Words cannot describe how little I cared about Claudia's death in Interview With the Vampire simply because of the confused enforcement of her implied intimacy with Louis throughout the book. I would have cared a lot more if it'd just stuck to the father/daughter dynamic. I would have cried. Instead the whole experience is tainted by that whole aspect of the story and I just couldn't feel anything about it other than a mild 'oh that's sad' and a less-than-mild discomfort.
I don't know what I expected of Armand. For some reason, I was under the assumption that he'd be a chaotic and unstable vampire, somebody who causes problems on purpose, but instead he's the most level-headed character throughout the whole book and is the only one who treated Louis with any sense of compassion from the get-go. It's interesting how his passivity parallels Louis's passivity, and how they are two sides of the same coin, essentially, just on opposite sides of their opinions about vampiric existence. The horrible irony that is Louis clinging to his humanity when it was Lestat or Claudia pushing him to abandon it, and that love only being lost when he finally finds somebody who appreciates that aspect of him.
*causally sprinkles some blood onto pizza box* Dresden Files fans, I summon you.
So, I’m currently halfway through Death Masks, and I’ve got a question. So far, I love the books, with a single, gaping exception. I enjoy how shitty and pathetic Harry is—it’s engaging to see a character who is consistently unsexy and depressed as a protagonist. I love a few of the side characters, and I’m very curious to learn more about this ridiculous man.
But.
Holy fucking shit, misogyny central. I’m baffled. Jim Butcher’s most used word had got to be “breasts”. I am genuinely so repulsed by how women are constantly sexualized, stripped of agency, and reduced to violent sex fiends or simpering damsels. It’s so fucking awful. I am so disturbed by how Harry acts regarding Molly, who is still in *highschool*, that I want to quit the series. It is truly a shame, because I love the books, but I’ve got to ask: does it ever get better? Does Butcher ever rein it in? I’m frustrated by Harry’s treatment of women and sexuality, because there is a much deeper narrative there that Butcher has created, but seems to have no interest in exploring. Harry is a thirty something man who grew up in the foster system, with no mother, and absolutely zero positive female role models. He craves the affection and validation of a mother figure, so instead he constantly chases relationships with powerful women. [Trigger warning for SA incoming, so please take care of yourself]
In Grave Peril, Harry is exposed to the effects of human trafficking and sexually slavery, before being violently assaulted in a group setting. This was really upsetting to read, but I had faith that Butcher was going to handle it well, and use the incident to further Harry’s inner conflict, and maybe expand upon or resolve his hypersexuality. Though there’s zero discussions of the implications of it in Grave Peril, the next book seems to set us up for it: Harry has nightmares constantly, he isn’t taking care of his body, and he’s terrified of seeing the vampires again. But nope, he’s actually just worried about his girlfriend, and he’s totally fine!! When you consider all the other weird instances of sexual violence of sexuality in violence Harry experiences, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s just the author’s kink.
It feels like Butcher is so disinterested in writing anything that challenges patriarchal standards of masculinity and femininity that he’s shooting himself in the foot artistically.
Does Butcher ever stop inflicting his teenage wet dreams on what could otherwise be an excellent series of pulpy wizard delights? Or is it “breasts” and “feminine curves” all the way down?
Just started reading Shatter Me and reached Defy Me in a week. It's high-key got me hooked. Also Nazeera Ibrahim; the woman that you are! 🛐 Lmk if y'all have read it too!!
I am honestly very scared for my man, Lucien, And I'm being as pessimistic as possible here.
I'm convinced after this podcast that Sarah sees Lucien as complicit in Feyre's abuse, and relatively guilty about the cauldron. Rhysand himself says so, and he's clearly her favorite character.
So I think Lucien is going to have a hell of a life in these books.
He will not only feel guilty. He will be guilty.
I think his storyline will be about taking responsibility, but mainly, it will be about taking action. About ceasing to be a coward (I don't think he is one).
But he will definitely almost sacrifice himself for someone in order to achieve redemption. That is, if he doesn't actually... ☠️
Back in the ancient times of 2015, when I first came out as a trans male, back when conversations about representation were (or felt like th
[...] Andrew Joseph White’s success isn’t a result of the quality of his work or of the accuracy with which he portrays matters pertaining to transgender life, but merely a reflection of White’s willingness to play to the tune of what cisgender publishers wish to see in a trans male character: neutered, subservient, victimized, ready to be gawked at by self-identified allies who want the pathos of transgender suffering to renovate their feelings that they’re good people for caring, and they can carry on with their lives after reading this book reassured in the belief that a trans man truly is just a woman you call a man for the sake of being polite.
