Avon Van Hassel's Blog, page 4

June Update links pics

Heroes vs villains

Underdressed

One thousand words

Sleep

Suckers

Personal life

The Time Machine: Coffeehouses links pics

Starbucks is nothing new. It burst onto the scene in the 90s in a big way, but not only had coffeehouses been a thing literally for centuries, but the ubiquity of tortured artists and argumentative intellectuals haunting the shadows and hogging the tables has been a staple since the very beginning. Where there is caffeine, there are hyped-up idea people.

Beer and tea are quintessential British drinks, but between the eras of beer for breakfast and afternoon tea lived the age of coffee and the coffeehouse. Coffee came to Britain via XXX in 1650 and caught on fast. It’s seen today more of the American answer to the British obsession with tea, but it actually came first, culturally. In fact, coffee became the American drink during the Revolution because of the boycott on heavily taxed tea.

What went on at coffee houses

Just like today, coffeehouses were almost always packed. They were an almost interchangeable option with taverns as gathering places for people to meet, chat, get the news, and exchange ideas. They were so popular that shipping deals were done there, and one of the original coffeehouses in London lives on today as an insurance agent-Lloyd’s if London.

The historical significance of coffee houses

Coffee vs tea vs tavern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_coffeehouses_in_the_17th_and_18th_centuries

https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2018/04/12/a-brief-history-of-coffee-in-the-georgian-era/

https://londonist.com/london/history/covent-garden-s-georgian-coffee-shop-brothel-hybrid

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/dec/18/claphams-coffeehouse-cambridge-archaeologists-hundreds-items-unearthed

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/London-cafes-the-surprising-history-of-Londons-lost-coffeehouses/

The Writing Desk: Stealth Mode

Every year, I poll my Misfits on Facebook and ask what topics they’d like me to cover in the coming year. Inevitably, someone will ask about time management. My very best advice is the Pomodoro Method, but sometimes, despite your best intentions, you just can’t seem to find the time.

Camp NaNoWriMo started yesterday, and if you’re unlike me, and you don’t need dedicated writing time to let your mind unwind, you might like what I call Stealth Mode.

In October, Briana Slate and I led a free writing workshop, and during one of the live video chats, one of the participants mentioned that because of his ADHD, he was better at writing in spurts as ideas came to him, and that is the basis of Stealth Mode.

Essentially, the principle is the opposite of traditional writing advice. Gone are the quiet spaces, ambient music, and comfortable chairs with lumbar support. Rather, you write on the fly, phrase by phrase, when you get struck by inspiration or find a spare second. If you have a busy lifestyle or you find it difficult to focus for long periods, or you can’t always get to a computer, this method might be for you.

Some suggestions:

Use your phone’s voice recorder or speech-to-text to dictate ideas as you think of them.Have a quick access word processing app ready to jot down ideas between rounds of household chores. I like Evernote, some prefer Google Docs.Use the time on a commute to jot down ideas. If you’re driving, use your voice recorder to voice-to-speech.Try to sneak some notes while under the guise of doing something else. I used to write during class (don’t do that, lol) or during DnD games.Get up a little early or go to bed a little late. Just 5 minutes is enough, sometimes.Write with your morning coffee instead if reading the news.Get a Distraction Pad- a notepad for jotting down things that distract you when you’re trying to focus. This can work both ways. If you get an idea at work, jot it down and come back to it on your break. If you actually get a few minutes to write and you remember something you’re supposed to do that could take you away from writing, like dishes or laundry, write it down and deal with it when your timer runs out.

Just generally see where you have periods of free time throughout the day, and if you find you have the energy, try to get some ideas out. You might find it more fulfilling than watching tv in the evening.

Multitasking is becoming recognised as actually the bane of productivity, rather than the secret. But most people have busy lives, where sitting down and writing for 8 hours at a time just isn’t possible. Go easy on yourself, and just keep plugging away at it.

And if you’re not sure what Camp NaNo is, I’ve made a video you can watch, here.

The Reading Nook: The Blue Rose, by Kate Forsyth

Do you ever look so forward to savouring something that you almost dread consuming it? Like you worry that your excitement is bigger than the satisfaction of having the thing? Or you’re saving it for just the right moment, but the Right Moment never comes? That was what happened with this book.  It’s difficult and expensive to get here in the States, but a friend in Australia sent it to me in September,  2019, and I just let it sit, Schroedinger’s literary experience,  both read and unread simply by owning it. It’s silly, I know. But I found a moment, after mowing down three books since the first of January,  and took the plunge.

I’ll start off by saying that this book isn’t what I thought it was when I started reading. Kate Forsyth had been working on and marketing a fairytale retelling/historical novel like Bitter Greens, the book that introduced me to her, at or around the same time. That one is called The Beast’s Garden, and is about the PreRaphaelites (my favourite era of art) and Beauty and the Beast. So me, right?

Well, The Blue Rose is much more of a historical romance than anything resembling a fairytale,  and is set during the French Revolution, which, if you’ve seen my video on Napoleon’s love letters,  you’ll know that French history is not my area of expertise. So, I was a little hesitant going in.

