Manic Book Tag

Back at it with book tags because this is where my brain is at.

This tag, based on Halsey’s most recent album, was created by BookTuber Fadwa, AKA Word Wonders.

I was inspired to do it by Theresa at areadingelf (creator of the Sapphic Book Tag) and by Halsey herself, who has been advocating for Black Lives and protesting in Los Angeles.

Listen to this album if you get the chance.

[Note: I added Goodreads links instead of images today. This might be a new trend. Who can say.]

ASHLEY

A book w/ great character development

(Minor spoilers for The Midnight Lie)

Nirrim’s character arc starts off heartwarming and TAKES SOME TURNS.

You can’t argue that she doesn’t change over the course of the book.

I’m really gonna need that sequel.

CLEMENTINE

A book w/ mental illness representation

Freshwater has been on my TBR for a while.

I believe the main character deals with PTSD and Dissociative Identity Disorder.

GRAVEYARD

A horror book

I’d classified Victor Lavalle’s The Changeling as “creepy fantasy,” which could be better described as “horror.”

I am both horrified and intrigued by this book and I used to see it all the time at Elliott Bay Books.

TIME TO FREAK MYSELF OUT.

(Book Twitter keeps recommending The Ballad of Black Tom, another book by Lavalle. I’m going to have a great Halloween.)

YOU SHOULD BE SAD

A book with a morally gray character

(Spoilers for The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea)

(CW: murder, rape)

In general, murder is wrong. Don’t kill people. Don’t do that.

If a fictional character murders a rapist, though…

…yeah, I’m not mad about that.

Flora/Florian grapples with the morality of their actions.

How do you weigh morality against survival? It’s a tough call.

Sometimes justice looks like murdering rapists and desecrating their corpses.

FOREVER … (IS A LONG TIME)

A book with an immortal character or one that chases after immortality

Namina Forna created hype for her novel The Gilded Ones WITHOUT RELEASING THE PLOT SUMMARY. That is TALENT.

Once she released the novel’s synopsis, the pre-orders came RUSHING IN.

The synopsis reveals that protagonist Deka…can’t die?

I! AM! EXCITED!

I HATE EVERYBODY

A book with a grumpy character who’s soft inside

Galaxy “Alex” Stern and Detective Abel Turner act like big meanies, but secretly they care about other people.

…actually, this could describe everyone in Ninth House, including Pammy Dawes.

Unrelated: I don’t WANT an Alex/Darlington romance! I really don’t!

I want Darlington to stay [redacted]!

Alex/Abel forever!!

3AM

A book that you stayed up to finish

I wouldn’t let myself sleep until I finished Felix Ever After.

It was a good decision: I felt so full of love after finishing this book.

Felix is VERY GOOD and takes place DURING PRIDE MONTH.

The love interest is a PROTECTIVE CINNAMON ROLL.

READ IT.

WITHOUT ME

 A with a toxic and/or abusive relationship (no matter its nature)

I started The Fever King thinking I knew most of the plot twists already.

I was aware of some of the content…but the reveals caught me off guard.

Basically none of the relationships in this book are healthy.

(PLEASE check out the book’s content warnings before reading it.)

FINALLY/BEAUTIFUL STRANGER

A book with the Second Chance trope

From what I remember about Running With Lions, Sebastian and Emir are estranged former friends who fall in love.

New Old Flame isn’t my jam, but it might be yours! Read Running With Lions today!

KILLING BOYS

A book with a revenge story

You can trust a book with a The Count of Monte Cristo comp to cover revenge.

Scavenge the Stars’ Amaya is ready to kill in pursuit of vengeance.

MORE

A book with an intergenerational story

Beloved and The Water Dancer tackle slavery, a powerful intergenerational trauma.

Beloved does this by reintroducing a baby as an adult (and possible ghost.) (Beloved also posits that white supremacy is far scarier than ghosts ever could be, an idea also explored in HBO’s Lovecraft Country.)

The Water Dancer has protagonist Hiram help slaves escape using memories as a means of travel.

STILL LEARNING

A book about a celebrity, either real or fictional

I tried reading Katie Heaney and Arianna Rebolini’s Public Relations earlier this summer.

In it, a pop star falls for his publicist.

Friends…it was not for me.

929

A memoir or a biography

People consider Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me the author’s best work.

I preferred The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood.

It’s not a book I can do justice by talking about it. I highly recommend reading this one for yourself.

I had this post queued up to publish in June and am coming back to it now because a fellow blogger made a Badlands book tag! More Halsey content for everyone!

Also, I haven’t done a SINGLE folklore tag, which is a travesty.

Expect lots of musical bookish content from here on out.

My brain needs it.