All posts tagged: Gray

Hawk & Sparrow by Ayana Gray

Hawk & Sparrow by Ayana Gray

Published by Jenni Sidey

An inventor unveils a wooden box on a museum stage. Type in a prompt, flip a switch, and a ribbon of paper comes out with a magic spell printed on it. Anyone can read it aloud. Anyone at all. In the audience, a sorcerer who has spent nine years learning that language watches a man who has spent none of them conjure a dragon out of the room’s candle flames, and his face does something complicated. Two hours later the inventor is dead in a hedge maze. Hawk & Sparrow by Ayana Gray opens with one of the sharpest premises in this year’s young adult fantasy, and then spends three hundred pages deciding what to do with it. Where Hawk & Sparrow Sits on Ayana Gray’s Shelf Gray built her name on the Beasts of Prey trilogy, then wrote I, Medusa for adults. This is a different animal from either: a Gilded Age secondary world, a locked-city murder, a fake courtship, and a heroine who solves things by noticing them. The comparison most readers will …

Patton Oswalt hates slop bowls, too: “It is all one gray, savory glop”

Patton Oswalt hates slop bowls, too: “It is all one gray, savory glop”

Published by Sam Flores

Every foodie, regardless of how adventurous their palate may be, has to draw the line, eventually. For Patton Oswalt, it’s at slop bowls, an Internet slang term used to describe fast-casual meals that emphasize efficiency rather than flavor or any soul. Think of your typical greens-and-grains bowls or your go-to Chipotle order for corporate work lunches. In anticipation of his 11th stand-up comedy special, “Tea & Scotch,” Oswalt appeared on Delish’s “SNACKS!” to discuss all things food and cravings. It was during the show’s “Snack Attack” segment when Oswalt dissed on food bowls, specifically calling out KFC for kick-starting such a heinous eating trend. He pointed to the chain’s Famous Bowls — a particular food item he’s bashed not once but multiple times — which lump together mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet corn, chicken nuggets and a shredded cheese blend in a plastic bowl. “You would think that a human being with a shred of dignity would recoil from this thing,” Oswalt said. “And now, it turns out I was wrong and Yum! Brands was …

What is ‘gray rocking’? How it could help you get through the festive season

What is ‘gray rocking’? How it could help you get through the festive season

Published by Daniella Wilson

While the festive season often brings joy, it can also present the unique challenge of navigating tense family gatherings. Many grapple with how to handle relatives who are “intrusive or trigger me or say things that are abusive,” notes Mark Rapaport, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. To defuse such stressful dynamics, some employ a strategy known as “gray rocking.” This technique involves acting “boring, like a gray rock,” explains Maryland-based clinical psychologist Samantha Whiten, aiming to “not give difficult people any potential ammunition.” Experts suggest this could be a smart way to survive the holiday season. open image in gallery Not all Christmas gatherings are smooth-sailing – here’s a technique that might help (Getty/iStock) When it can be helpful The gray rock method is perhaps best known as a tool for managing interactions with narcissistic, manipulative or otherwise toxic individuals. But it doesn’t have to be so extreme. It can be deployed “in any situation where you are trying to minimize conflict with somebody who you have to interact with,” Whiten said. When gray …

I Medusa by Ayana Gray

I Medusa by Ayana Gray

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Ayana Gray’s adult debut, “I, Medusa”, transforms one of mythology’s most misunderstood figures into a fully realized young woman navigating divine politics, systemic power, and her own agency in a world designed to silence her. This reimagining of the Medusa myth doesn’t simply retell an old story—it excavates the humanity buried beneath centuries of mischaracterization, offering readers a protagonist who evolves from earnest acolyte to reluctant vigilante to something more complex than either role allows. A Voice Rising from the Margins “I, Medusa” by Ayana Gray opens on a nameless island where seventeen-year-old Meddy lives as the only mortal among her immortal family. Gray immediately establishes the central tension that will drive the entire narrative: the peculiar isolation of being different even among those who should understand you. Meddy’s parents, minor sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, and her two immortal sisters, Stheno and Euryale, represent a family unit fractured by the unspoken question of why one child was born mortal while the others weren’t. This mortal status becomes both Meddy’s greatest vulnerability and her defining …