Back when Sleepy Hollow first started, it was basically everything I wanted in an TV show. This was a few months after I’d officially given up on Supernatural as a show so not only did I need a new Urban Fantasy series, I needed one that wasn’t so white from the get go.
And Sleepy Hollow delivered.
At first.Read More »
I don’t just adore Space Goat Productions’ Moonlighters series because the talented writer on the book is my pal (and fellow Comics Alliance alumus) Katie Schenkel or because artist Cal Moray is equally talented and that they draw the cutest werewolves I’ve ever seen.
I love it because Moonlighters is basically everything I’ve ever wanted in family friendly urban fantasy.
Title: Buns (Hudson Valley #3)
Author: Alice Clayton
Rating: Recommended
Genre/Category: Contemporary Romance, Comedy, Found Family
Release Date: May 23, 2017
Publisher: Gallery Books
Order Here: BARNES AND NOBLE | AMAZON
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in this review are my own.
Clara Morgan is living the dream, if you can call rebranding hotels that are desperate for a new life and running any kind of marathon a dream. Which she does. But the career she loves and the endurance races that keep her adrenaline pumping have kept her too busy to put down any roots. Growing up in foster care, she’s never been able to establish traditions of her own, which may be why she’s fascinated by the rituals that generations-old family resorts are known for. She’s especially interested in the Bryant Mountain House, and not just for their secret recipe for the yummy, gooey, can’t-get-enough-of Hot Cross Buns….
Archie Bryant, the man with the Buns, is fifth generation and one-day-owner of the charming yet run-down Bryant Mountain House in Bailey Falls, New York. He’s determined to save his family’s legacy from the wrecking ball the old-fashioned way—by gritting his teeth and doing what needs to be done. There’s no way Archie will be influenced by the new hotel branding expert his father brought in to turn one hundred and fifty years of tradition on its head just to attract a faster, younger, slicker crowd. But when some of Clara’s ideas start bringing in new, paying customers, Archie can’t deny that she may have just given him a shot at keeping his resort open.
It’s sticky, it’s messy, it’s sweet, it’s Buns.
So I got back from PCA this morning at the butt crack of dawn and between being sick all day and my usual anxiety, it took me a while to get this up. (This is still way faster than I’ve done anything else this semester so… I’m taking this as a win.) This wrap-up and […]
Note: This is set a few months after Breaking and Entering‘s sequel-in-progress, but the only real spoiler for what I’m writing is “blink and you’ll miss it” tiny. Unless you didn’t guess that Asra and Katan would be in a relationship the next time you saw them… This story was originally on my now-deleted Patreon page.
Asra and Katan share their fears. The trouble with trips is that sometimes, it’s hard to get the person you want with you the most to travel.
“You don’t have to come with me to the train station,” Asra says as he watches Katan tie back his silvery white hair in the mirror. “I can walk there as easy as anything and it won’t take me too long to find my train.”
Katan’s mouth twists with a frown before he arches one sleek eyebrow.
“The last time you said that, you wound up sending me a letter from the Sellsail Islands saying that you took the wrong ship and weren’t anywhere near Marran,” Katan points out with a dry note to his voice that makes a blush burn in Asra’s dark cheeks. “Forgive me for worrying that history might repeat itself again.”Read More »
Title: The House of Binding Thorns (Dominion of the Fallen #2)
Author: Aliette de Bodard
(Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre: Fantasy, Angels & Demons, Political Drama, Vietnamese Mythology/Culture
Release Date: April 4, 2017
Publisher: Ace
Order at: AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE
Note: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and that’s what you’re all getting. There will be minor spoilers for character relationships in this book, but I’ll do my best not to dump any major spoilers.
The multi-award winning author of The House of Shattered Wings continues her Dominion of the Fallen saga as Paris endures the aftermath of a devastating arcane war…
As the city rebuilds from the onslaught of sorcery that nearly destroyed it, the Great Houses of Paris, ruled by fallen angels, still contest one another for control over the capital.
