For the first time in my life, I’m in love… with a video game. My relationships with MarioKart and Star Wars Episode I: Racer (the podracing game) for the N64 were decades ago and were never truly fulfilling. I don’t think it was those games’ fault. After all, I was young. But after nearly 200 … Continue reading Nine Witchy and Whimsical Books for Fans of Wylde Flowers
About That Taylor Swift/Jane Austen Connection... NOTE: I’d like to start by pointing out that idea for this post pre-dates my last post, my not-review of The Darcy Myth by Rachel Feder, and in fact at least half this I had already written before I even started reading that book. But in one chapter of The Darcy Myth, Feder … Continue reading Did Anyone Ever Try Telling Marianne Dashwood to Shake It Off?
A Not-Review of Rachel Feder's 'The Darcy Myth' When a TikTok user asked me a little over a year ago what the opposite of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl would be, I responded with a video about the Depressed Goblin Nightmare Boy. The label is obviously reverse-engineered in response to the MPDG, but the archetype has … Continue reading Sexy Vampyres, Literary Fuccbois, and the Unbuilt Trope
Jane Austen, Gilmore Girls, and the Social Microcosm of the Small Town Paris: Worship Kerouac and Bukowski. God forbid you pick up anything by Jane Austen. Jess: Hey, I’ve read Jane Austen. And I think she would have liked Bukowski. –Gilmore Girls, S2E16: “There’s the Rub” I recently began my annual Gilmore Girls rewatch, a show that … Continue reading “A Neighbourhood of Voluntary Spies”
It has been 48 hours since I saw Barbie and I have spent at least six of those hours watching fan reaction videos on TikTok and weeping at both the joy and the pain of the shared experiences of girlhood and womanhood in a world run by men that the movie explores. I’m doing fine! I’ve seen … Continue reading Books You Should Read if You Loved ‘Barbie’
Do you love romance? Do you love fantasy? Do you want to read books that have both? Did you already read ACOTAR and/or Fourth Wing, or another heavily-hyped book in a similar vein, and find them unimpressive? Then this post is for you. “Romantasy,” a portmanteau of romance and fantasy, is a growing subgenre that combines elements of both genres, … Continue reading The Six (At Least) Degrees of Romantasy [INFOGRAPHIC]
Ed. note: over the past 10+ years, I’ve written a lot of blog posts and casual essays about my love of Jane Austen and the intersection of Austen’s work with pop culture, and I recently had the notion of attempting to synthesize all these pieces into a larger project. Whether this project ends up being … Continue reading My Friend Jane
About a week ago there was a semi-viral tweet going around, asking respondents to name non-Star Wars characters who would be good Jedi. Most of the answers predictably included characters from big SFF franchises like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and the MCU, plus action movie icons like Jason Bourne, Ellen Ripley, and … Continue reading Jane Austen and the Jedi
the sister genre to the '90s Dad Thriller Note: I first posted this on my brand new Substack publication, which you can most definitely subscribe to if you feel so inclined. I don't know yet what exactly I'm going to do here vs. over there, if I'm going to write different things for each, etc. … Continue reading Exploring the ’90s Mom Romcom
Because I participate at varying levels of involvement in online fandoms for several franchises/media works, I often see fans posing questions like "who would win in a fight, [insert character] or [insert other character]?" Basically, discussions that are overwhelmingly concerned with powerscaling and/or combat skills as if they're playing League of Legends or something. Like … Continue reading The Best & Worst Fictional Characters to Invite to Your Book Club
Rhonda With A Book 