Characters

The main character is Viviane, or more correctly,  Heloise-Rozenn-Viviane de la Faitaud de Ravoisier, a marquis’ daughter from Brittany. She is kind of a wild child at the beginning,  but it’s because she’s been sheltered.  As the story goes on, we see her strength, loyalty,  resourcefulness,  and hope shine through everything.

This story primarily recounts the events of the French Revolution from Viviane’s perspective as a member of the aristocracy,  so we live in her fear, her grief, and her numbness, while at the same time, understanding and sympathetising with the revolutionaries.

Her love interest is a Welshman trained in designing English style gardens. I had forgotten that this book had a Welshman in it, and since Covid forced me to cancel my travel plans to visit the UK, that stung a little. There were more than a few places where I identified stronger with David Stronach than with Viviane. 

What’s cool about David is that,  according to the author’s note, he was a real person,  who really sailed on the Lion in search of roses to take back to Kew Gardens. Of course, Forsyth took some liberties with his personality and love life, but that’s the prerogative of a fiction writer. He’s a dreamer- imaginative, passionate, and determined. He has a good strop for a good chunk of the story, but he comes around.

The bulk of the other characters serve to illustrate the intensity of the Revolution and the reasons for it, from the cruel and greedy duke and the out-of-touch Royal Family, to the disgruntled Chateau staff and the frothing revolutionaries. In China we are confronted by the cold formality of the mandarins insisting on due respect being paid their culture butting up against the pig-headed English ambassador, who refused to acknowledge the Chinese as civilized at all, much less in a way comparable to England. In the middle, stood a wizened old widower, who was just trying to survive a world on the brink of near-total collapse at the very beginning of the Opium Wars that would devastate China. 

Setting

The Blue Rose is split pretty evenly into three parts: Brittany,  Paris, and China. At the Chateau de Belisima-sur-la-Lac, Viviane’s mother’s ancestral home, life is bucolic, laid back, and safe; and Viviane spends her days frolicking with her dog, practicing herbalism on the local people, avoiding her aunt, and falling in love with the English gardener.

After her wedding to the Duke, she moves to Paris, which is as much a culture shock for the reader as it is for her. The Revolution is already underway, but her father and new husband believe it will be quelled and they will be rewarded for their loyalty, so they stick close to the doomed royal family. Paris is loud, dirty, cramped, and dangerous- full of violence and hostility. Within the city, we also get a glimpse of multiple jails and prisons, residences in different quarters, and even a few scenes in the Palace of Versailles.

In David’s chapters, we see a bit of the route the Lion traveled from England to China, and a bit of Peking (now known as Beijing), before settling in the Thirteen Factories in Canton (now known as Guangzhou).

Plot

I don’t like to dwell on plot because I don’t like to spoil things, but in this case, being pretty historical, I don’t think it’ll hurt much. Y’all know by now that the French people got fed up with their monarchy and instigated a bloody uprising that killed thousands of wealthy and aristocratic people, replacing the feudal system with a more democratic republic, that still stands today.

You may be less aware of the Chinese half of things, and I myself only knew the broad swathes, like the fact that China was locked up tight against the west and that Europe broke into it by basically getting the people hooked on opium, forcing the government to open trade. It’s a very sad and awful story, rooted in racism and greed.

Themes

The main theme of this story, often repeated, is that ‘nothing is impossible to a valiant heart.’ That was something that David’s grandmother used to say to him, and he gave Viviane a ring, bearing the same inscription. At many times throughout the book, all hope seems lost, especially since we the audience already know the history, but somehow, against impossible odds, the valiant hearts win out.

Style

I discovered Kate Forsyth because of Bitter Greens, and of all the fantastical things in that book, what stuck out to me the most was the food. This author has a way of describing food…just don’t read on an empty stomach, trust me. She just has really excellent descriptive abilities that really make you feel like you’re there.

Significance

There’s a lot I want to say on the significance I found in this book, and that’s why it has taken me so long to post this review. I think if I’d read it when I first got it, I would have enjoyed it on face value, and that would have been it. But I read it in March of 2021. The world’s is different, just as Viviane’s world was changing for her.

On January 6, an armed mob attempted to overthrow the government at the Capitol Building in Washington DC while members of Congress were counting the electoral college votes. Watching the crowd surge past Capitol Police and stroll through the Hall of Statues, I was reminded of a line from the 2012 Ben Affleck movie, Argo, about the Iran Hostage crisis: ‘Oh god, they’re coming over the walls.’ That line stuck out to me because in that moment, I felt that surreal sense of dread, of watching something impossible happening and not knowing how to feel. The calmness in that actress’ voice, almost more bemused than terrified, though she was certainly terrified, struck a chord with me. Several scenes in this book hit me the same way. The horror and the improbability of so many things were not dulled by the knowledge of historical events.

Also, a lot of synchretism has surrounded this book, while I was reading it. Forsyth mentions the changes in fashion that would eventually lead to what we now call Regency style, though the historical reasons are very different from the ones I describe in my most recent free novella, Underdressed, which had the same results. I saw on Facebook yesterday a photo essay on Olympe de Gouges, who plays a not-insignificant role in The Blue Rose. And China Roses, my favourite Enya song, has been in my head for a week solid, and I’m not mad about it.

