DiFR #10: Graveyard Sparrow by Kayla Bashe

Title: Graveyard Sparrow

Author: Kayla Bashe

Trigger warnings: murder, violence against women, dismemberment, serial killer, kidnapping, stalking, sexual assault |(if you spotted any I missed please let me know so I can add them, thanks)

Sub-genre: paranormal romance

Page count: 105

Points of Diversity: bisexual woman, woman with anxiety and agoraphobia, lesbian, healthy same sex relationship

Intersectional Diversity?: yes

Would Recommend?: Yes (with reservations)

Today we revisit Kayla Bashe who generously donated a copy of her latest book Graveyard Sparrow for me to review.  Bashe’s story follows Katriona Sparrow, a woman with psychic abilities that allow her to read people’s thoughts and the last memories of the dead.  Due to anxiety and agoraphobia she rarely leaves her manor home, except to help the police of pre-electricity London with tracking down murderers.  Her latest case puts her on the tail of a serial killer who poses dead women so that they mimic famous works of art.

Katriona has no control over her abilities and so hires a witch by the name of Anthea Garlant to help her.  Anthea spends a few days at Katriona’s manor, keeping her company in the mostly empty house and working on charms and spells to help Katriona gain some control.  Naturally, since this is a romance, the two fall in love with each other.  Anthea is the one who gives Katriona the words anxiety and agoraphobia so that Katriona now has a means to describe her neurodivergence.

She never had these words before, despite being the ward and patient of a prominent doctor.  However, this lack of information is quickly explained and makes sense as we learn early on, from his own perspective, that the doctor himself is the one responsible for the murders.  We also learn that he has a singular obsession with Katriona.  Having his perspective brings an air of creepy horror to the story that I found very engrossing but might be difficult for those who are triggered by stalker behavior.

I had only two major problems with the story.  First is that I once again find myself reading a book with minimal character descriptions, such that it is hard to tell whether or not there are any people of color.  As such I fear that Bashe may have inadvertently fallen into the trap of giving us a fully white cast just because the story takes place in historical London.  This is problematic because it ignores and continues the erasure of the very real presence people of color had all over Western Europe throughout history. Also considering that this alternative London is actually accepting of homosexual relationships, it makes the absence of other diverse groups, like people of color, all the more disconcerting.

The other problem comes from the end of the story.  Katriona has been kidnapped by Dr. Faulkner and he has used magics of his own to place a mind control spell on her, brainwashing her into believing she is his wife.  After this spell is cast we have a scene from her perspective where she thinks about wanting to have several children with him and that they will be trying for a baby soon.  The language also seems to leave open the possibility that he may have already raped her the night before, though it’s difficult to tell.  While it was made clear before the spell was placed on Katriona that the doctor did not take advantage of her sexually this same specificity is not extended to after the spell is cast.  As such it is left very ambiguous as to whether or not Katriona was raped by Dr. Faulkner and the concept is never addressed.

Now from reading Bashe’s past works I have enough faith in her as a writer that she would not have a character in her story raped without addressing it.  However, not everyone is going to have that same faith.  Also it is still problematic to not specify one way or the other once the possibility has been presented as it perpetuates the toxic belief that rape can just be ignored, or that it isn’t important enough to address.

To make matters worse, Katriona is sexually assaulted after the spell is placed on her but this is also left unaddressed.  When Anthea comes to rescue Katriona she finds Katriona and Dr. Faulkner kissing.  For those who doubt, yes this is sexual assault.  The Doctor is making advances on Katriona while she is not in any position to be giving informed and legal consent to those advances.  In fact the advances are clearly unwanted because Katriona wouldn’t be returning the kiss if it weren’t the spell leaving her brainwashed.  Yet the fact that Katriona was sexually assaulted is never brought up.  This is problematic for the same reasons the rape being left ambiguous is, furthered because it is confirmed; we actually see it happen.

Because of this I actually find myself somewhat hesitant about recommending this book.  I found it a very enjoyable read and really liked the romance between Katriona and Anthea.  The world is fascinating and it is rare for me to find a story that is creepy in a way that is absorbing rather than disgusting.  However, the lack of specificity about rape and the ignoring of sexual assault on a character also leaves me with a slightly bitter aftertaste.  Honestly what puts me over the edge to recommending it as a diverse book is it portrays the development of a healthy relationship between two women and those are far to rare in queer romance stories.

Infuriating Fantasy #5: On the Personal Side of Diversity, or How Everyone Can be a Dragon Riding Superhero

I touched on this in my DiFR review of To Stand in the Light By Kayla Bashe.  Diversity is vital for everyone, whether you belong to a marginalized group or not.  Yet many people not only question, but are highly resistant to the idea of greater diversity in books and other media; a sentiment which continues to baffle me.  As such I thought I’d throw my own hat in the ring and talk about why this issue is so important to me and why it should be important to everybody else.

I think those who are not a part of marginalized groups often have a hard time understanding the need for diversity because they are already able to see themselves everywhere.  Our media is dominated by cis het able-bodied, non-neuro-divergent white people, with men in this group getting more space than women.  For those who fall into that camp it can be easy to overlook the necessity of diversity because they have never known what it’s like to not see themselves in the media they consume.  Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA and VP of #WeNeedDiverseBooks wrote an article for the NaNoWriMo blog called We Need Diverse Books: Why Diversity Matters for Everyone where she spoke about this issue:

“But when our stories don’t include characters readers can relate to by shared experience, shared background, shared ability—in fact, when our stories continuously erase those characters—we teach readers […] that they don’t matter.

We rob our readers and ourselves of the chance to discover reflections in stories. We choose to keep them invisible and alone, when it’s those exact stories that can tell them they are not alone in the world.”

(emphasis mine)

In my review of To Stand in the Light I mentioned how reading about the character of Bean Sprout was like looking into a mirror.  I saw more of myself in her than I ever had in any other character I have ever read.  Seeing her battle through trials that I myself have faced gave me a renewed sense of strength.  Seeing her struggle with thinking all her friends must hate her reflected my own.  She feared that other people would find her annoying, or a bother.  I fear that people will find me a burden, or more trouble than I’m worth.  Different words but ultimately the same meaning: we feel unworthy of the love our friends and family give us.  Over the course of her story, Bean learns how false and damaging this mindset of hers is and learns to work past it with the support of her friends.

She teaches this same lesson to her lover, Shadow, who hates themselves because of their demonic appearance, believing they are a monster.  Bean tells her that “being loved isn’t about deserving.  It’s about how you make someone feel.  About the love that you give back” (ebook location 1581/1970)  I started crying when I read that, because depression and anxiety have twisted my mind to believe I don’t deserve the love I receive from the people in my life.  But seeing Bean struggle with this same issue.  Seeing her learn this lesson and then put it into words to begin teaching another the same thing, so that both of them can begin to heal from their own depression and anxiety… well, it taught me that I’m not invisible, I’m not alone, other people share my struggle.  And if other people so much like me can overcome these struggles then it gives me hope that I can do the same.

Here’s another, less dramatic, but equally important thing I learned from this book.  I learned more about my own mental divergence, ADHD.  I was diagnosed with ADHD (apparently ADD is an outdated term, something else I learned) as a kid but never learned much about it beyond difficulty focusing.  All efforts in treating my ADHD were centered on the idea of making me more focused.  No one ever taught me more about it and I never encountered anyone else who I knew had ADHD, character or not.  I knew hyperactivity was a thing with ADHD but it didn’t get associated with me because I didn’t give off physical indications of being hyperactive.  For me it was all mental hyperactivity, and I certainly had no idea that impulse control had anything to do with ADHD.

Bean herself was diagnosed with ADHD over the course of the book and learned how to work through it with the help of medication and different study practices.  Seeing how she used ADD and ADHD interchangeably, plus seeing how her manifestation of the divergence differed from mine, prompted me to do more research of my own.  From that research I learned how impulse control and a hyperactive mind, not just a hyperactive body, are also major aspects of ADHD.  This may not seem like much but consider that I grew up not knowing these things.  I grew up having great difficulty controlling my impulses and like Bean I thought I was just an idiot as a result.  Now I know better, I have the facts to back it up and that means I can start the healing process to change how I view myself as well.

All of this was not possible with past characters because I never related and connected so heavily with a character until Bean and because I had never before read about a character who dealt with these same issues.  Hell, Bean is the first character I have ever come across in any media who has ADHD and is stated clearly as having ADHD.  I connected with Bean so closely because she is a diverse character, and that diversity happened to match up a great deal with my own.  For the first time, ever, despite being an avid reader, I saw myself in a story.  Seeing Bean as myself allowed me to use her as a lens through which I could see me overcoming my own struggles.  This is why diversity matters so much in the media we consume.

One of the arguments I’ve heard against diversity in books comes from some white people when they read about black characters.  They say they “can’t relate to the character” because the character is black.  We’ll leave aside for now the fact that more exposure to characters of color would help them, and everyone else, learn to relate to POC.  Instead let’s just turn this around for those people who struggle with this concept.  Imagine you go to the library to get a book but every single book you come across has only black people as the protagonists.  You go to the movies and all the characters you see are people of color except for maybe one white guy who gets killed off half way through.

Imagine you are a man and every single story is about a woman or genderqueer individual.  Imagine that you are able bodied and every character you come across is an amputee or in a wheelchair.  Imagine everywhere you go you see people who look nothing like you, with experiences nothing like your own.  I’d bet you would start to feel alone and invisible too.  That you would feel starved for a cis het white able-bodied character you could relate to.

Remember, the struggles you have with relating to diverse characters are the same difficulties marginalized people feel when reading most books out there.  And if you’re thinking, “can’t they just go pick up a book with diverse characters, aren’t there plenty online,” well it’s not that easy.  Nijkamp explains:

in the US—more than half of the children born will be non-white, less than ten percent of books published are about characters of color or written by people of color. And while one out of five teens will deal with a serious debilitating mental illness, perhaps only one out of twenty books even recognizes mental illnesses exist…

For most of us, whether we’re disabled, LGBTQ, people of color, part of a religious minority, indigenous peoples, it is achingly hard—often impossibly so—to find a story about us. Not just about us, but stories that reflect the world we live in. Stories where we’re seen.

I discovered I was bisexual about the age of 24 but didn’t start getting involved in the community until a few months ago.  I have been searching for books with bisexual characters for several months now as I seek to learn more about my sexual identity.  Sadly, I haven’t found much and most of the books I have come across aren’t available at my local library.  Sure there are some available online, but I don’t have an income right now since I lost my last job, so I can’t afford to by books online. Even if I could, I still live with my parents so I don’t have the space.  when it comes to finding characters who are genderqueer/genderfluid, or those who have anxiety, or ADHD, or depression, it’s even harder.

Sure there are literary works out there that might focus in on one of these as a “problem issue” where the whole story is about the protagonist overcoming issues associated with said aspect, but the problem with that is two-fold:

One: I am not just bisexual or just genderfluid or just depressed, etc.  I am all of these things all at the same time.  Sure there may be moments where one aspect is more at the forefront of my mind.  But I don’t become less bisexual just because I’m having an anxiety attack.  I don’t become less genderfluid just because my depression has reached a point where self-loathing makes me want to hurt myself.  Reading stories where, if these issues show up at all, they come one at a time, gives the impression that they can’t all exist together when I am living proof that they do.  We are not single-issue people.  We are a multi-dimensional rainbow pattern of diverse nuances and characteristics, marginalized or no, and to deny any one aspect of who we are is to deny the whole person.

Two: it tells people with these issues that they can only exist as “problem characters” in “problem stories.”  It tells us that we can’t be the heroes of our own stories outside of these issues.  we can’t ride dragons, or be superheroes, or fight trolls, or overcome the ultimate evil because we aren’t the cis het white able-bodied, neurologically normal, dude.  The most we can ever aspire to is being a mere side-kick who gets killed off by the big bad to show how evil they are and spur the “real hero” on to victory.  This is the message we receive from the homogeneous mass of books that are out there currently; that unless our story is directly related to and centered on us being LGBT or POC or disabled or neurally divergent, then it’s not a story worth telling or worth being heard.

That’s why we need, not just diversity, but intersectional diversity, across all mediums and all genres.  Transmedia writer and author Andrea Phillips discussed Why Diversity in Fantasy Matters and addressed the overall impact diversity, and it’s lack, have on our culture and society.

Listen. Every story we tell becomes a part of our consensus culture. […] Stories are our way of telling one another how to be human, how to understand the world.

But we also use stories to reinforce some awful messages: men are inferior parents, brown people are terrorists, no doesn’t always really mean no. We hear these messages again and again, and we start to believe them. In a sense, every story we tell is true. They become true, like it or not. 

[….] Writing about a world where people of all stripes are visible, are represented, are richer and deeper than a grab bag of tired-out archetypes, is just plain the right and decent thing to do.

You’re not just making a better story. You’re making a better world.

This is why diversity across the board is so important.  It has the power to change individuals and it has the power to change our cultural narrative as a whole.  They help people in marginalized groups find acceptance and learn more about themselves, as it did with me.  They help those outside these groups to understand them better and see them capable of far more than just a one off side character, to see them as more than just one of their differences.  In short, writing diverse stories and reading diverse stories brings us all closer together and makes us all better people.  It shows us that we are all capable of being dragon riding superheroes who fight trolls and overcome the ultimate evil.  And isn’t that what really matters?

