#books I like to re-read

[mbrainspaz]

this isn't meant to be @ anyone. I've wanted to rant about this for a minute.

In defense of Harry Dresden, a kinda toxic hero—

I've had several instances where I recommended the Dresden Files and got replies like 'oh I tried that but the main character seemed kinda chauvinistic' or 'those are guy books.' I'm not gonna argue with that assessment. I agree that Harry has some prevalent issues of the toxic masculinity variety. He admits as much. He doesn't do much about it in the first 17 books but he admits it.

I do get annoyed when I interact with guy friends who read him as a perfect role model. There is a toxic fandom element out there, not unlike with Star Wars or Harry Potter. People who got the wrong message from a complicated piece of media. I was actually dating the guy who introduced me to the series as way of excusing some of his toxic behavior, which he had directly based on Harry. I started reading the series to try to understand why he thought that was a good idea, and after reading it we had a talk about why it probably wasn't. He's living his best life with his soon-to-be husband now but we've stayed in touch just to chat about new Dresden books when they come out.

It's not only okay to read and enjoy books with problematic characters, I think it helps people develop a greater appreciation for nuance. Even when the actions of those characters aren't immediately and unequivocally condemned by the narrative, enjoying a 'problematic' book isn't an inherently bad thing. But Harry usually does get kicked in the pants for his bad takes and that is a reason I enjoy the series. Yes, he has chauvinistic views, but those almost always come back to bite him. In fact it's hilarious to me how many times the scenario: 'Hitting on a hot dame? Whoops she's a fae queen who just stabbed you.' plays out. It's not hilarious to Harry but unlike the Supernatural bros at least he learns from his mistakes and starts to get suspicious of supernaturally hot women pretty quickly.

As far as female rep goes, it does go borderline on the 'strong yet sexy female character' tropes at times but ultimately it's leagues better on that front than adjacent media like Supernatural, Libriomancer, or any series I've read about Druids where every dame in the book is apologizing for being an inhuman supermodel while still being an inhuman supermodel. Women in Dresden Files have a huge amount of depth and agency, and only about 7 out of 10 are supernaturally hot. Their narratives are rarely centered but oh well, some stories are allowed to be about guys being dudes. Dudes and their supernaturally sexy male model besties.

Harry is very much meant to be a hero character in the story but we mainly get that from the way other characters interact with him. Usually when he's confronted with the fact that other characters see him as a hero it makes him uncomfortable. Internally he's hugely critical of himself. He's also deeply introspective and empathetic, which would be good things for men to model. Anyone reading Dresden Files and going 'aha, see—toxic masculinity is based actually' is thoroughly failing at media analysis. Which is the norm, granted, but don't blame that on Harry. Heck, one of the central themes is him being at war with himself and his baser nature, both in a relatable real-world sense and as a guy with the potential to be a mega powerful dark wizard.

Personally Harry's struggles helped me to unpack a lot of the feelings I was having about religion as I tried to distance myself from evangelicalism, but maybe that's just me. These thoughts aren't perfectly refined and I wanted to go into the cop worship issue to but I can't waste another hour on this.

[yeehawpim]

[theghostwrites]

[yrsonpurpose]

"They [Casey] were commenting on all the little idiosyncratic things that Alex does, his little "isms". I had never heard anyone talk about it and I was so grateful that they had said something, because I did re-read the book and try so hard to find those little specific things that Alex would do." — Taylor Zakhar Perez

[obsob]

there he is......the man of the house

[luukka]

Peeta recognized the sound of whip on the flesh, don't even talk to me again.

[ghostlyheart]

How I (roughly) imagine this scale:

1- I see myself as a faster reader than the average person. I can breeze through a text quickly and still understand almost all of it

2- I read at a "normal" speed. I need to pace myself but can consistently read and comprehend a text in a reasonable time frame

3- I see myself as a slower reader than other people. It takes me a long time to get through a text and if I try to go too fast I won't understand it

Obviously this can vary by your mood, the type of text, etc. and this is a very imprecise scale with some overlap, I'm just casually curious!!

[myfanfictiongarden]

Just ignore me crying over an audio adaptation to an 127 year old Victorian novel.

