In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 19/52

Six books this week!

Think Like a Freak is the third book by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner.  One is an economist, one is a journalist.  Together, they point out interesting things in social economics.  This one felt a bit shorter than the others, with less examples, and more commentary on how people came to have new ideas and new realisations about things you wouldn't expect.

Dreams of Joy is the sequel to Shanghai Girls.  The first book focuses on Pearl and May, two sisters who live in Shanghai in the '30s, when it was the 'Paris of Asia'.  They are sold to 'Gold Mountain Men' - men who have left China to make fortunes in America - as wives and shipped to Los Angeles.  Most of it takes place through the second world war, and it seems to have drawn quite a lot from  the experiences of Lisa See's family as documented in On Gold Mountain.

The sequel takes place in the 60s when Joy, truly believing that Mao's vision of a communist China will lead to a better world, returns there.  As well as being a good story, together, the books make up a fascinating history of Chinese people in America and China over the last century.

Chart Throb is a book I've read many times before, though this one is the audiobook as performed by Glen McCready, who is excellent.  I listened to this with my Tom in the car.  Very enjoyable.  It's about the Prince of Wales entering an X-Factor style show, with a huge focus on how it is produced and how heavily the contestants are manipulated.  Very believable, considering Ben Elton works for the BBC and can be expected to have a great deal of knowledge on this sort of thing.

The other three books I read are all part of a series by Charlaine Harris.  I read her entire Sookie Stackhouse series last year, the one which became a tv series by the name of True Blood.  In the Grave series, the main character is Harper Connolly.  After being hit by lightening at the age of fifteen, she gained the ability to read corpses, to find out what killed them.  They're basically murder mysteries with a slight supernatural twist.  There are only four books in the series, and the last one was published in 2009.  I'm currently 1/3 of the way through; I'm hoping it really does wrap up the series, rather than just trailing off.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 18/52

Only three books this week; two rereads, one new.

Do You Remember the First Time? is one of my favourite Jenny Colgan novels.  It's strangely beautiful, while also being pretty funny.

Shanghai Girls was the first Lisa See novel I ever read, and I enjoyed rereading it.  I've just finished the sequel, so I'll write more about both in next week's post.

After Dark was a library book.  I've been interested in reading IQ84, but that seemed a bit long.  I'm glad I read After Dark first.  It was strange and interesting, but a little too surreal and lacking in plot for me.  I don't think I'd enjoy his other works; I don't have the patience to understand them.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 17/52

Eight books this week!  Two by Stephen King, though Cycle of the Werewolf is a very short novella.  You can read slightly more of my thoughts on those in this post, although, to be honest, I'm struggling to find anything original to say.  During this time of his life, King was struggling with addiction and that is reflected in the themes of his novels.  He also wrote more about children, presumably as he watched his own grown up.

Peony in Love was an interesting one.  A ghost story based in historical fact, it's about the three wives of The Three Wives Commentary, originally published in 1694.  The commentary in question was on The Peony Pavilion, a play about a woman who pined away through not being able to be with her lover, but was later revived through love and due to specific beliefs regarding the Chinese afterlife.  As Jeannie Lin points out in her blogpost on the book, the play was first performed in 1598 while Romeo and Juliet was written in 1597.

The three wives were married to Wu Ren; Chen Tong, the first wife, died before their marriage, but they later had a 'ghost ceremony'.  Chen Tong is Peony; Lisa See points out that 'Tong' means 'same' and has Peony adopt the name when she is engaged, since Peony is also her new mother-in-law's name.  Peony dies quite early on (this is not a spoiler - it's quite early on) and goes on to guide the second and third wives who come after her.

What Lisa See does really well is to show the misunderstandings and misinterpretations of her main characters.  Peony misses things.  She doesn't know what people are thinking or why they do things, she misses important things that they do, and she misinterprets why they do things.  Later, she has moments of revelation which the reader shares.  Sometimes, the reader is more aware than Peony.  For instance, it's fairly easy to predict Tan Ze's anger and to read her motivations.

There was an element of Peony in Love that reminded me a lot of The Lovely Bones.  To whit, a ghost uses the body of a living person in order to experience love-making.  In The Lovely Bones this rape is presented purely romantically.  In Peony in Love, the perpetrator is called out for their behaviour and comes to regret it.  Still not a totally comfortable plot-point, but slightly better done.

Gangsta Rap was written by Benjamin Zephaniah.  I picked it up because Benjamin Zephaniah lived near my primary school, and visited us occasionally to perform poetry.  It's not a brilliant novel; a fun and fast read, but clumsily plotted, and the dialogue sometimes seems slightly unrealistic.  It's predictable.  I did like some elements of it though; for instance, it seems the author is more intelligent than the characters, and when they do stupid things - like harass teenage girls because they know no other way to get attention - it's clear that the author seems the problem with this and doesn't condone the behaviour.  The women react realistically.

Further Confessions is a sequel to a book I owned in my early teens.  It's from Simon Mayo's radio show, on which he'd have people send in confessions of things they'd done and pranks they'd played, asking forgiveness from a panel including a priest, a nun, and possibly a rabbi, I don't know, I never listened.  Very much the sort of book to dip in and out of; the kind of book you leave in the bathroom.

The Hollow Hills is another book I read in my early teens.  It's the second part of a series, so earlier this year I borrowed the first part from the library and had another crack at it.  It's a retelling of the Arthur legends, all from Merlin's point of view.  I like it, as much as I like any of the Arthur stories.

As You Wish was an audio book; it's ostensibly by Cary Elwes but has chapters from the other actors involved in The Princess Bride as well as Rob Reiner and William Goldman themselves.  Most of these actors also show up to read their own sections.  It's really more of an interview session on the making of The Princess Bride hosted by Elwes than any sort of biography of his.  Kind of fun.  I'm wishing I'd gone to ComicCon at the NEC this year; he was there selling autographs for £20.  Not sure what I would have had him sign, considering I have The Princess Bride on Kindle and this on Audible, but I do know I would have asked him to write anything other than 'as you wish', just to see what he'd have come up with.

Finally, Stress-Proof Your Life.  A book with some interesting tips.  I tried one yesterday; a day with no chores, no demands, no social media or anything that makes time move fast.  Just a day of relaxing, drinking water, eating vegetables, reading, drawing, writing and napping.  It was nice.  I didn't like coming back to reality today, and it was hard to fully relax, but it was really nice spending an entire day with nothing to do but read and sleep and eat.  I may do that again next month.

In Which We Discuss Pet Sematary

I've read Pet Sematary before, but this time, reading it in context of King's other published novels, I found it kind of adorable.  Firstly, in the introduction he talks about Owen and Naomi, his youngest and eldest children.  He tells a story about Naomi that is later echoed by the daughter in Pet Sematary; of when their cat died, and he explained to Naomi that god had taken the cat to be with him.  Naomi had screamed "God can get his own cat!".

He also told a story that more directly influenced the story; that of Owen's near miss with a giant truck.  If I recall correctly, this is the same road where King would later be hit by a car.

Finally, at one point, Louis muses on twins, one of whom dies in the womb and is absorbed by the other, later showing up as a tumour of teeth or hair in their sibling.  This later shows up in The Dark Half.  Rachel also drives past Jerusalem's Lot, musing on the name.

James Smythe comments on the pace of the book, something I noticed.  It's very much a slow burn, like The Dead Zone, but it comes to fruition rather than being lanced.

The book is genuinely scary, not just creepy.  We can see ourselves making the same decisions Louis does.  The story is born of a pretty straightforward adult fear, and King also mentions in the introduction that he hid the book away for several years before allowing it to be published because he felt like he'd gone too far.

I also read Cycle of the Werewolf over the past few days.  Very short little novella; 12 chapters, with illustrations.  I admit, I skimmed it a bit.

James Smythe draws a link with King's addictions, and also points out that this sort of thing exists for serious collectors.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 16/52

Six books last week!  Two of them - The Second Sex and Piano & Keyboard I'd been reading for a while.  Three of them - Monstrous Regiment, The Afterdark Princess, and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - were audiobooks.  Finally, The Flavours of Love had been hanging out on my unread pile for a while.

