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lizshayne 's review for:
First, Become Ashes
by K.M. Szpara
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like I just need a KM Szpara shelf for "what if fanfic, but taken EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY" and yes that's a compliment.
Szpara is fundamentally interested in the darker side of fanfic, the one that thinks about trauma and desire, except he plays it out extremely seriously. Both the plot and style owe a significant amount to the past...15 or so years of fanfic and its a testimony to writers like Szpara that it's becoming its own genre in the sense that it has recognizable motifs and movements in the larger story.
But the point of both this book and Docile is that stories of trauma and recovery aren't just food for dark fantasy, they're also psychologically terrifying and that in and of itself is a story.
In so many ways, this is a story about the difference between fantasy and reality, the lines that are safe to cross and the lines that are dangerous, the difference between wanting the story of the thing and the thing itself, with the inevitable recursion that comes from the fact that Szpara KNOWS that the thing itself that he is writing is also the story. Whether the point is driven home or undermined by the fact that he wrote the sex scenes using the rules of fanfiction rather than either the romance novel or the work of literary fiction is, frankly, left up to the reader. Is he writing hurt/comfort fanfic or its takedown or both? Look, at a certain point, it's just sadomasochistic turtles all the way down.
I'm also SO fascinated by the reviews complaining about whether the magic is real or not. I mean, that's, like, the POINT. You don't know. You don't get to know. There's nothing definitive in either direction. Haven't you all heard of the Sopranos?
In some ways, the point is that every piece of ritual and magic can be explained by the heightened emotions of human beings and the states we can send ourselves into, especially in groups. And also to fully chuck everything into that category feels like relying a bit overmuch on coincidence. It's meant to live in the space between, much like the story itself straddles the border of imagined desire and real trauma.
Szpara is fundamentally interested in the darker side of fanfic, the one that thinks about trauma and desire, except he plays it out extremely seriously. Both the plot and style owe a significant amount to the past...15 or so years of fanfic and its a testimony to writers like Szpara that it's becoming its own genre in the sense that it has recognizable motifs and movements in the larger story.
But the point of both this book and Docile is that stories of trauma and recovery aren't just food for dark fantasy, they're also psychologically terrifying and that in and of itself is a story.
In so many ways, this is a story about the difference between fantasy and reality, the lines that are safe to cross and the lines that are dangerous, the difference between wanting the story of the thing and the thing itself, with the inevitable recursion that comes from the fact that Szpara KNOWS that the thing itself that he is writing is also the story. Whether the point is driven home or undermined by the fact that he wrote the sex scenes using the rules of fanfiction rather than either the romance novel or the work of literary fiction is, frankly, left up to the reader. Is he writing hurt/comfort fanfic or its takedown or both? Look, at a certain point, it's just sadomasochistic turtles all the way down.
In some ways, the point is that every piece of ritual and magic can be explained by the heightened emotions of human beings and the states we can send ourselves into, especially in groups. And also to fully chuck everything into that category feels like relying a bit overmuch on coincidence. It's meant to live in the space between, much like the story itself straddles the border of imagined desire and real trauma.