Yesterday was the last meeting of my most stressful class. I am so glad that I don’t have the class again and that I (probably) won’t see most of the people in that class again.Read More »
The Great Big Anita Blake ReRead – The Laughing Corpse
Content warnings: ableism, sex worker shaming, abuse and abusive relationships, and racism.
The worst part about it was that she was right. I couldn’t just put a bullet between her eyes, not unless she threatened me. I glanced at the waiting zombies, patient as the dead, but underneath that endless patience was fear, and hope, and . . . God, the line between life and death was getting thinner all the time.
Anita after realizing that the zombies Dominga raises are sentient because she put their souls back inside their bodies. So far, this is the one thing that Anita won’t do. It’s a small comfort considering all of the things that she does do in future books.
I just want to get this off my chest before I go any further: The Laughing Corpse is a hot ableist mess. On top of this second book in Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series continuing the trend of being ridiculously racist – specifically towards Black and Latinx people – it’s also full of the kind of ableism that shouldn’t even have existed in the Nineties when this book was published.Read More »
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: A Sorta Snarky Review
Note: I absolutely wrote the wrong title down initally because I am a space case. Deal with it.
I went and saw Fantastic Beasts this past week.
Considering that my video review is almost an hour long, obviously it inspired a whole host of grouchy thoughts on my end. Mainly that the film’s beautiful cinematography and the way that the magical creatures first brought to our attention in Rowling’s 2001 magizoological textbook are brought to life on the big screen don’t make up for barely unbroken whiteness, Rowling’s misuse of Native cultures in and out of the film, and what reads to me as a really shitty narrative about abuse survivors.
I fell out of love with the Harry Potter series pretty early on. I liked the idea of the franchise and owned all of the books at one time or another, but with every new tidbit that Rowling revealed about her characters and the world that they lived in, I found myself increasingly disenchanted. This is all thanks to Rowling’s constant need to express regret for everything except how lacking her works were in diversity and her new material which contains things like confirming/canonizing her “lycanthropy as a stand-in for AIDS/HIV” stance or the way she views Native cultures as a monolith while misrepresenting and misusing Native peoples and cultures.
I watched Fantastic Beasts specifically because I wanted to check the film out and provide an honest opinion of it. I did go into it expecting to hate two specific things (the lack of diversity and Johnny Depp) but I was surprised at all the other things that made me annoyed or uncomfortable throughout watching it.
Note: If you’re unfamiliar with the critical slant I tend to take when watching films, understand that this isn’t going to be a review where I say super goopy things about the film. I think I say one and a half nice things about it and they’re not very nice at that. So be prepared for a rather caustic look at the thing you probably love!
Notes, clarification, warnings, and links to thing you might want to read are under the cut!
[Guest Post] Love, pain, redemption – Bruce & Dick in Nightwing: Rebirth.
This guest post comes courtesty of one of my dearest friends in and out of fandom, Yamini, who kindly allowed me to repost her brilliant analysis of Batman and Nightwing’s relationship in Nightwing: Rebirth. (This post is also available on her tumblr, so please reblog it from there if you want to share!
“… And Fate them forged a binding chain / of living love and mortal pain” is one of my favourite lines in JRR Tolkien’s Lay of Leithian; encapsulating the poem’s driving conviction that mingled love, pain, surrender, and redemption can form the foundations of the most important relationships we can have with other human beings.
I found myself thinking about it after reading Nightwing #8 (by Tim Seeley, Javier Fernandez, Chris Sotomayor and Carlos Mangual) because love, pain, and redemption are so much a part of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, and how they relate to each other, and I haven’t read many comics that mediate on that as beautifully as this one (and hell, this whole arc) does.Read More »
Radioplay Day Update: Superman vs the Clan of the Fiery Cross
Okay so it’s been a long time since our last Radioplay Day, but I haven’t forgotten about my desire to go through “Superman and the Clan of the Fiery Cross” with y’all.
Once finals are done and I’ve got my freelancing schedule on lock, I’ll get back on track and start putting up the posts for the episodes I’ve listened to by then.
Heck, maybe I’ll take some time off during Thanksgiving break to power through the first three or four episodes and read the book that Richard Bowers wrote on the subject (Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate).
But for the time being, please check out this clip from Drunk History’s “Atlanta” episode which is a brief look at how Superman played a rather important part in undermining the authority and influence of the Klan.
(I recommend the entire episode because it’s hilarious and the first person to drunkenly retell history is the adorable Jenny Slate fumbling through a history of Coca Cola’s invention.)
See you soon with a full post!
Bendis, Opportunism, and Bad Judgment Calls in a Terrible Time
Note: This post contains spoilers for Invincible Iron Man #1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli, and Marte Gracia.
Earlier today, Marvel Comics’ writer Brian Michael Bendis made a bad judgement call.
With people all over the world reeling from the fact of a Trump presidency, Bendis decided that there was no time but the present to do one thing: ply his comic, the upcoming Invincible Iron-Man #2, as a distant distraction.Read More »
The Author In Their Times (Unless That Author Wrote A Comic Book)
One of the three graduate courses I’m taking is a class called “The Author in their Time/s”. It’s a class that looks at authors writing fiction about a period in history as they lived in said period. This specific class, taught by a professor that reminds me a bit of Heathcliffe (the cat, not the Wuthering Heights dude), is about the Cold War.
