Naomi Reads @naomi-reads - Tumblr Blog

Cover Art | The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

The start of a bold and immersive West African-inspired, feminist fantasy series for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and Black Panther. In this world, girls are outcasts by blood and warriors by choice.

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity—and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki—near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be—not even Deka herself.

Artwork by Johnny Tarajosu

Release date | May 26, 2020 Goodreads

queerbookmemes

one of the funniest parts of RWRB is Henry obliviously carrying on doing everything humanely possible to ensure that Alex falls in love with him and then being the surprised pikachu meme when Alex actually does

twohomessidebyside

we rly callin the man out tonight huh

#rwrb

coolcurrybooks-deactivated20230

Fantasy books written by women are often assumed to be young adult, even when those books are written for adults, marketed to adults, and published by adult SFF imprints. And this happens even more frequently to women of color.

This topic’s an ongoing conversation on book Twitter, and I thought it might be worth sharing with Tumblr. And by “ongoing,” I mean that people have been talking about this for years. Last year, there was a big blow up when the author R.F. Kuang said publicly that her book The Poppy War isn’t young adult and that she wished people would stop calling it such. If you’ve read The Poppy War, then you’ll know it’s grimdark fantasy along lines of Game of Thrones… and yet people constantly refer to The Poppy War as young adult – which is one of its popular shelves on Goodreads. To be fair, more people have shelved it as “adult,” but why is anyone shelving it as “young adult” in the first place? Game of Thrones is not at all treated this way…

Rebecca Roanhorse’s book Trail of Lightning, an urban fantasy with a Dinétah (Navajo) protagonist has “young adult” as its fifth most popular Goodreads shelf. The novel is adult and published by Saga, an adult SFF imprint.

S.A. Chakraborty’s adult fantasy novel City of Brass has “young adult” as its fourth most popular Goodreads shelf.

Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, an adult fantasy in a world based on Mughal India, has about equal numbers of people shelving it as “adult” or “young adult.”

Book Riot wrote an article on this, although they didn’t address how the problem intersects with race. I also did a Twitter thread a while back where I cited these examples and some more as well.

The topic of diversity in adult SFF is important to me, partly because we need to stop mislabeling the women of color who write it, and also because there’s a lot there that isn’t acknowledged! Besides, sometimes it’s good to see that your stories don’t just end the moment you leave high school and that adults can still have vibrant and interesting futures worth reading about. I feel like this is especially important with queer rep, for a number of reasons.

Other books and authors in the tweets I screenshot include:

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

A Ruin of Shadows by L.D. Lewis

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Day Before by Liana Brooks

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell

Shri, a book blogger at Sun and Chai

Vanessa, a writer and blogger at The Wolf and Books

TLDR: Women who write adult fantasy, especially women of color, are presumed to be writing young adult, which is problematic in that it internalizes diversity, dismisses the need and presence of diversity in adult fantasy, and plays into sexist assumptions of women writers.

howlsmovinglibrary

Never forget the amount of hate R.F. Kuang got for explicitly stating that The Poppy War, one of the most triggering books I’ve ever read, should never be shelved as YA. She did so out of extreme concern of the content getting into the wrong hands without warning.

And then two days later Jay Kristoff said the same thing about Nevernight…and nothing happened.

romans-art

how I imagined Eadaz uq-nara from The Priory of the Orange Tree by @sshannonauthor

decided to draw her not in Inysh court clothes, but in her own style: brocade coat, bell trousers, boots. Gave her a yagatan for her preferred blade, drawing on 16th century Ottoman influences, and more Iranian and Indian influences for the coat style.

#priory #fanart #eadaz

benepla-deactivated20200506

can we give it up for Suzanne Collins for fucking off into oblivion with her money after hunger games fucking destroyed the YA market for like 6 years. everything YA was dystopian “EVERYONES IN A DIFFERENT QUADRANT” shit from 2010 to 2016 and we didnt hear a peep from her. true fucking power.

ruby-white-rabbit

And she hasn’t said a word since. Rowling could take some pointers

galaxiepresdechezvous

Yeah but in Collins defense, her book was really good. She perfectly showed PTSD, Katnis trauma from when her mom mentally “abandoned” her when her dad died and the parallel with Katnis depression at the end of the series, perfectly depicted the society and its inherent problems, Finick’s back story, socio-economic disparities based on skin colour, Rue and the 11th district, President Coin and how she was as bad as Snow but in an other angle, distrinct 13 and the capitol trying to use her image for the war even though she did want to, and way more stuff I can’t think of right now.

