sparkindarkness | Entries tagged with social justice reading

I was extremely wary about picking up this book. I have yet to read a discrimiflip novel that worked and didn’t end up being really appropriative and offensive. I find it doubtful they can work due to the inherent nature of making minorities the evil perpetrators of the very crimes committed against them. Still, I’m told it is possible, people assured me it was possible, so I picked up this book when it was released to see if it actually managed it.

So we have the story of Chris. A straight boy living in a world where, it seems, just about everyone is gay. Being straight is considered sick and wrong, condemned by both the church and the state (which are closely entwined). He tries to navigate this discrimination, as the son of a minister, and try to find freedom with the woman he loves.

And no, this discrimiflip did not manage it. Not even close. In fact, I’m sorely tempted to put a trigger warning for homophobia simply for having to discuss the contents of this book.

The author has appropriated every aspect of homophobic oppression imaginable. We have child bullying, we have demeaning dehumanisation from the pulpit, we have a horrific description of conversion therapy, we have chemical castration; we even have concentration camps, actual concentration camps.

All of these are extreme examples of oppression that have constantly been used to persecute and destroy gay people and they’re all used in this book – often graphically – but flipped. The victims of this torture and even this genocide are now made the villains. Those who inflicted them are now the victims. It is unbelievably offensive and enraging to see these despicable crimes that were – and continue to be – inflicted on gay people depicted with gay people as the perpetrators and straight people as the innocent victims. Even some of the basic language of anti-gay oppression have been callously appropriated by this straight author: we even have straight people being called “queer”. The book's even called "Out"! There really is no limits to the appropriation in this book and the extent to which gay people are presented as inflicting exactly the same cruel persecutions that, in reality, gay people have endured and died from.

To take the history of gay persecution, to take all of these horrendous things that have been used to victimise gay people and then mangle them to make gay people the villains makes me choke with rage. I have no words to describe how offensive this is. I had to stop reading several times because the book was so painfully offensive to read I couldn't keep going

The actual depiction of someone living with a closeted sexuality is also ridiculously shallow, especially for a young person. Chris finds out he likes a girl (note: A girl. Not girls. Just the one twu luv that follows the endlessly dull love at first sight meme that I’d complain more about if it weren’t such a tiny problem compared to the gross offensiveness of this book), it’s a shocking discovery. Within the hour he seeks out his friend to tell her. No, really.

In this society where being straight is illegal and demonised universally from birth, he couldn’t even keep it a secret for an hour. In fact, he goes home and his sister – in this ultra gay-normative society – already knows he’s straight! She even has some subversive literature for him! Yes, within a day of realising he’s straight, he already has a support net in this overwhelmingly gay world where heterosexuality is constantly demonised from the highest echelons of government. As an extra bonus, he meets Carmen, his love interest and she tells him she is straight in their first ever conversation, in a public café no less. They’re complete strangers, straight people are tortured and killed with the full blessing of the theocratic government but she’s going to spill her secret. I boggle how it can even be called a secret if 5 minutes acquaintance are sufficient for the big reveal.

To go with all these suddenly revealed straight people (including his sister, his sister’s boyfriend, his sister’s friends – seriously there seems to be more named straight people than gay people in this gay majority world!) Chris deals very quickly with any elements of self-loathing, low self-esteem etc he has from spending his entire life being told he’s diseased, wrong, mentally ill, a plague on society, bringing about the end of civilisation, hated by god and going to hell. Within the first three days we seem to be totally past such questioning and the focus quickly changes to the terrible forces that are keeping him and his beloved apart and the utter cruelty of living without her. There is a brief attempt to have him doubt himself in the very beginning but it takes less than a week for it to fade as a distant memory and him to be sure that the persecution of straight people is wrong. He's actually openly challenging and arguing against persecution of straight people on his first day realising he's straight- and it's used as an excuse to clumsily shoe-horn in many of the arguments the gay rights movement uses in the real world (and I have to say how unpleasant it is to see straight people taking our words and arguments for our survival and putting them in the mouth of a straight boy being attack by the evil evil gay folk).

In fact, it seems far more like a star-crossed lover’s story with extra offensive appropriation than an attempt to build any understanding of what it’s like to be gay in a straight society. If Carmen and Chris had been from foreign countries that were at war, or if she were a princess and he were a peasant, the story wouldn’t be vastly different – only the attacks and dehumanisation they faced would be a lot less offensive.

I find it unbelievable that this was even remotely supposed to try and convey any idea of what the closet is like. And it goes with the general sloppy and shallow way this book has built its "heterophobic" society. (The book's also sloppy in its convoluted info-dumps, but it pales next to the appropriation)

For a start, even in the pulpit the evil gay persecutors call themselves Parallels. Why? If you look at the homophobes in our world they don’t need to refer to themselves as heterosexual – in a world and a belief system where the minority sexuality is overwhelming defined as wrong, sick and deviant, you don’t use a word for “normal” people. They’re “normal.” Or there’s the fact that they refer to Romeo and Juliette. In a world of gay normality and straight suppression, why would this play even have been written, let alone be permitted reading in such a repressive anti-gay society? Especially for 17 year olds? In our world getting "Heather has Two Mommies" on the shelves requires actually going to war - let alone actual school-taught classics! In a world were gay marriage and relationships are the only ones allowed, why would “Mrs.” exist as a reference for married women?

But what about the gay people in the book which is supposed to be empowering? Well, firstly, there’s not actually that many for a society that’s supposed to be overwhelmingly gay, there seem to be a lot more straight characters unless you count faceless antagonists. And they’re unpleasant – whether it’s cowardly and weak like Warren and Andi, or outright evil like David and, well, just about everyone else. Gay people in this book are evil or pathetic, pretty much universally except for faceless and nameless possible supporters (who may or may not be more hidden straight folk).

And not just evil in the persecution of the poor straight folks suffering under the oppressive might of the terrible gay government – but to each other and especially their children as well: this gay society itself seems to be toxic

One of the thorniest issues when it comes to analysing media from a social justice perspective is the concept of portraying prejudice and bigotry. After all, bigotry exists, bigoted people exist, at some point we’ll expect some bigoted characters showing up.

And that’s not a bad thing - in fact, erasing prejudice and pretending it doesn’t exist is far from ideal. To not show prejudice in times and places where prejudiced would be common or rife can be a denial that that prejudice exists, especially if you are showing everyone in that area and era as gloriously accepting of all minorities. In many ways it’s a form of erasure to do this or a rewriting of the world - both present historic. The problem is portraying prejudice in a way that doesn’t perpetuate it - and too often writers use this argument of “realistic portrayal” as an excuse to produce some severely bigoted work.

So how to portray bigotry without producing a book or show that should come with its own trigger warning or will make the minority in question want to eat your liver?

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, is that prejudiced portrayal really necessary? Sometimes the presence of bigotry is not only unnecessary, but it’s down right confusing, especially in speculative fiction. In an alternate world with an entirely different religion, culture even different species, is there a reason why women are dealing with misogyny? So much else had changed, why not this? Or, in the distant future, between the stars with more curiously-humanoid-aliens than you could shake a phaser at, do we still need racism? This can reach the point of almost parody - I’ve seen avatars of Greek gods - ancient Greek gods - losing their shit over men kissing. The Greeks!

It’s bemusing that, in these worlds where everything can be so different from our own, prejudice is considered inviolate. When all else in history can be changed, when the truly fantastic can be introduced, when we have magic, vampires, aliens and plot holes you can drive a bus through, it seems ridiculous to decide that bigotry is just something that must remain. And I think every social justice media critic in the world is tired of someone explaining the absolute necessity of “historical accuracy” in a series that has freaking dragons.

But even aside from fantasy worlds where you’ve decided to, bewilderingly, include real world bigotry; there is plenty of bigotry shown in works that are closer to our world and we have to ask “why is this necessary?” Does this prejudice actually add anything to the story or development or anything at all? One of the things that annoyed us so much about season 1 of American Horror Story is the amount of bigotry that was presented was completely gratuitous - it did nothing for the story to have the realtor use gay slurs to describe the previous occupants of the house, or even half of the many other problematic incidents on the show. Throwing in bigotry for the sheer hell of it, to an extent where it seems almost out of place sometimes, doesn’t help anyone.

Ok, you’ve looked at the bigotry and it is an absolute essential part of setting the world, the characters and the story. It would be wrong to exclude it - so how to include it without supporting it? Simple - by making it unsupportable

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One of the saddest things we can come across with any media is something we love - but has a massive problematic issue in the middle of it that slowly poisons it for us. The Parasol Protectorate is a series of books we love and adore for so many reasons. We love Lady Alexia Macon, she’s funny and powerful, we love her relationship, the setting and the plot. Who wouldn't want to read more about Ivy's antics? This could be one of those series that racks up nothing but 5 fang reviews all through - but there was a problem that started in the first book and just grew with each extra novel to intolerable degrees.

Lord Akeldama. And, from that, all of the gay characters in this series.

From the onset of this story, Madame Lefoux wears masculine clothing. She is strong, and highly intelligent. In and of itself, this character isn’t problematic, until one realises that she is juxtaposed to Lord Akeldama. The fact that she is so masculine, underscores Akeldama’s femininity and that makes them both read as highly stereotypical. Again, there are certainly lesbians who are exactly like Madame Lefoux but this is predominantly the image of lesbians in media, unless they are being used as sexual eye candy.

