strange and random happenstance: Rory Gilmore

The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar by Seana Kelly
Published by: NYLA
Publication Date: October 13th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 296 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Despite her past Sam Quinn has made a pretty decent life for herself. She owns and operates The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar in San Francisco, because everyone needs a good book and a stiff drink. Her establishment welcomes all, vampires, wicches, demons, selkies, dwarves, fae, what have you. But Sam is the only werewolf allowed. No exceptions. See traumatic past. Situated magically beneath Land's End nestled into the cliff face at the waterline the killer views of the bay, both above and below the waterline during high tide, are about to get even deadlier as a body slams into the glass. Female, naked, torn up. The body is slashed. That could have easily happened because of the rocks in the bay. Who knows how long she was in the water. But the scars match Sam's own. What's more, the victim was a werewolf. Which means Sam needs to call her Uncle Marcus. Someone she does not want to talk to. See traumatic past. She is literally feels she is a lone wolf and has no one to turn to. But someone has to know who this woman was. Which becomes a secondary concern once Sam's very survival is at risk. After closing she's attacked. She barely escapes with her life. And she can't even catch a break in her subconscious which is the next stop on Sam's Repressed Horrors Roundup. And then her brain turns against her while awake with a deadly vision. Seven years of hiding and learning has led her to this moment and she's rescued by a vampire. Clive. She was a sitting duck but thankfully he sensed her danger. He used his blood to save her from the waking nightmare. Now if only he can save her from whatever she's gotten into, seeing as he's appointed himself her personal bodyguard. But Sam is used to danger. She spent her life with her mother moving from place to place, looking over their shoulders. She never understood their situation until her mother died and the unthinkable happened. All Sam has left of her mother is a necklace that was broken in the recent attack. As the visions keep ensnaring her she doesn't know where the threat is coming from; be it the past or the present, she is in danger from someone. In fact, given her luck, it's probably more than one person gunning for her. Luckily she surprisingly has a bunch of friends and a sexy vampire at her side. Here's hoping it's enough.

The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar is a solid start to Seana Kelly's Sam Quinn series that is wonderfully more inclusive than most urban fantasy series. As in we've got gorgons, we've got demons, we've got selkies, it's not just werewolves, vampires, and witches. Though don't worry, they all make an appearance as well. The problem I had was why does every poor female shifter have to have a tragic backstory? After her mother's death when Sam went to visit her Uncle Marcus, whom she didn't know was a werewolf, she'd been attacked, tortured, raped, and turned. Thankfully not by her Uncle, but given the backstory of most urban fantasy heroines, that was a strong possibility. I just have an unease with this connection between trauma and change. Can't you be a supernatural badass without the baggage? Is sexual assault a prerequisite to be the protagonist of an urban fantasy series? I mean Sookie Stackhouse and Mercy Thompson are probably the biggest survivors out there, but they are not alone. And yes, the statistics bear that so so many women are victims of sexual assault, it's just so uncommonly high within the supernatural community that I feel like we need to stage an intervention. If you're an author thinking of writing an urban fantasy book how much does your book need a traumatized protagonist? Because, if you said it totally has to, well, I'd think again. At least there's redemption in that Sam saves herself, but, did she have to battle her own demons as well as the actual ones? It seems like overkill. But that's just one trope in The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar. The other is a very particular pet peeve of mine. So, you know when a book or a show or a movie has a bookish character they just love books. All books. They are indiscriminate about their love of books. Well. I'm bookish and that's just not how we role. It's not realistic. The worst example of this trope is Rory Gilmore. Rory loves books. She loves all books. Sure, I agree, books are great. But for all bookish people in the world can I say that the only authors in the world aren't Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkien. Rory is endemic of bookish characters. She is not discerning. She loves books. Books, books, books. Here's a thing, I love books too. And yes, I love Austen and Tolkien, but I also have specific authors and subgenres I love. Historical fantasy? That's catnip to me. I don't think Rory or Sam know about subgenres. It's not their fault. It's the role that they play. They are there to be the nerdy girl with her head buried in a good book. The problem is, it's rarely been thought out beyond that. Yes, Rory shows some interest in Russian literature and Sam knows I Am Legend. But whether it's the Richard Matheson book or the movie is up for debate. I just want my bookish buds to embrace all the books out there and find their joy. And have the answer be more than "I like books."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: An Urban Development, Bookish, Bookstore, Clive Fitzwilliam, Female Trauma, Inclusive, Rape, Rory Gilmore, Sam Quinn, San Francisco, Seana Kelly, The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar, Tropes, Urban Fantasy, Vampire, Werewolf

