With hearts on fire I reach out to you

[dolorosa_12]

It's the end of the month, and I am really done with winter. I normally don't mind this time of year, but January in 2021 has mainly be rain, mud, and gloom — none of the crisp, clear, icy winter weather that I enjoy. Nonetheless, Matthias and I spent the one nice hour of the day out walking along the river, and if you follow me on Instagram (ronnidolorosa, you can see some of the weird and wonderful sights we encountered, via my Stories (before they disappear).

I've finished off the month with an uptick in reading: the first two books in Barbara Hambly's James Asher vampire series (combining two of my favourite things: vampires, and Barbara Hambly; lirazel, you were absolutely right, I adore these books!), and a memoir by Huma Qureshi called How We Met. The latter was a gentle, sweet book about how she and her husband fell in love. She is the daughter of Pakistani (and Muslim) immigrants to the UK, her husband is a white British man, and she was raised fairly conservatively, with expectations of an arranged marriage after university. What felt really refreshing about her experiences is that hers is not the story of a woman 'escaping' the restrictions of an oppressive religion and culture (to be clear: I don't think that Islam, or Pakistani migrant communities in the UK are such a thing, just that this is normally the cliché of how relationships such as Qureshi's and her husband's are portrayed). Instead, her now-husband converted to Islam, and her story is one of two people bringing their own experiences, backgrounds, and values together, to build something new, without needing to give up deeply-held, deeply-felt beliefs. Qureshi makes it clear that the pressure to marry was damaging to her, but that she had no desire to rebel against the norms of her family and community, and resists setting up a dichotomy between her religious and cultural background, and discarding all that for 'rebellion' and 'freedom' — for her, although her choice of husband led to a challenging situation, choosing him was not an act of rebellion and instead it enabled her to find the married happiness expected by her family.

Finally, I read one of my most anticipated books of 2021, The Mask Falling, the fourth in Samantha Shannon's amazing Bone Season fantasy dystopia. I reviewed it on my longform reviews blog:

The Mask Falling is a perfect midpoint to this brilliant dystopian series. It broadens and deepens our understanding of this richly imagined world, and every new corner explored feels lived-in and redolent with history. Old characters return after several books’ absence, and we have a clearer view of their roles and motivations. We meet new characters who draw Paige’s story forward. She and Arcturus finally have the time to think about their relationship — shared traumas, deceptions, power imbalances and all. And the book ends on a cliffhanger that had me both cursing Shannon’s diabolical genius, and applauding her skill at drawing so many different threads together into such a intriguing tapestry.

The day is somewhat running away from me, so I will leave things here, as I have a bit of cooking to do (meal prep for next week, turning a huge bunch of green chilli into shatta — a delicious pickle from Sami Tamimi's Falastin cookbook — and dinner), and Matthias and I need to move our belongings from the spare bedroom into the main bedroom. (We'd been sleeping in the spare room until our new bed was delivered and assembled, which happened yesterday.) If there's time I might reread Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver, which feels appropriately wintry. I also need to make time at some point to go through the new Festivids collection (thanks for the link, goodbyebird!).

I hope you've all had good weekends!

Comments

[rekishi]

Ahhhh James Asher. Yes, weirdly I enjoy those books as well, though I didn't expect to!

[dolorosa_12]

I love stories about vampires, but I'm incredibly picky, so I was delighted that they worked for me.

[rekishi]

Yes, same here! Though I'm on the fence about the Simon/Lydia subtext angle always, but that's a very nitpicky thing.

[dolorosa_12]

With the caveat that I've only read the first two books, I've kind of merrily decided that there's James/Lydia/Simon subtext, author's intentions be damned.

[rekishi]

It doesn't get bad mind you.

I'm not even sure what exactly the author's intentions are, mind you, I'm mostly concerned that there is a whiff of dub-con simply because the 'victim' can't actually help the attraction since it's part of the whole vampire shtick. So I tread always very carefully. (It squicks me. I stay away from non-con because I don't need that in my escapism, but dub-con can go so many ways that I will read it but tread carefully.)

[dhampyresa]

Whet do/don't you like about vampire stories?

[dolorosa_12]

It's kind of hard to articulate, because it's more of an 'I know it when I see it' situation than any universal rules that will guarantee I love/despise an individual vampire story. I don't like it when vampires are basically humans who drink blood, and I generally don't like it if 'good' vampires are able to get around the rules for blood-drinking by drinking animal blood. At the other end of the spectrum, I dislike vampire stories when the vampires are driven to zombie-like slavering incoherence so that they're basically animals incapable of conscious understanding of what they're doing.

I also really dislike stories where vampires (or other supernatural beings) are written as a metaphor for real-world minority groups, or people who face real-world discrimination (e.g. gay people, people of colour, etc). I dislike this trope because — unlike real-world margnialised people — vampires are dangerous, and often murderers, so being scared of them is kind of justified! In the real world, groups of marginalised individuals are not a violent, dangerous threat to the people who are oppressing them, but if you use vampires as a metaphor, that's kind of what you're implying.

I like vampire stories where vampires' immortality and need to prey on human beings (while also observing the long sweep of human history) has an obvious effect on the vampires' personalities, morality (or lack thereof), and attitudes towards human beings. I like it when the narrative really leans into their codependence with humans, and when their interaction with human beings forms a major part of the plot (if the story is just vampires, I'm less interested). Some stories I've enjoyed include Robin McKinley's Sunshine, Daybreakers (where vampires are a metaphor for climate change and consumerism), Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the first season of Being Human, Buffy and Angel (with some reservations), some of Anne Rice's early novels. And now the James Asher books, I suppose!

