Books I read in 2023 and How I feel about them/do I even remember them

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut ##very good and very anti war and pro art like most Vonnegut and great way to start a year

Rebecca by Daphane Du Maurier ##liked it fine not very memorable

Stardust by Neil Gaimen ##loved it

Mary Shelley's Frankeinstein: A Graphic Novel by Pete Katz (Illustrator/script writer) and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ##fine

Most of Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros ##haunted by it so had to stop

An Easy Death by Charlene Harris ##loves it and convinced me to read other Harris books

Russian Cage by Charlene Harris ##liled it fine

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey ##so gay, wateres my crops etc, need more of this, could read a 100000 more books like this, could trick you into loving Westerners

Dark Tales: The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Graphic Novel by Ned Hartley (adapter), Dave Shephard (Illustrator), Arthur Conan Doyle ##fine

Most of Trigger Warning by Neil Gaimen ##loved it, all the best short stories Gaimen wrote

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain ##worst book ever, its offensive to everyone, its anti everyone, it hates ever religion

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins ##Girl tore me up and spat me out, how did you show everything wrong with snow and the games in a new light and can I saw sooo good

The Umbrella Academy Collection Part 1 by Gerard Way (Writer), Gabriel Bá (Artist), Dave Stewart (Colourist), Tony Šercer (Translator) ##liked the show much more

The Selection, The Elite and The One by Kiera Cass ##three books on one cause they run together and they are fine

The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis ##sooo good like a treat

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ##still holds up real good

Dead Till Dark by Charlene Harris ##oh true blood was better tv

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlene Harris ##oh jason really sucks and man Eric is soo fun but they murdered my boy without any real bite, very bury your gays and sure I have a black friend, so the tv show is sooo elevated

Who are your top 5 most problematic authors? I don't want to spend my money on people who aren't morally right!

Hmm it’s difficult to say “top 5″, but since I’m still seeing people obsessing over HP and twilight of all things, I especially want to emphasise: please do NOT support JK Ratling and Stephenie Meyer under any circumstances. 

Apart from them, I’ll name a couple others: Nora Suckavik (the author of the infamous All For the Game series which is highkey racist and problematic), Casserole Clare (she’s done some really shady stuff in the past), Kiera Cass (conservative, posted nothing about blm), Mackenzi Lee (bad behaviour, signing books authored by other people without their consent), Maggie Stiefvater (go through the anti tag. even her own fandom acknowledges that she’s shitty), Jay Kristoff (writing explicit sex scenes featuring minors) and Rainbow Rowell (very racist asian rep, fetishisation of mlm relationships). There may be more but I can’t think of anyone at the moment. 

Also sarah janet and shelby mahurin. Putting explicit sex in YA books and defending it is not okay. Besides their books are very problematic.

The worst part for me was the worldbuilding. Cass clearly has no idea how politics actually work, and why the fork would the US even revert back to being controlled by a monarchy anyway? Or France for that matter. FRANCE! Y'know, the country who was infamous for getting rid of its monarchs.

The worldbuilding was so subpar especially compared to the other dystopian books at the time. The Selection was marketed as THG meets The Bachelor and I just… fucking OOF why would anyone want to set KC up to fail so badly like that. The main worldbuilding elements were the castes, the palace, and the existence of the monarchs and rebels. Literally just the fact that a monarchy and rebel group existed. Little to no history explaining that, no political figureheads, no idea of what the rebels are currently doing etc. The food, clothing, setting, antagonists, political structure etc of The Selection were either bland or non-existent. It’s unfair to compare most YA dystopian novels to THG, so I’ll refrain in The Selection’s case. But at least in Divergent, the characters visited all five faction headquarters and the books explained the factionless society. There was also a lot of fuckery with serums and dreams and fashion and different faction traditions. In the Gone series everyone was developing different powers and all the kids trapped in the dome were steadily building a mini culture and political climate throughout the books. I could go on naming ancient YA books but I’ll spare you.

only three chapters into the siren and i’m regretting every moment of it

Thoughts on the selection series?

oooh yes. i am not a fan. i dont hate it as muchhhh as t0g or ac0tar but it is up there with trashy ya that really sucks. mostly really hated the concept like i personally am not a fan of the bachelor and didn’t feel the need to see it as a weird dystopian royalty concept. also it’s racist and sexist which is a definite downside. elise (the one asian character) is ethnically ambiguous which is problematic but she was also one 1D stereotype. the whole idea and way it is written is sexist. celeste is a stereotype as well and she is totally slut-shamed. ALSO we’re supposed to believe that all 25 girls are straight ???? really???? even on the bachelor australia two ended up together.  the writing is cringey and mediocre. and let me just mention the country is called swendway ??? yikes 

The sad thing about The Selection is that it´s a book that generally, I would totally read. I´m a sucker for monarchies in novels (because who didn´t dream of becoming a powerful royal as a kid?) and also for a bit more dramatic romance where the pull of the old and comfortable is as strong as the pull of the new and exciting. A bit like Romeo and Juliet but without the family hatred and death.

