Another year has come and gone. I don’t know how this keeps happening.

It has only been in recent years, since 2022 to be exact, that I’ve actually kept track of and logged my reading habits. I have a reading journal, so with every book I read now, I make note of the start and finish date, write down my thoughts after I finish reading, and then rate them. This has been a very fruitful endeavor for me. If you don’t have a reading journal, or a Goodreads account, or any means of documenting your reading, I highly recommend it. It has seriously enriched my experience as a reader. I also love being able to go back and re-read my entries.

I will be the first to confess I am something of a slow reader. I’m never going to be one of those people who reads over 100 books a year and can somehow get through an entire book in one day, and to be perfectly honest, I’m glad I’m not. I think too many people now see reading as a numbers game or a competition. But if I could be hypocritical and talk about the numbers for just a moment, in 2022, I read 12 books. Not a bad effort. In 2023, I read 23 books; my personal best. I would have done a reading wrap-up last year as well, if not for the fact that I was in a horrific reading slump throughout the entirety of 2024. I still managed to get through 8 books, albeit 4 of which I had to read for my English degree, which means only half of the books I read last year were actually read for pleasure in my downtime. Whoops.

This year I managed to get through 15 books. So better than last year. Strangely enough, I opened 2025 with two back-to-back non-fiction books. The first book was one I started in 2024 but finished in 2025, that being You Will Get Through This Night, which was written by YouTuber, Daniel Howell. I am no stranger to the genre that is YouTuber books, which tend to have a bad rep. When I was a teenager, I bought my fair share of YouTuber books, before eventually selling most of them on Facebook marketplace. But I will confess, I am something of a Dan and Phil fan; ever since they brought their gaming channel back from hiatus in 2023, they’ve been my favourite comfort creators. So I decided to give Dan’s book a go.

This book, for those who don’t know, is centred around concrete steps one can take to improve their mental health. It was originally published in 2021, but the version I read is an updated one that was published last year. As someone who has studied psychology in the past and has also been to therapy at multiple points throughout my life, admittedly most of the content this book covers were things I already knew. But I have to remember that someone who is an absolute beginner to anything mental health related probably wouldn’t know this stuff. This book would’ve been more helpful to me had I read it when I was 16, but that’s on me.

However, this book still covers a lot of bases and I think it’s great a book like this even exists. It’s split up into three sections; This Night, which focuses on immediate things you can do to make yourself feel better, Tomorrow, which focuses on things you can do in the short-term to improve your mental health, and The Days After, which focuses on long-term things to put into place. I think that layout is really smart and easy for readers to follow.

When I was reading some of the reviews on Goodreads, a lot of the lower reviews were echoing the same sentiment of, “who does this random YouTuber think he is writing a book on mental health like he’s some sort of expert?” But I personally don’t see that as an issue at all. Dan states quite clearly at the beginning of the book that in addition to doing his own research, he also had an actual psychologist verify everything the book covers. Additionally, throughout the book, he sprinkles in personal anecdotes and is very open about his own struggles with depression over the years. Sometimes that’s nicer than hearing from an actual psychologist. I’ve talked to multiple psychologists in the past who clearly haven’t actually experienced the things I’m telling them about and have only read about it in a textbook. I’m not questioning their expertise or anything, but studying something and actually experiencing it will never be the same thing.

The second book I read this year was Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, published in 2000. For the record, I read this before I found out he was creepy and before he had a very suspicious reaction to the existence of a specific list. Anyway, this is actually the only book by King I’ve ever read. I know starting with his memoir doesn’t make the most sense, but horror isn’t really my cup of tea. The first half of this book is a memoir, while the second half is a writing guide. I usually find books on the craft to be a bit of a chore to read, but this one kept me engaged the whole time. I liked the no bullshit kind of writing advice it provides. Reading this also made me aware of how much I overuse adverbs in my writing.

It’s about time we delved into some fiction. The third book I read this year was Peter Pan by J.M Barrie. Not the 1904 play, the 1911 novel. Peter Pan is one of those classic stories I’ve always been fascinated by. I love the idea of a character who never grows up, and I was obsessed with Tinkerbell as a kid. Overall, I was enchanted by Barrie’s writing style. The way he writes is so fun and whimsical. So much of this story is nonsensical, even before they get to Neverland, yet the characters never question it. It reminds me a lot of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in that sense, which I read in 2023.

Peter’s character is unlikeable, yet there’s something sad about his story. He’s selfish, and apathetic, and cocky; he’s repeatedly described as heartless. Yet the story ends with not only Wendy leaving him, but all the Lost Boys. He alone remains in Neverland. But because of his inability to remember things long-term, he isn’t even aware of what he’s lost. I think this book highlights that even though keeping in touch with your inner child is important, we shouldn’t waste time longing for childhood, because to never grow up would be a curse. Peter think it’s a blessing, but it’s a curse.

The next book on this list is one that I read for an English class, namely, Wide Sargasso Sea, written by Jean Rhys in 1966. This book is based on the character of Bertha Antoinette Mason from Jane Eyre. In Jane Eyre, Bertha is a mysterious figure who haunts Jane long before she’s even aware of her existence. But despite her being a crucial character in the story, the reader only meets her twice, and both times are brief. This book takes place before Jane Eyre does, and it provides a backstory to Bertha, and shows how and why she “went mad.”

It’s so interesting reading a book from the 1960s that is essentially about mental health, because it highlights how differently they viewed it back then.1 The book starts with Antoinette (Bertha) as a child witnessing her mother going mad. From that point on, it seems Antoinette is destined to go mad herself, as if madness is something that’s hereditary. The other characters talk about madness as if it’s some contagious disease that’s incurable once it takes over your mind. I found the writing style to be quite strange and unlike anything I’ve ever read before.

Another text I read for the same English class was the 2010 playscript, Do Not Go Gentle… by Australian playwright, Patricia Cornelius; the title being a reference to the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” I was surprised by how moved I was by this story. At the start, you’re led to believe this is a story about five elderly explorers going on a dangerous expedition in the Arctic, but as the story progresses, you realise that’s not what’s happening at all. Really, the story is taking place at a nursing home, and most of the characters are suffering from severe dementia.2

It’s so cleverly done. It’s one of those stories where because of what it’s about and the way it’s written, it forces you to get a bit existential yourself and ponder your own mortality. My job requires me to spend a decent amount of time going into nursing homes, and growing up, I would also sometimes accompany my mum to work when she worked at a home, so I know first-hand how grim these places are. Even just walking through them, it’s as if you can feel the sickness and impending death lingering in the air, in the same way you can in a hospital. Cornelius does such a good job of conveying that in the text, even though the physical setting on stage isn’t even a nursing home, it’s the Arctic. And this is all just from reading the playscript; I bet it would be a gem of a show to watch live.

The next book I read was the highly anticipated Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins. I read the Hunger Games trilogy when I was 12 and absolutely loved it. I read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes when it came out in 2020, and still enjoyed it, but liked it less. Haymitch was always one of the characters from the original trilogy that most intrigued me. The only surviving district 12 victor, and he’s a drunken mess who comes off cold and distant most of the time, yet shows glimpses of a heart every now and again, with Katniss usually being the one to bring it out.

The arena for the game was so haunting and terrifying. A place that is serene and beautiful, yet everything is poisonous? The air smells sweet, yet unnatural and sickening at the same time? In all honesty, I found the start a bit slow, but once we were in the actual arena, I became much more engaged. I’ve never gone into a book knowing basically every character was going to die, but that surprisingly didn’t make any of the deaths less impactful. Maysilee was my favourite character. I loved how Haymitch brushed her off as some stuck-up snob, but then she ended up having more grit than any of them. If I could have one complaint, the inclusion of so many characters from the original trilogy, especially Mags, Wiress, and Beetee, felt a tad forced. But I can let it slide.

Going back to some non-fiction, the next book I read was The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke. If you had told me a few years ago that I’d one day be reading the tell-all memoir of Ruby Franke’s oldest child, I’d be shocked but not surprised. I had always used 8 Passengers as the golden example of why family vlogging channels are bad. Essentially the entire internet referred to that channel as the worst of the worst when it came to family vlogging. I remember seeing it all over the news in 2023 when Ruby was arrested and then jailed for child abuse.

Obviously, this book is not a light-hearted read. Reading it reminded me of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, which I read in 2022. One thing I found really interesting was the part in the book where Shari talks about the moment the internet turned on Ruby and started labelling her abusive and spamming her comments and making video essays on the topic and whatnot. Shari says that instead of this making Ruby assess her behaviour, it only made her escalate everything. It just goes to show that oftentimes when the internet thinks they’re helping, they’re not. Oftentimes they’re actually making the situation worse.

One thing I will say is that I’ve seen a lot of people saying Shari should’ve waited a few more years to release this, and I agree with that to a degree. Shari is only 22. It was apparent reading this that she still hasn’t fully processed all of the traumatic things that happened to her, which, again, is understandable given she’s 22. It’s kinda crazy how after detailing everything the Mormon Church put her through, she somehow comes out of it all still a member of the Church. But hey, that’s not my journey. Regardless, I think it’s important a book like this exists, and I think it’s great that Shari has been so outspoken in the need for there to be stricter laws around family vlogging to prevent what happened to her and her siblings happening to someone else.

The next three books I read were all part of a trilogy; the Emily Wilde trilogy by Heather Fawcett. The first book in the series, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, I absolutely adored. I loved the incorporation of actual folklore, the found family aspect, and the light academia. Dark academia is overrated; I want more light academia in my life. I loved the footnotes. They added so much personality to the writing style. For some reviews of the book, I saw people saying they couldn’t get into it because they didn’t find Emily likeable. To those people I say: You just don’t understand her like I do. Socially awkward, bad at reading people, and emotionally constipated? I basically am Emily.

Then there’s Emily’s love interest, Wendell, who is her polar opposite. I am an absolute sucker for a good opposites attract trope. While Emily is hardworking and driven, Wendell is lazy and unmotivated. There’s nothing Emily hates more than making small talk with strangers, meanwhile Wendell thrives in social environments and loves being the centre of attention. Most people find Emily cold and standoffish at first meeting, whereas Wendell is the kind of person people instantly love because of how friendly and charming he is. This book honestly has everything I could ever ask for in a fantasy book. As soon as I finished the first one, I immediately bought the other two in the series.

The second book, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, has the same charm as the first book. I read it in two days, and you have to understand how rare it is for me to get through any book that quickly. The third book, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales, did start to lose me a teeny tiny bit. Several new characters were introduced, but they were underutilised and underdeveloped. There were a couple of moments that relied a little too heavily on plot convenience, and the ending felt rushed, but other than that, I still ultimately loved the third book. If I had to pick a favourite out of the three, I would still say the first book, but a fantastic trilogy overall.

The next book I read was a novella, What Does it Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella, published in 2024. I bought this book not because I knew of Sophie Kinsella or that she wrote the quite famous Shopaholic series, I bought it simply because I was intrigued by the title and cover. This story is partly fictional, partly autobiographical. It’s based on the author’s real life experience of recovery after surgery to remove a brain tumour. This is a very touching and moving snapshot into the awfulness that is cancer. But what struck me most of all is that even in a book about cancer, the overall tone of the story is still so light-hearted, optimistic, and hopeful. I think that’s what moved me most of all.

In the time between writing and editing this post, Sophie Kinsella actually passed away. Considering the book reflects Kinsella’s real life struggles with memory loss post surgery, the fact that she still pushed herself to write one last book to tell her story is an admirable feat. I’m so glad this book made it out into the world, because it’s a story that deserves to be told. May she rest in peace.

The next book I read was Lightlark, by Alex Aster, published in 2022. I need to be fully honest in my motivations behind deciding to read this book. I wanted to see if it was truly as bad as the internet had made it out to be. When you search “Lightlark” into the YouTube search bar, one of the first videos that pops up is a 7 hour video essay (yes, seven hours!!) breaking down why it’s such a terrible book, and that video has 1.2 million views. I’m admittedly someone who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I was determined to go into this book with an open mind and find the good in it.