I mean the following Y/A distopian books were mostly bad knock off who thought that the reason the HG had such success was because of the love triangle, but in reality Collins created such a complexe yet very realistic world that makes a parallel to our society of entretainment and war

whatisthisplaceidonteven

The Hunger Games was baby’s first intro to social justice for a lot of kids back in the early 2010s. They were brilliant books that introduced a lot of complicated concepts in a way teens could understand and enjoy - plus, addictive, well-plotted adventure stories with A+ characterization and worldbuilding. But all the general public seems to remember about them is the love triangle, and I will always be salty about that.

princecaviar-deactivated2022113

The irony of the Hunger Games is that the media in the book and the media in the real world both chose to focus on the love story instead of the rebellion.

corisanna

One of my favorite aspects of the book series was the way it dissected the art/science of propaganda/media and the often stark differences in popular figures’ public and private personas. The movies also got that frighteningly correct. Propaganda to oppress and propaganda to uplift were laid side-by-side and used as foils to show how the techniques work to achieve the desired purpose. The direct invocation of “panem et circenses” (”bread and circuses,” keeping a population docile by controlling/bestowing distractions regarding food and entertainment) made the point all the clearer. “Look. This is what is being done to distract you.”

Having Katniss– the symbol of The Common Person at the bottom of the societal hierarchy who most heavily bears the brunt of oppression– be stiff and awful at scripted propos but a fucking goddess at unscripted, passionately angry speeches and stoking reflection and resistance and rebellion was very deliberate. It is a call to be genuine, to question media narratives and seek facts, to take a long, hard, honest look beyond the sparkling lights and glamor projected by the media to really see and take the downtrodden seriously before their collective patience wears thin enough to snap and they bring out the bombs. Or guillotines, if you want to look at IRL history.

One of my favorite scenes in the series is in Catching Fire: the interviews with the Victors being forced to take part in the Quarter Quell. Especially with the visuals of the movie. The entire thing builds up to when Peeta “drops the baby bomb” and the audience breaks into dismayed/horrified pandemonium and there are calls by the privileged to stop the injustice; it is an escalating series of oppressed, re-victimized individuals turning their glamorized re-victimization into a platform to scream their humanity at the citizens of the Capitol until it seems to finally start seeping in. Stanley Tucci play’s Caesar Flickerman’s growing discomfort perfectly; IIRC, his calling for the lights and cameras to be cut when the Victors show unity is to use the gesture of slitting a throat. It’s a common gesture, but in this case it has a greater weight: “Cut this, kill it, don’t let people see it, these people we’ve set up to hate each other joining hands in united defiance is dangerous.”

That also veers off into an extended lesson in “the powers that be seek to divide you and turn you against each other to keep you weak.” In modern terms, you can see it in such things as “wow why should burger-flippers get raises to earn more than the legit heroes who fight crime and save lives and defend our country?” to turn those groups against each other on the basis of accepted social hierarchy instead of talking together and coming to a consensus of, “You know, we’re ALL getting screwed and should ALL make more money; let’s work together to achieve that.”

It is highly relevant to this period of civilization. It resonates with the masses. That resonance is amorphous; allowing it to gel into something more solid could erode media/propagandist influence. Thus, whether conscious or just the nature of the beast,

“LOOK AT THE LOVE TRIANGLE! ROMANCE! FOCUS ON THE ROMANCE! ISN’T IT ROMANTIC?! THINKING ABOUT THE DEEPER STUFF IS UNCOMFORTABLE, SO LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL WOMAN AND HANDSOME MEN AND CHOOSE A SIDE AND FIGHT FOR IT! R-O-M-A-N-C-E-!”

In other words, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

In other words, “Let’s play up the circus part of panem et circenses.”

It’s like a social ourobouros. I observe it with a sort of morbid fascination.

zarohk

Just FYI, Suzanne Collins was pressured by her editor to make a love triangle, and decided to make President Snow be the one pushing the Peeta romance to show that it was forced.

