Laura Crone

(YES I know scrolling Wikipedia pages I could have written myself doesn't count as research but it is still a crucial part of the writing process thank you very much)

Screenshot: "'World suck' is another word included in the Nerdfighter vocabulary, which refers to unfavorable things that occur in the world."

r e s e a r c h

Like, yeah, I kind of want to make out with the nebulous concept of channeling divine inspiration into the act of creating aesthetic wonder in the world! Sue me! I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t!

I don't know if this script is going anywhere but this is in fact the best fragment I've ever written

Truly who among us does not need our cloak back!

"Frankly, I'm thankful I didn't baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, so that none of you can say you were baptized in my name! Oh yes, I did baptize the household of Stephanas, but no one else as far as I can remember."

I love the Bible because it's obviously a pivotal religious text rich with a lot of meaning that people have been fighting over for 2,000 years but it's also just literal letters that literal human doofuses sent to each other

Musical v. musical, is the BEST SONG the one that whips on the radio but exists in context to get cut off repeatedly and be disappointing, or the one that whips in context but is a little tough to parse in isolation? This is a genuinely fascinating question and I hope we get to actually ask it!

This is what I'm saying, this category simply is not prepared for this year!!
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Yes this AND I think Wicked is only in the conversation by default!

Look if you ask me Best Original Song 2026 is no less than a battle for the soul of the movie musical

(yes technically the terminally straight Christmas shenanigans are only like 5-10% of the second book in which they appear but that's still TWICE IN A ROW which is like one and three quarters too many times!!!)

I cannot fucking believe Sarah J. Maas made me sit through TWO BOOKS of terminally straight couples fretting about what to get each other for Christmas before FINALLY giving me a DEATH TOURNAMENT?!?!

I honestly cannot tell whether I'm more angry or delighted.

Ooh that's super interesting! I could totally see this being a thing if there were more low/urban/parallel world romantasy but since most of it's more high/epic I think it's closer to the rom com heroine who blows off steam by reading rom coms in the bathtub without realizing that she's in one.

(Is it weird that this happened twice? People who have read more of this than I have, please weigh in.)

If I had a nickel for every romantasy series I've read where one of the second heroine's defining characteristics is that she reads romantasy, I'd have two nickels, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Screenshot of an anonymized exchange of messages: Person 1: Hello am I on the right track if I'm thinking of this person as kind of a coked up gremlin with the voice of an eldritch gos in their head that sometimes kinda takes over Like Jesse Pinkman but like 25% possessed Person 2: YEP exactly

Many things suck but it is very cool to be acting again

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai. A dual timeline story about the AIDS crisis in Chicago and its aftermath for the people who survived. Really drives home how the government actually decided the penalty for normal human missteps should be death. This took me a long time to read (complimentary).

(This was my BOTM Lolly pick easy but unfortunately the consensus on the app is that this is a failed Blake Crouch novel, which is so incredibly sad for them I just want to stroke some bitches' jawlines and ask who hurt them)

Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel. A quantum physicist is recruited as the guinea pig for a breakthrough in the field of time travel and both his current wife and his ex, the mother of his child who died tragically young, get their lives torn up over it. A melancholy love story for adults. I loved it.

The Sickos meme

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad.

I have ooks about the ending! And the author's note that follows! They are significant! But the journey was a worthwhile good time. If you, like me, love Slings and Arrows but have kind of a hard time with the gender of it all these days, I think you'll appreciate a lot of what's happening here.

Mona Acts Out by Mischa Berlinski. An acclaimed Shakespearean actress slated to play Cleopatra walks out of her home on Thanksgiving Day and grapples with the legendary director who "made her" being ousted from the company he founded over credible allegations of sexual assault.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I don't know what to tell you, Zadie Smith is a legend and I can only apologize to myself for taking this long to finally read anything of hers and I can't wait to read more.

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby. An Atlanta hotshot returns to his small Virginia hometown following a tragic gang-related accident and is absolutely convinced it'll be easy to use his above board business skills to fix things. He is wrong. This whips SO FUCKING HARD.

Woodworking by Emily St. James. I have absolutely nothing in words to add to the experience of reading this book but I loved it very, very much.

The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. This is a straight-up horror movie. It is a WILD ride. It's terrible to watch and I couldn't look away. Neither film adaptation gets anywhere close to this level of sheer "what the FUCK."

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. I don't know where you've been if you need me to tell you this book owns. Speaking as a huge fan of Jones' work, I think this is a really accessible starting point and it's not at all surprising that it's escaped containment. The hype is DESERVED.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent. Of the trendy romantasy books I've read for research, this series is by far the most effective execution of the structure I've seen and it's a super fun time. Also I'm a sucker for a death tournament.

The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune. A scandalized DC reporter retreats to his family's cabin and finds it occupied by a young girl named Artemis Darth Vader and the hunky guy helping her hide from the government. Romantic, edge-of-your-seat, thrilling, structurally pretty weird (complimentary).

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. The island of misfit toys of the round table have to figure out what to do in the wake of Arthur's death. A slow burn, character-driven adventure story with a diverse cast, some of the best written sword fights I've ever read, and solidarity with *gestures broadly*

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe. A college-age single mother starts an Only Fans with guidance from her previously estranged professional wrestler father who is now her roommate and the grandfather who stepped up. Fun, messy, loveable people and constant hijinks!