A huge issue that I’ve been having with academia – even before the Literature degree in-progress – is that a lot of the people who teach my classes or who are in said classes have no idea that comic books could even remotely fall underneath the banner of respectable literature. We learn about the same white guys and gals and the same types of Literature on end until it’s all but beaten into us that academia only cares about certain types of narratives.Read More »
Breaking and Entering – Birthday Art and Story Snippet
My darling and talented friend Vi (who I’ve commissioned to draw art for this story because she’s GREAT) surprised me with a super cute birthday sketch of Asra, one of the main characters in my short story “Breaking and Entering”.
Not only did she give me permission to share this sketch, but also an early piece that she did of Asra and Katan when getting a feel for the characters. So now, y’all can see what my presh babies look like before the story eventually goes live! Please join me in basking in Vi’s amazing art and how beautiful she’s made my babies because WOW!
Under the cut is the aforementioned art as well as a snippet from the main story.
Enjoy!Read More »
Holy Birthmonth, Batman!
Okay so obviously, it’s October and that means it’s birthmonth!
I’ll be 26 on the 24th and that’s AWESOME!
As usual, if you feel like dropping money on me (but again, you absolutely don’t have to), I have an Amazon wishlist with books I want to read that’s basically the only thing I’m super into right now as I live up to life as a Lit major.
You can find my wishlist here: “Books I Want To Read”
I don’t have that much planned for Birthmonth because it neatly coincides with everything I have to do being due (I’m talking three papers, the form for my thesis (sort of), multiple reviews, and 5000 words of fiction), but I’m hopeful that with the help of my dear friend Vi, my short story “Breaking and Entering” will be up and illustrated by then.
No promises of course, because life can get busy in the worst of ways, but I’m super hopeful that y’all will finally get to see the story that I’ve been working on for over a year.
❤
Condescension, Crosstalk, and why Connie Willis’ Misunderstanding of the Romance Genre is a Deal Breaker for Me
When I first heard about Connie Willis’ book Crosstalk, it sounded like a bunch of fun.
I put it on my wishlist and dropped a bunch of hints that I’d be open to reviewing it even if I had to buy the book myself (which wouldn’t be an issue as even if I get an ARC, I buy the books once they’re released).
Then today, I woke up to see an article on The Verge where she was interviewed about the book and, in one response, managed to miss the entire damn point about romance as a genre and as an aspect of our lives (for those folks who aren’t aromantic) and I decided to save my money. Read More »
Laundry Day – Comet City Stories
On her first day of actual, licensed superheroics, young speedster Pix comes to a startling realization about her chances of surviving once she goes head to head with a super-powered criminal that thinks nothing of smacking her down like a fly.
Pix is going to die.
It’s her first day of actual, licensed superheroics and she is going to die before she even gets a chance to use her League discount card to buy a cup of coffee at the nearest Sundollars. What freaking luck.Read More »
[Book Review] Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw
Title: Hammers on Bone
Author: Cassandra Khaw (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Urban Fantasy, Noir, Detective, Lovecraftian Horror
Release Date: October 11, 2016
Publisher: Tor.com
Order Here: AMAZON | AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE
Note: I received a free copy of this novella from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in review are my own.
I’ve been a huge Cassandra Khaw fan since reading her novella “Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef” last year. From the second that I saw the announcement back in May that Tor.com acquired two novellas from her, I was on the edge of my seat with excitement because her writing is so freaking good that my expectations were sky high.
And then I read the first novella “Hammers on Bone” and I felt as if my entire world had changed.
“Hammers on Bone” is a dark and twisted detective story with definite notes of Lovecraftian Horror that are turned inside out across the pages of the novella.Read More »
The Great Big Anita Blake Reread – Guilty Pleasures
Content Warnings: This review of Guilty Pleasures talks about the following content that readers may find disturbing, upsetting, or triggering: racism, internalized misogyny, victim blaming with regard to childhood abuse and sexual trauma, sex worker shaming, connecting sex work with trauma or marginalization (as in the only people in this series who do sex work are people who are broken and/or marginalized and they all need rescuing), gender essentialism.
“Vampires are People, too.”
– The button that Monica Vespucci is wearing when she and Anita first meet echoes a repeated message in this series about how vampires are people too. But people you know… suck. So vampires do too, and not just because it’s how they get nourishment.
Despite it being the first book in author Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, Guilty Pleasures was probably the fourth or fifth book in the series that I read. It is um… a doozy of a book.Read More »
[Book Review] That Potent Alchemy by Tess Bowery
Title: That Potent Alchemy
Author: Tess Bowery (Twitter)
Rating: Highly Recommended
Genre/Category: Historical Romance, Regency, Erotic, Queer, Entertainment,
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Seamchecker Ent.
Order Here: AMAZON (KINDLE) | BARNES AND NOBLE
Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review. All of the views in this review are my own.
That Potent Alchemy, the third book in Tess Bowery’s “Treading the Boards” series blows all of the historical romances I’ve been reading clear out of the water. One of my frequent complaints about diversity in publishing is that it’s very difficult to find authors who write characters I can relate to because they’re like me. Because they’re queer and brown and gender-whatever like me.
And That Potent Alchemy gave me that sense of belonging, that “I could be here” feeling that I rarely find in the historical romances I read.
In Tess Bowery’s England, there’s room for queer women and genderfluid people to be.Read More »
Whose Luke Cage Reviews Matter To Me
I started watching Luke Cage yesterday morning and immediately I found myself bombarded with the thinkiest of thoughts.
I have thoughts on respectability politics in the series, on Luke Cage’s old-fashioned everything, on Black womanhood, on the use of the word “nigga” inside our community.
And at the end of the day, I also have thoughts about how I am absolutely uninterested in any hot takes on the series that don’t come from Black women.Read More »
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