A Harry Potter Rant

In today’s edition of “my brain won’t let this go,” we are presented with the question of whether still being obsessed with Harry Potter makes you a trans hater or not. (Spoiler: I land in the company of not) My brain has been worrying with these thoughts like a dog worrying a bone because someone on Threads essentially said that if you are still obsessed with Harry Potter you hate and are hurting trans people. I did not care enough at the time to screenshot the post or remember the name of the poster and I don’t care enough to go looking for it. Pretty sure it’s a sentiment shared by a lot of people due to J.K. Rowling’s views on trans people, so trying to find the exact post would be insane.

Anyway, my basic thoughts are actually neatly summed up by a quote from the Harry Potter books:

“The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.” - Sirius Black

Meaning: you can still enjoy Harry Potter and have zero problem with trans people. Like me. J.K. Rowling can go take a hike off a cliff for her views on trans people, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop enjoying her most popular work… the entire series of which I owned before her nonsense became public! I honestly find black and white thinking like this very reductionist.

At this point, I feel like my views are going to be expressed through repeatedly condemning J.K. Rowling’s views in every single Harry Potter related blog post I do and through my wallet. I’m not purchasing any official Harry Potter/Wizarding World merchandise, including the books. I’ve asked that any remaining Harry Potter items on my wishlists are purchased used rather than new. Whether or not the purchasers will listen is ultimately up to them, but I feel like I’ve done my part. I've barely bought any Harry Potter merchandise to begin with, so this isn't actually making much of a difference, if any.

It really, really sucks when an author you’ve looked up to for a good chunk of your life turns out to have some trash views. It sucks when it’s anyone you’ve looked up to, really. The problem is Rowling specifically is that she was a big part of our lives for so long. I was in Junior High when I fist discovered Harry Potter and I was pretty much hooked from then on. I know I'm not the only one who's had Harry Potter around for most of their life. We had the books, we had the movies, and there’s still Harry Potter stuff coming out to this day for us to consume. Most Millennials can tell you what their Hogwarts House is and put more stock in that than even their Zodiac signs. It’s hard to separate from that kind of thing.

You can see from this blog that Harry Potter is not the only thing I have read or am reading, but Harry Potter was definitely a gateway into the kind of books other media I’m into now. My dad handing me “The Hobbit” at 12 definitely didn’t stick. Harry Potter was far more accessible, even if I was borrowing it from a friend and hiding it under my covers from my mom at the time.

Also, can we just take a moment and acknowledge that Rowling wasn’t the first and definitely isn’t the last in a long line of disappointing public figures/creators? Orson Scott Card, Joss Whedon, and H. P. Lovecraft are just a few of the names that come to mind off the top of my head. Rowling just happened to have blown up a whole generation with her work and we refuse to let it go even as we condemn her.

And we go condemn her. The fandom has condemned her. The actors who played her iconic characters have condemned her. So why is it that I hear more about J. K. Rowling than anyone else? Because of the trans thing or because a whole generation and then some grew up on Harry Potter? Because our fandom is still so very alive and kicking?

I really feel like the best thing we can do right now is to stop giving Rowling our headspace. Separate the Harry Potter fans from her in your head. We are not one in the same. I might not be as obsessed with The Wizarding World as I once was, but it's still a part of my life and part of me.

Also: How much are we really hurting Trans people by continuing to enjoy a media franchise? Like, really. I feel like there are actual, hurtful things we could be doing. Continuing to read books and watch movies and talk about a series that has zero actual representation of LGBTQ+ people in it doesn't seem very hurtful to Trans people or the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. And yes, I am of course aware that Dumbledore is gay and they pretty explicitly said so in the latest Fantastic Beasts movie, but that's barely there and I don't feel like it counts for much at this point. But anyway, I feel like I would be hurting Trans people much, much, much worse by, I don't know, voting against their rights or something. All I'm doing is continuing to enjoy a series that is very near and dear to my heart while always, always condemning the views of the author. That doesn't make me a bad person. Seriously.

Trans men are men. Trans women are women. Harry Potter fans don’t share every single one of their views or values with the author.

 

You can pry my Slytherin Crest from my cold, dead hands.

Work Rant

Had to get this out.

I work in the Meat Department of a National grocery chain that shall remain nameless. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll probably be able to work it out, but I won’t name them here. I am going to try my darndest to stay polite during this rant, but I make no guarantees. The opinions I express in this rant are mine and mine alone and don’t reflect the opinions of the company I work for. Policies may change or have changed since I wrote this, just for the knowledge of future readers.

The Meat Department of a grocery store IS NOT a butcher shop. We do not butcher animals on site. I’ve worked for (nameless company) for eight years at this point and we have never cut anything that wasn’t already pre-butchered. Basically large chunks of the full muscle groups. Also, we generally only cut one species of meat as cross contamination issues mean we’d have to shut down the cutting room and completely clean it between each species. This can take up to an hour. So no, I won’t be cutting your chicken. Learn how to do it yourself, please.

I don’t know if this is the same across the industry, but at my store, you have to be certified to cut anything on the saws. Our union rules prohibit me from cutting anything period (except fish). If there is not a meat cutter in shop, we can’t cut anything. Meat cutters usually only work in the mornings and early afternoon. If you want a custom cut, we recommend you call ahead or place an order for the next day. It would be great if people would stop getting angry at clerks for not being able to cut things. Especially as (nameless company) moves into prepack and phases out service cases altogether.

People working at a particular location have ZERO control over what we do or do not carry. Different locations can carry different product. We carry different things at different times of the year. You’re very unlikely to find a whole turkey if it’s not the end of October through January. Just because Tiktok said we carry something, doesn’t make it true. I literally had a woman tell me Tiktok said we had an item. I looked it up on the app and it came up as “Not Available In Store.” Needless to say, she left disappointed. Oh, and this is my favorite: We’re given very little notice to as to when our product lineup is going to change. Like, sometimes we won’t know until the day of the “set change.” That’s when they reshuffle the products around, add new ones, and take out others. So yeah, you could very well have “bought this thing here last week” and we could just not have it anymore. Not usually the case, but possible.

Meat (including seafood) doesn’t come in specific weights. We cannot reliably cut your salmon into 5oz portions. We can only approximate. I’ve had chicken breasts weigh anywhere from half a pound to a pound. Trust mw when I tell you: your dish is not going to be ruined by a couple ounces of extra meat. Neither will your diet. Also, there's not a specific amount of food anyone can eat. Telling someone "I'm feeding x number of adults and x number of kids" does not tell me how much food you want. You need to figure that out yourself and tell me so I can give you what you want or think you need.

Grocery stores have signs that tell you where things are and you should read them. Like items are usually grouped together. I cannot count the number of times I’ve had customers ask for charcoal, which is on the sign over the aisle containing charcoal. That’s just one example, I have hundreds. Seriously. Signs. Read them. Every word on them. Not just the big numbers. (I’ve transitioned to talking about price signs at this point) Didn’t we learn this sort of thing in school? Read the whole page and THEN follow the instructions. All the words make the signs less deceptive than you think they are. This goes for the price tags on items as well. Our sale prices for random weight items (meat and fish and shrimp, etc) are on the BOTTOM of the tags and not up top with the rest of the pricing information. Not sure why this is, but it is, so act accordingly. I also cannot count the number of times I’ve had customers tell me their shrimp (or whatever) is priced wrong, but it’s not, they just haven’t looked at the whole tag.

Departments/Service Cases have different hours than the rest of the store. For example: my store opens at 6 am and closes at 1 am. My department opens at 10 am and closes at 8 pm. It's usually pretty obvious when the Service Cases are closed: no product and the department lights are off. The only time this changes is right before opening or after closing, while we're putting product in or pulling it out of the cases. Sometimes we're early setting up or late shutting down. This does not mean we're necessarily open for business.

Your grocery store is probably understaffed. Just, in general. No one really wants to work at a grocery store, especially these days. Grocery workers are looked down upon by the rest of society, same as most retail, I imagine. I’ve had relative ask me when I’m going to get a real job. We’re little more than furniture to most people, at best. Chronic understaffing make all this worse. I don’t think either of the shops I’ve worked in have had full staff in the eight-plus years I’ve worked for (nameless company). You’ve got one person doing the job of two or three. So, ya know, if we seem stressed, that’s probably why.

In addition to understaffing, grocery stores also seem to be magnets for neurodivergents. I personally have anxiety and probably bpd, both undiagnosed but ya know, there are signs. One of the guys in my department is on the autism spectrum and is hard of hearing. One of the other guys is hard of hearing in one ear and another is just straight up drunk sometimes… we don’t always give the best customer service because of how we function as people. I was incredibly happy to begin masking in 2020 and I still mask simply because smiling for 8hrs a day is grating mentally. We do try our best, but it’s hard and it would be nice if people would remember that we’re people too and not just cogs in the machine.

