pulllist | Member Posts

Some delicious awful little bites. :D

Sunless Sea: cathedral of the sea, three-sentence fic by

wintersday. This is lovely and eerie, exactly right for the canon.

Deeplight - Frances Hardinge: slow blackout by

veinyy. Gen, 1k. The Gathergeist’s process in losing a mind. The Gathergeist definitely seemed like one of the more, idk, abstract of the gods, and it's really interesting reading this and thinking about what actual thoughts it might've had.

The Haunting of Hill House - Jackson: Brick and Bone by

Kantayra. Nell gen, drabble. I love how Nell has changed the character of the house.

OW: The Seal's Child by

Daegaer. Abandoned Daughter of a Runaway Selkie Bride, gen, triple drabble. Beautiful and ominous and so sad.

OW: The glory of the kill by

exceptionallyunfortunate. Serial Killer Trapped in Time Loop, gen, triple drabble. Packs a lot of enjoyable irony into very few words.

OW: let it be by

TheFlirtMeister. Serial Killer Victim Who Lived & Serial Killer Victim Who Died, gen, 800 words. An emotional wringer, just really fun in a horrible way. :D

The Terror: undeath by

Pornabus_Sockerton. Hodgson & Crozier, gen, triple drabble. Crozier says nothing, and Hodgson returns to London venerated. Emotionally brutal in the best way.

The Terror: the ever-fleeting warmth by

Ekevka. Collins gen, double drabble. Oh no, Collins. ;____; His brain is just doing him in from all angles.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Butter Moon by

stilettodandelion. Merricat gen, 1100 words. I feel a hunger inside me for all things. This is gorgeously written. So many luscious food descriptions! Just very vivid descriptions that engage all my senses. And I love Merricat's constant, conscious restraint from hurting Constance, which becomes less convincing with every repetition. Amazing stuff.

delphi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

flareonfury

Made some new recruitment banners for

dc100,

mcu100, and

xmen100 because I got distracted and made them as I was creating new prompts/award banners for the previous round.

delphi

Armand/Daniel continues to delight me, and xthatsecret's edits continue to give me life. This one uses its song's offbeat bounce and dark humour to create the perfect mood for revisiting and recontextualizing Armand and Daniel's scenes together up to and through the recent revelations.

An Unhealthy Obsession by xthatsecret
Fandom: The Vampire Lestat (Interview with the Vampire s3)
Relationships: Armand/Daniel Molloy
Medium: Vid
Length: 2:03
Rating: SFW (spoilers up to 3x6)
My Bookmark Tags: dark, romance, humour, ambiguous ending, developing relationship, obsession, courtship, secrets, then and now
Song: An Unhealthy Obsession by The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra

Excerpt:

You've got those eyes that drive me crazy
and I've got eyes to watch you sleep
I brought a packed lunch and some coffee
for my stakeout in your tree

Watch on YouTube

( Some Brief Thoughts About 3x6 and the Upcoming Finale )

kitewithfish

What I’ve Read
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Finished! I think I lost steam on this one because it felt so tightly bound inside the main narrator’s voice and experience. It’s a study of life in a totalitarian capitalist future where most people are scrabbling to prove that they can be contributing members of humanity’s corporate future in space – failure to provide value means you end shelved in a cryo-hibernation unit until someone finds a use for you or you become most cost effective to jettison. It’s awful, and our main character has a lot of soft people skills that make her incredible in making complex team projects function, but it’s the kind of skill that can’t be pointed to as a clear source of value. She’s the grease that keeps the gears turning, in one metaphor the book deploys. It’s very solid, but since it is such a companion piece to a similar book I read last November, Alien Clay, I found myself comparing it to that unfavorably. It’s honestly a toss up as to which would be a better read. If this wins a Hugo, I would be surprised but not disappointed.

What I’m Reading
The River has Roots – Amal el-Motar – Loved her work on This is How You Lose the Time War, looking forward to this one. It feels a bit lyrical and fairy tales.