In the first book, Soulless, Lord Akeldama starts off as very stereotypical gay male. He is extremely effeminate and while there are gay men who are like this, the problem with this type of representation, is that it has come to define gay male sexuality in the media. To make matters worse, though he is resourceful, he functions as nothing more than the typical gay best friend to Alexia. Akeldama put the dandies to work for Alexia as well and though we are told they are capable and devious, they, like their leader, are also effeminate. Biffy for instance, is more than familiar with women’s toilette and is up to date on the latest hairstyles and fashions. All of this is bad enough, but the fact that Carriger then had the dandies working as wedding planners moves their representation from stereotypical, to downright mockery.

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What is wonderful about Dystopian and Paranormal Steampunk is that the author has the opportunity to either create a brave new world, or an alternate past. Obviously in all fiction this opportunity exists but dystopian and paranoramal steampunk lend themselves remarkably well to this idea. Unfortunately instead of taking the opportunity to do something different, the majority of the authors that we have read have simply recreated the world as we know it today with the addition of fantastic steam run objects, or a sparse earth with no difference to the power structures currently in effect.

In the case of Dystopian worlds, this erasure has a particularly unpleasant implication. After all, we know marginalsied people exist - we know there are people of colour and GBLT etc people out there - so where are they? Or, rather, what happened to them?

In a Dystopian world something has happened. Be it major societal collapse, nuclear, alien/vampire/monster invasion, environmental disaster, mandated playing of country and western music - some dark and terrible thing has afflicted the world and, usually, decimated the human population. And when we take the idea of a decimated human population and then show no marginalised survivors the natural assumption is that the marginalised people are dead.

This turns the dystopian world into a post-eradication world. And, in the case where it has been an active attack or invasion, it turns it into a post (or pending) targeted genocidal world. The implication is that whatever disaster happened - or whatever force attacked - it wiped out marginalised people first. Your zombie apocalypse apparently had a horde of zombies that just looooved the taste of GBLT brains. Your marauding monstrous horde really hated people of colour. That supernatural plague for some reason picked off the minorities first.

And this is rarely touched in the series either. We have the implied eradication, but it’s never addressed or explained or referred to. We have implied targeted eradication and this not considered relevant by any of the cast of survivors.

I know we’re going to get people answering this with “you’re reading too much into this” “the author didn’t intend this” and even the dreaded “it’s only fiction.” But the author carelessly erasing us rather than intentionally portraying us as eradicated doesn’t remove the implication of targeted destruction. If a minority is absent where we would expect them, and if there has been a great loss of life, isn’t it reasonable to assume they died?

And is it that odd an assumption? It’s not like there aren’t real world examples of people of colour, GBLT people, the disabled and minority religion adherents all facing actual genocide. We have many powerful real world examples of societies actively attempting to eradicate these marginalised groups. Is it that ridiculous to look at a post-decimation world, see our absence and assume that there has been a targeted eradication? I would say to consider it ridiculous is to live in inexcusable ignorance of the genocides - both past and present - of our real world.

One of the things we’ve found in our many reviews of the genre from a social justice perspective is how many times people will make up various excuses for the problems we talk about. There is no limit to the different excuses people raise, but often it can feel like we’re responding to the same script since we see the same points raised again and again. Since, we assume, they are widely believed we’re going to poke a few of these:

The Protagonist doesn’t hate them because they’re a minority - it’s because they’re horrible people.

This normally becomes an issue when we point out, for example, that a character has no female friends and strikes sparks with every woman around them. Or the protagonist hates every single POC in the book/TV series. Or that the only GBLT characters in a book have been the protagonist’s enemies.

Now these protagonists rarely turn round and say “I hate women!” or “she’s my enemy because she’s a lesbian, evil lesbian!” because most authors aren’t that ridiculous. Usually, the protagonist does have a very legitimate reason to hate these people. Yes, every woman they met was mean to them. Yes, all the POC around them were cruel and rude. Yes, that evil GBLT villain is indeed evil. There were big story reasons for the character to hate all of these people. This is true.

But this a work of fiction, not a report of real people. The writer is an author, not a journalist. The cruel POC, the evil GBLT villain, the mean women - they don’t exist. They’re all creations of the author. And if the author has created a book where all the women/POC/GBLT/etc are set up to be awful and hateable then it is because the author chose them to be so.

If the marginalised people in a series are all hateful people that the protagonist loathes - for good in story reasons - then the author has created that scenario. And, yes, that’s problematic.

It’s just who they are! I see them as people not POC/GBLT/etc

So you’ve written your story and it turns out you have a sexually predatory GBLT person, or a loud, angry, sassy black woman side-kick (bonus points if she has magic to help the protagonist) or some equally tired, stereotyped trope. Naturally we’re not impressed but the protest is “they’re not a sassy, magical side-kick because they’re black, it’s just who they are!” In other words, you assert that their adherence to an extremely tired trope is just coincidence.

Now it’s vaguely possible, I guess, that you are somehow packed into the Mars Rover and are actually beaming you books or scripts from there and your intended audience is actually aliens from the planet Zog. In which case I applaud you for being able to write under such difficult conditions and being our ambassador for the Zoggi with books about vampires.

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We’ve spoken before about reviewers charging for book reviews - as well as guaranteeing positive reviews - and the many reasons why we consider this to be both unacceptable and damaging to online reviewing.

And I don’t think we can discount just how very important reviewing has become, especially as ebooks become more and more dominant in the market. Increasingly, we’re no longer going into a book shop and buying books, speaking to book clerks about what would be the best choice (assuming we ever did) or being able to physically pick up the book and skim through it to see if it suits us.

There are many things that have tried to replace this - but a synopsis, blurb and even an excerpt are often carefully chosen to show the book in the best possible light - quite possibly a rather inflated light. With the huge and wonderful proliferation of authors out there - with mainstream presses, indie presses, small presses and self-pubs, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this many choices when picking a book to read. So how do we make that choice?

Well, other than the word of mouth of people we trust, a lot of that choice is based on reviewers (which is, in effect, more of the word of mouth from people we trust). I cannot count how many books I’ve started reading now - especially new authors or ebooks - based on an online review from a person I trust. But trust is the key here - and reviewers selling positive reviews undermine that trust not just for themselves, but for all reviewers.

From our point of view, being a Social Justice blog as much as a review blogs, we also believe it is vital to review the genre we love to ensure the problematic portrayals and erasures are called out - and the gems we see where they author gets it right are duly praised. Again, we feel this requires trust and it requires honesty - we already have a culture that habitually excuses even the most extreme forms of prejudice and the most awful portrayals - to be dishonest about the problematic or prejudiced portrayals in a book is to contribute to that dismissal.

So when we read in the New York Times of a reviewer who was selling reviews and making a considerably amount of money doing so, we were less than pleased and condemn him unreservedly. Reviewers will be tainted by his deception and both readers and reviewers are harmed by it

So, because a bad idea just doesn't die like it should, Victoria Foyt's racist Save the Pearls now has homophobic versions: for books: and television. I hate linking to them but they need to be seen. One is a book and the other movie with the same premise: an all gay world that persecutes the straight minority

So that’s more appropriating the issues we live with, our history, our suffering and then shitting on it all by making us the perpetrators of the violations committed against us. How can they not see how offensive this is? How can they not see how offensive taking the severe bigotry thrown at us every day and throughout history, bigotry that has cost us so much and then making our oppressors the victims and us the attackers, is? This is appropriative, this is offensive, it’s disrespectful and it’s outright bigoted.

Y’know, if you actually want to talk about prejudice and persecution and how they can affect people’s lives, why not use actual marginalised people? You want to show how a person navigates a society that has extreme prejudice against their skin colour? Why not make your protagonist a POC? You want to show a society that persecutes people based on who they’re attracted to and who they love? Why not make your protagonist gay?

Oh, but then that becomes a specialist subject, right? A “niche”, dealing with marginalised issues. A POC book. A Gay/Lesbian book. Totally inappropriate for mainstream audience – when we can take the same story and flip it to bizarre bigot world and make the poor straight, white person the persecuted victim and we’re back in mainstream land. Funny, that.

Is that what this is? This whole offensive, bullshit trend (I mean, apart from prejudiced arsehattery, which kind of goes without saying)? A desire to use prejudice as a plot point but not sully your main character by making them an actual minority?

And don’t tell me it will help straight/white people understand oppression. Because if a privileged person will only hear about prejudiced issues when it comes from a privileged mouth then what is the point? I’ve said this before when we’ve had similar bullshit, how are you going to encourage people to address prejudice and marginalisation while at the same time training them that it’s only worth listening to privileged people?

Because that’s what I hear when this excuse is trawled out. Straight, white people can’t possibly empathise with a POC or GBLT protagonist so we have to present these prejudiced issues through a privileged lens, from a privileged mouth. Or even from an elf or vampire – because that’s easier to swallow than actually facing real life prejudice that hits real prejudiced people.

And don’t tell me it’s for marginalised people. Would I like to read a book where marginalised people are the majority and in charge? Sure – but not through the eyes of a poor, oppressed straight/white person who is suffering so awfully at the hands of the big, mean, prejudiced gay/black people. Because maginalised people being cast as evil villains? Been done and it’s not fun.

