The Terror of Knowing

As you may or may not know, I’m a not-so-ashamed Taylor Swift fan. There, I said it. Frankly, I’m getting sick of the arguments on either side of who’s the snake or whatever – I know some questionable things have been said by all but it’s all oh so dramatic and I don’t have time for that.

All I know is that, instinctively, I quite like her and her attitude towards policing her public image. And I quite like her music too, so that helps a lot. Let’s not dwell on that though, let’s just focus on this brilliant book tag, inspired by Look What You Made Me Do, that has been created by Caitlynn at Thrice Read – you can find her original post here. I love the originality of this tag, so I had to do it.

“I don’t like your little games” | Favourite villain

You knew this was coming because I can’t not mention this trilogy in any given tag but I adore the Dane twins, Astrid and Athos, in V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic – they’re so twisted, especially Astrid, but I kind of love that about them.

“I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underlined” | A character with a glorious hit list

Given all the shit that her family has gone through, I’d say Arya Stark from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series has a few bones to pick with various people. She even handily recites their names to herself, no need to write them down!

“Ooh, look what you made me do” | Best revenge plot

I’m going to be purposely vague with this one lest I spoil the entire duology but let’s just say Leigh Bardugo’s Crooked Kingdom has a pretty damn satisfying dose of revenge.

“All I think about is karma … maybe I got mine but you’ll all get yours” | A character who got what was coming to ’em

Ding, ding! Here comes the predictable Harry Potter answer – it wouldn’t be a tag without it. I’d say Bellatrix Lestrange pretty much got what was coming to her, and I’m SO glad that it was at Molly Weasley’s hand whilst yelling “not my daughter, you bitch!”

“I’ll be the actress staring in your bad dreams” | A character who had to put on a role (bad or good)

I won’t say why or how this character puts on a role because I think it spoils a tonne of the books but I’m going to go with Jaxon Hall from Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season series. He’s theatrical as it is, but I think there’s also a hidden menace underneath all the flamboyance so he definitely puts on his personality.

“I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me” | Favourite anti-hero

Kaz Brekker from Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom – easy question, next?
(I don’t care that I keep mentioning this duology, I will never stop, sorry/not sorry.)

“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she’s dead!” | A character with the most growth

I suppose I can’t answer again with Paige Mahoney from Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season or Matthias Helvar from Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom, can I? Ok, let’s go for an equally predictable answer then – let’s go with the famous characters who grow as people, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by, of course, Jane Austen – for its Victorian, northern-equivalent see Mr Thornton and Margaret Hale from Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South.

That’s all folks, that was the brilliantly conceived Look What You Made Me Do Book Tag – please be sure to check out the original tag post over on Thrice Read and if you wish to do the tag please consider yourself tagged by me and share your answers/blog post link below!
PS – Is the song now stuck in anyone else’s head, or is it just me? 

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