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@aroaessidhe / aroaessidhe.tumblr.com

Illustrator and reader of queer sff books from Aotearoa. layaart is my art blog, layahimalaya is my 'main' (DM me there!). I co-run diversebookfanart
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Hello, I’m Laya!

  • @layaart is my art blog
  • @layahimalaya is my “main” but I’m not very active there
  • storygraph (won't accept friend req's of people I don't know usually)

DATABASES & OTHER BOOKISH STUFF

I co-run @diversebookfanart

archivist wasp: tweetbot (rip), discord server!

COSPLAY

READING THREADS 📚

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(blank blogs are assumed spam and blocked)

#dont reblog why are people reblogging my intro post
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2024 reads / storygraph

A Botanical Daughter

  • historical fantasy
  • a taxidermist and botanist who live in a greenhouse in a botanical garden, far away from the disapproval of Victorian London
  • when they receive a shipment of a strange sentient fungi, they cultivate it inside a corpse of a recently murdered girl - who was the best friend/lover of their new housekeeper
  • as she grows and expands her desires they have to deal with their feelings about the potential monster they’ve created
#A Botanical Daughter#aroaessidhe 2024 reads#man I really wanted to like this but I kinda had to force myself to finish it.#really not a fan of the writing style which is very emotionally distant and full of a lot of telling not showing#it could have gotten weird and atmospheric with the writing style! we could have gotten sentient fungi POV! but no.#The characters were flat. the conceptually weird/creepy/horror aspects were executed in the most boring way#the relationship between the men is something we’re told exists but…. I don’t feel it. I don’t like them as characters.#They’re not even interesting enough to hate - or like it could have gone in the direction of embracing the unhinged murder couple vibes#they flip flop between angry arguments and making up and I’m like what is the point of that?? Honestly I didn’t feel any emotional connecti#it kinda feels like it doesn’t know whether it’s whimsical quirky-cozy vibes or like properly gothic horror#it’s somewhere in between & fails at both. it maybe suffers from trying to play into the popularity of coziness#the closest to weird we get is plant lesbian sex scene but also I laughed out loud when I read the line ‘hungry for her loam’#like…..these men essentially create this person then cut her off from the world and her biological desires; control her autonomy/ability#to speak and the conclusion is <3 what a weird little family <3 and not she should#escape and kill them and/or make them grapple with the fact they are at fault for this potential ecological disaster let loose on the world#there’s also weird colonialist lines scattered throughout that don’t feel super interrogated…
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2024 reads / storygraph

Song of the Huntress

  • historical fantasy set in 8th century Britain
  • follows three characters:
  • a woman who has spent centuries leading the wild hunt & reaping souls after being tricked into it, who disguises herself as a human to enter the kingdom
  • the queen of Wessex who never lives up to the demands of the court, despite leading their people in battle - and after a battlefield defeat they turn against her
  • and her husband, the king, deals with magic and political upheaval as his brother tries to usurp him and conflict arises between new and old religions
  • bi woman MC, lesbian MC, ace man MC
#Song of the Huntress#aroaessidhe 2024 reads#This is - okay? some very interesting and complex characters#i liked the women of the wild hunt and I liked how aethelburg as a warrior queen is just sort of normal not some kind of girlboss thing#it’s very slow paced - I doubt I would have gotten through it if not for the audiobook#the historical setting and details and complexity of the plot is interesting#I did read it for the ace character so:#unsure how i feel about how his asexuality's the reason for the problem in their relationship. like the book tries to make it the issue tha#he didn't TELL her about it but.....but ultimately it is just his asexuality as the issue. idk. not that I don't think that this kind of#ace narrative shouldn’t be explored I guess. it was just a smidge too portrayed as him being the problem#I feel like if he were aroace at least it’d be like okay; she finds in someone else what he doesn’t want to give her#but he literally does love her romantically lol. which makes the subplot of the romance between the women like......ok she's cheating#bc her husband won't fuck her? not to minimise complex characters down to surface level ships but also….#the sapphic relationship is kinda undeveloped/insta attraction and not much else -the book is conscious of this &#I don't think it tries that much to convince us it's something more than that (other than how it affects the character's personal journeys)#but still. idk. I guess I do like that it doesn't conform to perfect-narrative-romances but evidently unsure about how it did so#this makes it sound like I hated the asexuality and the sapphic relationship - I didn't hate either I just didn't love them lol#also his sister is also aroace and becomes a nun and otherwise she's offscreen - lost opportunity imo!
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2024 reads / storygraph