House Silverspires was once the most powerful, but just as it sought to rise again, an ancient evil brought it low. Philippe, an immortal who escaped the carnage, has a singular goal—to resurrect someone he lost. But the cost of such magic may be more than he can bear.In House Hawthorn, Madeleine the alchemist has had her addiction to angel essence savagely broken. Struggling to live on, she is forced on a perilous diplomatic mission to the underwater Dragon Kingdom—and finds herself in the midst of intrigues that have already caused one previous emissary to mysteriously disappear…
As the Houses seek a peace more devastating than war, those caught between new fears and old hatreds must find strength—or fall prey to a magic that seeks to bind all to its will.
Title: Zombies, Migrants, and Queers: Race and Crisis Capitalism in Pop Culture
Author: Camilla Fojas
Rating: Your Cup of Tea Maybe?
Genre: Nonfiction, Pop Culture, Media Criticism, Race/Racism
Release Date: February 28, 2017
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Order at: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS | AMAZON
Note: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and that’s absolutely what you’re getting.
At first glance, Zombies, Migrants, and Queers: Race and Crisis Capitalism in Pop Culture seems like it should be right up my alley. It’s about pop culture after all, and in-depth critiques of pop culture and placing into specific cultural contexts s kind of my thing.
Unfortunately, and I’m really bummed about this, this book didn’t hook me.Read More »
Notes: This original fantasy (almost romance) story has been in the works for a LONG time and I’m happy that I can finally share it with you all! The gorgeous art pieces in this post are all parts of a commission that I got from my awesome friend Vi (who also did lovely concept art of my two boys) who is super sweet and talented!
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.
❧❧❧❧Read More »
I was supposed to announced the giveaway winner yesterday along with posting the next giveaway but life is happening too fast. I’m basically back to work and stuck balancing a ton of coursework due like…now. Argh.
Once I finish responding to the last two comments on the post, I’ll announce the winner on this one. There is a huge chance that that will be on Friday.
I’m also… Not doing another giveaway so soon after the first. I love doing giveaways and they’re fun, but they’re also disheartening for me because of reasons. They’re also expensive… I need to pause on the love train until I can do another guilt free giveaway.
ETA (like two weeks later): My giveaway winner is
*cue drumroll*
DIANA!
Whoo!
(Also, my next giveaway will be sooner than I expected because I have movie codes for two much loved films from last year which are the PERFECT things to giveaway because I already own them and can easily get them to my winners! Stay tuned for more awesomeness and thanks for playing!)
Women of Color in Marvel Live Action Properties is an essay series that will look closely at the portrayals of female characters of color by actresses of color in Marvel’s various franchises. I was inspired by the fact that a lot of these female characters don’t get anywhere as much love as white female characters in similar roles and that we’re not as likely to see fandom analyze why they’re empowering. They don’t get meta-fandom or essays unless it’s about placing them in relation to white characters. I want to celebrate the women of color that inhabit the same worlds as our favorite superheroes while looking at how and why they’re important to fans like me.
Sometimes, if you want justice you have to get it yourself.
Claire Temple in Luke Cage Season 1/Episode 7 “Manifest”
❧❧❧❧
Claire Temple is too good for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Claire Temple is one of the best characters in the MCU and she’s one of the few recurring female characters of color the franchise has had in the almost ten years of its history. She’s also Afro-Latina – as is actress Rosario Dawson – making her one of the few Black women to have a major recurring role in the MCU following Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Raina.
In a genre that’s spent much of the past decade finding newer and more popular white male actors (often named “Chris”) to play their heroes rather than focusing on female characters or characters of color, Claire Temple is an extra awesome rarity.Read More »
Title: Insight (The Community #1)
Author: Santino Hassell (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Psychics, Queer Romance/Erotica, Paranormal Romance, Suspense/Mystery
Release Date: March 13, 2017
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Order Here: RIPTIDE PUBLISHING
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in review are my own and there are mild spoilers.