The Second Sex I read for my feminist bookclub, a meeting that never actually happened.  Everyone except me cancelled.  I'd only read half the book by the day, so I just carried on with it.  It's a brick.  An interesting read, but a long one.  It really surprised me how much of it was still current and still relevant, despite the book being written sixty-five years ago.  That's kind of sad.

Piano & Keyboard was a decent guide.  I picked up a lot of good tips and I'm glad I read it.  It really helped my musicianship.

The Afterdark Princess was a children's book I used to really like.  It was just over £7 on Audible, but I picked up three credits for £18 and decided to get it.  It's less than three hours long, so I played it through in my locker a couple of times when I was at work to try to get a few Audible badges.  Worked pretty well.

Monstrous Regiment is one of my favourite Discworld books.  Stephen Briggs is a great reader, but I really wish this book had been read by a woman.  A woman who could do great male voices.  I'd love to hear Monstrous Regiment read by a woman who could do great male voices.

I've only seen a bit of The Mindy Show and none of The Office, but I like Mindy Kaling.  And I like hearing autobiographies read by the authors, especially since they tend to be comedians or other performers.  So far, the best performance has been Michael McIntyre.  He did the best voices, especially his impression of his Hungarian grandmother.  Mindy definitely sounded like she was reading not performing, but she was reading so she can be forgiven for that.  And the book was pretty interesting.  I mostly read it while running, or while walking to work or round the supermarket.  I will not be adopting Mindy's revenge-fantasy method of exercise motivation.

Finally, The Flavours of Love.  I love Dorothy Koomson.  Her books are like chick-lit thrillers, two genres I love, and I love that all her heroines are black.  It's something that appears so seldom, which makes me sad.

I read Flavours of Love over a day; a few hours before bed, on the way to work, at lunch, while donating blood, and finished it before falling asleep the next night.  I really enjoyed it.

My unread pile is now at 102.  I'm going to try to have it under 100 on New Year's Eve.  Then, next year, my goal will be to get it to under 15, where I'll try to keep it.  That seems pretty amazing to me right now - I haven't had that few unread books in my possession since I was six or seven years old.  But I think I'll be happier when I don't have all those books cluttering up the place and making me feel guilty.

In Which We Discuss Audible Badges

So, my Audible app just updated itself and now it has a whole bunch of new badges on it.  Or, rather, they are almost the exact same badges that were on there before but now they work slightly better.

The new badges are as follows, in alphabetical order.   The entries with question marks are those that I don't actually have yet.

Edit: my app just (18th September 2020) updated to announce I'd achieved the silver level of The Librarian.  I passed 200 books long ago, so I suspect there's been some kind of update.

Badge Name	What to Do	Basic	Silver	Gold
The Annotator	Add a bookmark with a note.	10 bookmarks	40 bookmarks	125 bookmarks
Bitesized Bookworm	Listen to parts of different titles in one day.	3 titles	15 titles	40?
7 Day Stretch	Complete books in one week (note; I earned this by marking books I'd read before as 'finished', not by listening to them all in one week).	3 books	5 books	10 books
Deja Vu	Listen to books multiple times.	3 times	10?	20 times
Done and Dusted	Listen to one complete book, start to finish.	1 book	3 books	5 books
The Epic	Complete  titles over x hours long.	20 hours	35 hours	50 hours
High Noon	Listen during lunchtime (hours do not have to be consecutive!)	1 hour	2 hours	3 hours
The Librarian	Collect audiobooks!	50?	200	500?
Marathoner	Listen for hours in a row.	2 hours	5 hours	8 hours
Night Owl	Listen during the evening or night (hours do not have to be consecutive!)	4 hours	6 hours	8 hours
The Optimist	Have unfinished books in your library.  They must be downloaded and marked as unfinished.	10?	20?	75?
On the Trot	Listen to a portion of an audio book every day.	7 days in a row	30 days in a row	90?
Social Butterfly	Share something to facebook or twitter from the app.	5 times	25 times	100 times
Stats Surfer	View the stats screen.	50 times	200 times	500?
Weekend Warrior	Listen during the weekend (hours do not have to be consecutive!)	5 hours	10 hours	24 hours

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 15/52

So, I read five books lasy week.  Not bad.  I also succeeded in getting my unread pile down to 100, though I promptly picked up a few audio books.  I normally go for audio books I've read before, so listening to totally new novels will be a new experience for me.

Speaking of new novels, both Sushi for Beginners and 50 Ways to Find a Lover have been in my unread pile for a while.  Years, in fact.  I'm glad I finally got around to both because I really enjoyed them.  They're both 'chick-lit', a genre which I have a not-so-secret passionate for.  Sushi for Beginners was wonderfully predictable.  The assholes got what they deserved.  The people I liked got what they deserved.  It was comfortable, but just surprising enough to be interesting.

I mostly liked 50 Ways to Find a Lover because of the main character.  She was disgusting, in a very lovable and realistic way.  All the stuff you do in secret but don't admit to, she doesn't care.  I kind of like that.

Dear Everybody I didn't like so much.  It was an image of a suicidal man's life built up from letters he left behind, by his delusional and naive younger brother.  A quick read, but not that amazing.

I loved the short stories though.  Philip K. Dick may not be good at titles, but he was a good storyteller.  I really liked them once I got into them, though they were sitting on my unread pile for a while before then.

Finally, Double Star.  I read that for a book club.  I only decided to go at the last minute, and the book just dragged me in.  Very short, under two hundred pages, and I read it over one day.  About an actor who is hired to temporarily fill in for a kidnapped politician.  We had fun at the bookclub.  We found out what we were all like at fifteen.

I have decided that "what were you like at fifteen?" is the best ice-breaking question ever.  No one has a boring answer.

In Which We Discuss Christine

I first read Christine in 2008.  Since then, I have described it as 300 pages of plot in a 700 page novel.  I'm not totally sure if I feel that way any more.  A second read through has allowed me to take my time and absorb the plot more without being so impatient to get to the end.  I enjoyed it more, but it's still not in my top ten.

The book reminds me a little of my grandfather; he named his car Christine.

I started making a playlist using the songs quoted in the book, but accidentally returned the book to the library before I finished it.  It's a very good playlist; I particularly enjoyed Woody Guthrie's Take You Ridin' in my Car.

James Smythe seems to have had a similar opinion to myself on this one, though, as always, he's expressed it rather better.

I finished Christine almost a week ago, and it's taken me this long to write this much.  The next book is Pet Semetary, which I've also read before, probably about the same time as Christine.  I picked that up from the library a few days ago and still haven't started - it's been a busy week.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 14/52

Firstly, some news.  I'm on a final written warning at work due to absence.  Mostly it's because I took two months off in the middle of summer due to depression.  The straw that broke the camel's back was the recent five days I took off when I had such a bad cold that I nearly fainted one day, after not being to eat.  All very sad.

I thought of this when writing this post because it lasts for a year.  I'm already 14 weeks, or nearly three months, into being 26.  So maybe it won't be that long until I'm 14 weeks into 27, with a clear record again.

I listened to The Vagina Monologues rather than read them.  I really don't enjoy Eve Ensler's performance, not as much as I did seeing it performed last year.  I listened to it in the car with my new boyfriend.  He quite enjoyed it.  He grew up outnumbered by sisters, so he's already well broken in.

I read Perks of Being a Wallflower because it's been sitting on my kindle for ages and because the film got such good reviews.  It was awful.  Halfway through, it came as a shock to learn that the narrative character was supposed to be a highly literate, intelligent sixteen-year-old and not a slightly simple eight-year-old.  Writing like someone who doesn't communicate well can be used to great effect - for example, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - but not when the character in question is being raved about by other characters for their writing skills.

Last Continent is another one I listened to.  A Discworld book, which I've read before.  I appear to be listening to all of the Discworld books, in no particular order.  I've since moved on to Monstrous Regiment, so you'll see that pop up in a week or two.  Nigel Planer gives an excellent performance, and his accent doesn't wander nearly so much as the Egyptian one he attempted for Pteppic's father in Pyramids.

Christine was part of my Stephen King Chronological Reading Project.  I really need to get a move on and write a proper post for that, I finished it two days ago.

I first read Christine in 2008.  At the time, I felt it had about half as much plot as the pages actually required.  I read it with less impatience this time, and enjoyed it a little more.  The next one will be Pet Semetary, which I've also read before, and which I'll pick up from the library tomorrow.

Big Girls don't cry is yet another old favourite.  I first read it at fifteen or sixteen and it blew me away.  One particular line has been adopted as my personal philosophy; get the foundations right and the building can go up anyhow it likes.  The line applies to underwear and clothing, but I think of it as applying to all beauty.  Master clear skin, well-cut hair and neat eyebrows, and don't bother to put make-up on everyday, is my philosophy.

Finally, Grimm Tales Made Gay.  Humourous verses based on Grimm's Fairytales.  I read it at work.  Short and amusing.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 13/52

Another slow week.  I've been working my way through The Second Sex, so everything else has pretty much taken a back seat to that.

Aberystwyth Mon Amour is a hard-boiled detective novel set in Aberystwyth, a quite little Welsh seaside town.  The juxtaposition is kind of funny, and it's an interesting read.  I had a really nice day trip to Aberystwyth back in February, and I saw them in the museum then, so I bought it when it popped up cheaply on Kindle.

Rivers of London is a police procedural meets Harry Potter.  MET Cop learns magic is real, learns some, hunts ghost-serial-killer who is murdering through evil voodoo puppetry.  I'm reading it for a bookclub.  The meeting isn't for quite a while, but I was on a Sunday shift at work, and we can generally get away with reading then.  Only paperbacks, no kindles, hence why I didn't get on with The Second Sex (the bookclub for that is this Saturday!).

I actually read the sequel to this a while ago.  I don't remember disliking it, but though I've had Rivers of London on my bookcase for a while I just haven't gotten around to actually reading it till now.

In Which We Discuss Loving Me, Fearing Me, and Doing What I Say

This isn't about books for once, unless you want to count the Labyrinth mangas.  Instead, it's about characters who are locked in, which I think may be better presented visually.

The quote comes from Jareth, the Goblin King of the Labyrinth.  My middle name is Jareth, incidentally.  Anyway, the full line is;

"Love me, fear me, do as I say...and I will be your slave."

I like that line.  Jareth is expressing want and need and desire in the only way he is able to - through force and domination.  It's a roundabout way to do it, really.  He can't admit to wanting, or needing - he can only issue that ultimatum of a scenario - that he would do anything for someone who loved him, and reciprocated his fealty.

Jess, of the Gilmore Girls is a similar character.  I'm just watching the episode in which Rory graduates from Chilton, and when I say 'just' I mean it's paused in another tab.  Jess has been working as hard as he can; he was putting in 40+ hour weeks at work, working at Luke's and trying to keep up with his school work.  Unfortunately, his attendance let him down; despite being able to keep up, he was told he would not be allowed to graduate and needed to repeat that year.  This meant he would not be able to take Rory to prom, something she had been dreaming about.  When Luke found out - Luke being Jess' uncles and a very similar character - neither of them were able to have the heart-to-heart they desperately needed.  Jess could not obtain support, and Luke didn't realise he needed it - instead, he told him to find somewhere else to live.  Jess ran away to California, to live with his absent father.  He couldn't build up the courage to tell Rory before he left.

In this episode, Jess keeps calling Rory and remaining silent.  Eventually, she acknowledges that she knows it's him, says goodbye, and that she loved him but she's moving on.  Jess couldn't ask for this; he could only present himself and hope that some closure would be offered.  It comes from the same sort of place as equating love with putting yourself entirely in someone else's hands - something you are only willing to do if they reciprocate with love, fear, and obedience.  Jareth asks for such high stakes because that's what he's offering in return.  He expresses love through domination and need from a place of power because he isn't strong enough to show need from a place of weakness.  He cannot ask that someone accepts him only as he stands and then wait to be accepted or rejected.  He has to put himself on a throne or a pedestal first and then issue the invitation from there, as if he doesn't care what the answer will be.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 12/52

I read a LOT this week.  From Wednesday, I was off work with some sort of terrible lurgy.  I pretty much just slept and read for three or four days in a row.  Didn't eat which is probably why I fainted halfway through.

A Doll's House is a play I've read before.  Again, it's on wikisource, so I read it on a quiet Tuesday at work.  It's a classic, and considered to be one of the first if not the first feminist plays.  I saw it performed at the Birmingham rep when I was sixteen, which is ten years ago now.

True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is another one I first read years ago.  Just over fifteen years ago actually - it was a gift for my eleventh birthday.  I think my friends just went round their local charity shops and came out with a handful of books, but I'm glad this is one of them.  It just blew me away.  It's about a proper young Victorian miss who ends up witnessing a mutiny on a ship.  Newbury Medal winner.

According to wikipedia;

A film adaption of the book is in development. It is to be written and directed by Danny DeVito, starring Morgan Freeman as Zachariah and Pierce Brosnan as Jaggery. Dakota Fanning was originally cast as Charlotte Doyle, but had to drop out as production was continually halted and she eventually grew too old for the part. Saoirse Ronan was later cast, but she also grew too old. Locations are being scouted in Ireland and shooting is set for July 2014.

Exciting!

I read The Eternal Enemy because I loved Remember Me by the same author.  Eternal Enemy is about a young girl who buys a VCR which can record the future.  She records the news and tries to prevent terrible accidents, until the day she sees her own face on there.  Unfortunately, she doesn't get all of the broadcast...something goes wrong.

That plot was described in Remember Me by Peter, one of the characters.  When I found out that Pike had actually written it, I just had to read it.  It's pretty interesting.   Heads off into sci-fi rather than horror, much like Koji Suzuki's Ring Trilogy does.

Silver Birch, Blood Moon is the fifth in a series of modernised or reimagined fairy tale anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.  I wrote a slightly longer post about the series here.

Because this volume was the first I read, I have a special fondness for it.  I love Precious obviously, but also the incredibly creepy retelling of Thumbelina, the romantic Rumpelstiltskin, and the terrible story of one of the princes who didn't make it through Sleeping Beauty's hedge.  Less fond of the retelling of Snow White, who lives in an iron graveyard and dies of tetanus.

Music Theory for Dummies is a book I bought myself for my birthday, along with my keyboard.  It's been pretty useful.  Took me a while to get through it, and I didn't quite take in all the bits about permutations of chords, but that's also covered in Piano and Keyboard All-in-One for Dummies which I'm currently reading.

Unsouled is the third part of Neal Shusterman's Unwind series.  It's set in a universe where abortion is not allowed, but you can have troublesome teenagers 'unwound' - that is, taken apart for parts.  Every cell is kept alive and donated to someone who needs it.  It's an interesting and well-written series, which really goes into the ramifications of that idea.

Finally, Don't Tell the Groom is one that popped up on Kind of Book, a site which will notify you of heavily reduced Kindle books.  I don't subscribe any more, because it was making my unread pile grow uncontrollably.

Speaking of which, my unread pile is now down to 107.  My goal is still to get it down to 100 or less by the end of the year, so I'm well on track for that, as long as I don't buy any more.

Anyway, Don't Tell the Groom.  It's about a woman who accidentally gambles away her wedding savings and then tries to organise a cheaper wedding on the sly so the groom won't find out.  She tells him she wants it to be a surprise, and from a money-saving point of view, it's interesting.  Some nice ideas, and even a shout out to Martin Lewis.  The gambling support is fairly well done too, though I'm not totally convinced at how easily the main character gave up on her bingo addiction.  I've never had an addiction, but it seems like it would take more than realising you have a problem, deciding to give up, and then only slipping up twice - once spending about £5 on scratchcards and once almost stealing a scratchcard from another bride's wedding favours.  It all seems a bit too easy. 

I mostly picked it up because it's very 'chick-lit', but touched on a serious issue which doesn't normally have a place in that genre.  I feel like more could have been done with it, but it was still a decent read.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 11/52

Only two this week - I've been busy.

