Wednesday Reading Meme December 6 2023
Dec. 7th, 2023 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishWhat I’ve Read:
Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros – This book is fairly bad. It’s unpleasant to read. I’ll put the rest of this under a cut – some thoughts and spoilers.
It’s definitely imitating the prose style of Twilight and EL James. Stylistically, it is a romance novel from the first person with little to no world building, which is a pretty significantly flaw for a book that introduces dragons, a treaty with magical creatures, and depends on magic for military reasons. There’s a major disconnect between how the main character thinks about herself and what goals she wants, and the aggressive course of action she undertakes to pursue a career that she repeatedly says she hates and will likely kill her.
Violet’s internal passivity for most of the book is especially jarring once she gets to the realization that she’s attracted to the male lead, and then aggressively communicates strong desires without hesitation. How did Violet go from a character unable to disagree with her mother even when it puts her life in danger, to someone who will rebel against her society to follow her convictions? Well, mostly by deciding the boyfriend she’s been assigned by the narrative is going to define everything she believes and wants.
(I do mean “assigned” quite literally – they are in the same chain of command and he’s literally able to read her mind because their dragons are mated. This book knows that consent is important, but it doesn’t actually understand it. The whole situation would be more fun to read if we leaned into the fantasy more - this doesn’t even have the trashy pleasures of Anne McCaffrey’s dragon-inducing mating frenzies. I don’t mind when a book handwaves consent for fantasy reasons, which I know is not a universal opinion, but I think I would have liked this book more if it were less worried about being offensive.)
Fourth Wing would be fine as a romantic fantasy, except when you get to the author’s note, Yarros mentions twice that she modeled her male lead off her husband. That male lead is a controlling dickhead. I hope her husband is significantly better than this.
I don’t think you need to read this book!
What I’m Reading:
City of Blades – Robert Jackson Bennett - Xing Book Club – Steady progress!
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections in Horror - Joe Vallese (Editor) – SPN Seminar –
-Short essays where queer authors talk about horror cinema’s impact on them, with a focus on particular movies.
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson - Continues very enjoyable! I realized that I had read “The Demon Lover” back in high school and imprinted on that level of grounded anxiety really well. “Like Mother Used to Make” and “Trial by Combat” are both interesting stories about being trapped by politeness and proximity.
What I’ll Read Next:
Dark Rise – CS Pacat – re-read before the next book comes out.
Dark Heir – New book!
House of Leaves – Robobook Club – Haven’t touched it since I started it.
Ninefox Gambit – Xing Book Club
When Women Were Dragons - Xing Book Club
Owned and need to read: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe
Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros – This book is fairly bad. It’s unpleasant to read. I’ll put the rest of this under a cut – some thoughts and spoilers.
It’s definitely imitating the prose style of Twilight and EL James. Stylistically, it is a romance novel from the first person with little to no world building, which is a pretty significantly flaw for a book that introduces dragons, a treaty with magical creatures, and depends on magic for military reasons. There’s a major disconnect between how the main character thinks about herself and what goals she wants, and the aggressive course of action she undertakes to pursue a career that she repeatedly says she hates and will likely kill her.
Violet’s internal passivity for most of the book is especially jarring once she gets to the realization that she’s attracted to the male lead, and then aggressively communicates strong desires without hesitation. How did Violet go from a character unable to disagree with her mother even when it puts her life in danger, to someone who will rebel against her society to follow her convictions? Well, mostly by deciding the boyfriend she’s been assigned by the narrative is going to define everything she believes and wants.
(I do mean “assigned” quite literally – they are in the same chain of command and he’s literally able to read her mind because their dragons are mated. This book knows that consent is important, but it doesn’t actually understand it. The whole situation would be more fun to read if we leaned into the fantasy more - this doesn’t even have the trashy pleasures of Anne McCaffrey’s dragon-inducing mating frenzies. I don’t mind when a book handwaves consent for fantasy reasons, which I know is not a universal opinion, but I think I would have liked this book more if it were less worried about being offensive.)
Fourth Wing would be fine as a romantic fantasy, except when you get to the author’s note, Yarros mentions twice that she modeled her male lead off her husband. That male lead is a controlling dickhead. I hope her husband is significantly better than this.
I don’t think you need to read this book!
What I’m Reading:
City of Blades – Robert Jackson Bennett - Xing Book Club – Steady progress!
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections in Horror - Joe Vallese (Editor) – SPN Seminar –
-Short essays where queer authors talk about horror cinema’s impact on them, with a focus on particular movies.
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson - Continues very enjoyable! I realized that I had read “The Demon Lover” back in high school and imprinted on that level of grounded anxiety really well. “Like Mother Used to Make” and “Trial by Combat” are both interesting stories about being trapped by politeness and proximity.
What I’ll Read Next:
Dark Rise – CS Pacat – re-read before the next book comes out.
Dark Heir – New book!
House of Leaves – Robobook Club – Haven’t touched it since I started it.
Ninefox Gambit – Xing Book Club
When Women Were Dragons - Xing Book Club
Owned and need to read: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Tom Stoppard, Invention of love, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe
