Top Ten Tuesday | Fictional Places I Would NOT Want to Live In

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Bookish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In', which I found to be a really fun topic! So often when I love a story, particularly a fantastical one, I can find myself thinking 'I wish I'd gone to Hogwarts' or 'I wish I lived in The Shire', but I've never given too much thought to the places I really wouldn't want to live in.

For my list this week I've decided to stick with fictional places. I thought of mentioning The Book Thief because I would have hated to live in Nazi Germany, but in the end I felt like, for me, it was a little disrespectful to mention real places because some people really have had to live through that. Anyway, on with my list!

Panem from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Let's just get this one out the way with because it's probably on most lists this week, right? Pretty much any dystopian novel has a setting I wouldn't want to live in, but Panem in particular I'd hate because if I'd been chosen to take part in the Games when I was younger I'd've been the first one to die.

Airstrip One from Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: Carrying on with that dystopian theme, Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most depressing novels I've ever read and I would hate to live somewhere where the government was quite literally watching me all the time.

The town from The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: There's a reason why The Lottery is one of the most famous American short stories ever, and this story alone earns Jackson a place as one of the best horror writers in my opinion. I can't say much without giving anything away, although this story's so short I recommend you reading it asap, but trust me when I say I wouldn't want to live in that town and I guarantee you wouldn't want to live there either.

Neverland from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie: Disney Neverland looks fun, but the Neverland in the book is just as creepy as everything else. I don't understand the whimsy around Peter Pan, it's so strange and unnerving, and even as a child I don't think Neverland would have appealed to me unless Robin Williams was there.

The Other World from Coraline by Neil Gaiman: Having everything I want in exchange for having buttons sewn into my eyes? Yeah, no, that's not happening.

Westeros from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin: Admittedly I haven't read the books but I watch Game of Thrones and no amount of money could convince me to live there. It's so brutal and I wouldn't last five minutes.

Wonderland from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Unlike Peter Pan, I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and I've always been fascinated by it. Having said that, the world is just so bizarre that I think I'd go mad and, while I love stuff that's a bit weird, I think Wonderland would be just a bit too weird for me.

The Stillness from The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin: There's no way I'd want to live in a world where the earth decides it doesn't want you there every few years and has a little apocalypse to wipe a few million people off it.

Giant Country from The BFG by Roald Dahl: This is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm terrified of giants. I know they're not real but the idea of them scares the crap out of me so Giant Country is my idea of hell. I don't want to be anyone's dinner, thanks.

The Fifteen Realms from Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder: There's a plague spreading across this world killing thousands at a time and even the healers can't do anything about it. No thanks.

Which places made your list this week?

Review | The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

The Grownup

by Gillian Flynn

My Rating: 

A young woman is making a living, faking it as a cut-price psychic working at Spiritual Palms (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage - mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke. Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor, built in 1893. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home, and taking possession of the stepson. She has even found trickles of blood on the wall. The young woman doesn't believe in exorcism or the supernatural, but she does see an opportunity to make a lot of money. However when she enters the house for the first time, and meets Miles, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time.... 

The Grownup originally appeared as 'What Do You Do?' in George R.R. Martin and Gardner R. Dozois' Rogues anthology.

I've been telling myself I should read some Gillian Flynn ever since Gone Girl took over the world in the way it did, and now that I've finally read some of her work I'm definitely interested in picking up one of her novels. As much as Gone Girl seems to be her favourite among readers, I'm actually much more interested in picking up Sharp Objects or Dark Places.

The Grownup is a short story, and I never really review short stories on their own, but I decided to make an exception for this one. It's so easy to read with a very likable protagonist - at least I certainly liked her, though I've always had something of a soft spot for characters who are con artists, such as Orphan Black's Sarah Manning. I really enjoyed reading about the history of The Grownup's unnamed narrator and now she'd ended up doing what she was doing, and as soon as I learned a spooky house was involved I knew I was going to enjoy this story.

What can I say? I'm weak for a haunted house. Throughout the 60+ pages of this story Flynn scattered little tributes to some of the best Gothic fiction out there - The Haunting of Hill House; The Woman in White; The Turn of the Screw - which I loved, and I think she did a wonderful job of capturing the atmosphere that usually comes with a Gothic story, making the middle of this story my favourite section.

Then the third section happened and the story got a bit silly. There are multiple twists in this story, and while the first one took me completely by surprise and had me ready to give this story five stars and proclaim it one of the best short stories I've read in a while, the twist that followed kind of ruined it for me. Suddenly the story was weaker and it didn't seem as believable as it previously had been, which was a real shame.