Counterattack - Chai Jidan - This is the novel that the C-Drama Revenged Love is based on, and I am delighted to discover that it’s significantly more overt in the main characters’ sexual relationship. At a certain point in the show, it seemed like they’d simply started having sex off screen – the dynamics were like a settled couple rather than two horny people dancing around each other. It’s an unhinged story and the translation is hitting a sweet spot of requiring me to look up cultural footnotes but getting the emotional beats clearly. I don’t know that I will end up actually finishing it – the novelty of the novel is wearing off a bit but it’s nice to dip into the best parts of the show and see the messier version that they streamlined for tv.

What I’ll Read Next

Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor
Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction Paul Kincaid Related Work
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel written by Ursula K. Le Guin Graphic Story
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler Susana M. Morris Related Work
Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon written by Kelly Thompson Graphic Story
The Space Cat written by Nnedi Okorafor Graphic Story
Automatic Noodle Annalee Newitz Novella
The Summer War Naomi Novik Novella
The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers written by Kieron Gillen Graphic Story

kitewithfish

Bookish friends (and foes, too, I guess) - I have been to ReaderCon 2026! It was lovely - my first time, and it was a very chill and bookish place.

As per my usual mission, I like to walk away with a robust list of books I have never heard of before to add to my reading list - these suggestions mostly come from panels, conversations with other nerds, and things in the bookshop that I did not let myself immediately buy.

(I will admit, some of these were bookmarked less because the specific title was praised, and more because I was using Storygraph to track this in real time. If a panelist did not mention a specific book, just picked what looked most interesting to me/most book-shaped.)

Changeling by Delia Sherman
Bouncing Off the Moon by David Gerrold
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Herlands: Exploring the Women's Land Movement in the United States by Keridwen N. Luis
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
The Wizard's Map by Jane Yolen
How to Be Gay by David M. Halperin
Anyway: Angie by Daniel José Older
The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein
The Rampant by Julie C. Day
The Battle of Jedha by George Mann
Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon
Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy
Rose Macaulay – The Early Years Collection (7 Books including The Furnace, The Lee Shore, Non-Combatants and Others, What Not, Potterism - A Tragi-Farcical Tract, Dangerous Ages & Mystery At Geneva) by Rose Macaulay
A Fish Dinner in Memison by E.R. Eddison
The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Among You Taking Notes...: The Wartime Diaries of Naomi Mitchison 1939-1945 by Naomi Mitchison
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
Fantasy's Othering Fetish by P. Djèlí Clark
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
Jumping Off the Planet by David Gerrold
The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories by Jane Yolen, Heidi E.Y. Stemple
Caliban Landing by Steven Popkes
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
Death at the Crystal Palace by Jennifer Ashley
Mistress of Mistresses by E.R. Eddison
A Dubious Clamor by Marissa Lingen
Escape from Valo by Daniel José Older, Alyssa Wong
The Fall of the Kings by Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner
Comrade Grandmother and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Higher Magic by Courtney Floyd
The Last Unicorn by Beagle, Peter S. published by Ballantine (1969) [Mass Market Paperback] by Peter S. Beagle
Hammer's Slammers by David Drake
Finder by Suzanne Palmer
The Tragedy of King Alexander the Stag by Delia Sherman
Tremontaine: The Complete Season One by Patty Bryant, Malinda Lo, Racheline Maltese, Joel Derfner, Ellen Kushner, Paul Witcover, Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
The Dark Descent by David G. Hartwell
The Man with the Knives by Tom Canty, Ellen Kushner
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Howard Chaykin, Mike Mignola, Al Williamson
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
Fafhrd y el Ratonero Gris by Howard Chaykin, Mike Mignola, Fritz Leiber
The Armless Maiden: And Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors by Terri Windling
Doctor Mirabilis by James Blish
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Engine Summer by John Crowley
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Spider in a Tree by Susan Stinson
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Counter Attack by 柴鸡蛋
Unconquered Countries by Geoff Ryman
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
Agent of Change by Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Lex Talionis by R.S.A. Garcia
The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine
The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno by Charlie Allison
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso
Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas
The Kids Came Back Wrong by Wen-yi Lee
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado
Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angélica Gorodischer
The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein
These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low
Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism by Jack D. Forbes
The Night Library of Sternendach by Jessica Lévai

delphi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

snickfic

She's the He! (2026). A very indie high school comedy with an all-queer cast about two teen boys who, in order to show everyone that they're not gay for each other, hatch a plan to pretend to be trans girls. (No, this does not make any more sense in the movie than it does in that description.) Then one of them realizes she might actually be trans.

This has a lot of heart and is very funny, with a lot of genuinely laugh out loud moments. The two leads are great, with Misha Osherovich providing the heart and soul and Nico Carney providing the antics.

There were parts where the pacing didn't quite work for me, like the compressed arc of "I might be trans" to "Continuing to live as a boy might kill me" in the space of a few days. The entire football team trying to break into the girls' locker room felt a bit too real, tonally, compared to the rest of the film. The movie this reminded me of the most was Bottoms, but the climactic battle there felt a lot sillier and less realistically threatening. However, for a tiny indie film like this with its heart clearly in the right place, I'm willing to forgive a lot.

On a side note, the nonbinary love interest is SMOKING hot and has chemistry with literally everyone. (Maybe too much chemistry, as at first I misjudged whose love interest they were.) And the two leads have absolutely incredible eyelashes.

Overall a great time. There's some conflict with the trans girl's mom, if you're sensitive to that, but otherwise a hearty recommendation from me.

--

The Invite (2026). Bickering couple Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) have the neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) over for dinner, and things get complicated.

This is getting a ton of great reviews, with lots of people saying things like "thank god, finally they're making adult comedies again." It does have a lot of things you're supposed to laugh at, mostly Joe being rude or Angela being an anxiety-ridden control freak. Later on we find out that Hawk and Pina are poly, which Joe and Angela are shocked and pleasantly scandalized by, and I guess that's supposed to be funny, too. (Meanwhile I was like omg, they said the word "compersion" in a movie. Multiple times!)

I was mildly entertained through all of this, not sure where on earth we were going, and then things got serious in the final fifteen minutes, which I did not expect at all. After apparently existing in a comedy universe for most of the film, suddenly we ( thematic spoilers ) Honestly this worked pretty well, as a tonal turnabout. Is this how adult comedies usually work? I guess I haven't really seen many of them. Certainly it feels like a very A24 approach to the genre.

It's a tightly written script and Wilde directs very confidently. The performances are all very good, as you would expect. It's functionally a bottle episode, as the entire movie takes place in the one apartment outside of the opening scene, and I believe the four main cast members are the only ones with lines. More and more I've come to appreciate that kind of restraint in storytelling. The set design of the apartment is great and is part of the story, as it's Angela's main life obsession. Everything is seafoam green, even her shirt.

I didn't hate the experience of watching this movie, and overall I think the execution is very good. It just feels like it ultimately was not my kind of thing. However, if it sounds like your kind of thing, I definitely recommend it.

kitewithfish

Reading journal for July 8 2026

What I’ve Read
OK, look, I read nothing to completion this week. I got sucked into a deeply unhinged Chinese boy love drama and I rode that till the wheels came off! And I’d do it again! Subtitles take up a similar level of eye strain as reading a book!

So here’s my review of that:
Revenged Love (2025) is a gay (BL) Chinese language drama that focuses on a young man who gets dumped by his girlfriend and decides to seduce the rich man she replaces him with. The story starts out with magnificent levels of plotting and scheming, and gradually shifts from a story about manipulating people to get what you want to a story about knowing people deeply and loving them with your whole heart. The young revenger falls, and falls HARD, for the rich young man that his girlfriend replaced him with, and it’s a great set of performances from these two. It’s comic and goofy and heartfelt. It also involves someone having a deep care for his pet snakes – a thing that I find fairly rare in TV!

The whole series can be watched in Mandarin with English subtitles on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlCSMHgOKbE&list=PLiCVOcxScfwh-Gkl0A0SeugdHQUg4QZIu
Trigger warnings for: suicide attempts, self destructive behavior of several kinds, tossing a twink to a gang, OODLES of manipulative behavior, LOTS OF SNAKES

What I’m Reading

I have abandoned the sheep book – I had too little time left on the audiobook to finish and after I found out the reason for the murder, I lost interest.

