblr
Unofficial FFA recs list
Unofficial FFA Discord Chat
DW Blocker link & tips and now New! 2024 Updated DW Blocker Guide
How to link to another account on DW or other sites. If you don't want to create a clickable link, type a backslash (\) before the @.

Meme rules do not require spoiler cuts. But here are two ways to make them:

HTML-5 (recommended)
<details> <summary>spoiler title</summary> Some spoilery content. </details>	Demo: spoiler title Some spoilery content.

Alternative for inline spoiler-cuts - details here
<div tabindex="-1"><b>spoiler title</b><div>Some spoilery content.</div></div>	Demo: spoiler title Some spoilery content.

If you would like to be banned to avoid anonfailing, please leave a logged-in comment at the rules post. It will be automatically screened.

Next post: will open when this posts hits 5000
Previous post: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/ ;

All the fail_fandomanon Rules and Information (and Ban Requests): https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/1076.html. The short version: no embeds, don't out people's real names, don't be that much of an asshole, body fluids are off topic, Mods reserve the right to freeze, screen, and delete the fuck out of stuff. FFA discussion covers a wide variety of topics and has a very flexible view of 'fandom' that includes politics, current events, and cooking techniques. FFA is a Choose NOT to Warn experience. Meme away.

Other posts on meme:

Personal Issues, Off Topic Conversation, Religion, & Everything Else post (PP #31)
Fic and WIP Post
Book Clubs, Watchalongs, & Readalongs
Prompt & fill fests: for FFA Post #1000, FFA's 10th anniversary, FFA Post #1500, & FFA Post #2000

Search

Unofficial FFA archive & search: Dememe.info Username/password pairs are nonnie/pony, nonny/seal, or ayrt/velociraptor. As of 2025, Dememe is geoblocked for the UK.
If you have a DW account, you can use DW's content search. Don't forget to tick the box to search in comments. You can also use FFA Rocks.

Related communities and additional resources

New unofficial FFA wiki (archive: ffawiki_backup)
New unofficial FFA Writers Tips & Recs wiki
Unofficial Fyeah FFA tumblr
Unofficial FFA recs list
Unofficial FFA Discord Chat
DW Blocker link & tips and now New! 2024 Updated DW Blocker Guide
How to link to another account on DW or other sites. If you don't want to create a clickable link, type a backslash (\) before the @.

Meme rules do not require spoiler cuts. But here are two ways to make them:

HTML-5 (recommended)
<details> <summary>spoiler title</summary> Some spoilery content. </details>	Demo: spoiler title Some spoilery content.

Alternative for inline spoiler-cuts - details here
<div tabindex="-1"><b>spoiler title</b><div>Some spoilery content.</div></div>	Demo: spoiler title Some spoilery content.

If you would like to be banned to avoid anonfailing, please leave a logged-in comment at the rules post. It will be automatically screened.

Next post: will open when this posts hits 5000
Previous post: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/712911.html#comments
Regular view - First page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/713086.html#comments
Regular view - Last page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/713086.html?page=999#comments
Top Level view - First page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/713086.html?view=top-only#comments
Top Level view - Last page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/713086.html?view=top-only&page=999#comments
Flat view - First Comment: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/713086.html?view=flat#comments
Flat view - Most Recent: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/713086.html?view=flat&page=999#comments
Dememe flatview emulator is at https://dememe.info/flat_view (same login as the regular Dememe info above).

These topics are banned:

'Which topics belong on main meme'
the game Hogwarts Legacy
discussion about current events in Israel and Palestine
US Politics

Only one clearly named top-level thread for each of the following topics:

Disruptive and Provocative Opinions (DAPO)
sexual abuse and rape culture
UK Politics
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and related current events

Discussion of UK politics related sexual abuse and rape culture should go into one properly labeled subthread.

.html#comments
Regular view - First page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/710447.html#comments
Regular view - Last page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/710447.html?page=999#comments
Top Level view - First page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/710447.html?view=top-only#comments
Top Level view - Last page: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/710447.html?view=top-only&page=999#comments
Flat view - First Comment: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/710447.html?view=flat#comments
Flat view - Most Recent: https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/710447.html?view=flat&page=999#comments
Dememe flatview emulator is at https://dememe.info/flat_view (same login as the regular Dememe info above).

These topics are banned:

'Which topics belong on main meme'
the game Hogwarts Legacy
discussion about current events in Israel and Palestine
US Politics

Only one clearly named top-level thread for each of the following topics:

Disruptive and Provocative Opinions (DAPO)
sexual abuse and rape culture
UK Politics
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and related current events

Discussion of UK politics related sexual abuse and rape culture should go into one properly labeled subthread.

runpunkrun posting in

fancake

Hey all, it's December and that means it's time to share your suggestions for next year's themes!

