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Currently reading 📚

#besprent reads #the Bonesetter's Daugter #Amy Tan

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hey do you think you could expand a bit on separating the art from the artist? clearly you’ve done it with jk rowling but what are your thoughts on it as a general idea?

Okay, but you’re not going to like the answer.

Here’s the truth: you can’t separate the art from the artist. Not entirely. HP Lovecraft was an incredibly talented, but much more incredibly racist man. It would nice to say you don’t agree with his views but you can enjoy his works without that leaking in but.... well, I’m afraid that would be misunderstanding his books entirely.

Consider, for a second, that Lovecraft’s works were horror stories about extradimensional creatures having mutant children with humans; they were about invasions from distant aliens; they were about the purity of quaint, white, American towns being tainted. Now consider how this may have all been influenced by the fact that he just simply despised anybody who wasn’t white. Consider how his opinions on “mixing the races” might feed into this; consider why being unable to maintain the “purity” of white Americans was the scariest thing of all to him.

This extends to Rowling too.

I would love to say we can just acknowledge that she is an awful, racist, antisemitic, transphobic person and then say “but at least her books are good,” because, well, they are, aren’t they? I would say so, for sure. But to suggest that one can separate her from them is.... ridiculous, and it’s an insult to fans, can know and do better.

Consider why an antisemitic woman wrote about a species of goblins who live among us, but who for the most part keep to themselves and are maybe a little discriminated against on an individual level, but also hold all the cards, all the money, run the banks.

Consider why a racist woman would write about a species of slaves who loved being enslaved, who enjoyed working for no pay, and cleaning up after humans, with the only small caveat of that they didn’t want to be beaten. Imagine that only the most radical of their species wanted to be free, and he still spent the rest of his life working for no pay and helping out a little white boy and his friends wherever he could. Consider why the only person in the story who thought they should be free, that they should have rights, was treated as an overzealous joke, who was acting against the wishes of those slaves who really LOVE being enslaved. Consider that Rowling went on to say that she kind of considers that girl to be black, now.

Consider why JK Rowling, an open and proud transphobe, wrote Rita Skeeter as having a large square jaw, thick “manly” hands, and dressing incredibly gaudily with the most obvious fake nails and fake teeth and fake hair and fake everything. Consider why a woman who tweets about how trans women are “foxes pretending to be hens to get in the hen house” might write this Rita Skeeter character to then illegally transform her body in order to spy on children.

Harry Potter is full of Rowling’s bigotry, start to finish. Not even tangentially, like, “oh the goblins are bad, Rita Skeeter is bad, the house elves are bad, but most of it’s good!” because the deeper you dig and the longer you think the more you realise the entire story is based on her prejudices.

Harry Potter pretends to be an aracial story about found family, but if that were true, why are Harry’s distant ancestors important to who he is today even in the seventh book? Why does Harry have to live with his cousin and aunt and uncle? Because magic inherently prefers blood ties. Whilst Rowling was writing a story that seemed to say, “your heritage is not that important and doesn’t make you better than others” she was still writing a story about a boy who got all of his money through his bloodline, who was protected by living with his bloodline, no matter how evil, who was uniquely able to stop Voldemort because his bloodline passed down the invisibility cloak for generations and generations. Any step Harry takes he is compared to his perfect parents who were exactly like him — he looks just like his father, but he has his mother’s eyes, you know! — consider WHY a woman who is racist might’ve written a story like this. A story that on its surface, condemns a blood caste, but still in every step it takes, validates the idea that blood is thicker than water, and your geneological origin is what makes you special.

You can enjoy Harry Pottwr, of course you can. There are fantastic parts. I love a small group of teenagers deciding to become anarchist rebels and train to fight against fascism in secret. I love the murder mystery plots, I love how the series tells kids that it’s a good thing to be brave, and a good thing to fight injustice, and a good thing to challenge the government. But I cannot separate it from its author because it is such a product of its author. All of the structures of the world, the way things work in the universe, are drenched in Rowling’s beliefs, her bigotries. Of course they are: she made them.

Again. This doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy it. But I think we are past the day where we can pretend that disavowing a bigoted author is enough, and that that somehow separates the text from its bigotry. I think we are past the day where we can pretend that Harry Potter isn’t a deeply, inherently bigoted piece of media. Even the bits we love. I think we are beyond the day where we can truthfully pretend to separate it from her, because she is present through all of it. We MUST recognise its flaws. We MUST admit that she is in every part of it.

