#booktube sff

[olderthannetfic]

When there was an anon about "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" a few months ago (or so?), I got curious and looked at the Goodreads reviews linked and at other reviews and the description.

Haven't looked at them this "round" of the asks regarding it, but IIRC I got the impression that it may originally have been a fanfic that had its names and some details altered to be published as an original work because IIRC some reviewers said there was little exposition as if one were already knowledgeable about stuff like the characters and world setting. Of course, I may also be (and most probably am) absolutely incorrect in this assumption.

The "mob" of angry reviewers also kinda gave me the impression that they may have been a friend group (based on their very similar phrasing and vocabulary and accusations, which may still also just be coincidental) who disliked the author for fannish reasons or something else and decided to take their (fannish?) dislike to the published literary world with the author's first publication... but again, I may just be wildly misinterpreting things and may have read their reviews in bad faith.

Regardless of whether or not the book is a "colonizer romance" or badly written or even disrespectful or tasteless or something else, I feel sorry for the author...

--

I wouldn't assume this. Usually, when het fics get the serial numbers filed, they're from one of the big het ships with a whole culture of doing this and it's all very open and liked by the fans. Some review would say which ship at the very least if not what the original title was.

However, I would absolutely assume that a book that reads like fic is by an author whose past experience writing is mostly with fic and who reads a lot of fic.

I also have the impression that some authors in the romantasy space are people who like sff settings on TV but don't have a lot of practical experience in how one establishes sff world building in a novel. They may have cool ideas, and these ideas may show up by the end of a book or later in a series, but the beginning doesn't have much flavor. Someone coming from a more book sff background would probably either explain more up front or whet people's appetites to understand the sff elements by giving a lot more sense of the setting. (But they might fall down on the romance aspects.)

There are also plenty of cliques in booktok, booktube, book twitter, etc., so a group of angry reviewers could be coming from somewhere like that and not from fandom beef.

It's also possible that the reviewers all sound the same because they read/watch the same book influencers who talk a certain way rather than because the reviewers are friends with each other.

Very likely, you're picking up the vibes accurately. I just think there are some other possible reasons for these vibes.

--

Poking around goodreads reveals a bunch of Corrain drama spillover. Search 'corrain', 'youtube', 'reylo', etc. for the reviews that give a sense of where samey-sounding people might be coming there from.

It's very clear that many reviewers heard all about the book long before they read it.

[bloody-wonder]

myth retellings, fantasy inspired by xyz culture and cultural appropriation

today the youtube algorithm led me to the best book related video essay i've ever watched and i simply have to (emphatically) recommend it here

it discusses the problems greek myth retellings have narratively, as books and as retellings, but more importantly it also touches upon the problem of cultural appropriation - something the lovers of speculative fiction inspired by cultures outside of the us and other anglophone countries are reluctant to acknowledge. as someone who's been an avid fantasy reader and booktube watcher for the past five years and who comes from one of the cultures anglophone authors like to get "inspired" by, i'm very passionate about this topic and i'd like to spread awareness about it since it seems that even a community as progressive as the online book community has a huge blind spot when it comes to sff, publishing and cultural appropriation. people tend to get very defensive and say stuff like this:

this is one of the top comments on the video essay above and, in my not at all humble opinion, it is a bad faith argument. on the surface the person is stating something it's hard to disagree with whereas what they really do is dismiss the concerns of the people complaining that their cultures are being stolen, trivialized and sold back to them. now, instead of talking about harmful structural problems in publishing that favors books by anglophone authors instead of translating and promoting foreign works, we're centering the conversation on a cosmopolitan author figure who contributes to Art and Culture by getting "inspired" by the cultures of other people - while willfully ignoring that this "inspired" author is almost always american, british or at the very least a native english speaker.

this is of course a nuanced issue and the solution isn't banning all authors from ever writing outside of their own culture. however, i do believe that in order to make the situation less unjust for authors and readers whose cultures popular anglophone authors like to borrow and profit from we need to acknowledge that something unjust is indeed happening and we need to recognize this injustice for what it is - cultural appropriation. even if the term offends the sensibilities of a reader who loves greek myth retellings or of an aspiring author who plans to write their very own fantasy inspired by eastern european folklore one day.

