It's so difficult, because I genuinely do want to understand what the whole deal with Christianity is, but Christians are so apposed to any line of questioning about their belief system (in a way that no other religion is) that if you say anything they don't like they shut down and accuse you of being a sinner.

And it's like bro, I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm trying to understand why this religion is even appealing to you. How do you manage to get so many converts when you're not even willing to answer basic questions about your theology?

Everyone I've found who's actually willing to discuss Christian theology with me is an ex-Christian which is super unhelpful, because ex-Christians are people who have deconstructed Christian belief and come to the conclusion that it doesn't work for them. They're always very cynical about the whole situation. That's not what I'm looking for.

I want to talk to someone who's still into it. I want to understand what actually draws people to this religion ( I do not want to be trauma dumped at - I don't know what aspect of Christian belief confuses y'all into thinking that trauma dumping is an appropriate substitute for theological discussion, but it absolutely isn't).

Like you would really think for one of the most popular religions in the world finding answers to this stuff would be easier. Why can't you guys just talk about your beliefs?

may i ask why you hate mapleshade? like is it more of a fandom thing/author thing or do you just not like her character? sorry if thats a weird question lol

i think the idea behind her character is cool but the erins are the erins and they fucked it up imo. also the way the fandom treats any discussion about her and other characters in her book is so annoying i cannot stand going into the mapleshade tag on tumblr

which is a shame cause like i said, i really like the concept of her character and i feel like it had alot of potentional

not a weird question, i get it. i gotta start by saying i have no ill will against people who like mapleshade or even like the points i'm about to say. btw! sorry this is long i got really into it

starting chronologically (according to canon, not publication)(publication order is: all ivypool darkforest books (2011 and prev) crookeds promise (2011), great battle (last hope 2012, she permadies here) and maples vengeance (2015)

i actually really liked mapleshade's vengeance, all things considered. it comes last in the mapleshade storyline according to publication date, and up until then we really didn't know much about her, and i believe this is where she gets a personality other than "random DF lady" and "rude ghost villain". the erins are not good writers by any means, but i felt that mapleshade's internal monologue and the way she saw the world was genuinely pretty decent. they portrayed her as obsessive and manipulative and as an unreliable narrator. it was one of the first books i read upon returning to the fandom in 2018 and it was a thrill to read, because i hadn't been spoiled on it.

the erins have a habit of writing surprise/accidental pregnancies as plot points, which has the implication of like… flings/one night stands. it's best not to think about it. it's pretty obvious upfront that appledusk is not as in to her as she is in to him, but she doesn't see it. she talks about him in her narrations as a sweet and loving man and talks about their family and future together, but when we the readers finally see him, he's calloused and doesn't really care about her. i think she even sees him with reedshine at a gathering and gets mad before she thinks "oh he's just doing that so no one gets suspicious" (not quoting or anything, i havent read the novel since 2018) girl. their relationship was obviously just a fling to him, but to her they were in love. i liked the way this was written as opposed to all the other times in warriors weve seen a man have a hissy fit because a girl rejected him. (ashfur is the glaring example but also crowfeather, brambleclaw) her denial and refusal to accept what she was seeing (that she was the side piece) was the interesting part.

she has her children and then ravenwing spills the beans. why on earth would he do that? why would it benefit the clan or anyone? from a logistical standpoint, thunderclan lost 3 potential new warriors and mapleshade never implied she was going to riverclan. anyway, he didn't even have proof. he just assumed. i think he rightfully got what was coming for him, since if he would have kept his mouth shut, 7 cats including himself wouldn't have died. sorry mini rant i don't like him. anyway we know the rest of the story. kits die, maple kills ravenwing for telling her secret, she kills frecklewish for not helping (no, she couldn't have jumped in to save the kits without probably dying herself but she COULD have stood up for maple in thunderclan, and she was upstream so she could have yelled out and warned maple of the flood but im NOT getting into that and i dont care) and then she goes to kill reedshine but kills appledusk instead. did he deserve it? he was kinda a dick but mapleshade was like stalker-obsessed with him (i think she uses the phrase "my appledusk" in her narration but i might be wrong) after what was ostensibly a one night stand. perchpaw wounds mapleshade to the point where once she flees the scene, she dies of blood loss. cool

the story of a mothers love (and a mother's loss) is an age-old tale. in a franchise where all female characters are doomed to become boring cookie-cutter mothers, this loss and violent rage was awesome.

everyone told me to read crookedstar's promise, because it was the best super edition. i.. do not agree with that. tbh i thought it was long and boring and went nowhere. crookedstar suffered many tragedies in his life, and he lost everyone he loved, and then the book suddenly ends with him going "im ok (:" and dying. (i was reading a pdf and not a physical copy so it was VERY abrupt for me. i legit sat there like.. so that's it? i read 500+ pages for that?) i can't really blame mapleshade for this (since shes not real) but it does factor in. her idea of revenge against appledusk was to torture an injured baby? who then grew up and had no idea who the fuck appledusk was? why not raise him and give him the love he craved so that when the time came, he would be more likely to do her bidding?? her motives here make no sense. not super important. anyway.

and then she's seen occasionally in the dark forest and she tries to drown ivypaw for no reason once. idk she was obviously just a background character in these scenes (since they came first) but the fans saw a female in the dark forest and were like. thank god a woman. can you blame them. then the erins built her up from that.

anyway mapleshade has this generations long story of manipulating younger cats, and a POV book where she's obviously obsessive, controlling, stalkerish and chooses brutally uncommon violence as a way to get back at those who wrong her. (she unburies ravenwing's body so crows can eat it, and she uses adders to kill frecklewish, despite the fact the snakes could easily go for her.) she puts HERSELF in danger to do these things because she's impulsive, she justifies all her actions to herself by saying its revenge for her children and in the end, she pushes the last remnants of the kittens she thinks she's fighting for away. this is a cool story about a woman who's pushed to the edge and takes everyone down with her. for ONCE its not a man with deadwifepain.

and what does the fandom do

they girlbossify her. they fight over if she's in the wrong or not (she is. she killed people.) they take everything about her that made her compelling and turn her into "grr my husband cheated on me and me kids are dead. sad." she gets turned into the most basic, boring, cookie cutter "evil" lady. she kills people for fun and not because she had a reason to or a goal (in her mind). she suffers the most tragic kind of loss that there is and gets no time to grieve before she is run out of her home, and her reaction to this is pure RAGE, and the fandom turns her into this boring, slay QUEEN!!! (not the pregnant cat kind), always been evil, always been hardcore, ~So CrAzY~, "my eyeliner is sharp to stab men" girlboss. where's the nuance. where's the passion!!? she's a miserable, impulsive, manipulating failure. she blames others for her mistakes and bad judgment and punishes others for her shortfallings. she can't be vulnerable and broken, she can only cry because dead kids and then kill evil husband and evil husbands wife. she's even sometimes portrayed as like "boss" of the dark forest, wrangling all the men. barf.

so to answer your question, it's the general fandom* portrayal that i hate, but i honestly wouldn't trust the erins with her at this point. (the erins are influenced by their fans, for example (old person voice) back in my day, firestar and scourge being brothers was just a fan theory.) i'm glad they permakilled her in the great battle so they cant bring her back to ruin anything. actually thinking about her to write this out and reflect on why i don't like her made me sympathize for her. i like text mapleshade with a little bit of fanon sprinkled in for flavor.

and hey. usually when the fandom adopts a character, they're right. the fandom likes to get really in to random bg/side characters and give them lives they would never have in canon. but sadly (or not, depending on your opinion), when those get popular and breach containment, they spread everywhere and suddenly people think this IS canon. look at how many of us thought that brambleclaw killed hawkfrost directly after he killed hollyleaf, because that was the easy way to portray the great battle in MAPs, only to have someone point out, years after this has become the common sequence of events, that brambleclaw actually hunts him down, brings him back to camp, and then murders him POW style!!!

