Visual Novels

Overtime

creator: madhu
genre: BL, Zombie Apocalypse
year: 2025
status: ☑
time of reading: 10/09/25
rating:

Short and sweet! The pacing was great and I loved the dynamic between the two characters! Absolutely love the art style, too. It only took me about 40 minutes to get through the whole thing, even with re-playing and picking other options.

You can get it for free on madhu's itch !

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Misericorde

creator: madhu
genre: GL, Murder Mystery
year: 2025
status: ☐
time of reading: 26-08-25
rating: -

Been having people recomment this visual novel to me for quite some time, and finally decided to get on it! I can see why they've been pushing me to read it. It's great so far. It follows the story of an Anchoress in a monastery, locked in a cell to devote her entire life to God. Until one day, there is a murder in the monastery. As the only person in the monastery who could not possibly have comitted the crime, the Superior puts her trust in the anchoress to help solve the mystery. It's very very engaging so far and I'm really enjoying the characters. Also, there is an Irish character, yay!

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Ooe (大穢)

creator: ADELTA
genre: BL, Murder Mystery, Psychological Horror
year: 2011
status: ☑
time of reading: 05-05-25 - 07-09-5
rating:

Oh man what can I say... I need to make a big, long blog post about this one I think. This was my first time playing one of Adelta's games (despite having Hashihime sitting on my desktop for 3 years... sorry Hashihime!) and there was so much hype coming up to its release, it did not disappoint!

I first got into visual novels in the late 2000s and early 2010s. My introduction to vns were games like Higurashi, Umineko, and 999; mysteries that slowly unravel the more you play through each route. So Ooe was right up my alley. I really, really enjoyed playing through each route and uncovering more of the mystery and learning more about each character. Amazing artwork, voice acting, and characters. I enjoyed some more than others, but I liked every single route!

Favourite route: My favourite route story-wise was definitely Ariake B. It was an incredible introduction to the story, and to the main character. In terms of romance, though, Shimbashi stole my heart. I'm always 100% absolutely weak to tsunderes. Not only a tsundere, but a crybaby tsundere. He's perfect. But I have to mention Takeshiba as well, another favourite route of mine. If it was any other game, Takeshiba would be my favourite character by miles, but the competition in Ooe is too fierce. But I adore him!!!

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Malcatra's Maiden

creator: Nadia Nova
genre: GL, Drama
year: 2024
status: ☑
time of reading: November 2024
rating:

Some good indie transgender toxic yuri! I really enjoyed this! The sprites were super cute, I loved the animations and art style. This is an eroge, so it has some (really good!) ero scenes, too.

This vn is a short but heavy hitting depiction of grooming, manipulation, abuse, and trying to break the cycle. I really like when a visual novel leaves me with a gut wrenching sense of despair, and this didn't impact me as much as some other titles I've read, but I still felt that twisting sensation in my gut after completion. I don't want to say too much and spoil the ending; it's a short visual novel so I'd recommend checking it out yourself if interested!

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soundless - A MODERN SALEM IN REMOTE AREA -

studio: milk+visual
genre: Denpa, Horror
year: 2017
status: ☑
finished: 9-10-24
rating:

During the summer, I started work on my visual novel, and I began development in September as part of my final year uni project. When talking to a friend about my VN, they told me it reminded them of this, so I immediately read it. Luckily it is not so similar to Seraph Syndrome that it would make me paranoid lol. It's a fantastic visual novel, and completely free, which is crazy! It's a denpa visual novel about a young girl named Mercy, isolated and relentlessly bullied within her extremely religious village. I wish it had been a little bit more... idk, intense, extreme maybe is the word I'm looking for? I like to feel a pit in my stomach when reading vns like this, I love vns that make me feel dread and despair, and this didn't quiiite hit it as much as other vns within the genre. But overall it was very compelling and was a great read! It's very short (like 4 hours maybe?) and totally free so absolutely check it out!