#thg

effiecalvin

I am the very best at marketing. Amazon Goodreads

cryptidsnail

im honestly gonna get it. you had me at “made a homophobe so angry”

effiecalvin

This actually happened! I’ve always felt that if you buy a book where the stated summary is “two princesses attempt to fight dragons and get married” you don’t really have a right to be mad when the book turns out to be about two princesses attempting to fight dragons and get married but what the hell do I know.

anauthorandherservicedog

To be fair, maybe the reader expected the princesses to marry the dragons?

Please tell me there’s a sequel where that happens.

BUT ONLY IF THE DRAGONS ARE ALSO LADIES.

effiecalvin

Actually, the main complaint was that it was “historically inaccurate” for two princesses to be allowed to get married. Which was weird to me, since this story is not set on earth and I’m pretty sure it is historically accurate for gay couples to be allowed to get married on this super convenient wish-fulfillment fantasy world that I concocted after logging 300 hours in Skyrim. Curiously enough, she didn’t complain about the dragons being inaccurate.

bisexualbaker

[Image description with transcript follows]

Book: The Queen of Ieflaria by Effie Calvin (The cover features a thin white lady in a fancy gown, gathering her skirts around her, against a backdrop of a nebula; the background of the entire ad is two women in wedding gowns, running hand-in-hand)

Arrows pointing to the book read:

Once made a homophobe so angry, they had to delete it off their kindle!

Will turn all your other books gay!!!

Does anyone else think these arrows look like sideways houses? [Transcriber’s note: Yes.]

I am single

Testimonials:

“Sorry hon I haven’t got around to reading it yet.” –Author’s Mother

“One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.” –Jean-Paul Sartre

“You’re supposed to put actual reviews here, not random bullshit.” –The Internet

“You use absurdist humor as a defense mechanism.” –Author’s Therapist

“Meow.” –Author’s Cat

Available right this second from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and a bunch of other places I’m too lazy to list here.

I took a chance on this book just because of this marvelous ad, and not only did I not regret it, upon finishing I went and immediately bought the sequel, and am now sitting on tenterhooks awaiting the third book.

Good, accessible high fantasy, with lots and lots of queer characters, including explicitly nonbinary characters (and gods!); no enby MCs yet, but I live in hope! To people who like dragons as things other than thoughtless killing machines, I promise that you will be satisfied by the time you get to the end. My only complaint is that the names didn’t always come naturally to my mental pronunciation, but that’s very minor on the scale of things.

Definitely worth checking out, IMO.

bisexualbaker

Book three in this series is coming out next week! If adorable, fluffy, f/f fantasy where the girl gets the girl is your jam, I can highly recommend them. (This book is also available in audio!)

#book recs

skrutskie

Cover Reveal: BONDS OF BRASS

Here it is: the moment you’ve been waiting for! I’m so excited to share the cover of BONDS OF BRASS, the first book in the Bloodright Trilogy! This gorgeousness is coming to a galaxy near you on 4/7/2020!

A young pilot risks everything to save his best friend–the man he trusts most and might even love–only to learn that he’s secretly the heir to a brutal galactic empire.

Ettian Nassun’s life was shattered when the merciless Umber Empire invaded. He’s spent seven years putting himself back together under its rule, joining an Umber military academy and becoming the best pilot in his class. Even better, he’s met Gal Veres–his exasperating and infuriatingly enticing roommate who’s made the Academy feel like a new home.

But when dozens of classmates spring an assassination plot on Gal, a devastating secret comes to light: Gal is the heir to the Umber Empire. Ettian barely manages to save his best friend and flee the compromised Academy unscathed, rattled both that Gal stands to inherit the empire that broke him and that there are still people willing to fight back against Umber rule. As they piece together a way to deliver Gal safely to his throne, Ettian finds himself torn in half by an impossible choice. Does he save the man who’s won his heart and trust that Gal’s goodness could transform the empire? Or does he throw his lot in with the brewing rebellion and fight to take back what’s rightfully theirs?

Add on Goodreads | Preorder

#bonds of brass

biandlesbianliterature

Lesbrary Link Round Up

[image description: a collage of 16 covers of the books mentioned in the links below, with the text “Lesbrary Links: Bi & Lesbian Lit News & Reviews]

This is the Lesbrary bi-weekly feature where we take a look at all the lesbian and bi women book news and reviews happening on the rest of the internet!

