For me, and this may be slightly controversial, but in books (usually sci-fi) where the author cares way more about making the book "woke" and progressive vs. writing a good story. I remember attempting to read a ya sci fi years ago and all I learned by the halfway point was everyone's ethnicity and gender identity. I read 100+ pages and couldn't tell you a single thing about the plot or a single character's motivation. You can include diversity and progressive attitudes while still writing a good story, but for some reason, it's nearly impossible for sci-fi authors.
Hello Emily, recently I read (well rather “started” 😅) a book of which I REALLY liked the first half but didn’t read more because of one scene. "L'archipel du chien" de Philippe Claudel (yeah, I'm French). On a small island where everyone knows each other, an old woman discovers (while walking her dog on the beach) three corpses of black men. She warns the mayor who arrives with the doctor and the priest, and there is also the teacher who passed by (we never have a first name, it is always "the Mayor", "the Doctor", etc. I thought it was cool). So there are 5 to know about it. The mayor decides to keep it a secret and hide the bodies (basically because of tourism). Everyone accepts but the teacher doesn't really agree and the mayor feels that he will end up betraying the secret. I said to myself “Oh my god he’s going to kill him” so I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. But this is what happened: the mayor and the doctor decide to go see the father of a girl at school and make a deal so that he will force his daughter to go see a cop and tell him that the teacher touched her. I closed the book and didn't open it again. Pedophilia is already way beyond my strength, but adults who use kids for false accusations of pedophilia, I can't do it either. I would have preferred a thousand times that the mayor killed him. I don't know what that means about me 😅
I get what you are trying to say but there's a bit too much of automatically white and heteronormative stories that some authors feel it essential to mention their diverse identities. @@Katertot8895
Nine times out of ten, it's the introduction of the male love interest. If he immediately starts manhandling the FMC or being quippy and growly, I'm done. Thanks, no thanks.
I'm totally with you on this Emily. If you can imagine magical races and intricate magic systems and world-building, why can't you imagine a less sexist world? It makes you feel like misogyny is a compass to these authors (mostly male). They lose their direction without it. Very pathetic imo
It blows my mind how many male authors can't fathom other trials for a female character to go through apart from sexual violence, sexual coming of age, sexual anything.
16:17 EXACTLY! Everything you said before that, I 100% agree! Call out those authors. On good reads, I found most of the people who rated this book 5 stars are mostly men/boys. I am terrified to think that misogyny and sexism are so deeply intrinsic and deeply rooted that none of the male readers found anything wrong with the book. Side Note: the appearance of the tiny paw! And Charlie and Chunky make my heart swell
honestly so scary that it’s so engrained that people can read the whole thing and never think about it at all. even worse they complain about us being “sensitive” for asking for better female characters 😅
For Terry Goodkind : I recommend watching Daniel Greene's video titled "Why Is Terry Goodkind Controversial?", i promise you will not like this author lmao
After watching Daniel's video, everytime now I see Goodkind's books on library sale, I let out a visible shudder, bc that video left such a strong impression
Terry Goodkind... I really have a love/hate relationship with his books. But Daniel Greene said it very well. In my defense, I found out after reading them. But some parts are so good... Even if he's problematic for many reasons, I refuse to get rid of his books, but I will not buy more.
Thank you for mentioning him. In my early days of collecting fantasy books, I had gathered a few of his through thrift stores and yard sales. Once I saw that video and read about what he did and said about fellow artists and Robert Jordan of all people, I immediately got rid of all of my Goodkind. It's ironic, because he was neither good, nor kind.
8:18 THIS!!! I always say this too! It's a fantasy / sci-fi / fictional world which means people and worlds can be ANYTHING but authors still put OUR WORLD's patriarchy and sexism etc in -- the stories can be ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING!!!! It really annoys me.
You might want to google Terry Goodkind too. Dude was terrible. Not prison terrible, but I call him Terry Badmean. He said awful things about the fantasy genre in general, about Robert Jordan while he was on his deathbed (and the similarities between his series and wheel of tune are too close for coincidence for me), and one of his cover artists. He also called a reader not old enough to read his books when he was criticized (the reader was an adult) The misogyny and weird sex scenes in the book I read are really bad. And super creepy. Reddit has some good info on this, but I’d just put the book in the go pile before trying it
The reader who he called "too young to read his books" wasn't even critisising him. He was just saying he "noticed a similarity between his books and Wheel of Time" and shared his headcanon about them taking place in the same world. To which Terry replied that if he noticed a similarity, he's probably not old enough to read his books.
This makes me want to create a goodreads shelf for books I never want to touch. The first fantasy book was atrocious 💀💀 I will not touch books from this author with a long stick. Thank you for making yourself go through this!
@@_daniela_s hey sorry if this is weird but i've been thinking about moving to storygraph but i like the reading updates with notes you can do in goodreads. Do you have any idea if you can do that there? Or if you had goodreads: does that info also get exported when you export the data?
So many of these books and authors are ones I have on my TBR because my 1st husband recommended them. I have a feeling this series of videos is going to save me a lot of time.
If u want a book to piss you off, yeah, Sphere is a perfect candidate. Man, I listened to it as an audio book, and I was so mad at it at the end, I was fuming with anger for a week. So, if you decide to pick it up, be prepared, it's a shitshow...
@@BookswithEmilyFox Umm, nooooo, no no no. You won't like Wizard's First Rule. While I love some of the characters to this day, I couldn't make it through the book without reading the end first. This book scarred my vulnerable young heart. Important trigger warning spoiler below: A solid FOURTH of the book is one long SA torture scene of the main character.😰😱😭
I actually liked the first 4 or so books of his sword of truth series when I was like 20 and hadn't read good fantasy. But a good chunk of the story is just SA after SA .. after SA. I would dnf it so hard now at 30.
I cannot express how much it pisses me off when not only authors but also a big part of fantasy fandom can fathom a world with dragons and magic but balk at world where women, POC and non-straights are treated well and as equals. No amount of denials will convince me they aren't sexist, racist and -phobic. I'm not against worlds where there are prejudices, but those treated poorly don't have to be the same groups as in our world. Also, just today I read a book where out of nowhere, for a minute we get inside the head of an adult male character who is working as a guardian for teenagers and thinks how hot minor teenage girls are, and how sadly if he did anything he'd end up in jail. First of all, ew. Second of all, why did I need to read it. Third of all, there wasn't any follow up. We just learn there's this random dude lusting after teenagers and we cut to another scene. If you're going to include something like this at least do something with it.
I am just now at 21 finally starting to get annoyed at these tropes in fantasy books, mostly thanks to you talking about it and I'm so glad you do. I feel like most booktubers completely overlook these things and recommend these books anyway and I'm sick of it.
I was going to make a joke about frontal lobes developing but seriously I’m happy I could help! I know it can be bitter sweet because once you start noticing it’s hard to stop. While it ruins some books, I think it’s important. We can focus on other books more worth our time!
I have a lot of old fantasy books I got passed down to me from family…. And I always donate books I’m unhauling except for special ones like these and I get so much satisfaction from throwing them in the garbage so no one else has to read them 😅
Love these videos. It opens my eyes to these awful authors, so thank you. Would love a Part 3. But also, have you done a video where you read hooks that we say you'll love? I would like to see that video too.
Bummed about David Eddings as i was looking forward to reading that book but yeah can't read it now. The whole section of you looking him up and then dumping the book was hilarious tho😂
I read more about David Eddings, he's been dead since 2009 and the royalties from his books go to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. I haven't read anything by him yet so I don't know if there are other problematic issues. At least he not benefitting from sales.
At this point when I pick up older fantasy I’ve noticed that I tend to just skip any book I see written by a man. Which is really sad since there obviously are tons of amazing male fantasy authors. But I’ve also been burned many times!!
Have you read any R J Barker? I find his writing of women and gender quite refreshing, particularly from a male author. It also helps that I love his writing and storytelling too! I've read Gods of the Wyrdwood, and the Bone Ship trilogy, so I can't say for Age of Assassins, however.
My dad used to read the Belgeriad to me as a bedtime story when I was a kid! I think I grew out of bedtime stories before we ever finished the series though.
Lol, watching someone else ranting like I do to myself when reading such nonsense. You’re such a good sport in the name of clearing the shelves. favorite line is when you connect to grumpy witch character! 😂
It really would be great if 🍇 wasn’t stock standard in every fantasy / especially if it’s on page and of a minor. I just don’t think it’s a pivotal factor in setting up a “realistic” world in what is literally fantasy.
A book you might really enjoy is A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy. It's about an anarchist republic that is fighting an attempt at colonization by a capitalist/imperialist power. I'm an anthropologist so my big joy in reading fantasy is getting to see other ways of living explored but as you note in the video, it's so common to maintain cultural traits like sexism even in crazy fantastical worlds. I really appreciated A Country of Ghosts for its commitment and consistency in creating an anarchist community and what it would be like to be part of that community.
It's so interesting watching you review books I read when I was a teenager. I never noticed these sexist things at the time and hearing you quote them is so wild. I would hate that now. I do have a bookshelf in my room where I put "old favourites" now so that friends don't thinkni recommend them these days 😬
Ooh, boy! Watching you read Peter Brett. I read four of the five books in the series and just could not even try book five. I actually really liked the first book, but each subsequent one gets worse and worse. I unhauled them so fast
Maybe fun video to read some other male authors who are not seen as problematic and see if you can find ones that you would enjoy? I saw Joe Abercrombie on your shelf, he might be a good one. And of course James Islington, but I think you've read The shadow of what was lost at this point
I definitely like plenty of male authors but at this point I’m not going out of my way to read more just because they’re men. I’m focusing more on female/non binary authors + specific books that sound interesting or were recommended and the author just happens to be male. I have no issues with Islington (I really like The Will of the Many) and Abercrombie was okay 👍
@@BookswithEmilyFox I get that. I meant more reading books from your shelf, not going out of your way. Just to have it balanced with these kind of vlogs haha
Omg Emilyyy! I was thinking of you because I was reading my first novel written by a straight male author after years ("En agosto nos vemos" by Gabriel García Marquez)... and it was awful. I could not tolerate his descriptions of women, especially the main female character. We only think about s*x, all the time, and how to please men... ew. Sooo, I just bought the first book of Elena Ferrante's series you've been recommending to cleanse my mind aftet this dissaponting read. I'm so excited to start this series!!! :)
I tried Ringworld earlier this year, the 180 year age gap and that whole relationship grossed me out, but what actually made me put it down was how all the characters interacted with eachother.
8:44 - in a way, imagined worlds having sexism in them makes sense to me. There's a reason many societies (probably not all) on Earth went through some hystory of mysogyny - women being less physically strong than men makes them easier to overpower, and their ability to bear children is, in a way, a resource (I'm not saying this is the right way to look at it, but you've probably seen at least one red pill bro blaming all the woes of the world on women not having 10 babies anymore). If these two factors are present in the worldbuilding, some sexist components might be the logical consequence of that, and it can affect the way the characters think and talk. There are ways to address it in the story, some of them better than the others, but mere presence of sexism doesn't make the book/author sexist. This isn't about this particular book, no idea if it applies here. P.S. but I totally get why you'd be annoyed with violence against women being a go-to for worldbuilding. I don't read George Martin's books for a reason lol
Did you really just victim blame women for misogyny?😂 misogyny is not because of how women are, it’s because of how men are. If we hated people who are weaker than us, everybody would hate children
Wow such fun reads 🤪😅 no but honestly thank you for showing us it's ok to get rid of a book if you're not feeling it ! I used to be so stubborn and take weeks to finish a book I was bot even enjoying, what's the pount in doing that honestly ? I have so many great books to read and so little time ! Never doing that again
The worst part is that the overall idea had potential but come on 😭 The Goodreads comments are going to be a shitshow again 😭 Mild spoilers 2 mothers dying tragically for the male characters to start their stories, three girls wanting to marry the MC, some incest and rape… you can create a dark world without putting your female characters through all of that.