Just stop. You want to include marginalised people, then do it. But don’t make free with the severe issues that have shaped and attacked us for generations and appropriate them for your own ends. And certainly don’t do it while making our oppressor’s the victims and the persecuted the attackers in these lazy, shallow, ridiculous worlds.

There is an ongoing conversation in various venues about the identity of writers - specifically, marginalised writers and whether or not it truly matters whether a writer is a POC, GBLT, disabled or holds another marginalisation. We know a whole lot of people are quick to ask who cares whether an author is POC, GBLT et al? Why is this relevant?

Well, we do, and it is relevant. It’s usually one of the first things we try to find out when coming across a new author.

We’ve spoken before about the gatekeepers that marginalised authors face. We’ve seen the drama in YA trying to exclude gay characters, we’ve seen the white washing that covers face if they presume to show a POC. This is one of the reasons we’re supportive of webisodes and self-publishing, because there are a lot of gatekeepers out there that make it hard for maginalised people to be traditionally published. With these gatekeepers, it is reasonable for marginalised people and their allies to try and turn the tide by deliberately going out of their way to support marginalised authors.

Even when marginalised authors do write about their own marginalisation and are published, it greatly increases the chance the book will be shelved as niche and considered undesirable for mainstream consumption. It becomes all the more important to buy the book, support the author and to say this book belongs on the shelves.

There’s also a matter of authenticity. And this doesn’t mean that privileged people can’t write marginalised characters. In fact, we don’t even think it’s hard for privileged people to write marginalised characters - but it’s a very common excuse not to do so. Which is a reason why we seek marginalised authors because so many privileged authors keep writing trope laden stereotypes that it has frequently reached a point where we wish these authors would erase us; erasure would be preferably to the offensive portrayals they create.

We’ve had several discussions and musings over the weeks:
Stop the GR Bullies: Stalking, Tantrums and Bullying
Reviewers Behaving Badly: Selling Reviews, Guaranteeing Praise
Teen Wolf: Bromance is More Important than Inclusion
Women in Science Fiction
There Can Only Be One Strong Female Character
People of Colour as Extras Don’t Equal Inclusion
Women in Teen Wolf – The Menfolk Say it’s a Matriarchy
GBLT Representation on True Blood and Lost Girl
Chelsea Lately, Nathan Ellis and a Whole Lot of Problems
Women in the Anita Blake Series
Anita Blake Faux Champion of Sexual Agency
Face Off: Which Vampire Legends Shouldn’t be Messed With
Face Off: Which Werewolf Legends Shouldn’t be Messed with
Face Off: Which Tropes do we need to End.

We’re continuing to review several television series.

Almighty Johnsons
Alphas
Being Human (UK)
Blood Ties
Continuum
Dark Angel
Falling Skies
Hex
Sinbad
Teen Wolf
True Blood
Warehouse 13

And, of course, we’ve read a massive number of books

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
Save the Pearls by Victoria Foyt
Grave Witch by Kaylana Price
Where Angels Fear to Tread by Thomas Sniegoski
Tempest's Fury by Nicole Peeler
Waiting for Daybreak by Amanda McNeil
Game of Changes by Harry Connolly
The Dead Dream Wakes by Ezra Holiday
Torn By Julie Kenner
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
Thunderbird Falls, by C.E Murphy
Halo of the Damned by Dina Rae
The Taken by Vicki Pettersson
The Darkest Gate by SM Reine
Dark Dates, by Tracey Sinclair
Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues, by Diana Rowland
Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

All of our reviews and discussions can be found in our Archives: Books, TV, Discussions,
Interviews & Podcasts.

Some catch up of the stuff we've been doing over at Fangs

As ever our archives are here: Book Reviews, TV/Film Reviews, Discussions Archive and Podcast Archive.
Please feel free to join us on our weekly podcast to discuss the shows we’re watching, our book of the week – and mock Tami for reading the dreadful 50 Shades of Grey.

Our Friday Discussions and Other Genre Musings

In our discussions we look at:
The
Evolution of Snow White
How Television Portrayals often fall below even the poor standards set in books
Using the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia as a Marketing Tool
The Disabled can Play The Game of Thrones

In cover snarks we continue to look at the dubious books covers Urban Fantasy authors are often stuck with, including: Facial Expressions, Broken Spines and Exposed Bellies

In Face Offs we’ve set Twilight vs The Hunter Games, a variety of protagonists against each other to see which has had the Worst Idea Ever, and a number of marginalised side characters to see who is the Most Blatant Token

TV

These reviews link to our latest recaps, but all previous episodes can be found through the tags or through the archive.

In older series, we’re looking back on, recapping and discussing Being Human (UK), the Dresden Files, Charmed and Blood Ties

We have a few series that are gearing up towards their season finales that we’re eagerly following - Once Upon a Time, Grimm, The Vampire Diaries and Secret
Circle (ok, not that eager with Secret Circle, but there’s snark). We also covered the season finales of Being Human (US), Alcatraz and Lost Girl

Season 2 of Game of Thrones has started and joined the programmes we’re reviewing,
discussing and recapping.

Books

With all our book reviews – if we’re reviewing a later book in a series that means we’ve already reviewed previous books in the series and it’s in our archive or you can follow with the author’s tag.

By a Thread by Jennifer Estep, book 6 of the Elemental Assassin’s Series (4.5 Fangs)
Green Eyed Demon by Jaye Wells, book 3 of the Sabina Kane Series (3 Fangs)
Tricked by Kevin Hearne, Book 4 of the Iron Druid Chronicles (5 Fangs)
Torment by Lauren Kate, Book 2 of the Fallen Series (1 Fang)
Game of Thrones by George R R Martin, Book 1 in the Song of Ice and Fire Series (5 Fangs)
A Kiss Before the Apocalypse by Thomas E Sniegoski, Book 1 of the Remy Chandler Series (4 Fangs)
Enthralled by K Drollinger (1.5 Fangs)
Fade Out by Rachel Caine, Book 7 of the Morganville Vampires Series (2.5 Fangs)
Gil’s All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez (2 Fangs)
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire, Book 5 of the October Daye Series (4.5 Fangs)
Tainted by Julie Kenner, Book 1 of the Blood Lily Chronicles (4.5 Fangs)
Lover Reborn by JR Ward, Book 10 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (1.5 Fangs)
Bad Blood by Kristin Painter, Book 3 of the House of Comarré Series (2 Fangs)
The Watcher by Jeanne C Stein, Book 3 of the Anna Strong Series (2 Fangs)
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris, Book 2 of the Sookie Stackhouse Series (3.5 Fangs)
Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 8 of the Dark Hunter Series (3.5 Fangs)
Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler, Book 4 of the Jane True Series (4 Fangs)
Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin, Book 1 of the Jaz Parks Series (1.5 Fangs)
Married with Zombies (5 Fangs) and Flip This Zombie (4.5 Fangs) by Jesse Petersen,
Books 1 and 2 of the Living with the Dead Series
Circus of the Damned (4.5 Fangs) and Lunatic Café (4 Fangs) by Laurell K Hamilton, Books 3 and 4 of the Anita Blake Series
Love Hurts by Catherine Green (2 Fangs)

Some catch up of the stuff we've been doing over at Fangs

As every our archives are here: Book Reviews, TV/Film Reviews, Discussions Archive and Podcast Archive.

Our Friday Discussions and Other Genre Musings

Existence is not Entitlement, Erasure is not Acceptable
Hollow Characters of Colour on Lost Girl
The Friday Discussion: The Mary Sue
Self-Publishing: Sometimes the only Gate that's Open
Spunky Agency: Fake Empowerment and not-so-strong Female Protagonists

Books

Dayhunter by Jocelynn Drake Book 2 of The Dark Days Series
Unholy Embrace by Neil Benson
An Artifical Night by Seanan Mcguire, Book 3 of the October Daye Series
A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuirew, Book 2 of the October Daye series
Autumn by David Moody: Book 1 of the Autumn Series
Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Book 1 of the Kara Gillian Series
Watcher by Roh Morgon Book 1 of The Chosen
Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 7 of the Dark Hunter Series
Sins of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 6 of the Dark Hunter Series
Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 2 of the Were-Hunter Series
Seize the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 5 of the Dark Hunters Series
Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler: Book 1 of the Jane True Series
One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost, Book 6 of the Night Huntress Series
Skinwalker by Faith Hunter, Book 1 of the Jane Yellowrock series
Betrayed by Morgan Rice, Book 3 of the Vampire Journals series
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, by Carrie Vaughn, Book 5 of the Kitty Norville Series
Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn. Book 4 of the Kitty Norville Series
Double Cross by Carolyn Crane, Book 2 of the Disillusionist Triology
Cold Fire by Kate Elliot Book Two of the Spiritwalker Trilogy
Vicious Grace by M.L.N. Hanover
Monster Hunter Alpha by Larry Correia, Book 3 of the Monster Hunter Nation series

TV

Grimm, Season 1, Episode 10: Organ Grinder
Eternal Law, Season 1, Episode 5
Lost Girl Season 2, Episode 15: Table for Fae
The Secret Circle, Season 1, Episode 13: Medallion
Once Upon a Time, Season 1, Episode 11: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
The Vampire Diaries Season 3: Episode 13: Bringing Out the Dead
Being Human, Season Two, Episode Three: All Out of Blood

Vampires Suck
Blood and Chocolate
Underworld Rise of the Lycans
Underworld Awakening
Underworld Evolution

Interviews

SYFY LOST GIRL Q&A with Anna Silk & Ksenia Solo
Syfy Lost Girl Q&A With Anna Silk, Zoie Palmer and Kris Holden-Ried
Q&A with Anna Fricke and Jeremy Carver, Executive Producers/Writers of Being Human (US)

Our Giveaway for The Walking Dead, Rise of the Governor ends tomorrow. Enter before it’s too late. Keep an eye out for a new giveaway this Friday.