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Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ↺

author: Ryukishi07
genre: Psychological Horror, Mystery
year: 2002
status: ☑
time of completion: June 2024
rating:

I re-visited Higurashi this year. I hadn't read it since 2009/2010, and have read a lot of VNs since then, so I was curious to see if Higurashi and Umineko would still be my favourites, and decided to re-read them both. Now, over a decade later, it's still peak fiction. I cried so many times. I was very young when I first got into Higurashi, and Mion was my favourite character - and she still is even after coming back to it all these years later. I loved Rena before, but definitely have a greater appreciation for her now, too. Takano's story also made me cry this time around. Ryukishi's ability to make you feel for and empathise with characters who are the "villains" of the story, and who do terrible things, it's just incredible. I could talk and talk about his works for hours so I'll keep this short. But I think absolutely every visual novel fan needs to read Higurashi and Umineko.

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Shingakkou -Noli me tangere-

studio: pil/slash
genre: BL, Horror, Mystery
year: 2024, 2025
status: ☑
time of reading: April-May 2024
rating:

Obsessed with this vn. I couldn't stop reading once I picked it up. My gf bought it while we were in Japan, and I decided to pick it up and play it one week while she was away. I just spent all day every day reading it forgetting to eat. I loved it! I loved the characters, even the side characters you couldn't romance were great. Great art, interesting plot, loved the setting. Neil and Leonid's romance routes were my favourite, but you get to the real meat of the story when you unlock Father August's route! It was devastating. I cried a few times playing this vn (Leonid's made me cry just because of how sweet and romantic it was...) but Father August made me cry the most. Also I really like Neil and have decided he is Irish.

One amazing thing about this visual novel: You can choose who tops/who bottoms! I really wish more vns would do this, I enjoyed seeing the H-scenes in two different ways for each character! And I LOVED making those older men bottom. Absolute genius.

Favourite route: Leonid. 100%. He's my princess and I adore him. I'm weak to a princely but flawed, kinda tsundere character like him. The romance between him and Michael was so, so sweet. But in terms of writing, I really loved Father August's route too!! An absolute punch in the gut. Loved it.

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Paradise

studio: pil/slash
genre: BL, thriller
year: 2017
status: ☑
time of reading: March 2024
rating:

This visual novel was interesting... Some of the routes were stronger than others. I wasn't suuuuper invested in the mystery and I predicted the twist pretty early on. Some of the bad ends weren't that enjoyable too. I love a good fucked up bad end in BL, but idk, these didn't hit it for me. Maybe cuz I didn't think the guys were particularly hot. But I enjoyed the ride! Mitsugi and Matsuda were definitely the best routes. Mitsugi is a tsundere so, of course, he was my fav. I loved Matsuda... At first. He was CRAZY hot at first, and his dirty talk....... omfg me and my gf were screaming reading it. But well. Spoilers: The way he just started like. Beating the shit out of Azuma. Who already has gone through a rough life and endured horrible abuse. It wasn't really fun to watch. It's be one thing if it was something more erotic, like slapping or biting. Or if it was something possessive, like leaving bruises to mark him as a possession or breaking a limb or injuring him so he couldn't escape/would have to rely on Matsuda. That's the kind of toxic abuse I can get behind. Or even if the fights were mutual and they beat each other up. But idk... Matsuda just like beating him up and punching Azuma, and him not fighting back. I wasn't really feeling it. The writing kinda fell off at places for me, but it was still a super fun read! Despite it all Matsuda is still my 2nd fav and I do really like him. Not my fav BLVN, but definitely worth the read!

Favourite route: Mitsugi, 100%. I love a good tsundere. Even though he was a dickhead to Azuma, his way of showing he cares was really sweet. I especially loved him when playing the fandisc! For starters, his ponytail was very cute and I didn't have to see his mfing forehead. It was cute seeing his POV and seeing him freaking out and instantly having a crush on Azuma and not knowing how to deal with it. And their life together is so domestic and he takes such good care of Azuma. Poor Azuma had such a rough life, it's what he deserves!