Sources:

http://blog.nanowrimo.org/post/99143321739/we-need-diverse-books-why-diversity-matters-for
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com/blog/2014/4/24/why-diversity-in-fantasy-matters
http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/FAQ
http://www.diversifya.com/

Read more:

http://www.diversifya.com/
http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/
http://weneeddiversebooks.org/
http://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/
http://www.diversityinya.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/we-need-diverse-books_n_5253934.html
http://www.babble.com/parenting/the-lack-of-diversity-in-books-and-movies-hurts-all-of-our-kids/
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/diversity

DiFR #3: My Lady King: by Kayla Bashe

Book: My Lady King

Author: Kayla Bashe

Trigger warnings: Emotional/Mental abuse from spouse, talk of suicide, racist villain, internalized racism (from abuse)|(if you spotted any I missed please let me know so I can add them, thanks)

Sub-genre: Romance/otherworld fantasy

Page count: 93

Points of Diversity: queer people, people of color, specified non-binary, specified bi/pan/polysexual

Intersectional Diversity?: yes

Would Recommend?: yes

I have to admit I went into this story initially with the wrong expectations, and that’s really my own fault here.  As much as I love fantasy, I’ve never actually read a fantasy romance novel before (unless you count Twilight, which I don’t).  Sure, I read Nora Roberts in high school while I figured out puberty, but I never really went looking for romance work outside of that.  It didn’t really interest me.  So when I started reading My Lady King I found myself drawn out at first because I was expecting your typical high fantasy adventure but what I was reading didn’t have that feel at all.  I was having a conversation with Kayla Bashe and Shira Glassman on Twitter about my Game of Thrones article and YA vs adult shelving when Bashe mentioned that what she writes is fantasy romance and suddenly it all fell into place.  The way the two protags fell for each other so quickly, the focus on body descriptions, the search for excuses to get our leads into less clothing while near each other.  It all made sense once I adjusted my expectations to fit the genre I realized I had stumbled upon.

Now, when I say adjusted expectations, I do not mean lowered expectations, whatever bad rap romance may have among the general populace.  What I mean is looking at the work with a different critical lens, like changing a pair of glasses… assuming I wore glasses.  And like I said this confusion is entirely my own fault for not taking a closer look at the genre I was reading ahead of time, so this is by no means meant to be a criticism of the author’s work, just a note on my personal experience with the story.  When I started, I thought I was reading a fantasy intrigue adventure book that was oddly out of focus when it came to intrigue or adventure.  About the half-way point I realized that I was actually reading a rather adorable romance set in a fantasy world.  With this new pair of glasses I saw the book much more clearly and came to enjoy it a lot more.

What has to be my favorite part of this story is how wonderfully diverse the characters are.  We have multiple races, gender identities and sexual identities represented throughout the book both as primary protagonists and side characters.  Bashe has also created a world where genders and sexualities that differ from cis/straight are openly welcomed and embraced as part of society.  The idea of our “Lady King” Esdelot marrying a woman is never questioned, just accepted and the book outright tells us that both Esdelot and her brother embraced different gender roles for themselves.  Hell there’s even a brief mention of how it’s considered good luck and standard practice to have a nonbinary person dance around a building once it’s finished being built.

Things are a little different when it comes to races but only in the sense that the one person who portrays any racism is shown as the villain of the story long before she exhibits this attitude.  Esdelot’s love interest, Keziah, who is black, does have some internalized racism towards herself based on how she looks. However, we discover this as we also learn that the attitude came from years of emotional and mental abuse she endured at the hands of her wife who eventually kicked her out.

A major theme of this story has to do with Keziah overcoming that abuse with Esdelot’s help and learning to see herself as beautiful for who she is.  The narrative is written in such a way that the attitudes of our villain and the thoughts of Keziah in regards to racism are not only painted as wrong and toxic, but also easily separated from the author’s own views.  So when characters of color are described in the narrative it is done using words meant to portray beauty and inner strength.  Any comparisons to being “barbaric” are clearly on the side of the villain.  So all in all I think the story is very inclusive and respectful of many different diversities.

When it comes to the story as a whole I would say it’s a bit hit and miss.  I feel the relationship between Esdelot and Keziah is very well done and it was wonderful to see Keziah find the inner strength to begin healing from her past abuse.  However, the two final conflicts, one with the villain and one with Death himself, felt too easily resolved and a bit anti-climactic as a result.  It’s easy to understand why though, as the book is only 93 pages long and being a writer myself I understand the struggle to convey climactic battles in such a condensed space.  The other issue that came up, I don’t know if it was because the ebook was poorly formatted but it was sometimes hard to tell when the story had switched perspectives between Esdelot or Rivkah when the two were traveling together.  However it never reached a point where I was at a loss for what was going on.

Despite those quibbles I did, overall, enjoy My Lady King and would recommend it to anyone looking for a short and sweet fantasy romance novel or just anyone looking to support an independent author.  The only issues I had with the book could easily have been fixed with a longer book and, honestly, I would like to see that.  I found the world and it’s characters very interesting.  The idea of Death being an actual being who comes knocking on your door to take the dying away, that you can actually talk to him, and he can punish those who displease them by refusing to take them when they’ve been mortally wounded?  That is the epitome of awesome and I would love to see a longer story that expands on everything introduced here.

This book was clearly written with a sense of hope, passion, and love that is all to quickly forgotten or trodden on in today’s focus on cynicism, blood, and death.  I hope Kayla Bashe continues to write and I encourage other people to support her work.  We need more optimistic storytellers in our fantasy.

DiFR #4: To Stand in the Light; by Kayla Bashe

Book: To Stand in the Light

Author: Kayla Bashe

Trigger warnings: kidnapping, vomit, past abuse |(if you spotted any I missed please let me know so I can add them, thanks)

Sub-genre: superhero

Page count: 112

Points of Diversity: people of color, physical disabilities, mental/emotional disabilities, gender identities, sexual identities, adoption/foster children

Intersectional Diversity?: yes

Would Recommend?: yes, highly

This story made me cry happy tears.  I can say that about only one other book I have ever read in my life.  That was Wolfcry by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, the second book I reviewed for DiFR.  My reaction in this case was a result of seeing more of myself in a protagonist here than I ever have in any other book I’ve read.  For those who question why diversity is so important, how To Stand in the Light made me feel provides your answer.

The protagonist I am speaking of is called Bean Sprout.  (Yeah all the characters have wacky names.  I found it odd at first but then came to see it as rather endearing.) She is bisexual, has ADHD, anxiety, and a constant fear that her friends will find her annoying and leave her behind. These are all things that I myself deal with and as such reading about Bean was like looking in a mirror. Seeing how she was able to learn how to work with her disabilities provided hope and inspiration for me that I could do the same.

The other protagonist was a half demon named Shadow who deals with PTSD and a great deal of self hatred based on their appearance. They also have one of the best lines in the book when someone asks them about their gender identity and responds with, “I’m a superhero, I have more important things to worry about.”  Just like in My Lady King we see a world that is fully embracing and accepting of all different gender and sexual identities.  Asking someone about their pronouns is portrayed as a common courtesy and assuming a pronoun is seen as rude.  These are conventions I would like to see in our society so it’s wonderful to have them presented as normalized here.

The overall focus of the story is the idea that having a mind that works differently from others or a body that looks different does not make one “broken.” That love isn’t about what one deserves but simply how much you care about a person and how much they care for you in return. This was a very important message for me as I deal with self loathing as a part of my depression. I often feel like I don’t deserve the love or attention of my partner or friends give me even though I know intellectually that’s false. In the end both Bean and Shadow learn how to accept themselves and work through the difficulties they have. Seeing characters that I identify so closely with succeed with issues that I have struggled with has given me a major boost to my self-confidence and helped me to feel more comfortable in my own skin.

That’s why diversity is so important and why I highly recommend this book. I want other people to find the same sense of acceptance and hope that I did. It matters so much, and I’m really happy that authors like Kayla Bashe are writing stories that embrace such diversity.

Update 7/3/2015: DiFR and the Library

Well I was hoping to review Pantomime by Laura Lam for my next DiFR review but it turns out the library is closed all weekend for 4th of July, including today.  As such I won’t be able to grab my copy until at least Monday, perhaps even Tuesday since it’s still “in transit”.  As such I sadly will not be able to get to Lam’s book this week.  Instead I will be moving to my e-book collection for stuff to review.  For you guys this will mean another double feature on DiFR since both books I have in mind are only about a hundred pages XD.  I will now be reviewing To Stand in the Light and My Lady King, both by Kayla Bashe.  I’ve updated Goodreads so the books should be showing up in my queue on the sidebar, feel free to check them out there if you’d like more info.  With that I will see you all tomorrow with my next Infuriating Fantasy topic.

Happy 4th of July to all those who celebrate and a happy day in general to those who don’t.