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Two Essays on The Count of Monte Cristo

I love The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I have read the unabridged version more than once, and my most recent reread was in 2023. At that time, I wrote a couple of brief essays which I posted on Tumblr, one of which was about a canonically queer character and the other discussed a character who is often left out of the various adaptations. I present for you these essays with expansion and alteration, because I keep returning to them as pieces of writing and because I don't want them to be limited to those original posts. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as new patrons DivineJasper and Sasha Khan. (Quotes are from Robin Buss’ English translation of Alexandre Dumas’ work.) Link to Audio Version. ----- Canonical Queerness in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas You’d need to change surprisingly little of The Count of Monte Cristo to confirm Eugénie Danglars as a trans man (or a masc-leaning nonbinary person...

Animorphs Book 5: The Predator by K. A. Applegate

The Predator gives Marco stakes that he can fight for, while also doubling down on the body horror with some insect morphs. It finishes getting all the Animorphs on the same page and establishes Yeerk politics at play on Earth.

This book deals with loss of a parent in a way that was just referenced earlier in the series, as well as finally letting us know what Marco is thinking behind all his jokes.

All of the books so far have dealt with the mental aspects of morphing, but this one is is the first that is truly terrifying based on what happens to them, not just what they think they might do. Your mileage may vary as to which morph is the creepiest, but morphs with exoskeletons really don't come out looking good here.

A boy (Marco) turns into a gorilla

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