This is how i know the book sucks btw

i fucking hate all of you people.

one of my biggest fears is that "booktok" gets its grubby little hands on any books written by trudi canavan. i know its very pretentious blah blah blah but if a book has the word tiktok anywhere near it i wont touch it.

Booktok you deceiving motherfu-

The reason categorizing fanfiction by tropes works is because there's already an established setting, cast of characters, and theme in the original work, so when people write fanfics they're building sand castles in pre-existing beaches, but when you advertise your book as "sci-fi enemies to lovers where there's only one bed and also they're gay" it says nothing about what the premise is, who the characters are, or what the book is actually trying to say. That's not to say that books containing stuff like "sci-fi enemies to lovers where there's only one bed and also they're gay" can't be absolutely fantastic books, but if you only advertise by listing off tropes that are inherently cookie-cutter then you're implying (whether intentionally or not) that there's nothing interesting or memorable about the book besides smashing tropes together like you're playing with action figures.

HELLO??????

Retelings cliches that piss me the fuck off

♡Alice in Wonderland is about drugs - it could be about society, it could be about neurodivergency but no, white girl doing LSD is cooler, I guess.

♡ what if Superman was evil - then it wouldn't be Superman dumbass, like the main point of Superman is that he is a good person like it's the whole deal hyperpowerful but really good

♡actually any what if the heroes had no morals- then you are just doing Greek myths with extra steps

♡Romeo and Juliet, but one is an oppressor and the other the oppressed - Litterally, both families were in equal standing in society. Why you need to make it abusive for no reason.

♡Beauty and the beast, any reteling of beauty and the beast - no, it's not Stockholm syndrome, no a shapeshifter elf with abs doesn't count as a Beast, and Belle was a nice person In the original why everyone remakes her as a cunt.

♡my book it's just like the hunger games but...-Shut it I need you to please tell me if you understand that no, hunger games isnt just about reality television and a battle royale, I swear to God...

♡Pinocchio but it's about a robot- flower print for spring groundbreaking

♡it's inspired by the works of tolkien- no, it's a transcript of you and your group of only male friends playing dungeons and dragons while high on cheap weed at 03:00 am on the suburbs while listening to pop punk on MTV in 2003, we get it you want to bang a hot elven maiden and slain a dragon

♡is inspired by Harry potter- For the last fucking time Rowling doesn't own the concept of magic schools let go of those fucking chains and let this woman go it's a magic school book just call it that goddamn it

♡it's inspired by fairy tales - Disney version or the cultural ones because one way or the other, your childhood crush on an animated villain shouldn't be the only thing fueling your writing career.

♡it's about Greek gods...-*sigh* I don't even know where to start with those just read something other than Percy Jackson(I love percy Jackson by the way) Lore Olympus and the first page of Wikipedia on Greek mythology and then maybe spend a long time thinking if whatever you are planning to write isn't somehow more misogynistic than whatever the fuck an old Greek scholar wrote thousands of years ago okay.

♡what if (real life bigotry) was reverse - just don't for a first time writing, for someone in a privileged place in society, it's just a bad idea altogether, Dont

there is no moral value in reading fast and there's also no moral value in reading slowly. people who read slowly aren't automatically/necessarily reading more thoroughly and thoughtfully than people who read quickly, and at the same time reading is not a race. some people read fast because that's how their brains work; some people read slowly because that's how THEIR brains work. some fast readers are getting deep into analysis and close reading and some slow readers are just along for the ride and not thinking too hard. these are both equally valid and valuable ways of engaging with books

and nobody should shame anybody else for reading slowly but also if i see one more post that suggests people who read quickly only read meaningless garbage (your elitism is showing btw) and lack reading comprehension, i will start blocking people. it's just bullshit, and it's weird judgy bullshit at that. some people have jobs in books where reading hundreds of books a year is part of it. some people are academics. some people are bedridden or isolated and trust me you get through a lot of books when you're stuck in your room alone for days. and some people love the books you consider garbage and they're just having fun passing the time with light fiction that isn't too brain intensive and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that either, because reading can be a form of relaxation and doesn't always have to be an ~intellectual challenge~ to be worth doing, actually

Jude: *sitting in court on trial of murder*

Cardan:

Jude: God forbid women do anything like-

With the rise of booktok/booktwt, there's been this weird movement against literary criticism. It's a bizarre phenomenon, but this uptick in condemnation of criticism is so stifling. I understand that with the rise of these platforms, many people are being reintroduced into the habit of reading, which is why at the base level, I understand why many 'popular' books on booktok tend to be cozier.

The argument always falls into the 'this book means too much to me' or 'let people enjoy things,' which is rhetoric I understand -- at least fundamentally. But reading and writing have always been conduits for criticism, healthy natural criticism. We grow as writers and readers because of criticism. It's just so frustrating to see arguments like "how could you not like this character they've been the x trauma," or "why read this book if you're not going to come out liking it," and it's like...why not. That has always been the point of reading. Having a character go through copious amounts of trauma does not always translate to a character that's well-crafted. Good worldbuilding doesn't always translate to having a good story, or having beautiful prose doesn't always translate into a good plot.

