#bookavid

* - ownvoices (as far as I know) 

Feel free to correct me on anything, ask me to remove a book that has bad representations or suggest other books I could add to the list, I’ll keep updating this.

High Fantasy 

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo* (ownvoices for the disability) Disability, POC, mlm

Huntress by Malinda Lo* POC MC

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco* POC MC

An Ember In The Ahes by Sabaa Tahir* POC MC

Mask Of Shadows by Linsey Miller Genderfluid MC

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova* POC MC

Pantomime by Laura Lam Intersex MC

Urban Fantasy

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor* (sort of urban fantasy? It’d described as “Nigerian Harry Potter”) POC MC

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jos Older* POC MC

Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland POC MC

Magical Realism

The Gallery of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz wlm MC

so, why is this important to me, a person who can throw a rock in a bookstore and hit a million titles that represent me? 

i don’t know the legitimate hurt feelings that come from growing up never seeing a character accurately share my experiences. at the same time, i never thought twice about the fan art and head canons where harry potter characters were not white. i thought it was absolutely lovely when jk rowling came out and said there was no reason hermione couldn’t be black, or when she said that dumbledore was gay. i was happy that other people were so happy that they could see themselves in such a great story and in such great characters.

BUT.

in my head, hermione is still white. why? it’s not because of emma watson or the fact that for many americans british automatically = white. it’s because when i grew up reading harry potter, white was my baseline. not for any malicious reason. only because that was my experience, and i lived in a super white place where i didn’t get exposure to diversity until i was old enough to start seeking it out. i had no reason when i was a kid to picture her otherwise.

this didn’t hurt me, per se, because i am white, i am the majority in YA lit, i didn’t explicitly need a black hermione or a gay dumbledore. but it did hurt me. it hurt my ability to think about the world in bigger ways, ways that i didn’t start learning about until i was a teenager. it limited me, which then limited my viewpoints.

enter The Raven Boys.

before i ever picked up those wonderfully weird books, i saw posts about it on tumblr. FAN ART EVERYWHERE. and in a lot of it, Blue is depicted as Black or Asian. when i finally read the books, i almost expected Blue to be characterized as a certain race because of all the fan art i’d seen. but just like hermione, blue is never explicitly characterized as a certain race.

so what happened? I read the books and automatically pictured Blue as a WOC. I pictured her family as WOC. this came naturally to me because i had been exposed to diverse viewpoints, and so i was able to read about these characters and these stories and picture them in more and real diverse ways.

THIS IS A GOOD THING.

And if this is such a no-brainer, good thing to me, a white girl who doesn’t need to fight to find representation of myself, THINK OF HOW GOOD DIVERSE REPRESENTATION IS FOR SOMEONE WHO NEEDS THAT REPRESENTATION, FOR SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T AUTOMATICALLY HAVE IT WHEN THEY PICK UP A YA LIT BOOK, FOR SOMEONE WHO EXPERIENCES MARGINALIZATION IN REAL LIFE SO THEY CERTAINLY DON’T NEED THAT MARGINALIZATION IN THE FICTIONAL WORLD. 

this is why real diversity in YA lit is important.

This whole entire issue, the issue of problematic books boils down to one thing: respect of others. Being respectful of others is not a debate. Jen has been a massive help to the bookish community. She has generously shared her time and energy with us, helping us be better allies. This includes gentle call outs on problematic books. Nowhere in any of her posts on here or on her blog has Jen ever said that we can’t enjoy problematic books. She’s even admitted that she’s read and loved some problematic books. We all have a problematic fave or two-that doesn’t make us bad people. BUT we must stop and think. Posting pictures of the book is free promotion for that book. It tells publishers it’s ok to continue publishing problematic and harmful books. It gives our followers the idea that it is a safe book to read. It’s your blog, but you still owe it to your followers and the people you stand with to acknowledge the issues with those books.  Too many people don’t tag their book photos or add a comment on how the book is problematic. If you can’t do that, it’s better to not post the picture at all. If you can commit to that, if you really can do that, then do it! It helps. But it’s not as powerful of a message to the publishers. It also sends a mixed message. Do you support the book or don’t you? 

We are not being forced to do this. If doing any of this makes you uncomfortable, that’s on you. When I first told Jen that I loved Nevernight she said“Yikes! That book is incredibly racist, here’s a link about it.” That’s a call out. I didn’t feel bad when I read her comment. I didn’t feel attacked, because I wasn’t. Nowhere did she say that I was a bad person or needed to stop enjoying the book. She simply asked me to investigate.

That is the difference between a call out and bullying/harassment. After investigating I don’t promote the book. I took down my 4.5 star review on my blog and Goodreads because I personally did not feel comfortable supporting such a racist and problematic book that has hurt real people. That’s what problematic books do. I no longer recommend it to others. But no one forced me to do that.

If we truly want this book community to be a community we must stand up for each other, speak out against problematic books and let each other know which books are harmful. Communities look out for each other, and this is the best way to do it.   Jen puts a lot of thought and time and effort into her posts. I like to think of them as guidebooks, a good starting place. We all have a lot to learn about ally-ship and as we become more aware of things, we must adapt and continue supporting each other by listening and respecting one another.

Because ultimately? There’s nothing debatable about treating others with respect and kindness. 

Hey so just read a really go post by @bookavid about bringing back book tumblr. So here I am at all most midnight my time to ask you guys some questions.

Favourite author/s? I know sometimes it hard to pick just one favourite so feel free to talk about a few. My favourite authors are @cassandraclare @rainbowrowell Cat Patrick and Colleen Houck. I love all their work and always fangirl when I hear about something new coming out.

What is the best book you have read this year? And why? My best book of the year so far is A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. It was so different and amazing, I’m currently reading the sequel (A Gathering of Shadows) and am falling in love with the series.

And if you can narrow it down, what is the best book you have EVER read? My is always changing but for the past year it has been Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare I just loved everything thing about this book, most of all the characters.

reblogged

your photoset:

King Alistair

WAIT HIS SKIN TONE ISNT MESSED UP were we blessed by good lighting/filters, or is this a mod?