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #52

and NOW that we are caught up, I am back to a regular (for me) reading pace. also as a fun note, my mom gave me an ereader/i stole on from her so i can read cool indie epubs in e-ink and not awkwardly on my phone

Finished:

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 1 by Kuneida, translated by Andrew Gaippe my dad likes this manga, and asked me to read the first volume to see if i also liked it before he donated his volumes to the library. i did not.

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy mystery book i learned about from a lesbian on booktube. lesbian nun as the sleuth! my mutuals book club randomly picked this as our book for January and I finished it in the backseat during the drive up to canada for extended family christmas. it was alright!

What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 11 by Fumi Yoshinaga, translated by Jocelyn Allen at this point reading a volume of this manga is a christmas season tradition for me. I first picked it up on a christmas break and aside from reading some volumes this summer that's pretty much exclusively when I've read it. it's cozy slice of life cooking manga nature is very suited to relaxed end of year reading for me

Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Rob Inglis woo! this was a fun beast to slowly get to. i am confident that next year, and by the time my friends are doing a lotr marathon, i will have read the lotr book finally. i like the structure of the series

10 Dance, Vol. 1 by Inouesatoh, translated by Karhys i got it in my head to take a bunch of manga ebooks out of the library and read a bunch of first volumes to decide if i wanted to keep them tagged on my libby account. that was very silly, but i did read this (i think eventually actually gay but for now mostly queerbait vibes) manga about ballroom dancing?

Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto, translated by Amanda Haley i picked this up on my final day at home with my parents when my mom and i stopped by the library and read it that afternoon. I cried. what an excellent introduction to Fujimoto's work, i can't wait to read more

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, narrated by Hope Davis read for my local sff book club for January, despite never reading this myself as a child it was a very nostalgic read, bc i vividly remember my younger sibling reading it and being obsessed with it. i even recognized several scenes as one's I had overheard from their audiobook

Started/Ongoing:

Unpainted by Dani Finn i am packing my ereader with books by indie queer/trans authors and Dani Finn had a big sale in my line of sight. i'm about halfway through, i'm having a bit of trouble connecting with both the plot and the romance, so.... but I am interested in checking out their other work. just maybe not going to finish this one

I will see you all in the new year! with more reading than ever probably. or less if i get a job. maybe i'll post some hopes and goals for reading next year sometime over the next couple days

[explosionshark]

Hi hi! I was wondering, how do you choose what to read next? I know you get recs from friends and I assume you read stuff from authors you already know you like, but beyond that, how do you hear about new books? Goodreads? Sometimes I have a million books I want to read but other times nothing at the library is of interest to me and I tend to get stuck there mentally while waiting for my books on hold to be available 😂

Also, do you have any recs for horror books about ghosts? I want to read a good ghost book :) bonus points if there are sapphic ghost books!! 👻

there are a bunch of places i check in on to keep up on new titles or find out about interesting backlist stuff

first, for new releases, there are different columns/websites that exist just to catalogue the new stuff coming out (mostly from major publishers, if you're looking for indie or selfpub these probably won't help much)

io9 has their Bookshelf Injection column of new SFF (and some horror) that gets published every month

Jumpscares has a similar list for horror titles

for a more "literary fiction" bent you can always check out Bookmarks' Best Reviewed Books of the Week posts

If you're looking for a little more editorializing/reviewing I'd start looking around on sites like Book Riot (example lists include: Best Werewolves in books, 9 Books with Disabled Main Characters etc) or Electric Lit (Example: 10 Must Read Books set in Cairo, 7 Books About Grotesque Bodies).

Additionally, there are places to get recommendations that feel a little more tailored and personal. There are podcasts I enjoy for this (mostly for horror) like Talking Scared or Books in the Freezer. And there's always booktube (though finding a reviewer you like can be tricky) I like TheShadesofOrange, Petrick Leo, and Jess Owens.

