Jes Avery
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jthebookworm.bsky.social
Jes Avery
@jthebookworm.bsky.social
A bookworm of no specific gender from the mountains of Maine.🌲 Devoted reader of Queer Books : Genre Fiction Enthusiast (SFF, Horror, Romance) : Book Riot Contributor : Any Pronouns 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️
This has become a two book reading experience.
December 14, 2025 at 1:47 AM
But you see, I have no time for that. Because I'm hard at work getting ready to be utterly devastated by War and Peace in the immediate future, and one literature-based emotional harrowing at a time is really all I can manage.
December 14, 2025 at 12:50 AM
I think I shall!
December 12, 2025 at 1:01 AM
It really is lovely. Last time I tried to read War and Peace, I struck out on the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. So I did more research on different translations this time and landed on the revised Maude, courtesy of Oxford World Classics.

I'm quite excited to finally be starting it!
December 10, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Honestly, Sade's gothics are a lot of fun. They're less "oh god my eyes" than some of his more infamous works - generally less graphic, more in line with other gothic novels of the era, but with all Sade's somewhat chaotic storytelling style. Lots of fainting, crying, and general flailing about!
December 3, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Eugénie de Franval also spends a lot of time exploring ideas that Sade will dig into again in later works like Justine and Philosophy in the Boudoir (particularly the pamphlet "Yet Another Effort, Frenchman"), so it's been interesting following his development of those ideas from book to book.
December 3, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Finished Eugénie du Franval tonight and I think it might just take The Marquise de Gange's place as my favorite of Sade's gothics.

It was terrible, weird, & had all the best staples: Gothic weather, abduction, carriage chase, isolated chateau, plotting, random priest. Delightful.

(TW for incest)
December 3, 2025 at 3:42 AM
It's gorgeous! As someone who is majorly creeped out by spiders, (and therefore loves them in horror) I love that my first reaction was "oh big spider big nope".
December 2, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Ooooh. That cover is CREEPY creepy. 🕷
December 2, 2025 at 6:22 PM
How the spine got that way... 😅

I like notes.
December 2, 2025 at 3:07 AM