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Gore Screaming Show

studio: Black Cyc
genre: Eroguro, Horror
year: 2006
status: ☑
time of reading: 2020-2024
rating:

So I read Kiika and Aoi's routes back in 2020, but didn't finish the game. But in November 2022, MangaGamer released an English translation, so I finally decided to re-visit and finish it! Really, really enjoyed this one! The scenario writer - Kusaka Matsuri - works a lot with BL games. Noteably, she was the scenario writer for Shingakkou, Masquerade, and Bara no Ki. But she also has worked a lot on Cyc and Black Cyc titles! I really enjoy her character writing. I absolutely love the main character for this vn, Kyouji. Usually, eroge main characters are.. Not bad, but lacking personality. Or they can be a little mean or apathetic, and often rapists lol. Which is fine, because honestly when I'm playing this kind of game, I'm not here for the guy - I'm here for the anime girls. And it's an eroge, it's just their nature, and isn't a bad thing. Kyouji, however, is a nice change of pace! He's kinda an edgy 2000s emo boy? But with a good heart. He genuinely cares for the girls and sticks up for them. He's a little metalhead who takes girls on dates to the heavy metal café, which for some reason exists in this small town, and collects kaiju figurines. I like him!

The story is great too! I loved the relationship between Aoi and Akane, it was a little more complex than one would expect from a game like this. Akane is an energetic, confident, tomboyish girl. Aoi is quiet, reserved, and has truble standing up for herself. While they seem like good friends at a glance, their relationship is a pretty realistic depiction of a more confident girl keeping around a more gloomy, quiet girl to feel better about herself. It was interesting to hear Aoi talk about her resentment of Akane and her gripes about their relationship.

I also really, really loved Yamiko!! I liked her story and her relationship with Yuka a lot. Also, bisexual queen? Wasn't expecting this story to be queer like that but it was a nice surprise! Spoilers but, I wish Yuka got to grow up and age normally alongside Yamiko so they could have gotten together. There is gore and poop and piss but also it's a rly great story about growing up, overcoming trauma, how destructive it is to yourself and those around you to spend your life dwelling on the pain of the past... game of the year

Favourite route: Maybe it's because of my catholic upbringing, but Kiika's route really resonated with me. I think Aoi is the best match for Kyouji romance wise, but Kiika's story was the best. Kiika is a girl who learns early in her life that she can masturbate, that sex feels good. Normal stuff for a kid exploring themself and their body. But she is made to feel a deep shame around her sexuality and her desires, has trauma surrounding sexual acts and masturbation from it, and her story is about her coming to terms with it. I really liked how the subject was tackled, for an eroguro game like this I was pleasantly surprised! Her sex scene with Kyouji was really sweet!

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Go For A Punch! Saki Sanobashi

creator: Veratrum
genre: Horror
year: 2023
status: ☑
time of reading: 27-01-24
rating:

short vn (like 40 mins) based on the famous Saki Sanobashi 'lost media'. love the character designs especially for saki and sayuri. every time youd hear about the go for a punch lost media youre like "damn, i wish this was real". and now it is! creepy, atmospheric vn that doesn't take long to read. i liked it!!

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Film & TV

I watch a LOT of movies, and won't log them all here. Check out my letterboxd!

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Rebecca

genre: Mystery, Thriller, Romance
year: 1940
date watched: 10-09-25
rating:

When I find myself struggling for something to watch, I often just put on a Hitchcock movie. Rebecca was one I had never actually seen before, so I decided to watch it, and wow! HOW did this man put out so many bangers. I loved it. Love a good character who is dead from the beginning but continues to haunt the narrative. A large mansion with lots of maids harbouring secrets and acting suspicious. A young woman thrown into an unfamiliar situation and being forced to live a new life and live up to expectations she just can not match. I was really inspired after watching this film and was frantically writing down ideas for a visual novel while watching it. After I finish Seraph Syndrome, my next work will probably be based on this film!