[image description: the covers of Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin, Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi, On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, The Second Mango by Shira Glassman, and That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole]

Autostraddle posted 8 YA Books Featuring Characters who Are Happily Lesbian but Have Other Drama.

Book Riot posted

50 Must-Read Queer Romance Novellas

An Anne Lister “Gentleman Jack” Reading List

“[T]hose librarians failed students”: Book Ban at Irving Independent School District

Cece (Problems of a Book Nerd) posted How to Find Out About Queer Books (video).

Electric Lit posted 10 Exuberantly Queer Graphic Novels.

[image description: the covers of 100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism by Chavisa Woods, Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Shaw, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mario Tamaki, Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories, and Jam on the Vine by LaShonda Katrica Burnett]

Niamh Murphy reviewed Gentleman Jack, including critics’ response, audience response, representation, and more.

“12 Books By (And About) Lesbians And Bisexual Women To Read This Pride Month” was posted at Buzzfeed.

Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories edited by Michael Earp was reviewed at The Nerd Daily.

Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow was discussed at Autostraddle.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell was reviewed at Rich in Color.

100 Times: A Memoir of Sexism by Chavisa Woods was reviewed at Lambda Literary.

If you like what we do at the Lesbrary and Bi & Les Lit, support us on Patreon at $2 or more a month and be entered to win a queer women book every month!

romans-art

“When Fýredel closed his jaws, all was silent. Black vapours billowed from the tower, clearing slowly. Ead waited, heart tight as a drum, until she saw the figure in the smoke. Sabran Berethnet was unscathed. ‘It is my turn to give you a warning. A warning from my forebear,’ she said breathlessly, ‘that if you make war against Virtudom, this hallowed blood will quench your fire. And it will not return.’“

-The Priory of the Orange Tree by @sshannonauthor

sshannonauthor

This is beyond gorgeous – would look perfect in a stained-glass window in an Inysh sanctuary. I love how saint-like she looks.

#priory #fanart

fictionadventurer

I think the Hunger Games series sits in a similar literary position to The Lord of the Rings, as a piece of literature (by a Catholic author) that sparked a whole new subgenre and then gets blamed for flaws that exist in the copycat books and aren’t actually part of the original.

Like, despite what parodies might say, Katniss is nowhere near the stereotypical “unqualified teenager chosen to lead a rebellion for no good reason”. The entire point is that she’s not leading the rebellion. She’s a traumatized teenager who has emotional reactions to the horrors in her society, and is constantly being reined in by more experienced adults who have to tell her, “No, this is not how you fight the government, you are going to get people killed.” She’s not the upstart teenager showing the brainless adults what to do–she’s a teenager being manipulated by smarter and more experienced adults. She has no power in the rebellion except as a useful piece of propaganda, and the entire trilogy is her straining against that role. It’s much more realistic and far more nuanced than anyone who dismisses it as “stereotypical YA dystopian” gives it credit for.

And the misconceptions don’t end there. The Hunger Games has no “stereotypical YA love triangle”–yes, there are two potential love interests, but the romance is so not the point. There’s a war going on! Katniss has more important things to worry about than boys! The romance was never about her choosing between two hot boys–it’s about choosing between two diametrically opposed worldviews. Will she choose anger and war, or compassion and peace? Of course a trilogy filled with the horrors of war ends with her marriage to the peace-loving Peeta. Unlike some of the YA dystopian copycats, the romance here is part of the message, not just something to pacify readers who expect “hot love triangles” in their YA.

The worldbuilding in the Hunger Games trilogy is simplistic and not realistic, but unlike some of her imitators, Collins does this because she has something to say, not because she’s cobbling together a grim and gritty dystopia that’s “similar to the Hunger Games”. The worldbuilding has an allegorical function, kept simple so we can see beyond it to what Collins is really saying–and it’s nothing so comforting as “we need to fight the evil people who are ruining society”. The Capitol’s not just the powerful, greedy bad guys–the Capitol is us, First World America, living in luxury while we ignore the problems of the rest of the world, and thinking of other nations largely in terms of what resources we can get from them. This simplistic world is a sparsely set stage that lets us explore the larger themes about exploitation and war and the horrors people will commit for the sake of their bread and circuses, meant to make us think deeper about what separates a hero from a villain.

