Okay, enough of my friends have now asked me about Blood Heir that I’ve decided it’s worth posting about. Pray for me. A few days ago, I saw an author on my TL, LL McKinney, criticizing an ARC she had read, a secondary-world fantasy YA debut called Blood Heir, by Amelie Wen Zhao. She initially identified the book as a problem based on its description including the phrase “oppression is blind to skin color”; later, she read through the book and tweeted about elements that played into racial stereotypes, such as a black character dying to further the emotional arc…
Leave a CommentCategory: Misc.
I read two whole horror novels in 2018, and they were both extremely ableist. WYD, horror authors?
Leave a CommentSo I saw a headline about how we should read books that offend us, and I thought “wow that content is almost certainly going to annoy me, I should not click it.” Reader, I clicked it. The author, Brian Morton, and I agree on a lot, including the idea that books may contain offensive stuff (the example he uses is Edith Wharton’s anti-Semitism) at the same time they also contain beautiful writing and paradigm-shifting insight. We agree that the morality Overton window is constantly changing, and what seems okay in one social context can seem horrifyingly immoral in another social…
Leave a CommentIt’s the best kind of day: Black Sails recap day! I’m over at Lady Business recapping Season 1, Episode 4 of Black Sails in my Sailing the High Squees column with Lady Business editor Jodie. Hop over and check it out! Watch Black Sails if you don’t already!
Leave a CommentHappy Monday, friends! We’re gearing up for another doozy of a political week, but I’m over at Lady Business this week with my new column for The YA Agenda. Check out all the new releases I’m excited for in September, plus an interview with A Blade So Black author L. L. McKinney!
Leave a CommentMy wonderful friend Alice recently was excavating the origins of our friendship (we have been friends for six years!), and she found an email from me where I described my reading like this: The, uh, the really really trashy kind of trashy romance novels. Where everyone is called Alexandra and Gareth, and they cause a scandal and a hissing by making out in the arboretum and then Gareth is like, “Darling, why do you care what the cats at Almack’s say of you? Let’s make love all day in my decadently decorated bedroom!” and Alexandra is like, “And the men…
Leave a CommentSo, over on Twitter dot com recently, Hannah Moskowitz wrote a very smart thread about how publishing should oughta take some lessons from fanfic. And then Max Gladstone wrote an also very smart thread in response to say that mainstream publishing maybe already does take those lessons. And then a bunch more people said a bunch more things about fanfiction and genre fiction and literary fiction; and my friend Maureen (she blogs at By Singing Light and is the best!) and I decided to sit down and thrash it all out. (The title is a joke. We don’t really crack…
2 CommentsHi friends! It’s Tuesday, and I’m over at Lady Business recapping the second episode of the greatest TV show in the world, Black Sails. Stop on by and let me know if you agree with my assessment of Eleanor Guthrie’s true love situation. Or if you haven’t watched Black Sails, my God, please watch Black Sails.
1 CommentSo one of my reading resolutions for 2018 was to read more SFF short stories, with the goal of finding a total of three stories that I really love and want to advocate for. As of this writing, I have read nine SFF short stories, which already is way more than I have ever read in a previous year. I will assume that you are duly impressed. Six of these (shut up) have come from the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017, edited by Charles Yu. I have no apologies to make. I didn’t say I’d be reading all…
7 CommentsI have been seeing a lot of sadness and anxiety in the blogosphere lately; lots of people posting that they’re struggling to find motivation and time to read or post or go blog-hopping. And on one hand, I’ve been doing this for A DECADE and that just seems to be part of the natural cycle of blogging, to have times where you want to prioritize it more and times when you want to prioritize it less or maybe even step away. On the other hand, I suspect that the same is true for other bloggers as is true for me,…
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