*btw. im in no way saying that all mapleshade-based projects or aus or whatever are bad, even if she is sexy girlboss in them. some of my favorite maps portray her like that.

anyway. TLDR:

everyone say "i'm sorry mapleshade"

Book Review - The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

I must preface this review with the fact I have a certificate in women and gender studies.

Some context is important when discussing the success of this book. This novel was a blockbuster on BookTok, so we need to examine what makes something a sensation for the BookTok audience. The basic elements of a BookTok success are a high concept, diverse representation, a heavy emphasis on tropes, and use of contemporary language and/or pop culture references. Strong plot or character arcs are a secondary focus of the BookTok audience.

A story about a baseball player sports-bro who has to read regency romance to be a better husband. This high concept is the selling point of this novel. What makes this appealing to BookTok? Toxic masculinity is a hot topic in society right now. Despite being parents, the characters are young, which appeals to the burgeoning new adult audience. We’ve got feminism and a strong female lead who loves art and activism. Sports romance is popular as well. I can see how an online audience who’s used to the jargon online would think the author was clever for using terms like “mansplaining.”

The premise was appealing and I was genuinely excited to read the book. I appreciate what the author was attempting to do! The part with Gavin doing the grand gesture and Thea playfully saying she wanted to was very sweet. Unfortunately, thepremise fell short of its potential for me. Contemporary romance isn't my typical read (though I have read and enjoyed it before), yet I went into this with an open mind. My reaction can best be summarized by: when I learned this was a BookTok fav, all of the criticisms I had made a lot more sense. BookTok is a site where trends change constantly and the media consumption cycle lasts a month if you’re lucky. How to market to this constantly shifting audience? Sell them bite-sized ideas. Emphasize tropes. A new take on the sports romance. Useless man fights for empowered wife. Unpacking toxic masculinity. Woke romance. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but it’s done in a feminist way this time, we promise.

Have I mentioned I don’t ascribe to the whole idea of gender?

I digress. My point is, the entire book seemed to be just these few tropes and premises. The narrative never got into the emotional depth I needed to make me care about the characters. Miscommunication as a plot device can be done well, but if you removed it from The Bromance Book Club, the entire narrative would fall apart. If the reader ever stops to wonder if men and women aren’t from two different planets, the narrative falls apart. I’m not making excuses for Gavin being oblivious to his wife’s happiness, but I must point out that Thea never communicated either. She told him to leave, so he did, then she was mad at him because he wasn’t supposed to actually leave.

The plot and characterization were weak. I was interested in Thea’s trauma, but it seemed to be glossed over to push a heavy-handed “strong woman” theme. It’s like a cake made out of all frosting. That’s the thing. BookTok wants easily consumed frosting, not a cake that requires a longer attention span or the contemplation of important concepts such as diversity and inclusion beyond a surface-level discussion. Being able to check off boxes on a representation clipboard doesn’t make a book a strong story, but that would be news to BookTok. I hate the term “woke” because it misses every single point of real social justice work, ergo it is the perfect term to describe the attempt at feminism in The Bromance Book Club, which didn't feel super feminist at all. Ultimately, the tension and comedy in the book rely on the belief that women and men are inherently different, and if you and your partner struggle to speak the same love language, it isn't a communication issue but a gender issue. Honestly, while reading, I kept thinking about the sitcom Home Improvement from the 90s which I know wasn't the intended effect. Mentally, I call this phenomenon "girlboss feminism," where the quest to create a strong female lead falls back on buzzwords and a couple tropes and ultimately has little new or interesting to say about gender.

The voice in The Bromance Book Club was a voice I recognized from other BookTok successes I’ve read. Its attempt to be witty was just edgy. The voice was self-aware, ironic, and almost felt to be poking fun at the genre as a whole, which made me wary of its sincerity. It's like when a musical has a character point out "why is everyone singing?" Personally, I'm a fan of just enjoying a genre without breaking the immersion. We’re all here to read it because we know and enjoy the general formula, and you don’t need to hit us over the head with anything. Additionally, there were sections where the author's voice bled through and it felt more like reading a rant about injustice than a story.

As a final nitpick, Courting the Countess used the phrase “male gaze” at one point and I was irked by the anachronistic language. It’s 1820, not 2020.

In conclusion, while the high concept and premise of The Bromance Book Club caught my attention, it fell short of its potential, trading a dynamic plot and characters for appealing buzzwords and a superficial attempt to discuss feminism. Because of the culture on BookTok which desires speed, surface-level representation, genre fiction that “isn’t like other genre fiction,” and easily consumed media, it was the perfect favorite for that audience. The book ultimately lacked sincerity to my eye. It felt to be showing off how not like other romances it was, and lost the heartfelt storytelling for me. TikTok as a site is all about flashy appearances with less depth.

Here I am, turning an unrelated piece of writing into a rant about society after criticizing The Bromance Book Club for doing the same thing. But this discussion is indeed part of a larger concern of mine. I worry about BookTok's potential to influence a trend of declining quality in the fiction market. I worry about the negative impact on the mental health of its userbase, afraid to show or feel things against the status quo.

Maybe I'm just not in the target audience, in which case these criticisms mean little. Maybe I read it as trying to be more than it actually was. In any case, it just wasn't for me, and that's okay, and I'm free to pick up another contemporary romance with different themes. This book certainly achieved what it meant to achieve, given its success, which I respect.

Today I finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. A few thoughts below (some spoilers, of course).

Both the story and the dialogues are gripping in a number of areas but sometimes the tension fails to pay off and things work out a little too perfectly. While certainly a social justice tale (I hadn't realized how very explicit the author would constantly expound upon her moral motive for telling the story), it ultimately has a sort of feel-good quality, where most people are fundamentally good and things generally come out all right in the end, which seems not to be the accepted norm in today's fiction media wherever it has overt social justices messages (e.g. Orange Is the New Black). My biggest complaint about the plot was really a matter of timing: I disliked being kept hanging about George and Eliza's escape for nearly two hundred pages of focusing on Uncle Tom, only to get one more chapter thrown in wrapping up their escape arc much too neatly (there was more potential there, especially in the development of one of their pursuers who wound up staying with them to recover from bullet wounds). The timing of that arc with the main arc doesn't seem to match properly: a year has passed in Uncle Tom's life before we return to George and Eliza, who are still in the midst of their escape to Canada which seems to have only gone on for several more weeks.