There’s a reason these books became a literary phenomenon. There’s a reason that dozens upon dozens of authors attempted to imitate them. But these imitators can’t capture that same genius, largely because they’re trying to imitate the trappings of another book, and failing to capture the larger and more meaningful message underneath. Make a copy of a copy of a copy, and you’ll wind up with something far removed from the original masterpiece. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of blaming those flaws on the original work.

#thg

wizardysseus

the thing about people who are like “i don’t like tolkien that much, fantasy should move on and be better” is that i AGREE that fantasy has all the wrong holdovers from lotr. but when you ask those people what contemporary fantasy they think is better, they’ll say shit like name of the wind or game of thrones, and i do not relate to that…..at all?? or even, like, brandon sanderson, whose books i REALLY like. but if you’re still naming mostly white straight male authors, what is it about tolkien you wanted to leave behind exactly???

ofstarstuff

If y’all’s “moving on from Tolkien” is still centered in reading fantasy written by cishet white men, y’all are missing out.

Martha Wells, Books of the Raksura. Shapeshifting gargoyle-dragon-lizard people in a matriarchal society. About finding a new home and a new family. Really evocative world building that hints at much older civilizations in a luxuriant setting.

NK Jemisin, The Broken Earth series. Post-apocalyptic setting. People of color actively dismantling systems of oppression. People of color being justifiably angry at what has been done. People of color being powerful. A black woman as the main character and multiple queer characters. She won THREE Best Novel Hugos for this series.

NK Jemisin, The Inheritance Trilogy. An empire has imprisoned and enslaved multiple gods, and is using them to further their oppressive systems. The mixed race female protagonist helps them find liberation. Some polyamory and non-binary themes.

Aliette de Bodard, Dominion of the Fallen series. “Dark Gothic fantasies set in a ruined turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war.” Fallen angels, Asian dragons, Viet culture, and queer PoC in positions of power. Her website has lots of free fiction as well. Special mention to The Tea Master and the Detective, a Sherlock Holmes retelling where Sherlock is a WoC and Watson is a sentient spaceship.

Fran Wilde, The Bone Cycle. Beautiful worldbuilding, tradition, (mis)information, climate change. This series is so gorgeous I have deliberately not finished reading it yet, because I am saving the last few chapters of the final book for when I’m going through a rough patch and need something lovely to escape into.

Amal El-Mohtar, Seasons of Glass and Iron. Fairy tale heroines going “nah, fuck this nonsense, we’re making our own story”. Amal mostly writes poetry and short fiction, and all of it is beautifully lyrical. Her words are so beautiful they make me angry.

Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky. It blends several genres in one, and honestly you are better off reading it than reading any summary I could make about it.

And so many, many, many more in the fantasy/sci-fi/horror genres. Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher, Alyssa Wong, Ken Liu, Rebecca Roanhorse, Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant, Daniel José Older, RF Kuang, Nnedi Okorafor, Jeannette Ng, Ann Leckie, Ted Chiang, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ruthanna Emrys, Louise Erdrich, Elizabeth Bear, Saladin Ahmed, Nisi Shawl…

If you can’t afford them, that’s okay, you have options:

Make sure to check them out at your local library.

Don’t want to go to the library, or don’t have a means to do so regularly? Ebooks! Overdrive/Libby is your friend–you just need to get a library card and then you can borrow ebooks through their ever-growing database. You can even recommend books to them–authors will get a sale if the library buys the book! They also have a growing audiobook supply, and you can recommend those to your library as well.

Libby has a phone app that is perfectly functional, so if you don’t have a dedicated e-reader but own a smartphone, you can get your books that way too.

Do you prefer short fiction? So many of these authors have stuff available online, be it on their website or on zines. A brief search will supply you with more fiction by non-white-dudes than you know what to do with.

tl;dr:

Read diverse authors.

vr-trakowski

Diane Duane, Lois McMaster Bujold, Doris Egan, Ann Downer, Pamela Dean, Emma Bull…

emeraldbirdcollector

Reblogging so that I can remember some of these names next time my to-be-read pile is winnowed down to a point where I can get new books from bookstore or library (oh, who am I kidding, reblogging so I can get some more books and who cares that I already have piles to read…)

#to read

lbibliophile

Just like Slughorn, Albus Dumbledore collects people. Only, instead of focusing on those with influence, he looks to the outcasts.