Overall, the book is intense. There are a few scenes that are happy, peaceful, and wondrous, but they don’t lessen the heaviness. There were a few places where I had to take a break because even I knew what was coming next and just…wasn’t up for it. While I do feel like this book is important in these times of upheaval, I would recommend reading it on good mental health days.

~*~*~*~

Did you guys know that I’ve been to China? In February of 2019, my mother and I went to help my sister move out. She had been teaching English for nearly a year, and we thought that a great opportunity to visit. We saw Hong Kong Disneyland, a two-story tea mall in Shenzhen (which is close to the Thirteen Factories), and fed pandas in Chengdu, among other things. I promise I didn’t smuggle any rosehips back in jars of rice Let me know if you’d be interested in a blog post about that!

Gardens, Part Two: the Language of Flowers

The language of flowers refers to a system of subtle communication by using plants as symbolic images. It combines horticulture, mythology, and and psychology to form a sort of lexicon that can convey messages.

Floriography, or communication through flowers, has its roots in the court of Constantinople, in Ottoman Turkey. From there, it was brought to England by Lady Mary Wortley Montague (one of my history crushes- she’s also responsible for the smallpox inoculation), and it really took off during the Victorian period.

The basics of floriography are to understand what each flower represents, and figure out how to combine them. This can involve planting things together in the garden, arranging cut flowers in a vase, or using symbolic floral motifs in art and literature.

Now, in my books, flowers hold significance, especially in scenes, stories, and settings that are heavily influenced by Johanne. She is a passionate student of the language of flowers, and uses it to send messages to family and outsiders alike.

I actual found these at myself locally grocery store.

Carnations

Carnations, specifically pink and red striped carnations, are Johanne’s signature flower, at the beginning of Magic Beans. According to thelanguageofflowers.com, carnations signify fascination. Striped carnations mean, ‘I wish I could be with you’; pink means, ‘I’ll never forget you’; and red means, ‘my heart aches for you.’ The official story, to those who can decide the symbolism, is that Johanne never stopped mourning the death of her first husband, Pol. In actuality, Johanne never got over Alois, despite repeatedly pushing him away.

When they finally married, she swapped all the striped carnations for solid white ones, signifying acceptance and true love. A socially appropriate move for a newly remarried woman, which honours her current husband without erasing the previous (at least, in public).

Rose

Roses also play an- albeit subtler- role, the most obvious being in the name of the daughter Johanne had by Alois, Rosabel. Rose symbolism is almost universally positive, ranging from the single white bloom which professes love for an innocent, to a bouquet of red roses signifying gratitude for love and respect. Even deep crimson- mourning- could be seen in a positive light, depending on how many there are and how they’re arranged- a garland might mean that the person is mourning the loss of someone who’d lived a distinguished life.

Ivy

Ivy, at the time of drafting this post, hasn’t come into the story much, yet. This is because we haven’t spent much narrative time at Parry House in any of the places where ivy is significant. Johanne chose ivy for a motif in Alois’ areas of the house, most notably his study. Ivy signifies wedded love, loyalty, and friendship. The symbolism goes a bit deeper, however. Part of the reason old houses are covered in ivy isn’t because people are lazy and let it take over- it’s because it actually serves structural purposes. The tendrils are crazy strong at a certain age, which helps old brick and mortar stand firm, and the scale-like lay of the leaves forms a sort of shingled armour against the elements. So, not only is Johanne happy to have married the loyal friend she had a crush on for years, but she sees in him support and protection, something she had yearned for her whole life.

~*~*~*~

I also wrote a story called ‘The Language of Flowers’ that will be included in a (con-exclusive) collection of short stories, accompanied by photos by my good friend, Briana Slate. In it, a florist playfully sneaks messages into her arrangements, using this archaic system.

The Reading Nook: A Song Below Water, by Bethany C Morrow

What’s this? A THIRD book review in the same month? Trust me,  I’m as shocked as you are.

My mum spotted this book in the Audible shop when they were doing a BOGO promo in January.  Knowing my love of mermaids and wanting to get more diversity in my TBR pile,  she was like, ‘hey look- Black mermaids,’ and I was like, ‘fair enough.’ So I got this and a book on the Canonical Five Jack the Ripper victims (and also a book on why fairytales are still relevant and A Hero With a Thousands Faces, because I feel that Joseph Campbell should be required reading…and I haven’t read it. So *shrug*)

Characters

A Song Below Water focuses on two girls, Tavia and Effie, who live together with Tavia’s family, but aren’t related.  They’re super close best friends and refer to each other as sisters. 

One thing I love is that Morrow doesn’t fall into the lazy teen drama trap of having them have a big blow up and being separated for half the book until their big cathartic make-up at the end. I  hate that shit,  it’s so boring. Instead,  they have misunderstandings, disagreements,  someone puts their foot in their mouth, etc etc, normal friend stuff, but they get past it. That’s not really a spoiler, it’s just a nice thing.