(Interesting random observation: the author wasn't afraid to give different major characters the same first name. There is another character named Tom besides Uncle Tom, namely the aforementioned pursuer who got shot, and there are two Georges who each play a fairly significant role. This adds some verisimilitude to the story, but as far as I can tell, it's rare in fiction even if not rare in real life, and I can't think of many other examples of it outside of longer book series with much vaster arrays of characters such as Harry Potter and A Song of Fire and Ice, and even there it's never between two fairly prominent characters.)

The entire focus of the stories revolves around the current nature of slavery, and the author preaches her anti-slavery message very explicitly to the reader (dripping with explicit Christianity and often breaking the fourth wall in doing so). This was done powerfully enough to resonate well with me even though I grew up in a time when a universal message that slavery is evil was instilled in me from a young age so that this feels like "old news"; Stowe brought her contemporary knowledge of what slavery looks like to life in a vivid way that enriched my conception of the depths of its horrors. At the same time, I found it interesting that it felt like 80-90% of her anti-slavery message focused on the separation of families rather than other aspects of slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe clearly had a profound belief in the humanity of people of all races but also showed signs of racism popping up from time to time in talking directly to the reader and characterizes people of African descent as having a simpler, less refined, and less industrious nature, in ways that sometimes (though not always) imply that these differences are innate rather than a product of interracial history. Apparently the book has been criticized for indulging in a number of black stereotypes through several of the black characters. While the development of these stereotypes is unfortunate, I'm not sure we can fairly blame her for helping them to solidify, as it seems she was genuinely trying to base her characters off of amalgams of enslaved people that she had come in contact with.

What was gripping me the most while reading the last quarter or so of the novel was the view of the meaning of Christianity that it suggested to me, and I surprised myself, as someone who's never felt like much of a friend to Christianity, at how I was responding. Having finished the book, now I would say that it makes the most effective moral case for Christianity that I've ever encountered anywhere; certainly it does a better job of making Christian faith attractive than anything I've read by C. S. Lewis. Not that it ever bothers to argue any of the concrete claims of Christianity, mind you, not even the existence or nature of God. Rather, I'm saying it reaches me in some part of my gut which somehow gets the intuition behind why we should stand unyielding with our moral convictions because a higher power above affirms them, and that God or Righteousness or whatever you want to call it being on our side means infinitely more than whatever we'll suffer at the hands of less enlightened humans around us by refusing to budge an inch. (It's strange that I'm even typing these words on this website, where I'm usually better known for talking in a very different and much more pragmatic way about ethically contentious issues.) Stowe's religious convictions, as channeled through her character Uncle Tom, highlight what I've always called my favorite feature of Christianity: the exhortation to turn the other cheek and to love the sinner while hating the sin. It's hard for me to see Uncle Tom as anything other than a hero for resisting internal corruption even in the face of horrific oppression, refusing to be "broken in" by whipping one of his fellow slaves, and being willing to die for what he believes in rather than become a cog in the machine that he abhors. (It's very much like the climax of the original Star Wars trilogy, and there are notes of these ideas in other modern popular fantasy series, of course.) It's a shame that Uncle Tom has become known as an epithet referring to something related but quite distinct, which grew not directly from the Uncle Tom in this novel but from the evolution of the character through various stage adaptations afterwards that Stowe had nothing to do with.

As a final note, it may seem strange that I'm applauding the "turn the other cheek" idea as exemplified by Stowe's character and yet wrote this post expressing horror at the passive "be good to your master" acceptance that Jupiter Hammon preached to his fellow slaves in the 1780's. I think my main crucial issue with the Hammon speech is not that it advised remaining passive and placating one's oppressors (which, I might be inclined to agree with Hammon, however reluctantly, was probably the safest way to minimize harm in most individual's cases when escape really wasn't an option), but rather that it argued that slavery existed for the time being because it was God's will and it should be accepted for now as God's will (regardless of the fact that Hammon hoped to see the institution end, when God should will it). That message was clearly a recipe for inaction, as in reality as well as even in many theistic models of the world, things aren't just going to change on their own because of God's will without humans taking deliberate action to change them.

Neither Stowe nor her Uncle Tom character followed Hammon's idea that slavery should just be accepted for now, even if Tom (just like Hammon) at one point early on claimed not to care for his own emancipation and only hoped to see his younger fellows emancipated (although in fact Tom is later overjoyed when his master St. Claire promises to free him). Rather, Uncle Tom sees slavery for what it is, objectively a great evil, and simply believes that evil can only be fought with pacifistic good and a refusal to abandon one's deepest principles. He encourages others' escapes even though he doesn't attempt to escape himself; at the same time he is not all right with other enslaved and oppressed people violently attacking their oppressors or not seeing their oppressors' humanity. I'll acknowledge that this ultra-pacifistic approach isn't the whole story of how to resist oppression and that sometimes there is a time and place for violent aggression against one's oppressors. But still I see a lot of beauty in the approach Uncle Tom stood for, and as a character he did not deserve to be reduced to the derogatory trope that later became the popular notion of "an Uncle Tom".

i would like the lore review :3c

Sure. Note to readers: the following contains some spoilers for the 2021 YA novel by Alexandra Bracken, "Lore." It's also pretty critical (because as I mentioned in my previous comment: my review of Lore is that you should read Tithe instead), so if you're not feeling like reading a moderately negative review, give this one a miss.

--

"Lore," is a young adult mythologically-inspired fantasy novel set in modern New York City. It has an interesting central idea. In short, a bunch of major gods of the Greek pantheon offended against their leader and were cast down to be mortal for a week out of every 7 years, during which time killing them could pass their god-powers on to whichever mortal struck the killing blow. The gods are hunted by families who descend from ancient heroes, like Perseus or Heracles. This week long time of hunting is called the "Agon." It's a little convoluted but it's pretty fun, right?

The story centres on a young woman named Lore who fled this hidden magical underworld. Her god-hunting family, experiencing reduced circumstances due to internecine politics, were all murdered during the Agon, and then she lived with her mother's extended family who treated her poorly. At the beginning of the next Agon, she is drawn back into the fray via a message from her childhood friend, Castor.

Lore receives this message when Castor finds her and fights her at an illegal fight club, which somehow genuinely has nothing to do with the events of the plot, and is never spoken of again. This will set the tone for the whole story.

So, the good stuff: the central concept is fun. The writing is technically proficient. The characters are pretty consistent. The central plot (although not the sub plots) takes some twists and turns and arrives at a completely coherent conclusion. The entire central idea of the Agon is resolved in a thematically coherent way.

My major criticism of this book — and it is a really major, structural thing — is that the novel attempts to tackle an enormous array of ideas, and does so poorly. It races around trying to take on all of them in a half-assed way, instead of committing to two or three central concepts with its whole buttocks. This book will pick up a thought or idea, run with it for a bit, and then forget it even occurred while it careens off towards another, equally ill-explored idea. This has its most profound and regrettable effect on characterisation, where we get incidents like:

illegal fight club irrelevant to the plot is never again mentioned by any character, or

entire story propped up by the trembling buttress of convenient amnesia that disappears in the epilogue, or

character learns that her whole family was murdered by a totally different person than she thought, which impacts the events of the plot, but appears to have minimal effect on her thoughts or feelings

These are not the only examples, they're just the ones that stand out to me at 1:22 AM on Saturday.

In general, my conclusion is that this book has a convoluted but fun central idea and the actual writing reads well, but it is shallow and confused by trying to do too much all at once. "Lore," would have read better to me if it had been a simpler (and shorter, bloody oath) story which cut half the subplots and weird character threads and instead focused on developing strong characters and a nuanced central thesis.

I'm going to end this with a speech from Athena, made on a topic that she never again mentions:

"No. That is she men have portrayed her [Medusa] as, through art, through tales," Athena said. "They imagined her hideous because they feared to meet the true gaze of a woman, to witness the powerful storm that lives inside, waiting. She was not defeated by my uncle's assault. She was merely reborn as a being who could gaze back at the world, unafraid."

Cheers, Athena.

Second Rant: The Villainess/Mob/Side Character/ Random Girl Who Wakes up in a Novel She Read

Whoopie! Reincarnated to a novel/game, an interesting concept really. Seeing how there is already a pre-determined story to follow, I do wonder how they'll go about this.

*Several reads later*

Oh boy. They can't really think of anything else can't they?

Okay so, one thing I really really like genuinely hate about these stories is how the mc always acts so dumb. Like, girl, come on, I think for the past few years you've been in this world you ought to think that things develop.. idk NaTurAlly? Why do you keep saying that "things are changing" like no shit things are changing, you've changed and that's practically gonna cause a ripple effect on everything.

Oh, oh, and I hate it when ml is like obv showing feeeeelingsss but mc is just: (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠). "No OmG tHaTs NoT PosSIblE, cu'Z he'S supPosEd to FalL foR ThE OrigINaL FL!"

Fuck it even when the ml admits his feelings the girl is just like "no".

It's frustrating to me because authors tend to develop these ladies as quick thinkers and determined, always trying to find ways to avoid death flags set to them. But then they do those aforementioned things and it kinda makes you think how shallow they are. It's like they don't see the relationships they build as real ones and are all just superficial for specific reasons.

I understand the concern when you feel like you're trying to fight against fate but most of these stories don't even actually have that. Things do change and usually nothing terrible happens, but mc acts like there will be even though the author clearly only puts "horrible" things as plot advancers and nothing too serious.

Also, for those mc that woke up in their new body with a shit reputation paired with what everyone knows has a shit personality, why is everyone just okay with her changing all of the sudden — like its just plain stupid. If I knew someone who is evil suddenly becomes good overnight, I would not only be sceptical but also assume that she's possessed (seeing how magic always exists in these worlds i don't that's too far from the realm of possibility right?). This one honestly is what bugs me the most.

Suspicion is removed cu'z mc does something heroic or wonderful (blegh), but that kinda undermines the suffering other people have gone through with the original character. Some authors have even shown fully blown flashbacks where the original character is violent, verbally abusive and typical in every possible way. And these people just, flips a damn switch and say "Oh! She's changed!" Which boggles my mind every time I read something like that.

Which puts me to my next complaint. There is no real villain or even when there is they aren't really appealing. The problems set by the "original" story already gets destroyed like a couple chapters in, so what next? There are quite a lot of stories that just turn the OG Female Lead into whatever the villainess is supposed to be like: delusional, fake, etc. Which to me is, fine, but if you're gonna turn someone else in that world into a villain for the sake of having a bad guy, then why not put the stakes higher? Or at least give them more of a reason than just them feeling entitled to have the boyz. They don't have any substance to them and are bland af. Its a story vying for a downfall you already know will come.

Overall these ladies think too much and too little at the same time. Istg their dialogue can be summarized into "That didn't happen" "This didn't happen in the original.." "Is there a bug in the game..?" or "Why are things not going as the orignal!?"

It burns my brain trying to see through their eyes and understand their logic, until you realize they don't have common sense at all. They are geniuses only when they need to be, but is dumb af everywhere else.

Also, as much as I love puffy, frilly dresses I'm tired of mc changing the og characters seemingly sexiness into this cutesy vibe doesn't sit well with me. They're obviously trying to put this as more of a visual dichotomy between the original character and the current mc, but its not much of a statement. (But honestly this just may be me because I want more sexy mc you know?)

Trust me when I say this post barely covers half of what I truly feel about these stories and this is just the general gist of it. Also couldn't be bothered to add specific titles like the last rant.

Completed my sixth read of 2024 in a single day because I fell behind on my Goodreads challenge and panicked. Now I'm caught up but also have read so many books in the last week I think I might die.

As promised, I’m tracking my reading/ratings of each book as I finished them in 2024 here with you all! I will be tracking all of my book reading ratings and thoughts with #halislibrary if you would like to block the tag/don’t want to see these!

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Completed: February 19, 2024

BOOK DETAILS

Stand-alone novel

This is absolutely not for the faint of heart - it is a futuristic society in which cannibalism is turned into an industry and is the standard

224 pages

Cannot emphasize enough this book is brutal and graphic like please look up warnings before reading.

READ IF YOU LIKE:

Symbolism about humanity vs. it's violent nature

Insane dystopian vibes

Not knowing where the narrative is going to go next

Thought pieces - this had my mind churning and genuinely engaging and thinking about people/animals/baser instincts

THINGS THAT BOTHERED ME:

This book is interesting because of its concept/world but the story did not have a firm point of view and the main character's story/pov was not strong enough to lack the commentary/allusions to real life.

Plot twist at the end did nothing for me - felt like the intent was shock value and nothing else.

I think because it is so obvious in using gore and shock value to make it's point, I just found it kind of flat.

Note: I did like this book but I felt like it didn't do what it thought it was doing. There was not actually a point of view and there was no attempt to unpack anything. While I don't need there to be a moral standpoint/argument to make violence make sense, it does need to be clever/well done and the violence and brutalism in this wasn't clever enough to do without.

TRACKED TAG HERE

regarding your little "fictional universe ception" and "wtf is going on with the universes and plots" rant... i think the whole thing with the author is the plot for ANOTHER novel. like genuinely not joking.

also i think we're ignoring just how weird the concept of a universe based on a book is anyways... like how does that work? does the universe spawn from a book? is it possible because of multiverse theory? would that mean that the knight of blood and iron and the greatest estate developer happened in different universe based on the same multiverse??? does it just reset????

god i hope it is. i kinda really, really hope it is. it would make sense! it's one thing to do one isekai novel about a fictional universe. that's a normal think to do in the genre, pretty typical honestly. but three???? where each one of the plots actively changes the original storyline for the next one?? that's so cool!! and interesting!!! and very, very confusing but if done right i think it could be fascinating!!

because see, i haven't read the one that comes before tged (i think it's the one about a chef and a dragon?? i gotta read it too) but i'm pretty sure there's reference to it in tged. like the events of that particular story, like the modified version of the original plot, are canon to "knight of blood and iron" which is the book lloyd reads. so does that mean that the protagonist of that plot is from lloyd's universe?? like,,, did she read a book, got isekai'd into that world, changed the events of the plot and then,, what? does that book no longer exist in lloyd's world?? or it does but now it's got the modified plot but without mentioning the isekai aspects??? or is she from another universe different from lloyd's??? is she fictional in lloyd's universe??? what?????

(edit: just got told the first book isn't an isekai sorry about that!)

and then we get to rakiel, who read a book where the events of tged are canon. not "knight of blood and iron" but specifically tged, which we know because rakiel himself is a descendant of lloyd and alicia. so by this point that world has been modified by an isekai plot and in the way to being modified by a second one.

so who keeps writing in this universe and getting unsuspecting people sucked into their plots??? are they all from the same universe?? are they from different ones??? is it even the same author for each book?? i would assume so as they're clearly familiar with the lore, but that only opens up even more questions regarding what happens every time the plot is modified and then the resulting changes are part of the lore in the next book.

would that mean that the knight of blood and iron and the greatest estate developer happened in different universe based on the same multiverse???

that is an interesting theory and i think the most reasonable one. maybe the knight of blood and iron exists in one universe and when lloyd was isekai'd it split into two, one where the original plot still occurs and one where lloyd changes everything. but that still doesn't explain why or how rakiel got a hold of a book based on the future of lloyd's timeline.

isekai is already a fascinating concept, most don't even bother explaining who is the author and why the protagonist was transported to another world. but this,,, this is in another level of confusing and i demand answers!!!

fool's fate first thoughts

HOT OFF THE PRESSES, HERE'S ANOTHER CHAOTIC "REVIEW." I finished Fool's Fate yesterday* (ok by the time of finishing this post it was like 5 days ago) and I am absolutely buzzing about it. what a novel!!! insane!!

first of all, I am pleased to report that this is my FIRST HOBB FIVE STAR. Ship of Destiny came close but then Hobb fucked up the ending but she didn't fuck up this time!!

one thing to keep in mind: I listened to basically the first 50% on audiobook, and then switched between audio and physical for the second half. this is the first Tawny Man book I’ve read on audio, so that might impact my thoughts, especially on pacing and when comparing it to the rest of the series.

I will try to keep this one a little shorter, and I’m going to attempt to go chronologically. so let’s talk about…

the beginning

my main issue with the beginning was that I thought Fitz was going to chill at Buckkeep for a while and teach Swift, and the coterie was going to get stronger, and it was going to be great. (I am obsessed with the Skill coterie.) but instead BAM they’re on a boat. also the boat part was pretty boring but I was vibing, it was fine. honestly do not have many thoughts about this part.

the middle (before I absolutely lost my goddamn mind)

the Outisland politics and social games weren’t my favorite. I didn’t mind them but it got repetitive for Fitz to constantly be like “I just don’t have a good sense for what’s going on, our cultures are Too Different.” I LOVE Elliania, what an icon, and Dutiful really shone in this section too imo.

I completely convinced myself that Chade was draining Thick of Skill so his own Skill would be stronger. technically I was not directly proven wrong but I don’t think this actually happened and I’m bummed about it :( I guess Thick’s seasickness/hangup about boats, in addition to being a really interesting and genuine character insight, was mostly so Hobb could get him out of the way? and jumpstart Fitz and Nettle’s relationship a bit? god, so much happens in this book. side note, I do love how Nettle slowly becomes more integrated into the plot and the coterie. Nettle absolutely slays in this book - it was really the kids’ time to shine.

I also really like how much deeper Tawny Man went into Skill magic in general. I find it super interesting and it deepend a lot of character dynamics which I am always here for. this should be a different post so I'm going to stop there. good middle. it did have some pacing problems but... it's Hobb, so that's to be expected.

my mental breakdown

AUGHHHHHH. AUGHHHHHH. listen. listen. people kept telling me I was going to be sad but I was like “it can’t be that bad.” my friends kept joking about the Fool dying - “the book is called Fool’s Fate, Eve, what do you expect to happen” - and I plugged my ears and went LALALA and did not listen. and then I flexed my denial muscles so hard that even when Fitz was literally cradling the Fool’s body, I was thinking “but this isn’t right, this isn’t what happens, it must be some trick.” readers, it was NOT a trick. it was MEAN. he was fucking DEAD!! I genuinely could not conceive of this happening. I cried so goddamn hard. I could not function for several hours and then could barely function for a full day after that. 10/10 highly recommend, excellent pain.

the ending!!!

so... the scene where Fitz became whole again changed me as a person, it was so so beautiful. also true love's kiss between Fitz and the Fool which. what the fuck. I can't believe that was just in a book like that, and I got to read it. but I was a bit angry at the concept of Fitz going back to Molly. (and by "a bit," I mean "extremely.")

BUT THEN a miracle took place, which in retrospect was actually completely expected: Hobb wrote good. she wrote so good that there was literally no way for me to hold on to my bitterness for even one chapter. by the time Fitz sent his first letter, I was so invested and completely on board. it was just so cute!!! Fitz and Molly had a lot to work through, and they did work through it, and he gave her space but clearly expressed that he wanted to be involved in her and her children's life, and it was fucking adorable.

and they were happy. Fitz deserves to be happy, okay? he deserves the romance movie love story, and the sexy bee sting scene, and a bunch of children, he deserves all of it!!! god. Tawny Man really just got to me so much because of all the lighter and happier moments. I'm literally insane about this book series and if you read this far, you probably are too, so you know what I mean and I'm not going to elaborate any more.

I love this book.

60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - Davison 10th Review

Lords of the Storm - Novel

There's a lot of interesting ideas and concepts in this book. Almost too many of them. The Doctor and Turlough land on an Earth colony that was settled by mostly Hindus. The culture and social structure therefore resembles that of India. The Sontarans have invaded though and are brainwashing the populace in order to experiment on them. And the Sontaran plot only continuously becomes ever more convoluted from there, so I won't explain too much of that set up. The strength of this book is the world building. Both the Sontrans' and the Rutans' culture and way of life is vastly expanded upon, and it's refreshing to see a futuristic society not obviously based off of the UK or US. However I'm not sure what it really adds to the story as it feels cosmetic despite being used as a plot point. Which leads to my first complaint. The Sontarans infect the humans by poisoning the water supply, and they get away with it because they trick the human leader into allowing it. His reasoning is that he thinks it'll 'tag' the different castes.... and the narrative wants us to find this reasoning sympathetic? It treats this plot point as if the leader thought such an invasive action would 'help' people... despite doing so would have entrapped everyone in an oppressive class divide. Sure the leader does get called out on such a mistake and in the end he resigns out of disgrace, but no one ever points out the inherent problem of still having a centuries old caste system on a colony planet so far away from Earth. Naturally such a system would evolve or meet resistance when faced with such a wide spread change in environments. Yet no one seems interested in examining these outdated traditions, even the couple who are arranged to be married since childhood fall in love on their own anyway, and the narrative doesn't seem to have any commentary on such things. Therefore what is the point of including them then? The second issue is that the book is arguably too long. So many sub plots, convoluted battle plans, and just chapters dedicated to so much set up. It takes the Doctor six chapters just to get involved in the plot! I like world building and slow burn mysteries as much as the next person, but I can't help but feel that maybe a subplot or two could have been dropped. I read another review describing this story as a 'a forgotten six parter of the Davison era' and that feels like a good way to put it. However they had stopped making six parters by the Davison era for a reason. But on to the good things, it is well written. There's lots of atmosphere. The new characters are likable, and even the villains have entertaining personalities. The characterization for the both the Doctor and Turglough are well done. I actually liked Turglough in this so that is an achievement. I also can't decide if the mention of Kamelion being there without ever being seen or taking part in the plot is a hilarious meta joke or a wasted opportunity. So all in all it's a well written novel with lots of world building, likable enough characters, and some genuine mystery. If you have the patience to get through it, that is, and so long as you're here for the space opera elements instead an actual serious sci-fi examination of society.

