Dammit Im So Torn Because On One Hand I Want To Support Shannon And Everyone Else Involved In The Series

dammit im so torn because on one hand i want to support shannon and everyone else involved in the series + i have the first 8 books and wanna collect the whole series but at the same time i dont want to put any money in l**ra's pockets

So you want to buy a copy of Unlocked

This post is made as a educational guide to the current situation with Keeper of the Lost Cities newest book, Unlocked.

Over the past few days, many people have suggested boycotting the hardcover editions of Unlocked due to one VERY IMPORTANT read: this is that the main artist featured, L*ura H*ll*ngsw*rth, is homophobic and we do not want to support her. As a queer person, it really hurts to see a series that I’ve loved for almost 7 years now. However, many of us still want to read the book and support other people behind this project. For me personally, I especially want to support my local book store and the US postal service during this time. So, what are alternatives?

1. EMAIL SHANNON’S PUBLISHER

Shannon just finished unlock TODAY - this means that the book had yet to be printed and that there is still time to get L*ura’s art out of the book. The book still also has to be edited so we have time. Even if the art isn’t taken out due to payments already being made, this could end the arrangement between the series and her AND we could possibly get a new official artist. Even if we sadly don’t get that either, showing S&S we don’t want to buy books with her art in them will hopefully make them not want to work with her in the future.

2. BUY THE AUDIOBOOK

The main reason that this is my suggestion is that it’s the only version where you can guarantee L*ura will not make any profits because there are no physical or digital pages. Through the research I’ve been doing, I can’t find anything that indicates that official KOTLC narrator, Caitlin Kelly, is homophobic. Audiobooks can be expensive, especially since all KOTLC are Audible exclusives, but Audible does offer a free trial that comes with 1 free audiobook and you can keep the book after you cancel your subscription. Also, if any of you do know if Caitlin is homophobic please reblog with that information and I’ll edit this.

3. BUY THE NOOK VERSION

This is probably seem like what a lot of people are going to do. As of right now, the Nook app does not support/load art that goes along with books such as KOTLC. This would also be cheaper than getting the audiobook version. However, there are two things that concern me about this; first being that  while we know most artists are paid in advance, we can’t say that Laura will make no profit from sales with her art in it. There are many unknowns in this field and many of us are trying to do more research about this. I’ve been looking at two accounts in particular on Instagram (I don’t know if they have tumblrs so I’m tagging there instagram handles) and I suggest you check both @/ahsokatano13 and @/dexs.mother out. the second reason is that the Nook app has been having a lot of updates recently and by the time Unlocked comes out, they could have found a way to load/support the art in the book.

4. WAIT OR BORROW THE BOOK

Use your library or your local KOTLC friends - it may take longer for you to read it but this way you won’t be supporting L*ura. You can also wait even longer and purchase the paperback version.

and lastly

5. DONATE THE SAME AMOUNT TO LGBTQIPAA+ INDIVUALS/GROUPS

Many people preorder months in advance and it’s fine if you did, since this art portion information was only revealed recently. So, treat buying this book like shopping at a place like Ch*ck F*l A. Is every single individual behind this purposes homophobic? No. There are no many people that are behind that KOTLC books other than Shannon - the people who print, who box, who ship, who sell, etc. So rather than purchasing this book and then feeling guilty about it, find out the exact price you spent on the book itself and donate, if you can, that exact amount to a queer foundation or individual. If you can donate double, that’s great! If you can only spare a few dollars right now, that’s great too. As long as you give some money back to the people that are being affect by the decision to use a homophobic artist in this book, that sort-of evens out things in my eyes.

At the end of the day, every KOTLC fan is an individual. Some fans aren’t even aware of this situation, some fans don’t know how to handle it, etc. I made this post to be educational and provide options for other KOTLC fans.

actually i'd like to think there's some nuance to this

while it's true it looks bad from this perspective, there's also the fact that she's just a 15/16 year old trying to fit in. this goes beyond fitz, beyond any of the guys in her life. a match list, nevermind who's on it, is something you're entitled to, regardless of status, regardless of your abilities. and the fact that she couldn't even have that... it's a whole other level of "outcast" you know? so i get why she decided to try.

so shannon really gave us sophie desperately trying to get matched so that she and fitz could be together because she thought it was impossible otherwise (either because of stigma or because fitz wouldn’t go with it) and expected Us to see it as like a normal thing that happens with healthy relationships huh. she really did that.

Super Long Hot-take On Why Fitz is a Young Grady and Not Keefe

As the title suggests, this post is incredibly long, so get comfy, it’s gonna be a couple minutes before you get to the end of this rabbit hole. (All of it is under the cut for space, and let me know if I need to add any trigger warnings. Also, there aren’t really any spoilers in here I don’t think, but I put the warning here to err on the side of caution because it won’t let me add more tags. Enjoy!)

Keep reading

this whole fitz vs. keefe thing is getting ridiculous, instead we need to band together to bully alvar

oh my god........

oh you ship sophitz? what year did the gifted kid burnout hit?

i cant believe i called the ending omg