The expelled half-giant. The young werewolf. The repentant Death Eater.

He protects them and gives them a second chance. All he asks in return is their loyalty.

And, if on occasion he requests that they undertake a certain task, invoking their debt of gratitude - well, that is no more than he is owed.

He once thought to add a certain disowned Black to his collection, but quickly realised his mistake.

Sirius is not an outcast, but a rebel. He knowingly chose his path, and chooses what price he is willing to pay for it. He refuses to be used.

So Albus Dumbledore abandons him.

wizardtowizard-blog

Who gave you the RIGHT?

bonnini

Dumbledore knows Sirius’s loyalty lies with Harry instead of him, and he has no use for someone who is not willing to follow his orders without question.

marauders4evr

Ooooohoo if there’s ever a post that fits my aesthetic…

not-a-bit-good

okay but then where does Harry himself fit into this collection? Is he an outcast because he is “the Boy Who Lived”?

marauders4evr

Nooonono, my friend, that’s what makes this post so beautiful. Because it fits the meta I’ve been trying to get people to accept for years.

Harry was an outcast due to a childhood filled with abuse and neglect.

Vernon made him an outcast by dismissing his claims of magic, berating him, locking him in a CLOSET and putting bars on his window, and let’s face it, even though her editor made her cut it out, Jo intended for there to be physical abuse.

Petunia made him an outcast by enabling and contributing to this abuse, as well as making Harry do dozens of chores while doting on Dudley.

Dudley made him an outcast by bullying him and threatening any students at school who wanted to be his friends.

And the rest of the wizarding world made him an outcast when they bullied him for being an outsider.

Harry James Potter became an outcast the moment he was placed with The Dursleys.

And who put him there in the first place?

theotheryongbok

my-sun-is-gone-deactivated20180

I’m here for this Anti-Dumbledore discussion.

gehayi

This makes even more sense when you consider why Dumbledore deliberately made Harry an outcast.

Think about it What would Harry have been like if he had grown up in the wizarding world? Or, to put it another way, what would Harry have been like if he had grown up in a world where magic was the norm?

He would have taken magic for granted. He would have been less likely (especially as he got older) to view Dumbledore as a wise mentor and more likely to see him as flawed and capable of bad decisions. He would have seen both the world and Dumbledore as ordinary, with their good points and bad points.

But Dumbledore didn’t need a well-adjusted boy who took magic and the magical world for granted. He needed a child who would love the magical world unstintingly, even irrationally, because it was a haven from neglect and abuse. Even more, he needed a child who feared this world becoming evil and who therefore would not question someone that he saw as the ultimate authority, especially if he believed that obeying that authority would keep the world safe.

Even if obedience meant his own death.

Dumbledore wanted a martyr who would die for the wizarding world, because he believed that Voldemort could not die until Harry did. Which was why he left Harry with the Dursleys and let them neglect and emotionally abuse him for the next ten years.

To get a martyr, he first had to create a victim.

#hp

sleepingfancies

Like… part of the reason I dislike the relationships in S/JM’s work - beyond the fact that they’re so extremely toxic and abusive - is that they’re not even loving.

Preface: there is nothing wrong with hooking up or being in a friends with benefits agreement, but that’s not what this post is focusing on. Everything I say is in the context of a long term (“endgame”) relationship.

A man holding his wife and keeping her comfortable while she nurses their baby. A woman supporting her husband’s ambitions even though he’s terrified of the path to his goals. A man making soup and telling jokes to his horribly sick husband. A woman giving her wife enormous hugs when she’s upset and asking her to talk it out, even if she can’t fix it.

When have we ever seen these things in her books? Nothing in her work even comes close to the level of trust, intimacy, and genuine love that accompany the post-honeymoon stage. And that’s something both girls and boys need to see more often in fiction.

We as a culture focus so much on passion and wildness and sex (while simultaneously demonizing the exposure of a woman’s skin, what’s up with that?) that we lose sight of the beauty of long term relationships. The comfortable silences, the inside jokes, the contentment with not necessarily needing to get fucked four times a day by your partner to know you’re in love and you have a good thing going.