This job is very physical. Say you’re buying a package of chicken; probably about 3lbs. That package of chicken was brought to the store in a big cardboard box we refer to as a case. That case had at least nine packages of chicken in it; that’s 27lbs or chicken. Now imagine you were me having to a) take that chicken off he truck and put it away in the back and b) having to stock that chicken several times a day. Now multiply that by the  seven different pieces of chicken you could buy. Now multiply THAT by all the pork and beef. Gotta move all that product around all day, every day. I am SORE at the end of a shift. Not everything’s gonna weigh that much (sometimes it's definitely more), but you get the point.

Customers (that’s ya’ll) can get downright nasty. I am fortunate enough not to have been assaulted or even seriously yelled at, but these things happen. Mostly I get “yelled at” for not being able to cut things and price changes. I even have people (usually older people) get real pissy over the digital coupons my company uses. The littlest things can set people off, too. Out of the sale item on the last day of the sale? Anger. Discontinued an item? Anger. Out of a random item and will have more tomorrow? Anger. Don’t know where a very specific item that isn’t in your department is? Anger. I’ve apparently ruined a few Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners because we didn’t have something RIGHT NOW. Ya’ll need to calm down, man. It’s not the end of the world.

I am not by any means saying these things are universal or that we don’t sometimes make mistakes. The people who make up the company are only human after all and humans do make mistakes. However, these are things I’ve seen repeatedly over my eight-plus years in the industry and I thought it was time to share.

The Vampire Post

I was making a paragraph-long note for Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs while I was reading today (7-27-23) about vampires. The note kind of got stuck in my head and so this post was born. This is part rant, part character study, part blather, part me gushing. There will probably be spoilers for a lot of things... I'll go ahead and list them before the next paragraph after I actually finish writing this thing.

Spoilers For: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries (TV Show)

I've read a lot of books that are about or include vampires. My favorite media properties also include vampires. Basically, if there are vampires, I'm at least going to check it out. Vampires are my favorite mythical creature outside of unicorns, which I collect. Vampires are just so darn interesting and come in all sorts of flavors. Every book series or media property has their own take and possibly even multiple takes on vampires. Everything from monstrous, barely human revenants to the ones you wouldn't even know were vampires at all if you weren't told and everything in between. And yes, even the sparkly ones count.

What really sent me down this rabbit hole this time was that Mercy Thompson, the main character of Blood Bound and where the series gets its name, keeps saying that vampires are evil. Over and over again. My note for that review was basically that vampires are evil because they're humans with a bit extra. No matter what form they're found in, vampires always start as humans... well... Bunnicula is a rabbit, but I haven't touched those books in so long I'm not even sure what was going on there. Anyway, humans, as we all know and deal with every day, are the absolute worst. It follows, then, that vampires would be even worse than that due to the fact they're basically us without society holding them back. They have powers and live outside human society and without human rules, a good chunk of them don't even have a soul.

My take on vampires is probably really unique among vampire fans, or at least ones I've come across on the internet. I've got this weird thing where I can compartmentalize according to what I'm consuming. That means my brain-space can have room for both Selene from Underworld and Edward from Twilight and they're not constantly locked in a death-match where Edward won't ever win... probably. I frankly think the mind-reading bit would give Edward an edge, but that's a discussion I'm not seriously having so... yeah. Basically, the multi-verse has room for all the different iterations of vampires and Edward really needs to watch some Buffy, The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural in order to properly understand that he does have a soul.

Souls are actually an interesting component of vampire lore... and a fairly recent one, from what I can tell. The vampires of Buffy don't have souls unless they're cursed or go get them back. The demon that "infects" the vampires basically lets the meat-suit's soul go and takes up residence. The Vampire Diaries (TV show, I couldn't stand the books enough to get past a chapter or two) has vampires "turning off their humanity" which is basically letting the "soul" or conscience take a nap while the baser instincts take over. Supernatural... vampires kind of have souls, but they go to Purgatory instead of Heaven when the vampire is killed. There are more instances of humans not having souls than there is even discussion of vampires souls in Supernatural. Then there's The Hollows series by Kim Harrison where vampires are alive until they die and upon death lose their souls. That's just the four I can think of off the top of my head. Basically the lack of soul gives the vampire free reign to be as terrible as their little hearts desire without feeling any guilt over their actions... or much of anything, really, if Supernatural and The Hollows are to be believed. Again, this all comes back to humans without morals.

