#Nona the Ninth is on my reading challenge as ‘a book about a family’

[wetcatspellcaster]

I just finished In Other Lands on your recommendation (and loved it!). A lot of the reviews for it mention that it sounds like fanfic, and I know the author started in fanfic. So my question to you: what do you think makes a story/novel sound like “fanfic?” And this is in no way a derogatory assessment, obviously - I read a ton of fanfic, and I read a ton of original works. I’ve read stuff by known former fic authors that I liked and some that I didn’t like, I’ve read stuff that I know from the marketing is reworked fanfic (again, some that I liked and some that I didn’t like) and stuff that I suspect is reworked fanfic even if no one acknowledges it. I’ve read things that aren’t fanfic but just have the feel of it - if you were to compile a list of qualities that a part of “fanfic style” across authors and fandoms, what would be on it?

hey anon, I'm really happy to hear you enjoyed In Other Lands! and thank you for such an interesting question! (also, Sarah Rees Brennan's fic from her livejournal era is in fact quite good, it's just also unfortunately mostly Draco/Harry, which isn't my ship. but I braved it, for her <3)

to be honest, I tried to come up with bullet points to make this answer digestible, but ended up with no solid, listable answer. I think there's a lot of things that people see as characterising a 'fic' style: recognisable tropes like found family or coffee shop AU settings, a certain narrative POV, character-driven story with less focus on a situation in place and time (a la Uprooted), or (probably the most recent booktok-influenced definition) spice levels, etc.

but for me, I think the biggest 'defining' feature (on the understanding that most genre definitions are amorphous and unreliable, the wrong thing to talk to a literary scholar about lol) is that writing that feels like fic or reads like fic often boils down to, "the author clearly had fun writing it, or wrote it to primarily Be Fun To Read". I think this is the only definition that stretches across everything from Ali Hazelwood, to Tamsyn Muir and the Locked Tomb, to In Other Lands. In the same way sometimes the best (and worst) literary fiction that is trying to Be Literary Fiction is written with a, 'I am trying to make a serious point, or I am trying to write something deliberately challenging" as it's goal, I think 'fic-like' works are the opposite (and that the bad end of that is 'cosy x/y/z', lmaoooo). I guess this is why it reads like fic? Bc fanfic is written for pleasure and little other reward, and id-fic is written purely to put what you want or what pleases you out into the world, etc. so that's the definition that makes most sense for me.

I don't think this means it can't be serious! This is why I think 'cosy' is a different, and unfortunately worse genre, bc if you try to take the stakes of a plot away entirely you often end up with.... half a story. In Other Lands has some serious beats, as does the Locked Tomb. but I think it's pretty clear from the writing style and the comedy utilised in both narrative voices, that it's not taking itself too seriously, or that fun and play is a part of the process. In Other Lands began as a webnovel Brennan was posting for free, until her friend told her it was a novel. She was trying to get her love of writing back. Nona the Ninth is (to me personally) a pure id-fic book. I think that something that is fun and playful and doesn't take itself too seriously, even while not shying away from heavy emotions, is probably 'fic-like' in my eyes :)

[crowclubkaz]

a family isn’t always a man a woman and a child. sometimes a family is a child in a grown woman’s body, a man and a woman sharing the same body, a big strong lady in a big strong dude’s body, and also a six legged dog

[halfdeadfriedrice]

2022 Books in Review!

Some half-dead fried reflections about how my annual 100 books challenge went! With recs (a few)! Behind a cut because it's self-indulgently wordy.

This year I read:

32 manga

7 non-manga comics and graphic novels

11 audiobooks

2ish short stories (i'm SORRY i was SHORT this year and also I wanted to track them)

Which makes it 49 novel (-length, I am also counting the single prose biography here, - 39) /novellas and assorted (12) /poetry books (2) /short story (collections mostly - 5)

Things rec'd to me: 4-ish things! (one of the manga series counts)

I tried: 23 new authors!

Which does mean that traditional(ish) novel-length scifi/fantasy edged tied with graphic formats, except a bunch of them were audiobooks, so the majority (on this slightly wonky pie chart) of pages in front of my eyes this year were illustrated! Honestly a lot of this year was spent video gaming, and also; I didn't find a lot of books I liked!

My favorite books of the year: A lot of my favorite stuff this year were sequels I'd been awaiting!

