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haveyoureadthisfantasybook · 3 months

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vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#fantasy #books #A Chorus Rises #A Song Below Water #Bethany C. Morrow #poll #result: no #l: English

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slaughter-books · 10 months

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Day 21: JOMPBPC: Hello, Summer Winter

It's currently Winter in Australia and I decided to make the non-binary pride flag out of books! 💛

Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

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afropuffsstudios · 3 months

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BOOK SPOTLIGHT 📖

Title: A Song Below Water

Author: Bethany C. Morrow

We are Black History ✌🏿

#a song below water #bethany c. morrow #afropuffsstudios #afropuffs studios #books #reading #black writers #black history #black history month #bhm #bhm24 #bhm2024 #black history month 24

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ladzwriting · 7 months

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HALLOW-READS 2022: 31 Book Recommendations for the 31 Days of October

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bookcoversonly · 7 months

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Title: A Chorus Rises | Author: Bethany C. Morrow | Publisher: Tor (2021)

#books #A Chorus Rises #Bethany C. Morrow

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safirefire · 1 month

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Nesta Archeron fans, Naema Bradshaw is for you

Read A Song Below Water and then A Chorus Rises to follow a confident, self-assured Black teenager who is blunt and doesn’t feel like anyone is owed her insecurities or trauma and watch her tremendous growth with an author that makes clear systems of oppression are vastly different from interpersonal disagreements. The first book is so interesting and the second book delves much deeper into the world building and whatever faults Naema has she is never villanized by the narrative, because in this fantasy world that mirrors ours (with the addition of mythical creatures) a bold, powerful teenage girl is not a scapegoat for systemic failures.

The audiobooks are excellent too.

[Book Link | Image | Image]

#a song below water #a chorus rises #bethany c morrow #bookblr #ya fantasy #nesta archeron #nesta #acotar #I’m sorry to compare this excellent story by a Black woman to acotar but naema is what nesta could have been

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bookishfreedom · 2 years

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"We should all speak like sirens. Use our voices to make a difference, because all of them matter.”

#a song below water #bethany c morrow #book #books #booklr #read #reading #reader #bookish #mine #bookblr #bookworm #reading outside #black voices #ya fantasy

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deathsmallcaps · 1 year

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Ok I’m probably not the best person to say this, but I’ve been seeing a lot of (as of right now) accurate insults on how the CGI approach for the Live Action Little Mermaid movie, but please be mindful that you don’t take things too far, and *especially* don’t start going after Halle Bailey (Ariel’s actress) and to a lesser extent, Ariel the character.

Antiblackness is still an issue in a lot of fandom spaces, and it doesn’t just come out as using nasty slurs or stereotypes. It manifests as drawing Black characters lighter and/or with more white features, it comes out as removing Black partners from ships, and it starts out as plausibly deniable insults that get the door open to microaggressions and outright nasty comments.

I’m not saying that all discussion of the movie should be stalled, or even if it turns out to be an artistic failure, that it doesn’t merit discussion. I’m saying that you shouldn’t extend your vitriol to the characters and actors.

If you really feel the need to insult her, it might be worth a little introspection. Ask yourself, “Do I resent that they changed Ariel, or that they changed Ariel in this way?”. You’re not irredeemable if your personal answer isn’t kind. Just be more careful, try and observe how that sort of world view affects your behavior to others, and then course correct.

A lot of little kids would love to see another Black Princess. A lot of little kids would love to have a Black mermaid as a main character. Hell, a lot of adults would love those too. Black fantasy characters have long been excluded, transformed, killed, merely in the background, relegated to stereotypes, villainized and have hardly ever in the spotlight, especially in major productions.

Don’t make it harder for kids (and adults!) to see themselves on screen. Don’t ruin their wonder. So don’t make unkind comments. Keep it to yourself. Frankly, Halle looks beautiful, and I can’t wait to see the sparkles in her fans’ eyes as she swims across the screen.

#live action little mermaid #the little mermaid 2023 #Halle Bailey #I’m a white girl but the concept of a Black Ariel is near and dear to my heart #my best friend in elementary loved H20:Just add water and introduced it to me #and she dreamed (at least half then #we haven’t kept in touch) of ordering herself a mermaid tail to swim around in #and I really hope that she has. if she didn’t fuck up a year of college like I did (she was damn smart so I doubt it)#then she’s likely just about to graduate #M I hope you get a great paying job and can order yourself a beautiful quality tail and live out that little girl dream #you deserve it. I don’t think you had near enough #black girl Magic growing up. miss you #i doubt you’re on tumblr but just in case you’re wondering #‘is that me?’ I’ll give you a hint:#I used to say floober doober instead of cursing when we played Mario kart #I mean I did start cursing heavily later. but at first I said that #in any case idk if you’re still into mermaids but we both know you would’ve loved to watch this movie when you were little #this was both spurred on by all the flounder posts I’ve been seeing and ‘A Song Below Water’ by Bethany C. Morrow #one of the main characters Effie works as a Renaissance Faire mermaid and she talks a lot about #how people write fiction about her character but whitewash her or body swap her or would rather do self inserts #or the only comments made about her beauty are just about her tail and never about her Black skin or features #and how she (and her Mom before her death) were usually the only Black characters at the fair #and how she feels so beautiful and incredible being her mermaid self #also again I’m white so I don’t have personal experience but my younger brother is mixed #and he’s always been really lowkey about his feelings but #I took him to see Into the Spiderverse when it first came out #and he’s loved it since #here was this (adorable - don’t tell my brother I said that lol) lanky smart awkward hurting courageous Black boy on screen #and I can see in his heart how he’s been affected by it. he’s not a super fan or anything but I can just tell (big sister thing.) Anyways I #really hope that joy will happen more and more for everyone.