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Inland Empire ↺

genre: Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Fantasy
year: 2006
date watched: 31-08-25
rating:

Another Lynch film I haven't seen in about 8 years, which I got to see on the big screen this time! What an absolute NIGHTMARE of a film. The first time I watched this movie I was. Extremely confused, such is the average Inland Empire experience. But this time around, I think I came to a much better understanding of the film. I had a lot of thoughts after it, which I won't write downhere (maybe some day in a larger blog post), but my girlfriend had to hear all about it.

Such a good experience catching this in the cinema. It's a horrific, claustrophobic nightmare and I was totally immersed it. Laura Dern is fantastic. If someone was filming me at all those crazy angles I think I would kill them. Also, that jumpscare at the end!! It still gets me so fucking bad. So ahead of its time. Between that and the eerie visuals, analog horror creators in the 2020s WISH they could achieve what Lynch did in 2006! What a film. Really nothing else like it.

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Boxing Helena

genre: Romance, Thriller, Drama
year: 1993
date watched: 22-08-25
rating:

I love watching movies that are famously not that good and weird, and seeing this was directed by Jennifer Lynch (daughter of David Lynch) and starring Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey from Twin Peaks), I had to check it out. I kind of loved it?

The acting and dialogue was so strange. people were talking like Fallout NPCs. objectively not a great movie but I sure had a fun time watching it !

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Weapons

genre: Horror, Comedy
year: 2025
date watched: 11-08-25
rating:

absolute caca doodoo

where to begin. i was just so bored throughout a lot of the film. i didn't notice i was doing it but my gf told me i kept sighing during it. Did not take itself seriously enough to be a creepy or engaging horror, was too obvious and did not have enough intrigue to be a mystery, and so unfunny it didn't work as a comedy either. Characters too uninteresting for it to work as a character drama.

Positive points:

• - I liked the characters of Justine and Archer! I liked them individually, and also liked how their storylines connected and how their opinions of one another shifted and they started working together.
• - A lot of the horror was poorly executed, but one thing i did like were the shots of the house door quietly opening. loved how quiet those moments were. watching the woman come out of the house and walk straight towards Justine's car and open her door with no loud audio stings or music, just heading directly for her, it was creepy! One of the few suspenseful moments in the movie.
• - I liked James' character even if his segment fell flat and his character ended up being redundant. His line delivery was great.

Negative points:

