Lit Savvy by S.K. Salazar

  When I first heard of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, all I knew about it was its title and a depiction of a dark-skinned woman against a gorgeous damask cover. Honestly, that’s all it took for me to take interest in the book itself. But when I was told that it was a story with a Lovecraftian storyline, I had to devour it within days. As many of you know or don’t know, I’m a rabid H.P. Lovecraft fan. Yes, he was a raging racist piece of shit during his life. But even he had standards. Even he refused to associate with actual Nazis and he told them to fuck right off. So, that has to count for something, I suppose. On top of that, the man died alone, young, unfulfilled and with nobody but his old biddy aunts to mourn him. He never got to enjoy his legacy. And on top of that, even, young people of color are defying his racism and enjoying his works, anyways. Garcia-Moreno’s novel is an example of this reclamation, in which she satirizes and criticizes elements that Lovecr...

  Hello, friends and readers. I have returned after nearly a year of not writing. I sit here with a warm cup of cocoa and half a box of macarons, ready to give you some updates. In the past few months, I’ve been hunkering down and social distancing. Until there is a vaccine for COVID-19, I refuse to go to any gatherings or to eat out at restaurants often. Unfortunately, I’ve missed two funerals and I will be missing a wedding. But TRUST that I refuse to fuck around with a disease that has no method of prevention and no method of treatment. So, what have I been doing in the time that I’ve been trapped inside? Let’s start with something big, since it’s something that’s likely to influence my writing voice from here on out. Sometime in April, I finally became an agnostic. After several weeks of resting from the rat race of work, earning a Master’s degree and commuting over 100 miles twice a week, I finally had some time to put my more refined faculties to work. I became dishearten...

Before writing Paradise in Flames , I had written and closeted a YA fantasy novel four years before. So, it's no surprise that chapter one started out a little rusty. The plot points in it were pretty spot-on for a first attempt, if I may say so myself. I introduced Lily as a sheltered Catholic girl who was having her first experience with public education. Then, I introduced her eventual love interest and rival, Blake. Unfortunately, the prose was way too florid and that was something I personally took issue with. But upon taking this chapter to my critique group, they also found that my story started in the wrong place and that Lily's character was somehow too sweet, bubbly and cutesy. I took the suggestion to move the starting place of the chapter. Originally, it started with Lily getting a pep talk from her mother before being dropped off at school. She witnessed Blake in a fight in the school quad and immediately internalized a gut hatred for him. Then Lily met up with...

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton is a beautiful YA fantasy set in a magic world called Orleans that reminds me personally of the culture of Louisiana. I'd best describe it as a far more opulent, much more magical Hunger Games from the point of a view of one of the privileged characters. Before I go on to do this review, please know that there are major spoilers in it. Also, I am quite aware of the thing Dhonielle Clayton did recently. I already gave my opinion on that. However, I enjoyed this book, I read it before her whole fiasco and I think the art itself is worth reviewing. With that said, let's get into the mythology of the world of The Belles . Apparently, there's a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses that the people of Orleans revere. There are a few mentions of gods such as the God of the Wind or the God of the Sea. But the major players in this mythology are the Goddess of Beauty and the God of the Sky. The Goddess of Beauty and the God of the Sky are co...

Well, I was going to originally end this trilogy on author drama with J.K. Rowling. I wanted to comment on how, by the looks of it, she was staying silent about her activism just because she made an unfortunate mistake. But, because I do every single thing on this blog too late, other events have transpired. For those who are out of the loop, Joanne tweeted this: Yikes... I know what you're going to say. "But S.K., didn't you just say that J.K. Rowling should be free to say whatever she wants to say????" Honey, don't put words in my mouth. This blog post wasn't going to originally be about the almighty frozen peach. It was going to be about fiercely owning your activism for marginalized people. It was going to be about the wobbly learning curve that people with privilege go through when learning about power and privilege. It was going to be about how Ms. Rowling made a mistake despite having her heart in the right place. It was going to be about what ...

Well, since I've decided to make my commentary on the whole Sarah Dessen scandal, I decided to comment on a couple more choice bits of literary drama. However, unlike the previous blog post, this one follows the trend of everything on this blog being late. To do a quick recap, author Amelie Wen Zhao (sorry, I couldn't do the accent on the "e" without messing up the format of the post) was about to live the dream. She was about to publish her debut novel Blood Heir and receive a princely advance of $500,000 before the start of this summer. Blood Heir was meant to be a dark fantasy retelling of Anastasia. However, because a small, outspoken cluster of reviewers (who had their hands on the ARC) cherrypicked anti-Black racism out of the story, Zhao was backed into a corner and decided to cancel the publication altogether. (There were also accusations of plagiarism, but without the actual text in my hand, I can't decide that for myself.) As you know, my job isn'...