You can comment on this post with up to 10 suggestions. Comments will be screened, but I'll unscreen mine so you can get a feel for how it goes.

Suggested themes should be new to the comm and broad enough to sustain a month of recommendations, and I'm going to be more particular than I have in the past, as I'd like to focus on general themes that make it easier for everyone to participate. To give you an idea of what this means, I'm aiming for themes that have at least 5,000 completed works on AO3. I've also preloaded the list with some common genres that, surprisingly enough, we haven't done yet, like fantasy.

I'll drop by your comments and let you know which of your suggestions meet these guidelines. As part of this process I may offer slight alterations or rework themes to make them more inclusive.

If you can, check out our spreadsheet of past themes before commenting to make sure your suggestions aren't already on there.

If you need some inspiration:

Last year's suggestion post
List of Fic Kinks, Tropes, and Clichés at Fanlore
Cliché Bingo's Big List of Clichés (Wayback Link)
Hurt/Comfort Bingo Prompts
Kink Bingo's Kink Wiki (NSFW)
Trope List & Definitions at Trope Bingo
TV Tropes

I'll add the suggestions to this post once they've been confirmed, but I still, somehow, don't have all the past themes memorized, so if I make a mistake or if I accept a suggestion that is hurtful or badly worded, let me know.

Theme suggestions will be voted on later this month and the most popular will advance to the monthly theme polls in 2026.

( Confirmed Theme Suggestions )

If you have any questions or need help, come find me!

marina

So, I've been stuck at home for 3 weeks now with a broken ankle. I've watched so much TV. SO. MUCH. TV. Some of it utterly delightful ("The Summer I Turned Pretty", "Queen of the South"), some of it utterly forgettable. Then "Heated Rivalry" came out, and due to the tragic circumstances of being stuck at home, I've watched the first 2 episodes. Let us acknowledge this up front: I should have only watched this show after it finished airing. Like, week-to-week is a very bad format for me with this show.

However, episodes have been consumed, this show is already doing numbers in fannish circles for obvious reasons, my guess is that that trend will continue, and so I need to get stuff off my chest I guess. Think of this not as a public statement but more as a private space where I process stuff, just for the sake of framing the below.

( thoughts in no particular order )

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: pleased

full_metal_ox posting in

fancake

Fandom: Chen Qing Ling;
Pairings/Characters: M/M; Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian; the Cloud Recesses bunnies
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 2:26
Content Notes: No Archive Warnings Apply, anvilicious rabbit symbolism, canon-typical blood, canon-typical phallic symbolism, corporal punishment, fluff (figurative and literal), innuendo, societal homophobia (in-story and real-world), sparring with subtext, Xiao Zhan’s A+ rabbit handling, (not you, Wang Yibo, you’re fine.)
Creator Tags: vid, Bunnies, Pining, i'm sorry lan wangji, no really a lot of pining
Creator Links: (AO3)

soupytwist, (Dreamwidth)

soupytwist, (Tumblr)

soupytwist (locked); (YouTube)

twistedsoup

Theme: Amnesty, Angst With A Happy Ending, Animals, Humor, Non-Fic Recs: Fanvid, Canon LGBTQ+ Characters, Pining

Summary: If you look inside the heart of the mighty Hanguang-jun, you might find... bunnies.

Author’s Notes:( Continue. )

Reccer's Notes: A rec in celebration of the 4 December 2025 Full Supermoon. Stephin Merritt’s wryly anguished anthem of gay pining gains not only an unironic tenderness but the hope of a happy resolution when juxtaposed with CQL’s literal rabbits (and their pervasive symbolism as tokens, symbols, and allegory of Wangxian’s relationship, as well as allusions to a Rabbit God who’d bless a gay union.)

Nor does soupytwist’s pitch-perfect syncing of visuals to lyrics hurt one bit.

Fanwork Links:
AO3 (locked): [FANVID] Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits; Part 2 of Gusu Love Songs.
Vimeo: Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits
YouTube:Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits

Current Music: Implicit in the subject.

petra

I don't actually ship Rex/Echo, but that doesn't stop me from wanting a Lord King Bad Vid to For Good for the very simple reason that Rex is going to be with Echo like a handprint on his heart.

I feel like this needs a good bunch of Bad Batch, which I have not seen, in much the same way that I have only seen Wicked on stage once, and haven't seen the movies.

I also can't listen to the song without tearing up because I've sung it at too many funerals.

Clearly I am highly qualified to care about this vid. I must've gotten someone else's inspiration particle.