I hope that rambly answer helped. I don't think I can ever be specific enough with this. I just know what I like when I see it, and know what doesn't work for me when I see it, too!

[dhampyresa]

Thank you for answering. Although for some reason I though "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown" was about fae, not vampires.

[dolorosa_12]

Most of Holly Black's other books are about fae, but this one is about vampires, so it's an easy mistake to make.

[dhampyresa]

I haven't read the James Asher novels myself (reading books? in this economy brain?), but I do love Hambly's Benjamin January books. I'd be curious to hear more of your thoughts on these books.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm going to come back to this comment (as well as your question about vampire stories) a bit later this week when I have higher energy levels to answer in detail, but I just wanted to let you know that I have read it and I will respond as soon as I can.

[dhampyresa]

Please don't worry about it and take whatever time you need or want <3

[dolorosa_12]

So, the James Asher books. I came to these books as someone who, like you, loves the Benjamin January series. I think Benjamin January is the better series (bearing in mind I have read almost the entire Benjamin January series, but only two James Asher books), but I have still enjoyed Hambly's vampire books so far.

They're set in the early twentieth century. The title character is a former spy who was sent around the world doing various iniquitous things in aid of the British government, and is now working as a philology lecturer at the University of Oxford. He and his wife (who has a medical degree, but, due to her gender, is stuck as a sort of amateur medical researcher rather than a practising doctor) find themselves caught up in the dangerous political struggles of a secret community of vampires, and each novel sees them solving a case that involves vampire and human politics, and various issues of the era (e.g. scientific discoveries, social issues etc). If you've ever read/watched other works of fiction about supernatural mysteries/crimes in the 19th or early 20th centuries, the series is very similar to that kind of story.

I especially enjoy the main trio of characters: James Asher, his wife Lydia, and Don Isidro, the vampire they end up helping. I love their dynamic, and in my head (although I feel only subtextually in the books, at least in the first two) all three are in love with each other.

[dhampyresa]

his wife (who has a medical degree, but, due to her gender, is stuck as a sort of amateur medical researcher rather than a practising doctor)
Hi again, Rose!

Thank you so much for answering! Do you like what they did with vampires?

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, I love the vampires in the series so far.

Hi again, Rose!

Ha! I hadn't thought of that, but she definitely has a type of character — a person with a brilliant scientific mind, unable to use it to the full extent due to social prejudice. Benjamin January himself is this type of character as well, and Chloë Viellard too.

[worlds_of_smoke]

I have The Mask Falling waiting for me at the library. :D

[dolorosa_12]

I hope you enjoy it! I thought it was amazing.

[chestnut_pod]

I have a different Huma Qureshi working its way up my holds list -- I am excited to hear she has other books and that they are good.

[dolorosa_12]

Meanwhile, I wasn't aware she had written anything other than How We Met (besides a contribution to the In Spite of Oceans anthology. I hope you enjoy her book!

[frayadjacent]

I completely agree the weather has been absolute crap this year. In Leeds it's basically hovered near/just above 0, and almost always been wet, so it's just an icy/slushy/muddy mess on my daily morning walk and I am so over it. Like you, I really miss the cold clear weather that we usually get at least a little bit.

I loved Spinning Silver!

[dolorosa_12]

Ugh, that sounds hideous! It has been an utterly dreadful winter — a slushy, muddy mess, as you say.

Spinning Silver is one of my favourite books, and I felt it was high time for a reread.

[lirazel]

I hope spring comes early for you!

I am so, so pleased that you enjoyed the James Asher books! I really thought you would! (Did you like the scene in the catacombs with the priest!vampire??? That's my favorite piece of vampire-related anything I've ever read, I think.)

What felt really refreshing about her experiences is that hers is not the story of a woman 'escaping' the restrictions of an oppressive religion and culture Instead, her now-husband converted to Islam, and her story is one of two people bringing their own experiences, backgrounds, and values together, to build something new, without needing to give up deeply-held, deeply-felt beliefs. Qureshi makes it clear that the pressure to marry was damaging to her, but that she had no desire to rebel against the norms of her family and community, and resists setting up a dichotomy between her religious and cultural background, and discarding all that for 'rebellion' and 'freedom' — for her, although her choice of husband led to a challenging situation, choosing him was not an act of rebellion and instead it enabled her to find the married happiness expected by her family.

I rarely read contemporary memoirs, but this makes me want to! It sounds absolutely lovely!

[dolorosa_12]

The scene in the catacombs is amazing, and the priest-vampire is one of the best vampire characters I've ever encountered. You would think that a character like that would either not be vampiric enough, or not be religious (and specifically medieval Catholic) enough, but Hambly does a great job at marrying the two sides of his identity and creating a character who is so utterly believable.

I don't read memoirs that often either (although weirdly in the past month I also read Barack Obama's new memoir, as well as Qureshi's book), but I follow Qureshi on Instagram and her book sounded so intriguing that I decided to give it a go.

[lirazel]

the priest-vampire is one of the best vampire characters I've ever encountered

AGREED. I actually wasn't that crazy about the rest of the first book (I think I just didn't like the main plot), but gosh. What a scene. What a character. That was the reason I kept reading the series, and I really came to be very fond of it, so I'm glad I did!