Month: February 2022

discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – Problematic Tropes

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

FEBRUARY 4: PROBLEMATIC TROPES IN BOOKS (ELE @ ELE’S BOOKISH CORNER)

Prompts:  There are many problematic tropes out there. The entire genre of horror is notoriously full of ableism, romance choke-full of sexism, and fantasy dripping in racial stereotypes. What are the boundaries for their usage? Is it OK to use problematic tropes if you repurpose them to be otherwise? Can they be “reclaimed” in the way some people reclaim offensive terms?

Happy February everyone! The first LTB of the month has arrived and it’s certainly an interesting topic! Luckily, I don’t think I walk into them too too much, not reading romance and horror (nor romantic horror) on a regular basis. Still, I do have some opinions on the matter.

There are indeed many problematic tropes out there. I suppose the main question is how much influence do such tropes have over our general population and vulnerable population? Arguably a lot, since I feel that books really did have the biggest impression on me as a child. Like the media, even as an adult, there’s a level of absorption of public perspective that just cannot be avoided.

I struggle with just saying that these things should be flat-out prohibited. I’m not convinced that these notorious tropes are really that bad in and of themselves. The problem seems to lie in cases where they become glorified or become something that we want to replicate and attain. I’m actually not really sure what makes a trope particularly popular and subsequently notorious (and possibly overused). But I imagine if we were to take all these kinds of tropes and ideas with a grain of salt, it wouldn’t be so huge.

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anticipations, discussion

2022 Five Star Predictions

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

I have never tried this before because I can barely predict what books I read each year. But I’ve been seeing a number of these posts pop up over the last month and I thought I’d see how accurate (or not) I’d be predicting books I’ll enjoy this year (if I even read them).

I’ll post something in December then to look back on these predictions. Until then, here are the ones I feel I’ll really enjoy!

Book of Night by Holly Black

#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies in the vein of Ninth House and The Night Circus

In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.

Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn’t playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

I’ve been getting into dark academia lately. I absolutely adored A Deadly Education and Ninth House. I have no idea if this will be absolutely amazing but the synopsis has me super excited.

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3.5 star

Review: An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway . . . but when the storm hits, no one is getting away

It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm–and one another.

I’ve been trying to catch up on Shari Lapena’s thriller/mysteries, so here I am with a review of another one! I don’t always have the biggest expectations for her books, as the ending is often not exactly what I want (like it was again here). However, as a queen of suspense in the page to page reading, it once again delivered.

An Unwanted Guest takes place in a quaint hotel up in the snowy mountains when 12 guests get snowed in by a huge snowstorm. In typical closed-room scenarios, one by one people start dying off for seemingly inexplicable reasons. We get the POVs of all the guests and the two attending staff, and so begins our journey of suspense. The journey is incredibly fast-paced and suspenseful, even if the ending was much less so.

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