Instagram story viewer> @prose.andcons> Posts
z a r a ☆(@prose.andcons)'s profile avatar HD Profile

z a r a ☆

@prose.andcons

598
followers
470
following
💌 sydney publishing girlie
☁️ reader of fantasy, lit fic & more
🕯️ writer/ aspirational novelist
@harpercollinsaustralia marketing, views mine
POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED
Download All
Had to post this on the grid too!!! Sydney Writers Fest weekend (aka falling for the one and only Rebecca F. Kuang) … ignore how tall me, @villainousbooks and @lillymhanna look next to her ❤️💐🪽 by @prose.andcons
8
5 months ago
Download
It’s no surprise to some of you that I’ve been working on a novel(s) since late 2024! ☁️📓I’d love to do more writing content (though I’m no expert) so let me know if you’d like to see more & what x Any other writer friends on here, would also love to hear from you 💕✍️ *amendment - 7-8:45am writing is intended to mean 7:45-8:45am but its been brought to my attention that others will not interpret it that way 🤦‍♀️ i am not a numbers person, clearly by @prose.andcons
34
7 months ago
Download
rainbow magic to romantasy pipeline 🩷🧚 what were your formative books as a kid? #bookstagram by @prose.andcons
23
a year ago
Download
REVIEW: Taipei Story by @kuangrf 💙✨ Taipei Story is a novel about misunderstandings. Like Babel and Yellowface, it’s about who is entitled to language and culture; how the places we are raised and the languages we speak shape how we move through the world. As a second generation immigrant, Lily’s experience of cultural dissonance was deeply relatable for me. Her question, ‘can you be homesick for a place you had never been?’ resonates with how I felt when I first travelled Italy, being full-blooded Italian; the feeling that, almost certainly, some part of my body knew it was home. At the same time, this ‘homesickness’ comes up against its inverse in Taipei Story (and my own experience). There is, as Lily describes, a ‘burden of significance’ to reckon with, during the weeks she lives in Taipei – a sort of guilt that it should feel like home, yet doesn’t, is completely foreign, in fact. The mosquitos, humidity, and gruelling coursework contribute to the claustrophobia that Lily feels within this cultural dissonance, and only in letting go of the ‘burden’, of accepting that she is just like any other foreigner in the city (since her family is technically from Guangzhou), finally allows her to enjoy it. But there’s also a bit more to it. Among many immigrant communities in English-speaking countries, particularly later generations, there is this bizarre competitiveness to prove to others that you’re the ‘real’ thing. Lily has the same knee-jerk reaction to do so when she overhears two Chinese-American students on her flight at the start, and typecasts them as performative, not authentic. By the end of the novel, though, I think Lily learns that trying to be perfect in Mandarin, or fit seamlessly into Taiwanese or mainland culture, is ultimately futile. Just doing the thing, clumsily participating, should be the end goal. Her grandfather’s death epitomises this lesson; in delaying her conversations with him until she can speak perfect Mandarin, she loses the chance entirely. As someone who lost their grandfather pretty recently, and feels so much regret about all the stories he couldn’t share with me in Italian, this hit hard. ⬇️REVIEW CONTINUED BELOW⬇️ by @prose.andcons
16
7 days ago
Download
My most anticipated books of the end of 2026 and start of 2027! 🍸📚If I could read them all right now, I would. What are you most excited for? by @prose.andcons
15
10 days ago
Download
REVIEW: Good Intentions by @jessyzwu 💙🩷 I might be this book’s ideal reader. Let me explain. It’s fairly undeniable that Jake and Nadia’s university newspaper and the campus itself is based on Honi Soit at the University of Sydney; not just from the evidence, but also what I’ve heard through the grapevine. From the jacaranda tree in the quad to Jake’s Cleveland St sharehouse; the student politics factions (Grassroots 👀) to the election ticket system & the ‘Rostra’ Debate; right down to how the newspaper’s basement office is described; I was so staggered by this novel’s resemblance to my year as an Editor of Honi Soit in 2022, and before that, involved in stupol, I had to stop reading and stare at a wall countless times (hence the cheesy nostalgic pics). Then there’s Nadia and Jake’s relationship. Wildly, I, too, met my partner of now 3.5 years while editing the student newspaper. I, too, spent countless hours writing stories in that stuffy basement, chalking odd sexual tension down to the adrenaline high, bad ventilation, and too little sleep. The cherry on top: my partner’s dream job is being an investigative journo like Jake, though he took the law path, while I had a brief journo stint. So, who cares? Well, this is a disclaimer that my review is probably clouded by how fucking personal this book felt. Initially, the similarities actually made me more critical. I thought: why package something as fiction that is so clearly a replica of USyd’s often pretentious student journalism and politics scene? At the same time, I self-indulgently loved reliving what Wu calls the idealism that only visits upon twenty-year-olds, “the belief that the truth could fix anything, if only you were brave enough to tell it.” But as Wu unspools Jake & Nadia’s severance after graduation - when Nadia takes a job in finance in New York - and involuntary reunion in Sydney a decade later, on opposite sides of a high-profile controversy, my love for this novel & these characters multiplied. (CONTINUED BELOW)⬇️ by @prose.andcons
