How's everybody doing? After the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade last week (note: I started this post and then published it much later) , I knew I needed to dive headfirst into some escapist books. Oh, I've still got plenty of fight left, but the verdict hit so hard that I needed to take a break from the world to recharge.
As a rape survivor, which I've written and spoken about publicly, abortion rights feel deeply personal (IMO, they're personal to all people who currently have or formerly had a uterus). I got "lucky" and didn't have to make that choice. But I'm really tired of people throwing out the my situation to justify a healthcare decision, or argue for an exception to an otherwise restrictive law, when it should always be 100% up to the person and requires no justification. Watching my social media feeds blow up got to be...a lot.
So Friday, I swung by the library and picked up a few romance novels at the library, but also put in some holds for sequels to books I've already read and reviewed. I talked about reading backlist titles in my last post, and part of the job of discovering a new author via an older book is that you have lots of reading to catch up on!
Do I feel guilty for reading fiction that some would call frothy while it feels like the world is falling apart? Not at all. We do not owe the world constant joylessness to prove that we care about women's rights and injustice. Draining yourself of all energy in the fight, and never recharging, leads to burn out.
I picked up books I knew would entertain, but that also had bad ass female main characters who got to fight and had power and agency. It's one of the reasons I love fantasy, at times in my life I had little power or agency, but seeing it on the page showed me another world where it could be possible.
I read Shadow Scale, the sequel to Seraphina, The Hawthorne Legacy, sequel to The Inheritance Games, a random thriller, and a romance novel.
Shadow Scale started way too slowly. The author could have easily cut the first 100 pages, and I found it hard to get into. The antagonist took too long to show up, and the dragon war was too far away to feel compelling. I also felt like the author struggled with the ever-growing number of secondary characters. I put this book down and picked it back up several times before finally getting into it and finishing it.
Overall, only finished it because I cared about the main character. It had queer representation and characters of color, though, which can be harder to find in the high fantasy genre.
The Hawthorne Legacy also suffered from a bad guy/antagonist tacked on at the end. The "climax" and threat felt really tacked on. Also had queer representation and characters of color, but I basically just read it to get to the last book in the series.
Weather Girl, the romance novel, fun, fat positive, and mental health positive. The thriller was written in the vein of "tell, don't show" and had flat characterization but was still entertaining. It was a distraction, which is what I needed. I don't subscribe to the snobby idea that "beach reads" or "trashy fiction" are a waste of time. Reading shouldn't feel like a chore, or a badge of intelligence you show off (I read so-and-so's latest!). And, sometimes, you do need an escape.
I'm not going to plug any links or ask my readers to buy stuff because it feels a little (a lot!) tacky right now. Instead, consider donating to the ACLU, to Planned Parenthood, or to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Until I get around to updating this blog again,
Dena