Part of why I sought treatment is because I knew so many people who had been helped, and that I wasn't alone. I do wish that more people hadn't categorised mental health treatment as something that would destroy creativity, though, because that kept me away from longer than was really good for me. And when I did get help, the meds actually improved my ability to create, not lessened it.
I so hear you on the urban fantasy thing. I love the genre, adore it. I read early Anita Blake and Diana Tregarde and wished so much that there were more stories out there. And now that there are, it's just, so many of them are white-washed and misogynistic and erase or totally fail on anything related to sexuality and gender. I'm sick of books where I can predict the formula of tough kickass chick needing help from Hot Dudely Dude and then being TSTL all over the place even though we've been told that she is supposedly Hot Shit but is making all these asinine mistakes (bonus points when she also is raging into the hero for NO GOOD REASON) and manages to, through her utter stupidity, arrogance and inability to listen to all the other people around her who are making sense, get in a position where she needs Hot Dudely Dude to rescue her.
I mean, I don't mind the stories where the final showdown is such that they have to work together and are equals, but most of the time, it winds up in the supposedly tough chick being the damsel in distress because OH we can't have a woman who is EQUAL to the hero, NOPE, can't possibly have that. /bitter
Um. Anyway.
Urban fantasy that is non-fail!
Black Blade Blues and Honeyed Words by JA Pitts. I am disappointed and annoyed that the author is a man, however, this is some of the best urban fantasy with a lesbian heroine that I've read. The first book, admittedly, annoyed me because the heroine is dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia from growing up with her very fundamentalist Christian family in the midwest, and one of the subplots is the issues it causes between her and her girlfriend. She basically wants to stay closeted, girlfriend is not down with that, especially since they live in the Seattle area (where overwhelmingly, nobody gives a fuck). It's not unrealistic, it's very well done, but it's not the story I wanted to read, which is lesbian heroine has adventures AND gets the girl.
HOWEVER. Book #2 totally is what I wanted to read, and it is worth reading book #1, which again, is still well done.
Um. *thinks*
The World of the Lupi books by Eileen Wilks are excellent. They are a paranormal romance/urban fantasy series following and alternating between two couples. The first heroine is Asian (although I don't remember particulars because it's been so long since reading them), and it's pretty well done. ISTR there are other characters of color, although, again, I don't remember particulars. Can't recall if there are GBLT characters. But the women are awesome. The way I would describe these books is like Joss Whedon's Angel (which is darker than Buffy and deals more with the fantasy/alternate worlds side) without the misogynistic fail. Cynna, who doesn't come in until the second book, is freaking amazing and my favorite character, although the first heroine (whose name I am blanking on and my fucking browser is throwing fits so I don't want to open another window to look it up) rocks too. These are particularly unusual in that the women characters are, imo, more powerful than the guys. Not that the guys aren't powerful, Rule being a werewolf alpha and Cullen being a powerful sorcerer, but they definitely do not fall into the trap of devaluing the women's abilities in order to make the heroes tough and appealing to straight women's fantasies.
And then there is the demon questioning imp demon, who is all kinds of awesome. Who eventually mostly identifies as female, but is very confused about this whole gender business in the first place.
I just finished Anna Dressed In Blood, which is a ghost story involving a scary, kickass ghost girl and the ghost hunter who falls in love with her. If you took Supernatural and made it about one ghost hunter rather than two, and made it about teens, and added a kickass Wiccan light witch mom, and took away the misogynistic fail, you'd have this book. Slight spoiler: Anna KICKS ASS in the final showdown and actually saves the dude's ass. I loved it so much.
The Edge series by Ilona Andrews is really good, and I don't... think.... too fail. The women definitely are strong, and not artificially so, and I particularly love the setting and worldbuilding. My memory on these is a little foggy (unfortunately, my memory is shit and usually after a few weeks, details about books become really blurred), but I really loved them. Although I don't recall GBLT/character of color representation being great.
There are other books I liked but these are the least problematic that I can think of. If you want ones that may be problematic but I liked, I can list those too!
