Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Ivy Gamble is a private investigator with a secret: her sister Tabitha is a mage who teaches at a magic high school. They are estranged, but that’s about to change when Ivy is hired by the school principal to solve a murder that occurred on campus at the beginning of the school year. As Ivy acquaints herself with the campus and its characters, she searches for clues as to who killed Sylvia Capley in the school library. She begins to reestablish a relationship with her sister and discovers that Tabitha, too, is harboring secrets.

Lies and manipulations abound in Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, a murder mystery which explores the secrets and tragedies that make us lie to each other and to ourselves.

The Pet Loss Companion by Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio and Nancy Saxton-Lopez

It’s a hard thing, losing a pet, and some people don’t understand the depth of the grief that can come after. They might say, “It’s just an animal,” or “Just get another one,” as though anyone else could replace the individual friend with whom you shared an intimate bond.

Family therapists Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio and Nancy Saxton-Lopez understand, and their book The Pet Loss Companion is a guide to grieving the death of a beloved pet. The book answers questions about the grief and heartache people feel when they lose an animal companion, explains why the loss causes a unique grief, and gives advice on how to care for yourself after such a loss.

The Pet Loss Companion by Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio and Nancy Saxton-Lopez

Eon and Eona by Alison Goodman

Warnings: Discussions of ableism, misogyny, sexual assault, and transphobia.

Alison Goodman’s duology, Eon and Eona, is about a young person in training to be a Dragoneye, one of the 12 masters in the Empire of the Celestial Dragons whose connection with a dragon gives them the power to control the weather and bring prosperity to the empire. It is a series full of political intrigue, sword battles, and interpersonal struggle.

If you are looking for a book that features female warriors, dragons, and nuanced discussions of gender… look elsewhere.

• 

• 

Book 30: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Yes, I know this is one of the five books I read last year.

Yes, I know I’m meant to be reading new books and cleaning off my shelves.

No, I don’t care.

 

So here’s an unlikely confession: I never shipped Drarry.

I know! It’s a classic! It’s Enemies to Lovers, one of the greatest tropes of all time! In Philosopher’s Stone, Harry rejected Draco’s offer of friendship, so for the rest of their time at Hogwarts, Draco takes it upon himself to make Harry miserable. In Chamber of Secrets, we discover that Draco complains about Harry in the Slytherin common room regularly. In Half Blood Prince, Harry follows Draco around, to the dismay of Hermione and Ron. Harry thinks more about Draco than his own future-love-of-his-life, Ginny. I mean… They’re obsessed with each other.

It’s all right there, being subtext, ripe for the picking.^[1]

Truth be told, I never shipped any of the characters in Harry Potter. Shipping just wasn’t on my radar for that series. There were so many other interesting things going on—Who has time for romance?

Book 29: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

So, you know how I was just talking about how some books are destined to be read forever as a reflection of the time they were written in?

Yeah.

Fuckin’ Hank Green, man.

Book 28: Archival Quality by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz

Last year, I read John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down, which is about a teenage girl who has OCD. Some stories about mental illness are inspiration porn—somebody overcomes their mental illness and gets better forever, and it’s such a relief to them, and also romantic love is what fixes them.

Green doesn’t do that. He writes about OCD as someone who knows it intimately, and he doesn’t pull any punches. Ava “got better without ever quite getting well” (281).

And yet other stories are torture porn—everything is done for shock value and the portrayal of mental illness is dangerously inaccurate and harmful. 13 Reasons Why (2017–present) immediately comes to mind, though I have to add the disclaimer that I haven’t watched it. I’ve just seen a lot of criticism of the way it handles suicide.

Additionally, people who are mentally ill are portrayed as violent and dangerous in the media (see pretty much every crime procedural and any video game that takes place in an asylum), when statistically, the exact opposite is true. People with mental illnesses are much more likely to be on the receiving end of violence.

…Popular culture just doesn’t do well with portraying mental illness accurately and in a way that isn’t harmful.

