So hey! I’ve been tagged for this so this will be fun to do! I hope you enjoy my answers and feel free to do it yourself! Don’t forget to check out these books if they’ve interested you (for better or for worse).
The Rules
- Please link back to the original creator of the tag & graphics, Bookish Things and Tea.
- Answer the following Animal Crossing-themed book questions.
- Feel free to use graphics, but be sure to credit Bookish Things and Tea.
- Tag some friends to spread the love!
I’ve been reading a fair amount of classic books lately but one thing that’s been on my radar for some time is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I hadn’t realized there was a new Netflix movie. Truthfully, I’m not too keen on it and it’s really not why I want to read it. I’ve always been interested in it because of its influence in gothic and horror novels. Although I’ve heard people mention it’s possible that LGBTQ+ subtext was in it, really, I’d just want to read about the classics in the Gothic and murder mystery. I might end up watching the movie anyway, but we’ll see if and when that’ll happen.
Maybe it’s because it’s a recent read, but Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! by Ameko Kaeruda (Volume Two) is something that I not only read right after reading the first one. For a light novel, this one is just as refreshing as the first one. But I did like this a bit more because it made it seem that the characters became more than just frustrated audience proxies. This explored the past of one of the main characters in a way that I liked. Still, though, there are still a lot of flaws that readers of the first volume may not like, but… I just liked it a lot.
Though they traveled around for the majority of the book, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton takes place in the 1970s and even “current” (2016) New York City. The book is about musicians and though they travel and go away, at least they come back to New York for the important scenes. It’s also important to realize that this book is just as much historical as it is musical or in reference to pop culture. I’ve been to New York City a handful of times so “seeing” the same locations (or even well-known locations) in these characters’ eyes and how the culture stood… It’s interesting and wonderful how New York City continues to be a living and breathing historical site.
I’ve only read it early in 2023, but I still can’t stop thinking about She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran. Mostly, it’s this book that helped cement that I love haunted houses and gothic fiction could be written in any era; gothic fiction is usually written for the white reader by white authors so reading something (as a non-white person) by an Asian author made me really think about more into my craft and whose tragedies I’m reading about. For me, it’s slow but it’s the slow burn that adds to its horror and to its sadness and anger. An important point to always remember about the Gothic: you’re reading someone’s tragedies and often, trauma can lie too close to the reader. Especially if it’s another non-white culture, I could easily find myself there too. And that’s important to me as a reader and writer.
There’s a book that I can turn to at any time I feel an empty void. Any time I feel like there’s no love for historical romance or any time I feel like historical fiction has been up to snuff for me. It’s a classic at this point, but The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a reminder to me. It’s a reminder that historical fiction could just be facts on a page with names of people from the past (or myths) but it reminds me of what else it could be. A tragic romance but with the present and modern vernacular to yearn for the future to be better. It hurts deeply to read and while I haven’t re-read yet, it hurts me every time I think of it. But it reminds me that the hurt came from beautiful in the first place. And I push myself to look for books (and to write books) that emit this sort of love and care.
I couldn’t express this well enough in my original review, but Sadie by Courtney Summers paints every character with enough nuance and understanding that makes this feel more non-fiction. Even the podcaster got the chance to be as nuanced as possible. It’s hard not to consider how complicated this story is; while Sadie is not a bad person entirely, we follow her purposefully and intentionally ruining certain people’s lives (but also saving them in her way) while looking for her sister’s killer. In truth, this isn’t an easy story to read and I’m sure it wasn’t an easy one to write. Regardless, as far as my own personal taste goes, this book is perfect for regarding characters who were considered “bad” but ended up doing more good and vice versa.
Another recent read, but every time I think about it… genuinely, I never want to think about The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix ever again. I was always on the fence as it is with Grady’s novels; I really wanted to believe that it will get better. Maybe I’m just reading the “wrong” novels or maybe, since I’m such a mood reader, I need to be in a better mood. But this novel has everything that I didn’t like with the added bonus of “Magical Black Person” and a very humiliating death of a gay character. Genuinely, I hate everything that this author did everything he could to put me off, specifically. And I know he doesn’t know I exist but man this book was extremely crass and horrifying in the wrong way.
Another recent read, but it’s something that I’m especially glad I finished. Before We Disappear by Shaun David Hutchison was a fun read to be sure, but it was on my currently read list for quite a bit. Truthfully, I’m always afraid to read historical fiction based in America. Granted, the two main characters are white and queer — this book was definitely meant to be a queer fantasy. But when there’s a speaking Black queer character, I was so scared that I put it down. So many death flags were raised for her; I wasn’t too worried about the two white characters… But I’m glad I finished it. I wish I had this when I was younger but it also made me interested in the actual 1909 Seattle World Faire — which is a time in history that wasn’t explored all that much in the schools I’ve been to. Sometimes though, you just want queer joy at the Seattle World Faire.
Tagging…
I’ll be tagging you guys below! Or if you want to do it, then go ahead, I don’t care (just follow the rules above) and say that I’ve tagged you.
Astronomy Of My Dreams 