Reading Wednesday

[yuuago]

Just finished: The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason. Set in the Austrian empire during WWI, partly in Vienna but mostly in Galicia. I checked a map and the location was roughly an hour from my grandmother's village... unexpected weird feelings here. Anyway. The part centred around field hospital drama was interesting, but around halfway through it went in a romantic direction, and I swiftly started to lose interest in the characters. Everything else happening around them kept me going. I read this one for the setting, and all things considered I'm satisfied with what I found there, but wouldn't recommend this necessarily unless it was to someone with the same priorities.

Currently reading: Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. +1 for cute setup, -5000 for use of "gay panic" to describe a crush. The original concept of "He hit on me so I panicked and killed him, I'm sure you understand" is not some relic of the distant past. It's still a thing, and I honestly did not want to be reminded of that while reading a cutesy romance novel. This doesn't make it a DNF for me, but I'm really feeling kind of pissy right now (I've had a rough day and I can't stand that phrase) so maybe I'll just... set this book aside for now.

Reading next: Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding.

Stuff I want to read in the near future:
+ Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
+ Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
+ Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
+ Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
+ Copious amounts of trashy mysteries and even trashier horror, probably

Comments

[merit]

Sudden!romances can throw a story off.

[yuuago]

No kidding! I hate it when something starts off strong, and then BAM, romance, and suddenly everything that was interesting is dropped to focus on the romance.

Unfortunately in this case the summary gave no indication that it'd have that. Ah, well.

[kiraly]

Oh yikes, I was completely unaware of that meaning for the phrase "gay panic". (Consider me educated, oof.) Sorry to hear it threw you out of the book, that's completely understandable though.

[yuuago]

Yeah, it definitely is a thing, and still a current thing. I poked around and found this from last year for the US - in the states there's movements to ban "gay panic" as a criminal defense tactic, but it's currently only banned in 9 states there.

https://theconversation.com/i-track-murder-cases-that-use-the-gay-panic-defense-a-controversial-practice-banned-in-9-states-129973

[edit: This has a more current list, looks like more states banned it later in 2020! https://lgbtbar.org/programs/advocacy/gay-trans-panic-defense/ ]

If interested in further info I suggest searching for "gay panic defense" specifically, rather than just "gay panic", because one will get you law-related stuff and the other will get you, uh, Tumblr.

Anyway... After I threw my little tantrum I ended up picking the book back up anyway, and it's still cute (and surprisingly hot in parts, haa) so we're all good. I think I was just feeling exceptionally sensitive yesterday. ;Pb

[kiraly]

Ooof, yeah, I went and looked it up before I left a comment to make sure it was what I thought it was...thankfully google brings up the legal defense and the debunked psychological "disorder" before the tumblr definition. I appreciate the links, it's good to learn more. Pretty disheartening to see how many states this is still allowed in, and frustrating that mine is one of the ones that still hasn't adopted legislation, though it has been proposed at least. I'll be keeping an eye on that and the federal bill.

I'm glad you're enjoying the book again! It does get a little steamy, yeah. ^_^;

[cortue]

Yeah, I have pretty mixed feelings about "gay panic" being repurposed by the queer community because, as opposed to the word 'queer' itself, the other meanings of the phrase don't appear to have come along. It's not a conscious choice to reclaim a thing, and it's not being reclaimed by the people who are most affected by it. But also, I had other issues with Red, White, and Royal Blue (mainly the ending) that sort of soured me on the whole thing. It's overall very good writing, just some really weird missteps in my opinion.

I just got Harrow the Ninth myself! I'm finishing a Gideon reread first, and then I'm set for what basically everyone says is a whole lot of confusion haha.

[yuuago]

Yeah, it's kind of like... a weird situation of convergent evolution. I guess I have so many feelings tied up in it that I tend to trip over it. (Happens a lot.)

I just finished RW&RB, still processing my feelings, but I'd be interested in hearing more about your issues with the ending if you want to talk about them. :)

[cortue]

Sure! I read it when it came out and felt very much in the minority for not really liking it in the end. The thing is, I liked it plenty up until the end! At that point (forgive me, I can't remember the character's names by now) the senator who had been the main character's role model who joined the conservative presidential campaign was revealed to have done so to...undermine his campaign and reveal a sexual harassment case, IIRC. It was so out of left field and so STUPID because that's not how any investigation should work! It just felt so unnecessary to the whole story, idk. And then the other thing was the emails getting leaked. Again, the details are fuzzy, but my general impression was that the HUGE violation of privacy was kind of handwaved away towards the end of the book because things needed to be wrapped up. I'm not saying they didn't react at all, but it didn't really feel like enough? And then there's the mural that's drawn about them with a quote from the email and it's supposed to be inspiring but - the person who made it wouldn't know the quote if they hadn't taken the opportunity to read someone's private emails? They could have just made a mural supporting them and not taken part in the communal disrespect of them as people instead of ~representation~. It has been a while, but that's my general impression.

I'd be interesting to hear what your thoughts shake out to be!

[yuuago]

Re: the sexual harrassment reveal, that bit was kind of weird because I had a feeling that it was coming, but the execution wasn't effective. I suspected it after the scene where Alex eavesdrops in the bushes; it seemed like it was hinting at something like that. But the way it played out seemed very... facile? Too simple? Didn't work within the way the story had been built up? Something like that.

And yeah, I agree re: all of the email leaks and whatnot. That is a big thing, and like... On the one hand, I can see the appeal of a big handwave, because this book is clearly just wish fulfillment. But it also was just too simple, tied up too easily.

In general, I found the later portion of the book kind of broke my suspension of disbelief. Everything was too simple, too easy, too far from reality. And that was likely partially the point, but that doesn't mean it has to work for me. ;V

[cortue]

Ah yes! This really solidifies the mixed feeling that I had. I get that it's meant to be escapist fiction, but the things that pass across its surface actually have much deeper meaning to me, and so I couldn't just let them pass as a little dramatic even we're moving immediately past. It popped the soap bubble for me, and it was no longer fun. Oh well, I still think I'll try her next book. It seems like the sort of error that could be sanded with experience.

[dhampyresa]

use of "gay panic" to describe a crush
NOPE

I'm reading Thirteen Storeys right now and really enjoying it so far, for what it's worth!

[yuuago]

It's so reassuring to know that other people have a massive NOPE reaction to that, and that it's not just me being fussy.

Anyway. Good to hear that about Thirteen Storeys! Might need to prod the library to order it, hmmm...