Tavia is a Siren, which is an exclusively Black female demographic, and highly mistrusted. Most sirens are either in hiding, wear siren call cancelling collars, or are part of a network dedicated to keeping their secret. *At this point, let me apologize for any misspellings or bad capitalization- I listened to the audiobook, I didn’t read it in print. * Tavia uses sign language to communicate when her siren voice wants to come out, and sings as part of a choir at school as an outlet.  The other girls in the choir know she’s a siren and cover for her.

Effie is an orphan who was sent by her adoptive grandmother to live with Tavia and her parents. She and her mother used to perform at the Renaissance Faire as mermaids,  and since her mother’s passing, she has inherited the mantle of resident mer, in addition to the romantic storyline she has with the blacksmith’s son. It’s very cute. She struggles with extremely dry, flaky skin,  and finds her greatest peace in the community pool, where she trains for the fair.

I would compare them VERY loosely to to Zelie and Amari from Children of Blood and Bone…

…the review of which I just realised that I hadn’t published, whoops. So, that’s up now. Yay, bonus review! It was a tough book for me to get through, so I was waiting until I had done it right.

ANYWAY, Tavia and Zelie both have have race-specific powers that they have to hide for fear of persecution,  and Effie and Amari live with the privilege of not having that issue but still considering themselves allies.  Tavia is also described as dark-skinned,  while Effie is lighter,  though colourism isn’t as big a theme here as it is in CoBaB. There are other similarities between Effie and Amari,  but *spoilers*.

The primary difference in their relationship is that where Zelie was openly and vehemently opposed to Amari, Tavia and Effie have no animosity between them at all. There’s no resentment of privilege or misplaced jealousy over powers.  They understand each other’s struggle and provide unconditional support.

Plot

I don’t like to touch in plot too much in these reviews because I don’t want to give things away.  This story was just really well done.  The highs and lows are gently devastating- they make you feel deeply, but not in the way that you have put the book down and take a break for a week, lol. You feel dread, outrage, hope, disappointment,  confusion, and understanding in the right moments.

There’s a twist about 75% through and I. Did. Not. See. It. Coming. But when it did, I was like, ‘OF COURSE. YOU FOOL. ALL THE SIGNS WERE THERE.’ I think I literally put my hand over my mouth,  I was that shocked. It was really well done.  Set up flawlessly and I had no inkling.

Setting

This book is…mostly (again,  spoilers) set in Portland,  Oregon, in 2019-2020 (minus the pandemic. We can forgive her not predicting that when she drafted the book probably 2-3 years ago). BLM protests are in full swing, and some pretty believable shit happens at and around them. There are also mentions of YouTube and Twitter, so this is clearly a version of our world,  but plus sirens,  sprites,  a mythical-but-beloved race called Eloko, a gargoyle that lives on Tavia’s roof,  and …others.  I don’t know much about Portland, so I can’t say if she nailed it, but I know RenFaire, and she made me big-time homesick.

Themes

Like Children of Blood and Bone,  A Song from Below Water doesn’t shy from depicting the Black Experience in America with eyes open.  Certain scenes that I won’t describe because of spoilers and also in an effort not to indulge in violence against people of colour, feel very reminiscent of real life events that Morrow couldn’t have known about when she was writing. Sadly, the events she wrote about feel like they could have happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow.  It’s all too familiar and believable.

You can feel Tavia’s panic every time her throat gets hot, you feel the fear when her favourite YouTuber makes her announcement,  and when Effie’s truth is revealed,  the excitement of the moment is overshadowed by the unspoken dread of, ‘oh god, how is this going to go bad for her?’ I mentioned that to a Black friend and she said, ‘that’s literally what it’s like to be Black. Full stop.’

It’s not as intense and dark as CoBaB, but it’s a difference genre. Tomi Adeyemi was full of justified rage when she wrote her book, and it shows. Morrow feels more tired, more like she’s trying to rephrase the issue and beg people to finally, finally get it. If ‘Black live matter’ isn’t enough, maybe people will catch on if ‘mermaid lives matter.’ She’s framing the Black community as a fairytale race, removing the ingrained bias, much like Shrek did, while at the same time addressing the misogyny and sidelining of Black women. Sirens, after all, are only Black women, and carry the blame for why the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t as successful as it could have been.

Style

Morrow tells her story in a languid, dreamy style, focusing on sensory details and microexpressions, more than big flashy gestures. She lives in the characters’ emotions, even when outside their PoV. Speaking as a member of the mermaid community, it’s a very mermy vibe, lol. The only thing that twinges a bit is the references to things like YouTube and Twitter, because they can become dated very quickly. However, contemporary references are a hallmark of Young Adult fiction, and in conjunct with BLM protests, ther firmly root the story in this time and place, and I think that gives the book an overall relevance. Perhaps it won’t be timeless, but it is timely.

I really enjoyed this book. It was cute in places, difficult in others, but the characters felt real, the situations likely in a fairytale way. At first, I was tired of the Naema storyline, but I just found out that the sequel is her redemption arc and I am SO READY to learn some Eloko lore. So, as soon as I have my pennies together, I’m pre-ordering that thing. Y’all know my track record with sequels, but I feel this one. Plus it’s in the southwest, which isn’t my neighborhood, but close.