If the vampires do have souls -- which I'm going to assume most other iterations do -- they often have some form of society that's just outside our own. The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels by Laurel K. Hamilton have a ruling class of vampires based on the amount of magical power they can wield over those weaker than them. Not just a ruling class, either, but just stronger and weaker vampires in a hierarchy inside of all that. The vampires of the Mercy Thompson series have a "seethe" to answer to, which also runs on who has more power... I'm pretty sure anyway. The Mercy series mostly deals with werewolves and it's been a while since I've read the entire series. Heck, even The Twilight Saga has the Volturi as their "vampire police." This sort of thing basically takes money (though the ruling vamps are often rich as well) and replaces it with magical power of some kind. Usually, if you have more power, your ego is also through the roof, whether you're human or vampire, it seems, and that leads to all sorts of fun (if terrifying) shenanigans within the power structures. The more power you have, often the more unhinged you become, even if you didn't start out that way and especially if you don't have a plucky human or two keeping you on the sane side... and most don't.

In addition to having societies of their own, vampires will also come in different flavors either from series to series or within a series. Got your bog-standard faster, stronger, compel you with their eyes like a snake vampires. Got your not-even-human anymore vampires, often called revenants and usually bad news for anyone if they're loose. Got your able-to-rot-but-not-die vampires. Got your illusion-creating vampires that only look human because that's what they want you to see. Got your immune to sunlight vampires, sparkly vampires, vampires that house demons, and vampires that are barely more than human. Vampires that are human aside from occasional blood-lust and slight speed and strength buffs until they die and lose their souls. That's not even touching on the powers vampires can possess.

Aside from strength and speed, these can include but are definitely not limited to:

• Telepathy
• Foresight
• Illusionists
• Elemental Manipulation
• Taser-like Electricity Powers
• Shapeshifting - animals or mist
• Lust Bringers/Feeders
• Lover Bringers/Feeders
• Anger Bringers/Feeders
• Teleportation
• Control over animals/therianthropes (basically were-animals)
  

The one thing most, if not all, vampires share is the blood-lust. Where there are vampires, there is their main food source: us. As we all know, the most dangerous game is Man so vampires have to be even more dangerous than that. Human blood does it for most vampires, usually because animal blood just lacks... something in the metaphysical/preternatural realm no one ever quite puts their finger on. Some vampires can feed off animals, but apparently humans just taste better in those universes so... yeah. Human blood or bust. Often there's a metaphysical/preternatural life-force thing that's conveyed through the blood, but I largely think a human chowing down on another human is better left to the zombies. Blood's just cleaner and technically renewable. Some universes even have synthetic blood: Underworld and The Southern Vampire Mysteries, to name a couple, but real human blood remains king.

Vampires are just plain neat. I feel like a discussion on what they allow us to explore about ourselves is a little outside of my wheelhouse and has been done to death elsewhere. I like them, I know a lot about them, and I can discuss them at length. I've also honestly only hit on a few of the series I've consumed in this write-up, and clearly a lot of what I've mentioned here are the Big Names in Vampire Media. I have also read Dracula, just so no one recommends I read it. That Netflix three-part mini-series from 2020 was mostly excellent, by the way. I've got a lot more on my TBR list and am looking forward to consuming much more vampire media.

This entire post has been written off the top of my head, with the exception of having to look up what the Sookie Stackhouse novels are actually titled... have not read those and the accents in the TV show just shut off my brain so... yeah. Hope you enjoyed this nonsense.

This Was Supposed To Be Fun

Alternative Titles For This Post Are As Follows:

You Don't Have to Monetize Everything

I Just Craft For Funzies

Being Good At Beginner Craft Kits Does Not Mean I Should Start an Etsy

Stop Telling Us to Sell Our Crafts

So, I have recently become enamored with needle felting. I finally bought a kit and made a little dinosaur dude and then used the kit leftovers to make another slightly different one. These were Mr. Derp and Beatrice.

My boyfriend requested I turn Beatrice into a keychain for him. So I did. He took this to work and I received a text telling me that one of his coworkers thought it was cute and that she thinks I should start an Etsy. My response to this... "ma'am, that's a beginner project and you should maybe look up needle felting on Etsy to see why this little monster-thingy is unimpressive."