There's also reddit (r/fantasy, r/horrolit, r/lgbtbooks, r/printsf are the main places I go to). Goodreads does have its uses, though admittedly I use it more to track my own reading and to follow friends, authors I like, and a handful of reviewers whose opinions I trust. Overall, I think the GR community as a whole is a total clown show and I don't put much stock into the rating system there.

If you have some favorite authors and they are on goodreads or social media, I'd say it's usually pretty worthwhile checking out the books they're hyping up.

finding new or interesting books is pretty easy, but choosing what to read from my own, admittedly ridiculously huge library? that's trickier. tbh, i mostly go on vibes.

alright for the second part of your question.

i love a good haunted house story!

anyone you ask with any taste at all is probably going to give you the answer i'm about to, but if you haven't read it yet, the #1 haunted house book I can recommend to you is Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. It's a classic for a reason. If it sweetens the pot for you - the character of Theo is a lesbian. There's great subtext between Theo and the book's main character, Nell. A scholar recruits people who've had experiences with the supernatural to stay with him in a purportedly haunted house to see if they can come up with proof that ghosts are real. Shit gets whacky. One of the finest american novels ever written, regardless of genre.

If you want more sapphics and less house it might be worth checking out Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth (yes, the Cameron Post author). I had some issues with this one. I wouldn't say I didn't like it, but I know a lot of people liked it more than I did. It's very queer, has an interesting dual timeline - one plot set in the past tells the story of a mysterious tragedy befalling an early 1900s girls boarding school, the other plot is about a movie being made about those events in the present day.

The Red Tree by Caitlin R Kiernan - okay this one IS also about lesbians but it's probably the darkest book on this list. A struggling middle aged writer moves into a creepy old house after the death of her girlfriend by suicide. In the house, she discovers a lost manuscript of a previous resident who had been researching local folklore and documenting sinister events seemingly linked to the gnarled, tree on the house's property. Things do not go well. Very well written (have some issues with Kiernan but they're an incredible talent and, worth mentioning, they're the only genderfluid writer in the genre that I know of)

Another book I always recommend on this topic is Echoes edited by Ellen Datlow. It's a HUGE anthology of short ghost stories. Some of my favorite horror short fiction ever written is in this collection. It's a great way to be introduced to some of the best horror writers around right now - Datlow is a legendary editor. I recommend anyone interested in horror check out her collections. The stories in Echoes are varied in theme and from a variety of different voices.

Other ghost books that whip ass

Come With Me by Ronald Malfi - after his wife is killed in a mass shooting, a man gripped with grief discovers a secret she'd been hiding from him for their entire marriage. He picks up an investigation she had been secretly pursuing that sets him on a collision course with an apparent serial killer. A story of grief and the secrets we keep from the people we love.

The Good House by Tananarive Due - a woman has to return to her childhood home, still awash in the grief of losing her teenage son there two years ago. While staying there and with the help of an old friend, she begins to unravel the strange tangle of tragedies that have surrounded the house since her grandmother's time, and to uncover the truth of what really happened to her son. A story about generational trauma and breaking cycles.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp - this one's great on audio. This book is told in the style of a posthumously published book from a VICE style douchebag journalist who was attempting to write a book that would once and for all disprove the existence of the supernatural. Extremely unlikable main character, but that added to the experience for me - I was very stoked to get to the part where bad things would begin to happen to Jack Sparks. This one's got a lot of dark humor and some genuinely scary scenes. Love it. Wish more people would read it.

Hope you find something in there you like! Good luck!

[aucella]

josie. answer. ALL the book questions. i want to know

How many books did you read this year?

idk. didn't count. around 20?

Did you reread anything? What?

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin, sort of. The first time was a listen-through so I missed plenty of it. There are also a handful of Ted Chiang stories that I'd caught online and reread this year 'in-context', so to speak (Ted Chiang's 'The Great Silence'.)

