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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...

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (Iron Fey #1)

Based off the New York Times best selling novels. The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series, and follows the adventures of a girl named Meghan Chase. On her sixteenth birthday, Meghan discovers her little brother has been kidnapped by a faery race known as "the Fey" and even worse, replaced with an evil changeling and taken into the "Nevernever." Meghan bravely ventures into the faery realm to rescue him, and that's where an epic plot unfolds.

TITLE: The Iron King
AUTHOR: Julie Kagawa
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
YEAR: 2010
LENGTH: 363 pages 
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: N/A

General Vibe: Book1 with Book2

Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

DNF 75% in.

I think if I’d found this when I was younger I’d like it more. Something about the balance of how much it portrays the darker side of Faerie (or not) just isn’t working for me. Also Meghan is pretty quickly interested in Ash when they’ve barely met, and I don’t like insta-love (or very quick attraction) as a trope.

CW for ableist language (brief), kidnapping, confinement, cursing, classism, bullying, toxic relationship, child abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault, blood, violence, injury detail, medical content, self harm (brief), rape (brief mention), torture (brief mention), animal death, death (brief mention).

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A white-haired woman standing in front of a misty forest


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