can you just talk more about echo? all your opinions on her are so right

Awww thank you!! I haven't read the Sojourn novel so unfortunately I'm not up to date on all the new Liao facts, but Echo as a character has really grown on me since her reveal!

I mean it's kind of hard to know where to start because like, with Overwatch character design in general there are the obvious issues (like why does she have to have the Pretty Sameface--would it be too uncanny to give her Liao's face with Liao's cool eyebrows??). My theory is that she was meant to be a robot body for Athena in the initial character conceptualization because you see Athena's AI logo on a robot with a very similar body silhouette in one of the really old character lineups.

(I miss you, Flashlight face...)

But I think the Blizzard writers eventually figured, "Hey, we've had this 'Liao' question hanging over our lore for a while, and we probably should expand on the omnic crisis as well, so instead of giving Athena a body, let's incorporate a mimic mechanic into gameplay and also make that figure into the character's lore" so hence, we have an AI who is lowkey also a ghost of her creator, who was heavily involved with the Omnic crisis--which I honestly think is pretty cool and honestly I don't mind the concept of Athena remaining a disembodied AI because I think that lends itself to a lot of plot capabilities on its own. Though it also leads into the concept of an Athena/Anubis dichotomy in the initial writing of Overwatch before Michael Chu said "Oh the God AI's aren't going to be that big of a deal don't worry about it" which later got retconned to "Actually there is just one God AI: Anubis, who started the Omnic Crisis." But I'm getting sidetracked--Echo!!

Anyway it's kind of interesting/fucked up that when you gather the general bones of the Overwatch Lore, even at the start, even if Omnic civil rights are a major cornerstone of Overwatch's worldbuilding, the bones of future/ongoing robot conflicts that will involve central characters are still there--and like, Echo/Athena seems to always have been defined as this kind of... benevolent counterbalance to that that's still set apart from Omnics like Zenyatta. And I know we talk a lot about Overwatch having trouble really distinguishing between omnics and robots, but I do think that's kind of a feature and not a bug of AI in general. Like the Omnics--as in Ramattra and Zenyatta and Lynx and Iggy and others--are themselves distinguished by this miraculous sentience that was granted to them by Aurora, however that doesn't mean that AI itself isn't a continuously developing thing, as we see with Orisa and Echo. Even synthetics that don't have this miraculous sentience can still very much have their own feelings and personalities and values. While Orisa basically has this prime directive of protecting Numbani and her respective teammates, Echo's learning AI seems to be driven, above all, to exploring humanity (and in a solid number of cases, omnic-ness...or gorilla-ness... or hamster-ness...) and the many shapes it can take. And again this goes into my previous point that she kind of uses her robot surreality to take concepts of grace and beauty to different levels. And also her "am I programmed to dance?" and just... the following gleeful noises she makes are so cute--like she's an AI but she finds genuine joy in the synthesis and expression of human behaviors.

Review: Keeper of Enchanted Rooms, Charlie N. Holmberg

4.5-4.8/5 Stars  “Have you ever wondered,” he followed up without missing a beat, “if we’re all characters in another’s book? If all of our actions, whims, thoughts, and desires are being controlled by some omniscient author?”  

A strange notion. “By God?”  

“If He’s writing it, I suppose it would classify as nonfiction.” 

 Hulda laughed. “I would hope so, because fiction would mean none of us were real.” 

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms is a quaint book by Charlie N. Holmberg and the first book in the Whimbrel House series, taking place in 1800’s New England. It follows Merrit Fernsby and his adventure surrounding a house enchanted and abandoned for years before he inherited it.     I will be honest, I did get this book through the Amazon First Picks program, and I am usually dicey over anything I get through Prime Reading already, but I was pleasantly surprised with this book! I had this on my ‘To Be Read’ list for a couple of weeks before I found it through First Picks because I love reading books which incorporate magic into its story. This was a very homey novel for me and one that went from “this may be something I can enjoy” to being placed on my Goodreads bookshelf of favorite books. 

As I said previously, I love books with magic in their story. The magic system in the Whimbrel House universe was one that I absolutely adored. Magic types are separated into 9 divisions, each focusing on a specific sect of magic in the universe. There comes, with each sect, their own side effect of overexertion and dedicated minerals to assist and strengthen the skills of the magicians, which was something completely new to me, but fit naturally in the universe and came to be something that I loved. The inheritance of magic was interesting as well; the idea that not only magic was passed down genetically but the type – or types - of magic that a magician could use is a unique and refreshing concept that I wish more people had in their stories.  

The romance was something I was not expecting genuinely but was also something that felt very natural. I kept pushing myself to read the book for Merrit and Hulda as they developed an understanding of each other and started pining over each other. That was a surprise to me, as I typically hate slow burning romances like the one that was presented. Their chemistry was just something that I loved seeing act out as something secondary to the plot. 

The second book in the series, Heir of Uncertain Magic, is already in development and has a cover right now as of writing the review, and I am excited to see the book when it comes out!! 

~April's Books Reviewed~

April was significantly better than March, but I'm still definitely taking a little longer than standard to get through books. That being said, all the books I did read this month I highly enjoyed!

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

(546 pages)

This was a lovely way to start off the month. The format was a little hard to get into at first, but once I got in the way of it, I found the concept of a murder mystery book within another murder mystery interesting. The story was simple to follow and the characters compelling enough to keep reading about, if a little predictable at times. There were also perhaps slightly too many characters, certainly at the start. It felt that a lot of the mystery of the murder mystery came down to my inability to keep track of the characters at points! However, overall I did really enjoy this book, it was a very gentle reintroduction to reading after the failure of March and I would recommend this to anyone who was wanting an easy book that is a bit of fun and simple enough of a plot line to not fully pay attention to at points.

I gave this book 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

(490 pages)

I strangely enjoyed this book, and I do say strangely as it did fail to fully keep my attention. I didn't find myself desperate to keep reading at night, or reaching for it during the day; however I also didn't struggle to finish it or feel annoyed with the idea of continuing. Like with most books which incorporate multiple storylines or POVs, there was one obviously better one. For me this was the storyline set in the present. I found it easily the most interesting and engaging and as a result I did find myself rushing through the stories set in the past in order to return to it which did mean that the bits in the past were also a little confusing too. I would have happily read an entire novel just following the present though. So all in all, not bad at all and I would definitely still recommend to people who prefer reading more realistic novels.