I read Ringworld when I was about 15 and enjoyed it, but actually want to read it again as an adult to see how much I've progressed! From what you said it does not sound promising.
In case you want to read something good now, I will highly recommend The Collapsing Empire. I adored the series and John Scalzi is so fun to read. Also if it sways you, Wil Wheaton narrated the series.
Honestly, 99% of the time when theres stuff that annoys me in the book i will not enjoy it anywas. Last month i read a book and was annoyed after the tenth page (because a dad described his daughter as now having curves in new places and I was just disgusted) i didn't finish the book but i ended up getting rid of all the books of the author after (trying to) reading the rest of them and not finishing most of them.... Also the kitties are so precious, please with her little paw
@@BookswithEmilyFox I'm only allowed to be on the other side of the door if I'm in the shower. Or playing a musical instrument my cat does not approve of 😂
Omg Tigana 😂 I thought the premise was stupid to begin with, and then just tossed the book away when i got to the inc*st parts. What a waste of my time
All I had heard about him was that his writing was beautiful so I was surprised when it was suggested I should include him in here :/ Is the agency looking to hire? I got two fat ones that are jobless and draining my finances!
The most scary thing for me is that what you said - we are so surrounded by it during our teenage years that we don't pay attention to it. Wise Mans Fear - one of my favourite books in high school, the same with Witcher (I come from Poland so it's treated as our fantasy "legacy") and now ugh can't stand them.
You are out here doing the lord's work to help vet out these misogynistic authors. I agree that these things make a book nearly unreadable. And unfortunately it isn't being talked about nearly enough!
Wow! I thought you wouldn't like Eddings because of the sexism that I remember in his books that I read decades ago. I had no idea! You really went through the wringer this time to save us from some awful books!
If you ever want to buy a book to hate it I recommend "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Keesey, I think it will make you thermonuclear with rage. (Also my most hated book) The last terrible thing I read was Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens which had a 17ish yo girl go from "flower" to active s*x worker in less than a day with no isaues like it was nothing. The one I'm reading that is handling things well is "The Faniliars" by Stacy Halls.
Babe, you are going HATE Wizard's First Rule 😅Misogyny, torture p*rn, Gary Stu syndrome. Actually used to be my favourite book. I read it way too young haha and it was one of my first big fantasies. Personally, I enjoy the first book. But don't hurt your psyche by reading it. It's not worth it! hahaha. Also, David Eddings was a HUGE part of my fantasy experience growing up. His Sparhawk was such a fave of mine. But.... After I found out the literal atrocities he committed, I can't even look at his books anymore without feeling sick. Side note: I see Tamora Pierce on your shelf. The first few books read young but I really hope you enjoy them. Those books are part of my very soul. Go in with low expectations and just enjoy the journey... if you can.
What personally made me so mad about the Warded Man is that the misogyny is so heavily featured and NEVER challenged in the book. Also *heavy spoilers* for later part of the book *** *** *** *** *** *** There’s a scene where the fmc is assaulted and literally jumps on the mmc to have s*x with him because he « rescued » her right after. Like, they start getting frisky while she’s crying and trembling 🤢
Not gonna lie, I’m looking forward to all the salty angry Emily today. I feel ATROCIOUS and sass is exactly what I need. Leanne (literary diversions) also posted a salty video today so my judgy ass is quite happy 😂😂😅
I think a lot of fantasy books are somewhat inspired by medieval history which was incredibly sexist and unsafe for women. When I think about it as that it doesn’t bother me as much providing the female characters personality doesn’t live up to the expectations of the world they are in.
I think it’s a bad excuse. Medieval inspired where? Because they’re no electricity? It’s the go to excuse but they don’t actually care about it being realistic. I don’t expect every female character to act like modern feminist but I would prefer if they weren’t all raped or killed for the male characters’ stories. They could write anything and it’s always what they choose so I’ll definitely call it out.
I tried reading The Painted Man years ago but only got around 35% in because the misogyny and misery was driving me bonkers. Plus the pace was so slow. Too bad because like you said, the worldbuilding showed a lot of promise! But I’ve heard the misogyny and sexism gets even worse in the sequels
I read the Painted Man years and years ago and all of this nonsense is still fresh in my mind including the bit you didn't mention where the MC runs away and almost dies in the wilderness because he saw a woman breastfeeding. Like he would never have seen that before and it was the most horrifying vision of his life in a world where demons rise up and eat people.
Thaks for that. Belgariad is getting removed from my e-reader. I'm really happy I didn't spend money on it and someone gifted me free copies of the series. This removes a nice number of books from my to read list, which is great :D
Don't google the ending of The Demon Cycle. Not beccause it is bad but because you'll be confused. There's more POV characters introduced in the following 4 books. I read all the books, loved the first one despite the issues I had with it at the time (I read it pretty close to release date). Book 3 did not need to be that long. I did not need that extensive of a backstory on Inevera (is she introduced in this book? I forgot, but she's definitely in book 2). Also most of the first 1/3 of book 2 also suffers from that issue. I felt like it didn't need that much page space, but I also didn't know what to edit out. So I totally agree with the books in the series needing more editing. In book 5 there's a character whose arc doesn't get closed off. Luckily it's a minor character, but also a POV character, so it makes no sense for the arc not to conclude at all. It wasn't just an open ending, but no ending. How did that not get edited?