I have been unpacking this response to myself all morning.

It really feels like that's a kind of rude response. Or maybe a humble one if you look at it from a certain angle. I'm not sure. But like, I'm also not wrong. But also, I feel like this is a response that a lot of non-crafty people have been giving me my entire life... and also some crafty people, like my mom. But also... I craft specifically for fun and relaxation and I don't really want to get into selling the things I make. I will occasionally make custom Christmas gifts for my family but... not every year because making even that amount of things just starts feeling like a chore after a while. I'm not into crafting for the mass production side of things.

I feel like people whose response to any type of crafting is "You should start an Etsy" think that's a compliment but I feel like it's closer to the "Oh, you'd make such a great mom" kind of thing you get while babysitting. It feels like I'm being threatened with more than I can take on. You don't understand how much goes into things like Etsy stores and it's frankly more than I feel like I can or want to take on. The same way I can be a good babysitter but having my own child is just... no thank you. Do not want. I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but there it is.

I'm also not going to lie, I've also said "You should start an Etsy" to my mom. She's been trying to get me and my sisters into crafting since we were kids. We come from a long line of crafters, so this is not weird. I've done cross-stitch, drawing, painting, and now needle felting. My mom spent most of my childhood cross-stitching and now crochets a lot. And I mean, a lot. She made a friend of mine a plush in the five days I was at her house. We all got crocheted things for Christmas the last couple of years. She made my dad a Granny Bael plush for his in-person author appearances. It makes sense to me that she should start an Etsy with just the sheer amount of stuff she makes. Not a thing, though.

"Etsy takes too much money from crafters. I won't "get an Etsy" or purchase from there." - My Mom

As a person who only occasionally shops on Etsy and isn't actually a part of any crafting communities, I don't know a lot about how Etsy actually works. I know they give you a space to sell your stuff and take some fees off the top. I have been hearing lately, though, that they've been charging too many fees for a lot of makers to continue using the platform. (My mom's quote came after I wrote this paragraph) That and figuring out shipping and things is a big reason for me not to start an Etsy. Again, I have no idea how any of that actually works, but I don't want to sell my stuff anyway so... much shrugging.

That brings me to another point: I craft for me and not for anyone else. Crafting, for me, is strictly a hobby. I don't do it very often and when I do, it's usually either something I wanted or a gift for a family member. Crafting is fun for me. It scratches a creative itch I can't get relief for anywhere else. I really feel like turning it into a side-hustle would leech the fun out of it. I don't want to leech the fun out of me leisure time, thank you. Even making a largish number of gifts for Christmas will often turn me off from doing it. It's just... let it be a damn hobby. We're living in a Capitalist nightmare world of "make money off everything you do" and it really just needs to stop.

I don't even make money off this blog! That's not to say I haven't tried. Google doesn't think my content is "high brow" enough. I don't do sponsorships because a) never been offered and b) I do this blog for fun and c) making it not fun means I stop doing it. I read or play or watch and share my opinions. That's it. For fun in my off hours.

I guess that's really my point with all this: if it's not fun, I'm gonna stop doing it. I put in my 40 hrs a week at an objectively not fun job. That's enough not fun for me. I gotta rest at some point and crafting helps me do that.

So basically: Stop telling crafters to get an Etsy.

Empire of Night

A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads

I’m honestly not sure how I feel about Empire of Night. It’s not the usual runaround of Armstrong’s middle books, but at the same time, it kind of is. Stuff happens, though, rather than basically nothing ending in a semi-reset of the status quo. I liked it well enough. Wasn’t bored at any point. Wasn’t blown away either. But yeah…

Ashyn and Moria actually spend most of this book apart again, which was interesting. Ashyn basically ran around with Ronan and Tyrus while Moria was held captive by Gavril. Both storylines had their own cast of characters and it was nice to not have the girls stuck to each others sides once reunited. There is also less worrying ostensibly about each other as their world has definitely grown beyond Edgewood.

The boys were a bit more interesting this time around. Ronan was a tad more vulnerable, less stand-offish toward the girls. Tyrus got more fleshing out, though he remains an almost perfect romantic partner for Moria, I think. And Gavril was a jerk, which I think was actually keeping Moria safer than if he hadn’t been, honestly. His motives were obviously less clear as he was ostensibly a traitor in this book. Oh, and Simeon is a dick. Full stop. I have posted a rant below this review, because, well, I apparently have things to say about Simeon despite (or probably because of) my hatred for him.

