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Buffie 🦊

@buffiesbooks

1K

followers

714

following

language & literature student 📝 reader 📖 hobby collector 🧶 taurus ♉️ anti-ai 👎 hopeful 🫶

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Over 1000 followers! I normally don't post things like this or really celebrate milestones, but after having this instagram for 7 years now, this feels like a huge one. I've had a lot of different phases and aesthetics here, but this page started as a kind of faceless 'second life' page where I could come for peace, and make totally new internet friends based on our mutual interests in books, other media and just generally cool pictures 😂 Over the past 2-3 years I feel like I've really settled on a kind of aesthetic (hopefully) and concentrated on bookish posts with other bits thrown in. I honestly truly mean that I have found more through this instagram than I wished for; there is such a community on bookstagram of people who I align with both morally and through hobbies and interests, you are all so supportive not just of me but each other and it never feels forced and fake, we all just here having a never-ending book club 🫶 so for real, THANK YOU so much not just for "following" me but for posting, commenting, sharing, talking to me in the dm's and just being so awesome 🥹🫶🥹🫶🥹🫶
P.S the 1K and 1000 are written in pistachio syrup haha, thank you to my one of my most fave cafes @hikarikoffee for lending it to me! by @buffiesbooks

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You're not supposed to die tonight by Kalynn Bayron mini-review! This was an extremely gripping horror which kept me saying "one more chapter!", it honestly was scary (for me) and had all the fun spooks you'd expect from a book heavily inspired by 80s slasher movies. Without giving any spoilers - I wasn't as surprised by some of the directions this book takes as I've seen some people say they were, because I felt it was still reminiscent of movies like Friday the 13th and A nightmare on elm street. I also loved that it might have been inspired by one of my favourite ever Batman comic storylines, and the political undertones worked really well.
4/5 🔪 by @buffiesbooks

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7 days ago

Book recommendations for spooky season, only including books I've read and rated 4 or 5 stars! 🎃🧛‍♂️

Classics: frankenstein and the picture of dorian gray

Vampires: the buffalo hunter hunter, vampires of el norte, carmilla, bury our bones in the midnight soil, she haunts me still, the coldest girl in coldtown, a dowry of blood
!honourable mention to buffy the vampire slayer books!

Supernatural and folklore (this one is a bit broad/miscellaneous 😅): gilded, the buried and the bound, witchcraft for wayward girls, hallowed be thy name, slewfoot

Comics/graphic novels: night of the living deadpool, batman the court of owls, wild's end

Thriller/murder mystery: the final girl support group, drop dead famous, a good girl's guide to murder and the reappearance of rachel price

Happy Spooky Season! 🦇👻 by @buffiesbooks

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10 days ago

Survival Show by Juno Dawson review!
Wow! First of all this book was such a ride, so entertaining whilst being full of important sentiment. Survival Show is set in the not-so-distant future and follows Taryn, an English refugee who had to move to the Republic of Scotland after the U.K splits up and many areas flood. She has an incredible voice, and chooses to enter a competition similar to X-factor but much more like shows that create Korean idol groups. The story is marketed as The Hunger Games meets X-factor and I would say this is quite accurate. In this future, Kpop terminology is widely known and used as global pop/idol groups are created, however, those who are voted out of the competition are sacrificed to Project Population, and their likeness sometimes used by AI so that fans can still hear/see them. I could talk about this book for a while so to keep it short - it was both very entertaining and fun whilst being a horrifying and possibly accurate depiction of the near-future and dystopian sci-fi-ish world we currently exist in. It touches on the dangers of AI, the magic of sisterhood, and the power that celebrities hold (and how they should use it for good rather than to suit hidden billionaires, as we have just seen with Ed Sheeran). While sometimes the political statements are on-the-nose, sometimes things need to be said very directly. I'd love a sequel!
5/5 ⭐️ by @buffiesbooks

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12 days ago

Happy October 1st! I have had a "spooky season book recs" post planned for ages but been to lazy to finish it so that'll have to be in a few days 😂 for now here's my September wrapped. I re-watched The Hunger Games trilogy in cinema & read quite a lot. Sadly my reading will likely slow down as my final ever module (Creative Writing for a BA in English Lang & Lit) begins in a few days, I'm a bit nervous but excited and also excited for Halloween although I have no plans yet 🎃

