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Reading Wednesday
Jan. 29th, 2025 07:48 amJust finished: The Downloaded 2: Ghosts In the Machine by Robert J. Sawyer. I really enjoyed this one, though there's at least one plot thread that I felt was screaming for a sequel. It deals a lot with the idea that no, even if getting uploaded to the Singularity were an option, there is something to be said for being embodied. And in particular, the fight for embodiment that trans folks must constantly be fighting.
Who We Are In Real Life by Victoria Koops. A great example of why I don't normally read YA. To be fair, the summary sounded really fun, and there were parts of it that were quite good. My nerdy middle school self would have really enjoyed it. But. I have so many issues with it—nearly as many issues as this after school special of a book tries to tackle.
Okay so the plot is Darcy, a bisexual girl with two moms, moves to a small prairie town, leaving her friends and her boyfriend behind. Which turns out to be a good thing as her boyfriend is an abusive ass. She meets Art, a shy nerd who also plays D&D, joins his gaming group, and they fall in love. Meanwhile, she tries to start a QSA at school, but she's blocked by Art's conservative father, who sits on the parent council. Interspersed with their real-life story are scenes from the D&D game, which of course parallels their real life issues. That sounds fun, right?
My big problem with it is that it's an instructional manual for how to be a Good Ally. Presumably it's for straight kids with queer friends like Art, though I'm not sure they need it for the most part, and I feel like most of the teenagers I know have advanced past the Allyship 101 stage. I'm also not sure that the instructions are very good. Art basically does nothing in the book other than receive Darcy's reading list and advice and generally is a nice guy, a feat for which he is rewarded with the love of a hot goth geek girl.
There are other believability issues, with the caveat that I am not particularly familiar with teen culture in rural Saskatchewan. There's an underground QSA at the school, which consists of one of everyone (Cree Two-Spirit, bisexual, nonbinary, ace, questioning). The nonbinary kid wears a they/them badge and they all speak Tumblr Therapy Language and identify themselves by their pronouns and sexual orientation the first time they all hang out. Which...I absolutely do know kids like this, but they are not in an environment where a lesbian family doctor gets a brick thrown through her window. The D&D group is run by two adults who are not related to any of the teenagers in the group. I have a hard time picturing anyone's parents being okay with this. I have a hard time imagining that a gamer kid would have never heard of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I have heard of Dragon Age: Inquisition and I haven't played a video game in 30 years.
If you can stomach lines like: 'You, a cis-straight-White-dude, just told your bisexual ex-girlfriend that you'd do anything for her, except stand up to our super homophobic father, after she apologized to you for not knowing how to leave an abusive relationship," this book might be for you?
I could go on, but I'd just return to, "yeah, and this is why I don't read YA." It's not for me, but I'm also not sure who it's for.
Currently reading: About to start Faust Part 2.
ETA: I forgot the other thing that really bothered me about Who We Are In Real Life, which was that even though Darcy is in an abusive relationship with a guy who bullies and steamrollers her and pressures her into things she doesn't want to do and sends her unsolicited dick pics, the author spends a creepy amount of time assuring us that she's a virgin who hasn't gone "all the way." This isn't a plot point or in any way relevant to the story.
Who We Are In Real Life by Victoria Koops. A great example of why I don't normally read YA. To be fair, the summary sounded really fun, and there were parts of it that were quite good. My nerdy middle school self would have really enjoyed it. But. I have so many issues with it—nearly as many issues as this after school special of a book tries to tackle.
Okay so the plot is Darcy, a bisexual girl with two moms, moves to a small prairie town, leaving her friends and her boyfriend behind. Which turns out to be a good thing as her boyfriend is an abusive ass. She meets Art, a shy nerd who also plays D&D, joins his gaming group, and they fall in love. Meanwhile, she tries to start a QSA at school, but she's blocked by Art's conservative father, who sits on the parent council. Interspersed with their real-life story are scenes from the D&D game, which of course parallels their real life issues. That sounds fun, right?
My big problem with it is that it's an instructional manual for how to be a Good Ally. Presumably it's for straight kids with queer friends like Art, though I'm not sure they need it for the most part, and I feel like most of the teenagers I know have advanced past the Allyship 101 stage. I'm also not sure that the instructions are very good. Art basically does nothing in the book other than receive Darcy's reading list and advice and generally is a nice guy, a feat for which he is rewarded with the love of a hot goth geek girl.
There are other believability issues, with the caveat that I am not particularly familiar with teen culture in rural Saskatchewan. There's an underground QSA at the school, which consists of one of everyone (Cree Two-Spirit, bisexual, nonbinary, ace, questioning). The nonbinary kid wears a they/them badge and they all speak Tumblr Therapy Language and identify themselves by their pronouns and sexual orientation the first time they all hang out. Which...I absolutely do know kids like this, but they are not in an environment where a lesbian family doctor gets a brick thrown through her window. The D&D group is run by two adults who are not related to any of the teenagers in the group. I have a hard time picturing anyone's parents being okay with this. I have a hard time imagining that a gamer kid would have never heard of Dragon Age: Inquisition. I have heard of Dragon Age: Inquisition and I haven't played a video game in 30 years.
If you can stomach lines like: 'You, a cis-straight-White-dude, just told your bisexual ex-girlfriend that you'd do anything for her, except stand up to our super homophobic father, after she apologized to you for not knowing how to leave an abusive relationship," this book might be for you?
I could go on, but I'd just return to, "yeah, and this is why I don't read YA." It's not for me, but I'm also not sure who it's for.
Currently reading: About to start Faust Part 2.
ETA: I forgot the other thing that really bothered me about Who We Are In Real Life, which was that even though Darcy is in an abusive relationship with a guy who bullies and steamrollers her and pressures her into things she doesn't want to do and sends her unsolicited dick pics, the author spends a creepy amount of time assuring us that she's a virgin who hasn't gone "all the way." This isn't a plot point or in any way relevant to the story.
