The Great Big Anita Blake Reread: The Killing Dance

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Content Warnings: This installment of my reread series contains relatively detailed references to snuff films, sexual assault and harassment (including brief references to these things happening to children), particularly in the “Just Plain Borked” section so please skip that if these are things that may trigger you or otherwise cause discomfort.

 

The Killing Dance - UK Cover from 2010
The 2010 UK cover for The Killing Dance. Chosen because it doesn’t represent a single theme in the novel.

First published in 1997, The Killing Dance is the sixth book in Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series.

Like the majority of the novels in this long running series, this book is primarily set in and around St. Louis, Missouri. In The Killing Dance, Anita is faced with complications in her triumvirate relationship with Richard and Jean Claude), a visiting vampire master in a similar situation to the trio, and some seriously gross shapeshifter pack dynamics that are coming back to bite Anita in the ass from previous books in the series.

It should be just another beyond busy Anita Blake book, but this is one of the most memorable and disturbing novels in this early run of the series in part because Gabriel and Raina, two of the series’ most infamous abusers and rapists, are in their element here.

There are interesting aspects to The Killing Dance, but as usual, they’re nearly lost thanks to all the weird and upsetting shit that happens and all of the absolutely pointless relationship drama.Read More »

[Comet City Stories] Viper Vs. The Major Mansplainer

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Viper vs The Major Mansplainer

All Viper wants is to read in peace.

Usually, Viper likes libraries.

For the most part, civilians are the only people that use Comet City’s five library branches – and barely any at that during the middle of the day when Viper tends to head out. No one recognizes her as long as she keeps her sunglasses and a hat on and wears clothing that covers up the scales on her arms, legs, and stomach. A little overheating and the almost claustrophobic feeling of being in clothes more significant than the crop top and shorts she generally gravitates to are a worthy price of admission and for privacy.

The buildings always smell like old books and dust, with the faint human scents of the librarians and janitorial staff almost light enough for Viper to ignore them, and there are plenty of quiet places for her to go and curl up with a book or two. As a (mostly) retired supervillain, Viper now has plenty of time to read and she intends to read everything she can.

Unfortunately, not everyone that comes to the library has the same devotion to quiet reading that she does. Read More »

Fleeting Frustrations #3: When White Queer Icons Like Ezra Miller Fail Us

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Seeing Ezra Miller’s face everywhere makes me feel some kind of way.

On one hand, I’m constantly charmed by Miller and I like that they’re a queer icon (who just apparently came out as non-binary). Their Playboy photos are pretty (so pretty) and I really do like knowing that one more performer in a superhero film is queer.

On the other hand, I’m always painfully aware of the fact thatnot only did Miller co-direct TheTruth According to Darren Wilson (a film intending to sympathize withand see the other side of events that led to Mike Brown’s senseless murder),but that it’s not a hard limit for many of the queer non-Black people that findout about it.

At the end of the day, it stings to realize that to many people, Miller’s queerness is seen as more important to talk about than the casual racism behind Miller working on a film that exists to humanize a racist murderer.

Read More »

[Image Post] Finn Needs A New, Less Racist Fandom

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Finn_Doesnt_Need_Redeeming

Source:  Where Are Y’all Getting Your Characterization From? Finn Isn’t A Coward, Or Selfish, And He Doesn’t Need A Damn Redemption Arc.

I love Finn from Star Wars. It’s not just because I not-so-secretly want John Boyega to fall wildly in love with me and marry me (but like…), but I think Finn is one of the most compelling characters in the sequel series.

Which is why I can’t get over the fact that so many people disagree with me on how amazing Finn is. Heck, I still can’t believe that folks think Finn is up there with Jar-Jar Binks as the worst character in the ~Star Wars Cinematic Universe~.

Or that many of his so-called fans wish he’d just… die.Read More »

Dear Comic Fans, It’s Been Four Years And I Still Don’t Get How Y’all Are So Darn Angry About Racebending

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Dear Comic Fans, It’s Been Four Years .png

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”.

Read More »

Wonder Woman:Earth One – Volume 2  – Somehow Worse Than The First

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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

WWEO - Credits Page

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.Read More »

What Fandom Racism Looks Like: #NotAllFans

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WFRLL - #NotAllFans

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. Read More »

Urban Fantasy 101: Rec Yourself

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Urban fantasy 101 - Rec Yourself

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:

Stitch Does Stuff in November

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Stitch does stuff in November.png

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.

Read More »

Urban Fantasy 101: A Quick Guide to Dastardly Demons

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Urban Fantasy 101 - A Quick Guide to Dastardly Demons

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.

What even are these demons?

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?Read More »

Stitch Recs Spoopy Stuff

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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!

Certain Dark Things Cover1. Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Certain Dark Things

WHERE TO BUY IT

Back 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.

Food of the Gods Cover2. Cassandra Khaw’s Food of the Gods (the Rupert Wong duology)

WHERE TO BUY IT

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.)Read More »

[Stitch Likes Stuff] Venom (2018)

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venom_poster

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:

  • superhero fan
  • anti-hero stan
  • monster fucker
  • cannibalism (in fiction) fancier

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.

Read More »

Breaking and Entering: Narrated

Stitch

(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.)

Breaking and Entering_ Narrated

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!

❤

[Review] Untouchable (Ravenswood #2) by Talia Hibbert

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Untouchable Cover

Black British romance author Talia Hibbert is one of my newest favorite authors in Romancelandia.

Hibbert’s romances – which primarily focus on interracial romances with at least one main character of color finding and falling in love – are set in idyllic small towns that are full of secrets, drama, and unbelievably sweet dudes. I’ve been a fan of Hibbert’s writing from last year, but she really got me invested with her recent-ish release Untouchable. Untouchable, the second in her small-town romance series Ravenswood, is focused on the people that live in one of the most stressful towns this side of an English breakfast, Ravenswood. Ravenswood has shown up in a novel and novella so far, both stories having sweet romances between characters who’ve been hurt and could stand to do some healing with a person squarely in their corner.Read More »