Tootfinder

Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
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I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading

I’ve seen posts about how Democratic politicians have to be “punished” and then they’ll shape up — even one horrifying post basically arguing that we need a couple more years for fascism to fully materialize in order to reform our political system.
My dude…this “people will wake up when it’s bad enough” trope doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It’s been failing spectacularly my whole life — and if one Trump term didn’t do it…what will? And how many people’s lives will be destroyed along the way?
That thinking will kill us all.
4/

So Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" is what they would call a "visual feast". Lavish production barely does it justice. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and it is as poignant as one would hope. Well worth it!
The only thing that grated on me was the weirdly unnatural composited lighting. I've seen this in other films and it bums me out. Gives me the same vibes as AI generated Art… Makes me wonder why it was decided to go that route, rather than lighting things pra…

lol it’s so genuinely fun seeing Cory take decades of fluency in how these systems are broken and serve it up for a mainstream audiences. Even if you know “enshittification” well, this is worth the watch. And love to @…! https://

Anyone interested in following along with the brain dump before it's completely edified can feel free. It's the same one I've posted before.
Editing support (typos, corrections, questions) is always welcome.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/
Edit:
FYI, I've temporarily renamed it "Rainforest" but WriteFreely doesn't really support changing URLs or titles very well so it's stuck until I finish it. The temporary name is "Rainforest" because it's roughly the opposite of Desert. It is not simply optimistic rather than pessimistic... it's a plan.

And yes, you should feel like a piece of shit if someone calls you out on Nazi bootlicking.
That feeling is your brain telling you that you’re doing it wrong.
That feeling is what’s left of your conscience.

Federal immigration officers have started using Renee Good’s death to threaten more U.S. citizens.
A video posted to Reddit showed a screaming ICE agent repeatedly threatening to kill a man who was sitting in his car, asking how he didn’t “learn from what just happened.”
In the two-minute clip, a masked agent wearing a Minnesota Timberwolves hat approached the vehicle already furious, while the driver rolled down his window.
“Stop fucking following us, you are impeding opera…

“You Did Not Learn?”: ICE Uses Renee Good’s Death as Threat
One protester said an agent told her, “That is why we killed that lesbian b*tch.”

How China stopped an NYC-based independent Chinese film festival, including pressuring directors and moderators, as it largely erases independent films in China (Vivian Wang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/world/asia/china-film-festival-new-…

How China Reached Into New York to Stop a Tiny Film Festival
A showcase for independent Chinese films was scrapped after the Chinese authorities pressured directors, moderators and even a volunteer to pull out.

I have an expired credit card with a metal core that I want to destroy. I originally thought the core was an aluminum alloy, but it resisted scissors. With some bending and prying, I'm 99% sure the core is steel.
After a few minutes of work, I managed to peel some of the plastic off the mag-stripe side but cut a finger in the process.
The card had a pleasant heft and feeling of durability, but given the difficulty to destroy it, I really dislike it now.

lol it’s so genuinely fun seeing Cory take decades of fluency in how these systems are broken and serve it up for a mainstream audiences. Even if you know “enshittification” well, this is worth the watch. And love to @…! https://