Our weekly podcast: Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, episode 45 As ever you can find our other podcasts in our Podcast Archive. Speaking of archives – all reviews can be found in our: Book Archive and Film/TV archive

Our Friday Discussions and Other Genre Musings
The Difference between a Negative and a Bad Review.
The Black Dagger Brotherhood: Treatment of Women
Paranormal Steampunk and Dystopian Erasure - the Unpleasant Implications
Urban Fantasy's Guide to an Authentic British Vampire
"American Horror Story" fails at abortion story line
Cover Snark: That's not in the Book!
Cover Snark: The Sideways View: T&A for Everyone!

Books
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (3 Fangs)
Blood Rights by Kristen Painter Book 1 of the House of Comarré (3.5 Fangs)
Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire, Book 1 of the October Daye series (3 Fangs)
My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland (4 Fangs)
Blameless by Gail Carriger, Book 3 of the Parasol Protectorate (5 Fangs)
Changeless by Gail Carriger, Book 2 of the Parasol Protectorate Series (5 Fangs)
Symphony of Blood, A Hank Mondale Supernatural Case by Adam Pepper (1 Fang)
Mind Games by Carolyn Crane, Book 1 of the Disillusionist Trilogy (4 Fangs)
Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover: Book 1 of The Black Sun's Daughter (1.5 Fangs)
Dances with the Devil, by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Book 3 of the Dark Hunter Series. (3 Fangs)
Rajmund by D.B Reynolds Book 3 of Vampires in America Series (2.5 Fangs)
Cold Magic by Kate Elliot Book 1 of the Spiritwalker Trilogy (2.5 Fangs)
Lover Mine by J.R. Ward, Book 7 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (0.5 Fangs)
Embrace the Night by Karen Chance Book 3 of the Cassandra Palmer Series (4.5 Fangs)
Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong, Book 11 of the Otherworld Series (4 Fangs)
Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn. Book 3 of the Kitty Norville Series (3.5 Fangs)

TV
Lost Girl: Season 2, Episode 12: Masks (3 Fangs)
Lost Girl: Season 2, Episode 11: If a Fae Falls in the Forest (2.5 Fangs)
Lost Girl, Season 2, Episode 10: Raging Fae (3 Fangs)
Lost Girl, Season 2, Episode 9: Original Skin (3.5 Fangs)
Once Upon a Time, Season 1, Episode 6: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (4 Fangs)
Once Upon a Time, Season 1, Episode 6: The Shepherd (3 Fangs)
Once Upon a Time, Season 1, Episode 5: That Still Small Voice (3.5 Fangs)
Grimm, Season 1, Episode 6: The Three Bad Wolves (3.5 Fangs)
Grimm, season 1, Episode 5: Danse Macabre (3.5 Fangs)
American Horror Story, Season 1, Episode 10: Smoldering Children (2 Fangs)
American Horror Story Season 1, Episode 9: Spooky Little Girl (2.5 Fangs)
American Horror Story, Season 1, Episode 8: Rubber Man (3.5 Fangs)
The Walking Dead Season 2, Episode 7: Pretty Much Dead (4 Fangs)
Being Human U.K. Season 1, Episode 4 (4 Fangs)
Being Human U.K. Season 1, Episode 3 (3.5 Fangs)
Being Human U.K Season 1, Episode 2 (3.5 Fangs)
Being Human U.K. Season 1, Episode 1 (5 Fangs)
Being Human UK Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot (4 Fangs)
The Fades, Season 1, Episode 6: Season Finale (5 Fangs)
The Fades, Season 1, Episode 5 (3.5 Fangs)
The Fades, Season 1, Episode 4 (4 Fangs)

Blade
Van Helsing (3.5 Fangs)
Twilight Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (1 Fang)
The Craft (2.5 Fangs)

It’s vaguely possibly you’ve noticed I’m involved in the running of Fangs for the Fantasy by my oh-so-subtle plugging. But yes I’m one of the ones behind it and I likes it I does. But there’s always the question of why, especially given how little time I have and how much time it takes.

Well, let me count the ways. I like Fangs, I like the reviews, I like an opportunity to snark, I like the new series its exposed me to and because it’s fun, lots of fun.

But also because I think it’s important. Especially analysing books from a social justice perspective. Yes, analysing fluffy, trashy, frequently silly Urban fantasy is important. Especially since it’s popular and, if anything, becoming more so and establishing itself very firmly as its own genre.

Our society is shaped by the media. In fact I think the media is one of the grand pillars of our culture. The media we consume reflects the stereotypes and tropes of society, reinforces them, encourages them and spreads them. We as a society, as a culture, as people are shaped by the books we read, the television we watch, the films we see and the games we play.

When we see the same type of people showcased front and centre, the same stereotypes paraded, the same groups erased, the same insults given, the same bad behaviour showcased, excused or justified and generally the same prejudiced, and –ism scented problems repeated again and again then yes it shapes us.

And I know there are people out there saying “but why urban fantasy? Who cares about sexist werewolves or homophobic vampires or racist witches?” there are many reasons – I can talk about how we tend NOT to analyse these types of books so the genre is even more unchallenged and just accepted. I can tell you it’s because I love the genre – I really do – and as such I want to be able to consume it without sporks and with more joy; as something I love, I want it to do better. But most of all, it’s because if we’re going to challenge any media, it has to be popular fiction that is consumed broadly for entertainment.

What do you think shapes culture more? A verbose, dense literary fiction artistic epic read by English literature professors in a university congratulating each other on how wonderfully dense and nigh incomprehensible it is, so full of metaphor and depth? Or Twilight? Or True Blood? A series that is read by thousands if not millions, turned into a TV series or a film and watched by yet more? Personally, I think it’s the latter that will have the greatest effect on our culture.

I also don’t think that you can truly change culture without addressing the media. Ultimately, no matter how many laws we pass saying that misogyny, homophobia, racism, transphobia, ableism et al are Not OK, no matter how much we fight, no matter how many bigots we vanquish, if everyone goes back home to books and TV full of hate speech and stereotypes and tropes and marginalised servants and villains or – and most commonly – to fictional worlds where we don’t even exist – then how much can you change? “Hearts and Minds” are the key here – and it’s in the pages of books and the light of the TV screen where we will reach them.

Yet if you turn round and say you’re going to analyse the dusty book of pretention everyone will nod and smile. Say you’re going to analyse True Blood and we get “it’s only fantasy! Don’t take it so seriously!” It’s a genre that seems to actively resist and deny analysis even more than most.

Do I claim I’m doing some massive cultural changing thing? Gods no. I snark too much for that :P. But it matters, it does matter.

Also, of course, I need to say the inevitable – we have yet to read/watch a perfect book/TV programme. We have always found something to criticise. That’s not because we’re joyless curmudgeons who hate everything – it’s because our society is so well and truly messed up that it’s nearly impossible to produce something lacking in problematic issues in a society that has saturated us with them. I say again, criticism does not mean “I loathe this book and all it stands for!” it means there are problematic elements that could be – need to be – better. For our opinion on the book, check the fang rating (and if it’s 0.5 fangs? Yes, I did loathe that book and all it stands for!). I will say that we’ll never just say “I hate it.” There’ll always be a why – so even on a negative review you can be a recommend – since you can see “oh Sparky hated this book because he loathes X, Y and Z. I actually quite like them so this book is worth reading”.

So, yes, Fangs. I like it.

We have a new giveaway! Come, click, follow, find the details and get the shinies

And our weekly podcast is now up. As ever all of our podcasts are in our archives for much browsing.
Speaking of archives – all reviews can be found in our: Book Archive and Film/TV archive

Our Friday Discussions
Ableism in American Horror Story
Paranormal Romance: Engorged, throbbing and fainting. Oh my!
Cover Snark: Who needs clothes to be Badass?