A Wag Abroad is the sequel to The Wag's Diary, both by Alison Kervin.  Honestly, I was pretty disappointed.  The first book worked because it was silly with a lot of heart.  The sequel ups the silly and loses some of the heart.  The plot is transparent and flimsy.  Several times, it is necessary for Tracie to misunderstand a conversation, and the way this is done is far too obvious and contrived.  Tracie also manages to go from basically intelligent but ignorant of things outside of her area of interest to a total idiot.  Finally, the production values were incredibly low on the ebook; poorly formatted, typoes everywhere, etc.  I only finished it on goodwill left over from the first one.  Probably won't bother with the third.

As for Different Seasons, I wrote a longer post on that here. 

In Which We Discuss Creepshow and Different Seasons

I've been reading so fast I've gotten a little behind, so here, have two in one.

Creepshow was the first screenplay Stephen King wrote, if I recall correctly.  Directed by George Romero, it consists of three short stories and a framework.  Stephen King's son, author Joe Hill stars in the framing story while King himself plays the main character in one of the shorts.

Joe Hill is the little boy with the voodoo doll, and King is the one you can see in the thumbnail, behind the doctor.  While we're looking at Stephen and Joe, here's Tabitha at around the same time.

And a 2103 interview with Owen King and Joe Hill on being the children of authors and their own new novels.  And Joe's children, which I didn't realise he had, because I'm a reader, not a stalker.

My favourite extract from the interview;

How did you decide to spend your life writing fiction?
OK: I hope Joe has a good answer, because it was never like I read a book and said, “That’s what I wanna do.” It was more like I loved to read, I liked to tell stories, I practiced; eventually, it started to seem viable.
JH: I don’t think there was exactly one aha moment. But you’d come home from school and Mom would be in her room clattering away on this tomato-colored typewriter and my dad would be up in his office working on a word processor with the glowing green letters on the black screen, and they’d both be making stuff up. So for myself, by the time I was 11, 12, I’d kind of absorbed the idea that you should spend a little time each afternoon making stuff up and eventually you’d be paid really well for it.

Back to Creepshow.  It's pretty silly.  Creepy at times, very eighties, very camp.  There's also a comic book, but it's ridiculously expensive.

Now for Different Seasons.

Some people like Apt Pupil.  Some like The Body - or Stand By Me, as they called the movie.  And some just love Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.  But me, I like The Breathing Method and Sandra Stansfield the best.

Sandra is a woman in the mould of Irene Adler.  Not Sherlock's lover Irene, but someone closer to the original.  A determined, intelligent, strong woman who runs rings around the men in her life.  And, like Irene's appearance in A Scandel in Bohemia, we see her through the eyes of a man watching the man who admires her.  Not loves in a romantic way, but admires.  Looks up to.

It's Different Seasons that contains the anecdote where King's editor worries about him being typecast.  It's when they decide to publish 'salem's Lot after Carrie.  Well King is typecast, but he doesn't seem to mind.  I get the idea that you can sum up his philosophy of writing with the idea 'you take what you've got and you do what you can.  And if you can pay the bills with it, so much the better'.  He writes the kinds of books he likes.  In the epilogue of Different Seasons, he acknowledges that he isn't a great literary writer, but also that he doesn't make a habit of reading great literature.  Which sounds fair enough to me.

As we all know, Shawshank became a very successful movie.  Apt Pupil was also filmed, with Sir Ian McKellen as Kurt Dussander.

James Smythe agrees with my feelings on The Breathing Method.  He skipped Creepshow, also fair.

Now for another checkpoint, just because.  I last updated this list on the 17th of August.  The ones in red I have read previously, while the ones in blue were new to me.  I've also included the first published novels of Stephen King's wife, two sons, and daughter-in-law.  I have not forgotten about Naomi King, but since she isn't a public figure in any sense it'd be kind of weird to go and look stuff up about her.

Owen King did contribute to a collection of baseball stories in 2003, but I've decided not to count that.  Because I don't like baseball.

Carrie - 1974 -  June 15th 2013
'Salem's Lot - 1975 - June 30th 2013
The Shining - 1977 - July 28th 2013
Rage - 1977 - July 31st 2013
Night Shift - 1978 - August 28th 2013

The Stand - 1978 - March 20th 2014
The Long Walk - 1979 - March 23rd 2014
The Dead Zone - 1979 - June 2014
Firestarter - 1980 - August 16th 2014


- 06/13 to 17/8/14 - 9

Roadwork - 1981 - 23rd August 2014
Danse Macabre - 1981 - 7th September 2014


- BONUS: Small World (Tabitha King) - 10th September 2014

Cujo - 1981 - 20th September 2014
The Running Man - 1982- 22nd September 2014
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - 1982 - 30th September 2014

Creepshow - 1982 - 1st October 2014
Different Seasons - 1982  - 24th October 2014

- 17/8/14 to 25/10/14 - 7 (16)
 
Christine - 1983
Pet Sematary - 1983
Cycle of the Werewolf - 1983

The Talisman - 1984
Thinner - 1984

Skeleton Crew - 1985
It - 1986
The Eyes of the Dragon - 1987

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three - 1987
Misery - 1987

The Tommyknockers - 1987
Nightmares in the Sky  - 1988
The Dark Half - 1989

Four Past Midnight - 1990
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands - 1991 

Needful Things - 1991
Gerald's Game - 1992
Dolores Claiborne - 1992

Nightmares & Dreamscapes - 1993
Insomnia - 1994

Rose Madder - 1995
The Green Mile - 1996
Desperation - 1996

The Regulators - 1996
Six Stories - 1997

The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass - 1997
Bag of Bones - 1998
Storm of the Century - 1999 

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - 1999
The New Lieutenant's Rap - 1999  

Hearts in Atlantis - 1999
Blood and Smoke - 1999
"Riding the Bullet" - 2000  

On Writing - 2000
Secret Windows - 2000 

The Plant - 2000      
Dreamcatcher - 2001
Black House (with Peter Straub) -2001

Everything's Eventual - 2002
From a Buick 8 - 2002

The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla - 2003  
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah - 2004
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower - 2004

Faithful - 2004
- BONUS: 20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill) - Jan 2005
- BONUS: Josie & Jack (Kelly Braffet)  - Feb 2005
- BONUS: We're All in This Together (Owen King) - 2005
The Colorado Kid - 2005

Cell - 2006
Lisey's Story - 2006
Blaze - 2007

Duma Key - 2008  
Just After Sunset - 2008 

Stephen King Goes to the Movies - 2009
Ur - 2009     
Under the Dome - 2009

Blockade Billy - 2010
Full Dark, No Stars - 2010

Mile 81 - 2011    
11/22/63 - 2011
American Vampire (with Scott Snyder) - 2011

"Throttle" (with Joe Hill) - 2012
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole - 2012 

A Face in the Crowd (with Stewart O'Nan) - 2012
"In the Tall Grass"  (with Joe Hill) - 2012
"GUNS" - 2013

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County - 2013
Joyland - 2013

The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem - 2013
Doctor Sleep - 2013
Mr. Mercedes - 2014      

Revival - November 2014
Finders Keepers - 2015


I've now read  16 out of 86 books, which is a big jump from the 9 I'd read last time.  It's 18.6%, which feels a lot more respectable.  It's helped that I made a rule about reading at least 25 pages a day, and once I'd hit that, I'd often carry on for quite a bit longer.

There's a lot of rereads coming up.  Christine and Pet Semetary, neither of which I remember particularly enjoying.  Especially not Christine, which I've described as 300 pages worth of plot in a 700+ page novel.  I'm going to see if the library has it; don't feel like buying a copy.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 10/52

I finished some books this week!

The School of Good and Evil was an interesting one.  Another fairytale rewrite; this one is about a school where pupils are raised to be either good - generally princes and princesses - or evil, ie, witches.  Sophie and Agatha are from a village from which two children are kidnapped in order to attend the school.  Sophie is determined to be the pretty princess, while Agatha only wants to go home, so it's a bit of a shock when Agatha's dropped into the good half of the school and Sophie in the bad.  Kind of silly.  I think the major flaw is that it ignores every single other fairytale rewrite over the past twenty or so years and assumes we're all starting with some very, very old clichés which it proceeds to subvert.  Loses some of the effect when we've seen it done so many times.