[waterlilyvioletfog]

See the thing is, you read HtN and like yeah, obviously lobotomizing yourself so a dead girl’s soul doesn’t get cannibalized is completely fucking wild and you probably have to love someone at least a little to do that, but Harrow has spent the whole book having tension with Ianthe and fervently claiming to be in love with the Body— and then you get to Act V and Harrow is literally weeping wailing feral about Gideon, constructing Prince!Gideon AUs (which, she doesn’t know about Gideon’s paternity!! She is simply drawing upon a (romantic!!!) genre trope!!!) and role reversal AUs and fucking coffee shop AUs about Gideon, and she’s refusing to go back to her own body, and Abigail and Magnus and Dulcie so obviously and completely believe that Harrow is in love with Gideon because they directly compare them to Abigail and Magnus, and she says she’s saving the last dance. Agh!!! Aggghhhhh!!!!!!

[rootsmachine]

misty quigley // the haunting of hill house, shirley jackson

[cutetanuki-chan]

I really need Gideon to know that Jeannemary said hi, please, the whole scene with teens death is so devastating, Gideon needs to know

[distort-opia]

I'm sorry, I will go nuts about Thousand Autumns on main, because this bit from Volume 2, Chapter 46 has been living in my brain rent free:

Yan Wushi literally just traded Shen Qiao for a sword he didn't even need, to a man who very likely would rape him and kill him, knowing Shen Qiao's only choice was to self-destruct and die. The worst possible betrayal... right after Shen Qiao had started to see Yan Wushi as a friend, to think that even if Yan Wushi was a monster to everyone else, maybe to him he could be different; maybe there was a speck of humanity hidden inside him.

And still, after all that, in excruciating agony after having shattered his own foundations and barely alive, Shen Qiao goes over every interaction they ever had and thinks that even if he could go back, and undo it... he wouldn't change it. He wouldn't take back knowing Yan Wushi, learning about the world, breaking out of his naive and secluded worldview. It makes me want to chew glass, because of course I've also seen people go "But when did Shen Qiao develop feelings for Yan Wushi?" and it's all... right there, with this being one of the most beautiful and subtle moments. Shen Qiao did fall first, and then couldn't even take it back, didn't want to take it back. And then cried about it. Someone save me from the Yanshen shaped Hell I find myself in!!

And I love MXS's writing because this isn't forgotten. Later on, in Volume 3, Chapter 79, Yan Wushi himself asks this, right before he sacrifices his own safety to lure Sang Jingxing away from Shen Qiao, in a reversal of what he did before:

Shen Qiao says he doesn't regret it. And I swear, when I first read the novel, at this part I instantly went "OH GOD YAN WUSHI WHAT ARE YOU ABOUT TO DO YOU HORRIBLE BASTARD NOOO" but then he proceeds to save Shen Qiao. All while spewing bullshit about how it doesn't actually mean anything. There's no feelings involved, of course not!

It's just. I love the symmetry of it, which is clearly intentional. Of having Shen Qiao, after Yan Wushi's betrayal, find himself unable to regret having met him. And then the same thing, but explicitly, right before Yan Wushi's one conscious, unselfish act of kindness.

[fictionisalwaysbetter]

I must say I read all of the Stormlight Archive books this very year and as much as I love theorising, I’m afraid I cannot participate bc I have not a fucking clue what you besties are ever talking about. This shit was in the books?

[aroaceleovaldez]

Something something Jason feeling like he doesn't quite fit as "Greek" or "Roman" as a metaphor for bisexuality, particularly the semi-canonical bi-coding in his half of experiences during the Cupid scene and how Favonius and Cupid speak to him in parallel to the scenes confirming Nico is gay.

Something something the camps as metaphors for traditionally acceptable forms of relationships and Nico living as a rogue outside of them, rejecting expectation (ergo in himself representing a metaphor of queer identity and living outside of boxes and defined/usually hetero-allonormative/binary ideas of what love/relationships should look like) versus Jason struggling with the expectation to conform to a label and even discussing with Nico both of them remaining at CHB together.

Something something the inverse of Jason shifting away from the camps after he breaks up with Piper, feeling lost and unable to find a place between the camps as he begins to explore his queer identity properly for the first time versus Nico only remaining at CHB because he has entered a relationship. In this essay I will-

[iminye]

Pippin is canonically older than both Éowyn and Éomer... This feels illegal somehow

[randomcollection-o-stuff]

I Am so glad that my first time reading Dracula is through Dracula Daily and Re:Dracula. It is so immersive reading along with Mr. Harker, whose voice actor is incredible btw, all of them are!!!! Cannot recommend it enough