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Date: 2012-01-04 02:03 am (UTC)Part of why I sought treatment is because I knew so many people who had been helped, and that I wasn't alone. I do wish that more people hadn't categorised mental health treatment as something that would destroy creativity, though, because that kept me away from longer than was really good for me. And when I did get help, the meds actually improved my ability to create, not lessened it.
I so hear you on the urban fantasy thing. I love the genre, adore it. I read early Anita Blake and Diana Tregarde and wished so much that there were more stories out there. And now that there are, it's just, so many of them are white-washed and misogynistic and erase or totally fail on anything related to sexuality and gender. I'm sick of books where I can predict the formula of tough kickass chick needing help from Hot Dudely Dude and then being TSTL all over the place even though we've been told that she is supposedly Hot Shit but is making all these asinine mistakes (bonus points when she also is raging into the hero for NO GOOD REASON) and manages to, through her utter stupidity, arrogance and inability to listen to all the other people around her who are making sense, get in a position where she needs Hot Dudely Dude to rescue her.
I mean, I don't mind the stories where the final showdown is such that they have to work together and are equals, but most of the time, it winds up in the supposedly tough chick being the damsel in distress because OH we can't have a woman who is EQUAL to the hero, NOPE, can't possibly have that. /bitter
Um. Anyway.
Urban fantasy that is non-fail!
Black Blade Blues and Honeyed Words by JA Pitts. I am disappointed and annoyed that the author is a man, however, this is some of the best urban fantasy with a lesbian heroine that I've read. The first book, admittedly, annoyed me because the heroine is dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia from growing up with her very fundamentalist Christian family in the midwest, and one of the subplots is the issues it causes between her and her girlfriend. She basically wants to stay closeted, girlfriend is not down with that, especially since they live in the Seattle area (where overwhelmingly, nobody gives a fuck). It's not unrealistic, it's very well done, but it's not the story I wanted to read, which is lesbian heroine has adventures AND gets the girl.
HOWEVER. Book #2 totally is what I wanted to read, and it is worth reading book #1, which again, is still well done.
Um. *thinks*
The World of the Lupi books by Eileen Wilks are excellent. They are a paranormal romance/urban fantasy series following and alternating between two couples. The first heroine is Asian (although I don't remember particulars because it's been so long since reading them), and it's pretty well done. ISTR there are other characters of color, although, again, I don't remember particulars. Can't recall if there are GBLT characters. But the women are awesome. The way I would describe these books is like Joss Whedon's Angel (which is darker than Buffy and deals more with the fantasy/alternate worlds side) without the misogynistic fail. Cynna, who doesn't come in until the second book, is freaking amazing and my favorite character, although the first heroine (whose name I am blanking on and my fucking browser is throwing fits so I don't want to open another window to look it up) rocks too. These are particularly unusual in that the women characters are, imo, more powerful than the guys. Not that the guys aren't powerful, Rule being a werewolf alpha and Cullen being a powerful sorcerer, but they definitely do not fall into the trap of devaluing the women's abilities in order to make the heroes tough and appealing to straight women's fantasies.
And then there is the demon questioning imp demon, who is all kinds of awesome. Who eventually mostly identifies as female, but is very confused about this whole gender business in the first place.
I just finished Anna Dressed In Blood, which is a ghost story involving a scary, kickass ghost girl and the ghost hunter who falls in love with her. If you took Supernatural and made it about one ghost hunter rather than two, and made it about teens, and added a kickass Wiccan light witch mom, and took away the misogynistic fail, you'd have this book. Slight spoiler: Anna KICKS ASS in the final showdown and actually saves the dude's ass. I loved it so much.
The Edge series by Ilona Andrews is really good, and I don't... think.... too fail. The women definitely are strong, and not artificially so, and I particularly love the setting and worldbuilding. My memory on these is a little foggy (unfortunately, my memory is shit and usually after a few weeks, details about books become really blurred), but I really loved them. Although I don't recall GBLT/character of color representation being great.
There are other books I liked but these are the least problematic that I can think of. If you want ones that may be problematic but I liked, I can list those too!