The Reading Nook: Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi

I picked up this book because I’m actively trying to read more by BIPOC writers because my literary background is rooted in fantasy, which is traditionally woefully Eurocentric. I wanted to read some Afrocentric fantasy, and my friend and editor, Breanna, recommended Children of Blood and Bone. It had been out a while and got huge accolades, so I figured I’d see what all the hype was about.

My first impression is that it is dark. Don’t expect any levity or really many laughs. Even the lighter moments are tinged with darkness, straining under the heaviness and oppression that the main character carries.

It came as something of a discomfort for me because I usually prefer books I read for pleasure to be more lighthearted fun, an escape from whatever I’m struggling with, but Adeyemi’s author’s note made it very clear what events pushed her to write this book, and I felt a bit humbled and ashamed that I wanted more humour to soothe my white nerves. This is a book for our age. This isn’t a fun adventure story about the heroes forging friendships through daring do- it’s 500 pages of anger and fear and loss and exhaustion. It’s beaten and broken people pushing through internal and external obstacles for a glimmer of an impossible feat that could give them a hope of surviving genocide.

It’s intense. It’s hard work. It’s worth it.

Characters

It’s hard to like Zelie. I’m a person who holds emotion close to her chest, so I struggle to identify with people who don’t, and that’s a problem in my personal life, too. But Adeyemi does a good job of making you root for Zelie, all the same. She is defined by her rage and the very raw pain she feels over every loss she’s ever suffered, and she’s carrying an enormous burden that’s almost too much for a healthy person to carry. But she’s also selfish. Though she justifies her decisions as being the best for everyone, she rarely discusses them with others, and it’s clear that she uses the others to distract from the fact that she does do things for selfish reasons. Yet, you can’t fault her for it. After all, survival is selfish, and the poor girl has to work harder than others to survive.

Which brings me to Tzain. Tzain is noble and steady and only wavers once (though, it’s difficult to believe he’s serious, and events transpired in such a way that we’ll never know), yet through Zelie’s eyes, it’s hard not to see his privilege. He gives so much to Zelie because he has so much to give. For him, this quest is a gift to her, his survival isn’t dependent on it. He was a star athlete at home, he is a man, and a good looking one. Zelie was a pariah from birth, marked out by her white hair.

Amari is the character I identify with most. She’s a princess of the realm, the daughter of the man responsible for the subjugation of people like Zelie. She makes the decision to steal the tool that could bring magic back, directly challenging her father’s policies of genocide. She and Zelie clash terribly at first because she’s even more privileged and out of touch than Tzain. That mixed with her family connections infuriates Zelie, no matter how hard the princess tries to show that her intentions are genuine. I feel like she could almost be an analogue for white allies who try to use their privilege to help Black activists and just end up as liabilities. She does learn, eventually, and earns Zelie’s trust by fighting as hard as she can against the powers of the king.

Inan- what is there to say about Inan? The crown prince is weak, he just is. He struggles with his own budding magic, but can’t seem to fully disconnect from the psychological abuse and expectations on him. He wavers between sympathetic and tragic, and frustratingly inert.

Saran is a complicated character for me. From a writing standpoint, he feels flat, evil for evil’s sake. His backstory of his first family destroyed by magic is very meh. It’s not enough to make him sympathetic. But I suspect Adeyemi didn’t intend to make him sympathetic. How do you justify genocide? What is a tragic enough backstory to make that seem like a path any of us could take? There’s almost a fetishistic need these days to hear and validate both sides of the story, and y’all, sometimes the other side is just evil. That’s it. And it happens in real life, in real history, in the real world today. Sometimes the other side’s argument is not valid and doesn’t need to be respected. And I think that’s the message, here.

Setting

The settings in this book are rich and vibrant, from the fishing village of Ilorin to the capital city of Lagos, to the desert city of Ibeji with its colosseum of massive naval bloodsport, to the beautiful temples of the vanished gods. I just now, when checking my spelling, realised that these are the names of real cities in Nigeria. So again, I’m kind of embarrassed at not knowing that previously. Adeyemi does an excellent job of giving each settlement and community a strong identity and feel unique from the others.

Plot

I’ve been resisting talking about the plot because it’s so damn depressing, but that’s the point. It’s a finely crafted epic with big impressive settings, complicated and deeply flawed characters, and big big themes. That alone is an intense story. But running through it is this dizzying hope of a broken people clawing their way out from under crushing oppression, mingled with the absolute certainty that it will fail because their history is bleak and every step they take toward their goal is fraught with betrayal, loss, and doubt. Even down to the very last sentence, it’s difficult to say if they succeeded or not.

