26, 35, 49 for the book mem :)
26: If you could be a character froma book for their entire life who would you be and why?
Well, I have wanted to be Jaina Solo from the Star WarsExpanded Universe for years, but especially now during these trying times! (Erm. Except with zero deadsiblings, and I’d pick the snarky Jedi Master over the Channing Tatum-esquepilot dude.) Han and Leia would be myparents and Luke my uncle! And at some point I’d be mentored by Mara Jade! AndI would have mystical powers that I can use to better the world and mow downfascists! Plus amazing pilot abilities so I can go off on adventures todifferent worlds anytime!
And hey why not Gansey.First of all: because the money would be great, let’s not lie! But I feel such a spiritual connection to his seeking outof adventures and his living in a dreamer’s warehouse and keeping a journal for#aesthetic. And anyway, his death-curse is dead, so!
49: When is your favorite time toread?
4-6 in the afternoon. I think it started with elementaryschool days when the first thing I would do after class was go to the libraryand check out a book (or I’d take out the book that I already had with me! Iwould read, waiting outside my mom’s office (she also worked at the school) atthe foot of a giant statue of a saint (which none of my rowdier schoolmatesapproached much, and none of the nuns ever scolded me for it anyway, haha), andit would get hit with sunset light at some point. And it was a habit that hascarried over up to now—there’s always something about late afternoon light thatmakes me all giddy and eager to read.
35: Name a book you consider to beterribly underrated
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce.
It’s a Rumpelstiltskin retelling that I haven’t seen getmuch attention – at least not as much as the (also lovely!) Summer of ChasingMermaids or Marissa Meyer’s books (which I haven’t read yet, but they have agood rep with people I trust). I also love how it addresses some very realflaws in the original fairy tale and does so very humanly. For example, the heroine now has so much more agency – she is now the recently orphaned miller’sdaughter who is bent on keeping her dad’s business going so that she canpreserve the lifestyle of her younger sister and all of the other loyal workers. And she’s full of resourcefulness and perseverance! I loved her a lot.Another example: if you think about it, the king in the original story really comesoff as a jerk – he locks a girl in a room and orders her to spin gold or else she’ll die? In this retelling, the “king” is the guysent by the bank to come and collect her father’s debts – so he’s sweet andsympathetic to her plight, and despite his job’s duties, starts forming a bondwith her. I liked how the book shows that marriage is not an automatichappy-ever-after — it has to be something two people work at. I haven’t seen that much in YA novels.
Not to mention the Rumpelstiltskin figure himself — the bookgives a really heartbreaking answer as to whyexactly this strange man is coming down on the mill and offering mysticalsolutions and why he’s putting such prices on them.
Everyone’s humanized. Even the jerky rich uncle figure whowants the mill to fail.
I guess it didn’t take off as much as the other retellingsbecause it isn’t quite as…whimsical? as them? It came out much earlier thanthem, and a lot of it is about hard and gritty work and how a young lady keeps a family business (and heractual family) up and running whilealso trying to battle people’s prejudices about her and figure out the supposed‘curse’ that’s on their land. Not really light reading, for YA. Maybe it wasmis-marketed, I don’t know. Or just not for everyone. But I loved it a lot!