24
24 days ago
Download
September is Bi Visibility Month, so here are some bi book recs from a bi girlie …. far fewer than I wanted to recommend, as there is a shocking shortage! Please recommend me some more 🫶💕 by @prose.andcons
11
a month ago
Download
REVIEW: My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein 💙 Anyone who knows me knows that Deborah Levy is one of my favourite authors of all time. I even did my English thesis on her autobiography trilogy. So, as a certified Levy lover, I feel like I can say that this isn’t her best work, or maybe it’s just not for me. Though this is a fluid, genre-bending memoir like her other nonfiction works, it lacks their focus and clarity. Interweaving sweeping biography of the preeminent 20th century writer and trailblazer Gertrude Stein with Levy’s own present living in Paris, she skirts around definitions of womanhood, creativity, art, and writing without saying a lot about any of them. Her characteristic sparse and witty prose is still very enjoyable to read … but will lines from this book live in my bones for years to come, like they do from The Cost of Living (2019) or Things I Don’t Want to Know (2018)? No, I don’t think so. I still recommend this for anyone who wants to learn about Gertrude Stein (who I still think is fabulous) and loves Paris. 🌟🌟🌟/5 by @prose.andcons
4
a month ago
Download
FIVE BOOKS 🍂 and my feelings on them 🫣 #bookstagram #tbr #bookrecs by @prose.andcons
21
a month ago
Download
REVIEW: Theodora’s Tea Shop by Christy Anne Jones ☕️🐦‍⬛🪻 What a gorgeous, heart-rending novel! Theodora’s Tea Shop is soaked in whimsy, wonder and a good dose of wickedness - exactly what I needed with this recent gloomy weather. I’ve followed @christyannejones on Youtube for years, so watching this book being written in her vlogs, then receiving a publishing deal, made me anticipate it all the more. I adored the characters and the world of Theodora’s Tea Shop. The Studio Ghibli, 1920s-inspired city of Alliaster, full of spirits, daemons, and magicians, felt refreshing and truly magical, helped by the addition of Aussie elements (jacarandas & the South Pole!). Dot’s growth from a timid, chronically-ill young woman beat down by a tragedy in her childhood and her nefarious older brother, into a woman in command of her own power, was also incredibly satisfying. The way Jones handles themes of found family and chasing your dreams, others be damned, made me cry several times. I also loved that this novel positions a friendship, not a romance, as its central relationship. Theodora and Dot are, in many ways, mirrors of each other; girls hungry for something bigger than their small lives, reviled by people who should accept them, seeking love in the wrong places. Even their names are inverted forms of the other. And while Dot initially idolises Theodora as a mentor, they are both necessary for eachother’s growth by the end. More Aussie fantasy please! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 by @prose.andcons
7
a month ago
Download
Come write with me on the weekend! 📚🖋️🫧 Is anyone else working on writing projects? Would love to hear about them & your writing routines 🫶 #bookstagram #writing #writingcommunity #writergram #tbr by @prose.andcons
11
2 months ago
Download
REVIEW: A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson 💌🕯️🩸 This book is pure gothic goodness. A sapphic retelling of Dracula from the perspective of his bride Constanta, I loved how atmospheric and immersive this was. Gibson’s prose is incredibly poetic - so much so that at times it felt like I was reading prose poetry rather than a novel. Gibson uses vampirism to explore abuse and codependent relationships, teasing out the idea that love and hate are two sides of the same coin. The ending, however, fell a bit flat for me - a bit of a “and then they all lived happily ever after” that didn’t really reflect the rest of the book. For that reason, this was ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 for me! 🏷️ bookstagram, book recs, tbr, romance, fantasy, vampires, spooky season, gothic romance, gothic fantasy, sapphic books, wlw by @prose.andcons
0
2 months ago
Download
×

Download all media on this page

Photos Videos
back to up