And now I need to read the sequel. *shakes fist at cliffhangers*

Themes

The themes in this book are not subtle, but we live in an age where subtlety benefits the oppressor. Not for today is the ‘who is the real bad guy?’ debate. In her author’s note, Adeyemi clearly outlines her inspiration for this book- the hundreds of senseless killings of Black people at the hands of law enforcement, and calls for sympathy for the victims and critical examination of the officers. This book is meant to enrage, to frustrate, to break your heart over and over, because that is the daily experience of the Black community in this country. It’s a history of genocide, of mistrust, of hatred, of internalised self-loathing, and of weak people who believe that if they side with the oppressors, they can fix the problem from within. It doesn’t work. As Martin Luther King Jr said, ‘Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.’ I suspect this is the reason for the accolades this book received. I can imagine many Black people saw in Zelie their rage, their grief, their feelings of hopelessness, and I’m sure that her quest to restore the power and dignity of the Magi was a source of inspiration for them.

Conclusion

Children of Blood and Bone is not a fun book, but it is a good book, and I feel that it is an important book. The protests following incidents of police brutality are growing bigger and lasting longer for every instance because people are fed up. We’re in the midst of a revolution because while things have gotten better since the end of slavery, things are still very skewed against the rights of Black Americans. The statistics are clear and not open for debate. Anyone with eyes, critical thinking skills, and compassion for human life must be outraged by the injustices that continue to be perpetrated, often on film, with no consequences for the offenders simply because their job gives them permission to kill and immunity from justice.

If you want to help make this country truly free from systemic racism, please consider donating what you can to the following organisations (or other reputable organisations)

https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-for-black-lives-matter.html

Or visit my Activism page to see where I send my money

The Reading Nook: Tales from the Hinterland, by Melissa Albert

So, remember a thousand years ago, when I mentioned that I hardly ever read a sequel? And have you noticed how every year I promise I’ll read and review a book per month, but I hardly ever do? Well, friends, I have for you today, a unicorn. Not only have I read the third and final book in a series, but this is my second review- not just in a month, but in a week!

I discovered Melissa Albert in 2018 by just picking up The Hazel Wood at Target because that year’s reading challenge had a prompt to choose a book based on the cover. And she has a hell of a cover. I devoured it. I wax pretty hyperbolic about why in the previous two posts.

In 2019, Albert started teasing her second book and I got so frustrated about how long she was taking (I knoooow, I’m the worst kind of fan. But, I kept it to myself, I didn’t harass her online. I suffered in silence.) I went to a Barnes and Noble in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, while I was visiting a friend, to preorder and make sure that that thing was on my doorstep as quickly as humanly possible. That’s the correct way to show support of an author’s work.

By the time it arrived, a couple of my friends had discovered her genius, too, and we clasped hands together as we waited for the books to arrive.

And then, the news came down that she had yielded to pressure and decided to write the collection of fairytales that the two books were based around, and we lost- our- minds. We all became Ellory Finch and didn’t even feel weird about it.

And because it was 2020, it was announced that the book launch would be virtual, and cost only $30 to attend, which included the book (+shipping included), signed bookplate, and a little enamel pin. I’m not a big fan of enamel pins, but I’m a diehard fangirl, so I’m already here- give me all the merch. One of my fanboy friends ‘picked me up’ fifteen minutes early, and we trekked to Albert’s NYC home to watch together. $30 is a lot for a book, but a lot cheaper than a plane ticket. Like everyone else, I can’t wait for life to go back to normal, but if virtual events are here to stay, I won’t be mad about it,

That’s my long-winded way of saying, I was HYPED for this book, my friends were hyped for this book. I don’t know how far her reach is, right now, but she’s already created a cult fanbase worthy of her own antholgist, Althea Proserpine. So, without anymore gushing, I’ll dive right into how and why I ripped through this book in 4 days.

Characters

Tales from the Hinterland is a series of twelve independent stories, each revolving around a female character. Well, one story is centred on a man, but it’s about a woman. These women are clever, resourceful, strong-willed, independent, and powerful, but it’s their differences that set them apart. Many are cold, some cruel, some curious or determined or patient. Some of them are victims of circumstances created before their births, but none of them are passive. Some might bide their time, but they’re only waiting.

There are secondary or peripheral female characters, mostly innocent sisters or wicked mothers/stepmothers, but the majority of deuteragonists are men. These men have more of a range (because passive fairytale princesses are not what modern audiences want). Some are cool and detached entities, cruel and vicious abusers, or, rarely, actually good and loving husbands and fathers.

But the heart of these stories are strong women, carving places for themselves in a harsh fairytale world.

Plots

Because there are twelve stories, there are twelve plots, that sometimes hint at almost intertwining, but there are very few clear references to other stories. Except references to The Hazel Wood or The Night Country, but this book is technically the prequel, so that’s fine. Though Albert herself advises reading it between The Hazel Wood and the Night Country. Book 1.5, if you will.

These are dark fairytales, though originally, all fairytales are dark. Don’t come looking for happy endings, but similarly, don’t dread the tragedy. The endings are satisfying, cathartic, and provide a sense of closure and rightness, even among the horror, because some stories can only end one way. It feels right, if not happy. Fate plays a big part in folklore.

Setting

Technically, the setting is the same- the dark vaguely historical world of The Hinterland, reminiscent from eras spanning between the late Medieval of Victorian fantasy to the mid-1800s of modern fantasy. It’s old-timey, a period where we had spinning wheels, chamberpots, and maidens fed the geese from aprons full of seed.

