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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...
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The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you're only seventeen?

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire...

But Akaran has its own secrets -- thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most... including herself.

TITLE: The Star-Touched Queen
AUTHOR: Roshani Chokshi with Priya Ayyar
PUBLISHER: MacMillian Audi
YEAR: 2016
LENGTH: 352 pages (9 hours 20 minutes)
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Partial Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

DNF 21% in (1 hour 39 minutes).

This has a lot of vivid imagery and is a slow, character-driven romance. It's very focused on what's happening in the main character's head and her thoughts and feelings about what's happening. That's not the kind of book I'm looking for, unfortunately.

CW for grief (brief), sexism, misogyny, pregnancy (backstory), self harm (brief), parental death (backstory), death (backstory).

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A woman in flowing pink clothing walks along sparkling blue ground towards the setting sun.


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