I don't remember anything problematic in Sphere, but I read when I was 9-10 so, maybe, I would hate it in a reread. I have Ringworld in my tbr books and I didn't expect anything good from that.
I HATED that Terry Goodkind book. It was bad, and I didn't know how bad he sucked until I was looking up why that book sucks so much because I bought it thrifted too, on a whim. I only finished it to hate read it and so I could properly say it was terrible, and it was.
I saw you mention in a reply to someone that you dislike the trope where MMC saves a female character from rape and that’s the main reason I commented before that you wouldn’t like An Ember in the Ashes. IIRC there’s a scene where FMC is getting beat up and doesn’t get raped but almost is until the love interest aka MMC comes in and saves her 🙄
I noticed some Raymond E. Feist on your shelf. Have you read any? Apologies if I should know the answer from the shelf it's on 🙈 Also I bought The Three Body Problem for $2 at an estate sale yesterday, thanks to your GR review!
wow, i read the painted man when i was like 15 or so? and i remember i loved it! but oh my gosh seeing this now: how couldn’t i see how problematic this is 😳 was thinking about rereading it some time but i guess i‘d rather not 😂
It's not your kind of music but consider checking out "Universal" by Xandria, it's thematically appropriate for the video and you might like it One verse for example "No more posessing of bodies and minds, no more opression by your holy lies, enough is enough now we claim it back, our universal right" It's my anthem at the moment bc of all the hideous things in the world right now.
I sometimes don't understand what happened in the 1960-70s. How so many authors in 1800s were able to create complex and interesting female characters and more than one century later they lost it?
2:53 California by Edan Lepucki. I actually checked this book out after you hauled it awhile back. I dnf’ed at 50% because the main female character exists to be pregnant. That’s not a spoiler, as there’s a bit more to the story than that, but omg the pregnancy talk was insufferable. Maybe you can make it further than I did. 🤷🏻♀️
Oof, That Terry Goodkind book. I tried* reading that a few years ago. The series has a really corny (but fun) low-budget TV series in the late-2000s/early- 2010s, and I wanted to read the source material. The show was way better, even with how corny it is.
I'm taking a book out of my TBR list... The second book I tried long ago and it was insufferable, the first book I considered throwing in the trash after DNFing it.
I hate sexism so much in books, so done with it. I do feel like we have gone a bit more from that but we now have racism a lot (and I mean "we hate elves or we hate people with magic" kind of racism) which I'm also a bit done with at this point
What makes you put a book down instantly?
For me, and this may be slightly controversial, but in books (usually sci-fi) where the author cares way more about making the book "woke" and progressive vs. writing a good story. I remember attempting to read a ya sci fi years ago and all I learned by the halfway point was everyone's ethnicity and gender identity. I read 100+ pages and couldn't tell you a single thing about the plot or a single character's motivation. You can include diversity and progressive attitudes while still writing a good story, but for some reason, it's nearly impossible for sci-fi authors.
@@Katertot8895 I couldn't agree more with you
Hello Emily, recently I read (well rather “started” 😅) a book of which I REALLY liked the first half but didn’t read more because of one scene. "L'archipel du chien" de Philippe Claudel (yeah, I'm French).
On a small island where everyone knows each other, an old woman discovers (while walking her dog on the beach) three corpses of black men. She warns the mayor who arrives with the doctor and the priest, and there is also the teacher who passed by (we never have a first name, it is always "the Mayor", "the Doctor", etc. I thought it was cool). So there are 5 to know about it. The mayor decides to keep it a secret and hide the bodies (basically because of tourism). Everyone accepts but the teacher doesn't really agree and the mayor feels that he will end up betraying the secret. I said to myself “Oh my god he’s going to kill him” so I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.
But this is what happened: the mayor and the doctor decide to go see the father of a girl at school and make a deal so that he will force his daughter to go see a cop and tell him that the teacher touched her. I closed the book and didn't open it again. Pedophilia is already way beyond my strength, but adults who use kids for false accusations of pedophilia, I can't do it either. I would have preferred a thousand times that the mayor killed him. I don't know what that means about me 😅
I get what you are trying to say but there's a bit too much of automatically white and heteronormative stories that some authors feel it essential to mention their diverse identities. @@Katertot8895
Nine times out of ten, it's the introduction of the male love interest. If he immediately starts manhandling the FMC or being quippy and growly, I'm done. Thanks, no thanks.
Someone should tell male authors that the genre "Fantasy" is a totally different thing from their own "Fantasy". 🙄
I’m having flashbacks of The Wise Mans Fear 😭
It’s actually terrifying most men’s fantasy is women not having rights or getting hurt.
@@BookswithEmilyFox I just watched your vlog on that book. Sorry about that.
Good one!!
Yeah, like publishers and editors. And everyone involved in the creation of the books.
I'm totally with you on this Emily. If you can imagine magical races and intricate magic systems and world-building, why can't you imagine a less sexist world? It makes you feel like misogyny is a compass to these authors (mostly male). They lose their direction without it. Very pathetic imo
I’ll never understand. You could write ANYTHING!! And this is why you choose?? No one is forcing you. It’s your decision.
“You can write anything but this is what you choose.” Exactly!
It blows my mind how many male authors can't fathom other trials for a female character to go through apart from sexual violence, sexual coming of age, sexual anything.
That would require that they see us a complex human beings. It's weird that it's their go-to.
I'm glad you are pointing out the sexism in books. Readers should be doing this with every book. 📚
Whenever I re-read books I liked when I was younger I can't believe what I didn't notice back then!
Right? It’s so embedded and we’re so brainwashed into accepting a certain level of misogyny that it’s “normal”.