Handmaid's Tale I listened to as an audio book.  I first read it as a teenager.  Atwood is a bit hit and miss for me, but this one I like.

The WAGs Diary is a book I first read in 2007.  I really liked it; it's about a WAG, Tracie Martin, who really throws herself into the whole thing.  There's a sweet depth to the character; an abusive mother gives her a freudian excuse for throwing herself into the world of Waggishness and it is genuinely funny.  I was a little put off the book when I read about some of Alison Kervin's comments on chavs; I began to worry that the joke was, in fact, on me.  I'm the mixed-race, bastard result of a teenage pregnancy raised on a council estate by a single mother.  My dad's an unemployed drug dealer, and both sides of my family are rife with alcoholism.  I'm a bit sensitive to the word 'chav'.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a book I read for my feminist bookclub, which I ended up missing in the end.  It explores the trials of raising a daughter in a world full of pretty pink princesses.  It touches on a lot of issues in 200 or so pages, which makes it harder to delve into some of them.  I do want to write a longer post on the book - probably just flicking through my highlights and writing down why I highlighted them - because it did trigger quite a lot of thoughts.

Incidentally, I missed my feminist meeting because I was in bed with this guy.

We've been dating for about a month.  He's sweet, and laughs at my jokes, and reads, and climbs, and has all those muscles that make smart girls stupid.  I honestly thought of getting out of bed, then got distracted. I'm not even going to pretend to be sorry.

Finally, Mini-Habits was 125 pages and I read it in one evening.  It really didn't need to be that long.  Basic premise is, if you set yourself an absurdly simple habit - ie, doing one push-up - you're more likely to actually stick to it in the long run, and even surpass it.  This makes sense to me.  My rule for learning the guitar, and now, the keyboard, was to practice once a day.  No minimum.  I could literally pick either instrument up, play one chord, and be done for the day.  That made it easy; it wasn't a big commitment or a chore, and 99% of the time I'd surpass that goal.  But I didn't have to, so I didn't feel bad on days when I really could only put in the bare minimum.  It let me keep it up without ever feeling like a failure.  That's the basic argument this book makes.  It also points out that decided to do something that feels like a chore - a 30 minute workout, or an hour's piano practice - imposes a huge cost on your willpower, which is finite.  Deciding to do single push-up or turn on my keyboard and play one chord costs far less, so you're more likely to actually do it.

Really, that's it.  Could have been explained in one blog post.  Good idea though.

In Which We Discuss Fairy Tale Anthologies

Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow have collected several volumes of rewritten fairy-tales.  Some of which are amazing.  And you know what drives me mad?  There doesn't seem to be a concise list of them anywhere.  There doesn't even seem to be a collective name for the series.  Even Goodreads doesn't link them together.  How am I supposed to collect them all?  Quite apart from the fact that not all of them are on Kindle.  Honestly.

• Snow White, Blood Red (1995) - I have a physical copy of this.
• Black Thorn, White Rose (1995) - I have a physical copy of this.
• Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (1996) - I have this on Kobo.
• Black Swan, White Raven (1997) - I have this on Kobo.
• Silver Birch, Blood Moon (1999) - this volume contains my favourite story of the entire collection - Nalo Hopkinson's Precious.  I now own this volume on Kindle.
• Black Heart, Ivory Bones (2000)

Here they are.  I wrote that damn list myself, before finding that if you click very carefully and follow the right links, you can get to this page.  And no, you can't just get there by searching for "snow white, blood red anthology", don't be silly.

As far as I know, the only one you can't get as an ebook is that first one, Snow White, Blood Red, so I'm glad to have my physical copy.

It was actually searching for Precious that lead me to look all this up.  I was fairly sure I'd read it in the first volume I found, which I borrowed from Birmingham Central Library.  I just couldn't remember which one that was, and if I'd later bought a copy or not.  I knew I owned a few physical books, but wasn't sure how many, and I knew I had a few on kobo too.  Glad to have that straightened out!

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, 9/52

None.  Absolutely none.

This is what I'm in the middle of now!

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 26th Year, Week 8/52

 

I've now been 26 for two months.  That went fast.

I wrote a dedicated post for The Gunslinger here.  Since then, I've watched Creepshow and read 1/3 of Different Seasons.  I also watched Shawshank again, just because.  I should write about those.

The Secret Shopper's Revenge was another reread. I first read it four or five years ago, when I borrowed it from the library.  I've returned to it a few times since then, and now own it on Kindle.

The book's about three women who all, while in dire straits, take up mystery shopping.  It's not like real life mystery shopping, being a lot more high-tech for a start, but I am very happy to ignore that.  One of them is a Brummie!  And the way they pull themselves from dire straits to rather better ones makes me happy.

I read Little Lord Fauntleroy on a quiet day at work.  I read it as a child originally, and it makes me happy.  I like how pleasant Lord Fauntleroy and his mother are.  I like how it all works out with quite minimal fuss.  It makes me happy.

Rosemary's Baby I read on Sunday, another quiet day.  It reminded me a lot of Jekyll & Hyde, in that, due to cultural osmosis, I had such a strong idea of the plot that it didn't function effectively as suspense.  It was more a case of waiting for the characters to catch up.  I read it because Stephen King because such

Stolen Child was okay.  Again, a case of waiting for the characters to catch up to the action, in a way that was frustratingly slow at times.

I've been twenty-six for two months!  Things have changed very rapidly in that time!

Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 25-27

Part 8 is here.

25: Redemption

She came to find him the day before they were due to leave. He was sitting in their usual place outside, alone. He wasn't reading, for once, just thinking, and he didn't seem surprised to see her there. She took a deep breath and sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry Scorpius. You were right.  You were right about everything."

She didn't give him time to interrupt.

"You know what happened between Lily and Snape? How the final straw between them was that name he used for her? Well, we don't have a similar word for Purebloods, not with all the negative connotations and history, but, if we did, then it would have meant all the presumptions I used on you and your family. "

He shrugged.

"I want to get to know you again, Scorpius, properly. I want to make things right with Aphelocoma. And I would like to meet your father, and make my mind up based on him as he is now, not based on his father, and his past." She took a deep breath. "If, that is, you're okay with that."

Scorpius didn't reply. Instead, he put an arm around her, and squeezed, briefly.

"Is this your way of admitting to being in love with me, Rose?"

She was shocked, that he was taking it so lightly. That he could be so forgiving. Shocked, but glad, too. They'd gotten a second chance, and, this time, they would get it right.

She knew then that they would be okay. They knew enough to be honest with each other now, to communicate properly. They wouldn't let a stupid teenage mistake ruin the best friendship either of them had ever had. She would treat him like a friend. A real friend.

"Eeeeeewwwwwww!" She said, gently pushing him away, though not so far that they lost contact. "A Weasley and a Malfoy? Can you think of anything worse?"

"You love my Malfoyness."

"Nuh-uh." She'd never seen him act like this before, but she liked it.

He pulled her close again. "Yuh-huh."

She was suddenly very, very aware that the shy boy she'd met at eleven was now almost sixteen, over six foot tall, and very close. Her hands rested on his chest, where she'd pushed him, and she was acutely aware of the muscle beneath them. She could feel his hands on her, electrifying her, one on her shoulder, the other on her waist. She remembered kissing him at fourteen, and wondered if it would be the same now. No, something inside told her, it would be better. Because, this time, they weren't 'too young'.

"Let's go to London," she said, her voice suddenly soft. "Next weekend."

"Deal," he replied.

26: Living in the Past

Later, he told her that he'd decided the fault didn't entirely lay with her. He could have asked. He could have addressed the issue. He could have reached out to keep them together, and he hadn't. He was determined not to make that mistake again. He'd decided to be more open, more forthcoming, less guarded. To trust her, rather than let paranoia come between them again, from either side.

She wasn't convinced that his blame was equal to hers, but knew that the important thing was moving on, not living in the past. They'd done far too much of that.

27: London

They'd gone to London in the first week of the holidays, after meeting his father for lunch. Aphelocoma had been there too, and Rose had been determined to see the younger girl's reticence as concern for her brother, and not hatred for a Weasley. She'd managed to earn a smile, by the end of the meal, and felt disproportionately proud.