The Hinterland is a dark, horrific fantasyland, full of teeth and blood and screams in the night, but also nice things like sweets and satin and flowers. It’s light and dark in equal measure, at all times.

The individual stories have their own settings, of course, within the Hinterland. There are castles and palaces, wizard mansions, seaside cottages, ancient forests, and toyshops. There are even descents into the underworld, full of minerals and trees made of gemstones.

Style

I’ve talked about Albert’s style many times before, and this book fits seamlessly beside the other two. It’s almost purple in its decadence, but also bald in a way that credits the audience with understanding what’s going on, on and beneath the surface. She has a way of describing something in the fewest possible words that somehow injects more life than it should, then switching and using unexpected words to say something simple, like describing the negative space until an image emerges.

*sigh* I have a big bad crush.

I’m gonna go buy a golden bear onesie. If you know, you know.

The Reading Nook: Lightfinder, by Aaron Paquette

My goal in 2020 was to diversify my TBR pile and try to read more books by BIPOC writers. Because of my time constraints and the fact that I’m a slow reader, I like to keep books under 300 pages, and I’m an escapist by nature, so I prefer fantasy. Lightfinder, by Aaron Paquette, was the perfect match.

I know I bought this book in 2020 and then I started it last month, but give me a break. I have a lot going on.

Characters

First, let’s start with Aisling. At first, because the audience knows more than the (pov) characters, Aisling comes off as a bit naive and stubborn, falling into the common ‘why me?’ attitude of many YA Chosen Ones. But, the characters around her support and embolden her petty quickly into finding her feet, or at least, finding the grit to keep finding her feet. She is bright, inquisitive, open-minded, loyal, respectful, and tough. I actually really liked her. I find that a lot of female YA protagonists can fall into the pick-me, not-like-other-girls trap, where the well-intentioned author tries to reach out to the disenfranchised audience by making the MC angry and bitter, resistant to the story for so long that I start to wonder if she’s ever going to move the story forward at all, or just scowl at peripheral characters’ efforts. Aisling takes on the mantle pretty quickly, albeit with bewilderment and frustration at every weird turn, but she takes her training in stride, and leans on the wisdom and support of the characters trying to help her.

Next is Eric, Aisling’s younger brother, and sort of unwitting antagonist. Eric is impulsive and hot-headed, fueled by anger, grief, confusion, and resentment. Being a kid is hard, and he has a lot he’s struggling with. Being a victim of bullying put him in a position to stay defensive and also cling to the acceptance of a seemingly cooler protector kid and dark magics. As a reader, I got frustrated with Eric a lot because he made a lot of bad choices, but as I writer I loved him because he made all the right ones. All the while I sympathized with him, while hoping someone would stop him.

My favourite character- no surprise, here- was probably Kokum. ‘Kokum’ is the Cree word for grandmother, and her name is Georgia, but she is mostly referred to as Kokum. She’s old and wise, as grandmother’s often are, but also tough as nails, crazy powerful, funny, warm, charming, knowledgeable, and brave. She’s seen it all, done it all, everyone knows who she is, and they all like her. She’s probably Aisling’s greatest support and teacher.

This, in my opinion, is where Paquette shines. It is so hard for a lot of dudes to write healthy and realistic relationships between women. Kokum comes with her daughter (Aisling’s aunt), Martha, and the three women are a tight unit. Aisling never casts her grandmother or aunt aside as being old or out of touch, they never dismiss her as being an airhead or shallow. They all rely on each other and share their unique gifts.

Kokum brought with her a young Aboriginal man named Matari, who had his own similar-yet-different kind of magic. I’m torn on Matari. He’s really cool, but the story is about the family. As a reader, I wanted more of him, but as a writer…it’s probably fine. I actually really like that he wasn’t at the showdown (spoilers) and I was kind of worried that he would swoop in and save the day. If he were real, I think he’d agree that it was best he take a backseat. He’s pretty chill like that.

Lastly, we come to Cor and, to a lesser degree, Jake. Cor is Eric’s friend and protector for a while, until his motives become clear. Then, the dynamic changes and he becomes more of a captive. I have complicated feelings about him. I immediately mistrusted him, but he was in an impossible position.

Paquette’s only misstep, imi, was in his name. I clocked him right away. However, I just now got the clue in Jake’s name. Like, as I’m writing this, it just clicked.

Jake is another of Aisling’s allies, and a sort-of romantic interest. Also, the only white character in the book, which…makes sense, not gonna lie, lol. I honestly didn’t see the twist with him coming.

Spoilers, crows, ravens, and Jays are members of the Corvid family. It was in front of my face, the whole time.

Setting

Most of the material world is set in the winter in Canada, so I can’t say much about the geography. Paquette is Canadian, though, so I’ll just trust him.

A lot of it takes place in what we in Western Mysticism call the Astral Plane, but Matari calls the Dreaming, or the Dreamtime, where the characters can cross wide swathes of terrain. There’s also a Summerland forest where humans take on their animal totem forms.

The final scenes on Turtle Mountain give me strong Mordor vibes.