I gave this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

(288 pages)

If I had one more person recommend this too my I might have gone mad, but you know what, they were right! This was such a good book! The concept was very clever and so so well written. It was emotional at points and also yet weirdly uplifting. I really really enjoyed it and felt that it achieved exactly what it set out too. I genuinely can't think of anything else to say other than just to strongly recommend it to everyone else too! I will say that a slight content warning should be highlighted here that the protagonist does suffer from depression and as the novel is told through her voice this is very realistically depicted.

I gave this book 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hi, would you mind giving some good 90s cyberpunk recommendations? Cyberpunk and sci fi in general are a huge scary ocean, and I'm afraid to enter it without a guide.

Gladly!! There is SO much out there, I don't blame you.

A thing that can be intimidating is that quite a lot of 90s cyberpunk is directly reacting to 80s cyberpunk. A lot of 80s cyberpunk isn't actually all that good, though, so personally I'm of the opinion that you can skip a lot of it without losing the interesting parts of the genre. (Though I still have a deep love for William Gibson's iconic short story "Burning Chrome," which is one of the only Gibson works I'll genuinely recommend, especially if you want to get a sense of what OG cyberpunk is.)

90s cyberpunk is frequently called "post-cyberpunk" because it's when women and queer people started turning cyberpunk ideas on their head and writing their own communities and concepts into the genre, thinking about how the oppressive cyber-corporate-dystopias that the men of the 80s imagined would affect marginalized people and women. And yet for SOME reason the only 90s post-cyberpunk anyone ever recommends is straight white man Neal Stephenson. Funny, that.

But if you want to read some of my gay/feminist 90s cyberpunk favorites:

Trouble And Her Friends by Melissa Scott (1994). This is the most classically "cyberpunk" novel you will ever read. If you want cowboy coders riding the 'net in glittering crystalline cyberspace, this is your book. It's structured, in a lot of ways, like a Western, but set in the near-future cyberspace imaginings of the '90s. It's about a master hacker, India Carless, online alias Trouble, who swore off hacking - until someone showed up on the 'nets using her alias and causing, well, trouble. She reunites with the girlfriend she left, and together they track down who's the outlaw using Trouble's name. It sounds kinda silly, and in some ways, it is - and in others, it hits really close to home. Trouble didn't give up hacking because she wanted to - she gave up hacking because Congress passed a set of laws that were intended to instill internet safety, but instead just criminalized the actions of people like... Trouble and her friends. And Trouble's friends were a multiracial friend group of queer hackers. The passage of the law fractured the group, and only years later, as the novel progresses, do these people start to reconnect in a world proven hostile to them. Reading the scenes where the queer hacker friend group watch the news feeling sick to their stomachs knowing that the law was going to get passed hit far too close to home. It's intentionally similar to cyberpunk founder William Gibson, except Trouble and her friends are fighting against the straight white male hackers Gibson and his ilk so often represented.

Synners by Pat Cadigan (1991). Whoa. This book. This book. Synners is wild and baroque and energetic and organic, full of lurid imagery and emotional depth.  It follows a large cast of loosely-connected Los Angeles techno-losers - grungy teen hackers, hard corporate executives, burned-out rock musicians, dreamy-eyed druggies, failed-artist salarymen - as they navigate their relationships with each other, with technology, and with their world.  Most of the story revolves around the invention of brain sockets, the first days of the ability to interface your brain input/output directly with the internet, and what that means.  It’s slow and exploratory at first, but about halfway in all the details that Cadigan has been meticulously laying suddenly snap to life, and everyone and everything comes together in a breathtaking brutal poetic machine of a plot you didn’t even realize she's been building. This is another book where the perspectives of women, people of color, queer people, and other marginalized people (hippies, drug-users, and artists are among this group) are centered, specifically how they get used, ignored, or abandoned in the corporate drive to capitalize on new technology, and how their communities are what hold them together and save them. No solitary lone wolf hackers here.

The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter (1996). Proof that Tor has been ahead of the queer sci-fi curve for as long as it's been around. This one is, somewhat, the opposite of the above - it's heavily about the isolation of being queer in an oppressive techno-surveillance state. It's dense, beautiful, literary, and emotionally riveting. I love the main character, Maya, a lesbian journalist in future Russia, who is frustrated with her life of doing immersive VR puff pieces about nothing real or useful - until in her research she stumbles on suppressed information about a recent genocide that the government does not want anyone to talk about. The Fortunate Fall takes a lot of the trappings of cyberpunk - the oppressive system, the global Net that allows everyone to touch mind-to-mind, the total lack of digital privacy, the lone intrepid truth-telling hacker up against the unstoppable machine - and does things with them that makes them feel both real and transcendent, lived-in and mythical and genuinely emotionally harrowing. Also, it's about whales. It's not a happy book, and feels very much in the vein of depressing 19th century Russian literary classics, and damn, is it beautiful.

Those are my favorites, but there are others I've read (Slow River by well-established lesbian sci-fi/fantasy author Nicola Griffith is a strange, semi-literary, interestingly experimental cyberpunkish book full of dubiously consensual lesbian sex, class struggle, and lots of detailed descriptions of how the main character's tech superpower is being the best wastewater treatment plant manager ever, and also every significant character is gay; The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata had mediocre character work but absolutely fascinating use of programmable nanomachines and the way rich men vs. poor women interacted with them) and ones I haven't read yet but want to (Nearly Roadkill by Caitlin Sullivan and Kate Bornstein is generally regarded as the fist trans sci-fi book by a trans author, all about gender and sex exploration in the disembodied but highly political world of 90s-style chatroom-based internet; China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh is a coming-of-age novel about a mixed-race gay man in a highly corporatized China-dominant geopolitical world, which, like Gibson, is written by a white American expat who lived for years in China, but unlike Gibson, she wasn't as discomfited and dehumanizingly Orientalizing about it as he was when he lived in Japan).

90s queer/feminist cyberpunk was very much a movement, or maybe counter-movement, in the flow of sff's history! I'm not sure if it set the stage for the queer sff boom we're having today, but I think it was part of it.

Also, for great, accessible, extremely fun, REALLY good, queer-normative, and cyberpunk-y modern books that's a great entry point into the modern sci-fi scene, I highly HIGHLY recommend The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells (2017-present). Starting with the novella All Systems Red, it's a far-future galaxy-spanning story about a security cyborg that named itself Murderbot, who's supposed to be a big scary Murder Robot With Gun Arms but instead is a confused, anxious, nerdy, agender/aro/ace person trying to slack off work, watch tv, and figure out what it wants and what personhood and friendship means to it within the capitalist hell world it was made for.

I hope some of these strike your interest! They're great examples and great points of contact with this specific movement within sci-fi literature, one of my absolute favorites.

Happy reading!