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Ted Chiang, Kazuo Ishiguro (in terms of authors where I finished a book and immediately dug into their other work). There are other authors I first read from this year that I imagine will ultimately be on the same level for me, but they're more slow-burn (Chiang was easy to catch up with because his work is all short stories, for example).

What genre did you read the most of?

Fantasy, in terms of sheer page count - much of my year was taken up by feasting on Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

The books I feel gnawing at me most to seriously get started on are Marlon James' Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

I need to go get caught up on my Goodreads stuff, then I'll reblog with my answer to this.

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones? I don't set reading goals.

What was your favourite new release of the year?

I'm not certain that I finished any books that were released in 2023.

What was your favourite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

This one might just have to be my answer for top book of the year... it'll have to be either Klara and the Sun or The Secret History.

Any books that disappointed you?

I'd somehow come into Martha Wells' All Systems Red with a vague and totally wrong idea of what Murderbot Diaries was all about. That's not the book's fault, but still, wasn't quite what I was looking for.

What were your least favourite books of the year?

I'm no good at finishing books that I'm not enjoying, so I'm not sure I have anything that would be fair to put here...

What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

I'm answering this ask too late for this one. u_u

Did you read any books that were nominated or won awards this year?

No 2023 books at all for me this year. I think.

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I'm struggling a little to get through Gideon the Ninth, but I've also heard the series doesn't come into its own until Harrow... (and of course I might come around to Gideon by the time I finish it).

Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, though I've yet to finish it. Turns out that classics are good! I'm somehow shocked every time.

How many books did you buy?

Who are you, a cop?

Did you use your library?

I'm not sure what this one means.

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

Will substitute 'release' for 'read' - Ursula Le Guin's work is consistently pretty great, and I'd been trying to get the motivation to go through her stuff for a while.

Did you participate in or watch any bookblr, booktube, or book twitter drama? No.

What's the longest book you read?

Unsure, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the Elderling books. Maybe Fool's Fate?

What's the fastest time it took you to read a book?

I was cruising pretty quickly through Elderlings if you judge it by time vs pagecount. Those were about a week each.

What reading goals do you have for next year?

I'm killing time until Seth Dickinson's Exordia, then I'm gonna finish more of the half-read SFF classics I'm procrastinating on.

[ryttu3k]

The book recap! Previous years: [2023] [2022] [2021]

1. How many books did you read this year?

Currently sitting on 43! This does include a few very short ones, but does not include lit magazines (I started reading Uncanny).

2. Did you reread anything? What?

Dracula, this time listening to Re: Dracula (for the second time), while following along in the official Dracula Daily book!

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Top of the list are Chuck Tingle's Bury Your Gays and Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, which both got a 9.5. Books that got a 9 are Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree, When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, The Unbalancing by RB Lemberg, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White, and for non-fiction, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's More More More, Nevo Zisin's The Pronoun Lowdown, and Jungalow: Decorate Wild. So top ten, but like. Eight of those tie.

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I'd like to read more Sacha Lamb!

5. What genre did you read the most of?

*waves from the SFF corner*

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

*laughs in excessively long TBR*

7. What was your average Goodreads Storygraph rating? Does it seem accurate?

4.1, and yeah, seems about right!

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

Yes! Made a loose goal of 36 (three per month), hit that, went for 40, hit that too! Granted, yes, some were very short XD;; I also got a bingo for the Trans Rights Readathon!

9. Did you get into any new genres?

I did read some poetry for the TRR, although I can't really say I'm a big poetry person at this point.

10. What was your favourite new release of the year?

Bury Your Gays. I liked Camp Damascus a bit more, but this was so fun.

11. What was your favourite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Huh, what counts as 'a while'? Light From Uncommon Stars came out in 2021, is three years 'a while'? Otherwise, Dracula is a perennial favourite!

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Read RA Salvatore's Homeland, the first Legend of Drizzt book. It was……… okay. I don't think I'll continue reading the series XD;;

13. What were your least favourite books of the year?

✌️

14. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Oh, hm. That's a week away, so not sure. If I can get a few more in, I would like to try to get to 45! I may try to get caught up on Uncanny?