Now having read it, I do think the internet was exaggerating. I’m not surprised, that tends to happen. This is just your average run-of-the-mill YA fantasy book. The biggest complaint I’ve seen is that the plot is far too convoluted. Sure, there is a bit going on. The plot of this book is that there’s six realms, who each have their own special powers, but the realms have all been inflicted with a unique curse. Every 100 years, a magical island appears, and the six powerful rulers of each realm go to said island for 100 days. The only way for the curses to break is if in those 100 days, one of the rulers gets killed. The protagonist is Isla Crown, who, as the youngest of the rulers, knows the others will likely be gunning for her. Sure, it’s not a straightforward plot, but again, I don’t see how it’s any more convoluted than your average run-of-the-mill YA fantasy. If you can’t follow along with the plot of a YA fantasy book, then maybe that’s a skill issue.

Although the book does open with a prologue that is essentially just exposition explaining the plot. One of the number 1 rules of fantasy writing is to never open your book with exposition about a world that people don’t care about yet. Or, better yet, just never open your book with exposition in general, in any genre. It’s the quickest way to make people stop reading on page 1. Another big complaint is that there’s too many plot twists. This one I agree with. Plot twists are a great narrative device when used sparingly. When you throw plot twist after plot twist at your reader, they start to lose their impact. You should also never add a plot twist to your story just because you want to add shock value. You should only ever add a plot twist if it actually enriches the story.

But another big complaint was in relation to the writing style. I can happily criticise where a plot is lacking, but I feel bad bagging out someone’s personal writing style. However, I can’t deny the excessive use of metaphors in the prose did feel a little ham-fisted at times. Like on page 8, it says, “his hair spilled ink across his pale forehead.” Or on page 20, where it says, “the sun had fallen. It was just a yolky smear.” Some people may like those metaphors, but for me, the comparisons are a little too dissimilar to work.

In saying that, there were some metaphors I did like. For example, also on page 20: “The sea below was instrument enough, its waves crashing roughly against the island’s harrowing white cliffs as if trying to get a good look at her.” That’s good personification! I really like that. Or on page 253: “Light blue, like someone had stuck a paintbrush in the air to get the colour.” That’s a good way to instantly let me know what shade of blue she’s referring to. But I can understand how this kind of writing style that overrelies on metaphors may not be for everyone, because it is also not particularly for me.

I know I’ve already ranted about this book for long enough, but the last thing I will say is that it felt as if Aster couldn’t make up her mind in regard to how explicit she wanted the romance in this book to be. It seems she was torn between pleasing the actual young adult audience she was meant to be writing for, and the people on TikTok she for some reason promised a spicy book to.

I could rant for much longer about how some grown adults need to realise YA isn’t for them. Even at 20, I’m gone from the YA demographic, and it’s a genre I still like to read occasionally. But complaining that a book intended for 12-18 year olds isn’t “spicy” enough is… a choice. Because make no mistake, 12-18 is the official demographic for the young adult genre that publishers go off of. I’m just saying, if all the YA writers listen to the grown adults who want to read about smutty faeries, then who’s writing with the actual young adults in mind? Where’s this generation’s A Fault in Our Stars? Where’s their Percy Jackson? Or Hunger Games? Or, better yet, why can’t we just let kids have their own things? We’ve already ruined Roblox for them. Or, even better still, just make your YA fantasy an adult fantasy. Your protagonist doesn’t have to be 17, you know. The world won’t end if the protagonist of your fantasy series is 23. I said I wasn’t going to rant, but I did, so let’s move on.

Overall, in my personal opinion: This book isn’t great, but it’s also not as bad as people made it out to be. At least I was entertained while reading it. There are other BookTok books we could be focusing our negativity towards. Like ACOTAR. Easily the most overrated book I have ever read. When I read the first book two years ago, I could not believe that was the book that had everyone frothing at the mouth, and I still can’t. I don’t usually like to speak too negatively about books, but that is one where I have no good things to say, so perhaps I shouldn’t say anything at all.

Hard pivot, but after I read Lightlark, I read Jane Eyre. What a smooth transition. Probably my favourite kind of book to read is 19th century/early-20th century books written by women. Reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott when I was 16 altered my brain chemistry. In 2023, I read Pride and Prejudice and Emma by Jane Austen. Last year, I read Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I thought it high time to delve into the Brontes. A while ago, I bought a three-in-one book that contains Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey,3 and I decided to start with Jane Eyre. I would give a spoiler warning, but this book is over 170 years old. Nonetheless, you’ve been warned.

I absolutely adored this book. I was so endeared by Jane as a character and how even when she’s directly addressing the reader and telling her story first-hand, she’s still something of a closed book, which has been ingrained into her through her upbringing. One thing I found really interesting was the parallels in Jane’s experience and Bertha’s. Jane is metaphorically imprisoned, whereas Bertha is literally imprisoned. Jane is imprisoned by society and her environment and the people around her; her world is so small. She doesn’t have family or a place to call her own. The entire book, she’s filled with this longing to see the world and experience things and meet interesting people.

The turning point in the story comes when Jane runs away. She essentially rebuilds her entire life from scratch. She earns her own money and makes her own friends and lives by herself. For the first time in her life, she isn’t dependent on anyone else. I see a lot of people reduce Jane Eyre to just a love story between Jane and Mr Rochester, but I think that is such a disservice to this book. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading Jane and Mr Rochester’s toxic and problematic love story as much as anyone, but Mr Rochester doesn’t save Jane. In fact, Charlotte Bronte makes the effort to emphasise that Jane isn’t dependent on Mr Rochester. She willingly chooses to go back to him at the end of the story of her own free will. Not because she needs to or is forced to, because she wants to.

The next text is a play by an indie playwright you may have heard of. It’s called Hamlet. Whenever I tackle one of Shakespeare’s plays, I usually always watch a production of the show that’s available online while simultaneously reading the script alongside it. Some people would argue that doesn’t count as reading. Probably the same kind of people who say audiobooks don’t count. But I make the rules of my own reading list, so I don’t care.

What could I possibly say about Hamlet that hasn’t already been said a million times before? Like not to be controversial or anything, but I thought it was great. I know it’s crazy to say, you guys, but I think Shakespeare was actually a pretty good writer. That’s how I feel I sound any time I talk about Shakespeare. Though I will say one of the things I’ve asked for for Christmas is this absolute mammoth of a book that contains the complete collection of Shakespeare’s works, poetry and all. I cannot wait to become the most unbearable and pretentious person in my family. I cannot wait to piss everyone off next Christmas by constantly quoting Shakespeare and acting as if that automatically means I’m smart. It’s gonna be great.

The last book I read in full was We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda. This book is a composite novel, meaning that each chapter is kinda like its own short story. Despite this, each section is connected by a character ending up at a “clinic for the soul” that prescribes no medication, only cats. I am not usually a huge fan of composite novels, but I do like magical realism. Yes, I obviously love full-blown fantasy, but I also love when little bits of magic are sprinkled into reality.

The individual stories told throughout are cute and snappy, but this book didn’t truly get me until the end. One thing that keeps the reader curious and engaged the entire time is the mystery surrounding the clinic; where did it come from? Why can only certain people find it? Why do the doctor and nurse behave so strangely? All the puzzle pieces fall together in the final chapter. The history of the clinic is quite dark, which took me by surprise considering it was such a light-hearted read up until that point. Despite each chapter being like its own story, the overall narrative joins together in the final chapter in a way that makes for a satisfying ending.

I may as well talk about the book I’m currently reading, which I might finish before the year is through. Emphasis on might; I’m not optimistic. Considering all the hype surrounding Wicked: For Good, a movie I’m still yet to actually watch, I thought now would be the perfect time to read the book the Broadway production was based on, namely, Gregory Macuire’s 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I’m currently on page 170, though it is an almost 500 page book.

I’ve come to realise that people weren’t exaggerating when they said the Broadway musical is a very, very loose adaptation of the book. It’s basically a completely different story. I am enjoying the book, but it is a little slow-paced. So far I’ve read a lot of Elphaba, Glinda, Boq, and Nessa just hanging out with each other, which — don’t get me wrong — is great, but it would be nice if the plot progressed in some way. I’ve seen complaints that Wicked: For Good is too ambigious in its political messaging. Well fear not, because the book is overtly political. There are moments that are just page after page of the group having discussions about politics and religion and power dynamics. It’s actually fascinating.

But I think I have now officially yapped for far too long about all the books I read this year. I’ve gotten through quite a few books on my TBR this year, but I still have many more to get through in 2026. I tell myself I’m on a book buying ban, and then I somehow end up buying more books. It’s not good.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you guys. What books on this list have you read, if any, and what did you think of them? I’d also love to hear what books you read this year; both the good and the bad. I’m always down to receive more book recommendations.

Until next yap,

- Lilly :)

I’m not typically one to engage with BookTok,1 but every now and again, something will happen on BookTok that will result in me poking my head around the corner like a curious cat trying to see if their owner has put food in their bowl yet.

A few days ago, I was scrolling on TikTok when a video came up on my feed of someone throwing their laptop away from them with the caption: “When I’m writing my first book but then remember the review that girl did on Haley Pham’s book and I do fear that’s my biggest fear.” That video was the first time I learned that Haley Pham had even written a book, let alone that it had apparently gotten a scathing review. I may not be fully tuned into BookTok, but Haley Pham is a big enough creator that she’s crossed my feed in the past.

Haley Pham has 2.5 million followers on TikTok, 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and 3.8 million subscribers on YouTube. On both TikTok and YouTube, she makes content mostly surrounding books and reading. Haley is also married to Ryan Trahan, who has 21 million subscribers on YouTube making, for lack of a better word, Mr Beast style content. Although I’m sure he’s a much better person than Mr Beast.2

Nevertheless, I watched that TikTok and completely forgot about the whole thing. Then this video by BrynsBookshelf called, “is this review of Haley Pham’s book too harsh?” popped up on my YouTube feed, and after watching it, I concluded I would simply have to watch the fabled review that had everyone up in flames for either being too harsh or not harsh enough.

For some context, Haley first started documenting her process of writing this book in July of last year. In the video she made announcing she was writing a book, she states that she has always dreamed of becoming an author, and specifically, her goal is to become a New York Times’ Best-Selling Author. She then announced the book would be a romance, and made a video summarising her journey of writing the first draft. The first draft ends up being 83,000 words, which is a decent size for a romance.

She then made a video on the editing process, in which she reveals she spent one month away from the draft before coming back to it, but got overwhelmed when faced with the prospect of editing her book, so she set up a meeting with a professional book editor who works for a publishing house. In the next video, she reveals that the first editor she sat down with almost immediately picked up her book for publishing. A publisher under the Simon & Schuster banner, mind you. One of the big ones. Keep this in mind, because we will circle back to it later. Anyway, the book is called Just Friends, and it’s not even out yet, it’s only available for pre-order, but certain people got their hands on ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), including ‘Ilanaslibrary,’ who made the scathing review in question.

The TikTok reviewing the book is almost 8 minutes long, and it was posted back in September.3 It currently has 1.6 million views and over 120,000 likes. For those curious, here is the full video:

@ilanaslibraryA very HARSH review but it’s just my opinion so don’t cancel me #BookTok #booktoker #fyp #books #haleypham

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Ok, yeah. I think the review is a little harsh. Obviously, I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say whether her critiques are accurate or not, but at certain points, she provides examples of what she’s referring to. Like when she talks about Haley’s use of telling instead of showing in the book, and then provides quotes that are clear examples of telling. The annoying thing is she makes some very valid and quite good critiques, but she delivers them in such a condescending way that makes it really apparent she doesn’t like Haley.

Some of the critiques she makes aren’t actually relevant to the text and are instead personal digs at Haley. For example, at one point in the video, she makes fun of a TikTok Haley made in the past where she talked about expanding her vocabulary and lists “banal” as a new word she learned. Shaming someone for not knowing as many words as you do is not cool. You know what is cool? Learning new words.

I don’t want to spend too much time breaking down my thoughts on the actual review, all I will say is that she makes some good points but other points she makes are clearly motivated by a bias. The response to this review has been incredibly mixed. Many are wholeheartedly on Ilana’s side and are firmly deeming the review as not harsh, just honest. Others have criticised Ilana for mixing her personal dislike of Haley into her review, and also for being so unforgiving on a debut author. To this, people have swung back saying that readers don’t owe authors positive reviews. Which is true. But it’s literally a known thing in the world of literature for book reviewers to show debut authors a little bit more grace in comparison to people who have published multiple books.

At the end of Ilana’s review, she says: “There are so many authors who write fantastic books and then spend a long time on them and get the right editors to make it good, and then have to work to get an agent and a publishing deal, and this just fell in her lap because people like her videos on the internet.” And thus, we have the real crux of why so many people are upset at Haley Pham. They feel as if this all came a little too easily for her.