Knowing the intimate details of someone is truly amazing. Knowing how they like their hair played with. Knowing how grumpy they get around lots of people. Knowing whether they like their burgers rare or well done. These are incredibly small details, but they make all the difference in whether a relationship is one built on lust or trust.

Which, not to compare apples to oranges, is something I deeply admire about Leah Bardugo’s work. Kaz and Inej *never* jump into bed with each other, but they trust each other and know the small details. Jesper and Wylan *never* jump into bed with each other, but they respect each other and know the small details. Nina and Matthias *never* jump into bed with each other (though damn if they didn’t try) but they admire each other and are in the process of learning the small details. Every one of these relationships has a solid foundation that isn’t “I want to fuck you.”

Young girls and boys (hell, even adult women and men) should be seeing not just healthy relationships in fiction but long term ones as well, and ones that don’t lie and tell you the honeymoon stage isn’t a thing or that it lasts forever. Women and men need to have positive role models for their relationships and S/JM only ever delivers relationships based on toxic masculinity, abuse, misogyny, and pure sex.

sleepingfancies

Not to bring this back, but I ain’t finished.

Part of why this type of writing is so unacceptable to me to be toted as “endgame romance” is because it perpetuates the idea that women are just objects. Your true love should not think of you as valuable as a cute brooch or hairpin to show off to the world.

In all of S/JM’s books, she claims she’s a figurehead warrior of the feminist movement and doesn’t write “alpha males,” but that’s all she writes. Her women are objects in her stories despite supposedly being the ones we’re meant to relate to. I suppose S/JM may be trying to say that women have feminist agency in choosing their abusive boyfriend, but as far as feminism goes, that’s not really a message we want to teach young girls.

Girls are reading these books and being taught that this is an appropriate relationship. That losing complete autonomous control of oneself, losing independence, and losing your personal privacy - as a woman - is what you should expect in a relationship. That being used and flaunted as an accessory is what is going to happen. That being beautiful is all that matters (which, to be fair, she pushes this message onto men and boys as well).

This misogyny only doubles down with how she presents her male characters. We’re supposed to feel *bad* that Riceman was treated so terribly by his former… girlfriend… mate… whatever, except that he then turns around and treats Fairy exactly the same way. And it’s “hot.” “Sexy,” even. So what does this tell us? That these behaviors are not problematic for men. They’re normal. “Good girls” are submissive and ready to have sex whenever their man desires. “Evil women” do exactly what the men do. But somehow it’s…. inexplicably Not Evil for the men to do it.

S/JM’s misogyny runs so deep, it is so inseparable from her as an author, that it crops up in every single one of her books. Young girls do not need to be told that this is what they should expect from relationships. They don’t need to be taught to excuse or dismiss this type of behavior. Normalizing this kind of thing is dangerous, especially in YA fiction, especially in our society when men are already excused daily.

Any YA story that depicts abusive relationships, in my opinion, should clearly define that it is an abusive relationship that the reader should not admire or desire. There are not enough YA books out there that depict genuine affection and mutual respect, care, and love between a man and a woman. That S/JM is so popular even with all her toxic bullshit really disturbs me.

“I love you” is not an apology for abusive behavior and all it does is tell girls they should forgive their men for awful shit at the drop of a dime. Top that off with the implication that girls should appreciate how very lucky they are that any man “loves” them - no matter how awful that man might be.

krugerevengeinej

*sips tea*

tashaneva

Headmistress Minerva McGonagall and Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Harry, commission for @susannedraws! ❤️

#hp #fanart

interludepress

Coming June 4th: Book 3 in C.B. Lee’s Sidekick Squad series, NOT YOUR BACKUP

Now available to pre-order: Not Your Backup from C.B. Lee

Emma Robledo has a few more responsibilities that the usual high school senior, but then again, she and her friends have left school to lead a fractured Resistance movement against a corrupt Heroes’ League of Heroes. Emma is the only member of a supercharged team without powers, and she isn’t always taken seriously. A natural leader, Emma is determined to win this battle, and when that’s done, get back to school. As the Resistance moves to challenge the League, Emma realizes where her place is in this fight: at the front.

Lambda Literary Award finalist C.B. Lee returns with the third book in her bestselling Sidekick Squad series, which has garnered both critical acclaim and fans for its joyous tone and inclusivity.

