My Sister Rosa

[psocoptera]

Justine Larbalestier's latest makes for very depressing reading given current events. It's well done, just, bleah. Nothing I needed. Major content warning behind the first spoiler cut, further discussion behind the second.
1.Child harm, child death.
2.I guess I just don't get writing books about how things are bleak and hopeless and evil is always going to win because it has more in its arsenal than good. I mean, maybe it's true, but unless you're going past that and talking about how people can try to live in the face of that, what exactly is it that you have to offer? This is probably where I have to disclaim that I just don't understand horror as a genre, I know lots of people like it but I just don't get the point of ugly tragedy. (Cathartic tragedy, yes.)

Comments

[irilyth]

I feel like part of the point of horror is just to give you a particularly intense sensation, whether it's fear or disgust or whatever.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my understanding.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I guess that makes sense.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

I also don't like horror.

I do sometimes like bleak, hopeless stuff, because I feel like most fiction isn't, and occasionally I feel like I'm being confined too much by happy endings. So reading something really bleak feels a little like stretching, and then I can go back to sitting comfortably with the happier stuff. Also if I'm in a really bad place sometimes the thing I think want most is to read/watch something bleak. Although there are certain kinds of bleak that I have zero interest in, and plenty of moods where I'm not that interested either.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I also guess this makes sense. I guess if you end up reading it I'd be curious to hear whether it worked for you, although it may not be the right kind of bleak at all, who knows.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Reading the plot summary on Amazon it sounds like not my kind of thing, although, who knows.