I reaaaally feel this with terry goodkinds books 😢
Not the little paw 🥹🥹🥹🥹
Can you do more reading 5 star reviews of your most hated books?
16:17 EXACTLY! Everything you said before that, I 100% agree! Call out those authors. On good reads, I found most of the people who rated this book 5 stars are mostly men/boys. I am terrified to think that misogyny and sexism are so deeply intrinsic and deeply rooted that none of the male readers found anything wrong with the book.
Side Note: the appearance of the tiny paw! And Charlie and Chunky make my heart swell
honestly so scary that it’s so engrained that people can read the whole thing and never think about it at all. even worse they complain about us being “sensitive” for asking for better female characters 😅
three less books taking up space on your bookshelfs, I guess that at least is a good thing! Love these kind of video's from you
Honestly thanks for your services and helping us avoid those books.
STILL BEAUTIFUL AT THIRTY 😭😭 im gonna yeet my 29 yo ass out of the window 😭
My geriatric ass is ready for the grave 🙄
@@BookswithEmilyFox Mine too. We're so old.
It's totally not as if women in their mid 30s are often gorgeous.
No no no, we shrivel up past 18!
I'm over 40, so according to this metric, I'm basically like that freeze-dried space ice cream you used to get in planetarium gift shops.
Omg I am 28 years old and unmarried !!
For Terry Goodkind : I recommend watching Daniel Greene's video titled "Why Is Terry Goodkind Controversial?", i promise you will not like this author lmao
After watching Daniel's video, everytime now I see Goodkind's books on library sale, I let out a visible shudder, bc that video left such a strong impression
I’ll have to look at the video. I loved his books but it’s been a bit.
I think I got about 50 pages into one of Goodkind’s books and it was a hard forever pass. 😝
Terry Goodkind... I really have a love/hate relationship with his books. But Daniel Greene said it very well. In my defense, I found out after reading them. But some parts are so good... Even if he's problematic for many reasons, I refuse to get rid of his books, but I will not buy more.
Thank you for mentioning him. In my early days of collecting fantasy books, I had gathered a few of his through thrift stores and yard sales. Once I saw that video and read about what he did and said about fellow artists and Robert Jordan of all people, I immediately got rid of all of my Goodkind. It's ironic, because he was neither good, nor kind.
8:18 THIS!!! I always say this too! It's a fantasy / sci-fi / fictional world which means people and worlds can be ANYTHING but authors still put OUR WORLD's patriarchy and sexism etc in -- the stories can be ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING!!!! It really annoys me.
I feel like women should just start writing misandry and treat it like these people treat misoginy in their books 😂
You might want to google Terry Goodkind too. Dude was terrible. Not prison terrible, but I call him Terry Badmean. He said awful things about the fantasy genre in general, about Robert Jordan while he was on his deathbed (and the similarities between his series and wheel of tune are too close for coincidence for me), and one of his cover artists. He also called a reader not old enough to read his books when he was criticized (the reader was an adult) The misogyny and weird sex scenes in the book I read are really bad. And super creepy. Reddit has some good info on this, but I’d just put the book in the go pile before trying it
The reader who he called "too young to read his books" wasn't even critisising him. He was just saying he "noticed a similarity between his books and Wheel of Time" and shared his headcanon about them taking place in the same world. To which Terry replied that if he noticed a similarity, he's probably not old enough to read his books.
My video froze at the part where you were saying the mother was “Still beautiful at…”.
It created quite the dramatic pause. “TELL ME EMILY”
LOL THIRTYYYYY!! Hopefully you got as shocked as I was when the video finally unfroze XD
This makes me want to create a goodreads shelf for books I never want to touch. The first fantasy book was atrocious 💀💀
I will not touch books from this author with a long stick.
Thank you for making yourself go through this!
Hey thats actually a great idea 😂
I did this! Mine is just called 'nope' because there's too many authors and books out there to keep track
Haha do it, I have a tag on the Storygraph called not-reading, which now has a couple more authors on it...
@@TabzyTabz Same! I also have a tag on storygraph and folder on my browser for quick reference.
@@_daniela_s hey sorry if this is weird but i've been thinking about moving to storygraph but i like the reading updates with notes you can do in goodreads. Do you have any idea if you can do that there? Or if you had goodreads: does that info also get exported when you export the data?
So many of these books and authors are ones I have on my TBR because my 1st husband recommended them. I have a feeling this series of videos is going to save me a lot of time.
Omfg I didn't see Goodkind on your shelf last time. Just search "why everyone hates Terry Goodkind" you'll get plenty of summaries.
In part 3? 😂
@@BookswithEmilyFox AHAHAHA no need for part 3 if you aren't in the mood, just get rid of his books for your own good. :')
If u want a book to piss you off, yeah, Sphere is a perfect candidate. Man, I listened to it as an audio book, and I was so mad at it at the end, I was fuming with anger for a week.
So, if you decide to pick it up, be prepared, it's a shitshow...
@@BookswithEmilyFox Umm, nooooo, no no no. You won't like Wizard's First Rule. While I love some of the characters to this day, I couldn't make it through the book without reading the end first. This book scarred my vulnerable young heart. Important trigger warning spoiler below:
A solid FOURTH of the book is one long SA torture scene of the main character.😰😱😭
I actually liked the first 4 or so books of his sword of truth series when I was like 20 and hadn't read good fantasy. But a good chunk of the story is just SA after SA .. after SA. I would dnf it so hard now at 30.
I cannot express how much it pisses me off when not only authors but also a big part of fantasy fandom can fathom a world with dragons and magic but balk at world where women, POC and non-straights are treated well and as equals. No amount of denials will convince me they aren't sexist, racist and -phobic.
I'm not against worlds where there are prejudices, but those treated poorly don't have to be the same groups as in our world.