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women's Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

Light from Uncommon Stars was nominated for the Hugo for best novel in 2022, The Deep for best novella in 2020 (also nominated for the World Fantasy Awards and Nebula novella). Read a bunch of the short story nominees for the Hugos and Locus, including the 2023 winner of both, Rabbit Test, and the 2024 Locus winner, How To Raise A Kraken In Your Bathtub.

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Oh, hm. Nothing comes to mind for being over-hyped, aside from maybe Homeland? But then, Homeland's always had extremely mixed reviews ranging from 'this is an absolute modern classic of fantasy' to '…it's bad, Jim'.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Not really, they generally hit my expectations.

18. How many books did you buy?

About 25 ebooks, 10-15 physical books.

19. Did you use your library?

Yup! Use your local libraries!

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

tbh my most anticipated release was hearing something about Alecto the Ninth and hearing absolutely fuck all 😭 In terms of ones I was expecting that did come out, I goddamn loved Bury Your Gays.

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

I am drama-free~

22. What's the longest book you read?

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson, at 452 pages. It's just a smidge longer than Dracula, at 440.

23. What's the fastest time it took you to read a book?

I mean. Some were short stories XD

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Nope!

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

Continue an average of at least three a month. Perhaps try for four? I was not very consistent with it.

[ryanlanz]

I'm honored that The Bearded Book Beast himself featured two of my books in his newest unboxing video. I appreciate the kind words.

This man is passionate about SFF stories and well worth checking out the rest of his content, a real gem of a Booktuber.

[lilareviewsbooks]

“Senlin Ascends”’ Odd Choices For A Romance

3/5 stars

448 pages 

Contains: a shy nerd; a tower full of crazy things; steampunk! Let’s go steampunk!

Senlin Ascends required stepping outside my bubble, something I’ve been periodically doing this past year in hopes of reading all the fantasy “classics” or important works in the genre. My bubble, of course, being my little gay SFF books. Senlin Ascends is most definitely not queer, not in the slightest. In fact, it is so straight I feel like I need to make a proper complaint: there’s no gay people! Not to mention the shocking absence of people of color from the cast of characters, save for the occasionally ambiguous “olive skin”. And this was published in 2013!

Anyway, before I go on my tirade: what is this book about? It follows Thomas Senlin, the headmaster of a school in a tiny village, and his wife Marya. They’ve just gotten married and chosen a fantastic honeymoon destination – the Tower Of Babel, which Thomas idolizes as the pinnacle of civilization. Tragedy strikes, though, as soon as they arrive – Thomas and Marya lose each other at the base of the Tower, and it’s up to Thomas to navigate its many floors in search of her. However, his previous impressions about the Tower might be completely wrong – maybe it’s not all that civilized, after all.

When it comes to social concerns, I have an even bigger one. The main relationship in the book – Senlin and his new wife Marya – has a 10 year age gap, which I guess is fine if both parties were consenting adults when the relationship began (which, as I understand, they were). The problem I have is that they were teacher and student when they met, and Marya was a minor at the time. And listen: I hate student teacher relationships with a passion. I don’t care if it’s fictional – do you know how many kids will read these kinds of books while still in school and internalize that this is normal? Like, no! This is bad! 

But even without this social issue, I think this is just so, so avoidable. In Chapter 13 of Part 2, it’s established that Marya was a student at the school when Senlin became headmaster – that is, he wasn’t teaching there when she was first enrolled in the school. Now, this makes sense because Senlin is a headmaster and the only teacher in a small town, which only has one multi-serial school. He must’ve taught almost all the village’s younger citizens. But if Marya was already a student, why not age her up a little bit (a matter of 2 years, or some such, so the big age gap between Senlin and Marya can be kept, in case that’s important) so that she wasn’t in school at the time Senlin took the helm there? Why must they have been student and teacher at some point? It’s just so incredibly predatory – the age difference might already raise a few eyebrows, but the fact that he knew her since she was underage, and had power over her? That’s so weird!

