Julie Gourinchas

#mswl

just watched the latest @JazzaStudios video and he dropped the word "Da Vinci-punk" and hello, #mswl in a big way

I really really really *really* feel horrormance is about to be the next ✨big thing✨ in pub, so – my #mswl is looking hungry for any literary/upmarket versions of that, love stories with dark, twisted, tragic beats (someone comp me IWtV or so help me god!!!) 🖤🩸🦷

yes hi I would like some monstrous, yearning love stories please #mswl

some things I am *not* looking for atm (an anti-MSWL if you will):

- crime or military anything
- contemporary romance
- [usually] first-person voice (I'm sorry – it's a hard sell for me, but not impossible!)
- high/epic fantasy
- space-faring sci-fi (unless the hook is fresh!)

I'll add more as I go, but I want to highlight again how much VOICE, PROSE, + ATMOSPHERE are really the things that draw me into a story. I want to hear your character's voice ringing in my head. I want to feel the mist curling at my ankles. I want to live in your world!!

#mswl

- magical realism
- literary fiction that feels *playful* and *joyful* about the genre, rather than snobbish and gatekeep-y. I have no fear of the weird or wacky, so long as it has something intelligent and important to say.
- fiction about unconventional relationships

#mswl

- anything set in a part of the world different to the US, Canada, or the UK (or, if set in the UK, set in the north of England, northern Ireland, rural spaces, etc)
- fresh, different takes on monster stories (vampires!!!! pls) that explore aspects of humanity

#mswl

- folklore and mythological retellings, particularly non-Eurocentric/non-Greco-Roman/non-Christian traditions
- neo-western
- unconventional, unreliable, unlikeable narrators and central characters
- trans and queer joy, but also trans and queer rage
- diverse perspectives

#mswl

- speculative fiction
(I prefer grounded, literary sci-fi + fantasy. few secondary worlds, but rather our world steeped in liminal magic and/or technology. anything creepy, toothy, gritty, strange, something that sends a shiver down your spine.)
- steampunk everything

#mswl

in terms of GENRES and NARRATIVES, I love:

- dark academia
- horror
- gothic, esp. regional gothic
- character-led literary fiction
- historical + alternate history, particularly 19th and 20th century and particularly focused on international, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ stories

#mswl

first, I'm someone who's always been gripped first by VOICE, WRITING STYLE, and PROSE. so I'm looking for:

- anything in the book club, upmarket, literary spaces
- lush, poetic writing – or sparse, bare prose
- deep and intricate world/lore-building (when applicable)

#mswl

#mswl PLEASE AND THANK YOU !!!

vampires in the 90s with all the hazy, summery nostalgia that comes with the pre-digital age. vampires locked away in remote mountain ranges. vampires haunting small villages, but people haunting back. vampires!!!

in honour of IWtV day, a humble #mswl request for lush, gothic, deliciously literary takes on vampires. comp me Woman, Eating or Let the Right One In or Carmilla or Certain Dark Things. the grittier, darker, and more grotesque the better. as we know:

👀 #mswl please

SPEAKING OF WHICH: if anyone can comp me the sheer religious delirium and exultation and sacrifice felt in the opening chorus of Bach's Matthäus-Passion I fall to your knees tbh #mswl

hi yes hello #mswl

has anyone played the game Darkwood because goodness me those are #mswl vibes

#mswl yes please, esp vamps