There is just so much that goes into writing a story other than being able to formulate tropable (is that a word lol) characters. Good ideas don't always translate into good stories. And engaging critically with the text you read is how we figure that out, how we make sure authors are giving us a good craft. Writing is a form of entertainment too, and just like we'd do a poorly crafted show, we should always be questioning the things we read, even if we enjoy those things.

It's just werd to see people argue that we shouldn't read literature unless we know for certain we are going to like it. Or seeing people not be able to stand honest criticism of the world they've fallen in love with. I love ASOIAF -- but boy oh boy are there a lot of problems in the story: racial undertones, questionable writing decisions, weird ness overall. I also think engaging critically helps us understand how an author's biases can inform what they write. Like, HP Lovecraft wrote eerie stories, he was also a raging racist. But we can argue that his fear of PoC, his antisemitism, and all of his weird fears informed a lot of what he was writing. His writing is so eerie because a lot of that fear comes from very real, nasty places. It's not to say we have to censor his works, but he influences a lot of horror today and those fears, that racial undertone, it is still very prevalent in horror movies today. That fear of the 'unknown,'

Gone with the Wind is an incredibly racist book. It's also a well-written book. I think a lot of people also like confine criticism to just a syntax/prose/technical level -- when in reality criticism should also be applied on an ideological level. Books that are well-written, well-plotted, etc., are also -- and should also -- be up for criticism. A book can be very well-written and also propagate harmful ideologies. I often read books that I know that (on an ideological level), I might not agree with. We can learn a lot from the books we read, even the ones we hate.

I just feel like we're getting to the point where people are just telling people to 'shut up and read' and making spaces for conversation a uniform experience. I don't want to be in a space where everyone agrees with the same point. Either people won't accept criticism of their favorite book, or they think criticism shouldn't be applied to books they think are well written. Reading invokes natural criticism -- so does writing. That's literally what writing is; asking questions, interrogating the world around you. It's why we have literary devices, techniques, and elements. It's never just taking the words being printed at face value.

You can identify with a character's trauma and still understand that their badly written. You can read a story, hate everything about it, and still like a character. As I stated a while back, I'm reading Fourth Wing; the book is terrible, but I like the main character. The worldbuilding is also terrible, but the author writes her PoC characters with respect. It's not hard to acknowledge one thing about the text, and still find enough to enjoy the book. And authors grow when we're honest about what worked and what didn't work. Shadow and Bone was very formulaic and derivative at points, but Six of Crows is much more inventive and inclusive. Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark had some weird racial problems, but Chosen Ones was a much better book in terms of representation. Percy Jackson is the same way. These writers grow, not just by virtue of time, but because they were critiqued and listened to that critique. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien always publically criticized each other's work. Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes had a legendary friendship and back and forth with one another's works which provides so much insight into the conversations black authors and creatives were having.

Writing has always been about asking questions; prodding here and there, critiquing. It has always been a conversation, a dialogue. I urge people to love what they read, and read what they love, but always ask questions, always understand different perspectives, and always keep your mind open. Please stop stifling and controlling the conversations about your favorite literature, and please understand that everyone will not come out with the same reading experience as you. It doesn't make their experience any less valid than yours.

"books where the guy falls first" "enemies to lovers slowburn books" what the fuck is the book even about. why should i read it.

i swear to god i've literally made long posts of romance novel recommendations before, featuring book covers, which meant that:

the book was going to be about people falling in love. because that's the plot of romance novels. there might be other set dressings, like a murder or the reform act of 1867, but those are secondary to the main plot (some people don't want to kiss, but then they do, but they can't until they can) (this is an oversimplification but you get what i'm saying here)

the people who fall in love are most likely going to be on the cover, especially if they're marginalized because authors like to be clear about that kind of thing

and i still. STILL. on a post that was at least half diverse romance where various queer models of color were about to kiss on the covers. on a post where i mentioned the set dressing or any identities not immediately obvious from the covers, which were all pretty obvious. on a post that i mentioned was exclusively romance novels and were not going to be of interest to anyone who doesn't like kissin' books. got angry comments of:

but what is it about??????

i don't care about white people, this list is not for me

i don't care about straight people, this list is not for me

i don't have any money, where can i pirate these

some people have one standard accusatory response about every book they weren't planning to buy anyway and there is nothing, literally nothing, you can do to stop them from regurgitating it right up to and including telling them directly "this book is everything you say you want and also it's free right now"

... but at least the "is it gay" crowd tends to enthusiastically support your shit as soon as they find out the answer is "yes"

fellow tfota lover: I was re-reading all of cardan's letters to jude 😞😞

me: *understanding* I see how deep in the trenches you were and I support you.

Not to be a hater but the romance book culture is in peril

“The possibility of you is better than the reality of anyone else.”

Ana Huang, Twisted Hate

Decided to scroll tiktok while waiting for an appointment because I forgot my book at home and was forced to watch. Uh. THIS particular marketing tactic.