The Oleander Sword - Tasha Suri Sequel to "The Jasmine Throne," it's some pragmatic, powerful, incredibly devoted queer ladies doing coups, seizing power, murdering their brothers, etc. Middle book in series, maybe I knew a bit more about how this one would go than The Jasmine Throne, which was absolutely ruthless, but I loved where it went as a sequel and I long for the third.

Into the Riverlands - Nghi Vo Technically the third in a series (The Singing Hills Cycle) about a wandering priest who collects stories for an archive - all sorts of stories, everyone's stories - but it stands alone, and it has the martial story flavor that unfortunately all the shonen anime and wuxia stories have given me a preference for. I like knight-errants and wandering samurai and People Who Punch For the Good Of Others, what can I say.

Only a Monster - Vanessa Lem Recommended in the back of CS Pacat's Dark Rise, a book I wanted to like more than I did and am hopeful about its sequel, Vanessa Lem's "Only A Monster" (first in its series?) is DOING enemies to lovers it is DOING it dark and scary and fun. Time travel but it's killing people? Can you save the people you love, and at what cost to the world? 10/10 would thrill again.

Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir Third in the Locked Tomb series; it's a puzzle box unfolding, and while I love Nona, who is a perfect baby, and am obsessed with the Cam/Pal/Pyrrha dynamic, and of course the prose is wonderful and funny and scary, I am chomping at the bit for Alecto. I think, much like Gideon, which needed Harrow for me to start recommending it to people, but probably remains my favorite book in the series, I await Nona's echo. But also genuinely one of my favorite reads this year.

Undercover and Princess Floralinda and the Forty Flight Tower by Tamysn Muir Floralinda's a reread but Undercover is new; without reservation (I mean, unless you don't like dark things and a bit of gore) I recommend Muir's novellas, which are queer and loving exercises in genre and funny as hell

Flyaway - Kathleen Jennings A fairy tale sort of story, but one set in and pulling from Australian mythos; small town drama and generations of families issues and questions about personhood and all the fun things you can do with a myth. The beginning is confined - push on.

The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik I slipped and fell and am currently reading a slightly-more-than-mediocre HP longfic and it is making me crave a Scholomance reread, which has definitely been marketed as an HP read-instead but like, lets its characters experience challenges and narrative threats (also, the Golden Enclaves is an INCREDIBLY satisfying ending for a series. talk about sticking the landing. waow. also also, has a pragmatic manipulative ice queen playing a major role. i have a type and it's clever people who can more accurately be called 'a huge bitch'.)

Gonna throw Sas Milledge's "Mamo" in here, because the art is incredible and the story is sweet.

Manga I read:

Full Metal Alchemist - I finished this early in the year (it was my push to finish my challenge last year) early this year - I hadn't ever read it, it was a treat to see what all the fuss was about. It's genuinely such a good series, with complex moral/ethical questions and good suspense and humor.

Dungeon Meshi - Read this on slow days in the office and also while I had covid! It's a cooking manga - a party of adventurers needs to rescue one of their dead party members, and the only way to stay strong enough in the dungeon (and, they're broke, so the only way they can afford to delve) is to start cooking and eating what they see! The story is like, fine. The recipes and the focus on fictional beast cooking is the real treat here. There's also a cat girl later, which always makes me happy.

xxxHolic Rei - I figured out how to set up a manga reader on a borrowed ipad and finally finished out the xxxHolic series with its semi-sequel, Rei. I loved Rei - I like reading CLAMP stories but one of their stock main characters usually get to turn from "harassed and shouty" to "cool and mysterious" during the like, last 3 volumes, and so some more time with Cool Watanuki - this makes me feel like a jerk surely there's a better way to phrase this; Watanuki missing the No Homo character trait - whatever, it was good to see him, and it was good to get some good retconning and pursuit of a happier ending. Also, beautiful. CLAMP is always beautiful.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles - inter-reads with xxxHolic, but the library didn't have all of them, so my initial reading of Holic mised a lot of references. This is good though, because Tsubasa is Incredibly Referential to all of CLAMP's other series, which by now I have at least a passing familiarity with. I just started this one, I'll see if I keep it up. I do feel like I'm finally in a place to appreciate it!

Boys Run The Riot - High schoolers trying to invent their own fashion brand - it's half fashion and half queer coming of age for our transman main character, as he makes friends and figures out how he can live in the world (and make his fashionable mark in it).

Also some yaoi, you know.

Books I will talk shit about (is this a real category? what are you doing. Look I don't finish a lot of books I don't like so there's definitely more in my "DNR" list but these I pressed through):

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires Strange and Stubborn Endurance Hands of the Emperor