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anyway since pride month is coming up and my local barnes and nobey has once again decided to only put young adult books in their corporate mandated rainbow display, y'all want some queer reading recs that aren't YA?

#pride reading list

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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. 

#sff

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Please support Motor Crush !!! Its a new comic with a black lesbian lead that isnt getting enough support and has a really good and intricate plot about motorcycle lesbians & their rival gangs

#motor crush #black protagonist #lgbtq reads

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#besprent reads #besprent tbr #anti racist reading list #me and white supremacy

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#besprent reads #besprent finished #teen fiction #ya fiction #ya contemporary #don't ask me where I'm from

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My copy of Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard arrived today 😊👍🏻

#besprent reads #besprent tbr #policing black lives #robyn maynard #black authors #support black authors #BIPOC authors

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I wrote this for an application for a DayZ RP server lol pls enjoy

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Trudging through the dry leaves that littered the forest floor around him, he makes his way toward the rising sun. In shoes with worn soles, sustaining himself on the meager bits of fruit he'd found on the ground, he stumbles up the gentle slope.

What he wouldn't do for one more taste of chocolate right about now...

It's been eight and a half months since he ate the last bite of the Cadbury bar he'd stashed away and rationed to the last crumb. He did a double take when he saw the shiny purple wrapper poking out from under the overturned shelves in a convenience store a few hundred miles back. He had managed to drag himself through the back door after badly spraining his ankle while running. He did a lot of running lately. It felt like that's all he did now. Run through the streets for shelter, for medical supplies, for the odd chicken that crossed his path.

 From them.

 There were many names for what were chasing him; The Changed, Creeps, The Infected, Fallen, even the traditional Zombie (Zees for short). He preferred not to think about it long enough to have to acknowledge them by giving them a name. He tried not to think too long about much these days. Just what was in front of him, and where the next meal would come from.

He stopped and pulled the empty wrapper, now dull and wrinkled, from his front pocket and held it to his nose. He took a long, deep breath, hoping for just one more nostalgia-filled smell. For the comforts of a world long-gone.

But there’s nothing left. He sighs, drops his hands, and lets go of the wrapper along with the last bit of hope he was holding onto.

As he stares out in front of him, ready to collapse from exhaustion, a faint light catches his eye. He looks around and sees that he’s reached the crest of the hill he has been traveling for so long. He squints for a clearer image of the light, and realizes the sun is reflecting off the top-floor windows of a three- or four-story building maybe a quarter mile ahead. He watches as the sunlight slowly reveals the rest of the building, then an industrial area, and then rows and rows of houses.

Maybe he’s been running for too long. Or just long enough. The sight of this small town nestled in the valley has suddenly hardened his resolve. The world he knew and loved was not coming back.

It’s time to start living in this one.

#besprent writes #short story #random writing #dayz #dayz rp

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queer books that didn’t disappoint me the way everything else has. please enjoy.

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Started my ARC of Bloom by Kenneth Oppel

#kenneth oppel #bloom #middle grade #ya scifi #middle grade sci fi #ya sci fi #kids books #besprent tbr #besprent reads

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Finished Sherwood by Meagan Spooner last night.

This book takes a while to really start. It’s more the story of what leads Marian to the decision to become Robin Hood, after her betrothed, Robert of Locksley dies in the King’s war. The first quarter of the book was her grieving.. and yes it was probably realistic, but it made for a hurdle to get over before the story I was looking for starts. I chose this title for adventure. Once she dons the green hood, it does get more fast paced, though it seems to end as quickly as it started, then she’s back to pretending to be the demure Lady she’s expected to be.

I keep seeing the word “feminist” thrown around to describe this book, and... it’s pretty weak in that department. The whole reason she can keep her identity hidden is because no one suspects a woman, let alone a Lady to be Robin Hood. Women being underestimated is how the whole plot moves forward.

Also I didn’t like how the relationship between Guy and Marian suddenly changed in two pages?? Marian learns from Guy that a shipment of grain she(Robin) redistributed to the people of Nottingham was meant to help feed the soldiers in the King’s war, and he’s *not really* a bad guy, just in a position of power that he’s using to one day have his own land so he can treat his people better? And suddenly she.. is attracted to him??? WHAT?