Also, just today I read a book where out of nowhere, for a minute we get inside the head of an adult male character who is working as a guardian for teenagers and thinks how hot minor teenage girls are, and how sadly if he did anything he'd end up in jail. First of all, ew. Second of all, why did I need to read it. Third of all, there wasn't any follow up. We just learn there's this random dude lusting after teenagers and we cut to another scene. If you're going to include something like this at least do something with it.
I just want to say how much I appreciate this commentary. I don't understand why this is not talked about more.
I’m glad for this video, it helped me remove some books from my TBR and focus on something better!
The paw under the door is so cute 😭🥹
I love Emily calling out misogynie 😌💅
This promises to be a really really good one. 😄
Hopefully it was 🤞🤞
@@BookswithEmilyFox yes it was.
I am just now at 21 finally starting to get annoyed at these tropes in fantasy books, mostly thanks to you talking about it and I'm so glad you do. I feel like most booktubers completely overlook these things and recommend these books anyway and I'm sick of it.
I was going to make a joke about frontal lobes developing but seriously I’m happy I could help! I know it can be bitter sweet because once you start noticing it’s hard to stop. While it ruins some books, I think it’s important. We can focus on other books more worth our time!
Thank you for telling about the problematic stuff, and reading them for us. I deleted the oned I had on Goodreads from my want to read list.
I have a lot of old fantasy books I got passed down to me from family…. And I always donate books I’m unhauling except for special ones like these and I get so much satisfaction from throwing them in the garbage so no one else has to read them 😅
I just got “I who have never known men” off eBay and I cannot wait to read it next!
Weeeee need another part 👌🏼
"it's not that it's not realistic, it's that it's always their go to" THIS LINE
Love these videos. It opens my eyes to these awful authors, so thank you. Would love a Part 3. But also, have you done a video where you read hooks that we say you'll love? I would like to see that video too.
Oh this one sounds exciting! Going to get comfy and enjoy, thanks for the great content as always Emily!
Bummed about David Eddings as i was looking forward to reading that book but yeah can't read it now. The whole section of you looking him up and then dumping the book was hilarious tho😂
I read more about David Eddings, he's been dead since 2009 and the royalties from his books go to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. I haven't read anything by him yet so I don't know if there are other problematic issues. At least he not benefitting from sales.
At this point when I pick up older fantasy I’ve noticed that I tend to just skip any book I see written by a man. Which is really sad since there obviously are tons of amazing male fantasy authors. But I’ve also been burned many times!!
I love this type of vlogs but my god those quotes give me nausea 🤢 Male writers need to STOP
I always wonder what did the editors manage to remove (that was probably worse) 🥲
Have you read any R J Barker? I find his writing of women and gender quite refreshing, particularly from a male author. It also helps that I love his writing and storytelling too! I've read Gods of the Wyrdwood, and the Bone Ship trilogy, so I can't say for Age of Assassins, however.
My dad used to read the Belgeriad to me as a bedtime story when I was a kid! I think I grew out of bedtime stories before we ever finished the series though.
I love it how you never look like you're angry, just absolutely exhausted with the trashness in books
You know you’ve been watching Emily for a long time when you know it’s Clawdia as soon as you see the paw under the door 😂
Lol, watching someone else ranting like I do to myself when reading such nonsense. You’re such a good sport in the name of clearing the shelves. favorite line is when you connect to grumpy witch character! 😂
I'm so sorry you went through the painted man experience but I'm also giggling because you had the exact same phases like me. :D
It really would be great if 🍇 wasn’t stock standard in every fantasy / especially if it’s on page and of a minor. I just don’t think it’s a pivotal factor in setting up a “realistic” world in what is literally fantasy.
My favorite type of videos! 🥰
A book you might really enjoy is A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy. It's about an anarchist republic that is fighting an attempt at colonization by a capitalist/imperialist power. I'm an anthropologist so my big joy in reading fantasy is getting to see other ways of living explored but as you note in the video, it's so common to maintain cultural traits like sexism even in crazy fantastical worlds. I really appreciated A Country of Ghosts for its commitment and consistency in creating an anarchist community and what it would be like to be part of that community.
It's so interesting watching you review books I read when I was a teenager. I never noticed these sexist things at the time and hearing you quote them is so wild. I would hate that now. I do have a bookshelf in my room where I put "old favourites" now so that friends don't thinkni recommend them these days 😬
Ooh, boy! Watching you read Peter Brett. I read four of the five books in the series and just could not even try book five. I actually really liked the first book, but each subsequent one gets worse and worse. I unhauled them so fast
Maybe fun video to read some other male authors who are not seen as problematic and see if you can find ones that you would enjoy? I saw Joe Abercrombie on your shelf, he might be a good one. And of course James Islington, but I think you've read The shadow of what was lost at this point
I definitely like plenty of male authors but at this point I’m not going out of my way to read more just because they’re men. I’m focusing more on female/non binary authors + specific books that sound interesting or were recommended and the author just happens to be male.
I have no issues with Islington (I really like The Will of the Many) and Abercrombie was okay 👍
@@BookswithEmilyFox I get that. I meant more reading books from your shelf, not going out of your way. Just to have it balanced with these kind of vlogs haha
Oh lol well I’m continuing series for the rest of the year and lots of them are by male authors so it will happen but it won’t be titled that way!
I feel like I’m going to start noticing this now after hearing you talk about it. Which is a good thing.
Omg Emilyyy! I was thinking of you because I was reading my first novel written by a straight male author after years ("En agosto nos vemos" by Gabriel García Marquez)... and it was awful. I could not tolerate his descriptions of women, especially the main female character. We only think about s*x, all the time, and how to please men... ew. Sooo, I just bought the first book of Elena Ferrante's series you've been recommending to cleanse my mind aftet this dissaponting read. I'm so excited to start this series!!! :)
I tried Ringworld earlier this year, the 180 year age gap and that whole relationship grossed me out, but what actually made me put it down was how all the characters interacted with eachother.