Plot

The plot structure is what is called The Parallel. We follow Eric’s journey to meet Cor’s dad, and we follow Aisling’s journey to save Eric and bring him back. Running through both of these lines is the story of Raven versus Sky Father and Mother Earth, Eric’s descent into darkness, and Aisling’s assention to Lightfinder.

I don’t want to give away too much because it’s very well done.

Themes

I think the primary theme of this book is family. Good versus evil is huge, of course, as is truth versus illusion, but in my opinion, family is at the heart. Eric is lost because he thinks his family doesn’t care about him, he’s disappointed in actions some family members take, and in the end, it’s family (blood and found) that save him. Even Matari, Cor, Jake, and the anthropomorphic fox, Skia, are considered family at one point or another, for good or ill.

Style

I’m trained in the current style of storytelling, which is as succinct as possible. No extra words, easy on the adverbs, match your sentence length to the pace of the scene. Therefore, it took me a little minute to get into the rhythm of Paquette’s style. But, after a while, it starts to take on almost an oral tradition kind of vibe, as though it’s meant to be heard, rather than read, and then it flows a lot better.

Style is an intensely personal thing. No two authors write totally the same, just like no two people speak the same. So, my only real criticism here is that I wish there were general pop culture references. I feel like those may add something to the contemporary feel, but they get dated fast and detract from the timelessness of the larger story. But I’m fussy about things like that.

The Storybook: The Emperor’s New Clothes

I love Hans Christian Andersen. He’s a storyteller I’ve had my eye on since, oh, about 1989, if you know what I’m saying.

That’s the one

My mum had an audio…play…thing on cassette that was an updated, tongue-in-cheek adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes, and I still quote parts of it, even now. It’s been one of my favourites since.

The story goes that two swindlers find themselves in a empire with a vain emperor who is trying hard to keep favour with the courtiers. They come up with an idea to trick him with a fabric so fine that most people couldn’t even see it. Not wanting to appear unrefined, the emperor declared that he could see it and commissioned the two to make him a suit with this special fabric.

That’s right, I said it.

The tricksters make a great show of cutting, folding, and sewing this invisible fabric and even pretend to put it on him before he puts on this big procession among his people. The court, either through peer pressure or by convincing themselves they can actually see it, praise his taste and wealth.

The people of the town, used to being out of the loop, make a great show of the emperor’s new suit. But a little boy in the crowd sees the emperor and cries, ‘the emperor has no clothes on!’

The History of the Story

So, there are a few versions of how this story came about. There was an old medieval Spanish story where the the fabric would only appear to a man whose father was who he believed him to be. Then there’s an older Indian one that only shows itself to people of legitimate birth.

It seems that Andersen was aware of the Spanish version, though he read it in a German translation, and chose to change it because he was a good egg and preferred to call out vanity and courtly sycophants than innocent bastards and their poor mothers. I gotta say, I agree.

There’s also a story where Andersen’s mother took him to Copenhagen once to see a royal procession. When the king passed, apparently little Hans cried out, ‘why, the king is only a man!’ His horrified mother tried to shush him, but the indignation never left him.

What a little shit, I love it.

Underdressed

My version differs a bit, as they often do. In Underdressed, Alois and Johanne get invited to Court for the season. As in real life, the king is partial to comically outdated fashions, and Alois makes an offhand joke of that nature unfortunately within earshot of the affronted king. Because his joke was retelling a comment Johanne had made, the king’s ire falls on her. He challenges her to design a new, updated fashion for his court.

Aware of the king’s notorious temper, her own lack of creativity, and uhh, some other salacious details I won’t spoil for you, Johanne agonises over what to do. Eventually, she turns her eye to the ancient world with its enlightenment and class, and strips away all of the structure, formality, and opulence of courtly fashion- to the great scandal and eventual approval of all. Again, with details I won’t spoil

I did this for a few reasons. 1, if you look at fashion history between say, 1770 and 1790, there’s a lot of surface changes like frizzed hair, hair styles, and bodice styles, but the thread is clear. About 1800, everything changes. Look at Marie Antoinette and Jane Austen- notice anything?

That’s a lot of change in 10-ish years. Think to how much fashion changed between 2000 and now. Can you even tell?

What happened in real life was what’s call neo-Classicalism, which means people rediscovered the Classical world and got Obsessed. The ancients were believed to live a simpler, more intellectual and refined life, so in a time of turmoil in Europe, people wanted to emulate that period. Only in women’s styles, of course, lol. But that’s fashion for you.

And also Beau Brummell. *shakes fist*

If you’re annoyed that dudes can’t wear flowers and colours without ridicule, your beef is with this guy.

Anyway, there was a big to-do back then about women suddenly wearing these sheath dresses, soft corsets, no panniers, smaller wigs or their natural hair, etc etc. It looked like they were going about in their underthings! (And that’s true- if you look at 1700’s chemises, they look just like Regency gowns. Honestly, in an age where you flirt by how you hold your fan, imagine the scandal of a room full of women in their underwear. To be a fly on the wall!)

So, there you have it. Johanne may not be much good at coming up with something new, but by dressing the queen in a fancy nightgown, she ushered in a new age of intellectual honesty, freedom of thought and movement.