Getting Back into Reading by Being a Critic
so i bought a book with rock bottom expectations.
not because i wanted to torture myself, but because i want to read a book from a genre that many people seem to look down on and try and judge it on it's own merits. like, i know it's easy to clown on some of these books, but if we are going to call a book bad, i expect at least a few reasons why it's bad. and it can't just be the mere presence of dark elements in the setting. although i can admit many of the reviews i have seen the dark elements do tend to be a bit romanticized. that might seem like a contradictory statement, but nuance is like that. i have complicated feelings on the matter, but i do think there are more or less ethical ways of doing things
the main separator of problematic depictions of dark subject matter versus a good depiction of those aspects seems to be these:
- is the author willing to admit that said dark element can be read as "problematic" in some way shape or form?
- are they doing research on the topic they are writing about?
- do they note that their works are fantasy if they are depicting dark subjects in ways that may be seen as "romanticizing the subject"?
while i do think it's sad authors get attacked online for the things they write, i do think following the above guidelines keep most authors safe from all but the most dedicated of haters. although i don't check the author bashing circles, so i do not know if this is truly a foolproof way of author safety. all i know is that authors that don't follow these (take e.l. james and the fifty shades trilogy as an example) tend to become notorious, ESPECIALLY if they double down and say that there are not any issues within their writing. most writers don't do that to my knowledge though.
anyways i have rambled on enough without mentioning the name of the book i will be reading! it is the book Mate by Ali Hazelwood, and i am pretty sure this book is a followup to her other book, Bride. i overlooked that fact somehow while picking it up at walmart. oops. i haven't decided on if i'll be annotating in the book yet, but i will be taking notes and trying to dissect this all media critic style. even though i am aggressively under qualified as a media critic.
i have a strong suspicion there might be some sexual aspects to this, if the term alpha werewolf is anything to go by. although i could be brainrotted by ao3. either way i have probably made a mistake or two along the way
i will probably be doing updates in my read through every couple of chapters, and then post a final thoughts. not committing though because i tend to be a noncommittal person.