8:44 - in a way, imagined worlds having sexism in them makes sense to me. There's a reason many societies (probably not all) on Earth went through some hystory of mysogyny - women being less physically strong than men makes them easier to overpower, and their ability to bear children is, in a way, a resource (I'm not saying this is the right way to look at it, but you've probably seen at least one red pill bro blaming all the woes of the world on women not having 10 babies anymore). If these two factors are present in the worldbuilding, some sexist components might be the logical consequence of that, and it can affect the way the characters think and talk. There are ways to address it in the story, some of them better than the others, but mere presence of sexism doesn't make the book/author sexist. This isn't about this particular book, no idea if it applies here.
P.S. but I totally get why you'd be annoyed with violence against women being a go-to for worldbuilding. I don't read George Martin's books for a reason lol
Did you really just victim blame women for misogyny?😂 misogyny is not because of how women are, it’s because of how men are. If we hated people who are weaker than us, everybody would hate children
Wow such fun reads 🤪😅 no but honestly thank you for showing us it's ok to get rid of a book if you're not feeling it ! I used to be so stubborn and take weeks to finish a book I was bot even enjoying, what's the pount in doing that honestly ? I have so many great books to read and so little time ! Never doing that again
Emily, what the fuck was that 1st book😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 And please do add your review on GoodReads!!
The worst part is that the overall idea had potential but come on 😭
The Goodreads comments are going to be a shitshow again 😭
Mild spoilers
2 mothers dying tragically for the male characters to start their stories, three girls wanting to marry the MC, some incest and rape… you can create a dark world without putting your female characters through all of that.
@@BookswithEmilyFoxWTF😭😭😭😭😭😭 How did you finish it???? 😭😭😭😭😭
Thank you for your service, btw! Added it to my "nah" shelf ahahah
I read Ringworld when I was about 15 and enjoyed it, but actually want to read it again as an adult to see how much I've progressed! From what you said it does not sound promising.
In case you want to read something good now, I will highly recommend The Collapsing Empire. I adored the series and John Scalzi is so fun to read. Also if it sways you, Wil Wheaton narrated the series.
Honestly, 99% of the time when theres stuff that annoys me in the book i will not enjoy it anywas. Last month i read a book and was annoyed after the tenth page (because a dad described his daughter as now having curves in new places and I was just disgusted) i didn't finish the book but i ended up getting rid of all the books of the author after (trying to) reading the rest of them and not finishing most of them.... Also the kitties are so precious, please with her little paw
I wish watching these videos would be prescribed to a lot of authors. And in any writing school as well.
I can't believe you can get away with closing doors! I would be in so much trouble!
Oh I am! Clawdia hates it. I've trained them to let me close my door at night but at 6am she's there to tell me it's unacceptable lol
@@BookswithEmilyFox I'm only allowed to be on the other side of the door if I'm in the shower. Or playing a musical instrument my cat does not approve of 😂
Omg Tigana 😂 I thought the premise was stupid to begin with, and then just tossed the book away when i got to the inc*st parts. What a waste of my time
All I had heard about him was that his writing was beautiful so I was surprised when it was suggested I should include him in here :/
Is the agency looking to hire? I got two fat ones that are jobless and draining my finances!
The most scary thing for me is that what you said - we are so surrounded by it during our teenage years that we don't pay attention to it. Wise Mans Fear - one of my favourite books in high school, the same with Witcher (I come from Poland so it's treated as our fantasy "legacy") and now ugh can't stand them.
Emily putting herself through hell for our entertainment……….thank u for your service queen
I think you will not like VOX (Christina Dalcher) - on your "I don't think there's anything here shelf" w/ Gideon the Ninth and The Power
This video is so so needed! Take them all down Emily. I think you will also hate the crimson campaign
You are out here doing the lord's work to help vet out these misogynistic authors. I agree that these things make a book nearly unreadable. And unfortunately it isn't being talked about nearly enough!
Yes, we do want the third part 💅
Wow! I thought you wouldn't like Eddings because of the sexism that I remember in his books that I read decades ago. I had no idea! You really went through the wringer this time to save us from some awful books!
All suffering aside... Can I ask what lip product(s) you're wearing in the first part of the video? It's so pretty!
If you ever want to buy a book to hate it I recommend "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Keesey, I think it will make you thermonuclear with rage. (Also my most hated book)
The last terrible thing I read was Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens which had a 17ish yo girl go from "flower" to active s*x worker in less than a day with no isaues like it was nothing.
The one I'm reading that is handling things well is "The Faniliars" by Stacy Halls.
Babe, you are going HATE Wizard's First Rule 😅Misogyny, torture p*rn, Gary Stu syndrome. Actually used to be my favourite book. I read it way too young haha and it was one of my first big fantasies. Personally, I enjoy the first book. But don't hurt your psyche by reading it. It's not worth it! hahaha. Also, David Eddings was a HUGE part of my fantasy experience growing up. His Sparhawk was such a fave of mine. But.... After I found out the literal atrocities he committed, I can't even look at his books anymore without feeling sick.
Side note: I see Tamora Pierce on your shelf. The first few books read young but I really hope you enjoy them. Those books are part of my very soul. Go in with low expectations and just enjoy the journey... if you can.
I love when Emily spills the tea on stupid sexist books 😂😂😂 saves me so much time not having to read them
What personally made me so mad about the Warded Man is that the misogyny is so heavily featured and NEVER challenged in the book.
Also *heavy spoilers* for later part of the book
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There’s a scene where the fmc is assaulted and literally jumps on the mmc to have s*x with him because he « rescued » her right after. Like, they start getting frisky while she’s crying and trembling 🤢
Books like Stranger in a Strange Land didn't bother me at all when I was young.. but as an adult?? In this society?? Nawww.