I would love to read the story of a girl who comes from a simple background and is pushed into this competition with girls who were all trained their entire lives for this and she finds herself actually liking the prince but also having feelings for someone else. I would love to see her trying to remind herself that royalty isn´t all parties and jewelry and that nothing is certain in this competition, especially not when she is in love with someone who isn´t the prince. Have that and I will give you all my money.

Instead, we got an obnoxious, self-centered idiot as a protagonist, world-building that makes any historian cry, two dumb and sexist love interests and so much girl-hate, it´s baffling. Add that to an absolute asshole of an author and one might wonder why it is so popular

Isn't it amazing how Elise Whisks's character boiled down to 'shy and submissive East Asian girl who wants to bring honor to her family'. Wow. Such great representation.

I read about The Selection and as a Swedish linguist (student) I am most gravely offended by Swendway. Two minutes of research would have told you there are already names for this region. Scandinavia? Norden? Never heard of em. Also, what happened to Denmark? If we gotta be lumped in with Norway I'm sure as heck dragging the danes with us. Glory to the Scandinavian Union! (Also #2, our names aren't that hard to pronounce. Swedish and Norwegian are Germanic languages like English.)

Yes, I know, I’m Swedish and live in Sweden. 

Fun fact: Finland is also in there. Apparently the Finns agreed that sure, “Swendway” is a good fucking name ??? I think the fuck not. 

Denmark, curiously, is not part of Swendway? 

And uuuh … I’m looking at the wiki page right now: 

According to Kiera Cass, the country’s name comes from Sweden, Finland, and Norway. The official language is Finnish.

The … official language … is Finnish? 

BY WHAT FUCKING LOGIC WOULD IT BE FINNISH?! Finns learn Swedish as an obligatory second language, and Norwegian is very similar to Swedish, so excuse me if I sound fucking full of myself but the language they’d speak would probably be a mix of Swedish and Norwegian, with Finns clinging to their language but forced to use Swedish to be understood.

Kiera Cass needs to like … read a book. Maybe several. Go outside once, maybe. See what the world is actually like? Not pull shit directly out of her ass and slap it on there and be so arrogant and/or lazy to even fact-check a single thing?

Whatever.

okay also a serious question about bitter snow, those who are LGBT out of the cast, are they yet aware of their orientations or hiding them or etc or no because obviously corona is like "absolutely not" so just curious

i think it breaks down like this:

rapunzel - baby bi. hasn’t realized yet.

eugene, lance - grew up eldora which is not quite as extreme as corona on this front; they’re also both fairly well traveled and have been exposed to more tolerant cultures so i think they are both pretty comfortable with their sexualities but it’s not. something you talk about openly in corona so

varian - baby bi, probably knows but doesn’t have the language to articulate it so just crushes hard on every cool adult he comes into contact with, as one does at that age

cass - she knows, she’s known for a long time, has never told anyone. would be very stressed about gilbert’s insinuation that she hasn’t been hiding it as well as she thought if she didn’t have a million other more pressing things to worry about rn; with the way anti-lgbt sentiment is so heavily tied to anti-saporian sentiment in corona it’s all sort of twisted up with her complicated feelings about being saporian. a mess.

caine - she’s just. fuck you, i’m gay

andrew - the same, except i feel like he isn’t the type of person who swears?