As I scrolled through the comments of TikToks talking about this situation, there were so many people echoing the same sentiment of, “she only got this book published because she’s an influencer.” There is undeniable truth in that. I completely understand the incentive behind being annoyed at an influencer getting a book deal so easily not necessarily because they’re a good writer, but instead because they have a big following, and already having an established following guarantees book sales. I completely understand why that’s frustrating considering there are some insanely talented and knowledgeable writers who spend years struggling to get published and face rejection after rejection, and sometimes still never get published.

But simultaneously, I feel as if people are taking their anger out on the wrong person. Because, let’s be real, you would do the same thing if you were Haley Pham. If I had a huge following on multiple platforms, best believe I would take advantage of that to get a book deal. Additionally, in a world where most influencers and celebrities just get ghostwriters to write a book for them, Haley does deserve some credit for actually writing her book herself. I feel as if we should instead be directing our anger at the publishing industry. It is becoming an increasing problem for writers that publishers are prioritising books written by people who have a prominent social media presence.

But this entire situation begs the question: Are reading influencers qualified to write books? If not, who is qualified to write books?

Here’s the thing, reading and writing are two different things. Just because you read a lot of books, doesn’t mean you understand what it takes to write a book. I love listening to music. I listen to music obsessively. But I know very little about the theory of music. If you threw me in a recording studio with a producer tomorrow and asked me to make an album, I assure you, it would be very bad. Because no matter how much I listen to music, that doesn’t mean I know the first thing about actually making music.

Like Haley, I have been obsessed with books since I was very little. I have always been a bookworm. But when I was just a reader, I didn’t know the first thing about actually writing a book, not really. Am I published author? No. Am I a writing expert? Certainly not. However, I have spent the last six or so years of my life dedicating a large chunk of my time to learning as much as I possibly can about the craft of writing. I have also spent the last two years of my life studying the craft of writing at university. That’s not me saying you have to have a degree in writing in order to be a good writer, because that’s not true.

The internet is a scary place but it is also a giant database of free knowledge in just about any subject if you know the right places to look. There are many ways you can learn about the craft of writing; you can read books on writing, you can listen to podcasts on writing, you can do your own research. But of course, there’s a difference between gaining knowledge and applying it. There’s no point learning about the craft of writing if you’re not going to actually write. Most writers write a handful of books that never see the light of day before they write one they want to try and get published. I have a feeling that a lot of the people getting mad at Haley for cutting corners are people who, like me, have spent years immersing themselves in the world of writing, not just the world of reading.

Can anyone write a book? Technically, yes. Can anyone write a good book? In my personal opinion, no. Contrary to what some would say, I don’t think writing is a talent. I think it is a skill. And skills are not some magical ability you’re born with and are just naturally good at, they take years of practice, and refinement, and polishing, and dedication, and hard work, and effort. I think it’s the same for all areas of the Arts, be it songwriting, or filmmaking, or painting, or dance, or anything — I think they are skills that take years to hone.

Do I think it is a little bit ridiculous that Haley Pham’s first ever draft of her first ever book immediately got picked up by a publisher? Yes. I cannot emphasise this enough, no one’s first ever draft of their first ever book is going to be good, even if they’ve read a hundred books beforehand. But do I blame Haley for this? No. Of course she was going to be excited when she was told her book was getting published. Of course she wasn’t going to think second of it.

Simultaneously, I can understand why for some writers, it feels like a bit of a slap to the face when someone speed-runs both the process of writing a book and getting it published just because of who they are, meanwhile you’ve spent years of your life with your nose on the grindstone. It feels unfair because it is.

I think this is a really fascinating and interesting conversation, and I would love to hear people’s thoughts on it. I’d love to know what points you agree with, and which you disagree with.

Until next yap,

- Lilly :)

Taylor Swift, in her almost 20 year career, has cemented herself as one of the greatest songwriters in recent history.1 With her songs being rife with symbolism and metaphors, excruciating detail that generates imagery in the mind of the listener, and constant lyrical callbacks to previous songs that creates a level of interconnectedness - it’s no wonder a large portion of her fans are poets, writers, songwriters, avid readers, or artists themselves. As they say, it takes one to know one.

Throughout the 11 studio albums that make up her discography, Taylor has been known to sprinkle in literary references. As an English Major myself, I find it fascinating to look at Taylor’s music through this lens. We know Taylor is a big reader, so it only makes sense some of that would leak into her own writing.

It may feel silly to think of this hopeless romantic song as the first literary reference on Taylor’s discography, but it all begins with Love Story. Love Story, which was the lead single off of Swift’s sophomore record Fearless, is a spin on William Shakespeare’s most infamous piece of work, the 1597 play Romeo & Juliet. As is well known, the play does not have a happy ending. The star-crossed lovers are repeatedly driven apart by their conflicting families, before they both meet their untimely ends. 17-year-old Taylor, however, apparently wasn’t satisfied with that ending.

During a speech at the American Country Music awards, Swift’s mother, Andrea, revealed Taylor wrote this song after both her parents expressed their disapproval towards the guy she was seeing. This caused an angry young Taylor to go up to her room, slam the door, and write Love Story. So it’s clear to see that in real life there actually was some familial disapproval, just as there is in the play. Swift incorporates this into the lyrics, singing, “you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles, and my daddy said, ‘stay away from Juliet’ (…) Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone, I’ll be waiting, all there’s left to do is run.”

However, Taylor didn’t want to imagine her and her new fling ending in the same tragic way Romeo and Juliet do, so she decided to put her own spin on it and reimagine the story with a happy ending. She spoke of this in an interview with the LA Times, saying:

“I was really inspired by that story. I feel like they had such promise and they were so crazy for each other. And if that had just gone a little bit differently, it could have been the best love story ever told. And it is one of the best love stories ever told, but it’s a tragedy. I thought, why can’t you… make it a happy ending and put a key change in the song and turn it into a marriage proposal.”2

That’s exactly what she did. In Taylor’s version of events, Juliet’s father eventually comes around and gives the love birds his blessing: “He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said, ‘marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone. I love you, and that’s all I really know. I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress.’ It’s a love story, baby, just say, ‘yes.’” While this new ending undoubtedly strays far from the original text, it’s a reflection of how much of a hopeless romantic teenage Taylor was. The music video features Taylor walking through a college campus, locking eyes with a man, and then having a flashback to a past life where she and this man danced at a ball together, wearing fashion that resembles the Regency era, despite Shakespeare’s Elizabethan era context.

However, Love Story is not the only time Taylor has referenced the Bard. Shakespeare’s 1623 posthumous play All’s Well That Ends Well has taken on a life of its own, the title of which has become a common phrase to mean that if a situation ultimately ends happily, then any potential hardship that happened in the process is made up for. It is a phrase Taylor has used not once but twice, first in the 2019 song Lover: “My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue, all’s well that ends well to end up with you.” And then again in the 10 minute version of All Too Well: “They say, ‘all’s well that ends well,’ but I’m in a new hell every time you double-cross my mind.”

In fact, many of Taylor’s songs are sprinkled with quick literary references that are easy to go unnoticed. The opening line of 2017’s Getaway Car, “it was the best of times, the worst of crimes,” is a reference to the infamous opening line of Charles Dickens’ 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” ‘So it goes’ is a phrase used to essentially say “such is life.” It can also be used to convey the passing of time, and that some sort of situation is continuing. The saying originated from Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. It is a phrase Taylor has used repeatedly, twice on 1989. She says it first on Style, “so it goes, he can’t keep his wild eyes on the road,” and then again on You Are in Love, “and so it goes, you two are dancing in a snow globe, ‘round and ‘round.” On Reputation, Taylor even named an entire song So it Goes…, in which she sings, “all the pieces fall right into place, getting caught up in a moment, lipstick on your face, so it goes.”

Another story Swift is fond of enough to mention twice is the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, in which a woman is forced to wear a scarlet ‘A’ for ‘Adultery’ on her clothing after an affair with a married man. It’s first referenced in a song we’ve already discussed, Love Story: “You were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter.” It’s referenced again on New Romantics: “We show off our different scarlet letters, trust me mine is better.” According to Goodreads, Taylor has on past occasion recommended Furious Love, a biography focused on the marriage between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, as a great read, so you could argue that the absolute bar on …Ready For It?, “he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor,” counts as a literary reference.

You could also argue that the Midnights bonus track, Dear Reader, is a reference to Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. In Dear Reader, Swift spends the entire song directly addressing the audience as she gives them advice based on her own past experiences. In Jane Eyre, Jane repeatedly addresses the reader, most famously when she opens the final chapter with the line, “Reader, I married him.” Additionally, some have speculated that the folklore track invisible string is a reference to a quote Mr Rochester gives:

“I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you—especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left rib, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situation in the corresponding quarter of your little frame.”

- Jane Eyre, Chapter XXIII

Swift expresses a similar sentiment in the song, singing, “isn’t it just so pretty to think all along there was some invisible string tying you to me?” She spends the entire song listing all the ways her and her lover’s lives were connected before they met without even realising it. Additionally, many have theorised the song mad woman may have been at least partly inspired by Mr Rochester’s first wife, Bertha, who has been locked away in the attic after being deemed “mad.” It’s a character that has sparked great intrigue among many readers; in 1966, Jean Rhys wrote an entire novel from the perspective of Bertha, Wide Sargasso Sea. In 1979, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar titled their book analysing the role of women in Victorian literature after Bertha, calling it The Madwoman in the Attic.

Robert Frost’s infamous 1916 poem, “The Road Not Taken,” is where the phrase “take the road less travelled” originated from. In the poem, Frost says: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.” It is a poem Taylor has referenced twice, first on illicit affairs, in which she says, “take the road less travelled by, tell yourself you can always stop. What started in beautiful rooms ends with meetings in parking lots.” She references it again on ‘tis the damn season, saying, “the road not taken looks real good now, and it always leads to you and my hometown.”

I have to give credit where credit is due, and a lot of these references from folklore and evermore I wouldn’t have picked up on if not for watching this video by Jack Edwards:

Now that we’ve gotten all of the casual references out of the way, we can get into what I think is the real juicy stuff. Over the years, Taylor has written numerous songs for book to screen adaptations. Most notably, she wrote Safe & Sound and Eyes Open for the first Hunger Games movie, based on the 2008 novel by Suzanne Collins. Safe & Sound, to me, has always felt like a lullaby Katniss is singing to Prim at the beginning of the story; “don’t you dare look out your window, darling, everything’s on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on. Hold onto this lullaby, even when the music’s gone.” Or, if you want to make it really twisted, you can imagine Katniss singing this song to Rue during her final moments: “Just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You’ll be alright, no one can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I’ll be safe and sound.”

While Safe & Sound is a soothing lullaby, Eyes Open is completely different. This track seems to reflect Katniss’ experience while in the games; “everybody’s waiting for you to break down, everybody’s watching to see the fallout. Even when you’re sleeping, keep your eyes open.” It reflects the survival mode Katniss is in, needing to have one eye open at all times from being in an environment where she can’t trust anyone. It also alludes to the fact that the Capitol is watching her every move, with some even praying on her downfall.

In a 2012 interview, Taylor spoke of how she interprets these songs, saying:

“To me, Safe & Sound represents the empathy and compassion Katniss feels for Rue, Peeta, and Prim in different parts of the book. Eyes Open is more of a depiction of Katniss’ relationship with the Capitol. She knows she can’t trust anyone in the government, and that’s why I wanted the song to feel more frantic — like the sound of being hunted or chased (…) I really liked writing in character. I write so personally and so autobiographically most of the time, so it was actually refreshing to put on someone else’s emotions and draw from them3 (…) I liked focusing on basic human emotions like compassion and fear, because that’s all you have when you’re simply trying to survive.”

- Taylor Swift, 2012

Much later down the line, in 2022, Taylor wrote Carolina for a film adaptation of the 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing, written by the arguably problematic author Delia Owens. The text follows a young woman living in the 60s called Kya who essentially raised herself out in the marshes of North Carolina. Because of this, she’s shunned by society and treated as an outsider, which Swift reflects in the song: “Carolina creeks running through my veins. Lost I was born, lonesome I came, lonesome I’ll always stay (…) and you didn’t see me here. No, they never did see me here.” The central plot of the story is Kya getting wrapped up in a murder trial the town is convinced she committed (ironic, given the author’s controversy), which Taylor reflects at the end of the song: “Carolina knows why for years they’ve said that I was guilty as sin and sleep in a liar’s bed. But the sleep comes fast, and I’ll meet no ghosts. It’s between me, the sand, and the sea. Carolina knows.”

