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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...

Early September Reviews (2024)

Greetings

Welcome to the Books That Burn Fortnightly Roundup! Releasing every two weeks (one week early for Patrons).

My plan is to resume a more regular review schedule when I finish re-reading October Daye and writing the final two essays in the five-essay series about October Daye by Seanan McGuire and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner.

News and Events

I track upcoming book releases by authors we've previously covered on a shareable google calendar.

Notable SEPTEMBER Releases:

  • Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

  • A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

Recent Reviews

COMPOUND FRACTURE by Andrew Joseph White is Thriller, with queer character(s), marketed as Young Adult. Miles survives being beaten nearly to death, then accidentally kills one of his attackers. Told in First Person with Single POV.

SPELLS OF SUMMER by A.K. Faulkner, book 8 of Inheritance is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. Freddy does a favor for Myriam and ends up trapped. Told in Third Person with Ensemble POVs.

Rereads and Older Reviews

The re-reads of Inheritance and October Daye are going swimmingly, I’ll get to enjoy the audiobook of Wheel of Fate this time around, and I’m in the middle of The Unkindest Tide for October Daye.

Songs and Playlists

Sometimes I make book playlists, either chronological or character-vibes. You can find all of those here.

This fortnight’s featured playlist is: KNIGHT OF FLAMES

In Case You Missed It

This time last year I read WITCH KING by Martha Wells.

Pluggables and Podcast News

As for the podcast, hopefully you're enjoying our most recent episode. If you'd like to receive episodes early, as well as bonus content, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Patrons receive this newsletter one week early, as well as a list of upcoming podcast episodes and even more planned reviews.

Patrons at any level receive the booklist with our planned episodes for up to three months at a time.

Thanks for reading, the next roundup will be in two weeks!

-Robin

Co-host of Books That Burn

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