The Halloween Book Tag!

I saw Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight doing this and had to have a go of it myself, so here goes!

Heebie Jeebies

Favourite Scary Story

I think Susan Hill's The Woman in Black is one of those iconic scary stories. It's been a long time since I read the book, but what really scared the bejeezus out of me was the play, which I went to see while I was at school. It's a fantastic play, and I'm pretty sure I slept with my light on for about a week after seeing it. I do think the book's worth reading, but if you get the chance to see the play go and see it!

Scream

Favourite Book with a Murdery Mystery Plot

This has made me realise that I need to read more murder mysteries. To link in with the Halloween theme, I think I have to go with My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland; it's the start of such a fun urban fantasy series, featuring zombies as you probably haven't seen them before - check it out!

Casper

Favourite Book with a Ghost

It has to be The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, which is one of the best books I've read this year and has a firm place on my list of favourite books. It's fantastic.

Monster Mash

Favourite Paranormal Supernatural Book

I decided to change the wording of this one a little because, to me, paranormal means something that might be explained by science - like ghosts or aliens - and I don't tend to read many books about aliens and I've mentioned two books with ghosts already, so I think it's best I talk about something else! In terms of the supernatural, my favourite book is probably Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, a pre-Dracula 19th century novella featuring vampirism. It's so good, and it's a great place to start for anyone who finds classics intimidating.

Halloween 2007 Remake

Favourite Retelling

The Lunar Chronicles, of course! I know this is probably cheating, but I can't pick just one book from the series because I think Marissa Meyer has done such a good job at mixing these tales together into one big story while also fitting each retelling so wonderfully into the narrative. I love the way she's reimagined traditional fairy tales for a sci-fi setting, and Cinder is one of my favourite heroines.

Female Character You'd Most Want to Dress Up As

Okay so she's not a book character, but one day I'd love to dress up as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's one of my favourite films - I watched it religiously as a child - and I just think it'd be a really cool costume.

Male Character You'd Most Want to Dress Up As

I think Sirius Black could be pretty cool, especially Sirius as he's seen in his wanted poster. He has long hair, so I wouldn't need to cut mine, and it'd just mean making myself look a bit grimy and unwashed. Plus I bet everyone would know who I was!

Favourite Villain

This is a tricky one because I feel like a lot of the books I really love don't tend to have villains in the traditional sense. A lot of the time the villain is circumstance or even the protagonist's own decisions. I do love Mrs. Danvers from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, though. That woman is terrifying!

Fun Size

Favourite Short Story/Novella

For Halloween that'd have to be 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson. It's so worth a read if you haven't read it yet, it'll only take five minutes!

What's Your Favourite Scary Movie?

I don't tend to watch horror movies that much because I'm a bit of a wuss, and also because some of them are just gratuitous for the sake of it. One film I really love though, and one that's perfect for Halloween, is Sleepy Hollow. It's historical, which is right up my street, it's got Johnny Depp in it, also right up my street, and it's directed by Tim Burton, who's one of my favourite directors. I love it!

If you want to do this tag then consider yourself tagged! Happy Halloween!

Sexuality in Harry Potter | Harry Potter Month

Throughout July, Micheline @ Lunar Rainbow Reviews and Faith @ GeekyZooGirl are hosting Harry Potter Month. You can find out everything you need to know about it here! 

As much as we love the Harry Potter series, I think we can all agree that it isn't perfect. I like names with meanings as much as the next person, but considering Remus Lupin's name basically translates to Wolf McWolf it's no wonder Fenrir Greyback bit him.

In recent years I've seen more and more people eager to know more about the LGBT* community at Hogwarts, which I think is wonderful. We've become much more aware of diversity in the literary world, and though we still have a long way to go we've certainly made some improvements.

I totally agree that when it comes to diversity, authors need to start saying that their characters aren't white or straight instead of just hinting at it. However, I can understand why sexuality isn't really discussed in the Harry Potter books: because it's not relevant to Harry's story.

