Trope: The Monster is Grief

  • King’s Rising

    King’s Rising

    The epic conclusion to the internationally acclaimed Captive Prince trilogy. Damianos of Akielos has returned. His identity now revealed, Damen must face his master Prince Laurent as Damianos of Akielos, the man Laurent has sworn to kill. On the brink of a momentous battle, the future of both their countries hangs in the balance. In

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  • Prince’s Gambit

    Prince’s Gambit

    With their countries on the brink of war, Damen and his new master, Prince Laurent, must exchange the intrigues of the palace for the sweeping might of the battlefield as they travel to the border to avert a lethal plot. Forced to hide his identity, Damen finds himself increasingly drawn to the dangerous, charismatic Laurent.

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  • [Oshi no Ko] Vol. 1-3

    [Oshi no Ko] Vol. 1-3

    Sixteen-year-old Ai Hoshino is a talented and beautiful idol who is adored by her fans. She is the personification of a pure, young maiden. But all that glitters is not gold. Gorou Amemiya is a countryside gynecologist and a big fan of Ai. So when the pregnant idol shows up at his hospital, he is

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  • The Boy I Loved Became the Jaded Emperor Vol. 1 & 2

    The Boy I Loved Became the Jaded Emperor Vol. 1 & 2

    As a young boy, Prince Alexei was rescued from certain death by a strange woman with the appearance of a monster. The two of them spent blissful years in the forest , but tragedy struck after his former life caught up with him. Now a young man, Alexei has taken the throne, becoming a cold-hearted

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  • A Man & His Cat Vol. 2-12

    A Man & His Cat Vol. 2-12

    I fucking love this series. Watching people form relationships and learn how to embrace the world by openly loving a cat? Yes! And it’s just. The recovery from grief, the love this man shows to others in honor of his wife and his kids! Watching someone overcome the obstacles in his life thanks to the

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  • Bloat

    Bloat

    , ,

    “…this thing feels trapped in its own homeland.” — dude who suspects that a kappa want to go to america and so keeps doing weird shit to young american boys After a near-death drowning accident, a young boy’s family is horrified to discover he has become possessed by a legendary demon from the depths of

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  • Morbidly Yours

    Morbidly Yours

    TikTok sensation Morbidly Yours, an opposites-attract romantic dramedy about a shy, demisexual Irish mortician who must marry by his 35th birthday to keep his beloved family business, and the Texan widow escaping her past who moves in next door. Falling for the wrong person? Bury your feelings. Painfully shy Callum Flannelly would rather dive into

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  • Adults’ Picture Book #1-3

    Adults’ Picture Book #1-3

    With those words, Souichiro Kudou’s life was changed forever. Suddenly, he has a four-year-old daughter named Kiki, thanks to his late friend Haruki. And it only gets more complicated when he proposes to a total stranger… Husband, lover, father, and friend—only time will tell whether Kudou can reconcile his past with Haruki and learn to

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  • Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror

    Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror

    This one took me a long time to read. Not because it was bad, but because sometimes reading one story was like being hit by a bus, and then I needed a long break before I went back to it. Horror is a reflection of the writer’s struggles, a very open dialogue about the problems

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  • The Descent

    The Descent

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    I’ve seen this one a few times, actually, so I rewatched it because I don’t think I ever saw the Descent 2 and wanted to revisit it. I remember young me, 12 years old, thinking, oh god. Juno is hot. It’s a good movie, led by an all-female cast. I love cave creature movies and

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Welcome to the Menagerie.

Here is where M logs their media activity. Partly because Goodreads is forgettable and keeping physical logs is harder. Sometimes M writes a lot. Sometimes M doesn’t write enough. It doesn’t matter. This is just a for-fun little blog so that M can remember what they thought about whatever they watched or read or played or. Whatever.


What is M?

I read. Voraciously. I have subscriptions to those book things on digital retailers. I consume books at nearly all hours. The hours I don’t spend reading? I’m writing. I’m drawing. I have a problem. I have a problem in that I love to read things that are in the same vein repeatedly. Book journals don’t work and as much as I text my friends screenshots of book passages, it doesn’t scratch the itch. Now I’m going to be doing… tiny… tiny book reports.


Truck-Kun Kill Count:


Books & Light Novels Read in 2025: 19/50
38%
Comics Read in 2026: 39/200
19%
Physical Owned Books Read: 477/830
58%


Menagerie Categories


Tagged in the Menagerie

Absolute Asshole NPC (86) A Fetish For Suffering (45) Can't Say No (67) Chekov's Gun (42) Childhood Friends (50) Curiosity Fucks You Up (76) Cursed (58) Damsel in Distress (57) Damsel in Distress (subverted) (85) Dangerous Reputation (85) Doting Husband (64) Double Identity (41) Everyone Loves MC (87) Evil Eyes & Big Heart (49) Fan Service (92) Grumpy x Sunshine (52) Hypercompetent MC (72) If You Love Them, Set Them Free (49) I Know a Guy (46) Last Minute Hero (97) Loss of Humanity (50) Main Character Coloring (69) MC's Skewed Metrics (71) Mean Boy (118) Mean Boy Love Interest (47) Modern Morals (45) Nat 20s (89) Not Actually Dead (74) Nuclear Revenge (68) OP Protag (91) Petty Revenge (44) Power of Friendship (73) Power of Love (68) Self-Sacrifice (67) Shock Value (44) Sympathetic Evil (63) The Moral is Community (60) Tragic Backstory (76) Twist! (55) Uniquely Skilled (87) Unreliable Narrator (53) Weird and Wacky On Purpose (74) Western-Style Fantasy (83) Wrong Place Wrong Time (64) Zero to Hero (77)


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