At King's Cross station, they'd found a photobooth. Rose had explained how they'd worked, and Scorpius had insisted on trying it out, fascinated by the idea of seeing himself in a photo that didn't move.

She'd sat on his lap and he'd tickled her, something she couldn't have imagined the younger Scorpius relaxing enough to do. It was a change for the better. The last photo caught them kissing again.

They'd headed to Waterstones then, her favourite muggle book chain. The first book she bought him was under romance, rather than sci-fi, and it was one that she'd read before and loved.

Do You Remember the First Time?

It was about second chances, and about getting things right this time.

Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 22-24

Part 7 is here.

22: Father

It came to a head that June shortly before they left for the holidays. As Rose and Scorpius walked to the room of requirement together, they passed Aphelocoma. The younger girl gave Rose a look of surprise, which made Rose grind her teeth. Why shouldn't I be friends with Scorpius?, she thought resentfully.

Even when they'd settled into their chairs, she was still fuming.

Scorpius pulled a letter from his robes. "This came this morning," he told her. "My father would-"

"Your father would what?" She snapped. "Would like the 'mudblood' to leave you alone?"

"...would like to invite you to join us for dinner at some point during the holidays. What did you just say?"

She didn't reply.  Her skin was flushed and she suddenly felt as if any movement would result in falling.

"What did you just accuse my father of?" He repeated, his tone dangerously soft.

She rallied her fury; it was the only strength she had at that moment. "Your father hates me, doesn't he? Me and my family? He thinks I'm not good enough for you, doesn't he? And your sister, too! Because my grandparents are muggles!"

Scorpius stared at her, stunned. The anger drained out of Rose, leaving only shame. She suddenly felt that she'd made a terrible mistake.

"You want to know what my father thinks of you?" Scorpius asked. His voice was quiet but intense, his eyes worse. She felt them burning into her, and couldn't look away.

Between then, a pensieve melted into place, as if it had always been there. Not taking his eyes from hers, Scorpius placed his wand to his forehead, and used it to draw a shimmering stream of memory into the basin.

"Look," he said, and it wasn't a request.

23: Pensieve

She saw Scorpius and his father. Draco was seated at a desk, while Scorpius stood in front of it.

He looks so young, Rose thought, realising that Scorpius was only twelve here.

"Father -" Scorpius began. Draco waved a hand and cut him off.

"Scorpius, I won't say that I wasn't surprised. That was a very awkward position to be put into with no warning."

Scorpius thought for a moment then said, "I understand, father. I apologise."

Scorpius sounded like an adult, in his apology. Rose knew that at his age both she and Hugo would have uttered either a sulky 'sorry!' or an overly affectionate one, eager to have the disagreement over with. They wouldn't have stood there and considered the situation.

Draco nodded. The two regarded one another as equals, and Rose noticed a small smile lighting up Draco's eyes.

"Why did you keep it from me, my boy?"

"Father, I -" Scorpius seemed lost for words. "I didn't think you'd approve."

Draco nodded again, this time, his eyes distant and lost in thought.

"I understand, my son." He said. "You and I both know that I had my problems with both of her parents. I made a great many mistakes then, ones that I know you will not repeat."

Scorpius shook his head, solemnly.

"I do not believe that I am able to fix the past, Scorpius, or to make amends. All I can do is ensure that you and your sister do not repeat it. And I must apologise for the situation I have put you in, for the effect my past has had on your present."

This time Scorpius nodded. Rose was fascinated by the way the father and son interacted. The elder Malfoy seemed to make a great effort to treat his son as an equal, and Rose did not doubt that Scorpius had been right – Draco did love him. Although physical interaction between the two was so cold as to be nonexistent, they understood one another.

Thinking back to Scorpius' desire to care for Aphelocoma, Rose realised why it had meant so much to him. He'd wanted the responsibility so that he could show his parents that he was growing into an equal, that he was being raised into a good man. He wanted to make them proud of him.

She regretted how much of Scorpius she'd missed by forgoing his invitations to observe him with his family. So much of him was clear in this context, more than she could ever have suspected, and she wished she'd seen more of it.

"I should make this absolutely clear;" Draco continued. "I do not disapprove of your friendship with Miss Weasley."

Scorpius smiled then, in a small but noticeable way. Draco smiled back.

"After all," he continued. "The Malfoys have retained their money and blood, but what have we lost? The wizarding world does not trust us. We have much reduced power, politically. Our respect is greatly lowered. My boy, if it suits you to build bridges with the Weasleys or Potters, rest assured that this will not have a negative effect on your family. Quite the opposite. Times have changed, and they now have the things we lack.  They are now the pinnacle of our society.  Only a very stupid man would stay wedded to his past ideas when the context has changed so drastically, and whatever else I may be Scorpius, I do pride myself on not being more stupid than I can help."

Scorpius rolled his eyes then, his smile growing wider. "Father, you are a Slytherin to the end."

Draco grinned back. "Another thing I pride myself on, Scorpius. Now go play with your sister, I have work to do."

24: Beyond

Rose stared at Scorpius, feeling her pulse thudding in her throat.

For years now, she'd been convinced that his father didn't approve of their friendship, that he'd called her horrible names, that he'd looked down on her. It shook her to the core to learn that these thoughts were all in her head.

Her eyes met his, and he nodded, his face stony. Then he broke their gaze and started pacing.

"You didn't even give him a chance!" Scorpius raged. He couldn't seem to bear to look at her now.  "You and your father – you were so damn sure that he was still the same person he was as a teenager! You didn't think he could grow, or change, or make a sensible decision! You focused on your own prejudice, and refused to see what was right in front of you!"

"Skip - "

"Don't call me that!"

Rose drew back as if she'd been slapped.

"And my sister! What has my sister ever done to you? She doesn't like you, but it's not because of your parents! It's because-"

And he paused for a breath, his fury leaving him, replaced by something older and more weary.

"...It's because she thinks you're no good for me. Because we talked about how you avoid me sometimes. How you don't want me to meet your family, and refuse to meet me. Because she thinks you can never forget that we're Malfoys, and I always told her that that wasn't true, but I guess-"

His voice cracked, and he paused, furious at himself for showing any kind of weakness.

"I guess she was right."

Rose gaped at him.

She didn't know how to make it right. He was right; she'd taken all those stories from twenty-five years ago, and turned his father into a demon. She would have hated it if someone had done that to her father, however well deserved. She knew from Scorpius' memory that Draco had been willing to build bridges between their families, though he wasn't brave enough to take the first step; but she'd continued to cast him in the role of the villain, and hadn't given him a chance. She'd listened to stories, and jumped to conclusions, and hadn't taken the time to simply listen to her friend, and treat him like a friend.

Good guys - something she'd always prided herself on being - weren't supposed to do things like that.

Scorpius started pacing again, working himself into anger, to keep himself away from tears.

"I bet you were congratulating yourself," Scorpius spat. "On being so kind to a Malfoy!" He put on a mocking, high-pitched voice. "Oh, poor Scorpius, his father's so evil! I must save him from the evil Malfoys! He's okay, he's not like a real Malfoy, he's acceptable!"

He glared at her.

"My father has never had a bad word to say about you, Rose.  Never. Are you going to hold his past mistakes against him – against us – forever? Is that what you see, every time you look at me, the grandson of a Deatheater, the son of someone beyond redemption?"

"People change, Rose. My father isn't the same person he was a quarter of a century ago, and I'm not him, and he isn't my grandfather."

For the first time in her life, Rose was lost for words. Her world had shrunk to those two ice-blue eyes, now brimming over with an anger which, she knew, was there to disguise the hurt.

After a few seconds, which seemed to stretch on forever, he broke their gaze again, and stormed out.

It was all hitting her at once. She knew that his friendship with her was the only really close friendship he had. She looked back over all the conversations they'd had, as she knew he must be doing. All those times she'd said "our families won't approve", and she'd meant his father, and he must have thought she meant hers. How long had he spent thinking her parents didn't like him, that she'd been avoiding their meeting for that reason?

He'd never have told her how much that had hurt. And how much worse, now, to know that she'd thought so little of his father, of his family? His family, who meant everything to him, like hers did to her.

