NOTE: This review is being posted with the promise that if/when I eventually return to this book and un-DNF it, I’ll write a full review that reflects that.
I wanted to love Thrall, Avon Gale and Roan Parrish’s updated take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
I liked what I’d read of it, but loving it did not happen. Continue reading
Aren’t you people tired?
I know I am.
Every year since 2015, I’ve written a post about fandom’s backlash against and racist responses to racebending – where “historically white” characters are reimagined as characters of color in media. Every year, I watch the months tick by as I hope fandom will, for once, not be full of turds that think the response to racebending – especially when a Black woman is involved – or any sort of representation for people of color, is to go full fucking racist over it.
Harassment campaigns.
Abuse tweeted at the performer and anyone that defends them.
Gaslighting.
Seriously, it’s exhausting to watch these temper tantrums play out by folks that’ll then turn around and accuse anyone who points out how ridiculous they are, of being “sensitive snowflakes”.
Note: This review contains descriptions and images of things from this book that include (but are not limited to): Nazis, sexual assault, the whole MRA and negging plots Morrison writes and Paquette illustrates, and all the misogyny that really has no place in a Wonder Woman Book
If you thought that two years would lead Wonder Woman: Earth One creators Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette to figure out that maybe their approach to a reimagined version of Wonder Woman in the previous volume wasn’t acceptable and was in fact frankly misogynistic, well… you’d be wrong.
I talked about all of the issues in the previous volume two years ago (including a comment where I described Paquette as having a “Greg Land-esque art style, incredibly sexualized”), but there’s literally no sign of growth or an awareness of what feminism actually is in the second volume of DC’s Wonder Woman: Earth One series. Continue reading
Inspired by this tweet thread I wrote.
Fandom really doesn’t like to acknowledge that it has multiple problems with race and racism.
From members of fandom writing racist alternate universe stories where characters of color are dehumanized, tortured and killed off (as a form of “putting them in their place”) to the harassment that fans direct at fans and performers of color, there’s no way to escape the fact that fandom – transformative and curatorial fandom spaces– is racist as hell.
One thing that I’ve noticed as I move through various fandoms is that few fans want to acknowledge that the problem and commentary calling out the problem are coming from inside their specific fandoms and social groups within fandom. If a fan of color points out the racism in an aspect of fandom or in harassment they’re receiving from people in fandom, one of the first responses that they get from members of that fandom is…
“I know racism sucks, but don’t generalize a whole fandom based on one person.”
Basically, that’s one of the most useless responses you can give a person talking about something currently impeding their ability to enjoy their free time and security in fandom. Continue reading
Are you an urban fantasy (or contemporary paranormal romance) writer that wishes they got recced more often on my Urban Fantasy 101 posts? Or are you a fan of the genre/s and want to shout out a book or series that hasn’t gotten a link or a mention before?
Well, you’re in luck because I want y’all to rec yourselves (or your favorite authors)!
Fill out the following:
Books/Series Name:
Author:
Genre/Subgenre:
Any warnings you think readers might need or want:
Link to the author’s social media:
Link to the book/series:
This month, I’ll be doing a ton of writing.
Not only am I continuing to play catch up on a deadline I’m still chugging past (I’ve got 2.5 chapters on my outline left to actually finish), but I’m also doing NaNoWriMo (at my own, slightly smaller goal of 30k words) and I’m doing K. Tempest Bradford’s course with daily writing exercises for NaNoWriMo (thanks to the magic of scholarships).
So I’m busy as hell and writing every day for like… hours.
It’s scary, but I’ve got goals to hit and content to produce.
On top of that, I’ll also be doing my regular blog and patreon posts (on a smaller, more responsible scale to take all the other writing I’m doing into account).
So here’s what’s coming up this month!
Website
What Fandom Racism Looks Like: #NotAllFans
The final draft of the piece I’d originally written and posted on Patreon. Now with additional solutions for what to do instead of derailing criticism and commentary with that “not all x fans” nonsense.
