User Profile

Elise

throatmuppet@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 1 year, 8 months ago

She/Her. 20s. Most of my reading is trying to keep up with my book club. On my own I like SF/F, trans lit and sapphic romance, as well as some non-fiction about topics I find fascinating. This includes dance music, videogames, psychoactive substances, computers and the occult. I also try to read theory, classics and more academic works, though I've struggled with that since I was young. I track my manga reading seperately. My main fedi is currently @throatmuppet@xyzzy.link.

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Elise's books

2025 Reading Goal

41% complete! Elise has read 5 of 12 books.

commented on To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (Nampeshiweisit, #1)

Moniquill Blackgoose: To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Paperback, 2023, Del Rey) 4 stars

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs …

There are so many currents of thought pulling this narrative along. it's really quite stimulating. It's not just any one thing, to square it into any kind of particular genre literature would fail to do it justice. There's alt history angles to this, there's the boarding school primary story, there's the indigenous story, there's fantasy realism going on.

it's giving just a hint of Disco Elysium; that same feeling like you might have just a had a stroke, and everything as you knew it is the same but also different somehow...

avatar for throatmuppet Elise boosted

More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication …

"I worshiped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend. Somehow, I had never loved a woman."

5 stars

This version is based on the manuscript, rediscovered in 2017, from before the magazine editors started chopping out all the scandalous bits. The censored short version that was used against Wilde at his trial was then censored more when it was expanded into a full novel.

So now we get to see Wilde's original baby! Despite the censored version still causing a scandal and being used to convict Wilde, this is of course still tame by modern day standards (alas, where is my purity!) but far more explicit when it comes to things like Basil's romantic affection for Dorian. It's certainly fascinating to see what was triggering the poor little editor (being far more concerned about illicit hetero affairs than the gay stuff!) and also the stylistic changes. But either way, like much of Wilde's writing, it can't go a page or two without a little monologue of his witticisms …