Books
Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustianis, Book 1 of the Quincey Morris series4 Fangs
Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine book 5 of the Morganville Vampire Series 2.5 Fangs
Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent, Book 1 of the Unbound Series 2.5 Fangs
Drink Deep by Chloe Neill, Book 5 of the Chicagoland Vampires Series 3.5 Fangs
Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 2 of the Dark Hunter Series 1.5 fangs
At Grave’s End by Jeaniene Frost, Book 3 in the Night Huntress Series 4 Fangs
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn, Book 2 of the Kitty Norville Series 3.5 Fangs
Shadow Chase by Seressia Glass, Book 2 of the Shadow Chaser series 4 Fangs

TV
The Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 5: Chupacabra
The Secret Circle: Season 1, Episode9: Balcoin 2.5 Fangs
Vampire Diaries, Season 3, Episode 9: Homecoming 4 Fangs
Grim: Season 1, Episode 4: Lonelyhearts
American Horror story : Season 1, Episode 7: Open House
Once Upon a Time: Season 1, Episode 4: The Price of Gold 4 Fangs
Lost Girl: Season 2, Episode 8: Death Didn’t Become Him 3 Fangs
The Fades: Season 1, Episode 3 4 Fangs
The Fades: Season 1, Episode 2 3.5 Fangs
The Fades: Season 1, Episode 1 4 Fangs
Twilight: Eclipse 2 Fangs

Our give away: Blood Work by Kim Harrison – one of our favourite authors – . Follow the instructions and remember to leave your contact details! Keep an eye on our Give away section to keep abreast of our latest give aways

Our weekly podcast is here. Our full archives can be found here.

Our Friday Discussion: The Race Problem on The Walking Dead
It is hardly surprising that the AMC series The Walking Dead is so incredibly popular given that comic series itself is popular. Going into this series the one thing this show had going for it was an absolutely solid fan base. Part of the problem with developing a television show from an already popular text is that you are given two choices, stick to the script with limited changes a la Harry Potter style, or slightly alter the script adding new elements, while enlarging, or eliminating characters altogether, which is the path chosen by Alan Ball on his work on True Blood. The Walking Dead has chosen to go with the latter which raises the question about whether or not the changes have been positive or negative.

One of the most glaring issues with race we see is the contrast between the original comics and the show. In the comics there were several characters of colour who were active members of the group and in fact, at times, were put into leadership positions. The same cannot be said of the television show, however, and this is evidenced by the absence of Tyreese.

Read More

Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga
The Fangs for the Fantasy crew are all large fans of the graphic novels and AMC show The Walking Dead. We were thrilled when we learned about The Rise of the Governor and raced to read it. I must say from the very beginning that the novel did not disappoint though the fact that it was written in the first person did at times grate on the nerves.

We all know that when Rick, Michonne and Glenn arrive at Woodbury, after following the trail of a crashed helicopter and its survivors, the governor is very much in charge of the town. The governor is easily the most evil character in the series today. He tortures and rapes Michonne as well as takes the prison away from Rick's crew of survivors in vengeance. The question The Rise of the Governor seeks to answer is what could make a man lose touch with his humanity this way.

Read More 5 Fangs

Loved, by Morgan Rice, book 2 of the Vampire Journals
Caitlin and Caleb are on a quest to find a sword. The greatest sword in the vampire's arsenal, a sword that could end the war between the vampire races, a war that could ensure victory.

And victory is essential. The evil Dark Tide Coven is pursuing its war against the good vampires – and against humanity. They are ready to march and have already placed vast containers of modified plague underneath New York to wipe out humanity.

Of course, Cailtin an Caleb are not the only ones after the sword – another vampire, Samantha, has manipulated Caitlin's brother Sam to get her own claws on the blade – and Kyle, one of the oldest and most evil of the acktide Coven, also hunts the sword to get back into his masters good graces.

Read More 1.5 Fangs

Review of Evil Ways by Justin Gustainis Book 2 of Quincey Morris, Supernatural Investigation
Okay, I messed up and read the second book in this series which is Evil Ways first. That being said, I didn't find the story hard to follow at all. I loved every single minute I spent reading this book, and I cannot wait to go back and read the first book in this series.

The characters are rich and varied. I must report that we do have absolute erasure of GLBT, and disabled characters though. While the erasure is frustrating, it really has become par for the course as far as urban fantasy is involved. Gustainis did include a man of colour and I am happy to report that he is no side character and plays meaningful role in the plot. This is a rarity, because in most urban fantasy, people of colour are often reduced to side kicks whose sole role is to service the White protagonists.

Walpurgis Night is fast approaching and with it, the very high possibility that Satan will be unleashed upon the world at the behest of a very rich man who seeks to have his life extended. In preparation, someone is killing all of the white witches. Though the witches have all taken a vow to do no harm, that does not that they are completely defenceless. As you may have guessed, all the witches are women.

Read More 5 Fangs

Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn, book 1 of the Kitty Norville series
Kitty is a werewolf. Though she has worked hard to keep it hidden from her friends and family – and certainly from her work colleagues at the radio station she late night DJs for.

At least she did, until one show got out of hand and suddenly she is talking the supernatural all the time. Her ratings spike and she grows ever more popular reaching out to people who want to talk about the supernatural – as well as a huge number of vampires and werewolves who want someone to talk to, to advise them and who understands them

Now as an ever growing and ever more famous personality who is openly supernatural she faces a world that is rapidly changing as the supernatural is revealed and acknowledged. Further she faces her pack – and the local Vampire Family – who are less than pleased with her independence and her public revelations.

Read More 1.5 Fangs

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia, book 1 of Monster Hunter Nation
Owen had an odd childhood. His father, convinced of various end of the world scenarios, brought him up to be a solver, a warrior and a fighter through and through. Owen had other plans. He wanted to be normal, to distance himself from all that – so he became an accountant. As normal as it was possible to be

And the plan worked. Until his boss turned into a werewolf and tried to eat him.

In the aftermath he was recruited by Monster Hunters Inc. A private company of dedicated hunters who go into the dark and blow it up. Then shoot it until it stops moving. Then shoot it some more. Then cut up the remains and burn them to ash. And they get to play with the best toys.

Read More 3.5 Fangs

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher, book 13 of the Dresden Files
This was a heavy book with a plot that tied itself in knots - and my mind with it

Harry is dead. Shot with a high powered rifle, his body falling into Lake Michigan. Dead and gone – and his friends have had to spend the last 6 months without him, grieving and dealing with the world.

And the world is not a happy place. The Red Court is dead, one of the most powerful forces in the supernatural world. The power vacuum begs to be filled and dark powers from across the world are rushing in to fill the void, to raise themselves up to be the next great power. In particular, the fomori are staging a massive come back, hitting talents across the US. And for Chicago, dark times are darker by the lack of Harry Dresden. As a Warden of the White Council, and as a wizard who had faced down some of the greatest and darkest powers of the world, his mere presence made sure Chicago was safe. Now he's dead – and the dark things are coming out to play.

Read More 4 Fangs

The Vampire Diaries: Season 3, Episode 8: Ordinary People
This episode was all about the original vampires, and may I say that it's about time that they started building this plot and letting us know who the big bad is on this show. It all begins when Alaric and Damon show Elena some carvings on the old Lockwood property carved by Rebekah. Apparently, the carvings have been there longer than Mystic Falls has been a town. Apparently, the original family are Vikings who settled in North America for a better life. Can we all agree that a Viking settlement in the middle of Georgia in the 980's, which btw is when the Vikings travelled to North America is ridiculous? I guess we are supposed to ignore the ridiculousness of this, the same way that we were expected to ignore the way that Katherine supposedly travelled across Eastern Europe to end up in the U.K. last season. The fact that they were all speaking English as well, I suppose is just another one of those happy occurrences.

Read More 3.5 Fangs

Lost Girl Season Two, Episode Seven: Fae Gone Wild
This is the first episode in quite some time that Bo has not needed to be saved by Kenzie or Dyson. I wish I could say that this made her less irritating this episode but alas that was not the case. Bo is hired by to find a stripper named Sherri. What she does not know is that Hale and Dyson are also looking for her because they believe her to be responsible for murder.

When they walk into a murder scene they run into Bo and she lies to them about her true intentions before slipping out saying that she does not want to ruin their crime scene. Hale and Dyson are both aware that she is lying but let her get away with it anyway. Aren't they the nicest cops evah? When they both show up at the strip bar looking for Sherri, they find Bo working there as a bartender

Read More 3.5 Fangs

The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 4: Cherokee Rose
Carl wakes up and asks if Sophia is okay, and the crew arrive from the highway. During Otis' funeral they ask Shane to speak for Otis and he says, "I'm not good at that," but his widow begs him to speak saying, "please I need to know that his death had meaning." He lies and says that Otis volunteered to take the rear and cover him. Clearly, the guilt is getting to him and really it should. What he did was despicable no matter how he tries to justify it to himself.

The crew gathers around the vehicle with Herschel to set up a plan to search for Sophia but Hershel tells them that Rick has given too much blood and that Shane's ankle isn't ready for that kind of pressure yet. Hershel tells them that he does not want them to carry guns on his property and Rick promises to respect his wishes, which does not make Shane happy. Shane asks what happens if we find her if she is bit and Rick responds, "you do what has to be done". Then Shane goes ahead and announces that Dale is going to keep watch, of course ignoring what Herschel just said he does not want guns on the property. Rick turns and smoothes it over by saying that "people would feel more comfortable with this situation". Where does Shane even have the gall to attempt to take a leadership position after what he just did?

Read More 4 Fangs

Grimm, Season 1, Episode 2: Bears will be Bears
A blonde and her boyfriend go and break into the Bear's house. Sadly, she doesn't get chewed on. A couple looking for kicks bite off more than they can chew – or have more bitten off.

