"Does a Scorpion Sting while Fighting Back?"
Because I'm inclined to believe the serpent was not what hurt Eve the most.
To add onto the metaphor, at the time that I’m writing this, I’m also making the trip to the bookstore to get Leigh Bardugo’s newest novel, The Familiar, which also features a scorpion.
When the coincidences line up a little too well, I say its fate. Both to going on a book spree on such an auspicious day, as well as to unravelling the underlying themes and emotions under the symbol today.
I did intend to publish the April book recs along with the Hot Topic, but I just wasn’t in the mindset to get to it; so we’ll still be getting the book recs, but with some Writing Endeavour updates on, *drum roll*: my pantser-project, Project Scorpion!
You probably forgot about it, which, fair; it is meant to be a casual project, but seeing as my writing mood and focus has not been the strongest and hence, Project Deathless character-writing has been uncertain, thought I might as well get cracking at something.
And boy, crack at something(s) we did.
If my Taylor Swift and Adam and Eve hint has not been lost in translation, then you’d have a good idea about what this month’s book recommendations entail.
In my summary: characters who let their rage and misery fuck shit up and make it the world’s problem, but they’re just a girl in the world, so we low-key or high-key love them for it.
Our first book recommendation is a relatively “underrated” read, given the author’s numeral other series, but that’s exactly why I’m going to be recommending this one today. It’s got a cunning, calculative, down on her luck protagonist, an irksome sibling that seems keen to get in the way, dark forces on their heels, peculiar magic reaching at their desires, and a love interest that’s just as wicked and sly, but just soft enough to make them loveable. But hey, that’s Holly Black for you; whether it’s about faeries, or in this case, shadows.
Book of Night is Holly Black’s first adult series, a modern dark fantasy of “shadowy thieves and secret societies”. In a world where shadows can imbue you with powerful abilities and work magical wonders, so magical they seem to sometimes have a life of their own, is a lowly con-artist named Charlie Hall, well-familiar with this macabre world and determined to stay far away from it. But when a figure from her past comes to pull her back in, there’s nothing left for Charlie to do but put all hands on deck and steer the course to save her narrowing life and future, if she is indeed strong enough to surpass these shadow thieves, mercurial billionaires, and even those she has loved the most: her sister, and her boyfriend, who both seem to have secrets that threaten to jeopardise everything.
While paling in comparison to her widely popular and well-received Folk of the Air or The Spiderwick Chronicles series, as a lot of long-time fans and fantasy readers felt, I think Book of Night definitely offers a new side to Holly Black that we’ve not seen before, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad either. Reading it back in early 2021, it still leaves an aftertaste upon my senses with it’s alluring use and machination of shadow magic, a love interest that though not entirely different, offers a very different charm in comparison to the enigmatic Cardan, and giving us a very seedy underground setting for fantasy that has the feel of the late 2015’s written with a more modern hand. But there’s no mistaking it’s Holly Black throughout this book, and I think perhaps people are just very used to her more expansive and whimsy fantasy to appreciate the points it’s offering in this one.
Charlie as a character is interesting enough; she’s no Jude with her daggers and political-savvy, but she has the sense of a street-smart, thieving urchin who is very understandably and comfortably spiteful: authentic and nuance enough to be called a bitch when she’s just being her bitter self or fending off nasty commenters. I think the scope of her anger and gloom and exhaustion is warranted, not too little for the modern landscape but not too much that it’s comical, and the same goes for many of the characters; and yet, the magic that runs through it never ceases to amaze and sink itself into your mind.
Is it the best thing ever? Is it as good as her other books or even for her usual standard of story and writing? Not really. I definitely see where everyone was coming from with their disappointments with this book, such as saying Charlie was way too unlikeable or the energy was sucked out of the book; but like I said, it’s a very different territory we’re exploring here, and even her previous modern fantasies were done in YA instead of Adult, so there’s definitely room and space for adjustments. But I thought the premise was still really compelling, and the macabre and darkness just as appetising.
Female protagonists just can’t win, can they? If they’re too “sweet” and “weak”, they’re too much of a doormat for readers to love them. If they’re too “temperamental” and “vicious”, they’re essentially a bitch.
And then you have the characters who play the facades and give you a conflicting headache that makes you grit your teeth; but when you’re trapped in a highly-classified prison that could kill you, Kiva Meridan knew only one true solution to her demise: survive by any means necessary.