Santino Hassell’s Insight is an incredible look at a community of marginalized people — some psychics, some people of color, all incredibly fascinating — who live in NYC on an Earth that seems just like ours. It’s also got a murder-mystery and conspiracy slant to it while also serving up some complicated psychic love and tension so thick that you could cut it with a spoon.
Straight up, I love this book.Read More »
This is the first of several giveaway posts meant to celebrate the second anniversary of my website and share the things I’ve been focused on this past year.
I have a ton of strange special interests.
For the past six or seven months, one of my most obnoxious interests has been cannibalism in fiction and nature. Normally, I’m a big baby. I can’t watch most horror movies and only made it three episodes into the Hannibal series before I had to turn it off. I don’t do body horror.
But then, I had two back to back hits with fictional cannibals and hello new conversation topic that made the people around me incredibly uncomfortable.Read More »
Title: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture
Author: Glen Weldon (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Nonfiction, Batman, Comic Book
Release Date: March 22, 2016
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Order Here: AMAZON (PAPERBACK)| AMAZON (KINDLE)
Note: This review was originally written for a graduate level course I took last semester where we had to write a review for a scholarly book that was related to our thesis. As this book actually inspired my current thesis project (about queer readings of a queer-coded Joker and the role that homophobia plays in these readings), I couldn’t pass up on the chance to review this book.
A regular panelist on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, Glen Weldon is probably the best author that could have ever been drafted to write a book about how Batman’s creation shaped the development of nerd culture and fandom as it exists right now.
His book The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture seeks to put Batman into a certain cultural context, looking at the way that the character’s history has shaped generations of fans, comic and film creators, and the fans that would grow up to become these creators. Weldon looks at how, over the course of the past seventy-seven years, Batman and nerd culture have participated in certain cycles that alternated between “camp and cheery” and “grim-dark and gritty”.
In The Caped Crusade, Weldon approaches the heterocentric canon of Batman’s various texts through a perspective that only a gay man can bring to the table. In his close queer reading of Batman’s history, canon text throughout the decades, and the fan community (or fandom) that sprawled up around him, Weldon looks at how queerphobia shaped Batman’s trajectory and inspired hundreds of thousands of fans to eschew the very idea of a queer Batman while queer fans clung to the potential opened up for them by the subtext embedded within the character.Read More »
One problem with grad school is that there’s only so much I can do to get my academic and nerdy interests to collide. As a full-time grad student and a freelance, my output here has plummeted because I’m busy trying to get my assignments in and not mess up at work.
But I am always thinking of things I can write for you all and so right now, there are some things that are definitely on the menu for upcoming months.
After eight years, fourteen feature-length films, and four separate television series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally managed to place a Black man front and center in his own narrative. Luke Cage, a character previously seen as a supporting character in the first season of the Netflix-exclusive series Marvel’s Jessica Jones, is the first Black character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to star in their own series rather than remain a poorly-fleshed out sidekick to a white character.
Marvel’s Luke Cage is one of the only series out on television today that provides a close and realistic look at what it means to be a Black person in a world of superheroes. The series’ significant focus on agency, trauma, power, and personhood as they relate to Black bodies—as well as its portrayal of powerful, multi-faceted Black women like Mariah Stokes, Misty Knight, and Claire Temple—puts it above and beyond the very white superhero television and film franchises that dominate the media.
I wrote this piece on Marvel’s Luke Cage series for Strange Horizons and I’m really proud of it!
I got to talk a lot about the role power and agency play in the series, how Jessica Jones really had issues with antiblackness, and how Luke Cage matters as significant representation both to us in the real world and within the MCU.
I’m really grateful that Strange Horizons gave me the chance to write this piece and I think that if you read nothing else from me, that you should read this because a lot of work went into it and I feel that it comprehensively covers the things that Luke Cage did right and how important the show is.
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