After J.K. Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay, something I think most of us picked up on upon reading the seventh book, there were some people who were disgusted because they're gross and homophobic, and there were some people who were angry because they felt as though she was simply jumping on the LGBT* bandwagon.

Though I could understand the anger amongst some members of the LGBT* community I wasn't sure it was entirely justified. In what way was Dumbledore's sexuality important to Harry's story? More to the point, what did J.K. Rowling have to do to 'prove' that Dumbledore was gay and that she wasn't just lying for the sake of a publicity stunt? Did people want her to be horribly stereotypical and portray Dumbledore wearing sparkly robes and gushing over musical theatre?

Dumbledore's sexuality wasn't at all important to Harry's story. In fact no one else's sexuality was important to the story which was why, in my opinion, J.K. Rowling never openly discussed anyone's sexuality in the books. That doesn't mean the books are perfect, but I don't think their lack of openly discussed sexuality makes them terrible books.

But just because a character's sexuality wasn't discussed doesn't mean they weren't there! I know that's completely contradictory to my earlier point, but I'd like to refer to the wise words of Cosima Niehaus:

When it comes to sexual diversity I think we need to see more characters outside of the straight and gay spectrum. I've never read a book in which a character has identified as bisexual, not for lack of trying, and I've certainly never read a book in which a character has identified as asexual, demisexual or pansexual. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

So I've made a little list of some of the Harry Potter characters who I believe aren't heterosexual.

(I also really hope I don't end up offending anyone with this post. If you're part of the LGBT* community I'm not trying to portray non-heterosexuality as 'cool' or 'quirky', I genuinely read the characters below as queer.)

Albus Dumbledore

Okay, so this one we already know. Dumbledore is gay which, like I said before, is something I think most of us picked up on while reading Deathly Hallows. I've started to like Dumbledore less and less as I've gotten older because I'm really not sure he was the best teacher (or the best human being), but his and Grindelwald's story was heartbreaking.

Sirius Black

Personally I think Sirius is pansexual. Pansexuality is described as sexual attraction, emotional attraction and/or romantic love towards people of any sexuality or gender identity. Sirius has always struck me as an 'if I like it, I like it' kinda guy. He does his own thing, and always has done, that's why he ends up in Gryffindor and eventually ends up living with James after his own family disown him. Out of all the Marauders, I certainly think Sirius was the one who was most experimental with his sexuality.

Remus Lupin

I've always thought of Remus as bisexual. In the books we know he marries Tonks, but because J.K. Rowling herself has openly stated that werewolves are treated in much the same way that AIDS sufferers have been treated I refuse to believe that he's straight. The AIDS virus devastated the LGBT* community, particularly during the '80s and '90s, and Remus was a young man in the '80s. On a much less serious note I like me some Remus/Sirius just as much as I like me some Remus/Tonks...

Charlie Weasley

I have a huge crush on Charlie Weasley, and I'm also pretty sure that he's asexual. I'm not trying to say that people who never get married or have kids must be asexual, but J.K. Rowling once said something along the lines of 'he's more interested in dragons than women', and I've read him as asexual ever since. Perhaps he's also aromantic, though a person can be asexual without being aromantic and vice versa!

Luna Lovegood

This one I have no 'evidence' for, it's simply what I think: I read Luna as demisexual. People who are demisexual only feel sexually attracted towards people they already have an emotional and/or romantic bond with; it's often described as the 'grey area' between asexuality and bisexuality. There's something about Luna - she's serene to the core - that's always made me think of her as demisexual. I don't think of her as sexually experimental in the same way that Sirius is, but I can see her falling in love with a woman as easily as she'd fall in love with a man.

Do you read any of the Harry Potter characters as queer?

Be, Room, Cliff | Harry Potter Month

Harry Potter Month continues! Hosted by Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows and Faith @ GeekyZooGirl, Harry Potter Month is taking place throughout July - you can find out everything you need to know about it here!

I'm a little bit behind schedule with my posts; this post was supposed to go up last Friday, but last Friday I was in Italy and I completely forgot to schedule anything because I'm a moron. So let's try that again...