feldspar - i imagine him being, personally, comfortable with being gay but also painfully aware of the social implications if he’s outed; so heavily closeted but probably active in herzingen’s gay community on the dl

cap - like SUPER, super, “oh i’m just married to my work” closeted. though probably takes the attitude of /: they’re not hurting anyone and i don’t think it’s anyone’s business but theirs, this is something i definitely have no personal stake in, whatsoever,

arianna - tbh i think she’s probably open with fred about her being bi and has him agreeing with her that the stigma is ridiculous but it’s also this fraught thing where the king and queen can’t just snap their fingers and make centuries of homophobia and transphobia intermingled with xenophobia disappear overnight

willow - is loud about it. she doesn’t give a fuck, it’s not like she’s ever in corona for more than a couple weeks a year

stalyan - again, eldora isn’t quite as severe as corona is, but given the baron is, in canon, obsessed with marrying her off to her childhood sweetheart i think him being weird about his daughter even potentially being gay is a safe bet; so, i think as of Now she’s only just in the early stages of coming to terms w/ it

catalina - so this comes up more in moonless air but kiera and catalina are basically runaways from marne, which in comparison to eldora and corona is a lot more tolerant; plus catalina is just a kid and they don’t have much (anything) in the way of adult supervision so she’s basically living stealth, with kiera’s support

For the anti recommendation: The Selection trilogy by Kiera Cass. Poorly thought out world, bland characters, no core message which is really bad for a dystopian setting. Inconsistent plot foreshadowing, too. A lot of lazy world building! The writer seems to take on a "oh everyone knows this detail, of course!" style of narration, it breaks the flow - if there was one. Also, the dialogue is hard to read and the main character is nOt LiKe oTHeR gIrLs.

I will definitely make sure to not read it then, thank you!

{ send anti-recommendations }

Re: The Selection & monarchies. Didn't read the book, only comments about it, but as an Italian... an Italian princess?! Whose title means something??! No! We exiled our royals after WWII, and when the one "prince" (not legally meaningful) we have now was allowed to come back, he had to swear loyalty to the republic and its Constitution! We'd never put them back in power.

Oh gosh I somehow totally forgot that the women were representatives from their respective provinces or countries. Now I’m remembering how a lot of the politics were rather regressive and unrealistic for no good reason. I feel like there was a period in YA publishing when YA authors would just get away with writing stuff like that. Like remember how Marissa Meyer blended a bunch of Asian countries into one mega country? A huge part of dystopian is the groundwork for how the society got to that point, but many of the books during dystopian craze did no such groundwork so they had readers majorly scratching their heads throughout.

if you're ever feeling down, just remember that sarah j mass, cassandra clare, and kiera cass were able to professionally publish poorly-written books that became instantaneous bestsellers. if they can achieve that, then anything is possible

hey what’s the kiera cass incident and why don’t i know about it

basically the kiera cass incident is where she and her agent attacked a reviewer after she posted a negative review of the selection online. here’s a link to the reviewer’s story. it’s pretty messy and gross 

I was doing some trolling of the anti kiera cass tag (i was going to go on a angry rant about the selection but i lost my train of thought and was foolishly hoping to get it back from there) and apparently on twitter or something KC said that Maxon was going to marry Kriss in the One because he loved her but mostly because it would hurt America the most and I just

maxon was going to do a what now,,

well idk its my first time hearing this so i tried to look it up on twitter but i only found that kiera said that if it wasn't for rebels attack, he would marry kriss but i didnt find anything confirming that he loved her... hmm i mean after maxon saw america with aspen and thought she cheated on him/ didn't really love him it would make sense to marry kriss since she was his last option.. yeah he loved america but after seeing what he saw would it make sense if he forgave her right away? or married her thinking she doesn't love him? i dont think so... he was hurt and heartbroken so it would make sense if a part of him wanted america to feel at least a little bad? after all we are just humans and we are allowed to be flawed, im not going to judge him because i cant really imagine how painful it must have been for him to realise the person he loved, really loved, wasn't loyal to him so... but thank god it was only stupid miscomunucation and they had their happily ever after <3

Favourite Quote: Your Majesty - Tugging my ear. Whenever. Title: The Selection Author: Kiera Cass Rating: 🦋🦋🦋🦋/5 Genre: Dystopian Opinion: Netflix is making it a movie. Excited to see the portrayal considering I understand the setting to be post our time but the activities purport archaic practices. I obviously enjoyed reading, as this is a re-read. Based on the cover, I was sold. *Yes I judge books by their covers!* Initially, it was a bit of a slow burner, but oh did the pace pick-up. I absolutely adored the America-Maxon banter. Complete enjoyment was experienced in their “friendship-agreement.” I was definitely anti-TeamAspen post their last treehouse experience. So excited for Book 2. #LetsGetIntoIt #BookReview #TheSelectionSeries #KieraCass #TheSelection #BibliophiliaWithPetra #PulcherPetra Let me share the synopsis: The opportunity to be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she begins to realise that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. (at Trinidad and Tobago) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRofxHqL9fe/?utm_medium=tumblr