In an Instagram post, Taylor revealed she wanted this song to reflect, “the juxtaposition of her (Kya’s) lonliness & independence. Her curiosity & fear all tangled up. Her persisting gentleness & the world’s betrayal of it.” Taylor also wrote I Don’t Wanna Live Forever for the 50 Shades Darker soundtrack in 2017, and while that song is technically based on a book, I’d rather not.

One thing we know for certain about Taylor is that she’s a huge fan of the author F. Scott Fitzgerald. She has referenced multiple novels of his in the past and even quoted him in interviews. Taylor’s particular favourite from Fitzgerald seems to be his most popular book, the absolute juggernaut in the world of English literature and American high school classrooms, 1925’s The Great Gatsby. She references it first on 2017’s This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, where she talks about the parties she used to throw and compares herself to Gatsby: “It was so nice throwing big parties. Jump into the pool from the balcony. Everyone swimming in a champagne sea. And there are no rules when you show up here. Bass beat rattling the chandelier. Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year.”

A central aspect of Gatsby’s character is that he was well-known for throwing extravagant and lavish parties that anyone who was anyone would attend, much like Taylor used to throw massive 4th of July parties that would have an extensive guest list comprised of A-Listers. However, it is revealed later in the text that Gatsby only ever threw these parties in hopes of the woman he was madly in love with, Daisy, showing up, and most partygoers didn’t know the first thing about him. Similar to how many of the people who attended these parties Taylor threw ended up being fair-weather friends she doesn’t associate with anymore.

But the more subtle Gatsby references come on the 2020 evermore song, happiness. This is a track Swift wrote from the perspective of a woman fresh off a breakup, reminiscing on the happy moments they had together before it all started to fall apart. In the second verse, she speaks of her ex’s hypothetical future lover, saying, “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool, who takes my spot next to you.” This is a direct reference to what is daresay the most famous quote from Fitzgerald’s text, said by Daisy early on in the story in regard to her daughter:

“I hope she’ll be a fool - that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

- The Great Gatsby, chapter 1

Later on in the song, Swift sings, “all you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness.” While Taylor is using the term ‘green light of forgivness’ to mean a go-ahead for her ex to start dating new people, the “green light” is a crucial symbol in The Great Gatsby. Throughout the text, Gatsby stares out at the green light on the dock on the other side of the water, because he knows that green light is where Daisy lives. The light is said to represent many things, including love, hope, wealth, greed, and the American dream.

While we are on the topic of evermore, tolerate it is one of the most heartbreaking songs of the record, being about a woman stuck in a marriage with someone who doesn’t appreciate her, in which she says, “I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it.” There is a 1938 novel by Daphne du Marier called Rebecca, in which the main character suspects her husband doesn’t truly love her because he’s still not over his late first wife, Rebecca. In her 2021 interview with Zane Lowe, Taylor confirmed this book partly inspired the emotions behind tolerate it, saying:

“When you watch a film or you read a book and there’s a character that you identify with, you most of the time identify with them because they’re targeting something in you that feels that you’ve been there. That’s why we relate to characters. And so when I was reading Rebecca by Daphne du Marier, and I was thinking, ‘wow, her husband just tolerates her. She’s doing all thees things and she’s trying so hard and she’s trying to impress him and he’s just tolerating her the whole time.’ There was a part of me that was relating to that because at some point in my life, I felt that way. And so I ended up writing this song, tolerate it, that’s all about trying to love someone who’s ambivalent.”

- Taylor Swift, Apple Music, 2021

Additionally, many have theorised the song ivy is a reference to the 19th century poet Emily Dickinson, who is said to have had a years-long affair with her brother’s wife, Susan Gilbert. ivy is often cited as one of Taylor’s most poetic sounding songs, and it is written in such a way that is certainly reminiscent of the 19th century. It’s a song that describes the affair of a married woman (despite Dickinson never marrying), in which the narrartor sings, “my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand, taking mine, but it’s been promised to another. I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland, my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I’m covered in you.” The opening line of the song, “how’s one to know I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bone in a faith-forgotten land?” is a reference to the 1997 poem by Miller Williams, in which he says, “You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.”

Apple TV even used ivy during an end credits scene of their show Dickinson, which was a reimagining of the life of the poet. Even more links, Dickinson’s poem ‘One Sister have I in our house’ ends with the line, “Sue - forevermore,” a word Swift also uses on the final track of the album, singing, “I had a feeling so peculiar, this pain wouldn’t be forevermore.” Coincidentally, evermore was released on the 11th of December, a day after Dickinson’s birthday on the 10th. All of this may be purely coincidental and Taylor may not have been thinking of Emily Dickinson at all while creating evermore, but nonetheless, these are some fun parallels fans have noticed.

But evermore isn’t the only Taylor Swift album with references to famous poets. The folklore deluxe track, the lakes, is a reference to the Lake District in the UK, where a group of poets called the “Lake Poets” all resided in the early 19th century. Most notably, three such poets were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. However, other Romantic poets and writers such as Percy Shelley (husband of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein), John Keats, and Lord Byron also visited the area. Swift reflects this in the song, singing, “take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die. I don’t belong, but my beloved, neither do you. Those Windermere peaks look like the perfect place to cry. I’m setting off, but not without my muse.” William Wordsworth even gets a direct mention in the song when Taylor says, “I’ve come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze tell me what are my words worth.” It’s a play on words as Taylor talks of men like Scooter Braun and Scott Borshetta trying to put a price on her words and her art.

Speaking of poetry, or tortured poetry rather, we must discuss the title track of Taylor’s most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department. The song is Taylor mocking the guy she’s dating for his deep-guy-tortured-artist type persona, saying, “you left your typewriter at my apartment, straight from The Tortured Poets Department. I think some things I never say, like ‘who uses typewriters anyway?’” In the chorus, Taylor makes multiple references to icons of the poetry world, saying, “You’re not Dylan Thomas. I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots.”

While before Taylor was largely referencing 19th century poets, here she’s referencing poets of the 20th century. The late Dylan Thomas is a poet most known for writing the poem ‘Do not go gentle into that good night,’ and Patti Smith is both a poet and a singer-songwriter (and also a Substacker!!). The Chelsea Hotel (or Hotel Chelsea, its actual name) is a hotel in New York City that has had many notable artists reside inside it, including Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Andy Warhol, and yes, Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith. Taylor’s partner is romanticising their relationship because they’re both songwriters and making their love story out to be something greater than it is, and Taylor is gently trying to bring him back down to earth by reminding him they’re not tortured poets, they’re modern idiots.

On The Anthology edition of TTPD, the track Cassandra is named after the figure in Greek mythology. She makes appearances in Homer’s Iliad and the Roman poet Virgil’s Aeneid. However, the most famous iteration of Cassandra appears in the tragedian Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon. Cassandra worships the god Apollo, who is taken by her. Apollo offers Cassandra the gift of prophecy in exchange for sexual favours. She initially accepts, but then goes back on her word and refuses Apollo, causing him to curse her gift of prophecy, making it so that despite her accuracy, no one will ever believe her. This slowly drives Cassandra mad, up until she is murdered at the hands of Agamemnon’s wife.

In her song, Swift draws many similarities between herself and Cassandra, singing in the chorus:

“When the first stone’s thrown, there’s screaming. In the streets, there’s a raging riot. When it’s ‘burn the bitch,’ they’re shrieking. When the truth comes out, it’s quiet. So they killed Cassandra first, ‘cause she feared the worst and tried to tell the town. So they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say, do you believe me now?”

- Cassandra, Taylor Swift

Back in 2016, in the midst of her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, Taylor tried to tell the world they were bad people who had manipulated the recording of the phone call between them. At the time, the general public sided with Kim and Kanye and labelled Taylor a snake. Now, in 2025, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are two public figures who have majorly fallen from grace for a multitude of reasons, but Taylor doesn’t feel vindicated in having been right all along, because of all the ridicule she endured throughout the process. It’s easy to see how Taylor saw the parallels between Cassandra’s predicament and her own.

Finally, looking at the last three texts we have left to examine, I want to touch on Taylor’s references to pieces of children’s literature in her music. On another Anthology track, I Hate it Here, Swift sings: “I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind, people need a key to get to, the only one is mine. I read about it in a book when I was a precocious child.” This is a reference to the 1911 children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, in which a young girl discovers a secret garden she nurtures back to life that provides a means of escape for her; escapism is a central theme in I Hate it Here.

One of the most famous children’s books of all time is the 1865 novel by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Taylor briefly mentions this text in the evermore song long story short, when she says, “I fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hole,” referencing the iconic rabbit hole Alice falls down to get to Wonderland. But most notably, Taylor has an entire song dedicated to this text, the 1989 deluxe track, Wonderland.

In said song, Taylor uses Wonderland as a metaphor for her and a lover getting lost in their little love bubble, singing, “we found Wonderland, you and I got lost in it, and we pretended it could last forever.” She makes many references to Carroll’s text in the lyrics, including yet another rabbit hole mention: “We took a wrong turn and we fell down a rabbit hole.” In the first pre-chorus, she says, “haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?” Curiosity is a central theme of Alice in Wonderland, with it being the very thing that draws Alice to Wonderland in the first place. In the second pre-chorus, Taylor switches this line to, “didn’t you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?” This is a direct reference to one of the most famous characters from the text, the Cheshire Cat, who is distinctly known for having a wide, almost off-putting grin. In the last line of the bridge, Taylor says, “in the end, in Wonderland, we both went mad.” Another direct reference to what is daresay the most iconic quote from Carroll’s text, said by the Cheshire Cat to Alice, “We’re all mad here.”

Finally, we have reached the final text, one that is evidently one of Taylor’s favourites to reference, that being J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, released first as a play in 1904 and then as a novel in 1911. You could argue Speak Now’s Never Grow Up is the first reference Taylor makes to that text, as the phrase “never grow up” is said to have originated from Peter Pan, who is commonly referred to as “the boy who never grows up.”

Taylor references Peter Pan again years later on 2020’s cardigan, singing, “I knew you, tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy.” This is a reference to the ending of the text, in which Wendy ultimately decides to leave Neverland, and therefore Peter, to return home and do the one thing he never could: grow up. When Peter comes back for Wendy years down the line, Wendy is a grown woman with kids of her own, and she refuses to return to Neverland with Peter.

Like Alice in Wonderland got an entire song dedicated to it with Wonderland, Peter Pan has its own song on The Anthology, Peter. In the song, Taylor is comparing her and a past fling to Peter and Wendy as she seemingly sings from Wendy’s perspective: “I didn’t want to come down, I thought it was just goodbye for now. You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me.” The first line much resembles Wendy’s thoughts at the end of the text, as she was under the impression Peter was going to come back for her every spring, something he fails to do. The second line seems to align more with Taylor’s story; when she and this person parted ways, he promised her he was going to go away and better himself before coming back to her. Little did Taylor know how long she’d be waiting.

In the bridge, she sings:

“I won’t confess that I waited, but I let the lamp burn. As the men masqueraded, I hoped you’d return with your feet on the ground, tell me all that you’d learned, because love’s never lost when perspective is earned. And you said you’d come and get me, but you were 25, and the shelf life of those fantasies has expired. Lost to the Lost Boys chapter of your life, forgive me Peter, please know that I tried to hold on to the days when you were mine, but the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light.”

- Taylor Swift, Peter

It’s best showcased in the bridge how Taylor is morphing both her and Wendy’s experience. She’s speaking of Wendy’s experience when she sings of her hoping he’ll come flying back into her room one night, and she makes a reference to the Lost Boys, who is Peter’s group of fellow orphan boys. But she breaks the illusion at times, especially when she mentions the age 25, an age which Peter Pan the character has never been, but her Peter Pan was that age when he promised he’d come back to her. In the end, Wendy gives up on hoping Peter will return and moves on with her life, much like Taylor in the end stopped expecting her Peter to come back to her, and instead moved onto other men.