Demons are another urban fantasy and paranormal romance staple and, like the vampires and shifters I’ve written about before, they encompass a wide range of various supernatural species across different cultures. A demon in one urban fantasy or paranormal romance series might not be recognized as a demon in another and, generally, these demons don’t look like the ones in demonology around the world.
We talked about this in UF101: Mythology Soup: sometimes, we squish a whole lot of things together that maybe… don’t quite need to be squished together. In the urban fantasy and paranormal romance genres, demon can sometimes count as an umbrella term under which a whole bunch of other supernatural beings are expected shelter.
Case in point? In Hannah Jayne’s Underworld Detection Agency series, the term “demon” kind of encompasses anything that’s not human. That includes “actual” demons like the kind we’re used to seeing as villains of the hour on episodes of Charmed and Supernatural and other supernatural species that aren’t typically associated with the demonic. Like werewolves, zombies, and vampires.
Talk about casting a wide net, huh? Continue reading
Just in time for Halloween, here’s a list of ten of my favorite spoopy things that y’all should consider checking out. If you need specific content warnings for anything, send me a message here or on Twitter!
Note: most of the links that lead to Amazon are affiliate links!
1. Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Certain Dark ThingsBack in 2016, I did a review for SMG’s fantastic urban fantasy stand-alone novel for Strange Horizons where I say that it is “the book I wish had been my introduction to vampires in literature back when I was a kid”.
Certain Dark Things is a dark and innovative urban fantasy novel that gets you to reimagine the vampire as we know it, subverting the species as the genre tends to do it, and offering an interesting take on those bite-y bloodsuckers.
2. Cassandra Khaw’s Food of the Gods (the Rupert Wong duology)Gorgeous and gloriously gory, Cassandra Khaw’s lush writing makes the horrors of Rupert Wong’s life and his experiences as a chef for a bunch of human-eating ghouls and gods almost… appetizing. I’m constantly torn between being flat out grossed out by and salivating over food I shouldn’t want to eat. (I reviewed the second book in this duology – Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth – for Strange Horizons and talked a ton about Khaw’s use of Greek mythology.) Continue reading
Everything I saw my friends say about Venom on social media was spot-on.
From the use of Eminem on the soundtrack to Tom Hardy’s EVERYTHING, Venom feels like it fell into a timewarp right before it was originally supposed to air in 2004 and fourteen years later, we got it.
This movie appeals to my inner:
Seriously, it has something for everyone and it’s entertaining to boot.
Venom is NOT a serious superhero movie even when it tries to be a couple of times. It’s an action-comedy that’s more about Eddie Brock’s fall from grace and how he and Venom develop together than anything else. Sure, Riz Ahmed is in the film playing Carlton Drake, a scientist with eugenicist dreams, and Michelle Williams is Eddie’s long-suffering ex-girlfriend Anne, but the movie isn’t really about them.
It’s about two losers realizing that they literally can’t live without each other and falling in love.
(This was supposed to be cross-posted between here and Patreon hours ago, but I haven’t been home since earlier and could’t get the hang of uploading things on my phone.)
Happy Birthday to me!
This is a narrated version of my story “Breaking and Entering”, a cosy and quietly queer story set in another world. Fair warning, this is a goofy read that is definitely kind of… impacted by the fact that I have trouble reading aloud.
If you like straight, serious reads of your favorite things this is not that, so you can read the original story here:
Breaking and Entering – Original Fiction
Asra has spent much of his life alone, traveling across Anatea in search of the home he never had. On an unplanned return trip to the capital city’s God Quarter, Asra finds himself taking shelter from the rain in a seemingly abandoned temple. When Asra meets the god whose temple sits gathering dust in a lonely part of the God Quarter, he isn’t expecting much beyond a swift kick in the rear. He certainly isn’t expecting that he might finally find the home he’s always wanted to have.
Thank you all for celebrating my 28th birthday with me!
❤