Rose let herself fall backwards, onto a sofa which had appeared. She needed to process this. She needed to think. 

Part 9 is here.

Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 19-21

Part 6 is here.

19: Enigma

Rose and Scorpius' friendship wasn't the same, after that. She couldn't forget how Aphelocoma had looked at her, like she wondered why Rose was talking to her brother. It made Rose wonder why, in fact, she was talking to Scorpius.

They still spent some time together, but not like they used to. They'd study together, in the Ravenclaw common room but they no longer sat around and read books with each other.

Rose missed him, deeply. She missed sitting with him for hours, neither of them needing to say anything at all. She missed talking about books with him. She missed watching his face, unguarded as he read, especially now that she only saw it guarded, in front of others.

He was so good at keeping his face guarded. His natural expression was the one that made him seem haughty and that served to keep people away, as he preferred. He rarely showed true happiness or pride, not in any obvious ways.

Rose heard people mutter about his family sometimes, particularly Gryffindors, who were still deeply suspicious of the Malfoys. He never showed that he'd heard that, either.

Scorpius Malfoy was an enigma. Rose wished they could go back to the days when she'd been the person he didn't guard against, but she didn't know how.

She didn't even know where to start.

She didn't even try.

20: Clearly-

It was in February that she overheard Aphelocoma talking with her friends. Rose was waiting for Al, sitting in an alcove by the Slytherin common room, when Aphelocoma walked out, surrounded by her friends.

"The Weasley girl?" Aphelocoma was saying in response to a friend's question. "I guess that's all over. Merlin knows why they were ever friends in the first place. She's clearly-"

Aphelocoma's voice faded, as she drew further away from Rose. Hidden in her alcove, Rose was red with fury. She was clearly what? Too poor? Too common?

Fuming, Rose marched off in the other direction, deciding that she'd see Al later when she'd cooled down. She headed for the library, but abruptly turned around when she saw Scorpius and headed off to spend the rest of the day hiding in her dorm.

A week later, Rose had decided that enough was enough. At breakfast, she screwed up her courage and sat next to Scorpius instead of with the other girls from her year. He smiled at her when she did, a genuine smile.

Rose didn't often take the time to reflect on it, but she knew that Scorpius wasn't close to anyone except herself and his sister. There were people he spent time with, but none that he was really close to.

She took a book from her satchel and showed it to him under the table. The Visitor, it was called, by the same author as Beauty.

"Come with me after classes?" she asked. "Let's go read, like we used to."

"Yes," Scorpius said, smiling again, his fleeting, genuine, smile. "Anywhere in particular you wanted to go?"

21: The Shadow

She took him to the room of requirement, a place her mother had told her about. Today, it had a roaring fire, two cosy armchairs, and a plate piled high with little cakes and biscuits.

They talked about Beauty first, the book he'd given her. Looking at the publishing date, Rose knew that Snape must have bought the book shortly after her parents had started at Hogwarts. She wondered if he'd been thinking of Lily; it seemed more feminine than his usual tastes. She wondered if he'd thought himself akin to the lover who was believed long dead, and abandoned, but was found and reclaimed, almost too late.

Scorpius' gift The Visitor, a book about a future world where people had forgotten the present, and misunderstood the meanings of mundane items. Where people thought that muggles living today were magic, and that the simplest match stick was evidence of their great power. Rose found it frightening, how knowledge could be so easily lost between generations and superstition grown in its place and she thought Scorpius would be interested in that idea, too.

They settled down to read companionably by the light of the fire, in peaceful silence except when they wanted to discuss something in one of their books.

For the next three months, they were back to their old friendship. They were happy. The only shadow, as Rose saw it, was that of his parents.

Part 8 is here.

Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 16-17

Part 5 is here.

16: Bluffing

Things were almost the same between them after that. She didn't hug him any more – Scorpius didn't do physical affection, she knew, though he had appreciated it that time – but they'd study and read together.

Scorpius had changed since they'd met, Rose realised. He'd been a shy, quiet boy, who'd kept himself to himself. He was still shorter than her, still had a boyish face, but the girls she knew were already becoming envious of their closeness. His shyness and quietness was tempered with a charm that transfigured them into cool and aloof, now he was fourteen.

They didn't share as much as they once had. Now they were both thoroughly entrenched in puberty, they had secrets from one another. Rose developed a crush on another boy in their year, a Gryffindor, Mike Finnegan. He didn't have the glass handsomeness of Scorpius, but he was cute, and had a cheeky sort of charm that made her laugh. She enjoyed watching him, and daydreaming about him, from a distance. She never got up the courage to approach him.

Likewise, she never got up the courage to talk to Scorpius about their kiss, or about the hug. He metered out physical affection so carefully that she thought they must be important. At times, she was convinced that he was in love with her, and was only waiting for the right moment. She stacked up the evidence in her mind, and knew there could be no doubt.

At other times, she stacked the evidence again, and found quite a different total. She knew they were just friends; he'd rejected her kiss, hadn't he? He'd never touched her of his own volition, had he?

Sometimes, she thought about kissing him again, seeing what would happen. She thought he might go along with it, not because he fancied her, but simply because he trusted her. She didn't want to do that to him. She loved being friends with him, and although she daydreamed about lying in his arms to read, or kissing him again, she wasn't quite ready for any of it to really happen. The whole issue was so confusing, so contradictory, that she didn't want to share it with anyone, especially not him. She wanted to get it sorted in her head, get it all straight, then act on it, not spread her confusion to him.

It never occurred to her that he would be confused too, that he would suffer such conflicting feelings. Everyone else seemed to have things together; they seemed to know what they wanted, to know what they were doing, and why. It wasn't until she was much, much older that she realised that everyone was just as confused as she was, at fourteen. Everyone was bluffing.

17: Think

They shared a carriage again on the way back to King's Cross at the end of their third year. Rose was re-reading the book he'd given her at Christmas; Beauty, it was called. She liked the idea that beauty bred true; that things would turn out okay in the end.

As the train drew into the station, she saw Draco Malfoy waiting on the platform. She drew back, so she couldn't be seen from the windows, and told Scorpius to go on ahead, that she'd write him something on the Seposita Stilus parchment later.

Rose left the train a few minutes after Scorpius did, which gave him and his father time to find one another. She smiled at him, briefly, as she passed, and saw Draco appraising her with a cool stare. Her cheeks flushed, but she held her head high, as her parent's stories, overheard since she was a child, came flooding back.

He can think what he likes, she thought, furiously. Skip and I will always be friends. And if he ever calls me a mudblood to my face, I'll –

18: Slytherin

That year, their fourth, was the year that Aphelocoma Malfoy started at Hogwarts.

Rose and Scorpius had sent messages to each other all through the summer, but had been able to see each other very few times. For much of the summer, Scorpius had accompanied his sister in buying her school equipment.

He'd asked for the privilege, he told Rose, wanting the responsibility of caring for his sibling. Rose didn't quite understand why it meant so much to him - she'd never willingly volunteer to take care of Hugo - but she was pleased for him.

Scorpius and Alephocoma walked onto the train together. Rose was already in their usual carriage, curled up with a book. Scorpius nodded to her as he passed, his hands on his little sister's shoulders. She smiled at him, but stopped quickly when she saw Aphelocoma's expression. The younger girl looked disdainful, confused as to why Rose was smiling at her brother.

Rose watched them walked past, further into the train. That was the first year in which she and Scorpius hadn't sat together.

Aphelocoma was sorted into Slytherin, and Rose wasn't at all surprised.

Part 7 is here.

Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 13-15

Part 4 is here.

13: More to Lose

In a letter written later that week, Rose poured her heart out to her mother. She was still young enough to do that, though she wouldn't be for much longer.

Your father worries too much, Rose. Hermione had written. She'd ended with a warning, not for Rose, but for Scorpius. Remember that he has more to lose over this friendship than you do. I can't imagine his father being pleased over your relationship, though he may have learned to live with things that displease him by now.

Reading that reminded Rose of a conversation she'd overheard over the summer.

"I doubt he was pleased that his boy ended up in Ravenclaw," her mother had said. Her father had agreed.

