Pokemon Go Book Tag Starring Luci

I don't know if you all have noticed, but my blog has been a little review heavy for the last... few years, frankly. And reviews are great, but they're a lot of work, and I also want to do things that aren't just me complaining. Things that are just fun for me and for you all to read. So I started looking at book tags and weekly posts and  things like that, and I found some stuff I want to do, so things are going to be changing a little around here.

And this one in particular seemed really cute. But I never got into Pokemon, either time around.

So I roped Luce into doing it with me! And they went along with it because they love me!

This tag was created by Aentee of Read at Midnight, and all graphics were created by them.

Starters: Book that started your love for reading?

My guess: Something I've never really heard of, because German.

Luci's answer: I don't know. I've always read a lot. The first book I was really into as a smol was "Die Maus Mathilde" (Matilde the Mouse) which was published by some tiny GDR publisher. I knew it by heart and recited it while pretending to read.

Me: I remember you telling me about that one!

Pikachu: An iconic classic that you'll always love

My guess: I'm thinking something by Oscar Wilde or Shakespeare, or the Neverending Story guy.

Luci's answer: I like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet is hilarious. It has a lot of comedic elements. I did a presentation on that a couple semesters ago. Basically, a looooot of dick metaphors. Really the whole thing without death is pretty much a comedy.

Honestly I like a lot classics. Goethe's Faust is a good one too. Dracula is great because it has a lot of platonic relationships.

Me: Can you tell they're an English major?

Zubat: A book you lost interest in because it's literally everywhere

My guess: Luci got too fast and I didn't get to guess.

Luci's answer: The Hunger Games. I was kinda turned off the whole thing before I even started. I kinda read it late, like everyone was so into it, and then I eventually read it, but it was kinda meh. I didn't really care for it much. Mostly I just read it so I'd know what the hype was about. It wasn't as good as everyone said for me.

Also the whole Grisha thing.

Me: PLEASE ELABORATE. (I think we've documented my Six of Crows dislike...)

Luci: I actually own the first book but everyone is so into and my inner hipster is over it already. Also from my experience books or anything really that gets that much hype always diappoints, and a lot of stuff has aromisia in it, and people don't notice.

Ditto: A book that reminds you of other books/tropes, but you still love anyways

My guess: I feel like you're gonna feel this way about Not Your Sidekick, but you don't have that yet. Maybe one of Austin (Chant)'s books, or another queer romance?

Luci's answer: I don't know, romance is super tropey generally, but I wouldn't say that books with the same trope remind me of each other much. Maybe I'm weird.

Me: Well, yeah, of course you're weird, but not for that.

Luci: Thanks lol.

Snorlax: A book/series you have not started because of sheer size.

My guess: (Okay, sidenote, this concept is a little fatmisic.) My first thought was Goosebumps because we've been watching that show, lol. Honestly Luci's an English major. I don't think that's really a big thing for them.

Luci's answer: Honestly big books don't really scare me. I can't really think of a single book. I've read the entire bible. The only one that kind of fits is The Second Sex, but that's not so much a size thing as just very complex and a bit convuluted language thing. Theoretical text on feminism, very long, written in French and then translated. It's not that it's not interesting. It's just a lot and it's not like the most gripping book, and my attention span isn't what it used to be.

Gengar: A book that kept you up at night.

My guess: Okay, Luci's a wimp. I don't think they read much horror. They still haven't forgiven me for Poltergeist. They've probably read Chameleon Moon all night.

Luci's answer: I don't read any horror, lol. It's just not my genre. But I've had books that kept me up because I couldn't put them down. Yes, that (to Chameleon Moon). Also Harry Potter, A Little Life, The Fifth Season. Honestly I do most of my reading at night, like pretty much everything I've ever read was at least partially read at night.

Me: Yeah, you don't sleep.

Luci: Nope. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I got it delivered at midnight and stayed up until like 5am reading it, then slept a few hours and finished it at 8. Anyways, lots of late night reading. Oh, Well's Time Machine. I was scared as fuck. Merlocks, right?

Nidoking/Queen: Your bookish OTP.

My guess: Basically everyone in Chameleon Moon. To answer this would literally just be listing the Chameleon Moon cast list.

Luci's answer: YOU ARE NOT WRONG. ZILCH/ROWAN/REGAN FOR LIFE. Also you know their whole extended polycule, but that's like a lot of people. Jude and Pixie from Stake Sauce are Good. All the people from Dracula have like a QPP (queerplatonic partnership) thing going on in my head. Not literally ALL the people, but like the good guys. Wespeth.

Me: They don't know who that is, lol.

Luci: I BUILT THAT SHIP AND I WILL SAIL IT.

Rapidash: A fire-hot, fast paced read

My guess: If this isn't a Chameleon Moon answer I will be shocked.

Luci's answer: Chameleon Moon. Also Stake Sauce and the Fifth Season. I have a book with photos of baby (their dog) and I gotta say that's a real page-turner.

Eevee: A series you'll never get tired of seeing spin-offs for.

My guess: *cackles* Chameleon Moon.