As I said at the top of this piece, I truly do believe Taylor is one of the greatest songwriters to ever do it. All of the most successful and prolific writers will tell you that the best way to become a better writer is to read, read, read. Stephen King once said, “if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” Margaret Atwood once said, “it is my contention that the process of reading is part of the process of writing, the necessary completion without which writing can hardly be said to exist.” Pam Allyn once said, “reading is like breathing in and writing is like breathing out, and storytelling is what links both: it is the soul of literacy.”

And clearly, it is evident enough in her work, Taylor likes to read. I really do think Taylor’s obvious love of literature is a big part of why she is as good a writer as she is. I also think that’s why, as I said at the beginning, so many Swifties are artists, writers, poets, and readers themselves. As someone who is a writer, reader, and general lover of literature myself, I definitely think part of why I’m so drawn to Taylor’s music personally is because of her clear literary influences. I find analysing Taylor’s lyrics to be just as fruitful as analysing a book or a poem, and that’s not something I can say about just any musical artist.

Who knows, maybe one day Swift’s name will be just as renowned in the world of literature as that of Shakespeare, Dickinson, Bronte, Wordsworth, Fitzgerald, and many others she deeply admires.

Hello!!

The two essays I’m currently working on are quite long and won’t be ready for some time, so I thought in the meantime I’d do a fun little listicle. In recent months, my TBR (to be read) has gotten quite extensive. No matter how many times I put myself on a book buying ban, it doesn’t seem to actually mean anything to me. I see a book at the store and convince myself I have to have it. As a result, I’ve ended up with a TBR list that is 18 books long. When taking into consideration I’m a slow reader, it’ll probably take me 3 years to get through all of them, but I thought it would be fun to share those books with you today.

Last Read: On Writing

Stephen King, 2000

This is my most recent read. Stephen King is an author I’ve always wanted to get into (despite not even remotely being a horror fan), and I know it makes no sense, but I started with his memoir. Well, it’s half a memoir, half a writing guide. I’ve tried reading books on the craft before and they’re usually such a chore to read, but I loved this. I love the way King writes about writing and I love the no bullshit kind of advice he gives. But it was also interesting to hear about his life story and how he became one of the most renowned writers in modern day literature. I’d definitely recommend this to writers looking for books on the craft, and I’d like to personally thank Mr. King for making me aware of how much I overuse adverbs in my writing.

Current Read: Peter Pan

J.M. Barrie, 1911

This is the book I’m currently reading (it’s the novel version, not the 1904 play). Peter Pan is one of those classic stories I’ve always been fascinated by. A year or so ago, I read Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, so this has been a continuation in my journey of reading classic children stories in the form of the actual original text and not one of the countless movie remakes. I love so many aspects of this story; I love Neverland, I love the idea of a character who never grows up, and I was obsessed with Tinkerbell growing up (a passage of girlhood, me thinks). So far, eight chapters in, I’m absolutely enchanted by the way Barrie writes. Now onto the actual TBR.

#1: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Heather Fawcett, 2023

I’m going to be honest with you, I bought this book purely because I was absolutely obsessed with the cover (sometimes you should judge a book by its cover). It was only after the fact I discovered that it’s quite a popular series on BookTok. I still know next to nothing about the actual plot, but I love a good fantasy book focused on mythological creatures, so I’m excited to eventually dig into it.

#2: The House of My Mother

Shari Franke, 2025

I have always been adamantly against family vlogging, and the family vlogging channel I always used as the example of the worst of the worst was “8 Passengers.” So in 2023, when Ruby Franke was arrested and jailed for child abuse, I was shocked, but I wasn’t surprised. Just the other week, I watched the new docuseries on the entire situation, Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke. I knew it was bad, but I was horrified to learn just how bad it was. Since everything went down, Shari Franke, the oldest daughter of Ruby and Kevin, has been constantly speaking out about the dangers of family vlogging and advocating for laws to be put in place around it. When I found out she’d released a book, I knew I had to read it. Back in 2022, I read Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, which was centred around the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother and how she was forced into acting as a child by her mom. As someone who loved iCarly growing up, it was a tough read. I have a feeling this book is going to be of the same vein — a heartbreaking yet essential read.

#3: Wicked

Gregory Maguire, 1995

When I saw this at the shop, I knew I couldn’t leave without it. I’ve been a fan of the Broadway musical since 2020, and last year, I loved getting to watch part 1 of the film in cinemas. But I’ve never actually read the book the musical is based on. Don’t worry, I’ve seen the warnings. I know this book is apparently incredibly weird and at times disturbing, even. I know they toned it down a lot when adapting it to the musical. Nonetheless, I am determined to go into this read with an open mind.

#4: Sense & Sensibility

Jane Austen, 1811

So far, I’ve read two of Austen’s six novels, Pride and Prejudice and Emma, and I thoroughly enjoyed both of those. I’d like to one day tick off all of her books, and Sense and Sensibility is next on my list. I’m particularly excited for this one because it was her first book. I adore Jane Austen’s writing. I love how she builds worlds and writes characters. Emma, in particular, is one of the most well-crafted books I have ever read. So I’m looking forward to this read.

#5: Persuasion

Jane Austen, 1817

Staying on theme with Jane Austen, also on my reading list is Persuasion. The extent of my knowledge on this book is the absolutely hilarious trailer for the 2022 Netflix adaptation where they incorporated modern day language despite it still being set in the 19th century (who thought that was a good idea??). I’m sure the actual book is much better than that movie, so I am looking forward to reading this.

#6: Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte, 1847

By a long shot, the authors I am most curious to delve into are the Bronte sisters. I’ve done Austen, I’ve done Alcott, I’ve done Shelley — it’s high time I did the Brontes. I am so fascinated by them. Three sisters, and they all happen to be writers? Jane Eyre is one of those novels I see contantly referenced as one of those must-read books you simply have to read at some point in your life. Out of all the classics on my list, this is the one I am most eager to delve into.

#7: Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte, 1847

Wuthering Heights is just as revered as Jane Eyre is, although I hear it’s much darker. Again, it’s just one of those novels that is constantly cited as a must-read. After I finish Jane Eyre, I intend to read this next.

#8: We’ll Prescribe You a Cat

Syou Ishida, 2024

Similar to Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, I bought this book purely because I loved the cover. I love cats, I love cat appreciation, and I love the role cats usually play in literature (the Cheshire Cat will forever be my favourite example). This is a Japanese text that has been translated into English. The only other Japanese translated book I’ve read is Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, which, funnily enough, is another book that has a cat on the cover.

#9: What Does it Feel Like?

Sophie Kinsella, 2024

I know nothing about Sophie Kinsella or this book, it’s another case of I saw it at the store and it caught my eye. I was intrigued by the title, as I was the blurb. It’s a fictional novella about a writer who wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there, but it’s partly autobiographical. This is a pretty short read, and with all the long ass novels on my list, I look forward to something more short and snappy.

#10: It’s Not Summer Without You

Jenny Han, 2010

Back in 2023, I watched both seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty, and I enjoyed it way more than I was expecting to (and I’m eagerly awaiting season 3). Later that year, I read the first book in the series. Did I like the book as much as the show? Not necessarily. The writing felt a little juvenile at times, but I can acknowledge I’m not the intended age demographic. But still, I bought the second book to read. I’m sure this will be a light, easy read, so I look forward to reading it when I get the chance.

#11: Lola in the Mirror

Trent Dalton, 2023

Trent Dalton is an Australian author and journalist. Back in 2023, I read his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe for an English Literature class (a book which has now been adapted into a Netflix tv show). I was absolutely blown away by the story. It was dark and gory, yet also so human and poetic and rich with symbolism. This is his latest fiction book. As are all his fiction books, it’s set in Australia. I don’t often read books that are set in Australia despite being Australian myself, so it’s always nice when I do. And seeing as though Trent has lived here his whole life himself, he always portrays the culture and environment accurately.

#12: To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, 1960

I think this is that one book that every American has to read in high school at some point, similar to how in Australia at some point during English class in high school, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll read either Lord of the Flies or Tomorrow When the War Began. I never necessarily planned on reading this, but I saw it at the store, and thought why not. It’s one of those infamous books that is constantly referenced. I look forward to reading it, although I hear it’s quite a sad read.

#13: The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911

Did I buy this book purely because I wanted to better understand the context of one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs, I Hate it Here, because it references this book in the lyrics? Yes. Yes, I did.

#14: Lightlark

Alex Aster, 2022

I’m going to be completely transparent in why I bought this book. I bought it because I’ve seen countless TikToks and multiple hours long YouTube video essays about how this is the most convoluted and unnecessarily overcomplicated fantasy book they’ve ever read. I wanted to see for myself if it really is as much of a trainwreck as everyone has made it out to be. I’m not trying to be mean, I’m genuinely curious. I want to go into this book with an open mind. I’m not going into it expecting it to be bad, I want to give it a chance. Maybe I’ll come out of it agreeing with everyone, or maybe I’ll come out of it pleasantly surprised — we will have to wait and see.

#15: Carrie

Stephen King, 1974

This is Stephen King’s first novel. I bought it to read because it’s the story of his that intrigues me the most, even though I already know how it ends. It’s funny now having read his memoir, because I know King doesn’t actually like this story that much. He was going to scrap it but his wife convinced him not to. I’m excited to see whether I think King or his wife was right about it.

#16: Nine Perfect Strangers

Liane Moriarty, 2018

I bought this book at a garage sale because it was $2 and I thought, why not? I’m certainly not going to let a $2 book go by. No, I haven’t watched the tv adaptation starring Nicole Kidman and a sleuth of other A listers, but if I like the book enough, maybe I will.

#17: The Book of Two Ways

Jodi Picoult, 2020

I don’t know much about Jodi Picoult other than that she wrote My Sister’s Keeper (I haven’t read the book, but I’ve basically watched the entire movie on TikTok). I also got this book for $2 at the garage sale, and since Jodi Picoult is an author I’ve always been intrigued by and the blurb sounded interesting enough, I decided to get it.

#18: Sunrise on the Reaping

Suzanne Collins, 2025

My latest purchase, because this one, truly, I couldn’t not buy. I read the Hunger Games trilogy for the first time when I was 12 (which, yes, was probably too young to read them), and I think it forever altered my brain chemistry. I also read Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes upon its release in 2020. I was beyond excited when I heard we were getting a book about Haymitch’s game. Haymitch has always been one of my favourite characters from the series, so getting a book from his perspective, and getting to see what caused him to become an alcoholic, will be interesting. Also, I know Suzanne Collins said she only ever adds to this world when she has something to say, so I am listening.

So that’s my TBR. If you’ve gotten this far, I’d love to hear which of these books you’ve read, or want to read. I’d also love to hear what books are on your own TBR!!

Thanks for reading,

- Lilly :)

I’ve loved writing my entire life, but 2020 was the year I fully immersed myself in world of writing and would’ve actually considered myself to be ~ a writer ~, whatever that means. In the years since, I’ve spent countless hours writing, have taken a number of writing classes, and I just finished my first year of university where I’m majoring in English and Writing. So it’s safe to say writing is something I think about a lot. Right off the bat: I’m by no means a professional or advanced writer or some master of the craft; I’m far from it. I just felt compelled to write a post about some of the things I’ve learned about writing over the years, and who knows, someone might even find this helpful. If someone who was a complete beginner to writing asked for advice, this is what I’d say.

1. Experiment with your writing.

In the years since I started really getting into writing, I’ve written short fiction stories, I’ve written long fiction stories, I’ve written poems, songs, formal essays, informal essays, screenplays, reviews, you name it. No, most of them weren’t very good. And no, most of them will never see the light of day (but that’s okay, because you should write for yourself first and foremost before you write for anybody else).

You cannot get better at anything without a bit of trial and error. You have to be experimental; you have to take risks; you have to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. Experimenting with your writing is a great way to figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lie as a writer. You cannot write something good without first writing a lot of things that are bad. Give yourself permission to suck at the start.

When I was younger and was in the school band (yes, I was a band kid and a theatre kid, my high school experience truly was tragic), my band teacher would constantly drill home the importance of practice. Every single lesson, she would emphasise that we would never get better at our chosen instrument if we didn’t practise. But not just practise, consistent practise. She would always encourage us to pick up our instrument at least once a day, even if it was only to play for five minutes, because five minutes is still better than nothing. Looking back, I’m really glad I had that message drilled into me young, because I’ve applied it to so many other areas of my life.

