In Depth Study

I grew up on young adult fantasy. I used to carry five of them around with me as I read them so quickly. It was only natural to get a kindle to lighten my bookbag. Now as a 23 year-old, I still enjoy the smell of new books and the feel of escaping into a faraway world.

Podcasts:

Cast of Wonders

Write or Die

The Best of the Best:

Cassandra Clare the new queen

Casey L. Bond vampires, zombies, fairy tale lovers, oh my!

Elizabeth Tammi up and coming

Fantasy is an escape.

When most people think of fantasy, they think of magical worlds with dark forces threatening the utopia of the light. Always, the light vanquishes the dark making the world right and everyone happy. Almost everyone has a happy ending. This is why we like it. We like to think we each will get our happy endings even if our reality doesn’t have fairies or magic.

Going into the magical realm allows us to hope for a better tomorrow. We can imagine ourselves in the happiness, as the characters of the story. It reminds us of being a child running through the yard with yardstick swords and plastic crowns.

Fantasy is real.

Fantasy is real though. Written in between the lines of fantasy stories, real world issues lie. Take Sisters of Shadow and Light for example (find the book review here). The townspeople fear Inara for her power, seeking so far as it wish for her execution at the same time she could save them. At the same time, a person close to her and her mission betrays her, almost killing her. While good does win and people have a happy ending, there is still the idea that not everything is perfect and the characters have changed no matter what.

Even in The Thousand Doors of January (find the book review here), the truth is depicted even more as the villain of the story is someone so close to the main character that she refuses to believe that he is actually the villain, rather she keeps trying to find some redeeming qualities to him. Still, she fights the dark forces with magic and friendship, both important qualities in fantasy after all, we all need friends to save the world.

Fantasy reminds us of yesterdays.

Through it all, fantasy reminds us of dreams and hopes we had when we were younger. It reminds us where we have been and how far we have come, as well with where we can go.

Take Diamond & Dawn for example (find the book review here). Following the dream for a better world, here the main character fights in order to make the dream come true – only to realize somewhere along the lines, she lost sight of that dream. Going back, she understands that she has to earn her place and work to accomplish everything she envisions.

Going even further, When Wishes Bleed (find the book review here) transports us to a place with tensions high towards the witches of Section 13. However, as the story progresses, the witches are seen in a better light, even ending with the witches being accepted in the lower sections.