I've also clearly been getting back into TCG's 🤭 I used to have a few pokemon cards and HUNDREDS of yu gi oh cards growing up even though I didn't play I just loved how cool they looked, I'd love to get into playing them though! && now I'm so after dragon ball cards 👀 by @buffiesbooks

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16 days ago

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu mini-review! I liked this much more than I thought I would! Carmilla is a short, sapphic vampire story that was released two decades before Dracula, and I haven't read Dracula yet because I wanted to read this first 🤭 The gothic castle aesthetic was perfect, and I can't lie I was genuinely a bit scared & creeped out in parts which surprised me! The prose wasn't too convoluted like some classics are (for me) although it was still noticeably of it's era (i.e. epistolary-esque, long monologues, slightly different word meanings compared to today), but now that I've read a few classics, these elements only add to the enjoyment and immersion. It also felt ahead of its time in due to the blatant queer representation and the slightly gory scenes. The ending was also very exciting and interesting as it contained some information just regarding vampire lore. Carmilla is a great short read to get you in the spooky mood & a reminder that all gothic art is queer in some way, and human expression even under constraints is just magical.
5/5 🩸 by @buffiesbooks

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18 days ago

things i've done recently instead of doom scrolling 🫶 how about you? by @buffiesbooks

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24 days ago

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi mini-review!
*spoiler free*
The main winning factor of this book is that the author's morals seem well-aligned to mine, so I loved the queer representation, political plot points, even the vegetarian society. Another big win for this book is the interesting world building and multiple clever twists. Although some plot twists could be guessed, some I definitely didn't see coming and I found it really clever. I did have a few gripes though so I'm not sure yet whether I'll continue the series, although it has potential I wasn't really gripped by Faebound (partly for these reasons). I didn't find the characters very likeable, in fact, the creatures are much more likeable than the humanoids (no spoilers so I hope this makes sense 😂). Yeeran seemed like they were aiming to be a very strong character, but they actually came across very weak to me. Their irratic decision making right at the beginning causes them to make a huge mistake, and then this trend seems to continue as they are led around like a puppet by other characters or by their own mentality that they never question (e.g. she never thought to ask herself "do i really need to do this/is this person who i think they are?" she just did what she thought was normal or expected). Neither of the romance subplots interested me, probably because they felt rushed and I didn't find Yeeran or Lettle charming. It just didn't seem to me like there was real chemistry, it just kinda happened. As I say, there is a lot that still interests me about Faebound but there's more promise in the world building and political plot than the romance/main two characters, but I do often prefer books 2&3 in trilogies... for me, 3.5/5 ⭐️ by @buffiesbooks

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a month ago

Taipei Story by Rebecca F. Kuang review (I received an advanced review copy of the audiobook from netgalley and am writing this review voluntarily; all thoughts are my own.)
*very mild spoilers ahead*
I'm nervous about posting this one 😭 I've been a fan of R.F Kuang's books for years and been to three of their events, but unfortunately, while their first 5 books were all great in my opinion (although I've not finished the burning sun quite yet!), Katabasis was alright but not great, and Taipei Story was just not for me at all.

Firstly, the political positioning of this book was very curious. I don't want to derail the whole review explaining why for thousands of words so I'll just say it wasn't just the infamous Israeli pianist that had me questioning the aims of a lot of the book. Story-wise, it just felt like nothing at all happened. I know the main character Lily goes to Taipei for an intensive Chinese language course, at some point she had a sexual encounter with a boy called JC, even though she wasn't really attracted to him and just felt it was easier to see it through than to say "no i don't want to do this", which is something many people (especially women & girls) can relate to. I thought this was sad but important and I don't often see it addressed. This caused further disagreements with her friend (or just fellow student, as Lily doesn't actually seem to like this girl...) and this doesn't seem to really lead to self reflection from any of the characters. A lot of the book was just judgemental comments about tourists or other students, interspersed with some history and political opinions. Even when their grandad dies, it doesn't seem to amount to much other than Lily being sad as she still struggles to connect and communicate with her family.

The personal life of the main character didn't really seem to evolve, I didn't see any true character development and basically overall I just thought... what was the point in this book. I might get some hate for this, and I still like Kuang & their other work which is why I gave this one a try, but I'm still heavily questioning the point/aim of this book and just didn't enjoy it.
2/5 ⭐️ by @buffiesbooks

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be a rebel and get a library card rn 🪄
! support your local library ! by @buffiesbooks

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a month ago

if reading in public is performative, or being myself and trying to find some joy in this world is cringe, so be it. by @buffiesbooks

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