hiiiiiiii ash thank you for askinggg <<3
2. What's your favourite book series?
i still have such a soft spot for the riordanverse books im ngl, but im gonna have to copout and say im split between the og percy jackson series and the magnus chase series.
6. what's the best book youve read this year?
lolita by vladimir nabokov. it took me a hot minute to get through and i kept having to put it down, but yeah, worth it as much as it made me feel sick. im currently reading going postal by terry prachett tho, and ive not read a prachett book except good omens before, and im really gelling with the writing style, like, ive never experienced an author writing how my brain thinks, i actually thought that was a bs thing ppl made up to come off as cooler than they are. so we will see if i finish it by the end of the year and if my answer would change!
9. what's one book you think everyone should read?
not to answer with the same answer again, but lolita. for two reasons. firstly. just a well written book. secondly. everyone has an opinion on lolita, but a staggeringly few amount of people have actually ever read it, and im tired of people on one hand saying its pedophilia apologia, and on the other saying its a "dark romance", or that delores invited HH's attraction.
11. what book do you hate passionately? (provide reasons if you want)
NEON GODS BY KATEE ROBERTS. although i will say that its a very fun book to hate passionately. i have like, an essay worth of reasons why i hate this goddamn book, so ill try and narrow it down.
firstly, what i hate the most is how obvious it is that katee is afraid of being cancelled on twitter for writing erotica that would otherwise be labelled as "dark romance". the way she writes, shes real high up on her horse on what she thinks about the other authors in her genre, and that would be one thing if she wasnt a hypocrite about it. like the male lead cares so so deeply about consent to the point where its like, okay, asking her 15 times in a row without pause kind of makes it sound like youre condescending her actually, but also he cares about her consent when it comes to sex, when it comes to literally anything else, the female lead has 0 agency. like at all. and its like, okay, you can make a point that *your* erotica heavily features sexual consent, thats not necessarily a bad thing (even tho it does come off like youre looking down on the people who literally built your genre), but then you go and you dont commit to your own ideology here. like does consent not matter when she begs you to let her walk on her own two feet because at least it isnt sexual assault? coward. stick to your guns.
secondly, theres like, some interesting worldbuilding in there. but every time the worldbuilding gets explained, its always brushed over like its unimportant. like! you didnt have to add the world building! do not edge me on worldbuilding, i did not consent ms roberts.
and lastly, the author clearly cares about diversity, and seems very proud of her diversity, but its always done in the most shallow of ways. like ultimately the book is still about a tall, handsome, white cis(presumably)het male lead, and a beautiful, short, white cis, bi female lead. our one black character whos central to the plot not only constantly breaks into the male lead's home, but she's the GOD OF THIEVERY, and her personality is just so "best friend, sugary sweet", meanwhile the male lead in his head just has a running commentary about how fucking annoying and stupid she is. like HELLO??? i felt so bad for her 😭 and to a lesser extent, we find out the female lead is bi bc in one scene shes talking about how hot the male lead is and how hes the hottest person shes ever met.... except for that one woman she met in a hole in the wall bar who she slept with once, she was really hot too ("im bisexual btw"), but ANYWAY, this GUY! and afaik bc its a DNF (altho ill probably go back and listen (audiobook) to the rest at some point), thats the sole mention of her bisexuality. but even if it wasnt, it was so goddamn CLUNKY and awkward, and it's like, oh, you care too much about what twitter and booktok thinks, dont you? ALSO its clear that the author thinks of herself as a feminist writer, but then every other major woman other than the female lead, the aforementioned god of thievery, and a few random women who are there for like, a page, theyre all super bitchy and vapid and obsessed with themselves or straight up evil, and its like! ma'am! and its not like i have anything wrong with tropey formulaic fiction, you would not believe the trash i read for fun, but i just hate when authors pretend theyre Above all that, only to do nothing to actually examine their biases.
actually no, last but not least for REAL this time (i promised i wouldnt essay at you and then i did im so sorry xD), but i did actually listen to it as an audiobook rather than read it bc i got it for free and i am NOT paying for this book, but the narrator 😭 its a dual perspective with each alternating chapter being the other lead iirc, and her voice for the male lead, i just couldnt take it seriously LMAO. like girl!!! your voice!!! please stop straining it like that. i havent acted in over a year now, but im still haunted by the thought of doing what she does to her voice.
anyway sorry for that essay, i could have literally just said "it's a booktok book thats a bdsm retelling of the hades and persephone myth" and conveyed all i needed to with that alone.