Current Mood: ludicrous
Current Music: Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun

petra

Back in the day, the 213 things Skippy is no longer allowed to do in the U.S. Army made the rounds of the internet.

The one that stuck with me hardest:

87. If the thought of something makes me giggle for longer than 15 seconds, I am to assume that I am not allowed to do it.

This came to mind because I thought of a great tag that will baffle the good wranglers at the AO3, but which I will apply to the story forthwith, despite its having made me giggle for longer than 15 seconds.

Then I started wondering.

These are the fanworks on AO3 tagged with Skippy's List. Happily, various people have written Clone Wars versions so I don't have to.

Current Mood: giggly
Current Music: The next day he saluted a Good Humor man, an usher, and a nun

rydra_wong

Largely the same as before:

Currently trying to support a friend in a Very Bad Situation and it's desperately anxiety-inducing and my brain is trying to eat itself, which also makes me less useful as support, which is bad.

So if anyone would like to ask or discuss anything about Prophet or Dark Souls or IWTV or climbing or, you know, any of the somewhat cheering topics I sometimes ramble about, PLEASE DO. "More of a comment than a question" questions also very welcome.

I cannot guarantee replies in a timely or consistent manner (because of the Situation and also the bad state of my brain) but it would be deeply appreciated nonetheless.

Except that THANK FUCK my friend is now out of the Very Bad Situation (and please let him remain so, please please please).

My brain is just trying to eat itself because it's prone to doing that and it's been a very very hard year (and I'm having yet another IC flare-up, joy).

umadoshi

An important task, given that I'm switching away from Spotify to Qobuz at this time of year: sifting through someone else's curated Trans-Siberian Orchestra playlist and pulling only about a third of the tracks from that to my own new holiday playlist. (There is a way to import Spotify playlists, but I haven't actually investigated it yet.)

My playlist is awfully random, really. I'm picky about Christmas music, but not in a way that follows much rhyme or reason. I like some boys' choir stuff. I mostly prefer older Christmas songs to more modern ones. But in practice, a lot of what I listen to is single-artist holiday albums, often by artists I don't really listen to otherwise. (The examples in my playlist so far are Annie Lennox and Sting and Idina Menzel, and maybe Mary Fahl counts, since I haven't heard any of her other solo work, just the old October Project albums where she was the lead vocalist.) If you have recs along those lines, feel free to throw them my way!

(Am I still entertained by the fact that Tori Amos put out a seasonal holiday album, uh...[*checks notes*] seventeen years ago? [WHY did I just date-check that?] Yep. Am I listening to it right now because it turned out that I enjoy most of it? Also yep. Still funny.)

(Would-be-funny-if-not-completely-horrifying: Every once in a while I remember Tom McRae saying that in the earliest days, his label thought his song "You Cut Her Hair" could be released as a Christmas track. "You Cut Her Hair" deals with the Holocaust. Very seasonal. Yes. o_o)

I guess it must've been back on the weekend that we made Smitten Kitchen's Mom’s Apple Cake, which was the first apple cake I was looking at a few weeks ago, but at the time we didn't have a tube pan on hand. (You can use a bundt, which we did have, but...I didn't opt for that.) It's very good. It's also LARGE. (Some went into the freezer.)

We cracked out the Burlap & Barrel Royal Cinnamon for it, and the cake is very cinnamony, but that presumably is at least equally due to the part where the cake calls for a tablespoon.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Tori Amos - What Child, Nowell

selenak

In which I had to google this week's celebrity cameo because his fame had eluded me in my corner of the world for now, but I was amused by the rest, and felt for Carol.

( Spoilers have Zoom-calls twice a week )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Bad Wiessee

cimorene

Medium Man is a large size. It has more fabric in it than Small Woman (the size of me). It doesn't have more fabric than a sweater for

waxjism, but she is too warm-blooded to wear sweaters really, so the last time I knitted one for her was over 10 years ago.

It's a lot of knitting. It's going. There are setbacks.

There are gauge issues. And challenges of imagination.

( Knitting Talk )

oursin

People asking me last night 'what do you/are you working on?'

Duh. I flannelled and gave the general field, rather than saying: I completed my PhD over 30 years ago, I have published 6 books, 3 co-edited volumes, and getting on for 70 articles and chapters, have done assorted meedja appearances, have lost count of the reviews I've done -

Not to mention the website, the blog, the assorted things that fall into the category of other -

'My Deaaar, it's all a long story and rather complicated' and my most recent publication was not even in my field, it was being a sort of Litry Scholar.

Thing is there were some persons of maturer age there who were, I gathered in conversation, getting back into the academic swing, so I might have been doing that, rather than trying to get back up out of something of a trough?