Alone in the dormitory, Rose wondered if her friendship was hurting Scorpius. She knew that even if it was, he would never tell her or anyone else.

14: Rejection

Most of Rose's cousins were attending Hogwarts now, and she found herself distracted by them. It took her over a month to notice that Scorpius had returned one of her books without asking to borrow another. She wondered if he was avoiding her, and admitted to herself that the idea wouldn't surprise her.

She thought about their kiss a lot. It hadn't meant so much to her at the time, but now that they weren't speaking nearly as much as they used to, it grew in significance, along with the idea that she had been rejected.

15: They -

Before Rose knew it, it was Christmas. It had been weeks since she and Scorpius had spoken, the longest they'd gone since that first summer holiday. They were both fourteen now, her birthday passing in the September, and his in the November.

She'd decided not to go home for Christmas, a decision that had not surprised her family.  At least, not nearly as much as she'd expected. She may have spent more time with her cousins recently, but they'd never quite understood her as a Ravenclaw. She'd kept herself to herself since the sorting.  Since longer before then, if she were totally honest.

She'd told her family that she had a lot of studying to do, what with the new classes she'd taken up. They didn't question her decision, especially when they remembered how hectic her mother's schedule had been during her third year.

Scorpius stayed too, exactly as she'd heard that he would. A few days before Christmas, she sought him out in the library.

"Skip?" She asked, peering over a pile of books.

He looked up from his parchment, rubbing his forehead.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Rose," he replied, his face guarded.

Rose chewed her lower lip. He'd never been like this with her, not before this year. She wondered whether or not his father had told him to be distant. Still, she decided to plough on with the course she'd chosen.

"I brought you a present." she said, holding the package out.

He smiled then, a real smile, one that seemed almost grateful. She wondered then whether his family had sent him any Christmas presents, or whether they would shun him, for being a Ravenclaw who'd befriended a Weasley. From what she'd heard she wouldn't have put it past them and, not for the first time, she felt a flicker of hatred towards his father.

Scorpius reached into his bag and drew out a similar package. "I got you a present, too."

She returned his smile. "We don't have to wait till Christmas, do we?"

He'd grinned properly then, that new expression he'd only begun using since he'd hit his teenage years. It accentuated his eyes and sharp cheekbones, making him look devilishly handsome. "Not if you don't want to,"he assured her.

On mutual agreement, they ripped open the wrapping paper right there and then. They'd bought each other books, of course.

She'd given him a new paperback, The Child Garden. She thought he'd find the future shown there interesting. She'd loved the story, when she'd read it; it was about love, and loss. It was about misunderstandings, someone working hard to unwittingly destroy something they didn't know they had. It was about doing exactly the wrong thing for all the right reasons.

She'd cried after reading it, and she'd wanted to share those feelings with him.

He'd given her a second-hand book, one of Severus'. It had been well-read, and she realised that he was giving her something he couldn't easily replace. She hugged him then, spontaneously.

Scorpius blushed furiously; the first time she'd seen him do more than flush slightly.

"I thought you were avoiding me," he confessed, when she let go.

"I wasn't sure if you'd want to be around me," Rose said, awkwardly.

"Why not?" he asked, sounding hurt. "Did I do something?"

"Oh, no! Oh, Skip, it's not you!"

"Then what, Rosie?"

"It's...our families, Skip." She said eventually, meaning, of course, his family.

She watched clouds drift through his eyes, before they shut down again.

"I see," he said.

She wasn't going to let him go this time. Instead, she leaned over and hugged him again, grasping him tightly.

"They don't have to know," she said.

"Rose -"

"Shh, Skip. I missed you. I'm not going to lose you. They don't have to know."

She waited, clinging, eyes closed. He stroked her hair.

Part 6 is here.

Darker than Your Wonderland, Chapters 10-12

Part 3 is here.

10: Seposita Stilus

It was that January that Scorpius suggested the Seposita Stilus charm. Rose hadn't known what it was, until he'd explained.

The charm would be cast on two pieces of paper, allowing each to see what the other said. He could write a message on one, and it would show up on the other. She could turn it over, write back, and that reply would show up on his copy. They'd be able to wipe the previous messages off before writing new ones.

Once he'd described it, Rose realised that she had heard of the charm before. It was something her older cousins had mentioned using to pass notes in class, and something her uncle George had experimented with, to sell in the shop. The way he'd talked of using it made her think of text messages, something she'd only recently learned about when her muggle grandmother had let Rose play with her mobile phone.

They'd tried it at once, writing messages to one another all through potions. It was almost pointless, since they were sitting right next to one another, and they nearly got detention when the professor realised how little attention they were paying, but it was fun, and quite addictive.

11: Summer

They used the Seposita Stilus a lot during that summer between their second and third years. They were both thirteen now, and their parents had decided that they were old enough to go out alone, so long as they knew where they were heading. Rose's parents never asked her whom she was intending to meet, and she assumed that Scorpius' didn't, either. They took it as a free invitation to see one another.

It was a golden summer. That was the year where every day was sunny, and lasted forever. The year she started calling him 'Skip'. The year they confided in each other that they'd never been kissed.

Rose thought it was probably herself who'd first suggested that they try kissing each other. Just once, for practice. They'd been out near the woods this time, and the sun was halfway to setting. The light had bronzed his hair and burnished hers.

She could still remember how it had felt, when she'd placed her hand on his cheek, and slowly drew him to her. They'd kissed, clumsily. His lips were soft, and her pulse thudded in her throat, until she wasn't sure if she was breathing any more.

They'd drawn away from one another, smiling shyly, then laughing.

"We're too young," Scorpius had said, and she'd agreed.

They were too young.

It was the last golden summer.

12: Aphelocoma

Rose's third year was the year that her younger brother, Hugo, started at Hogwarts. It was also the year that she met Aphelocoma Malfoy, Scorpius' sister.

The girl wasn't starting at Hogwarts that year; she'd just come to see her brother off. She watched Rose from beneath her father's arms, with heavy-lidded, ice-blue eyes. Her expression held a disdain that Rose had never seen on Scorpius' face.

Seeing this, Rose's father had asked, quietly, "are you still friends with that Malfoy boy?"

"I am," Rose had replied.

Her father looked between Rose and Aphelocoma, then nodded at Draco. Lowering his voice, he asked "does he treat you right? Is he nice to you?"

"Yes dad!"

With one last glance at the Malfoys, Rose's father had led her away to stand with her brother and cousins until the train was ready to leave.

"Be careful, Rose," he'd said to her. "This boy isn't his father, I know. But I never knew a Malfoy who didn't have ulterior motives, who didn't have other plans hidden inside their plans."

Seeing her face, he'd added, "I'm sure he's a lovely boy, Rose. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't," she'd lied, though she hadn't known that at the time.

Rose and Scorpius were unable to find an empty carriage this year. However, the one they did find was occupied by only two other people, fifth years who spent the entire time focused on one another, so Rose and Scorpius were able to talk privately.

"Your sister seemed nice," Rose offered.

Scorpius grinned widely, a new expression for him. "That's new. She never seems nice to strangers."

Rose smiled back. She was three or four inches taller than Scorpius now, and beginning to look more like a young woman than a little girl. He still looked like a boy.

"What was your father whispering?" Scorpius asked.

"Oh," Rose began. "He asked if we were still friends. He wanted to know if you were nice to me."

"What did you tell him?"

"That you were."

"Why did he feel the need to ask?" Scorpius asked, frowning.

Rose decided to be honest. "I think it's because of the problems he had with your father at school," she said. "He thinks your father may not approve."

Scorpius didn't reply. Instead, he remained gazing at her, and, for some reason, his expression reminded her of the one she'd seen on his sister's face. She squirmed uncomfortably, and tried to go back to her book.

"Does your father not approve?" Scorpius asked, interrupting. His face was closed now, not open and vulnerable as it would have been if he'd asked the question a year, or even a few months, before.

Rose's ears went red, as she tried to think of how best to phrase it.

"I think he mostly tries not to think about it," she eventually said. Scorpius nodded, then picked up his book, and started reading. The conversation was over.

Rose noted that he hadn't denied her father's accusation.

Part 5 is here.