It’s the same for writing. You cannot get better at writing without consistent practice. Writing one story or poem and expecting it to be great on the first try is like going to the gym once and expecting to see a difference in the mirror when you come home. It takes time; it takes effort; it takes consistency. I’ve written pretty much every day for the last five or so years. When I look back on the things I wrote when I was first starting out and compare it to the things I’m writing now, there is a significant and noticeable difference. Don’t get me wrong, my writing is still far from perfect, but it’s definitely better than it was. A large part of that is due to consistent practice. Even just five minutes of writing every day can make a difference. If you keep writing consistently, eventually you will see improvement.

So write a lot, write consistently, and take risks. Taking risks when writing can be scary, but some of my favourite pieces of art are ones that were born from the creator taking a creative risk in the process of making it.

2. Experiment with your reading.

I’m a firm believer that you cannot be a writer without first and foremost being a reader. A writer who doesn’t like to read is like a musician who doesn’t like to listen to music… it just doesn’t make sense. I think it’s important for writers to have a wide reading palette. In the same way you should be experimental with your writing, you should be experimental with your reading. If you only ever read romance novels, try reading a murder mystery. If you only ever read fantasy novels, try reading a nonfiction book.

In the last 3 or so years, I’ve made a conscious effort to be more experimental in the genres I read. I’ve read a lot of great books I really enjoyed through doing this, but I’ve also read a lot of books I didn’t enjoy through doing this. Reading more widely in this way has had a positive impact on my writing. I also think it’s important to be analytical about the books we read. If I like a book, I try to pinpoint exactly what it was about the book that made me like it. On the flip side, if I don’t enjoy a book, I try to consider what components made me dislike it and what could’ve been done to improve my reading experience. Keeping a reading journal is a great way to keep track of the books you read and your thoughts on them.

After a while, you’ll start to find patterns of things you do and don’t like in books, which can help you figure out what things you want to include or avoid in your own writing.

3. Learn about the craft.

It’s almost something of a debate in the writing world whether or not it’s necessary to learn about “the craft.” While you don’t technically have to learn about the more technical sides of writing in order to be a good writer, I think it’s something that can be of huge benefit. Over the years, I’ve taken classes on the craft of writing, I’ve read books on the craft of writing, I’ve spent hours watching videos or listening to podcasts on the craft of writing. As soon as I started learning about the tricks of the trade and the technicalities of the craft, my writing improved so much.

One great aspect of things like writing workshops and courses is the feedback. Feedback from not only your teachers, but your peers as well. Having a pair of eyes other than your own look over your work is so valuable, because they can often pick up on things you might’ve missed. If there’s no writing workshops in your area, there’s still dozens of writing workshops available online. And if paying for a writing course is something that’s not really in your budget, then there’s still so many free online resources.

Abbie Emmons is a self-published author and a YouTuber who makes videos on the craft of writing, and I’ve learned so much from watching her videos over the years. ShaelinWrites is another great YouTuber who makes videos about writing tips and tricks. Ana Neu is an Australian writer who does writing vlogs and makes a lot of videos on how to stay motivated and inspired. Jed Herne is a fantasy author who makes videos specifically on the craft of writing fantasy books. There’s a podcast I love by an author named James Thayer called, “The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel.” In each episode, he breaks down a different aspect of writing a novel. He has a book by the same title which I’m currently reading. These are just some of the creators I’ve found over the years that have helped me.

So while writing classes absolutely can be beneficial, they’re by no means the only way to learn about the craft. If you can teach yourself how to play a musical instrument or speak another language through the magic of the internet, then you can definitely teach yourself how to be a better writing through the internet. I’m telling you: put in the time to learn about the craft, your future self will thank you for it.

Again, I want to preface that I’m no expert, rather I’m just someone who’s very passionate about writing and thought it’d be fun to share some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way. If you’re also passionate about writing, then I hope this was in some way useful to you.

See you next time,

- Lilly :)

I haven’t been very active on Substack lately.

I haven’t posted an essay in 2 weeks, a note in almost as long, and I haven’t even been motivated to read or comment on anyone else’s posts. Sure, I’ve been busy with general life things, but the main reason for my inactivity is that I’ve been in a state of feeling ~uninspired~.

I’m usually always working on a Substack post at any given time, but after I finished my last post, I turned around and realised… I didn’t have any ideas. At least not any that I was actually enthusiastic about. I started about four other essays but only got a paragraph or two into each of them before I ran out of steam and realised I didn’t have enough faith in the ideas to actually see them to the end. It may sound like I’m describing writer’s block, but I don’t think that’s quite the right description. Usually when I have writer’s block, I have ideas but just can’t find the right words to execute them. The best word I can think of to describe my current situation is simply — uninspired. It feels like that one meme from Spongebob where he has to write an essay and spends hours writing just the first letter, “The,” in very fancy writing, and then immediately doesn’t know what to do next (for reference, see the opening image of this post).

I’m used to experiencing writer’s block, but the general feeling of ~uninspired~ is not something I’m used to. I found myself getting increasingly frustrated. And worried. I was still writing just fine in my projects outside of Substack, so what if the problem was Substack? I went from spending a ridiculous amount of time on my Substack homepage and dashboard every day to hardly checking it at all. This unnerved me. Was I falling out of love with Substack? Was it just a brief passion project that I was growing uninterested in now that the novelty was fading? I didn’t want that to be the case. Ever since I started my newsletter back in January, Substack has been something that brings me a lot of joy. But for the last month or so, it hasn’t.

It doesn’t help that my last three posts haven’t performed as well in terms of views or likes and I’ve lost a handful of susbcribers over the last month while hardly gaining any at all. Even just saying that makes me feel shallow and superficial. When I started my Substack, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t get caught up in the numbers of it all; that how well a post performs does not indicate the quality of it, nor does the amount of subscribers a newsletter has reflect the quality.

But not caring about the numbers is easier said than done. Especially when the Substack dashboard is filled with graphs and statistics constantly reminding you whether you’re doing better or worse than you have been. Every time I checked my dashboard and saw on that stupid line graph that the already flat line had dropped down again, my confidence took a hit, which didn’t help with my overall ~uninspired~ feeling. I contemplated trying to write the kind of post I know typically does well on Substack, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it because it just felt dishonest. So instead I resolved myself to stop trying to force inspiration to come and just let it be. To just see what happens.

And then magically, when I woke up this morning, I found myself feeling inspired to write about how uninspired I’ve been the last few weeks. Yes, I know how meta that is. And yes, I know people are constantly complaining about people “writing about writing” on here, but who cares. As soon as I sensed that I felt genuinely inspired, I knew I had to jump on it.

I hope this post is a sign I’m coming out of my uninspired phase and things will be going back to normal, but I don’t want to put pressure on myself for that to be the case, because I have a feeling putting pressure on myself is part of the reason why I was feeling uninspired to begin with. Chances are this post is dreadfully boring to everyone other than myself, but I felt inspired to write it, so I did. If you’ve felt a similar way to what I’m describing, it would be nice to hear some reassurance that I’m not alone in feeling ~uninspired~.

Anyway, see you next time, whenever that may be.

- Lilly :)

Let’s talk about media literacy. Or, more accurately, the shocking lack thereof.

Over the last few months, the conversation around “media literacy” has been growing in popularity, especially on platforms such as TikTok and Twitter. As an English Major and a lover of the arts, I am avidly passionate about all things media. Analysing texts — whether it be books, films, tv shows, music — is my jam. I love analysing media. So naturally, I have a lot to say on this specific topic.

A while ago, I watched a TikTok (which I cannot for the life of me find) discussing what brought on this spike in media illiteracy over the last few decades and one main example she cited was, “sometimes the curtains are just blue.” If you don’t know what I’m referencing from just that statement, here is an image that went viral online over 13 years ago:

You have no idea how many times I have seen this referenced over the years. Someone posts something being analytical and thinking about a text in a thought-provoking way, and another person in the comments completely minimises it by saying, “sometimes the curtains are just blue.” It’s a way of essentially saying, “it’s not that deep.” I am not being dramatic when I say I genuinely believe this one image has been detrimental to the media literacy of younger generations. It is the Antichrist of media literacy. It is such a reductive mindset.

In a recent English class I took, we were fortunate enough that the author of the book we were analysing was able to come in and talk to us. We were able to ask him all sorts of questions about whether or not all the specific little details and certain symbolism and imagery and patterns were intentional, and not only did he confirm they were intentional, but he seemed pleased we had picked up on them. If I’ve learned anything about analysing texts over the last few years, it’s that you should never assume anything is accidental. All it takes is watching one video of set designers putting together the set of a film or tv show to know that nothing these people do is ever accidental, and I love that.

That’s not to say that there are never any instances where the curtains truly are just blue, but to perfectly honest, what a boring and surface-level way to look at art. What’s wrong with trying to find ways to add a deeper meaning to something? Even if it’s a meaning the original text creator didn’t intend? It doesn’t matter if the text creator intended it or not; analysing art is all about interpretation.

It’s the mindset of, “it’s not that deep,” that is at the root of a lot of problems in media literacy. “It’s not that deep. It’s just a tv show. They’re just characters. They’re not real people.” Statements like these are ones I see all the time and they all contribute to the problem. Shutting down a discussion about a tv show or book or film by saying one of these statements discourages talking about texts in a meaningful way. It’s also ridiculously obvious. Oh, it’s just a tv show? The characters aren’t real people? Thank you, Sherlock, I had no idea. How silly of me thinking Stranger Things was a documentary.

I’m aware I talk about Taylor Swift far too much on my Substack, but I can’t talk about media literacy without talking about the album of 2024 that has sparked the most debate about media literacy. I’m of course referring to Taylor’s most recent album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. It was TTPD that really highlighted for me the lack of comprehension skills some people possess after seeing how so many songs were being so poorly interpretated or taken out of context, like I Hate it Here and So High School.

There’s been an abundance of people making fun of Taylor for portraying herself as a “tortured poet,” and saying she’s neither tortured nor a poet, but these people are missing the entire point. In the chorus of the title track, The Tortured Poets Department, she says, “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots.” She is quite literally saying she’s not a poet. She is mocking the person she dated who thought of themselves as a tortured poet.

Another song that has been painfully misinterpreted is Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? I’ve seen people making fun of the song for being so melodramatic and over-the-top, but she’s being intentionally hyperbolic. She’s exaggerating for dramatic effect. People on Twitter have loved singling out the line, “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me,” paired with a photo of the very nice house Taylor grew up in. It’s a metaphor; she’s not being literal. She’s not literally referring to the place where she was raised, the “asylum” in question is Hollywood, because it’s a song about being famous. Even though she was raised wealthy, Taylor’s been in the public eye since she was 15; that’s bound to take a toll on any person’s mental health.

Throughout her last two album releases, Midnights and Tortured Poets, I’ve noticed an increase in people complaining that a lot of Taylor’s lyrics are cheesy and cringy. Yes babe, we know. Taylor Swift has been saying cheesy and cringy shit in her music since her debut album, ever since she said, “my Daddy’s gonna show you how sorry you’ll be,” on Picture to Burn in 2006. Being cheesy is part of Taylor’s songwriting style, and she herself has acknowledged this. She said in her 2022 NYC commencement speech that she embraces cringe. If you’re still complaining about that almost 20 years deep into her career, then maybe Taylor Swift’s music just isn’t for you. And just because something isn’t for you, doesn’t automatically equate to it being bad.

Personally, I like when Taylor switches from deeply poetic lyricism like, “how’s one to know I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bone in a faith-forgotten land,” to, “touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto,” because I think it more accurately captures a realistic human experience. I too sway between saying poetic and cheesy things, as do most people. A lot of the discussion around TTPD in general has opened my eyes to the ever-prevalent media illiteracy online. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone so poorly misinterpret so many songs in such a quick succession as I did when watching Anthony Fantano’s two reviews of Tortured Poets.

But all of this, this entire discussion we’ve had, begs the question: why is media literacy important? And I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s not. It’s not important in the same way you could argue art as a whole isn’t important. If you were to present that argument to me, I’d say fair enough. But I would have to counter-argue that it is important. In the very least, it’s important to me.

My entire life, I have always had this inexplicable pull inside me, drawing me to the arts. Whether it’s literature, writing, film, music, painting, theatre, performance — I live and breathe the arts. Art has shaped and defined who I am as a person; it has enriched my life beyond measure. But that’s not the extent of it- the arts have enriched and shaped culture. I think it’s incredible the way a human being can use their mind to create something that can move people; and make them cry, or laugh, or change the way they think about the world. Throughout all of human history, art has played an important role. And yet my entire life, I’ve been told that the arts are not important. It’s the very suggestion that it’s not important that has fuelled this decline in media literacy and comprehension.

