Skip to main content

Featured

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...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews (Grey Wolf #1)

Scarred, solitary Derek Gaunt has separated from his Pack, and is truly a lone wolf. With no family he answers to no one; but is fiercely loyal to a chosen few. So, when several of those close to him are murdered, he’ll stop at nothing to hunt their killer through the magic-drenched streets of Atlanta.

Never one to be left on the sidelines, equally determined—some might say stubborn—Julie Lennart-Olsen soon joins in his pursuit; and what began as revenge turns into a race to save the city. Their search pits them against powers they never imagined and magic so old, it predates history. It may cost Derek his life, but there are things for which even he would risk everything.

TITLE: Magic Stars
AUTHOR: Ilona Andrews
PUBLISHER: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
YEAR: 2015
LENGTH: 64 pages 
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Yes

Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

MAGIC STARS is a novella starring Derek and Julie, set shortly before the events of MAGIC BINDS.

Derek is a pretty different narrator than Kate. He’s much more focused on what’s immediately happening. This is partly because, as a novella which fits in a specific place on the timeline without directly involving what Kate and Curran are doing, this is unlikely to appeal to anyone who hasn’t read the first seven Kare Daniels books. For anyone who has, however, it’s a welcome glimpse into a couple of prominent characters in a way that isn’t filtered through Kate. 

The plot revolves around Derek tracking down the shapeshifters who murdered a family. He’s very quickly joined by Julie and they team up to find who put them up to it. I enjoyed the story and it’s a good complement to the main series.

CW for pregnancy (brief mention), fire/fire injury (backstory), blood (graphic), violence (graphic), gun violence, body horror, self harm, child abuse (backstory), torture (backstory), rape (backstory), animal death (graphic), parental death (backstory), child death (backstory), murder, death (graphic).

Bookshop Affiliate Buy Link

Add this on TheStoryGraph

A teenage girl with blonde hair stands holding an axe, a hooded boy with a scarred face stands behind her, a grey wolf snarls below


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts