books

<p>Pride City is a small isolated group in the Metro 2033 universe that existed in the surface territory of the Moscow Region. The faction appears exclusively in Andrey Grebenshchikov’s novel Metro 2033: Sisters of Sorrow. It is a community built on the principles of radical homosexuality.</p><p>The organization was formed after 2013 (after the nuclear war). The members of the community settled in a two-story supermarket building on a hill near the Moscow Region village of Donino.</p><p>Society and Daily Life</p><p>Almost nothing is known about the internal structure of this community, except for a few details.</p><p><p>Encounter with outsiders: The hosts persistently offer any arriving traveler a “free democratic choice.” A tray is brought out with a jar of Vaseline (a symbol of entering into sexual relations with members of the community) and a small bottle of poison (death).</p><br><p>Manner of speech: Representatives of the faction behave in an exaggeratedly mannered way and speak in falsetto. However, at the slightest disobedience, they instantly resort to using weapons.</p></p><p>Appearance and Armament</p><p>The inhabitants of the faction have a hypertrophied, provocative appearance:</p><p>Clothing: They wear shiny shorts, tights, high-platform shoes, vests with beads worn over bare skin, and decorative feathers inserted into elements of their clothing.<br>Makeup: They actively use women’s cosmetics, painting their eyes with mascara and blue glitter eyeshadow.<br>Security: The fighters and sentries are clad in tight black leather. Despite their caricatured appearance, the faction is well armed with melee weapons and rifles, and maintains a stationary machine-gun position on the roof near the flagpole.</p><p>Role in the Plot</p><p>In February 2033, the novel’s main characters were passing by a shopping center. Deciding to inspect the building, they entered and encountered a delegation of five people led by an unnamed, heavily made-up leader.</p><p>After receiving the traditional ultimatum (“lubricant or poison”), the characters responded with a sharp refusal and opened fire. In the short and bloody battle in the lobby, the heroes completely eliminated the entire delegation from Pride City and their guards. When the characters tried to escape, a machine gunner on the roof opened fire on them, but the protagonists managed to get away.</p>

<p>Lots of emotion with this one.</p><p>Right off the bat, I love Stephen King and IT is my fav book of all time. I prefer his stories to go as batshit crazy as they can and this has been delivered with books like IT and Misery and Pet Sematary but then there are his other works, like 11/22/63 and Hearts in Atlantis which seem to be much more grounded and calm because their main focus is just normal people.</p><p>So can Stephen King tell a good story when there’s no undead pets or clown monsters? Absolutely. Hearts in Atlantis is a solution of five stories taking place from the 60s to &#x27;99 that are interconnected to some degree.</p><p>It would be worth it to talk about those different stories in detail but I don’t wanna give away the discovery aspect of this book though I will say that I probably liked the first story most since it had that little children dealing with magic sort of charm which was very reminiscent of IT. Even had an old man wanting to give a suckjob to a kid so it was very similiar (Poor Eddie)</p><p>Other stories are more focused on Vietnam and the American war there. I’ll admit, I don’t know much about that part of history, I’m not from any western country and you just don’t read about stuff like that in schools. I think I picked it up casually through years of just reading books</p><p>Anyways, that whole Vietnam experience is here. We get to be there, running away from the heat of fire, camping and being drunk, and then back home trying to adjust to a normal life and trying somehow to forget and be forgiven for all the bad things we did there while trying to live a normal life. It’s presented very well though I will say some of the stories do get a little too smart-ass sometimes. It’s not something I would take out of the book but it is a little immersion breaking when you feel a character making a pointed speech about something that reads like a statement by the author.</p><p>Overral, I gave this book a solid 4 out of 5 and I think it has honestly helped me come to terms with King’s more “normal people” books. I had tried to read 11/22/63 but gave up because I was sort of expecting something more edgy but I think I’m ready to make peace with it after Hearts in Atlantis</p>