And although this book and its series are very popular in the fantasy sphere of BookTube, for example, I haven’t heard comments on this at all. I had no idea that they were student and teacher, at all, because I’d never heard anyone mention it. I think this isn’t something we can ignore, and it says something about the message the book is trying to convey. 

Of course, as always, I hold out hope that this will be some sort of critique, or that the narrating voice or the characters themselves will condemn or discuss this issue, in further installments of the series. But, judging from the lack of representation for any minority groups in this at all, I’m assuming social consciousness isn’t at the top of the author’s list of priorities – which I guess is fine? I don’t know, I don’t want to tell anyone how to live their lives or write their books. 

Apart from this concern, Senlin Ascends is – and I’ll put it as eloquently as I can – meh. 

It has strong characters, that’s for sure. Quirky ones that appear and reappear as Senlin goes through the Tower, whose personalities are convincing and well thought-out. Senlin himself evolves as a person throughout the story, which is satisfying to watch, especially when it intermingles with other characters’ arcs. But there’s something quite predictable about the structure, as Senlin continues to go up the Tower, find something odd and vaguely steampunk-y, and then leave to continue on upwards. This is held together by short chapters, which almost always end in either a cliff-hanger or in a revelation. This is a common tactic in popular writing, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad, it just loses its efficacy and all meaning when it's done so much – not to mention how tiring it is. The short chapters sometimes fall flat, as it feels like there’s something missing and the atmosphere needs a little tending, which would’ve happened if Mr. Bancroft had opted for longer chapters.

Senlin Ascends is the first book in a series, The Books of Babel, which spans four books. From what I’ve heard from BookTube (specifically, I’m thinking of a video by Tall Guy Reads), the books become more epic, as the scope of the story shifts from “trying to get to Marya” to “saving the world”. This doesn’t really entice me. What led me to Senlin Ascends in the first place was its premise – and I liked how contained the story felt, how small it was in comparison to other fantasies. This was what would’ve kept me on track to finish the series. Unfortunately, given the mediocre experience I had with this first book, not to mention the weird origin of the main relationship, I think I’ll be calling it quits now. I’m really not interested in seeing this expand and become a “saving the world” story. I think the strength of the book lies in its protagonist and supporting cast, all of which don’t have much to do with saving the world, and whose backstory was compelling enough without it being fuel to do something heroic. 

If you’ve read this one, I’m curious to know your thoughts and would love to hear them! I’ve seen so many people love this one, so I’m wondering what I missed and if it was just a matter of not connecting with the story as much as others.

[roseunspindle]

April 2019 Reading Wrap-up

https://www.goodreads.com/series/82709-skip-beat

https://www.goodreads.com/series/191900-the-murderbot-diaries

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37007781-foundryside

https://www.goodreads.com/series/170872-wayfarers

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15954540-the-wretched-of-muirwood

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38743584-wundersmith

https://www.goodreads.com/series/54879-hellsing

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37825535-tales-from-the-inner-city

https://www.goodreads.com/series/180367-binti

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7276878-vacation-under-the-volcano

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25446343-muse-of-nightmares

https://www.goodreads.com/series/131529-kuroshitsuji

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6192272-bloodlist

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2577088-the-wolves-of-paris

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/365955.The_British_Museum_Book_of_Greek_and_Roman_Art

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39348113-skyward

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20578957-second-chances

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/566784.Transformation

[yasbxxgie]

Octavia E. Butler Slow Read-A-Long (ONYX Pages, 6/22/20) [h/t] +Alt

Schedule: September 27, 2020: Kindred (1979) [Optional Reading: Kindred – Graphic Adaptation by Damian Duffy and John Jennings (2018)] November 29, 2020: Wild Seed (1980) January 31, 2021: Mind of My Mind (1977) March 28, 2021: Clay’s Ark (1984) May 30, 2021: Survivor (1978) July 25, 2021: Patternmaster (1976) September 26, 2021: Dawn (1987) November 28, 2021: Adulthood Rites (1988) January 30, 2022: Imago (1989) March 27, 2022: Parable of the Sower (1993) [Optional Reading: Parable of the Sower: Graphic Adaptation, by Damian Duffy and John Jennings (2017)] May 29, 2022: Parable of the Talents (1998) [Optional Reading: Parable of the Talents: Graphic Adaptation, by Damian Duffy and John Jennings (TBC)] July 31, 2022: Bloodchild (1995) September 25, 2022: Fledgling (2005) November 27, 2022: Unexpected Stories (2014)