Did mention, apropos of cute cuddly spirochaete, that I had worked on History of Loathsome Diseases of Immorality: but gee, I am large, I contain multitudes, and I have been going a long time.

ETA

Not that I consider the organisers of 'prestigious World Conference on Women’s Health, Reproduction,and Midwifery, scheduled for 08-10 June 2026, in Paris,France' to really Know Who I Am since they are begging and pleading for my attendance on the basis of my 'remarkable work' a recent review of a book on the history of abortion.

Okay, they do offer partial support for accommodation and registration, and brekkers and lunch at the conference (this implies, o horrors, breakfast sessions).

adore

( Processing family stuff )
I finished A Curse So Dark And Lonely and... guess what y'all... I ship the prince and the commander //faceplams //shrugs

I meannn. SPOILERS but likeeeee.

The commander is the only one left by the prince's side, and stays loyal to the prince even after the prince transforms into the Beast and kills most of the commander's family. Stays loyal to the prince even when the prince attacks him in Beast form, keeps trying to get himself hurt in the prince's stead, and tries to fake his own death to avoid interfering in the prince's future...

The prince is all "sobs I'm so mean to you why don't you hate me" and the commander is all "I gave you my word, my prince" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The commander has risked himself to protect the Beastly prince at each transformation, season after season, and this book tried to convince me that a girl who was trapped in the Beast's castle in just ONE season gave the prince True Love?? Excuse me, do you see the commander and the prince??? THAT'S TRUE LOVEEEE

Ahem. Anyway I borrowed the second book in the trilogy, A Heart So Fierce And Broken, because obviously I need to ship the prince and commander more. The first book ended with the commander faking his own death and the prince being heartbroken, though, so I'm just hoping they don't stay separated throughout the second book, I don't have the patience for that.

In other news, I renewed my BookBrush subscription, which pinches, but I need it for my indie author projects. I also renewed my premium Dreamwidth account (yay for the points bonus!) and deleted a few icons. I'm thinking of moving my monthly payments for my author website to yearly, as well. We shall see. I was looking into moving my author newsletter from Substack to PencilBooth, which is also free. But PencilBooth doesn't have a welcome email, just a welcome message. And I can't make do with just a welcome message when I need to remind people who download my reader magnets from Bookfunnel promos who I am. I need pictures and links, not just a paragraph of text. So still using Substack for now.

My tummy hurts for hours every day and I'm glad I'm not working, but I want to write more than I am now. I want to rest and then write, not just rest and then rest some more. The FaRo discord I'm part of does FaRoWriMo every month, in which you choose your word count goal for the month and track it together on a collective spreadsheet where we each get a column (and talk and support each other in the dedicated discord channel) and I'm considering modifying my goal. I want to sigh, but I also feel fortunate about being able to rest, but I guess disappointment and relief can coexist.

Current Mood: okay

oursin

Happy birthday,

darkemeralds!

conuly

Which, good for her, but she's not going to make the big bucks in social work, which is what she's getting her BS in. Well, best of luck to her anyway. (She does have her eyes wide open, because everybody has told her that. Unsurprising.)

*****************

( Read more... )

sonia

jesse_the_k asked what's the first thing I enjoyed cooking.

My father had a small enamel pan, cream colored on the inside and orange on the outside, like this one. I don't know where it came from. We didn't have any other pans like it, and it was definitely his, unlike the rest of the pots and pans that just belonged to all of us. It was brought out of the cabinet for scrambled eggs, which in our Germanic household we had for supper, not breakfast.

One of the first things I remember being able to cook on my own was scrambled eggs and ham in that enamel pan. First swirl around a generous pat of butter until it's bubbling hot. Add the chopped ham and stir it as it browns. Then break the eggs directly into the pan and keep stirring. (Don't pre-mix the eggs, and definitely don't add any milk.) When the eggs are softly cooked through, dish up with toast.

torachan

1. Carla is home safe and sound. Her flight was delayed by about an hour and a half due to weather in Chicago, so what was already a late night pickup (scheduled originally for 11:30pm) ended up being truly middle of the night, and we are both pretty exhausted today, but she is home, and I was able to work from home again today, which is good because I think I got about 2.5 hours of sleep total.

2. While I was waiting to go to the airport last night and trying not to get to sleepy, I finally tried the Trader Joe's chai concentrate we'd picked up a while back. Mixed with the gingerbread oatmilk (also Trader Joe's), it tastes exactly like the gingerbread chai lattes we love from Starbucks. Cheaper to make at home, plus also they are still on strike, so we haven't been going to Starbucks.