I actually really like this new twist on urban fantasy. We're not looking at werewolves and vampires, we're looking at the old stories – the Big Bad Wolf and the 3 bears. And there's always the keys to these stories in them – the red coat for the Big Bad Wolf, the blonde hair for the 3 bears. It makes me want to hunt for more parallels

The break in is reported – but the boyfriend is still missing and, of course, Nick's Grim Vision sees the fuzziness of the couple's son.

Read More 4 Fangs

The Secret Circle, Season 1, Episode 8: Beneath
Full Scooby meeting! Well no. full Scooby meeting except... Melissa. Uh-huh, apparently her mother has been worried about her so took her out of town for a while. Ye gods, they're not even giving her screen time any more! But we do have Jake – who will now be known as Evil Scooby.

Mean Girl Faye decides to blame the kidnapping, demons et al on Cassie for... well, no apparent reason. Because she's Mean Girl What, we need reasons now? This becomes a recurring theme in the episode with Faye blaming Cassie because Jake likes her. Anyway, after lots of constant snapping and yipping, the Scoobies decide to go looking for Cassie's grandmother (who is missing after going to check on Faye's grandfather who was killed by Evil!Parent 1, Dawn, Faye's mother waaay back in episode 2)

Read More 1.5 Fangs

American Horror Story, Season one, Episode Five: Halloween Part 2
For the majority of this episode, it felt like the writers were channeling, the 1987 flick, Fatal Attraction. This episode was largely about Ben's chickens coming home to roost. When he gets home from the hospital with Vivien, Hayden shows up and he promptly slams the door in her face. I suppose one cannot have the little woman finding out about all the ways in which he has been naughty. When he runs into Terry later on the property while searching for Hayden, he accuses him of being a conspirator to Hayden's plans to which Terry laughs and responds with, "you don't even know what question to ask." Even though the Harmons have been haunted since their first day in the house they are not really aware of this fact. All they know is that their lives are falling apart and feel powerless to bring about and end to all of the pain.

Read More 3.5 Fangs

Bedlam
Our weekly catch up this week has been Bedlam – as usual we've reviewed several past episodes

Season 1, Episode 6: Burning Man 3.5 Fangs
Season 1, Episode 5: Committed 2.5 Fangs
Season 1, Episode 4: Hide and Seek 2.5 Fangs

Yes, a new month, a new giveaway (a list of all our shiny giveaways can be found here. Much more fun is a list of all Our book reviews and all of our TV reviews and our Podcasts

This month's giveaway is for Blood Work – a Hollows Graphic novel. As is well known I fandpoodle Kim Harrison muchly as one of my favourite authors and her Hollows as one of my favourite Urban Fantasy worlds

Click here to follow the instructions to enter. Please follow them carefully, in particular if you decide to go the Facebook route, please FOLLOW not “like” please please please. If you have trouble just use the Networked blogs widget, you can't go wrong

Remember that our weekly podcast is TONIGHT this week rather than it's usual Monday slot. We start at 10:00pm GMT and... Other Times elsewhere.

Our weekly podcast is here. Our full archives can be found here.

Our Next podcast will be on Tuesday 1st November at the usual time

Interview with Clay & Susan Griffith, authors of the Vampire Empire Series

This week, we're lucky to have a written interview with Clay and Susan Griffith, authors of the Vampire Empire series, The Greyfriar and The Rift Walker. Both books we enjoyed immensely and we're happy to fanpoodle shamelessly.

While we wait eagerly for the third instalment in this series we have these 10 questions and their detailed answers to whet our appetites

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Mixed Raced Characters in Urban Fantasy don't Necessarily Constitute Inclusion

One of the recurring tropes we’ve found in Urban Fantasy is the use of token inclusion for people of colour. Unfortunately for many authors, the addition of one person of color in an all White cast, even in cities in which the population demographics would suggest a larger representation is necessary, qualifies for a claim of equal representation. This is beyond irritating in and of itself. But there’s a related trope that doesn’t even go so far as that to use the oft normalized tokens - mixed race protagonists. One of the major issues is that even though these people are technically bi-racial, they are often so light skinned that they exist with passing privilege, thereby never having to negotiate the racism faced by everyday people of colour. Urban fantasy gives new meaning to the phrase light bright and damn near White.

In and of themselves, mixed race protagonists are by any means a bad thing - not by any stretch. We’d welcome, hail and do happy dances about more mixed-race protagonists, or more protagonists of colour in general, if it constituted good equal representation but alas that is not the case. It would be good to see if these mixed raced people read like mixed raced people, instead of White people with a touch of exotic thrown in for extra flavour.

Read More

Traumatised Youth in Urban Fantasy

What shocked us most about this trope, as we went through our Book Review Master list, was how common this trope was. Literally, we went down our master list and struggled to find series where this trope didn’t apply. No, seriously - nearly every last series we’ve read included this trope. It has become less of a trope and more of a requirement in the genre.

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The Vampire Diaries Season Three, Episode Seven: Ghost World

Once again, Mystic Falls had another founders celebration. This week they were celebrating Illumination Night. Apparently, they lit lanterns to tell the town that it was safe to come out at night again, after they had entombed all of the vampires. I am really sick and tired of the weekly celebrations of the former slave owners. Of course, The Vampire Diaries creators don't see it that way, but this is the truth of the matter.

It seems that when Bonnie sent Vicky back to the other side she opened up a door that allowed all of the ghosts that had unfinished business to walk the town. Because Elena was thinking of Lexy, Stefan's friend he came back and because the tomb vampires had unfinished business with the founders they came back with the aim of killing the descendants. Mason came back to find a weapon to kill Klaus in order to save Tyler.

Read More 3 Fangs

Secret Circle: Season 1, Episode 6: Wake

And within 5 minutes of the Secret Circle starting we learn that Nick had an older brother called Jake. See, see? I totally called it. No way were we going to go down to 5 witches. Someone call the advertising people and replace Nick with Jake (or, y'know, we could give Melissa some space... nahhhhh) and yes, the Circle is bound by bloodline! So Jake is a member of it as Nick's brother – replacement Nick!

And Jake is troubled... very troubled – and a thief and selfish and and and he jaywalks! EVIL, evil I say! And he used to date Faye (Mean Girl) and treat her terribly and he stole from Adam and Adam now haaaates him. And he's baaaaad. And they don't want him in the circle, no no no! Bad Jake! No cookie.

Read More 2 Fangs

The Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 2: Bloodletting
The episode begins with Lori talking about her marital problems with Rick. Right after that she admits that she loves him Shane -- who is not dead -- pulls up and tells her that Rick has been shot. Even then you can see Shane looking at them with a weird sort of desire.

The seen flashes back to Rick running with Carl after he has been shot. We learn that Otis shot a buck and it went straight through to Carl. Lori stops to look behind her when she hears the gunshot. It worries her that Rick and Shane have not caught up. Darryl keeps them moving by telling them to stop worrying about Sophia and that she will be just fine, and that Shane and Lori are probably on the way. What I don't like about this is that they have set Darryl up to lead in the absence of Rick and Shane. Why couldn't Andrea take the lead considering that she is such a strong character in the comics. Oh I get, Darryl a character made up for the show is a nature guy and therefore the natural leader.

Read More 3.5 Fangs

American Horror Story
While it may stretch the definition of Urban Fantasy a tad, we've had many requests to review this series – and we were curious anyway – so we have decided to do so :)

American Horror Story: Season 1, Episode 4: Hallowe'en Part 1 4 Fangs
American Horror Story: Season 1, Episode 3: Murder House 4 Fangs
American Horror Story: Season 1, Episode 2: Home Invasion 4 Fangs
American Horror Story: Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot 4 Fangs

Bedlam
So we return again to ghost central! And within 5 minutes of the episode starting I am given my reason for watching this programme – Theo James in a towel. What? I need something to encourage me to keep watching. Alas, Kate wants him to put some clothes on to do some handyman work... hmm... maybe a toolbelt.

Anyway, I digress. Molly's friend Zoe is still missing and Molly is going on blind dates, Kate is still sleep walking and hallucinating and being a not-very-pleasant person and Ryan's upset about his brother's killer coming up for parole. I dunno, not doing much but this episode follows the much distracted Leah (I don't blame it the 4 main characters of this programme don't exactly lead fascinating lives), another resident of Bedlam heights and Molly's new friend – who keeps seeing spooky tire tracks, ghosts in her car and spectral car trouble. Her car keeps breaking down but she daren't take it to a garage because it belongs to an abusive ex who has probably reported it stolen – if it goes into a garage, he can probably find Leah.

Read More 2.5 Fangs

Once Upon a Time
Okay, I know that this is a bit of a stretch but fairy tales are fantasy after all. Sunday night was the ABC premier of Once Upon A Time staring, Ginnifer Godwin, Jennifer Morrison, and Robert Carlyle. The story is based on the idea that fairy tale creatures are now living in the modern world but are unaware that they are fairy tale characters thanks to a spell by the wicked witch.

The story begins with Snow White and the handsome Prince Charming. As we all know, Snow White was presumed dead and the seven dwarfs were mourning her when Prince Charming rode in and saved the say by giving her a true love's kiss. At their wedding, the evil queen shows up to make them a promise, "everything you love will be taken from you forever. Out of your suffering will rise my victory. I shall destroy you happiness if it's the last thing that I do".

Read More 3 Fangs

Lover Enshrined, by JR Ward, Book 6 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood
The plot for this book is actually surprisingly involved for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. While we do have a relationship between His Whineyness Phury and Cormia front and centre but it's relatively easy to ignore and you can see the true action beneath.

The Omega has decided to combat the Dhestroyer prophecy with both a new fore-lesser and to tap his son – the son of a powerful vampire aristocrat. Bringing him back into the fold not only brings a powerful warrior with terrifying abilities but also bringing with him powerful intelligence that allows the lessers to hit a lot of extremely high profile targets which in turn leads to the looming shadow of politics in the glymeria

Read More 3.5 Fangs

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews, Book 5 of the Kate Daniels Series
Kate Daniels is back in action in post shift Atlanta. After killing her aunt in Magic Bleeds her secret is rapidly becoming unfrayed as more and more people notice her powerful magic and powerful blood – and more and more people know exactly who she is and who her father is.

Kate now runs her own agency, joined by Andrea whose attempts to make the Order accept her humanity failed in the face of their prejudice. And the Red Guard has come to her with a job – they were guarding a weapon. A weapon of incredible power. And it has gone missing, along with its inventor. Under the cloak of necessary secrecy and discretion, the Guard need Kate to find the weapon and the inventor, preferably before its power is unleashed

Read More 5 Fangs

Spider's Revenge by Jennifer Estep, Book 5 of the Elemental Assassin's Series
The plot was simple yet epic. It wasn't complicated with nuances and twists and there's not a lot to summarise of it without going outright into spoilers. Gin has reached the final showdown. Her or Mab. Mab has been targetting her sister too often and while Gin can hide her identity and be the ghost biting at Mab's flanks, Bria cannot. And the longer this fight continues, the longer Gin keeps to the shadows and plays the long game against Mab, the more and more danger Bria is in.

Especially now. Mab has put her vast resources on the table and sent out a call to every bounty hunter in the country. The Spider – dead or alive. Or Bria, Gin's baby sister, alive only. Except, with some of these bounty hunters, “alive” covers a great deal – and Mab herself certainly never hesitates at torture.

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Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine, Book 4 of the Morganville Vampire Series
In the last book we were left with a cliffhanger. The Bishop, Amelie's father has come to town – and so has Claire's parents. The Bishop is dangerous, threatening and powerful...

And we open the book basically in the same situation. Big threatening bad guy and Claire's parents hanging round. And then we enter a holding pattern. I said the same thing about Midnight Alley and, sadly, I have to say it again, there's very little plot to review.

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Tangled Threads by Jennifer Estep, Book 4 of the Elemental Assassin's Series

Gin's war against Mab is now declared and Mab is feeling the Spider's bite. First killing her lieutenant, Elliot Slater in Venom she has now started hitting Mab's operations around the cities. Her minions and dealers are all under threat, smoothly assassinated and the Spider rune left by their corpses.

Mab can't tolerate this any more and calls in LaFleur, her own assassin. An expert assassin of the Spider's calibre and an Electricity Elemental. She's in town to run Mab's operations – and take out the Spider. As a bonus prize, she's also to take out Bria, Gin's sister, to finally remove that thorn out of Mab's side as well. To complicate things, Mab has not missed Gin's friendship with Roslyn and is looking to spy on her and undermine her as much as possible

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John Carpenter's Vampires
This movie could easily go down as one of the worst films, I have ever had the misfortune to see. For the purposes of full disclosure, I am going to admit right off the hop that James Woods is one of my least favorite actors of all time. From the beginning, I could see why he was attracted to this role. He got to play an ass kicking vampire slayer with a gun and a cross bow.

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Our give away – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, volume 1. Follow the instructions and remember to leave your contact details! Keep an eye on our Give away section to keep abreast of our latest give aways

Our weekly podcast is here. Our full archives can be found here.

Vampires and Impossible, Timeless Beauty standards
When vampires first entered folklore they were physically described to look like bloated leeches. When you think about this, it makes perfect sense because their entire diet is based on drinking the blood of others and the creature most associated with that in nature is of course a leech. Overtime, vampire folklore began to change. The modern vampire looks nothing like its predecessor. Today, vampires all have hard lean bodies, twinkling eyes (that is when they are not glowering and trying to look dangerous) ridiculous hair (think R. Pratz in Twilight) and are disarmingly gorgeous. This is true of both male and female vampires. With few exceptions, like vampire Eddie in True Blood and Tony, in Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer series, no matter how long they have been alive they are gorgeous. And those vampires that aren’t thin are clearly not intended to be beautiful.

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Vampire Diaries: Season 3, Episode 5: The Reckoning
The writers really should have titled this episode, "It's All About Elena Again." It galls me that this irritating character is the centre of this show. At any rate, for the first time this season, the kids all show up at school. Nope, they didn't actually attend a class -- school after all is only about having a centre for some sort of event. The kids are there to prank the school as part of a high school senior tradition. This involved gluing toilet seat lids and leaving mouse traps all over the school gym. Matt is the only one not into this, and all he think about is his dear departed sister. I think that this just smacks of attempting to make Matt's character relevant.

After much ridiculous high school pranks, Klaus shows up and sure enough silly Elena tries to run away. Hello, if you cannot outrun a vampire, you cannot possibly outrun a hybrid. Klaus is absolutely determined to find out why he does not have the ability to make more hybrids.

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Secret Circle: Season 1, Episode 5: Slither
Cassie's grandmother starts asking suspicious questions of Cassie, suggesting she's finally got a clue But Chief Scooby Diana tells Cassie that Parent Circle had its powers stripped by Grandparent Circle as punishment for the whole burning people to death thing, so it's best to keep it all a secret (yeah I know there's some logic missing there)

Speaking of the Parent Circle, Dawn and Charles (Diana, and Faye's parents), the Bad Guys, are calling on the Blood Moon to find 5 other crystals linked to the one they have, with the help of the bound circle, to get their powers back, it fails though, the crystal is out of batteries.

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The Walking Dead
With the return of the Walking Dead season 2 we are doing a recap of every episode of the first season:

Season 2, Episode 1: What Lies Ahead 5 Fangs

Season 1, Episode 6: TS 19 4 Fangs
Season 1, Episode 5: Wildfire 3.5 Fangs
Season 1, Episode 4: Vatos 3.5 Fangs
Season 1, Episode 3: Tell it to the Frogs 4 Fangs
Season 1, Episode 2: Guts 4 Fangs

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews, Book 4 of the Kate Daniels Series
We have another new epic here. Oh yes we do. There's a new evil in town, a powerful ancient evil that spreads plague and destruction and death – that can make warriors run in terror, that can fight the greatest fighters in the city with ease and leaves a trail of magically sentient plague behind. Not even the best experts in the city knows who this threat is, not Saiman, not the People, not the Order – and it's already moved through several cities leaving a swath of destruction and death. And if that weren't enough – for Kate, this may be a family matter.

With a new epic bad guy in town Kate has to literally save Atlanta – and the pack. But she's also coming to more and more attention of the servants of Roland – the ancient and enormously powerful leader of the People of the Dead seeking to re-establish a new empire. He's looking for her and with every battle it becomes harder for her to hide.

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One Foot in the Grave, by Jeaniene Frost. Book 2 of the Night Huntress Series
Cat is back. Now at the head of her own government established force to police and hunt down vampires. 4 years have passed since the last book and she's grown to a powerful, confident leader and a lethal warrior.

But 4 years have also passed without Bones who she can't stop thinking about. As is almost inevitable, he finds her. But he's not the only blast from the past that shows up on her doorstep – her old boyfriend is leaking information about her too assassins and her father, the vampire who raped her mother, has finally raised his head on the scene and it doesn't look like a happy reunion

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‘Soulless’ by Gail Carriger, Book one of the Parasol Protectorate series.
Miss Tarabotti is a proper Victorian lady. The daughter of upper class, proper British society with all the refinement, expectations and proprieties that entails.

She’s also a spinster at the grand old age of 25, cursed by her Italian father to be too dark, have too bold a nose and far too bold a tongue to ever fit in proper, elegant, high society. Miss Tarabotti is also Soulless. Soullessness is a trait that she inherited from her Italian father and like everything derived from him is considered without doubt to be a negative.

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Jabril by D. B Reynolds
Having read Raphael, I went into Jabril with extremely low expectations. I must admit that I was mildly surprised with Jabril; however, Cyn, the protagonist, once again found herself mixed up in vampire intrigue, but this time it was at the behest of the master vampire Jabril. Cyn was initially hired to search for a missing girl, not because Jabril believed in her prowess as an investigator, but to irritate his rival Raphael.

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Venom by Jennifer Estep, Book 3 of the Elemental Assassin's series
Gin's retirement doesn't seem to be sticking. This time Roslyn comes to her with nowhere else to turn, the vampire is being stalked by one of Mab's minions. The giant Elliot Slater. Her chief enforcer, he is a dangerous opponent with all the power of Mab behind him, the most powerful figure in the Ashland crime world. The authorities can't help her, justice and safety can only come from the Spider's knives.

And there's a new cop in town – honest, true, trying to do as much good as she can in a system that is corrupt and compromised to the hilt. Detective Bria Coolridge – Gin's long lost sister. Gin has to decide what to tell her sister, how to help her, how to protect her from Mab and her minions – while at the same time risking her profession as an assassin driving her away just as it drove away Caine.