Shroud – Adrian Tchaikovsky – about 85%

逆袭 - 柴鸡蛋 | Counterattack - Chai Jidan – the English language translation of the novel that is the basis for Revenged Love. It’s absurd and very, very funny.

What I'll Read Next
Hugos! No changes
Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor Novel
Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction Paul Kincaid Related Work
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel written by Ursula K. Le Guin Graphic Story
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler Susana M. Morris Related Work
Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon written by Kelly Thompson Graphic Story
The Space Cat written by Nnedi Okorafor Graphic Story
Automatic Noodle Annalee Newitz Novella
The Summer War Naomi Novik Novella
The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers written by Kieron Gillen Graphic Story
The River Has Roots Amal El-Mohtar Novella
Murder by Memory Olivia Waite Novella

snickfic

Leviticus (2026). Two queer teen boys in a homophobic Australian backwater are stalked by a demon that appears to each one as the other, driving them apart.

This stars Joe Bird, the little brother in Talk to Me. He was great then and he's great here, and his and co-star Stacy Clausen's chemistry is fantastic. This movie only works because they're so good together as two fumbling kids who don't really understand themselves or each other, who can't trust each other because the other guy might be a demon, but who, it turns out, can't trust anyone else in their lives either. Betrayal is the big theme here: by trusted adults, religion, the person you're into, and yourself.

The conversion therapy metaphor is very obvious, which isn't necessarily bad, but I did feel that the movie wasn't sure what to do with it once it had introduced it. Like yes, now you (or the appearance of you) are dangerous to each other, so now what? I wanted it to give me more. The movie feels like it plateaus in the last act, neither deepening the themes nor escalating the tension but just hitting a lot of the same beats until things finally resolve.

However, the actual character work is good, IMO. Both kids are complicated and make realistically bad choices, but they also both keep trying with one another. There's a really great scene where love interest Ryan uses the word dickhead about five times, and it's honestly really sweet in context. The cinematography was also good; I really felt the kind of down-and-out exhaustion of the industrial small town.

Overall, even though it didn't fire on all cylinders for me, it's definitely a worthwhile watch if teen boys in love in a horror setting sound like your jam.

--

Rose of Nevada (2026). Directed by Mark Jenkin, who also made Enys Men, this is about two guys in an impoverished Cornish fishing town who take a job aboard a lost and resurfaced fishing boat, which takes them back in time. The guy who's been sleeping rough suddenly finds he has a wife and kid; the guy who took the job to support his family no longer has one, because they're back in the present day.

This movie is largely an Experience (tm) rather than a story as such. It seems like there is some actual plot/lore underpinning, but Jenkin is not that interested in explaining what it is. We spend a LOT of time on a fishing boat. The captain might be fae, or the boat might stuck in a time loop, or... who can say.

Mostly what Jenkin is interested in is making a movie that feels old, full of fuzziness and tactile impressions of things. I'm told the camera can only store about twelve seconds of footage at a time, so everything is a quick cut, and for whatever reason he didn't mic any of it, so all the sound happened in post and all the spoken dialogue was dubbed in, like an old giallo film or something.

I got out of this and was like well that was an experience I guess, but with time I feel like I might want to watch it again. Maybe I can make sense of more things this time.

delphi

Fandom 50 #20

For 1996, a little roots rock from a band named for some 19th century colonial sloganeering.

Crossing a Canyon by 54-40

Watch on YouTube

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look through our tags for characters you're interested in reading about!

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The Pull List

Member Posts

recs: short fics, mostly horror

Six Sentence Sunday

New banners...

What's Making Me Happy Today: An Unhealthy Obsession by xthatsecret (and TVL in general)

Wednesday Reading Meme for July 15, 2026

Storygraph 2026 - The Collected Book Suggestions

Six Sentence Sunday

movies: She's The He! and The Invite

Wednesday Reading meme for July 8 2026 (on Friday!)

movies: Leviticus, Rose of Nevada

Post and Jam: Crossing a Canyon by 54-40 [1996]

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