Another plus to her writing is the way she allows us to see and understand the actions of all the characters and the reasons they are how they are. Even the main villain. Also, I cannot say it enough. Whitneyâs world building is fantastic! You might think including so many factions might be overwhelming, but it truly is not. She makes it all work, and work in a way that pushes you to dive headfirst into each book.
Author Nisha J Tuli had a video of hers go viral this last week (Over 3 million views viral), because she âincluded a highlighted and annotated look at the first line of the Trial of the Sun Queenâ. Nisha was laughing because so many of those views were from people freaking out that she dared to write in her own book. I mean, people going nuts because the author of the book wrote in one of her many copies of the book she wrote, is a sign that people are wound wayyyyy too tightly. We love our books, but as Nisha herself puts it, âYes. Stories are certainly precious. The actual books? Not as much!â
Never have I ever come across this magical skill in a book before. Verityâs magic is directly related to art. Paintings. Her abilities allow her to restore artwork, not just deftly, but magically, as she channels the master painters who did the original piece. She recreates exactly what the masters did when they painted the first time around. Stunning right? I know!
I had snark! I had independence! I had romance, but not the icky squishy kind; it was love where the woman could still be her brave, action sheroe self. I thought this was it. This is the goal. This is what I have been waiting to read and have access to read all my life. And honestly, I still love those authors. I comfort read their books, and I am always searching for authors like them. It is all AMAZING work. But. They are not my unicorn treasures.
Because you begin to unconsciously absorb what the âimportantâ people look like. What they sound like. What they think like. Your vision of the âright worldâ and the âright cultureâ is shaped by people who seem to not even know or probably care that you exist. Your subconscious begins to be unwittingly shaped into a very colonial controlled space.
I did promise author chats as well, right? Well, Selene Kallan shall be my first. And not just because she makes me blubber like a baby. Her writing makes me scream in vindictive joy, feel warm and fuzzy inside, as she skilfully slides me into a beautiful book coma.