Hi book lovers! Ashley here! Does anyone know how we somehow arrived at the end of summer? I am remorsefully thinking about all the activities I never checked off my summer to-do list, but I am looking forward to the fall. Books just feel better when read with a cup of cocoa and a cozy sweater, don’t you think? Anyway, a lot has happened in the book world this week, so let’s get caught up together!
I read the classic novel Lord of the Flies when I was in grade ten. We also watched the movie in class, and I remember being a bit horrified by how awful these kids were and how quickly they all went mad. So this new adaptation featuring an all-female cast comes as a bit of a surprise.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m usually a fan of female-centric films. But in this case, doing so will pit girls against each other and doesn’t do much to combat the “groups of girls are mad, deranged, and sociopathic” trope. This article by Refinery 29 also points out that there are already movies that explore young women’s descent into madness in a similar fashion to Lord of the Flies, like the cult favorite Heathers. However, none so far have involved a stranded group of schoolgirls and pigs on sticks.
As our very own writer Clara points out, the book itself is more of an allegory about the damaging influences of patriarchal society and its deadly outcomes. She also argues that the adaptation isn’t likely to start a good conversation about relationships between women as it’s being directed by two men. To her last point, have you ever seen girls band together in times of strife? Females are strong as hell.
I can see my Facebook friends buzzing about getting tickets to attend Hilary Clinton’s book tour. Clinton will be stopping by Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to promote her new book, What Happened. As Global News reports, the book will be her most personal yet and will include her thoughts on her tumultuous run for office.
Don’t ever come for the YA community is all I’m saying after this week. In case you missed the flurry of tweets about the controversy, a YA author noticed that a book he had never heard of before topped The New York Times bestseller list. The book was Handbook for Mortals by first-time author Lani Sarem, but beyond that there seemed to be no other information about the book itself. In response, the YA community all across Twitter sprung into action. The search grew and these sleuths soon found that the book was part of a pre-order sale meant to rig the system. Handbook for Mortals has been pulled from the bestseller list and the author is standing by her stance that she did not know of the manipulation.
Happy Thursday!