I still really enjoyed it - it's got me looking forward to reading Flynn's novels and to reading the other stories in Rogues, which I actually own a copy of - but it could have been amazing if Flynn hadn't gone that step too far. Still, for just £2 I can't complain too much!

Is Daenerys Westeros's Henry VII?

Many of you may already know this, but George R. R. Martin was inspired by the Wars of the Roses when he began writing his A Song of Ice and Fire series. The Wars of the Roses were fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York, a war that culminated in the decisive Battle of Bosworth which left Richard III dead, thus ending the line of the Plantagenets, and sat Henry Tudor on the throne, thus beginning the Early Modern age.

By no means do I think A Song of Ice and Fire is merely a fantastical retelling of historical events, but it's difficult not to notice little tips of the hat to figures and events in history which inspire and influence some of the characters in the series.

At first glance, Daenerys Targaryen and Henry Tudor couldn't be any less alike. Daenerys is a beautiful young woman - quite literally the Mother of Dragons - whereas Henry Tudor is a shrewd and ambitious young man who whole-heartedly believes in his claim to the throne. That's where their similarities begin. Henry believed the English throne was his birthright - his mother was a descendent of Edward III, while his father's half-brother was Henry VI - while Daenerys was told similar things about Westeros by her brother, Viserys, thus instilling in her the adamant belief that the Iron Throne is rightfully hers.

Both Daenerys and Henry grew up across the water, waiting patiently until they could build up an army to travel across the seas and take what they believe to be theirs.

Pembroke Castle

Daenerys was born on Dragonstone, not in King's Landing, and when her life was threatened she and her brother, with the help of some loyal retainers, were able to escape to the Free City of Braavos. Henry was born in Wales, in Pembroke Castle (his uncle, Jasper Tudor, was Earl of Pembroke), to his incredibly young mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, who was only 13 years old when she gave birth to him. When Henry was 14 and Edward IV, a Yorkist, came to the throne, Henry fled to Brittany for fear that staying in England would be too dangerous for him.

Elizabeth of York

He stayed mostly in Brittany for the next 14 years until he decided the time was right to take the throne from the increasingly unpopular Richard III. Henry pledged to marry Edward IV's eldest daughter Elizabeth (you can read more about Henry and Elizabeth's relationship here!). His betrothal to Elizabeth was important as, with the supposed deaths of her brothers, she was the heir to the throne should her childless uncle die. Daenerys is also certainly no stranger to marriage for the sake of conquest, and much like Henry and Elizabeth's relationship, her relationship with Khal Drogo was genuine affection which blossomed within an arranged marriage. 

Catherine of Valois

His first attempt to invade was unsuccessful, but with the support of the French - after all, Henry's paternal grandmother was Catherine of Valois - a second invasion was successful, landing him in Pembrokeshire, near his birthplace, where the Welsh people fervently supported him. Some of them even believed him to be Y Mab Darogan - "The Son of Prophecy" - a figure from Welsh legend who would free the Welsh from English oppression. Previous contenders for the title were figures such as Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and Owain Glyndŵr, who may be familiar to those of you who are fans of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle.

Henry was no fool. He knew exactly how important Welsh support would be if he was to take the throne from Richard, and so when he met Richard on the battlefield he brandished the Welsh flag on his standard. We're pretty much all familiar with the Targaryen sigil, right? Unsurprisingly, their sigil is a dragon. How many of you outside of the UK are familiar with the Welsh flag?

The Welsh flag

Yep. Turns out Henry had a dragon on his flag, too.

I think we can all agree that Daenerys and Henry are not at all replicas of one another, but I think there are certainly enough similarities there to show the historical influences on Martin's epic series.

What do you think? Are there any other characters you think have links to certain figures from history?

What's Up Wednesday! | 25/03/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly feature created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

Since last week I've finished Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and it's definitely a new favourite of mine. I just loved it. I reviewed it here if you're interested in my thoughts on it!

I'm still reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and getting shocked beyond belief at some of the twists and turns, and I also started Dangerous Women Part I ed. by George R. R. Martin and Gardner R. Dozois, and then ended up putting it down after having to DNF Martin's novella. I've discovered I'm not a big fan of Martin's writing style, and the novella - 'The Princess and the Queen' - was so dull. I definitely want to return to the anthology, but it's a shame they decided to open it with such a boring story.

What I'm Writing

Y'know that short story I mentioned last week? Well there's a chance it's turning into a novella... 

