About

Hi! My name is Marin.

My favourite things would probably be cats, books, and D&D. In about that order.

I am enby (my pronouns are they/them, although I don’t really mind most pronouns), aro/ace, and neurodivergent.

I’m a bookseller, and am currently a YA/MG and Comics buyer at a bookstore in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I was a judge for the 2013 Calistro Prize (which was sadly discontinued in 2015), and would love to see more YA and Children’s fiction from Malaysian and SEA authors.

I write zines and am constantly planning them. These days I don’t have as much time to make them, but my main zines are Super Fairy Animal which is a personal zine, and Tapir Post which includes reviews and writing on books for children and young adults. (Some of those posts/reviews are also on this blog. Some of them aren’t, or will be posted here at a much later time. It depends.)

I read mostly YA fiction, fantasy, and science fiction, or some combination of the three. Oh, and comics. Lots and lots of comics.

This Blog

Not everything I read ends up on this blog. More of them end up on my instagram feed, or in my zines.

Although I tend to read what I like, and am very particular about my likes/dislikes, sometimes my reading choices get influenced by whatever I’m doing at work (generally, in the sense of reading more YA/Comics/SFF, or specifically, as in whatever I’m checking out to see if they’re worth highlighting/promoting at the store.)

I do receive ARCs and review copies through/for work, with no obligations to review them here. When I do write about these books, it’s because I really love them, or I really need to talk about them.

I usually buy new books at the store where I work, and secondhand books online. On the rare occasion, I’d buy ebooks or audiobooks if they’re on sale/a lot cheaper. I still prefer print, though.

There are no libraries where I live that has the books I’d like to read (in fact, besides the store I work in, most bookstores here do not stock my favourite books), so I’m always equal parts envious and quizzical when I see people from other countries write odes to libraries.

Things I like a lot
books, zines, postcards, music, mixtapes, button/can badges, D&D, cute things, mythology/folklore, CATS but also red pandas and foxes and tapirs and alpacas and of course more cats

Authors
Diana Wynne Jones, Megan Whalen Turner, Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison, Pamela Dean, Jo Walton, Seanan McGuire,  Kelly Thompson, Charlie Jane Anders, G. Willow Wilson, Tom Taylor, Tom King.

Books
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean and Diana Wynne Jones’ Fire & Hemlock are both my favourite books.

Diana Wynne Jones is my absolute favourite author.

I’m also in love with the Bordertown books edited by Terri Windling, the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, the Newford series by Charles de Lint, and Among Others by Jo Walton.

As a younger person I was much enamoured with The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Windup Bird Chronicle by Murakami Haruki, Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block, and Kitchen by Yoshimoto Banana – all of which made a great impact on the person I am now.