yuletide_coal | The rest of the exchange year...

Yes, this is EXTREMELY BROAD. If you're requesting a book this year, rec it to me. If it helps inspire people, I especially like female characters, horror, and rural/wilderness settings, but don't let that stop you from trying to sell me on a book that has none of those things if it's something you really want fic for.

Some books I'm thinking about requesting that have at least one of those things: An Enchantment of Ravens, Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge, the Bone Witch trilogy, River of Teeth, and the Arc of a Scythe trilogy! Happy to provide more details on any of 'em.

ayrt

Having googled them all, I'm particularly intrigued by An Enchantment of Ravens. I think I'll try to pick that one up, and I've put some of the others on my "maybe to-read" list. Thanks for the recs!

I especially like female characters, horror, and rural/wilderness settings

I'm still deciding what to request this year, but I would love recs for books that hit these things. (Especially if you're requesting any and there is a chance I will love the book and then immediately have a chance to write Yuletide fic for it.)

ayrt

I am probably requesting the Innsmouth Legacy books! Lovecraft mythos, about one of his near-human monsters trying to get her life back together after her culture was destroyed and her family left to die in an internment camp circa WWII. I loved the first book, and the second book just came out. They've got this melancholy feel to them that I really love.

For other books featuring one or more of those things:
- Left Hand of Darkness is half a wilderness survival tale about trekking across an ice field, and there is not enough (or possibly any?) shippy fix-it fic for it. No horror or women, though.

- The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon is about several generations of women guarding a secret on their property in rural Maine, and it's one of those stories where the reveal is even more horrifying than the buildup. I rec with caution, because the treatment of the Native American side character is really fucking racist, but there's a lot of interesting post-book fic you could write that would avoid dealing with her, and I found everything else about the worldbuilding and horror elements really satisfying.

- The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson are both psychological horror novels about women in geographically isolated circumstances with opportunities for femslash, if you're into that. Incestuous femslash, in the latter case.

- The Lie Tree and Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge are both YA historical horror/dark fantasy about female characters, with the kind of low-grade spookiness you'd expect from Neil Gaiman, but stronger conflict and characterization.

Thank you! Of these, I've only read the Left Hand of Darkness, and I can't wait to read the others.

ayrt

Woohoo! Feel free to drop back by once you read them, even if you don't end up requesting. I'm always up for talking about them!

Have you read LMM's The Blue Castle? No horror, it is in fact a very lovely and uplifting story about a woman living in a dull and oppressive situation who finds out she's going to die and so decides she will have to make the most of the time she has left. There is a lot of exploration/appreciation/descriptions of Canadian wilderness and snowy landscapes and also a really charming love story.

ayrt

I have indeed. It's my favorite Montgomery, in fact. You have excellent taste, nonnie. Are you going to be requesting it, do you think?

It's on my 'strong contender' list!

NA

I love Blue Castle, but I wonder if anyone's considering nominating or requesting Jane of Lantern Hill. It's my absolute favourite, but in some ways I can see why Blue Castle is more often requested. There just feels more room to expand in Blue Castle, and Lantern Hill is almost too perfect.

(this coalie is definitely due a re-read of both.)

Jane of Lantern Hill is right up there, tied with TBC as my fav Montgomery novel! Like you say, though, it's so satisfying on its own that I've never felt the need for fanfic of it.

You've probably already read Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. If not, run don't walk - it's about a young girl who gets lost in the wilderness, and there's elements of horror though it doesn't totally fit in that genre. It's also just a really great book.

Rosemary Kirstein's "Steerswoman" series (4 books so far) has female main characters and unusual rural and wilderness settings, and book 3 has strong horror elements. It's about a world where a guild of proto-scientists called Steerswomen are bound to honestly answer any question they're asked, and anyone who meets them must honestly answer any question they ask or no Steerswoman will ever speak to them again. I don't think the first book is that great but the next three are phenomenal. It's best read unspoiled which is why I'm not describing the plot.

ayrt

I have indeed already read that King! I've had the Steerswoman books on my to-read list for a while, but nobody had ever told me what they were about before, so thank you!

The rest of the exchange year...

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

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Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books

Re: Rec me a canon - books