Speaking of novellas, Twelfth Planet Press, who published Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, are currently accepting submissions for novellas. So if you have a completed story between 10,000-40,000 words that fits into the speculative fiction category, why not send it their way before March 31st?

Also my story 'Coffee Break' is being published on Flash Fiction Magazine today!

What Works For Me

Neil Gaiman? What are you doing in my falafel?

What Else Is New

Today is the very last WUW as the lovely hosts Jaime and Erin have made the decision to wind it down, because that's what's best for them. I'm sad to see WUW go - I've always found these posts a lot of fun and I've met so many wonderful people I wouldn't have otherwise met - but perhaps in their absence I'll get a lot more writing done. ;)

Thanks Jaime and Erin! It's been great!

What's Up Wednesday! | 11/03/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly feature created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

Since last week I've read The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin, Through the Woods by Emily Carroll and The Great God Pan, The Shining Pyramid and The White People by Arthur Machen.

I'm still reading Relic by Renee Collins, Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Mistress Firebrand by Donna Thorland - not because any of them are boring, but just because I've found myself with barely any time to read, still not entirely sure why, so I've been reading shorter reads in between. I also started Kindred by Octavia E. Butler which I'm reading for Week 2 of my Forgotten Histories Reading Challenge.

What I'm Writing

I'm still working on my short story 'Piranha' for the Mslexia Short Story Competition, and I've also started writing another short story, 'Stars Over Talsarn', which is set in 16th century Wales. I've been really into short story writing the past few months, I think mainly because I want to get more of my work out there, and also because reading My True Love Gave to Me over Christmas has awakened my love for anthologies and the more short stories I read the more I want to write.

What Works For Me

Reading. I feel like I'm cheating because I've said this plenty of times, but reading other people's work really inspires and motivates me.

What Else Is New

The weather was gorgeous at the weekend, like spring is finally on its way, and on Saturday I went shopping. I bought some new shoes for the warmer weather - they're really cool - and I picked up a few paint samples. I want to redecorate my room, but I can't decide what colour I want my feature wall to be. It's very frustrating.

On Sunday I found out that one of my flash fiction stories, 'Coffee Break', will be up on Flash Fiction Magazine on the 25th March, so that's exciting! And tomorrow I'm off to a new writing and reading group. A friend of mine introduced me to this fantastic site called MeetUp where people can find groups and activities in their local area and meet new people. There don't seem to be that many groups down where I am - I keep getting recommendations for groups in Bristol. I live in South Wales, why the hell would I travel all the way to Bristol?! - but this group is fairly new, the meeting I'm going to is only their second one. I'm hoping to meet some new people. I miss my friends from uni a lot and it gets pretty lonely down here.

At the start of the week I was very sad to hear that IdeasTap will be closing. For those of you outside the UK, IdeasTap is a charity which focuses entirely on helping people in the arts. Every year they collaborate with Sky and offer £30,000 to three artists (that's each, not between them) so that for an entire year they can work on a project they're passionate about and not have to worry about how they're going to pay their rent or where their next meal is coming from. Many people also use the money to travel; if a writer decides to write a novel set in Africa, they can afford to go and do their research in Africa.

It's also fantastic for its articles on creativity and inspiration, as well as for the events and scholarships it promotes and the jobs it advertises. For people looking to get a job in the arts in the UK, it has a brilliant job search that allows you to look for arts jobs by area or salary or arts sector.

Basically it's an amazing charity and I'm gutted it's closing. I'm hoping someone will give it the funding it needs before June. #SaveIdeasTap

What's new with you?

What's Up Wednesday! | 04/03/15

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly feature created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

It's March! March!

What I'm Reading

Well this week is the first week of my Forgotten Histories Reading Challenge - and it's not too late to join in! - and the challenge this week is to read an alternate history book. So I'm going to finish Relic by Renee Collins, and then I'm hoping I'll still have time to read Temeraire by Naomi Novik.

Since last week I've also read The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen, a Victorian Gothic novella by a Welsh author, Fairest by Marissa Meyer, Ms. Marvel, Vol.1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, and I'm still reading Mistress Firebrand by Donna Thorland; I'm aiming to finish it soon so my review can go up on Friday after Donna very kindly sent me an ARC.

I'm also in the middle of Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which is fantastic so far!

What I'm Writing

Well last week I wrote a blog post for work titled 'Top 5 Tips for Getting a Job in Publishing' aimed particularly at students and recent grads, and I'm rather proud of it.

I've also been working on some other non-fiction stuff; I'm taking part in the A to Z Blogging Challenge for the first time this year, so I've been getting those posts ready, and I'm also working on a mini essay I'm hoping to submit to the next issue of Sonorus: Feminist Perspectives on Harry Potter titled 'Tonks: Manic Pixie Dream Girl or Body Positive Role Model?'

What can I say? Once a Potterhead, always a Potterhead.

I'm also working on a short story called 'Piranha' that I'm hoping to enter into the Mslexia Short Story Competition.

What Works For Me

Visit your own setting. If what you write is set on Earth, and it's not set in a fictional town or village, then visit that place. I don't think it's often that a writer will write about a place that they haven't at least seen some pretty decent pictures of, but when writing historical fiction it's often easy to assume that every Medieval/Early Modern/Regency/Victorian village/town looked the same when we know that's not the case. Even if you're writing something that's set back in 10th century Britain and there are no buildings left for you to examine, you can still go and see how the land lies: what the weather's like; whether the ground beneath your feet is boggy or firm; whether it rains a lot; whether crops would be easy to grow; whether the coast is nearby, therefore making it likely that your characters eat a lot of seafood and worry about Viking invaders more than the people inland.

There's a lot you can learn from visiting the right places, even if it's just giving you a feel for what it's like for your characters to live there!

What Else Is New

Last week I won a giveaway over on Twitter, and my favourite magazine, SciFiNow, ended up sending me a box of 11 books. I've never won anything before, but recently I've won three different giveaways - I must have hit a lucky streak!

Signal to Noise is one of the books I won, and I'm pretty pleased with that considering it only came out last month, and I also won copies of Parts II and III of the Dangerous Women anthologies, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner R. Dozois, and featuring work by authors like Diana Rowland, Diana Gabaldon, Sharon Kay Penman, Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch... Needless to say, I'm very pleased and I ordered myself Part I from Amazon so I can own the entire collection!

Other than that, not much has happened. An old school friend of mine had a baby on Monday which is so weird; I still feel like a 15 year old who's just pretending to be a grown up and there are people I knew at school getting married and having babies. I have a lot of respect for anyone who decides to have babies in their 20s. I'm way too selfish.

What's new with you?

Top Ten Tuesday | Bookish Places to Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find out everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want To Visit'. At first I didn't think I'd manage to think of ten places, but as soon as I started my list I discovered there were more places I wanted to visit than I thought, so let's dive in!

Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: This is bound to be on pretty much everyone's list, right? I don't think I have to explain myself. I'm a Ravenclaw through and through and I want to go to Hogwarts!

Hogsmeade/Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: I'm not going to go to Hogwarts and miss out on a few trips to Hogsmeade. I want to try out butterbeer and fire whiskey and go shopping in Flourish and Blotts!

Wonderland from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: I love this book (I'm sure that's no shock given the state of my blog) so I'd love to go to Wonderland, but I wouldn't want to stay there too long - it's such a bizarre place that I don't think it'd take me long to get homesick and go mad.

Narnia from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis: There are talking animals in Narnia. Why wouldn't I go?

The Garden from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: I love The Secret Garden, and there's something that sounds so peaceful and cathartic about the garden that I'd love to take a picnic and spend an afternoon there.

Stormhold from Stardust by Neil Gaiman: Any place where the Queen is an immortal star I want to visit. Yvaine's awesome.

The Shire from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: This is going to sound odd, but for a couple of years of my childhood I lived in an area of the UK that was sort of similar to the Shire. No it wasn't full of hobbits (boo!) but it was, as were all the places I lived during my childhood, in the countryside. We lived in an area where there were a lot of open fields and farms - in fact my older sister dated a farmer's son for a little while and I got to meet some piglets. Then in North Yorkshire, where I'm originally from and spent the majority of my childhood, each year there was a show where people entered their animals, from guinea pigs to horses, into competitions and sold their produce and homemade jewellery. There's just something about the Shire that reminds me of my childhood and I'd love to go there. Plus if I went anywhere else in Middle Earth I'd probably get stabbed.

Helford River from Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier: First thing's first, Helford River is a real place so I can go there one day (woohoo!). I've been to Cornwall before, some years ago now, but recently I've had a real desire to go there again and reading Frenchman's Creek convinced me that I need to go back. 

Dorne from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin: Okay, I'm cheating a little here because while I watch Game of Thrones I have yet to read the books. To be honest I'd rather stay away from Westeros entirely, but there's something about Dorne that sounds like a lot of fun.

Luna from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: Luna might not be the best place to visit - Levana's crazy - but if there's a colony on the moon then hell yeah I want to see it!

Where would you visit?