3. I finally gave the PS5 a go! I bought Horizon Zero Dawn a week or so ago and have been meaning to give it a go, but just never found the time to go out in the living room and fire it up. (This is why I love the Switch so much, because I can play at my desk. For some reason I am really avoidant about playing games on the TV, idek.) I just played the (extremely long) intro segment so far, but I did enjoy it. Also played a bit of the free Astro game that came with the system and it's fun, too. And then I went ahead and ordered the Playstation Portal, which is a handheld accessory that allows you to play PS5 games away from the TV (you do need an actual PS5 to use it). It was even on sale!

4. I got the Thanksgiving bagel sandwich this morning for us to share. It was pretty tasty, but it had a lot of fried onions on it, which is less than ideal. I'd ask for it without them if I got it again, but since it's only going to be around a bit longer I probably just won't get it again.

5. I finished another puzzle today.

This is the puzzle we had hanging around in the closet for years and years because we wanted to be puzzle people but then we had cats and nowhere to do puzzles. But when we got the garage remodelled and had a space to do puzzles, I found it too daunting. But now I've done a lot of puzzles and felt up to the task. It was definitely a challenge, though it would have been more of one if the pieces had been more uniform. It has two main types of pieces, some more square and some long and thin, so that made it easier to figure out what went where.

6. Chloe's looking a little wild.

rocky41_7 posting in

booknook

Title: The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp
Author: Leonie Swann (trans: Amy Bojang)
Genre: Fiction, mystery, murder mystery, crime thriller

Book # (checks notes) 13! From the "Women in Translation" rec list has been The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann, translated from German by Amy Bojang. This book concerns a house full of elderly retirees who end up investigating a series of murders in their sleepy English town.

This book was truly a delight from start to finish. I loved Swann's quirky senior cast; they were both entertaining and raised valid and very human questions about what aging with dignity means. It did a fabulous job scratching my itch for an exciting novel with no twenty-somethings to be seen. Now Agnes, the protagonist, and her friends are quite old, which impacts their lives in significant ways. However, I felt Swann did a good job of showing the limitations of an aging body--unless she's really in a hurry, Agnes will usually opt to take the stair lift down from the second floor, for instance--without sacrificing the depth and complexity of her characters, or relegating such things merely to the youth of their pasts.

The premise of this book caught my attention immediately, but after a lifetime of books with riveting premises that dismally fail to deliver, I was still wary. I'm happy to report that The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp fully delivers on its promise! Swann makes ample and engaging use of her premise.

The story itself is not especially surprising; if you're looking for a real brain-bender of a mystery or a book of shocking plot twists, this is not it. But I enjoyed it, and I thought Swann walked an enjoyable line between laying down enough clues that I could see the writing on the wall at some point, without giving the game away too quickly. There are no last-minute ass-pulls of heretofore unmentioned characters suddenly confessing to the crime here! The main red herring that gets tossed in the reader is likely to see for what it is very quickly, but for plot-relevant reasons I won't mention here, it's very believable that Agnes does not see that.

Agnes herself was a wonderful protagonist; I really enjoyed getting to go along on this adventure with her. She had a hard enough time wrangling her household of easily-distracted seniors even before the murders started! But the whole cast was endearing, if also all obnoxious in their own way after decades of settling on their own way of getting through life.

Bojang does a flawless job with the translation; she really captures various English voices both in the dialogue and in Agnes' narration. The writing flows naturally without ever coming off stilted or awkward.

I really had fun with this one, and I'm delighted to here there's apparently a sequel--Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime--which I will definitely be checking out.

Profile

throbbing light machine

My Website

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Style Credit

Style: Early Edition for Five AM by winterfish

Page generated Dec. 6th, 2025 02:23 am

no the circle won't be broken

Reading

Weekly Reading

LadiesBingo: Sacrifice / Letting Go

FFA DW Post #2395 - Pazuzu was supposed to say, "Your mother yiffs catboys in furry hell"

2026 Theme Suggestions

10 things about the gay hockey show

VBG

Chen Qing Ling; The Magnetic Fields (band); Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits (fanvid) by soupytwist

Vids that will never be: A Clone Wars ship I don't ship but I would watch this vid

It's not Rule 34 if it's not porn - Skippy's List, Clone Wars edition

Please give me excuses to talk about my hyperfixations (again)

Christmas music | Not-Christmas cake

Pluribus 1.06

Knitting a (Medium) Man Sweater

Large, contain multitudes, do not wish to brag

Adaptation

no subject

Today's coworker is in college in the hopes of increasing her earnings

Scrambled eggs and ham in an enamel pan

Daily Happiness

Book Review: The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp

Profile

Expand Cut Tags

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit