Tome Topple
I was really excited to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon as I had heard so many good reviews for it.
Wow was I mistaken.
I read the first two books in the series, and I refuse to read any further. The amount of romanticised abuse is ridiculous. Jaime, the 1740s husband, is seen as the ideal romantic hero, and yet he beats Claire, his wife and main character. This is abuse, whether it happens once or more than once. He is then tortured and raped (and don't get me started on how the only potential LGBTQ+ character is the villain) and she uses the knowledge of that trauma to "fix" his PTSD. In the second book, when Claire falls pregnant, Jaime says no to sex and Claire goes ahead anyway. This is rape - he said no, she carried on. On top of that, there are so many times when rape, torture, and general abuse is used as a plot device; the rape is often described more graphically than the consensual sex.
There is a difference between showing traumatic events to allow the characters to grow, and just showing traumatic events. This series full on romanticised abuse.
#24in48
As of typing this, it is still the weekend of the readathon. I am currently on day five of a cluster migraine, which is why I'm too tired to do a full wrap up. As such, I did an audio only version.
I started with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain, listening to it via LibriVox. A friend recommended it to me, and I went in expecting it to be a children's book. I have a vague memory of reading it as a child. I was wrong. The book includes moments of abuse and graphic scenes of war, and yet it is all handled with dignity, showing how wrong it is rather than glorifying it. I love the story - a 19th century American man trying to turn 5th century England into a capitalist republic. It was wonderful. I loved the political statements that were scattered through, as much a part of the story as the magic and mysticism.
Next I moved onto The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, as voted by Twitter. I got about half way through before running out of hours in the day to finish the readathon. Oops. I loved the story, and I definitely want to read it in full at some point. The migraine meant I couldn't give any of the books my full attention, but I hope to change that soon.
So... how did you get on with the readathons?
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