"The Narratologist" is the creation of Yara Kaas, a Dutch teacher of English with a BA in English and both a BA and MA in Comparative Literature. She loves her field so much that she can’t stop talking (or writing) about it. Through her website, she hopes to reach out to other lovers of literature and create a place where they will be inspired, intrigued, and maybe even learn something along the way.
One of her book reviews got retweeted by Margaret Atwood once. It was amazing.
With a new film adaptation (starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin) having hit the screen this year, it seemed like the right time to dive back into my pile of Daphne du Maurier books and pick up My Cousin Rachel. It tells a story of a young man by the name of Philip Ashley in what may or may not be Georgian/early Victorian times (Du Maurier never specifies the time period). His cousin and father figure, Ambrose, travels abroad to recover from an illness, only to unexpectedly marry “cousin Rachel” and pass away shortly afterwards. In his last letter to his nephew, Ambrose implies that Rachel has poisoned him, leaving Philip devastated and out for revenge. However, when she shows up at his door in Cornwall, Philip begins to have doubts:
Did Rachel murder his cousin or is she an innocent woman?
I thought it was high time that I gave you all a little update on how I’m doing and why I’m still pretty absent these days.
As a lot of you know, I’ve been struggling with a pretty bad bout of depression these past two years (good lord), and even though progress is slow, it seems that things are finally starting to look up. I’m finally starting to feel more energetic and optimistic about things, and I cannot even begin to tell you what a relief that is.
I have barely touched my books for months now, which has been such a strange experience for me, but reading had somehow become painful and only made me feel sadder. Maybe I’ll dedicate a blog post to how and why in the future.
But last night, I had a dream about being in a bookstore. In the dream, I felt that rush of excitement, running my fingers over all the books I wanted to read, looking for my favourite authors - and it felt good. Really good. I woke up smiling.
Long story short: I just ordered War of the Foxes by Richard Siken and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
It’ll be okay.
I know it’s been a while since my last review, but please bear with me!
As I’ve said before, I’m currently struggling with a bout of depression that is proving difficult to shake and makes it hard to be productive in any way.
On the bright side, I’m learning how to play Dungeons and Dragons, so that’s something.
Here’s a picture of Cosette looking disappointed that my dice aren’t edible.
I first became aware of Noelle Stevenson through Tumblr, about five years ago. At the time, she had gained an online following for the comics she drew about movies she’d watched (Thor, The Lord of the Rings, X-Men) and general fandom experiences, like this one. She was funny and relatable, but what kept me coming back were her comments on the depiction of female characters and general misogyny in the comics industry. For example, she drew this comic about her experiences with “self-appointed gatekeepers” who make many would-be comic readers feel unwelcome. Stevenson also started the Hawkey Initiative, where she pointed out the trend of unrealistic and sexist “strong female character” poses in superhero comics and suggested that they could be fixed by replacing the character with Hawkeye doing the same thing. She invited artists to send in their creations, and the results were both hilarious and deeply uncomfortable,
At twenty-five years old, Stevenson is now working as an industry professional, and in 2015 her popular web comic Nimona was published by HarperTeen.
I’m very pleased to say that there is not a single boobs-and-butt panel to be found.
*The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead *The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister *The Well of Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall *Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shatterly *The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin *Swing Time, Zadie Smith *Save Me the Waltz, Zelda Fitzgerald *Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi *Sula, Toni Morrison *Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
*A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
*The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, Mary Seacole *The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West *Hag-Seed and/or The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood *Fingersmith, Sarah Waters *Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine *I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, Maryse Condé *The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
I’m so excited!
(And, as always, recommendations are very welcome.)
As some of you may know, I had only one new year’s resolution for 2017: I aim to read no books by or about straight white men this year.
I have two reasons for this: I want to broaden my own horizons as a reader, and I want to draw attention to books and/or authors that the readers of my blog(s) may not have heard of or may have wanted learn more about. I specifically want to focus on writers of colour and the LGBTQ community, and I have already bought a ton of books in preparation for this project.