Luci's answer: YES. Basically I love everyone in CM and I will never not want to know more about them, and also it's just a really interesting setting. Like there's a lot to explore there, all the hows and whys, and just a lot of interesting possibilities there.

Also Stake Sauce which actually has a spin-off series already with a NONBINRARY FIRE WITCH. And Stake Sauce/Death Masquerade has vampires AND witches so that's kinda self-explanatory. Vampires are at least in my top 3 of fantasy creatures.

Magikarp: A book/series that was surprisingly awesome.

My guess: I don't really have a guess for this one, but I do think that poor fish is ridiculous looking.

Luci's answer: It can literally only flop around. It's so useless. But then it evolves into gyaados which is awesome and a dragon type if I remember correctly.

Okay, don't laugh, but Chameleon Moon.

Me: I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN.

Luci: For some reason I didn't really expect to like it that much? BUT THEN. Instant fave.

Me: New religion.

Luci: And then reading slump because it was SO GOOD and nothing could compare. I didn't read a lot of sci-fi before CM so I think part of why I didn't expect to be into it was that I just hadn't discovered the genre for myself yet and I kinda associated sci-fi with, like. Nonqueer White Dude Nerd CultureTM

Legendary: An overhyped series you're still excited to read.

My guess: More Percy Jackson. I know you've been enjoying that series.

Luci's answer: I'm kinda stuck on book three. God, I think I might be a hipster. I think my problem with this question is I'm reading a lot of queer lit right now and it's rare for queer books to be overhyped. And the ones that are, are like allo cis gay books or something, or just stuff that doesn't appeal to me, like Adam Silvera kinda? I keep hearing things about his books, but I don't like sad stories that much. AND the more hype something gets, the less interested I get by default.

Me: Hipster.

Luci: xD Which I guess has a lot to do with how ARCs get a lot of hype already, so by the time it comes out and I could actually read it, it's kinda like I feel like I know all about it already. So I'm not that interested in actually picking it up. Unless I've heard that it has like awesome aro or enby rep, but those aren't really *over*hyped.

Mask of Shadows got a lot of attention, though, and I'm really excited to read that one. It's just that diverse books generally don't get a lot of attention outside of diverse book twitter, so I don't know that overhyped applies there. And the books that actually get overhyped are like, Carve the Mark or The Raven Cycle or whatever, and I don't care about those. I'm like anti-excited to read those.

Mew and Mewtwo: A collector's issue you wish you owned.

My guess: Does Chameleon Moon have a collector's version? I know you wanted a version of some Oscar Wilde stories, and there are some cool Dracula editions. I don't think you're that into that kind of thing, though.

Luci's answer: I actually own a really pretty leatherbound edition of Dracula! But yeah generally I'm not that into collector's editions or anything. Unless the normal editon is like butt ugly. I care more about keeping my books in a good condition, aka PRISTINE. I would totally buy a special edition of CM though. Also we don't get a lot special editions except like movie tie-ins. But like in the US sometimes Target or whatever gets a special edition of a book, and we just don't get that, so tbh like it's just not on my radar.

Poke-Egg: A debut novel you're very excited for:

My guess: We were just talking about Hurricane Child, because the author is nonbinary and that's awesome. Was Mask of Shadows a debut, since you mentioned it?

Luci's answer: I think it was! Both of those. Also yours obviously ;)

Me: Aww dork XD (I haven't even started querying, lol.)

Lure Module: An auto-buy author

My not actually a guess but a fact: RoAnna Sylver.

Lucia's answer: Lol true. Also Claudie Arsenault, and Austin Chant.

Server's Down: A book release you've been waiting on forever

My guess: I know you're terrified to read The Lifeline Signal, although that's been out for a while, lol. Apparently you're into Game of Thrones so that one everyone else is waiting on that may never happen.

Luci's answer: Yes on TLS, and yes on GOT and same thing on the Kingkiller Chronicles, which I'm not even that excited about anymore, but I just want to FINISH it. Also I'm really excited for Baker Thief so it feels like I've been waitingfor a long time.

Me: I nearly mentioned that! Anything else you want to say?

Luci: Chameleon Moon is underrated.

Me: Hey since this is a Pokemon thing, what's your favourite one?

Luci: Eevee is cute. Mimikyu is is my fave I think. It kills people? I love it. It's spoopy. Look up the pokedex entry for Mimikyu. Also the Mimikyu rap on YouTube.

Me: Which one do you think would be my favourite?

Luci: Hmmmm. Oh, that's hard. Oh man you can't ask me that. There's like 700 of them!

Me: I know like three. Pikachu, fake Pikachu, and the plant one that turns into a flower.

Luci: Vulpix is cute and has an Alolan variant that is an ice type. I feel like yours should be an ice/ghost type or ice/dark.

Me: Oh that's cute. Okay, we'll go with that one, why not?


Okay, I think that's everything for us! Thanks for reading, and go follow Luce on Twitter, because they're obviously awesome.

Thanks again for helping me, Luci. And let me know what other posts like this you'd want to see from me!

Peace and cookies,
Laina