I just couldn’t sympathize with Marian at all throughout most of the book, her decisions and thought process were all over the place.

I was looking for more heists, and stealing from those that don’t deserve their wealth.

My favourite parts were the snippets of memories between Marian and Robin growing up together, although the last one where he’s leaving for the war and it’s implied that she doesn’t love him like he loves her was odd and it didn’t feel that way from how much she grieved at the beginning? i don’t know.

Overall 3/5

#teen fiction #ya fiction #robin hood #sherwood #meagan spooner #maid marian #besprent-reads #besprent finished

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I just finished They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, featured here with my box of tissues because you will definitely need them.

I started this one in February and then didnt pick it back up for a week, then forgot about it for another month, then with what's going on in the world I wasnt in the mood to read.

I finally found the time and motivation tonight and I'm so happy I did, because this is a beautiful story!! It's sweet and sad and somewhat appropriate for the current times.

...

Mateo and Rufus are strangers. Mateo is timid and wishes he could be someone who takes more risks. He's also kind and genuine.

Rufus has been dealt a bad hand and is trying to build a life in foster care after his family's death. He's someone who has your back no matter what.

They're both going to die today.

Neither of them wants to be alone on their last day, so they turn to an app that matches them with other "Deckers", other people who have also received the call from Death-Cast informing them that they have less than 24 hours left to live.

Can they make a connection and live, really live, all in one day?

...

The chapters switch POV between Mateo and Rufus mainly but some of their friends and acquaintances along the way get a feature chapter sprinkled in. I like how you could mentally map how different people played a part in their story.

I cried SO MUCH reading this, and not even at the end. The title spoils nothing, it's still devastating when you find out how they die, especially because one of them was something mentioned in the beginning of the book!

I'm sad Mateo didnt get to die the way he hoped, his death was a little harsh I felt. And Rufus' death was somewhat anticlimactic but... that last line ... damn.

I'm gonna start crying again just writing this review 😭

LOVED IT, definitely recommend if you need a good cry 👍👍

#besprent reads #besprent finished #book #ya fiction #ya scifi #teen scifi #adam silvera #they both die at the end #teen fiction #book review #death

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Deathcaster by Cinda Williams Chima just arrived in the mail! I was waiting for this to come out in paperback to complete my set!

#deathcaster #besprent tbr #besprent reads #cinda williams chima #shattered realms #teen fantasy #ya fantasy

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Picked up some more books for a great price today!

#besprent reads #ya sci fi #ya science fiction #teen sci fi #graphic novels #fiction #ya fiction #tbr #besprent tbr #marissa meyer #saga #woman world

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Just got approved for a digital copy of The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones!

I read his book Mongrels in 2017 when I was travelling in Australia. Looking forward to this one!!

#stephen graham jones #arcs #book arcs #net galley #netgalley #fiction book #besprent tbr #besprent reads

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Ok so I finished this last night, and it was.. not what I was expecting.

At first glance the book seems to be about a woman and her child who moves back into her family's estate in england where her mother still lives, where she starts questioning whatever happened to her nanny that disappeared when she was a child. It seems to imply that the mother was involved, maybe even criminally, in her disappearance, because the nanny had a better relationship with her daughter and she was jealous.

Once it started to shift from that perspective and reveal that there was more to the story, I was a bit more into it, though I found that it dragged on. There wasn't enough information given at regular intervals. There were chapters and chapters of just people arguing and worrying and not really moving the plot forward quick enough. In the last half of the book, you get to read from the nanny's perspective which I liked. You get her history, how she came to work for this family. Turns out shes not who she says she is, with a sketchy past of her own, validating the mother.

I liked that the mother wasnt just this one-sided, dominating, mother-knows-best character. You learn to empathize with her, even if she doesnt always make the best decisions. I liked that she genuinely bonded with her granddaughter and was protective.

It definitely had an ending I didnt predict, so that was good, but.. overall it didnt wow me. I felt like I had to work to get to the end and the payoff wasn't worth it :/

Thank you Harper Collins Canada for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Started reading The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan last night.

I thought it would be a straightforward read but it more complicated than originally thought! Excited to see where this goes...

#harpercollins #gilly macmillan #the nanny #besprent reads #besprent finished #mystery books #adult fiction #book review #harper collins canada