Someone You Can Build A Nest In

  • adult fantasy with some cozy romance and horror
  • follows an amorphous monster who shapeshifts by absorbing creatures and objects
  • when she’s injured by hunters and chased out of her lair, she’s nursed back to health by a sweet human woman
  • when the human reveals her family is cursed by the monster in the area and they’re hunting it - she has to figure out why they think she cursed them (she didn’t) while keeping her identity secret
  • and figuring out that human love doesn’t involve planting your eggs in someone for your young to devour inside out.
  • ace love interest, essentially ace-coded MC
#Someone You Can Build A Nest In#aroaessidhe 2024 reads#asexual books#I loved this a lot actually! it’s weird and cute and a little gross. and funny#very relatable pile of slime (monster as metaphor for autistic & queer/ace experiences)#it’s def kinda insta-love but it’s also in the way you look at two people very infatuated and a little naive and are like.....#oh no....they are sweet though......#I liked the kind of fairytale setting; and the interesting human names (homily; epigram; catharsis)#catharsis). Also Blueberry……..sweet bear friend….#it’s def one that has mixed reviews and maybe won’t work for everyone but. yknow#also. the underling she thinks is terrified of her then realises actually he has a fetish for being ordered around skdghksfgf#the asexuality is just portrayed through not liking kissing (or more implied)#I also liked how she keeps talking about being in love re: the physical feelings of her heart and then. well
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layaart

A few store updates!

  • new rock pool sticker!
  • new crab sticker!
  • some I'd rather be watching my shows/entertainment media stickers I've been giving away with murderbot bookmarks but also you can buy one if you want
  • rearranged my general book fanart listings a bit - there's two A5 listings now (one for YA and one for adult, still slightly in the process of rearranging))
  • new scapegracers miniprint, and I also made scapegracers into its own listing
  • restocked my ofmd oranges bookmark with a variant without the name on the handle
  • I've also been running out of some stickers so I'll be rearranging those listings a bit soon - but also might wait til I make some new designs
#tbd
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octever

Can someone please tell me where some aroallo rep is? Something where it's actually part of the story and treated like it does in fact matter. Hopefully books, I need some books to read and I need some motivation to read.

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aro-absol

I haven't read any of them but I found this post by @aroaessidhe that contains some aroallo books.

Alternatively, you can try the aroace database. It's a list of book characters on the aromantic and/or asexual spectrums. The majority of characters on there are ace but there are definitely some aroallo characters on there, too.

Good luck with your search!

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aroaessidhe

That post of mine is a little old, so here's some more recent ones I've read!

I would most recommend if you're looking for it to be the MC and significant in the book:

  • Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White (out in september) - MC is an aro-questioning queer trans boy
  • Natural Outlaws and Fractured Sovereignty by S.M. Pierce - 1/2 MCs is an aroallo woman

but also perhaps:

  • The Tale That Twines by Cedar McCloud - has a greyaro-allo love interest, and aroallo best friend (the MC is demidemi)
  • The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick - one of the 3ish main characters is aro bi, mostly word of god but is lightly implied in the trilogy if you're looking for it. good character anyway
  • and Bloody Spade by Brittany M Willows, The Butterfly Assassin (in book 2) by Finn Longman, The Liar’s Guide to the Night Sky by Brianna R. Shrum, The Last by Hanna Jameson, also have aroallo side characters, where it's discussed a bit.

I also have an aro & ace books database! It has an aroallo tag.

#book list#the last 2 mentioned in the last bullet point i have slightly mixed feelings on I guess (re: aroness)#sorry for recommending compound fracture that doesn't come out for 6 months but LISTEN. (you could try netgalley)
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Anonymous asked:

These Burning Stars/Chono anon sorry for coming in like 4 months late oops.

To my knowledge the author hasn't anything publicly about Chono being aromantic. I'm basing off the lines in the book + there where other reviewers who picked up on the aro vibes.

Sorry if it looks like I misled you 😰.

Ah all good! I guess I assumed you meant like clearly and explicitly canon & explored in text rather than just vibes, since personally when I talk about aspec characters I usually state it plainly if it's explicitly canon, otherwise say coded/vaguely/vibes(or otherwise communicate how clearly it's in there) - I realise everyone else probably doesn't adhere to those specific standards haha, so I shouldn't assume!

as far as I can remember the only time it's implied is "she has taken so few lovers in her life that she can count them on one hand, and toward each of them she feels a kind of uncomfortable curiosity, as if once the affair is over she can't understand what compelled her to be with them in the first place. .... when she met him in person for the first time, the way she liked him had shifted. ... she never loved him exactly, but with him she had the unprecedented experience of trusting her lover" - just that once scene, which to me personally, reads at most as 'could be aro/aro-spec' - would keep an eye out later in the series if it's expanded upon, but wouldn't state anything objectively definitive about it based on just that. I mean maybe it will be! I will continue the series for sure anyway

#i've definitely read things based on details from recommendations that are deeply and blatantly incorrect (and not up for interpretation)#so like. don't worry lol it's still a book I'm glad i read!#I did scour the internet and reviews beforehand and couldn't find any other info so I guess I did have a hunch it might be vague. but also#people love to leave these things out of reviews when theres other types of queer characters to talk about
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