[readmomwrite]

Let’s discuss the parallels of The Wheel of Time and Mr. Nobody. Here’s a reaction video from a WoT first-timer after reading book 2: The Great Hunt: https://youtu.be/qdW_pXqkDX0

[bloody-wonder]

How do you find new books to read? Most people I ask say booktok, which sorry if I'm wrong but I assumed you wouldn't use, and I haven't had good results from trying booktok.

good question!

no i don't use booktok or tiktok in general. in fact, i have a very old man yells at cloud attitude towards it lol. i do watch lots of booktube tho and get some recs from there, however it's important to remember: many people are hyping up a book >> probably not a good rec🙅‍♀️ "if so many people like it i might like it too" that's the fomo devil talking! one booktuber is swearing by a book you have never heard of and gushing about it in their every other video >> probably a good rec👍that's how i came across the aurelian cycle and the winnowing flame. idk maybe it works on booktok the same way if you follow the right people but. i don't trust that app😅

other recs i get from my trusted mutuals on tumblr bc these are people who enjoy the same type of sophisticated literature as i do so when one of them mentions they read and liked a book my interest is peaked. when they constantly mention it it has the same effect as when your mutual reblogs three gifsets of a show - now you just have to watch it bc you know from previous experience you will likely enjoy it. i think i first heard of doctrine of labyrinths in worldhoppers' underrated fantasy video but it would've sat on my goodreads tbr forlornly till the end of time had i not found out that it's popular with the lymond crowd - no rec is more reliable than that😌

finally, good book recs tend to come from obscure rec lists i perused on tumblr or on goodreads or on some old-fashioned book blog several years ago, added them to my tbr and then forgot. but bc i like to update my tbr regularly i go through the 1000+ books i have on goodreads each year in order to decide if i want to move them up my priority list and inevitably discover some hidden gems i scavenged this way back when i was getting back into reading. for example, i found the dreamhealers series and the memoirs of lady trent on the aroace characters database and i found nino cipri's litenverse on one of the numerous queer sff rec lists here on tumblr.

generally tho there is no perfect source of book recs that works all the time. understanding your own tastes and choosing books accordingly is a skill you develop by trial and error and no matter how good you get at curating your reading many books you pick up will likely disappoint you nonetheless🤷‍♀️

[biandlesbianliterature]

queer science fiction/fantasy recommendations | boston reads books

[karnsteinreview]

Mislabeling books as YA

Anyone following my main account will know that I’ve been ranting there about seeing books that definitely aren’t YA being labeled as YA on Instagram, goodreads, and booktube.

The specific books that I’ve noticed are all written by women, have f/f romances and explicit sex scenes, and have elements besides those sex scenes that also shouldn’t be considered YA.

In case you don’t know, YA means Young Adult, and it’s one of the most popular genres on book social media from what I can tell. Don’t be mistaken. YA is it’s own genre. It has its own publishing imprints. Agents specialize in representing it. It has its own sections at libraries and bookstores. There are rulesets of what can and can’t exist in YA stories. And this is exactly as it should be.

This isn’t exclusionary, or it at least shouldn’t be in the ideal publishing/bookselling world. This is so that a specific age range of people have books at are challenging to them, engaging to them, and safe for them. There are specific ways that YA books handle sex, violence, character, romance, and even worldbuilding and plot. There can be incredibly violent YA books, for example the Hunger Games. But how the book approaches violence, shows it, and has the characters engage in it is what matters. That’s why there can be YA horror, romances, and every other sub genre that adult books have (well maybe not erotica).