We got to see a little bit more of Moria’s powers in action. If only because of the encounter with the spirit beasts toward the end of the book. Honestly, it’s like the Seeker and Keeper powers are way passive. They can speak to spirits and kind of command them, but that’s pretty much it. They might as well not have powers for a majority of the story anyway. Not a bad thing, just disappointing for me, personally.

Empire of Night is probably my favorite of Armstrong’s middle trilogy books. It kept me engaged the whole way, which is more than I can say for the last pair of trilogies I read from her. Time to see if she sticks the landing in Forest of Ruin.

That Simeon Rant I Promised

There are spoilers in this part

Okay so, Simeon. First, I really hate his name. Second, he's, uh, basically an incel. Third, it's actually quite unfortunate that he's also basically a nerd because that plays into some tropes that aren't great...

Simeon, when we meet him and through most of his "screen time," is just a socially awkward guy who also happens to be a scholar. I envision him as your bog-standard fantasy nerd type, probably even monk-ish in his dress, just cuz that's how my brain does. Ostensibly, there's nothing wrong with this. Gimme more fantasy nerd boys, we have enough dashing hero types. However, the problems arise when he decides to ask Ashyn if he can court her once their adventure is over. He reacts badly to the rejection. Very badly. Immediately starts insulting her and basically anyone associated with her. Definitely not a good look. Fast forward to later in the story after they've sent him off to tell the Emperor what happened with Tyrus and the mercenaries... he's apparently lied to the Emperor about Tyrus and Moria. Just wholesale lied about both of them. Possibly because he's on Alvar Kitsune's side or possibly because Ashyn refused his advances. Either way, not a good look.

I wholeheartedly despise these types of characters. First, most nerdy guys I've encountered aren't actually jerks underneath and portraying them as such has definitely given nerdy guys a bad rap. Maybe not completely undeserved, I have been around the internet (and, ya know, just been a woman) long enough to know better, but, ya know, "not all men" kind of thing. Given the other guys in the story are all warrior types -- almost literally given the caste system Armstrong's got going -- the nerd boy being rejected by one of the heroines and immediately being a jerk just isn't a good look for the character or Armstrong, really. Second, -- and let me be really clear here, this goes for absolutely anyone who has ever or will ever ask someone out -- this type of turnaround from kinda sweet and awkward to instant asshole is a gigantic red flag. It speaks of some kind of expectation behind the ask and honestly shows the true colors of the asker. If you turn on a dime like that, you're the asshole, not the person who turned you down. Also, let's also be really clear here: You are not owed any kind of relationship with anyone, no matter how nice you are to them. Not friendship or a romantic relationship. None. You are owed nothing for being nice or kind to anyone for any reason. It's nice when the attitude is returned, but you shouldn't freak out if it's not.

I also don't understand why you'd immediately start insulting the people attached to your crush to your crush. Like, ostensibly, and especially in Ashyn and Simeon's case, you'd maybe like to keep at least a friendship going, right? But no, apparently not? Simeon just flat burned that bridge immediately... and then to take it as far as they're assuming he did? Ashyn was too polite for just a flat "no" and pretty much told him "not right now" and he just takes it to the extreme immediately upon being rejected. Way to just completely turn off your crush, man. This is that stereotypical incel-y behavior that made me label him that way. Girl doesn't like you so you start calling her a whore and such... which has been going on for a lot longer than incels have been around, really. Empire of Night was published in 2015 and the term was apparently coined in 1997, online specifically, so... yeah. Basically people need to learn how to handle rejection better. Your nice-guy (nor nice-girl or whatever) facade crumbles immediately if you immediately start acting like a jerk. Should be obvious. Apparently isn't.

I would also like to say that the fact that Simeon is basically a nerd boy in the company of warrior boys isn't a reason for Ashyn to pick him over Ronan (who is her love interest anyway). I completely respect her choice. It just rubs me the wrong way that Simeon is a nerd boy and is a complete ass compared to Ronan, Tyrus, and Gavril. He's one of basically three named characters who is antagonistic right off and it's just frustrating, is all. And, ya know, nerd boys rarely get the girl in these stories because they're not the dashing hero type. That doesn't sit well with me either.

This rant is longer than my review... I might also be really reading too far into this... probably am. 🤷