The Prison Healer is the first book in a trilogy that begins within the walls of the highly secured, dangerous, Zalindov prison, where our protagonist, Kiva, has taken on the position of prison healer after her father’s passing when she was just a child. After 10 years of keeping her head down and healing inmates, of whispering in the Warden’s ear and sneaking secret messages to her family in the outside world, Kiva is certain her freedom is in her sights. Until the raging war of the outside world has come to Zalindov, in the form of the gravely injured Rebel Queen, and now both their chances of survival are to be determined by Kiva’s hands: whether it’s to keep her alive to be persecuted and delivered to the royals, or to the safe-keeping of the rising Rebels within Zalindov. But things only grow more complicated when the Rebel Queen is demanded to stand the Trial by Ordeal, and Kiva’s life hangs in the balance as she has to decide the best course to preserve the Rebel Queen’s life, and subsequently, her own.
This is also another book and series that has received wavering critiques, and for good reason. I personally thought the bigger themes, plot-points, and world-building held so much potential, and while it has been consistent enough to earn it at least a 3.5 star; it definitely felt as if the story elements were skimmed, slowed, and repeated in order to give the characters sharper relief, which was a successful enough endeavour seeing as how the characters slowly, but eventually, did grow on me. Notably the love interest, Jaren; but Kiva takes the crown for being the most complex of them all in her own way. Think how Johanna Mason’s deceit made her champion of her Hunger Games, and you get a good idea how tricky Kiva is at her core, especially when you can trust no one but yourself, golden boys and heroic soldiers be damned.
You might be a little confused on why I’m supposedly recommending a book that’s in many ways ‘mid’, but this was one of the ‘mid’ books I’ve read that I did not necessarily abhor. It’s not my favourite, there’s no real ‘wow factor’, but again, the premise is enticing, and I think if you’re looking for something more about characters in a quick and easy fix of a read, it’s definitely not the worst choice. I enjoyed it enough to give the second book a try (which was also mid, but somehow I still want to read the third book, so something in there’s been done right), and I don’t doubt that you’d have a blast trying to unveil the layers of deceits these characters have pulled over each other, especially at that ending (personally, it did come VERY out of nowhere, but somehow, still works to get you to read the next book).
By the sounds of it, the book itself is the devious character in question, because how did it trick me down so many paths, pulled one over on me, and I’m still thinking, “yeah, I could do with the next one”.
All in all, I think these two books do have very pleasurable ideas and sparks that ultimately did not quite hit it’s mark. But what it lacked in those aspects is somehow made up for in others, and in both cases, the characters do make a stronger case than most books in similar circumstances. You can just read the first book each and call it a day if you want to. But whether you’re walking down a dim street watching for your shadow, or looking over your shoulder for violent hands, there is no denying to some extent, these girls have a deviousness and audacity in their bones that you just can’t help but marvel at.
Of serpents and scorpions, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, indeed. And for many of the characters in a little pantser-project of mine, they would find out just how much it stings the hard way. You certainly don’t wanna be a man in this woman’s world.
The conclusion to my pantser-project? I’m not made for it. Definitely not pantser enough to freestyle a whole novel and do it backwards.
A few issues ago, I did say this was more a casual project than anything else, essentially something for me to fall back on if I’m struggling with Project Deathless, which has been the case recently due to some life circumstances that have arisen. But when faced with my scrap of a first draft (by that, I mean two chapters) and all I really know about the story, there wasn’t any real substance to it. I don’t even know all the characters, I have no idea how many layers to the story there is, not sure which direction I want to pursue still.
So I decided it was time to get back to implementing some more plotter techniques, but I want to go simple with this, so in terms of story, I’ve decided on following a simple Seven Point Structure first and see if that’s enough to settle things for me.
But before I could start really thinking about the direction of the story, of course, I had to start naming my characters properly. Usually, I’d put a bunch of names in WheelDecide and call it a day, but it just didn’t feel right to name them randomly despite this being contemporary when the rest of the story follows a lot of literary and biblical symbols, icons and texts as part of the dark academia element.
“Because it was real. She was real, even in death. He blinked into the darkness, and in those last moments he could swear he saw her tear-streaked face staring back at him, but it was not tears she wept.”
— Chapter One: The First Kill
The outcome being I was deceived by how much I would struggle with fixing a last name to my protagonist, as I found out quite begrudgingly how difficult it was to match a name like Dove, but seeing as I’m very insistent on keeping that first name, I undergo the hard-work of scouring the internet for some ‘cool English last names’ since I wanted her to have British origins.
It would have been a fine and dandy task, surely, if the Brits had any surnames that were not derived from jobs, settlements, counties, lakes, and hills. They really LOVE having surnames about hills.
Fun fact: I went through this process with a good friend of mine — she’s British, and her last name actually means “person who lives on/near hills”. She does in fact, live on a hill.