• - Boring.
• - I had really hoped it would be a little more brutal, gruesome, or shocking. Very few scary, tense, or even emotional scenes.
• - One of the few brutal scenes in the film involved the only gay characters; a pretty long scene of man brutally killing his husband after being possessed. The tone leading up to this attempted to be pretty light and comedic too, which made it seem even more distasteful. Honestly did not feel good to watch at all. When a character in Barbarian dropped the F slur, it was pretty clear he was an asshole character so I just laughed and didn't think much of it. But combined with this, I have to wonder, will this be a pattern? What was the reason for this? Maybe I'm tinfoil hatting, but still. The fact the scenes in which they are together seemed to be portrayed as one big joke, and their death scenes were the most gruesome in the entire film - even more gruesome than the main antagonist - is pretty eyebrow raising!! It left a bad taste in my mouth for the entire rest of the film. I watch a lot of questionable and exploitative horror films with sloppy or offensive handling of gay characters, but can enjoy them despite their flaws. But for a large studio film in the year 2025, I don't think it's acceptable.
• - This movie was just goofy (negative). The scene at the end where Gladys was being chased by the kids just made me roll my eyes. Tried to be funny, but just fell so flat. Again, Gladys death scene was just not shocking or gruesome enough. I was just watching it happen and sighing. It felt like the most predictable, American movie ending ever - the good guys get guns and they kill the bad guys and they save all the kids, who are Fine btw! No dead children, everybody plz clap.
• - I think I had been hoping for a movie that took itself a little bit more seriously. When broaching the subject of missing children in a small community, there is so much grief and fear to be dealt with. We didn’t see any of this. It spent more time on interpersonal drama of characters connected to the events - clearly an intentional choice - but it just was not done well. When I think of an example of what I assume this movie was trying to achieve, I think of Twin Peaks; Laura is dead from the beginning. We watch the whole town grieve as they learn of the tragedy that has taken place. Laura haunts the narrative, but the world doesn't stop just because she is dead. The characters are still going through their own interpersonal dramas; affairs, shady business dealings, family issues, abuse. Sometimes selfishly directing attention away from Laura and to themselves instead. I think this may have been the angle Weapons was going for? Albeit a more comedic approach. This horrible tragic event has happened, but for everyone else, life must go on; it has to. In practice, though, it made for quite a boring watch. This wasn't a TV show with 40 minute episodes, it was a 2 hour movie where we had 5 characters to get to know and a very short amount of time dedicated to each. Paul and James could have been cut out entirely and it would not have made much of a difference. Paul's segment was not very engaging, and while I enjoyed James', it would have made no difference if it was completely cut.
• - The premise sounded so good, I was so disappointed by the lack of mystery and intrigue. I was hoping to see some of the first few moments of a community coming together realising something is horrifically wrong and the intense emotions that would come with it; the paranoia, fear, grief, helplessness. My excitement deflated pretty much straight after the opening monologue when we instead cut straight to 30 days later where the community has already reached Angry Mob stage. All these children mysteriously vanished and the initial emotional impact of such an event is just not touched on. So as an audience, we just. Do not care.
• - So much handholding. We really don't need characters explaining exactly what's going on all the time in detail. We don't need to much exposition to fluff up the movie. Again, left for very little intrigue. When it hits those infodumping scenes it becomes really boring.
• - The horror, for the most part, just wasn't there. So the story is a dark fairytale; a witch is losing her power and, like a parasite, must feed on others to survive. She tried using Alex's parents but it wasn't working. So why didn't we see this visually? Why wasn't she rotting or decaying? There is much to say about Gladys, hagsploitation, and the treatment of aging women in horror, which would take too much time to go into right now. But I think just having her look like a regular old woman with bad makeup rather than more of a decaying corpse or monstrous entity was a poor choice. The movie remained pretty comedic throughout, would it not have been cool to have her rotting with flesh peeling off her like in Peter Jackson's Braindead, and having her try to desperately cover it up with makeup? And then underneath, you have a more gruesome appearance that could lend to the horror scenes? It could have been pushed much further and been much more gross. Having a movie that says "Haha look at this disgusting old bald woman with bad and weird makeup" in the year 2025, again, it's just distasteful. It's dated.
• - Again, the film's premise is that of a Hansel & Gretel like dark fairytale. From the point of view of a helpless child, Alex's situation is absolutely terrifying: This strange woman he does not know, he isn't even sure if his parents know her, becomes a part of his household. He is immediately uncomfortable with the idea but as a child he is powerless to do anything. His parents become vegetables and Gladys can, at whim, make them turn on him or each other. He has to go to school and pretend everything is normal while at home he is living a nightmare. In concept it's truly horrifying, but in practice, once again, it was just so flat. Zero suspense, zero horror, zero emotional impact.

idk i could say a lot more but , in short 👎 It feels deeply conservative and I did not like it.

Read Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu for a similar concept and a much better time!

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Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me ↺

genre: Horror, Drama
year: 1992
date watched: 06/08/25
rating:

This was my first time watching this movie in 8 years. I got my girlfriend to watch Twin Peaks for the first time during the year, and our local cinema was showing a lot of Lynch's works after his passing, so we were lucky to catch this in the cinema!

This movie is just absolutely devastating. I'd love to write more in detail on it some time. The performances are amazing. Laura is such a brilliant, tragic character. I was tearing up in the cinema, I could hear people behind me crying. Just an absolutely gut wrenching film. I love it, I love Twin Peaks, I love Laura Palmer.

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ANIME

I watch a lot of anime, and won't log them all here. Check out my anime list!