Today I'm doing something that's just plain, good ol' fashioned fun. Many of you are probably familiar with the Marry, Kiss, Cliff Tag, and the Be, Room, Cliff Tag is much the same, only it's more along the lines of bromance than romance.

So, if you're a heterosexual lady you'd talk about some fictional fellas for Marry, Kiss, Cliff, but for Be, Room, Cliff you have to decide between three different female characters. Pick one to be, one to be your roommate, and one to throw off a cliff.

My favourite wizarding family in Harry Potter is the Black family so, naturally, I thought I'd do Be, Room, Cliff with Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa!

Be

I thought long and hard about this one. Now obviously I don't want to be Bellatrix - she's cray - but I like both Andromeda and Narcissa. Ultimately, however, I think I'd have to be Andromeda. Now obviously out of her and Narcissa we could argue she gets the short straw, she loses her husband and her only child while Narcissa does not, but I don't think I could live with the few prejudices Narcissa has. That's not to say Andromeda isn't prejudiced - obviously she has no problem with muggleborns because she marries one - but I've never been fond of the fandom's way of her painting her as this saintly figure who loves everyone for who they are on the inside. We know from the way Tonks talks about her that she's not always easy to live with. But that's one of the reasons I love her despite the fact that we see so little of her; Andromeda, like Narcissa, is on no one's side but her own.

Room

If I'm not going be Bellatrix then I'm sure as hell not going to share a room with her, especially if I'm the sister who married the muggleborn. I like to imagine that Narcissa would be quite a fun roommate; maybe not in a 'let's eat Ben & Jerry's and watch Bridget Jones's Diary' kind of way, but certainly in a 'let's judge the rest of the world together' kind of way. And frankly most of my friendships have been formed over a mutual dislike of other people. I'm painting a lovely picture of myself, aren't I? Plus I really love Narcissa, I think she's a fantastic character, and considering how much of a neat freak she is I think I'd go mad if Andromeda was my roommate. I like a bit of organised chaos.

Cliff

Don't get me wrong, Bellatrix is another fantastic, fascinating character, but out of the three she's the one I'd have to kill. I don't want to be her, I certainly don't want to live with her, and ultimately she killed my favourite character; if she's going to go around throwing people through suspicious looking upholstery, I'm going to take pleasure in throwing her over the side of the cliff. Besides, knowing her, she'd probably be fine.

So what would you do?

My Favourite Fictional Fathers/Father Figures

It's my Dad's birthday today, so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite fathers, and father figures, from fiction!

Hans Hubermann from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I don't think I've met a single person who loved this book who didn't also love Hans. He's such a comforting presence throughout the book, which is just what's needed when you're reading a story set in Nazi Germany that also happens to be narrated by death. He was definitely one of my favourites.

Silas from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Bod does have a father in Mr. Owens, but it's Silas we see more of throughout The Graveyard Book and it's Silas who leaves the bigger impact on Bod. I loved their relationship; while Mr. and Mrs. Owens were loving parents, Silas became that cool godfather who teaches you things your parents don't want you to know yet.

Sirius Black from the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Speaking of cool godfathers, my list wouldn't be complete without mention of Sirius Black. Some people may argue he's not exactly an ideal role model but at least, unlike Dumbledore, he never cared for Harry while the whole time knowing he was being raised to die at the right moment. Sirius is unfailingly loyal - his animagus is a dog, for heaven's sake - and he's funny and brave and loving. James was his brother by everything but blood, and after his death Sirius is never the same. It still breaks my heart that Sirius never got the chance to clear his name and live as a free man, buying himself a nice little bachelor pad and taking Harry away from his horrid relatives.

Denny Hall from If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I loved Mia's parents so much, especially her father. Denny is witty and fun and adorable, and I really liked the way he was portrayed in the film, too. I found the advice he gave Mia so comforting to read, and it certainly doesn't hurt that I picture him as a hot kind of dad...

Who are some of your favourite fathers/father figures?