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.

DiFR #2: Otherbound

Book: Otherbound

Author: Corinne Duyvis

Trigger warnings: Abuse (physical, emotional, verbal, mental), Swearing (minimal), self-harm, suicide (attempted), Alcoholism, mutilation, vomit|(if you spotted any I missed please let me know so I can add them, thanks)

Age: Young Adult

Sub-genre: Urban/otherworld fantasy

Page Count: 387

Points of Diversity: people of color, poverty/lower class, disabilities, queer people, queer people of color, disabled people of color, women of color

Intersectional Diversity?: yes

Would Recommend?: yes, highly

I picked up Otherbound for my first DiFR review because it recently won the Bisexual Book Award for speculative fiction from The Bi Writers Association.  As a bisexual person myself, I have been frustrated with the lack of representation bi people receive.  As such, I felt that the winner of such an award would be the best place to start for this blog.

I first came across the book a few weeks ago while browsing Goodreads for stories with diverse protagonists.  The description didn’t interest me, most fantasy that involves people from earth doesn’t, so I passed it up.  As such, I’m glad Otherbound won the award.  If it hadn’t might never have picked the thing up.

Otherbound has a cast that is mostly people of color.  The main character on Earth, Nolan, is an amputee with a prosthetic leg who lives with a poor family.  He is diagnosed with epileptic seizures and hallucinations due to his uncontrollable possession of Amara.  However, the book makes it clear that he has none of these.  What he is experiencing is very different, but close enough that it’s understandable why doctors and parents would latch onto it as an explanation.  Nolan has been keeping journals of what he sees through Amara’s eyes, hoping to figure out why he has this connection with her and how to break free of it.

Amara, in her own world, Is a mute servant who communicates through sign language.  She also suffers severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the mage in their group Jorn. It is up to Amara, Jorn, and Maart (another mute servant and Amara’s lover) to protect Princess Cilla from the murderous ministers who took over her family’s throne.  sadly, having a princess around doesn’t stop Jorn from keeping control of the group through emotional abuse and fear tactics.

The book turned out to be far more fascinating than I initially gave it credit for, with a unique magic system that comes with dire consequences when abused.  As a writer myself, I loved seeing the plethora of new ideas, or at least new to me, presented in this story.

Now confession time.  If it weren’t for the fact that I had decided to review this book, I would have most likely given up on it about halfway through.  Now that’s not a criticism of Otherbound in this case.  It’s a self admonition over just how jaded I’ve become when it comes to stories.  You see, I don’t handle character death well. I’ve been hurt too many times by the poor handling of it in past.  So I have a tendency to assume the worst whenever the reaper comes knocking on my book cover.

*SPOILER WARNING*

That’s what I did when Amara’s lover, Maart, was killed while trying to protect her from Jorn’s abuse.  “Of course they killed him.” I thought. “had to make room for her to have a relationship with the princess she was making googly eyes at earlier.  Just had to choose the easy way out of that love triangle didn’t you?” (not that I wanted a love triangle. *shudders*)  I was especially mad because I had seen it coming from the beginning and had been hoping it wouldn’t happen.  So when it did the book was promptly thrown to the floor in my rage.

But as it turns out my fears and anger were unfounded in this case and I wish I hadn’t been so quick to judge.  Maart’s death actually had meaning, it had an impact.  It provided the motivation Amara and Cilla needed to make their escape from Jorn.  Amara is torn up with guilt over the fact that it took the death of the man she loves to finally spur her on.  While, yes, she does get together with Cilla in the end, it doesn’t change the fact that she still grieves for and misses Maart dearly.  He is remembered throughout the story, all the way to the last chapter.  Something which I rarely come across in the books I’ve encountered.

Perhaps the only complaint I find myself left with about Maart’s death is the plot armor aspect.  His death came soon after Amara was severely injured with deep cuts on her abdomen and elsewhere.  She had temporarily lost her healing powers but still survived.  I know blows to the head are serious business.  But I could still feel the plot armor that Amara was wearing when I compare how dramatic her injuries came off as vs. what, in Maart’s case, sounded like a mere bump.  However, that’s a minor point compared to everything else and could have easily been fixed by providing a better, more detailed description of the head blow Maart received.

The other big issue I had with the book was the basic premise that it turns out Amara isn’t a mage and that the only reason she has any powers at all is because of Nolan’s possession of her.  This fact made me feel like the primary female hero had no power of her own and that any purpose she did have was solely through him and his presence.  At first I felt like she was secondary to that of a man from another world.  This really bothered me because of how often women are treated like second bananas to men in the real world.

The thing is this issue was also addressed and very well.  Nolan does everything he can to be respectful of Amara, especially considering his lack of control.  Yes her healing is dependent on him.  But a major theme of the story is her learning to take power for herself. She learns to take charge of her own life and make choices based on what she wants, rather than on what others want from her.  I see this as a powerful and necessary message.  Especially today, where a corporate run world teaches us that taking any time out for ourselves and our own betterment is selfish and wrong.  The truth is, doing such is vital if we are to have any hope of living a fulfilling and happy life.

*END SPOILERS*

In summation, this book comes highly recommended from me.  The initial problems I had were all addressed.  Whatever problems I initially had were dealt with and, in the end, I didn’t feel like anything was lacking or missing.  Beyond that it was very enjoyable to read.  In the end though, my biggest reason for recommending this book is that it helped me become a little less jaded and to have a little more faith in the works I pick up.