I only read that quote “Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault” and that was enough for me 🤮
I think you would LOVE Angela Slatter!!
Miss Emily, please make a video about the recent New York Times 100 books in the 21st century.Elena Ferrante's books are included.
Not gonna lie, I’m looking forward to all the salty angry Emily today. I feel ATROCIOUS and sass is exactly what I need. Leanne (literary diversions) also posted a salty video today so my judgy ass is quite happy 😂😂😅
I think a lot of fantasy books are somewhat inspired by medieval history which was incredibly sexist and unsafe for women. When I think about it as that it doesn’t bother me as much providing the female characters personality doesn’t live up to the expectations of the world they are in.
I think it’s a bad excuse. Medieval inspired where? Because they’re no electricity? It’s the go to excuse but they don’t actually care about it being realistic.
I don’t expect every female character to act like modern feminist but I would prefer if they weren’t all raped or killed for the male characters’ stories.
They could write anything and it’s always what they choose so I’ll definitely call it out.
I tried reading The Painted Man years ago but only got around 35% in because the misogyny and misery was driving me bonkers. Plus the pace was so slow. Too bad because like you said, the worldbuilding showed a lot of promise! But I’ve heard the misogyny and sexism gets even worse in the sequels
I read the Painted Man years and years ago and all of this nonsense is still fresh in my mind including the bit you didn't mention where the MC runs away and almost dies in the wilderness because he saw a woman breastfeeding. Like he would never have seen that before and it was the most horrifying vision of his life in a world where demons rise up and eat people.
To be fair, a man getting triggered out of his goddamn mind by the sight of a breastfeeding woman seems pretty realistic to me.
Thaks for that. Belgariad is getting removed from my e-reader. I'm really happy I didn't spend money on it and someone gifted me free copies of the series. This removes a nice number of books from my to read list, which is great :D
Don't google the ending of The Demon Cycle. Not beccause it is bad but because you'll be confused. There's more POV characters introduced in the following 4 books.
I read all the books, loved the first one despite the issues I had with it at the time (I read it pretty close to release date). Book 3 did not need to be that long. I did not need that extensive of a backstory on Inevera (is she introduced in this book? I forgot, but she's definitely in book 2). Also most of the first 1/3 of book 2 also suffers from that issue. I felt like it didn't need that much page space, but I also didn't know what to edit out. So I totally agree with the books in the series needing more editing. In book 5 there's a character whose arc doesn't get closed off. Luckily it's a minor character, but also a POV character, so it makes no sense for the arc not to conclude at all. It wasn't just an open ending, but no ending. How did that not get edited?
I really want you to watch the new interview with the vampire show I think you'll love the claudia there too!
I don't remember anything problematic in Sphere, but I read when I was 9-10 so, maybe, I would hate it in a reread.
I have Ringworld in my tbr books and I didn't expect anything good from that.
I HATED that Terry Goodkind book. It was bad, and I didn't know how bad he sucked until I was looking up why that book sucks so much because I bought it thrifted too, on a whim. I only finished it to hate read it and so I could properly say it was terrible, and it was.
Sick and tired of female characters always existing through sexual trauma and only being allowed character growth through said traumas.
I saw you mention in a reply to someone that you dislike the trope where MMC saves a female character from rape and that’s the main reason I commented before that you wouldn’t like An Ember in the Ashes. IIRC there’s a scene where FMC is getting beat up and doesn’t get raped but almost is until the love interest aka MMC comes in and saves her 🙄
I noticed some Raymond E. Feist on your shelf. Have you read any? Apologies if I should know the answer from the shelf it's on 🙈
Also I bought The Three Body Problem for $2 at an estate sale yesterday, thanks to your GR review!
Thank you for reading these sh*tty books so we don't have to! Really taking one (many - so, so many) for the team Emily, we appreciate you 🙏
wow, i read the painted man when i was like 15 or so? and i remember i loved it! but oh my gosh seeing this now: how couldn’t i see how problematic this is 😳 was thinking about rereading it some time but i guess i‘d rather not 😂
It's not your kind of music but consider checking out "Universal" by Xandria, it's thematically appropriate for the video and you might like it
One verse for example
"No more posessing of bodies and minds, no more opression by your holy lies, enough is enough now we claim it back, our universal right"
It's my anthem at the moment bc of all the hideous things in the world right now.
I sometimes don't understand what happened in the 1960-70s. How so many authors in 1800s were able to create complex and interesting female characters and more than one century later they lost it?
2:53 California by Edan Lepucki. I actually checked this book out after you hauled it awhile back. I dnf’ed at 50% because the main female character exists to be pregnant. That’s not a spoiler, as there’s a bit more to the story than that, but omg the pregnancy talk was insufferable. Maybe you can make it further than I did. 🤷🏻♀️
Oof, That Terry Goodkind book. I tried* reading that a few years ago. The series has a really corny (but fun) low-budget TV series in the late-2000s/early- 2010s, and I wanted to read the source material. The show was way better, even with how corny it is.
i heard that terry goodkind is very uhh lets just say not that kind
I wonder if you are planning to read Annie Bot. It's about a robot "companion" to a man who becomes self aware
Yay read it or unhaul it :D
I'm taking a book out of my TBR list... The second book I tried long ago and it was insufferable, the first book I considered throwing in the trash after DNFing it.
I loved this video!
But did it say what's up with the demons? I'm genuinely curious
No it’s a five book series so I guess you have to read them all to know
I hate sexism so much in books, so done with it. I do feel like we have gone a bit more from that but we now have racism a lot (and I mean "we hate elves or we hate people with magic" kind of racism) which I'm also a bit done with at this point
Racism is definitely handled weirdly in a lot of fantasy!