The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: 1997 (written 1849)
Format: Hardcover, 188 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy(different edition than one reviewed)

Edith Adelon was rescued from an Italian orphanage years ago by the kindly Lord Hamilton to be a companion to his daughter Amy. Lord Hamilton has since died and his son Arthur is the current Lord Hamilton and Edith and Amy have grown into lovely young women. Yet Edith has always felt apart, treated by some in the household, in particular Amy and Arthur's cousin Ida, as nothing more than a servant. When Arthur's friend Lord Percy arrives for the summer, Ida can see there is a connection between Edith and the Lord... a connection that Ida wishes to have for herself. Compounding matters, when their house party expands to include Lord Arlington, he too develops feelings for Edith. Also, after a daring rescue, Edith is responsible for saving Amy's life and is now treated by all as family.

Ida will not tolerate the situation she has been placed in. If being devious won't do, she will be downright underhanded. She will make all those who care and respect Edith despise her. Ida will make it look like the girl with the heart of gold who attends to all the ill and poor of the neighborhood is nothing more than a common thief. Yet there is a secret about Edith that she herself is unaware of. A secret that will change everything, perhaps even her chances with Lord Percy.

Surfing the upper cable channels late at night was how I first discovered The Inheritance. This being before I had a handy cable box that told me what I was watching, or even a computer, I'd just catch parts of it every now and then but I never knew what it was. For some reason I've seen the ball scene probably fifty times because of this strange viewing relationship I had with the miniseries. Also, seeing as I seemed to stumble upon it always around two in the morning I'd never be able to stay awake to see how it ended. All I knew was that it was a romance and Thomas Gibson from Dharma and Greg was in it, oh, and the mother from Family Ties. But being a huge Dharma and Greg fan and seeing Thomas Gibson dancing and strutting around in period clothing was enough to keep me hooked. Quite literally years after the fact I finally found out that it was called The Inheritance and was based on one of the very first stories Louisa May Alcott ever wrote, and then I was able to get it from Amazon for about $4!

So over a decade after it was made and probably five years or more after I had stumbled upon it, I finally knew the ending and the beginning and everything in between. I was also amused that the family estate was Rory Gilmore's High School on Gilmore Girls, but that was just a funny aside because that building has been used in almost everything, even Alias used it as some Eastern European Consulate. Now that I finally knew the author was the famed author of Little Women I ordered myself a copy of the book and was excited to get to reading it right away to see how it compared to the miniseries. As is often the case with me, right away means: and over three years later I create a themed event on my blog so that I force myself to pick up books I've been meaning to read for years. Hence me and The Inheritance finally set a date to meet each other. At least it took a lot less time than getting me to watch that miniseries in full...

The first thing that stuck me about the book was how much the miniseries had changed it! I'm not talking about little things here and there, but that this book is set in England not Concord, Massachusetts, and one of the main characters who I should add is long dead in the book is magically alive in the miniseries only to die tragically. At first I could see no correlation between the two. I was more than a little confused. The book and the miniseries where done in the same year, so at first I thought, maybe the people behind the miniseries where given just a vague outline of the plot and they just made up the rest... but then little things started to pop up which I recognized. The daring cliff rescue, the horse jumping the wall... little things that made me realize that yes, this was, in it's barest essence, the same thing.

Personally, I don't know whether it's because I saw the miniseries first, but the truth is, I far enjoyed the miniseries over reading the book. Edith was a little too good. She was a goody two-shoes. Always suffering silently and working to help the poor and willing to risk her life and her reputation for promises and oaths. How did she suffer from unwanted attention! Dear me, the horrors of men liking her, please. How Ida not loving her pained her most of all. Blah blah blah. She needs a backbone! Also, I know this is in all probability the earliest work of Louisa May Alcott, until something else comes along, but, unlike authors like Austen who where quite developed at this young age, you can tell the youth of the author. Everything is so juvenile and kind of badly written and repetitive. How I wish that Louisa had gone back to this story as a more mature writer, because I think she could have made this a masterpiece, instead it feels like a clunky rough draft of her childhood fantasies.