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Dungeon Meshi

studio: Trigger
genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy
year: 2024
status: ☑
watched: January-June 2024
rating:

Nice adaptation!! The animation and soundtrack were great! Loved the voice acting too, Falin's voice especially was very cute. Looking forward to the next season so I can see Kabru and Mithrun's adventure <3

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Mignon (ONA)

studio: ABJ COMPANY
genre: BL, Drama, Vampires
year: 2023
status: ☑
watched: June 2024
rating:

The way I came across this animation was really funny... So I go to a physio to get massages sometimes for back pain. First time I went, the girl at reception had a Berserk necklace, so we talked about Berserk for a bit. And then she asked me if I had seen Mignon. I said no. She wrote the name down for me on a piece of paper and gave it to me to make sure I would watch it. Showed me her phone wallpaper and it was the two guys from Mignon getting sloppy with each other. She tried to show me where I could watch it and started writing on paper again "myreadingm-" and I was like girl don't worry I am WELL acquainted with that website LMAO.

Korean webtoons really aren't my thing when it comes to BL, it's very rare I'd read them, but for the Fujoshi Receptionist, I had to watch it.

It was, as expected, not really my thing, but it was good! I enjoyed watching it and also that the entire last episode was just a sex scene. We were watching it on our big TV in the living room with friends in the middle of the day and some guy laughed walking past our window LOL. So yeah I had fun, 3 stars.

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Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

studio: Satelight
genre: BL, Comedy
year: 2024
status: ☑
watched: Jan-March 2024.
rating:

If Cherry Magic has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Cherry Magic has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Cherry Magic has only one fan then that is me. If Cherry Magic has no fans, then that means I am DEAD.

I've already read the manga like 4 times, and watched the live action, but they released an anime so of course I'm watching that shit again, idc. They could do what Todd Howard does with Skyrim and just keep releasing Cherry Magic in different ways and I would be there.

The anime adaptation was fine! It was a bit wonky at times and, of course, they cut out all the sex scenes. But it was nice to watch every week! And I really loved Adachi's voice actor! And the fact they drew Adachi with cute lashes all the time was very cute. They could have like hand drawn this thing on napkins in ballpoint pen and edited it together to make an animation and I still would have watched it. I luv Cherry Magic.

MANGA

I read a lot of manga, and won't log them all here. Check out my manga list!

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MANGATITLE

author: Niyama
genre: Ask And You Will Receive
year: 2019-Present
status: ☐
date caught up: 29-09-24
rating:

I. Love. This manga. I love a sexy suave seme who looks like Jotaro Kujo. I love a princely, smug uke who thinks he's better than everyone else. The pairing is so good. The sex scenes are great, the art is wonderful, I LOVE the dynamic between the couple, I love the set up. I read this cuz I had downloaded it for my flights to/from Japan. I read it on my flight home and loved it so much but was going absolutely INSANE because the third volume JUST DROPPED while we were there. I only had 2 volumes downloaded. I literally could have got it there to see what happened next. I was yelling at my gf like WE HAVE TO TURN THIS PLANE AROUND!!! You could literally SEE The cover of volume 3 in the shops in some of the photos from our trip!!! AUGH!!!

It's getting released in English now thankfully, so I will SOON read vol 3... it'll happen...

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Dungeon Meshi

author: Ryouko Kui
genre: Seinen
year:
status: ☑
date completed: 29-03-25
rating:

💭izutsumi

Books

Fluids

author: May Leitz
genre: Horror, Splatterpunk, LGBT
year: 2022
status: ☑
finished: 29-09-24 rating:

This book was recommended to me by my gf! It's an extreme horror novel about two very lonely and fucked up girls finding companionship in each other. loved it!! those lesbians were so fucked up. "if you are trans you have to live" even if you are the worst woman ever. There was one particularly gnarly scene which really stood out to me. Great depiction of gore and violence, interesting characters with a nice and fucked up, unhealthy dynamic.

Games

Favourites

VISUAL NOVELS

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FILMS

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ANIME

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MANGA

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GAMES

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