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Lover Revealed, by JR Ward, Book 4 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood
Our latest adventure with the Black Dagger Dudebros follows Butch, the human ex-policeman who lives with the Brotherhood and his long distant love affair with Marissa, King Wrath's ex-shellan who he first met in Dark Lover

After months with no contact during which they mistakenly think they both hated each other, Butch is forced to share a long quarantine with Marissa after a painful encounter with the lessers and the Omega himself. They rekindle their old love, but Butch is permanently infected by the darkness of the Omega and fears endangering her and the Brotherhood.

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Side Jobs by Jim Butcher, Short Story collection from the Dresden Files
I approached Side Jobs with a degree of caution and a firm determination not to let my own biases sway me. See, I don't like short stories. I don't. I don't even like stand alone novels all that much. I like great big epic series with huge great meta plots and development and drama and on the edge of your seat excitement.

And while all those are possible within the confines of a short story, they're usually not there. I was especially leery of reading a Harry Dresden short story simply because the best thing about these books is the epic within. I don't think I've read an author that can match Butcher for the epic – but nor do I think you can build up to good epic in a short story.

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Touch the Dark by Karen Chance of the Cassandra Palmer series
Though Karen Chance is quite prolific, I had not heard about her until I came across a post on Tumblr raving about her Cassandra Palmer series. I can't say what exactly spurred me to read one of her books, but I didn't go into it with great expectations, and so I suppose that there was nothing to let down by.

Touch the Dark, is the first book in the Cassandra Palmer series. Cassandra is a time travelling, clairvoyant, and as you might imagine, time travel lends itself to various timelines. When a writer chooses to go down this road, the plot must be clear and easy to follow. At times I had to go back and re read because I lost the thread of the story entirely. To give you an idea of the potential to be confused, take a look at the time line created by Chance, to help the reader follow her story.

Read More 3.5 Fangs

Our give away –Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the Walking Dead Graphic Novels!. Follow the instructions and remember to leave your contact details! Keep an eye on our Give away section to keep abreast of our latest give aways

Our weekly podcast is here. Our full archives can be found here.

Abuse as True Love in Paranormal Romance

We discuss the various common and destructive tropes in Paranormal Romance

There are a lot of tropes in paranormal romance that consistently raise their ugly heads - many of which we explain in our Lexicon

Many of these destructive tropes are often “justified” by being “explained by the woo-woo”. In other words, the fact that it is magic or some kind of preternatural creature doing these things makes it okay, not problematic or otherwise acceptable. So a possessive or stalking boyfriend is explained by being a werewolf or a vampire - therefore territorial. This has the additional problematic element of justifying or excusing the problematic behaviour - very reminiscent of the old excuse of “he can’t help it” and “it’s just his way.” or it’s the nature of whatever supernatural being that the author is discussing. Just as “I could smell your desire” sounds very much like “you want it really.”

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Vampire Diaries: Season 3, Episode 4: Disturbing Behaviour

I really liked this episode, faults and all. It's been awhile since I could honestly say that about an episode of The Vampire Diaries. After spending an entire summer chasing Stefan, Elena finally decided that it was time to move on with her life. Of course she didn't make the decision because she realized that is a cold blooded killer but because she finally believed him when he said that their relationship was over. Her next project it seems is to remake Damon in Stefan's image. It was clear as they were making chili for the founders day gathering that the chemistry between them was strong. I think it's worth pointing out that none of these so-called kids have attended school yet; however, they all found time to show up and once again worship the founders.

Liz took Damon to see Caroline's father Bill Forbes. Damon wants to kill him but Liz tells him that he cannot, because Bill is Caroline's father. After testing to ensure that Bill is indeed vervain free, Damon compels him to believe that he came to Mystic Falls, to take Caroline back to school shopping, which btw cracked me up cause they don't attend school, and then to leave town.

Read More 3.5 Fangs

Lost Girl: Season Two, Episode Five: Brotherfae of the Wolves

Dyson has been visited by an old friend and packmate – Kaden. Y'know, I saw this and instantly thought “evil evil! he's so evil”. Because when you get an old blast from the past they're always dodgy and evil. It is known.

In the past Dyson and Kaden were mercenary warriors for the king Aelic – and were feared and lethal warriors. Dyson severed his ties with the king long ago, but now the king is dead after centuries of being involved in warfare and running his own extremely wealthy mercenary company.

We see a lot of flashbacks in this episode to Dyson's time as a warrior, including the last time he dealt with a norn and refused to give his wolf to save a friend's life. His friend ends up being betrayed by the king so the king could make his wife, Kiara, his queen which is why Dyson left the band.

Read More 2.5 Fangs

Secret Circle: Season 1, Episode 4: Heather

Well we open to see that Melissa (Doormat) and Nick (Hot Guy) seem to be having a much healthier relationship. I bet it can't last – more angst is needed. Meanwhile, Cassie is looking up Heather Barnes (her mother's old school friend) after Zachary mentioned she wasn't dead and that Cassie's mother did far worse than that to her. Cassie is looking her up because... because... actually I don't have a clue, maybe she's chronically bored or needs to top up her angst levels or something. Anyway she's googling. She does her best to find her, but her cyberstalking skills are sadly lacking as she tries to trace where she lives, what family she has and their contact details (she turns up a brother). Not perturbed, she goes to school and enlists the aid of Diana (Chief Scooby) to go on a happy stalking field trip! Yay!

Read More 2.5 Fangs

The Walking Dead: Days Gone By

With the return of the Walking Dead season 2 we are doing a recap of every episode of the first season:

The opening scene of this pilot is one of the best I've seen. We see the protag in an obvious disaster zone, surrounded by wreckage and scraps of people's lives – including children's toys. He is carrying a petrol can, looking for a resource most of us today take for granted. It is eerily silent except for the buzzing of insects clinging to the corpses of the dead. And then we see the Walker – a child, a little girl (evocative of all what we're supposed to protect) even carrying a teddy bear. And he shoots her.

A perfect introduction to the world of the Walking Dead..

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The Dead Girl's Dance by Rachel Caine, Book 2 of the Morganville Vampire Series

At the end of the last book, Glass House, Shane called in his father in a desperate attempt to save them from the wrath of Morganville's vampires. Of course, they managed to escape that wrath by earning the support and protection of Analee, the Founder of Morganville who had enough clout to keep them safe.

The problem is, Shane's father and his vampire slaying biker gang still arrived. And they're still looking for blood and they don't intend to leave without slaughtering as many vampires as possible, preferably all of them. In fact, it seems this was Shane's reason to return to Morganville anyway – to gather as much intelligence as possible in the eventual attack.

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Lover Awakened, by JR Ward, Book 3 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood

And we have another adventure of the Black Dagger Dudebros in their continued quest to have lots of bar fights, have lots of sex and occasionally killing a lesser if one waves at them. Oh wait, I mean nobly and valourously defending the vampire species from the depredations of the soulless Lessers of the Lessening Society

This time it's Zsadist's turn to find his one true love. After escaping the clutch of the Lessers, Bella seeks refuge with the Brotherhood, especially with Zsadist who she feels safe with and feels compelled to seek his presence.

Zsadist must face these entirely new feelings he has. After years of abuse as a blood and sex slave, he must learn that a woman's touch does not bring pain – and find something within him that isn't hard and cruel and tortured. Bella restores his hope, hope that both he and his twin Phury had forgotten long ago.

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Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge, Book 1 of the Black London series

When Pete Caldecot was 16 she saw something magical. With her sister's boyfriend, Jack Winter, they conjured something, a man of shadows and smoke, a creature Jack couldn't stop or hold within his circle. And Pete saw it kill him.

She's 28 now and a police inspector with the MET – and investigating a string of child abductions. The children go missing and the return, damaged and blinded, their energies drained. And there to help her is Jack, back from the dead, but driven to the edge by drug addiction and the pressures of his magic.

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Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey: Book 2 of the Sandman Slim Novels

Kill the Dead is the second book in the Sandman Slim novels. You can find the review for the first book, Sandman Slim here. As with the first book, Kill the Dead involves Angels and Demons but this time the threat the walking dead, otherwise known as various types of zombies. The problem however is that the reader is not really made aware the the zombies are indeed the "big bad" in this book until Stark suddenly had to deal with them.

Unlike Sandman Slim, Kill the dead, is really quite disorganized. The plot just seems to float around while Stark has interactions with various supernatural beings. Elements are introduced that really go nowhere and at times the story is really hard to follow. The cast of characters is actually very large, making it difficult to remember the significance of each person.

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Fallen by Lauren Kate. Book 1 of the Fallen series

Lucinda Price is a troubled teenager. In her last boarding school there was a fire and the boy she liked died – in very mysterious circumstances. Circumstances for which she was blamed, the shadow of which has hung over her since. Almost as literally as the shadows that follow her wherever she goes, shapes only she can see and hear.

Her past has lead her to Swords and reformatory school where she has to navigate a new place, a new system and friends who aren't what they seem. Right until the moment she finds herself ground zero in a heavenly war and at the heart of a tragic love story that has been repeated every 17 years for centuries on end

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Review: Out by Laura Preble

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GBLT characters in The Parasol Protectorate Series

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