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the-knights-who-say-book · 1 year

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waving a pocket watch in front of your eyes. you want to read these books. you want to buy them and/or check them out of your library soooooo bad

the audiobooks are v good by the way

#i wonder if i would like Naema as much as i do if it wasnt for the charisma of the voice actress for Chorus Rises #i think she does a fantastic job of making Naema as charming as she's supposed to be #A Song Below Water #A Chorus Rises #Bethany C Morrow

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northernreads · 4 months

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book review

My rating: ★★

I received an e-arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I requested this book I did so because I have enjoyed previous books by these authors, and did not realize that Mourning Glory was written not as a traditional book, but with the intention of it only being an audiobook. As such it's really more of an audio drama or fiction podcast than a book. Normally when accessing a book through audio format I try not to let any issues (if any) with the audio narration cloud my view on the book. Mourning Glory, however, was intended to be published as an "audiobook" and so I will include comments on it's format in this review.

First though, the story itself. Mourning Glory is following three sisters and their cousin as they try to deal with their family history legacy and also the demon that haunts their family.

The characters are all so likeable and distinct and I loved seeing how they interacted with each other and with other family members. I loved how family-oriented the whole story was, with the main relationship plots being sisterly ones.

I also really liked the A plot in which the family trying to deal with this demon and learning about how they came to be haunted by this demon in the first place. Rooted in southern American history and those horrors, this book was giving characters the agency to take on the past.

The only B plots in this story were the relationship plots between the four main characters, which should have been enough, but some how came across as shallowly done. Without enough B plot, this story seemed to lack dimension.

There was one scene I was confused about near the end in which two of the protagonists wind up having to kind of time travel and steal souls, and rather than follow them do this, we sit with the other two girls and listen to them wait and chat. I truly don't understand why we couldn't have seen both perspectives, and if we were to only get one why we only get the duller one?

The ending was also wrapped up far too neatly. There was no real hitch in the plan that our characters had to overcome. They made a plan and followed it through and that was it, it was rather uncompelling.

On to the format. This story was narrated by none other than Bahni Turpin, who is a favourite audiobook narrator of mine. Her voice truly brought this story to life and added so much dimension to the story. The story itself, being written with audio narration in mind, would lose a lot if ever published in print as it currently stands.

This story also came with so. many. sound effects. Too many. I was continuously pulled out of the story by the sound effects, some of which didn't even exactly match up with the sound described. There was also often background music alongside the narration that made the scenes feel cheesy rather than actually adding anything.

Then on top of all of that there were some lines delivered at half the volume as the rest of the narration because the character was mumbling or was supposed to be further away that I just could not hear at all. I did however, check out this story on spotify to see if the quality was better and it did seem to be a bit clearer than the file I received.

If I hadn't received this story as an ARC I would not have included it as part of my reading and probably would have DNFd it for the sound effects alone, however I promised an honest review so here we are. I would recommend this to people are already fans of fiction podcasts or audio dramas as the format may be more to their tastes.

#I really wanted to like this story #but the format was not it #i still highly recommend other books by these authors #mourning glory #ll mckinney #bethany c morrow #booklr #book review #mine

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mercerislandbooks · 3 months

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Book Notes: Little Women

I’m sure I’m not alone in having a long-standing relationship with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. My first introduction to the March sisters was the 1933 film starring Katherine Hepburn as feisty Jo, a VHS borrowed from the library as many times as I was allowed. Then I was given a lovely hardcover illustrated edition that I read to pieces. After that I sought out all the other Louisa May Alcott books I could find, scouring the shelves of the library and the corners of used bookstores. I followed the continuing story of the March sisters through Little Men and Jo's Boys. And soon became as enamored with Alcott's many other charming family stories laced through with morality, like Eight Cousins, Jack and Jill, and A Garland for Girls.

Of course, I loved the 1994 Little Women film with Winona Ryder. When I went to college across the country, I left my hardcover Little Women behind and purchased a paperback to take with me, for comfort reading in the midst of all my coursework. While on the East Coast, I visited Orchard House in Concord, and wandered around the rooms, picturing Louisa and her sisters (and the fictional Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy) within its walls. I continued to look for more obscure Alcott titles any time I browsed a used bookstore. And in the years since, I kept turning to Little Women, for the coziness of family togetherness despite hardship, the dreams of the girls as they grow into women, the trials of domestic life, and the silver linings in the midst of adversity. I may have put the March family on a bit of a pedestal.

They say a marker of growth can be reading a beloved book as you age and seeing how it changes with you. As the years keep going by, I've grown to see the complexities of Little Women, and of the life of Louisa May Alcott herself. Some of that is certainly due to novelists who took on Little Women, or the Alcott family, bringing a fresh viewpoint to the familiar story. Books like March by Geraldine Brooks, The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper, and So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow. Greta Gerwig’s 2019 adaption added to the mix, and now, over 30 years after my first encounter with Little Women, I love it still, but with a love that is more expansive and accepting of the humanity of the characters and the author.

Island Books has a table filled with all things Louisa May Alcott in celebration of the Mercer Island High School Drama’s production of Little Women, adapted by Thomas Hischak. Check out this link for times and tickets!

— Lori

#island books #lori robinson #little women #louisa may alcott #march #geraldine brooks #other alcott #elise hooper #so many beginnings #bethany c morrow #mercer island high school drama #book notes

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haveyoureadthisfantasybook · 3 months

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