Opposition Research: Where to Get the Best Info for Your Novel

Now that you’ve written the first draft of your novel, you may find that you need to do some extra research to fill in those plot holes and polish up your story. Today, author Jodi Compton is here to shine some light on researching elements of your story between drafts:

I’m a crime and mystery novelist. It’s a genre which requires a good deal of research—a daunting task many Wrimos will be tackling for the first time in December and beyond. Many of us research between drafts, writing the first version straight through as a ‘proof of concept’ rough draft. Writing “[research tk]” at strategic points in a first draft can be an essential part of getting to 50K.

For that reason, I want to share a secret I’ve learned about good research. At first, I’ll be using crime fiction as my example, but the lesson is applicable to all genres, which I’ll address. (Hang tight, you hordes of fantasy writers!)

When I first began writing crime fiction, I did what most mystery novelists do. I read books on investigative work and forensics. I watched documentaries on the same subjects, including Dateline and Forensic Files and Women and the Badge. Later, when I had very specific questions, I found sources in the law-enforcement world and asked directly. 

The upshot of all the books, documentaries, magazine articles and interviews tended to be this: There’s always forensic evidence. It’s always correctly gathered. The DNA test is always right. The polygraph is always reliable. And everybody involved—the police and prosecutors—almost always do the right thing. 

This past year has—to put it mildly—called those assumptions into question. But that’s the subject of another article. However, long before this troubling year, I’d noticed something interesting. Crime-fiction writers like myself are always trying to write a story about the exceptions—the locked-room story, the extremely clever criminal who almost gets away with a murder or a heist, or a story in which the most unlikely person imaginable is actually the killer.  

So why are we always looking at sources in which the most likely suspect is, in fact, the murderer, in which standard operating procedure gets the investigative job done, there’s always DNA at the scene, and the polygraph tells you exactly who did it?

Because, mystery writers might argue, there’s no source for stories about cases where things went sideways. Nobody writes about those, and no source on the inside wants to talk about them. 

That seems true, at first. Ask me how I know: My first novel, The 37th Hour, deals with an FBI agent-in-training who does a Very Bad Thing just before his term at Quantico starts. To flesh this out, I spoke to a public information officer at the FBI—who dismissed my concept out of hand. That really wouldn’t happen, she told me. Our psychological screening would catch someone like that. 

It didn’t seem very productive to say, Like your psych screening caught Robert Hanssen? So I didn’t. (Plus, I didn’t think of it until hours later). 

It was only later in my writing career that I learned that there are people who talk and write about how the criminal-investigation process runs off the rails: They’re called defense attorneys. Behind them, and fighting a larger battle, are the ACLU and the Innocence Project—lawyers, law students and investigators who uncover false convictions. These convictions can be those due to mishandled DNA, inconclusive polygraph results interpreted as guilt, false confessions made by exhausted, hungry and confused people in interrogation rooms, or naive, easily-swayed juries. 

You have to get off the beaten path to find these stories, told in smaller-circulation magazines or blogs or documentaries. The “Dateline Saturday Night Mystery” has been immensely popular for years. No network is going to air the “ACLU Saturday Night Miscarriage of Justice” any time soon. But the latter, I think, would be as fascinating as the former. And, for the novelist looking for ways to complicate a straightforward crime, very profitable. 

Okay, you say. That’s fine for crime writers, but the most popular genre in National Novel Writing Month is fantasy. How do we fit into this situation?

I hear you. Fantasy is to NaNoWriMo what Thin Mints are to Girl Scout Cookies. So let’s say you’re writing a story in which characters have supernatural powers. This is where—though science is considered the opposite of magic—an understanding of physics, biology, chemistry and more could add great verisimilitude to your novel.

A study of magicians and their tricks can be useful as well. Many magicians are diehard skeptics about the paranormal—James Randi, of course, being the most famous example. But they also know a lot about physics: For example, the manipulation of light and how it affects what people see, or think they see. Might your genuinely-magical character manipulate light to create glamours or illusions?

‘Opposition research’ will be of varying use to writers in varying genres, but I’d argue that there’s almost always something to be gained in doing it. Conflict is the engine of virtually every story. Whenever you look at ‘maps’ or ‘graphs’ of a novel’s plot, you’ll see points labeled ‘conflict 1’ or ‘first setback.’ Understanding what opponents or devil’s advocates have to say about your protagonist’s quest will be of great help in creating conflict or setbacks in that journey. 

Jodi Compton is the author of four crime novels, starting with The 37th Hour, about Minneapolis detective Sarah Pribek. Her fifth book, Redball, will be released by Amazon early in 2021. She is an eight-time National Novel Writing Month participant.

Top photo by Russ Ward on Unsplash.

I saw a post where you mentioned not liking Dooku’s characterization under Disney. Would you mind if I ask why? I’ve seen the sentiment before, but I’d like to hear your reasoning if possible.

Lol not me dying on the Dooku hill again

So 👉👈 I'm a nerd.. and a real big fan of Christopher Lee, and I think Count Dooku was a perfect character for him since it combined the vampire/sorcerer/swordmaster character that Lee genuinely enjoyed playing

Disney gave us the Dooku: Jedi Lost book which was a story I ALWAYS wanted to hear. Ever since we saw that deleted scene with Jocasta and Obi Wan.

But Dooku in the book goes out of his way to fill the role of the "main protagonist" instead of the role of Yoda's First Apprentice. The reason I call him that is because Star Wars has a very distinct formula, so to tell a story you just have to flip all the known concepts upside down until you find something interesting.

So far we've seen how Yoda trained Luke, a very caring and loyal character. So to tell the story of Yoda training Dooku you'd have to flip it upside down. And show how Yoda has changed since that time, maybe he was a little too eager to take Dooku under his wing, maybe Dooku didn't want to become a Knight originally, basically take the Yoda & Luke dynamic and explore it from the opposite side.

It would show Yoda's character development AND how Luke genuinely was different than Dooku who in the end fell to the dark side.

And dialogue wise... oof ..Personally what I found interesting about Dooku was how Christopher portrayed him as this shameless little bitch who would plot your death behind your back but the second you confronted him he'd turn Bullshit Mode on in a an instant?

In a way I see Dooku as someone who's very similar to Obi Wan in a lot of ways.

I think there was a reason Obi Wan looked up to him and felt so betrayed by him that his first word when they met was "traitor."

IT'S MY FAVORITE LINE IN ALL OF STAR WARS

Dooku in the movies, or the novelization of Episode 3 and Labyrinth of Evil is just... Not the same character as the Dooku in Jedi Lost. Which isn't always a bad thing but it's just not my cup of tea maybe?

I've already spent too much time watching the movies and reading Jedi Apprentice and the other books. That at this point the image I have of Dooku is very concrete and it's hard to replace it with this weird powerhungry manchild version in Jedi Lost??

There are some parts I like, but I feel like the book wanted to explore Ventress way more than Dooku tbh. Dooku was just very ooc compared to how he's usually written and it was a story I looked forward to but... Yeea

I was hoping to see baby Jocasta too... Since she seemed to know exactly what happened for Dooku to become one of the Lost...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm invested in all these side characters like a clown what can I say...