NOT YOUR BACKUP

Price: $16.99 print / $6.99 multi-format ebook Release Date: June 4, 2019 Details: Trade paperback, 5.25"x 8" Pages/Words: 290 // 80,000 ISBN: 978-1-945053-78-8 print // 978-1-945053-79-5 multi-format eBook

Now available to pre-order from the IP Web Store, Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, and an indie retailer near you.

IP Web Store Advance Purchase Special

US/Canada: If you purchase the print edition of NOT YOUR BACKUP before June 4, 2019 from the IP Web Store, you will automatically receive the multi-format eBook for free with your order.

International: Order the print edition of NOT YOUR BACKUP by June 4, 2019 from your favorite book retailer and receive free multi-format eBook by submitting a copy of your receipt to [email protected].

Add it to your Goodreads TBR shelf

About the Author:

C.B. Lee is a Lambda Literary Award-nominated writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy. Her works include the Sidekick Squad series (Duet Books) and Ben 10 (Boom!). C.B. loves to write about queer teens, magic, superheroes, and the power of friendship. When not nationally touring as an educator, writer, and activist, C.B. lives in Los Angeles, where she can neither confirm nor deny being a superhero. You can learn more about her and her adventures as a bisexual disaster at http://cb-lee.com

Cover art by C.B. Messer

#not your backup

richincolor

Check out the cover for the third book in C.B. Lee's Sidekick Squad series, NOT YOUR BACKUP, and read on for an excerpt from the book!

Just so in love with the Not Your Backup cover. If you haven’t read Not Your Sidekick and Not Your Villain, absolutely get on that! C.B. Lee’s series is the queer superhero YA that you need in your life. ✨

#!!!#this cover is amazing #can't wait to read it #not your backup

somethingtodowithpotter

We might have misunderstood Hogwarts Houses for years

I have a theory that the valued quality of each of the four Houses isn’t really about the personality of its students.

The valued quality of each of the four Houses has to do with how they perceive magic.

Stick with me a second: Hogwarts is a school to study magic. Magic as Hogwarts teaches it can be seen as many things: a natural talent, a gift, a weapon, etc.

So how you believe magic should be used will both reflect your personality and change how you handle that power.

“Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart,” Gryffindors perceive magic as a weapon. Gryffindors tend to excel in aggressive forms of magic, like offensive and defensive spells, and they are good at dueling. But a true Gryffindor knows that the power is a responsibility, and so they must always use their powers to stand up for what’s right. They are the sword of the righteous, which makes them as good at Defense Against the Dark Arts as they are at combat magic.

Hufflepuffs believe that magic is a gift and that the best gifts are to be given away. Hufflepuffs, “loyal and just,” would naturally abhor the idea of jealously guarding magic or using it to hurt someone else. So Hufflepuffs share their magic to benefit of Muggles, like the Fat Friar, to protect the overlooked, like Newt Scamander with his creatures, or to oppose those who would use magic to torment and bully, like the Hufflepuffs who stood with the DA and the battle of Hogwarts.

Slytherins are the opposite: they believe their magic is a treasure that they have been entrusted to protect. The Slytherin fascination with purity, with advantage, with cunning and secrecy–all of which were perverted by the Death Eaters–comes from the idea that people with magic in their veins have been given something special that it is their duty to protect at all costs. And perhaps they aren’t entirely wrong: power in the wrong hands can be dangerous. And power interfering at will with Muggle affairs is a gross presumption that could turn the course of history. Though the series shows some of the worst that Slytherin can be, “evil,” is not a natural Slytherin tendency. “Cautious,” is.

Ravenclaws believe that magic is an art form, one that is beautiful and should be appreciated and studied for its own sake. If “wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure,” then asking what magic is for is useless. It’s more important to immerse oneself in magic for its own sake. Ravenclaws push the boundaries of magic to see if they can, hence Hermione’s spell experiment on the DA coins being dubbed a Ravenclaw quality, but like Luna Lovegood in the pursuit of extraordinary creatures: they can also be content to plumb the depths of what already exists.

So while you can see where personalities will overlap over Houses, perhaps in Sorting we should be asking ourselves less what we think we are and more what we think we believe.

mikkeneko

that’s much more interesting and substantive than “brave, smart, evil, miscellaneous”

#hp

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