In the time since The Hunger Games, young adult literature has been mesmerized with dystopias. Neal Shusterman tries to take dystopia back to its more perfect, idealistic roots with the creation of Scythe. Of course, the nature of stories require conflict, and utopias, by definition, shouldn’t, which means that today we’re going to be looking … More Setting Study: Scythe and Utopias
I’m going to save the more hard-hitting topic for the end, and instead start with the RBR part of the post. I have finished two other books (one of which I finished just this morning), but considering the topic of today’s post, I think they’re best saved for later. Both of the books today are … More Rapid Book Reviews (Last Night at the Telegraph Club & These Violent Delights) And Ending Anti-Asian Violence
Now that we’re well and truly out of the last reading challenge, with the next one not scheduled until September, I thought I’d share what books I’ve got queued up on my reading shelf. And there’s quite a few, because when it comes to Barnes & Noble, I have no restraint. Right now, I’m reading … More My Spring Book Haul
Stories are funny things. Character, setting, and plot get all twisted together to create something magical, capable of transporting the reader out of the present and into some fictional place of curious make-believe. It’s a fickle process, too. Books that shouldn’t work can sometimes turn out to be biggest craze of the season. Other times, … More Stories Within Stories: A Consideration of Novel Structure (Cloud Atlas, Starless Sea, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler)
Romance. A genre filled with characters chasing after that ever-elusive thing called love, filled with cheesy lines and instalove and vain attempts to rewrite destinies. Or is it? I should start with a bit of a disclaimer, I suppose. This is a blog dedicated to the fantasy genre, most especially those written for the older … More Romance Reading Challenge Wrap-Up
Welcome! We have six books to review today so I’m going to try to keep each of them brief. But for those of you who don’t know, I decided to do a reading challenge in February with books that were primarily about romance. Now, this isn’t my wrap-up post for that; that’s going to come … More Rapid Book Review: Mistborn and the Romance Reading Challenge
Most of my regulars on the blog are presumably avid fantasy readers like myself, but my romance reading challenge has made me wonder what books I might recommend for those who aren’t. After all, fantasy can certainly be an intimidating genre to step into. It’s incredibly difficult to find standalone novels, or to find books … More 15 Fantasy Books For The Curious Reader
Pride and Prejudice was published by Jane Austen in late January, 1813, a classic romantic tale involving one of the most tantalizing, tense hate-to-love relationship I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. For those of you who don’t know, I’m reading it for my February Romance Reading Challenge. For my last reading challenge, the Middle … More Pride and Prejudice (2005) Movie Analysis
The second novel of Brandon Sanderson’s career, The Final Empire, is a high fantasy book taking place in the titular Final Empire, led by the tyrannous, immortal Lord Ruler. Rebellions of the past have always failed, but rebellions of the past never had Kelsier, Vin, or their team of Mistings and Mistborn. As usual, these … More Setting Study: Mistborn’s The Final Empire
The launch date of Kristin Cashore’s newest, Winterkeep, passed with only a small level of hype. It was that same Saturday that I truly couldn’t wait for, because that’s when the book would arrive at my house and I could finally, finally, start reading it. Then came the age-old struggle of wanting to take it … More Book Review: Winterkeep (!!)
Katie Bachelder 