we-are-fat-blob-with-electricity:
i love talking about the references and allusions in tlt and what it is influenced by and how. however i do think that sometimes the discussion in the fandom tends to get overly focused on how tlt is like other things and we can lose sight of the fact that it’s not just a conglomeration of influences. and of course putting a work in its context is a crucial part of literary analysis, and we can and should be examining the work for its influences, both for fun and in a serious way. but i think we should also make it a point to more frequently call out and celebrate specific ways that the characters and series are creative and original!!
so i propose that everyone reblog this and add your favorite element/s of tlt, big or small, that are pure tamsyn. your favorite line, a piece of characterization, a worldbuilding element, a joke, a cool moment, a bit that made you think differently about something, a thematic thread, whatever. im currently thinking about the way i went nuts my first time reading gtn and its revealed that harrow spent all night burying bone shards in the dirt because it so clearly sets up how insane about each other they are, and how hard i laughed at “but she’s only nine years old!” in htn.
Hi, not fucking dead, I’m dad <- I still believe part of Gideon’s backstory was built around this punchline. I can imagine Tamsyn cackling madly to herself as she wrote it down
Just like? The general concept of book one?
It’s a murder mystery in a house full of wizards who can reanimate people. This solves nothing. They all race against the clock trying a) solve the murders b) not get murdered and c) oh yeah, figure out the immortality puzzle literal god invited them to do.
Turns out the murderer is a 10 000 year old cougar who already did the puzzle, and then dies mad about it.
So many things.
I’ll say the little moment where Gideon thinks about her and Harrow’s fight after the dad reveal before returning to the action - her character voice is just so solid, and the moment is so well-constructed, and I can’t think of anything I’ve read like it. Also the “it’s complicated” joke when she sees Cytherea’s body, you can feel the lesbianism in that one. And the way Harrow’s share in the climax is mostly supporting secondary characters while literally reclaiming control over her own mind; it feels so momentus and so personal all at once. Everything in HtN Act V, really.
Nona. Because reading a loved child wasn’t what I expected when I first picked up GtN. Hell, we saw the opposite during two books. Nona made me appreciate dogs and I’m scared of dogs.
The soup scene!
It’s built up in a way that the reader wouldn’t have noticed (or at least I didn’t notice) exactly how the details would all come together, but it works to do so much. Aside from still managing to be a surprise while literally speaking from the point of view of the character enacting the plot (sort of), this shows just how out of it Harrow is at this point. We know she’s being hunted by [Ortus] and that she’s scared and tired out of her mind, and when Ianthe gives her the idea to make soup she latches onto it so hard. She’s putting her all into this soup, we just don’t know exactly why. Even when, during the dinner, it is stated that Harrow got scared of how thick the broth was and watered it down, we just chalk it up to Harrow being generally unstable. Then even as Harrow is about to enact her plan, she is STILL literally nodding off, focusing on her task with some grit that is beyond words at this point, and somehow manages to almost kill the Saint of Duty with her watered-down marrow.
In short, it’s an incredible, genius, and funny scene that I look forward to on each reread. :)