Ultimately, we had a list of 11 options that could do, but none that really seemed right to me either. So she suggested I look at Celtic names instead, and at this rate, I’m willing to take that gamble and see if I find something that really speaks to me. If worse comes to worse, I can just hyphenate two surnames and call it a day. Doubles the meaning while makes it sound nicer.
BUT, I did make some good discoveries in my little naming struggle, particularly with three side characters that are VERY instrumental to the plot. And the fact that these three characters and their names just easily came to me in the researching process probably says a lot about who I have a better idea on, and really where my interest currently lies. But, I’ll save their presentation for a separate time.
To shed some context on this project since it’s not really talked about (and for all of us who have forgotten it), Project Scorpion is a contemporary, dark academia, murder mystery set at the University of Exeter in England, about a mysterious string of murders happening around the campus and the city that piques the interest of the main character, Dove, for many reasons: the fact that the victims are all killed brutally in various ways, trademarked and linked by the killer’s MO of leaving dismembered scorpions on the corpses; the fact that it becomes clear that all the victims are men intimately affiliated with her dead best friend, Hero; but most horrifyingly perhaps, the fact she’s seeing Hero where the dead should not belong.
Yes, I realise I really do love dark academia murder mysteries, but where Project Deathless is more into the worldbuilding and lore, Project Scorpion takes the classic route of imbuing its academia with actual academia topics, specifically literature and religion as the running theme. I mean, the dead best friend takes the name of a tragic epic heroine, and the aliases of the three side characters are notable tragic sisters in greek mythology. And so I really wanted to make as many references I can to all the classics and epics I’ve studied during my short time at the university. A further homage, if you will.
All that yapping was to really give you the idea of the stakes within this story, in order to see where the significance of their names come from. I actually wrote this section to drive up the reveal of the three side characters’ names, but I managed to finish the names of the protagonist and the best friend by then. So it only seems right to unveil to you the two biggest players of this whole game of murder, mayhem and mystery.
Dove Weaver → Doves are beautiful birds known for being the symbol of peace; and Weaver directly means ‘to weave’. So a direct translation of her name would be ‘peace weaver’/‘to weave peace’. And while this last name was originally part of the 11 options, it didn’t really click until the very end how effective and purposeful it was, both phonetically and meaning-wise in regards to who the character is
Hero Hallas-Brennan → The name ‘Hero’ by default means ‘brave defender’, but the real decision in choosing this name is because of the tragic heroine Hero, from Christopher Marlowe’s epic Hero and Leander (there’s a major hint about the heart of the story, and the reason I named her so, in there). The surname ‘Hallas’ means ‘yet still’, and ‘Brennan’ means ‘little raven’. Hallas was perfect given Hero’s consistent influence to the main storyline despite being a character only in mention, and I mean, she’s the raven to her Dove. There’s also a little homage to Noah’s Ark in there, regarding the part where Noah sends out both a raven and two doves to search for dry land; and if a bird does not return, it must have found a place to land. How am I not supposed to be giddy by all the layers?
I was candidly very inspired to commit to naming characters after literature icons after Suzanne Collins, and reading about how and why she named Lucy Gray, Coriolanus, Sejanus, and Volumnia the way she did. And if you think Dove and Hero’s names pack a lot of punches already, wait till you hear the victims’ names. (hint: there’s some Shakespearan tragedies in there, as well as the Leander to Hero’s, well, Hero).
That was a lot to just dump on you, but we’ve seen many of my naming escapades go really badly/derail fast; I thought in the rare times when it really came together is cause for celebration and motivation, but also I just wanted to give an update on this little passion project and let you all know how it’s swimming. Or rather lack there-of, if we’re thinking of the story.
But as usual, what I lack I always make up for with the characters. Even if it’s just in naming people and things. I gave you a school curriculum last time, now I’m giving undergraduates playing The Purge, all in the name of literary justice, holy retribution, and most acutely, feminine rage.
Now, I know have been depriving you of our weekly polls, and because I’ve missed them terribly and as a trademark of Ashlynn’s Gone Off Script, we are bringing it BACK, people! Yay! And what is our exciting poll this week? Getting to know The Deathless, up-close and personal.
If you remember from last week, I did say I wanted to do more in-depth character segments, but after some thought, I think it’s better we start off with main characters and then work to the side characters (definitely not because I don’t got much on my side characters and need to work through them, definitely not.) And we’re going to do it in a different format this time instead of the interview transcript we’ve seen back in Jan/Feb, so I’m very excited about it. We may even get some nice graphics to go with it, if I’m feeling particularly creative.
Gotta make that Canva Pro count.
Anyways, that’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with more content, more updates, and most likely, a book haul ;) I hope your week has been great and fulfilling; and if not, I’m proud of you for making it through the other side and still in one piece. In these days, that’s what I call a real win. You got this, babes x