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Mexican Gothic Full Book Review

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Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Book Review  *Warning: This review contains spoilers*  Introduction  This book is an ideal read for spooky season, and is a good modern take on the gothic genre. It’s also a good read if you’re looking for something spooky, but that also still feels like it has a deeper thematic concern.  Review Mexican Gothic starts out very strong. It has an interesting protagonist, really immaculate “haunted mansion” type vibes, and there’s a really strong anti-colonial theme to the plot. It fringes the borders of dark fantasy, horror, and science fiction all with a gothic undertone to give the novel crossover appeal to a lot of different readers’ tastes.  We follow Naomí as she travels to her cousin Catalina’s husband’s family home after learning that Catalina is (supposedly) gravely ill, however Catalina believes that her husband is trying to murder her.  Now, as the story goes on, the spooky vibes do start to grow a bit more… convoluted. If you’re expecting
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Stephen King’s It Book Review

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It by Stephen King: Book Review  *Warning: this review contains spoilers* *Content warning: this review mentions abuse, racism, homophobia, sexual violence, antisemitism, suicide, sexism, and child abuse*  Introduction  Time for an unpopular opinion! I didn’t love this book.  I know it’s a cult classic, a pop culture phenomenon, and saying you didn’t like it is basically blasphemy because it’s Stephen King’s magnum opus. But there’s actually a lot of reasons that I think this book just doesn’t work for me.  Review  It’s not that there aren’t accomplishments on King’s part with this book. It is actually impressive that he manages to create an entire history for the town his book is set in, his own mini literary universe before literary universes were a thing, there are some genuinely spooky moments involving clown shenanigans. Some of the characters are compelling, particularly Beverly, even if I didn’t like the way all of her storyline was handled, and there is something to be said abo
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Writing Tip #5 Anachronisms

Anachronisms (especially in language)  What is an anachronism?  Simply, it is something that is out of place for the time and/or place that it is occurring in.  In literature, this most predominantly affects historical fiction. It can occur in many forms, such as a piece of technology or type of medicine appearing in a story set two years before such a thing was discovered in real life. It can be the usage of calling Russia “Russia” in a story set during the country’s time as the USSR. It could be setting your story in 1954 in the US and failing to acknowledge that segregation was still in effect. It could be your character mentioning that she saw a Siberian Tiger while in India. It could even be as slight as using slang that wasn’t popularized yet during the time period of your novel, or not regionally correct. (If your story takes place in the Southern US, your characters should probably be saying “y’all” not “you guys” and if it’s set in the UK, you should be saying “chips” not “fri
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Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie: Book Review  *Warning: This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mentions drug usage and addiction*  Introduction  Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six will either gladly eat this novel alive out of how similar it is to the former, or they will decry it as a rip-off. While the two are very similar in plots and themes, they’re written in drastically different styles. As far as their similarities, there’s only so much difference that can be made between two novels that are both loosely based on 70s musicians, with Daisy Jones and the Six being inspired by Fleetwood Max and Songs in Ursa Major being loosely based on Joni Mitchell’s career. It’s sex, drugs, & rock ‘n’ roll both ways, so obviously similarities are to be expected. So I don’t hold the similarities against Ursa Major too much, even if I personally preferred Daisy Jones.  Summary & Review  Songs in Ursa Major gets a lot right when it comes to stayin
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The Girls in the Stilt House Book Review

The Girls in the Stilt House  *Warning: This review contains spoilers*  Introduction  This is a solid historical fiction novel and a decent modern take on southern gothic. If you like historical fiction and a more literary style of writing, you’ll probably really enjoy this. If this isn’t your genre though, I don’t think the book really transcends any hard genre lines to compel you.  Review  Set in the 1920s in Mississippi, the novel focuses on two young women, Ada and Matilda. Ada is a white woman and Matilda is a Black woman, and being that the novel is set where and when it is set, obviously racism and the legacy of slavery and segregation plays a large thematic role in the story. The focus of The Girls in the Stilt House is largely the friendship and bond that forms between Ada and Matilda. However, one of the things that I really appreciated that Mustian did with this story is not ignoring the realities of the story’s setting, or pretending like Ada was some perfect white ally for
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The Wife Upstairs Book Review

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins: Book Review  *Warning: This review contains spoilers*  Introduction  When I first found out about this book, I really wanted to love it. I mean, a modern Jane Eyre retelling? It’s every literature nerd’s dream come true! My biggest problem with Jane Eyre, like most people, was that there wasn’t enough focus of that huge plot revelation that Rochester literally had his wife locked upstairs and faked her death.  I went into this book hoping that it would be more of a focus on that aspect of the story, which, to be fair, it was. But the execution just wasn’t what I wanted it to be. It was… a lot less feminist than I was hoping for.  Summary & Review  If you’re looking for a story that actually has a character worth rooting for, you won’t find it here! Unfortunately, The Wife Upstairs follows the recent tradition of mystery-thriller books not having any likable characters. I get that when writing a murder mystery, you’re obviously going to need some
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Writing Tip #4 What Scenes to Keep

What Scenes to Keep in a Story (And Which Ones to Cut)  We’ve all been there. We’ve read a book that was arguably really good, but just felt way too long. Like it was good, but could have been condensed. That 700 page epic fantasy that could have stood to be about 200 pages shorter.  The reason this happens is largely because authors choose to leave in “filler scenes,” or scenes that didn’t necessarily add anything to the story and should have been cut in the final draft.  Even professional published authors struggle with this sometimes, so it is definitely difficult to know what scenes are necessary to the story and which ones (though you may personally love them) don’t really add anything to the story. So let’s dive into it!  Generally speaking, all portions included in the story should advance the story in some way. This most predominantly includes any scenes that move the plot forward, but also extends to scenes that are used for significant character development or world-building
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