This is important. Teens and young adults (and even older adults who are comfortable in this genre) should be able to pick up books and know that there are certain rules that won’t be broken. Certain lines that won’t be crossed. Certain elements they can expect to see or avoid. This isn’t the books being deemed lesser or anything along those lines; it’s about the books being specifically tailored for certain rules and age ranges.

This is why mislabeling adult books as YA is a problem.

When it happens, it almost always happens to a female author. I’m not sure if it’s specifically SFF women authors or if that’s just what I notice because it’s my genre. There’s definitely sexism in that, as YA is often deemed a “female genre,” as if genres have genders. But why does it matter if an adult book gets put on the shelf next to YA books?

Because young adult readers will pick it up, trusting that it’s YA when it actually isn’t.

Teens and young adults can definitely read adult books; I pretty much skipped past YA entirely and dove right into adult SFF, but I also knew I was doing that. Teens browsing the YA section and picking up an interesting looking book called the Poppy War definitely aren’t aware they’re doing that, and they’re being exposed to content that—by the rules of their genre—they should not be being exposed to.

This is unfortunate for the young readers who might be exposed to content they aren’t comfortable with, of course, but it also negatively affects the authors of these mislabeled books. Those authors don’t have a say as to where a random bookstore or library decides to place their books, or how a blogger decides to describe it. And when their books get sold to an age range it isn’t designed for, they get perceived as not doing their job correctly or not taking enough care.

Too many female authors have been getting undeservingly slammed recently as a result of this. They are either accused of not taking enough care to avoid young people (not the target audience) from being exposed to that content, or they get accused of being disrespectful to YA if they try to make is clear that their books aren’t for a YA audience. Again, this doesn’t mean only adults can read it, it just means that younger people should be careful and maybe make themselves aware of the content before going it. @coolcurrybooks made a good post detailing this issue. This effects the readers but also the the book’s reviews, sales, and the author’s reputation.

This is important for people beyond booksellers and librians. Readers and people who talk about and recommend books should be aware of this issue, for their own comfort and to avoid exposing other people to books they might not be comfortable with. It’s not fair to these authors who publish under adult imprints and with adult agents that their books get criticized for being adult. They did what they were supposed to, and it’s other people’s errors that cause this issue.

One very easy way to know if a book is actually YA is to look for the publisher and make yourself aware of what the adult imprints and the YA imprints are. Look at that and don’t just label a book YA because an instagrammer made a pretty picture of the book and tagged it as such. And for the love of god, do NOT harass authors over their books being mislabeled or them trying to ensure their books aren’t mislabeled.

[bodhirookes]

if i could,,,,,,,,,,,,,, yknow,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, stop buying 10 books at a time when i’m only reading 3 a month,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, that would be gr8

[ryttu3k]

20, 27, 36

[bookworm asks]

20. Where and how do you find new books to read?

Book blogs, mostly! I have a little Sunday book blog routine, checking Book Riot, Reactor (formerly Tor), and Literary Hub, and I get a lot of recs from those, especially Reactor since I'm predominantly into SFF. Tumblr as well, although to a slightly lesser extent (literally just added something to my TBR based on a recommendation on my dash), and I follow a couple of booktubers who I've got recs from as well. I also sometimes go through rec lists and the like - got a ton of recs from doing the Trans Rights Readathon. I added 17 to my TBR just from that!

27. What was the first book you remember reading as a kid?

Oh goodness I honestly have no idea. I was hyperlexic as hell and was actually reading before three, so before I can remember, and I was read to as well. I just… always was surrounded by books. Hmm, if we're talking books I do have distinct memories of… maybe my Mum's copy of The Little Mermaid? It's a 1966 Golden Press holographic board book she got as a birthday present as a kid.

36. Your absolute most favorite character(s) from any book you've ever read.

I literally sat here for about fifteen minutes thinking about this one (I mean, I was doing other stuff as well, but. Contemplating, haha). I thiiiink... I'll have to go with one Samwise Gamgee, small in stature but immense in bravery and care <3