Wrote a longer version of my Goodread review of You Weren't Meant to Be Human where I air out the rest of my grievances proper both with this book and what I feel it says about the state of transmasculine characters in publishing currently. This took a while because I hate this book and didn't wanna think about it and also was busy with other stuff but now it's here and it's done. Let me know what you think!
Who hasn’t heard of the ever-growing genre within Webtoons featuring semi-historical stories with a boss-babe female lead who, against all odds, finds true love with the male lead and gets revenge on those who oppose her?
It’s a power fantasy that hits just right because, as a society, we love revenge and justice for people who have been done absolutely dirty.
But what happens when a power fantasy dips its toes into one of the oldest forms of discrimination? Will the audience question their noble-born female lead, or will they blame the commoners who oppose her and fight back against the caste system?
Well, The Remarried Empress has the answer: just blame the poor people! How dare they not be born with a silver spoon in their mouth? God forbid these peasants want equal rights!
I would argue this story isn’t just bad because of its repetitive plot and cliché storyline, but it also actively reinforces classist and sexist ideology, especially surrounding one of the major antagonists, Rashta.
For god’s sake, Rashta was a slave—a woman without education, without anything to back her up. She had no one to lean on. The only cards she could play were her looks and her body, so of course, she would use the two things she had to get out of literal slavery. Tell me you wouldn’t do the same if you were in her position.
The female lead, Navier—don’t even get me started on her and her fans. She’s an empress, she’s rich. Even without marrying a man, she was the daughter of a literal duke. She grew up with an education, had friends to lean on. The worst thing that happened to her was that her husband got into a poor woman’s pants.
For the first few chapters I read, it felt like Navier had a bigger issue with the fact that Rashta was a runaway slave rather than the actual “homewrecking” she did.
The story goes out of its way to state that mistresses were common practice in the setting. Navier even knows the etiquette surrounding it. But the term homewrecker still gets flung around in the fandom to justify their strong distaste for Rashta.
Now, I want to preface this: it’s completely okay to dislike a character—sometimes, you just don’t vibe with them. However, there’s a difference between disliking a character just because you don’t like them and disliking a character while using excuses to disguise prejudice.
Not liking Rashta because she is annoying is fair. Not liking Rashta while literally perpetuating the same classist rhetoric spewed by the characters in the story is dumb and shows a lack of critical thinking.
Y’all 👏🏻 don’t 👏🏻 hate 👏🏻 her 👏🏻 for 👏🏻 being 👏🏻 a 👏🏻 homewrecker. 👏🏻
The characters within the story didn’t actually hate her for that either. They hated her because she was poor, because she was a runaway slave, because she didn’t fit into high society.
The way the author wrote this entire thing makes it feel like they themselves hate minorities because, instead of calling it what it is, they contribute to making excuses for the “good” noble-born characters.
A big concern of mine has been the growing trend within the storytelling community of demonizing the oppressed while the privileged get their asses kissed by both the author and the fanbase. This isn’t just a problem in this story—I’ve seen it in so many others that it’s honestly jarring.
Navier isn’t the perfect, morally good person the story tries to convince you she is. She is fully aware that the people in her empire are suffering from poverty and human trafficking, yet she does absolutely nothing to help them. She’s not an empowering feminist character, and the story certainly isn’t either.
Sigh, another story with great potential wasted because the author is too scared to step outside the cookie-cutter genre and write something that actually provokes thought in the reader. Not the first time I’ve been disappointed.
WRITERS AND AUTHORS , ARE YOU PREPARING TO PUBLISH YOUR MANUSCRIPT ?
Writers & authors , if you’re preparing your manuscript for publishing, having the right feedback can completely transform your story.
I’m currently accepting beta reading and manuscript critique projects for both fiction and non-fiction writers.
Here’s what I can help you strengthen:
✨ Story pacing & plot development
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Genres I enjoy working with:
📚 Romance
📚 Fantasy
📚 Horror
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Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is exactly what a story needs before publication.
If you’d like detailed feedback on your work, feel free to message me — I’d love to hear about your project ✨