I want to end this with sharing two TikTok edits to the same Drew Gooden audio that I feel sum up my points on the importance of art quite well, and demonstrate that the curtains are hardly ever just blue:

@eq1typrobably my best edit | #eeaao #rango #interstellar #tenet #cars #surfsup #edit #movieedit #fyp #foryou #xyzbca

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

@nostalgiicalthis isn't my usual content but I'm so so passionate about this topic and the writers strike is sooo important to the future of film please support it <3 #writersstrike #filmtok #filmedit #ai #drewgooden

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel, Normal People, is a polarising book. Whenever I see people talk about it, they either describe it as the best book they’ve ever read and a literary masterpiece, or they describe it as one of the worst books they’ve ever read and completely overhyped and overrated. In my review of it, I’d like to provide a healthy middle.

Sally Rooney is an Irish author who currently has three books under her belt, Conversations With Friends, Beautiful World, Where Are You, and of course, Normal People, with her fourth novel coming out later this year. Her work has blown up in popularity over the last few years through the help of BookTok, and she’s even had two of her three books be adapted into tv shows. Normal People is her second novel, and many readers consider it to be her best.

Normal People isn’t usually the type of book I’d gravitate towards, as I’m not a huge contemporary romance reader, but when a book blows up in popularity as much as this one has, I can’t help but be compelled to see if it really lives up to the hype. To put it simply: I did enjoy this book, but I didn’t connect with it as fiercely as so many others have. There are aspects that I like, but there are also many aspects that I don’t like.

The two biggest complaints this book seems to receive are, 1: there’s basically no plot, and 2: all of the characters are insufferable. Both points are valid. Normal People doesn’t follow a typical beginning, middle, end story structure. The story is instead centred around the rocky yet layered relationship between Connell and Marianne. You read as they go from strangers, to lovers, to exes, to friends, to lovers, to friends, and so on and so on. You’ll quickly discover they have a very on again/off again relationship. They spend the story struggling to find where they fit in each other’s lives, while simultaneously trying to find where they fit in the world. That’s the plot essentially. It’s not an action-packed, fast-paced plot; it’s a slow-paced story told across the span of four years of two kids trying to figure out life, love, and everything in-between. Because of its slow-paced nature, I did admittedly find it a bit tedious to read at times, and would sometimes go days without picking it up. But I also understand this is a novel that is supposed to represent the mundanity of everyday life.

As for the second complaint, yes, pretty much all of the characters are unlikeable. Connell’s high school friends, Marianne’s family, Peggy, Jamie, Lukas, even Connell and Marianne - they all suck. But that’s the point. I feel like Rooney intentionally made all of the characters a bit unlikeable because, in a way, that makes them more realistic. Most people in real life suck a little bit too. And haven’t we all interacted with a Peggy or a Jamie in our lives at some point and found them to be just as insufferable in real life as they are on the page?

Personally, I found Connell to be unlikeable in the first half of the book, and Marianne to be unlikeable in the second half. I felt no love whatsoever for Connell as he treated Marianne like a secret he was ashamed of in their high school years, and him asking Rachel to the Debs when he was dating Marianne only deepened my dislike for him. Marianne, on the other hand, was the one I sympathised with. She was a loner who was bullied and outcast by her peers, of course I felt bad for her.

But once they got to college, the roles switched. Marianne’s new-found snobbish, pretentious nature seriously irked me. It especially bothered me how oblivious she was to her own privilege as someone who came from a wealthy family. Like when she applies for and wins the scholarship not because she needs the money, but because it’ll improve her social status and make her more respectable. She then gets annoyed at Connell when he points this out. This is one interesting aspect of Marianne and Connell’s dynamic, in that they come from polar opposite backgrounds. Connell was raised by a loving family but grew up poor, while Marianne was raised by an abusive family but grew up rich. These are the only aspects they can’t understand about each other’s worlds. Connell can’t grasp why Marianne doesn’t like her family, and Marianne can’t grasp Connell’s financial issues.

Despite hating Connell in the first half, I sympathised with him in the second half as he struggled with depression, anxiety, and feeling judged by his peers’ for not being as wealthy as them. Even Marianne eventually redeems herself towards the end of the book, and I reverted back to feeling bad for her as she struggled to break free of her masochistic habit of getting stuck in relationships with abusive men. As unlikeable as both her and Connell can be at times, they each have their own emotional baggage and traumas that makes the reader pity them. To be perfectly honest, the only character who isn’t unlikeable is Connell’s mother, Lorraine. She’s a real one.

Connell and Marianne’s relationship is the core and backbone of this story. While I see why one might like them together, I actually found them, as a couple, to be rather toxic. Their relationship was so unstable with how much they chopped and changed between lovers and friends. Marianne would always get jealous whenever Connell showed any attention towards another woman, and on multiple occasions, their relationship fell apart because of a simple miscommunication that could’ve been easily fixed. Not to mention that the entirety of their relationship was tinged with an unhealthy codependency. I much preferred them as friends in comparison to when they were together. Either way, their connection, whether romantic or platonic, is undeniably interesting and complex.

Marianne and Connell are drawn to each other like magnets, because they’re both different from everyone else around them; they’re both different from “normal” people. They both feel like outsiders wherever they go except when they’re together. It’s only when they’re together that either of them feel a sense of belonging. They understand each other in a way no one else has ever been able to understand them. It’s even described at times throughout the book that they can almost read each other’s minds; that’s how deep their connection goes. Which makes it all the more impactful that in the end, they decide to let each other go.

The ending is an aspect of the story that is often debated. I didn’t love the ending, but not for the reasons you might think. I don’t mind the fact that Connell and Marianne decide to go their separate ways, in fact, I think that was the better narrative decision and only makes the story more meaningful, but I don’t like that Marianne doesn’t get an ending. We know what will happen to Connell. He’ll move to New York, and become an established writer. But we are given no insight into what becomes of Marianne. Will she stay in Dublin forever? What career will she pursue? Will she learn to take more control over her life?

Truthfully, the ending felt rushed, which is odd as the book is, for the most part, slow-paced. Because the story doesn’t really wrap-up in any way, it doesn’t feel like it has a proper conclusion; the book just ends. I hate when novels do that, because it’s always unsatisfying to read. The ending of any book is so important, because that’s what cements the reader’s lasting impression. There’s nothing that irks me more than when the ending of a book feels rushed or like the story wasn’t properly brought to a conclusion.

Rooney’s writing style isn’t particularly flowery or over-sophisticated, which in some ways is a good thing. But at times, she would put too much focus on unnecessarily describing actions; like going into detail about Marianne making a cup of tea or opening a bottle of wine. Those aren’t things we need to know as a reader. I feel the need to address Rooney’s decision not to include quotation marks. Before this year, a book that didn’t have quotation marks would’ve been an absurd concept to me, but funnily enough, I’ve read two books this year that are completely devoid of quotation marks. Personally, I don’t like it. I found the lack of them to be distracting. At first, I really struggled with not having quotation marks, but the further I read, the more I adjusted. But I still prefer to have them in the books I read.

To conclude my thoughts on this book, it is a good window into the tumultuous yet formative time period that is your early 20s. Marianne and Connell, as two 20-somethings, stumble their way through life together, trying to figure out what kind of people they want to be, and what they are to each other, before ultimately deciding they won’t be able to truly grow and flourish as people unless they do it separately. There is something poetic about that. I have a feeling if I was 25 and read this book, I would be able to connect to it more easily. But alas, I’m only 19. Maybe if I read this book again in a few more years, I’ll be able to really appreciate it for all that it is.

In recent years, reading as a hobby has gained a new sense of popularity. It sounds silly to say considering reading has been around for hundreds of years, but with the boom in popularity that’s come with internet subgroups such as BookTube, BookTwitter, but most particularly BookTok, reading is now considered cool. I love that. I’ve been an avid reader ever since I knew how to do it, so I remember just a few years ago, before TikTok was a thing, when reading was not considered cool. It was the exact opposite of cool.

There’s a lot of debate online about whether BookTok has “ruined literature.” I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s great that it has increased the number of people reading, especially young people. However, there are aspects of BookTok that I don’t like, the competitive nature of it being one of them. I’m not suggesting that BookTok has made reading books a competitive activity. I’m sure it always has been, considering the superiority complex many people unfortunately get from reading, an idea I discuss more in-depth in my essay, “Let’s Talk About Art Snobs,” which you can find here or in my Substack archive (sorry for the shameless plug). What I am saying is BookTok and other internet book communities have further exposed and perhaps even encouraged this competitive attitude.

It’s a common practice in the reading community for people to set a goal of the amount of books they want to read throughout the year, and then at the end of the year, they jump on TikTok and share how many books they read. The popular reading app Goodreads also has an annual “reading challenge,” in which users can set a goal of books they want to read in the year, and it tells you if you’re “on track” throughout the year. When that time came around at the end of 2023 where people were sharing the amount of books they read in the year, I was shocked to say the least. As it turns out, there are a baffling number of people who read over 100 books in 2023. I saw people being disappointed their book numbers were only in the 50s. I saw one person deeming reading 13 books in the month of June a “reading slump.”

I’m not knocking people who read like this. If you can read that many books in a year, that’s honestly impressive. But it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around that. I can’t help but wonder: do these people have jobs? Do these people go to school? How many hours a day do these people spend reading in order to get through 20 books in one month? It also begs the question… when people are reading books at that speed, are they actually taking them in and processing them? And more importantly… is it possible to over-consume books?

I will confess that I am a slow reader. When I read, I like to take my time to carefully read each sentence and form an image in my mind of the settings and characters. I don’t think I have ever once read an entire book in a day, which is something I know a lot of people can do. Sometimes it takes me up to a month just to read one book. In 2022, I read 12 books. In 2023, I read 20 books. I was so proud of this, especially considering I had a really busy year last year. We’re currently in the fourth month of the year, and so far, I have only read one book in its entirety. I already know that I’m probably not going to top my amount from last year.

But I’ve come to be okay with that. I see so many people on BookTok get so caught up in the game of it all. They become obsessed with the numbers. I’ve seen people create lists of short books that won’t take long to read just so they can have more books to add to their total count. I’ve seen people giving out “tips and tricks” on how to read faster, which includes grouping words together and reading without an inner monologue. Reading used to be seen as a leisurely activity, but that seems to be becoming less and less the case now with the rise of BookTok. Many are now starting to see reading as a numbers game (there’s a great article written by Dazed on the subject, I’ll link it here).

I can’t help but think, when you read at such a pace to the point that you are finishing a book in merely a few hours, adding it to your list, and then immediately moving onto the next book, are you actually taking the story in? Are you actually immersing yourself in the world and the lives of the characters? Are you picking up the message behind the story and allowing yourself to be moved by it? Allowing yourself to be swept out of your own life and into this whole other world?

Slow reading is something that gets discredited quite a bit in the reading world. Like reading slowly somehow makes you less of a reader. I would argue it is actually the opposite. Reading slowly and without trepidation and a need to consume at a quick pace allows you to kick your feet back, relax, and escape reality for a few hours as you get lost in your book. To reiterate, if you like the competitive nature of reading and and find that it motivates you to read more, by all means continue. It just disheartens me that reading so many books in such a short period of time is the norm when, for many people, that is unrealistic and unattainable. If any new readers who read slowly happen to be reading this, my advice to you would be this: don’t get caught up in the numbers game just because it’s popular, but most importantly, don’t ever feel bad or like you’re less of a reader just because you’re a slow one.

Life is already fast enough as it is. We deserve to have at least one thing we take a little slow.

I am a lover of the arts. I love getting lost in a good book, film, or tv show. I’m constantly listening to music. I even collect vinyls and CDs; I know, how hipster am I? But my taste in art is what some might call basic. What makes me say that, you ask? Well, my favourite genre of music is pop. My favourite musical artist is Taylor Swift. My favourite movie is Hamilton. Most of my favourite tv shows are sitcoms. You might notice something everything I just listed has in common, and that is that they are all popular and mainstream. And for whatever reason, in today’s society, popularity equals basic.