There are outliers, of course. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015–present) is very careful about the way it handles mental illness. I really loved United States of Tara (2009–2011), though I’m sure it’s problematic in some ways. Silver Linings Playbook (2012) got a lot of praise for its portrayal of bipolar disorder. No portrayal is perfect, but shows and movies that try hard to get it right really feel different.

Book 27: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Books, whatever their subject matter, create a snapshot of the time they were created in. They tell us what people were thinking about at the time they were written. The stories we choose to tell say a lot about who we are.^[1]

Stories are how we create the narrative of our history. Books written today will be part of history and part of how we tell our history. News articles aren’t going to be read by the masses in 50 years, but novels are. Every high schooler in the United States reads The Great Gatsby, and its portrayal of “the Roaring Twenties” is generally how people picture that time period. As far as anyone living knows, that’s exactly what it was like (for wealthy white Americans in that region, anyway).

I’m not an expert, so I don’t know, but I wonder if it would be safe to say that the books that really last, the ones that will be added to the literary canon, are the ones that capture important cultural moments.

The Hate U Give will surely be one of those.

Book 26: The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The romance and romantic comedy genres have a lot to offer. They explore a lot of themes that are common to everyone—and I’m not actually talking about the theme of romantic love, because aromantic people exist. I saw Crazy Rich Asians (2018) recently, and that movie is all about class and immigrant families. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), one of my favorites, is about family. Love, Simon (2018) is a coming-of-age story. Romantic relationships are just the avenue romantic comedies take to explore these things.

People have been making and enjoying romantic comedies since people first started telling stories. (Before that, they probably just enjoyed watching their neighbors’ dramatic love lives unfold.) People have different opinions on what makes a good, classic romantic comedy. We define “romantic comedy” as a story in which the lovers have to overcome some obstacle to be together and in which they do end up together (thus satisfying the classical definition of a comedy), and there are many, many variations on the theme. No movie is going to satisfy everybody’s criteria, and no one has ever been completely satisfied with defining one romantic comedy as the be-all-end-all of romantic comedies (which is probably why we keep making them). But there are maybe five romantic comedies everyone can all agree are perfect.

And this one leaves them all behind.

Book 25: Heathen Vol. 1 by Natasha Alterici

I have… mixed feelings about marriage.

On one hand, it’s an oppressive institution that creates two classes of citizens under tax and social codes and is part of a history of patriarchal control of women and their assets.

On the other hand, it’s a symbol of commitment for people who fall in love and want to spend their lives together, and that’s beautiful! It’s even more beautiful now that everyone can legally marry their partner regardless of their gender in many countries.

True marriage equality is a long way away, even in countries that have legalized same-sex marriage. Aside from bigots who want to repeal it or who refuse to issue marriage licenses, there are a lot of barriers to marriage for people with disabilities and for low income people, and even when marriage equality is a reality, the economic disparities between married people and unmarried people will need to be addressed.

Also, you know, ~the patriarchy~ and heteronormativity. That part might matter less now, but it’s still baked into how marriage works, both interpersonally and on a societal level, and just because marriage is more about a loving partnership these days doesn’t mean the patriarchy and heteronormativity don’t take their tolls.

Book 24: Borderline by Mishell Baker

Content/Trigger Warning: Discussion of abuse, mental illness, and a suicide attempt. I also touch on the racism and ableism that the characters display in the book, though I should mention that the author makes them that way intentionally.

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three and you don’t want spoilers, stop reading right now! I’m about to talk about the show, before the cut, so spoilers are coming right up, immediately. You’ve been warned!

 

In season three of the TV show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca Bunch is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.^[1] BPD is a mental illness that is often vilified and, as with most mental illnesses, mischaracterized in most popular portrayals. But Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has been praised for its discussion of social stigmas about mental illness. The first season’s theme song addresses this immediately.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s theme song asks for people to take a nuanced view of Rebecca’s behavior and her mental illness and to not just label her as “a crazy ex-girlfriend.” “The situation’s a lot more nuanced than that,” she points out to the animated singing heads.

Given that most portrayals of mental illness are trite, inaccurate, and played for shock value, it’s refreshing when a portrayal is honest and nuanced. Even if seeing it that way can kind of be uncomfortable at the same time.