If you’re not entirely sure what I mean when I say basic, just know that in Gen Z culture, being called basic is an insult. If someone calls you basic, they’re essentially saying you’re boring, vanilla, and overall uninteresting. Within the last few generations, a hipster mindset has taken over. It’s been decided that liking mainstream and popular content is uncool and “basic,” while liking underground and unknown content is cool, unique, and original. This idea often leads to snobbery, and the belief that if you like art that is popular, that automatically means you have bad taste.

Art snobs are some of the most irritating people to interact with. An art snob is someone who believes that their taste in art- whether it be music, film, or literature- is better than and superior to everyone else’s. Typically, art snobs will put people down or even shame people for liking things that are considered basic. Art snobs are the kind of people who think that pop music isn’t “real” music, Marvel and DC films aren’t “real” cinema, and YA/children’s books aren’t “real” literature. Please notice the air quotes, because all three of those statements are false.

Pop music has a bad reputation, because a lot of it is arguably pretty generic. It was built not to be incredibly emotive and moving, but to dominate the charts as much as possible because of its catchy hooks and replay value. Because of this, pop music can often come across as shallow. But not all pop music is soulless. As I said earlier, pop is my favourite genre, and even saying it, I feel a twinge of embarrassment because admitting pop is your favourite genre is almost like admitting you have bad taste in music. To be clear, I listen to and like a lot of genres, but pop music is what I find myself gravitating towards the most. With any genre, there’s going to be bad stuff out there. There’s a lot of bad pop music out there, but there’s also a lot of great pop music out there.

I mentioned Taylor Swift earlier, and I will forever believe the music she creates is quality and I will die on that hill. I think a lot of people listen to her big radio hits, you know, the Shake it Offs and the We Are Never Ever Getting Back Togethers and assume that all of her music is like that, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Those songs only scratch the surface of Taylor’s discography; when you dig a little deeper, you find that there are dozens of hidden gems. Songs like All Too Well, Dear John, my tears ricochet, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, I could go on. Multiple times I’ve played a deep cut from Taylor’s discography and someone I know has said, “this is Taylor Swift? I didn’t know she made music like this.” Because they assumed all she does is make generic pop music. But other than Taylor Swift, there are plenty of other artists out there who I believe make emotive pop music that isn’t shallow- Lorde, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, Sabrina Carpenter, Ashe, Billie Eilish and Finneas, just to name a few. But at the end of the day, so what if pop music is generic anyway? Yes, sometimes you want a song that’s perfect to cry to. Sometimes you want a song that tells a story. But sometimes all you want is a song that is catchy and fun and perfect to dance to. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Over the last few years, BookTok has become a cultural phenomenon; and for the most part, I think that’s great because it’s made so many young people interested in reading. But as someone who is a frequent lurker on BookTok, believe me when I say I’ve seen a lot of snobbery on there. In the reading community, there are two genres that are repeatedly not taken seriously, and those are YA and romance. I’m not a romance reader, but I do understand the appeal. YA, however, I do like to read every now and again. I think the reason why those two genres are constantly the bud of the joke is because they’re genres that are often filled with cheesy or cringy lines and tropes, and more often than not, involve a lot of clichés. However, YA arguably has the biggest book audience. Think of how many massive YA books there are- The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, Twilight, Divergent, most of the viral books on TikTok. And romance in its own right is a massive genre, what with all the insanely popular Colleen Hoover books (not that I’m so sure that’s a good thing as Colleen Hoover is pretty problematic). All this popularity, and yet I see so many art snobs mocking people who read exclusively YA and romance books.

I think it goes the same way as it does for pop music. Yes, there’s a lot of YA and romance books out there that are embarrassingly cringy, but there’s also a lot of good YA and romance books out there that don’t deserve to be discredited just because of their genre’s bad reputation. I enjoy reading YA because it’s fun and exciting. No, they’re not always deep and moving nor is the writing usually the pinnacle of literature, but just as with pop music sometimes all you want is a catchy tune, sometimes all you want in a book is pure entertainment, not some deep message to take away. And YA books are pretty gosh darn entertaining.

But there’s one specific type of snobbery on BookTok I want to discuss- the classic literature snobs. I love classic literature; some of my all-time favourite novels are classics like Little Women, Pride & Prejudice, and Emma. However, just because you read classics, that doesn’t mean you’re better than readers who don’t read classics. There’s a whole toxic community of readers who believe that their taste in books is superior to everyone else’s because they only read classics, not that garbage that’s modern literature, if you can even call it that. F. Scott Fitzgerald could write The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but Taylor Jenkins Reid could never write The Great Gatsby, blah, blah, blah. We get it. You read classics. For as long as I can remember, there’s been this idea in the reading community that just because you’re a reader, that means you’re better than non-readers. It automatically makes you smarter and more sophisticated and cultured than them, which is not true.

It’s an idea that has always made me uncomfortable. You’re not better than everyone else just because you read. I swear some people read only because they want to feel better than everyone else. I feel the same way about people who boast that they only read classics. Classics are not for everyone. A lot of people can’t stand the old-fashioned language. I love classics, but even I have to be in the right mood to read one because they’re tedious at times. It’s the equivalent of people who brag that they only listen to music from the 70s and 80s and hate all modern music. You should read because you enjoy it, not because you want to rub your supposed superiority in other people’s faces. It doesn’t make you cooler, it just makes you a snob.

A couple of years ago, famous director Martin Scorsese said in an interview that in his opinion, Marvel movies aren’t real cinema. I was originally going to argue against what Scorsese said, but then I read the follow up article he wrote for The New York Times. Listen to this quote: “Cinema was about revelation — aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual revelation. It was about characters — the complexity of people and their contradictory and sometimes paradoxical natures, the way they can hurt one another and love one another and suddenly come face to face with themselves.” How could I argue against that? How could I criticise something so beautifully worded? I’m a literature nerd, I can’t help it.

But still, I think a lot of people dismiss action and superhero films as explosions and car chases and fights in space with no depth to them. I have watched every single movie in the MCU. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like every single second of it is good, quality cinema. But even though its quality isn’t necessarily consistent, it deserves praise in other categories. I am a sucker for lore; for little tiny details and inside jokes and things that only fans will understand. I love when things are woven together and connected. A big part of why I love the MCU is because of that. I love that you need to watch every single film to really get the full picture. I would argue that it is false that Marvel movies have no depth to them. If that was true, could the Carlin Brothers and so many other YouTubers make not one but multiple two hour video essays discussing nothing but Marvel movies and dissecting them frame by frame? It’d be hard to do that with something that has no depth. Yes, there are explosions and car chases and fights in space, but there are also many fleshed out characters with arcs and development. There is still a lot of humanity in Marvel films.

All of this, as a collective, leans into the idea that art = pain; the “tortured artist” archetype. I despise this idea. I whole-heartedly reject the notion that good art must be born from pain and suffering. That is not true. Yes, oftentimes when people are feeling strong emotions of despair, they find themselves turning to a specific artform, whatever that may be, as a form of catharsis, and yes, they often end up creating art that is deep and meaningful and really, really good, however; just as rightfully and just as legitimately, art can be created from feelings of happiness, and joy, and excitement.

At the end of the day, what it all boils down to is this: why can’t we just let people like whatever art they want to? Why do we have to belittle and judge and criticise people who enjoy art that we may personally deem bad? I am someone who holds the belief that art is 100% subjective. You cannot say that a song, or a book, or a film is objectively bad, because I guarantee you, there is someone who disagrees with you. There is no objectivity in art. There is no right or wrong in creative expression. So how about instead of judging people for having “basic” taste, we instead respect each person’s individual opinions and let everyone enjoy whatever the hell it is they want to?

We should all aim to be a little bit less of an art snob.

I am a writer. There’s no specific moment throughout my life that I can pinpoint as the exact moment my love of writing began, it’s just always been second nature for me. When I was a kid, I used to steal paper from my mum’s printer, staple them together, and then write a short and charming story on it, while making sure to leave space at the bottom for drawings. I still remember one of my first picture books, it was called “The Magic Man.” Looking back, I see now that it was a complete and utter rip-off of Dr. Suess’s The Cat in the Hat, but at the time, I felt like a creative genius.

When I was a bit older, I would buy notebooks and fill them up with nothing but stories. When I reached my teen years, I got my first laptop and was opened up to the wonderous world of Google Docs. I was amazed that I owned a never-ending notebook that I could write in for hours on end without worrying about my hand cramping up. And of course, English was always one of my favourite subjects at school, and the one I got the best grades in.

Despite all of this, I was always just a casual writer; someone who wrote for fun from time to time. I didn’t become obsessed with writing until I was 15. It was 2020. The world had gone into lockdown and my friend and I were looking for things to pass the time. Because we’re dramatic, we decided to write a book. We got to work and it was. So. Much. Fun. I quickly discovered that I loved coming up with plots and characters and dialogue. We enjoyed the experience so much that we decided to make it a trilogy and wrote two more books after that, the third of which was long enough to be considered a novel, which blew my mind. I got such a high off of it. I loved the feeling of finishing each project; the bittersweet joy mixed with a sense of accomplishment. This was what spiralled me from being a casual writer to being obsessed with writing. I fell down the rabbit hole.

From that moment on, I was constantly writing. I wrote short stories, novel-length stories, poems, songs, essays, screenplays. I took every single writing or English related class that I possibly could through school, I spent hours watching writing videos on YouTube, all in order to learn as much about the craft as I possibly could. When I finished school, I went on to study English and writing at university. I know I love writing. I’ve known that for a long time. But lately, I’ve been pondering the question: why do I write? Why am I as drawn to storytelling as I am? Why do I have such a fascination with words?

I wish it was a simple answer. It’s not. However, I will now attempt to answer it to the best of my ability. Like most writers, my love of writing began with a love of reading. When I was a kid, I was a complete and utter bookworm. I constantly had my nose in a book and wouldn’t go anywhere without one handy; I would bring a book to school, to my grandparent’s house, on family holidays. But I wouldn’t buy a new book every week, I would just read the same books over and over again. I could pick up a book I’d read seven times before and still be entertained.

While I no longer have the time to read as much as I did as a kid, I still consider it to to be one of my favourite hobbies. I’ve always loved that reading can transport you into another world, in a way that films and tv shows can’t. It can take you out of your own head and put you into someone else’s, even if it’s only for an hour. A good book will completely immerse you, until you forget that what you’re reading isn’t even real.

In my opinion, there is nothing better than a good story. Whether that be a story that touched you so deeply that not a day goes by where you don’t think of it, or one that still makes you giggle every time it crosses your mind. From the ones we pass down through generations and wear like a badge of honour, to the ones we tell around the dinner table to lighten the mood. We all have that one story we just love telling, even if we tell it over and over again. There is a power to storytelling that often goes unappreciated. Stories can move people. They can make you laugh, or cry, or change the way you think about the world — whether they be true or fictional. Stories can have such a big impact on a person; from the way they carry themselves to the way they live their day to day life.

There are so many stories told through art — from books, to films, to music — that I feel have shaped who I am. My entire life, I’ve dreamed of one day being fortunate enough to put something out into the world that I’ve created that could possibly have as much of an impact on a person as certain stories have had on me. My love of reading, of storytelling, of creating; that is part of why I write.

But it’s not the only reason.

I’ve always been the sort of person who lives in their own little world. I’m constantly daydreaming; constantly with my head up in the clouds. While reading helps me utilise my imagination, it’s never been an outlet for my overflowing brain the way that writing is. There’s always so many stories and ideas swirling around my head that I have to get at least some of them down on paper. When I talk, I don’t feel articulate. I stumble over my words and never fully get my points across and always feel like my thoughts are being judged or misconstrued or unvalidated or all of the above. This has always made me feel tragically misunderstood. I know, woe is me.

But for whatever reason, when I write, I do feel articulate, which in turn makes me feel understood. Writing gives me the ability to detangle some of the mess in my brain. Writing is like therapy to me. It’s a cathartic release of emotions that I can’t find anywhere else. Writing is my lifeline. Without it, I genuinely believe I would go mad. I know I’m describing it like I’m in some sort of toxic, one-sided, codependent relationship with writing, but it’s the truth. It’s my truth.

I’m the sort of person who never says what they’re really thinking. The only times I am ever truly honest and vulnerable is through my writing. This here will be a collection of essays, lists, ramblings, and whatever other form of writing I am inspired to write. It will almost be like I am cutting open my brain and showing what’s inside.

This, right here, is a fraction of my mind.