His Dark Materials: The Corruption and Hypocrisy of Organised Religion

In Lyra’s world, the Holy Church has absolute power over almost all aspects of people’s lives. In particular, the Magisterium holds power over science, research and discoveries. Discoveries that do not align with the Holy Churches doctrines are censored and suppressed, declared as heretical.

Scholars could risk excommunication, even death by pursuing what the Magisterium deems heretical research. In that world, physics is called ‘experimental theology’ highlighting a close connection between the church and the study of what makes up the world and universe.

The Golden Compass movie had a lot of issues, but one of the most glaring for me was removing pretty much all of the religious aspects of the story. In the television show, they removed anything that referred to Christianity for the same sort of reason. But the books are a clear critique of organised religion and how corrupt and hypocritical it can become. So let’s talk about it.

For clarity, I am an atheist but I was raised as a Christian and thus I am pretty familiar with a lot of the teachings and how it all works. I was involved in religious organisations like the Girl Guides growing up. I don’t believe in the Christian God in any way, but I am not suggesting that people who do believe are wrong to hold such beliefs. I understand how important faith is to some people and do not disparage that. I do despise those ‘Christians’ who cherry pick and deliberately misinterpret the Bible to push their own agenda.

That out of the way, let’s get into it.

The Holy Church

The Holy Church in Lyra’s world is based on Christianity and enforced very strictly. Unsurprisingly, for this reason it is almost entirely men who hold positions of power within the organisation. Marissa Coulter is a woman who managed to climb to a leadership role despite her gender.

That said, the General Oblation Board she led was a semi-private institution hidden away in the North, near Svalbard. This gave the Church plausible deniability, they could claim her work was unsanctioned if need be. Particularly important when they were kidnapping children for their experiments.

The research at Bolvangar was into the nature of Dust and how it changed at puberty, the onset of adulthood and the point at which one’s daemon settled. The Church declared Dust to be evidence of the ‘Original Sin.’ Evidence of the sin all humanity is saddled with at birth because of what happened with Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The very fact that the Church holds so much power in this world is a criticism of the way organised religion can prescribe people’s behaviour and set rules and laws based on their interpretation of the Bible. That they allow research and evidence they approve of, and censor what they don’t approve of.

So they are cherry picking what evidence suits them and condemning anything that sounds like free-thinking or any proof of anything outside of the Churches purview. It is not about criticising having beliefs or practicing your faith. It is about using your beliefs to control what other people think, say or do. If something is against your religion, that does not mean that I can’t do it.

It is also a criticism of restricting scientific discovery and research based on one interpretation or perspective. A real world example being the Creation vs Evolution debate. Evolution is a scientific theory – this means it is objectively proven with evidence. People don’t seem to know the definition of a scientific theory, it is not an unproven idea, but a proven one. Hypothesis is for the unproven ones. It is different from the definition of ‘theory’ most people seem to know.

Creation is, of course, the story in the Bible of how God made everything. We have definitive proof that evolution is true. People may want to believe in creation and intelligent design, and they are more than welcome to do so. But nobody seems to consider the possibility that evolution is the intelligent design plan God laid down. Evidence for evolution is all around us, even in your own body right now. You can ignore the evidence if you choose to, but that doesn’t make it go away.

Pre-Emptive Penance

The Consistorial Court of Discipline is one of the most powerful parts of the Magisterium. It was established by the last Pope – John Calvin, and it is based in Geneva. Their function is to deal with heresy and non-believers. Enforcing the Churches will and laws, in essence.

Father Luis Gomez was the youngest of the twelve members of the CCD and he was sent to assassinate Lyra before she could play the role of Eve. He failed and was killed by the angel Balthamos, ironically. The angel used the last of his strength to eliminate this man.

Father Gomez found himself in the world of the mulefa and saw the tualapi. The large bird-like creatures who attacked the mulefa. He used fear to control the creatures. This fits with this version of the Church, and even some real world sects. Controlling people through fear, fear of hell, fear of purgatory, fear of the rapture. Fear of God’s wrath. You know what I mean.

Father Gomez, before leaving on his assassination mission, took part in a new concept conceived by the CCD. Pre-emptive penance. This involves doing intense penance in advance for a sin not yet committed instead of after sinning and asking for forgiveness.

The idea that one could build up enough ‘credit’ to be able to commit a sin and already be absolved of it. Thus freeing the sinner of any guilt. In this case, murder. Which is one of the Ten Commandments: ‘Thou shalt not kill.’

This whole concept is wild. The whole point of confession and penance is that you should be trying not to sin and making up for falling into temptation. It is claimed that Rasputin believed that one had to sin in order to attain divine grace for confessing, so sinning more would allow him to attain more divine grace. This isn’t confirmed but it might just have been a way to justify sinning as much as he wanted to.

So by the logic of ‘pre-emptive penance’ you could just build up enough penance, do enough self-flagellation to do whatever the hell you wanted, no matter how evil. Apologising before you’ve done anything wrong and then when you do the thing, you’ve already apologised so it’s somehow fine.

If the assassination is justified, then it’s justified and would not be considered a sin so why would you need penance? You would only need to atone for something that would be considered wrong. So it follows then that they know killing Lyra is morally reprehensible and a sin. If it was what their God wanted, to prevent another ‘Fall’ then surely there would be no need to ask for God to forgive it either before or after the fact.

This really highlights the hypocrisy that we see in certain religious groups in the real world. People who do what they condemn others for doing. Religious extremism is prevalent in the modern world, and it’s not just one religion either. As much as some people believe it to be. The scandal with sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church in the last forty years says a lot.

Original Sin

This refers to the sin all children are supposedly born with because of what happened in the Garden of Eden and the sins committed against God. This is, of course, usually blamed on Eve giving into temptation by the Serpent and eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She then tempted Adam to do the same. According to the scripture in Lyra’s world, the first human’s daemons settled and brought sin to the world.

In the main story of His Dark Materials, Lyra is prophesised to play the role of Eve and ‘fall’ again. What was this oh-so-terrible sin? Falling in love and growing up. Mary Malone played the ‘serpent’ by telling Lyra and Will stories of her first love. The sharing of fruit before the two young people share their first kiss echoes the story of Adam and Eve as well.

So what’s the issue? It’s often women who are blamed, called temptresses and causing men to sin or think about sinning. Original sin means that everyone is born with this sin marring our souls, shouldering the burden of another’s actions. We are expected to apologise and atone for what the first humans supposedly did. Which was to know the difference between good and evil.

Shouldn’t we have that knowledge? If we don’t know the difference between good and evil, our actions have no context for us to decide the morality of them. So it would be left up to God to know and decide this. So what eating from this tree did was give the knowledge of moral context to us. Thus giving us the ability to make a choice between doing something good and something evil. Giving us free will to choose and do what we want. Kind of a problem for an organisation that wants to control our lives in all aspects.

Through what happens with Lyra and Will and with Mary, the author is telling us he disagrees with this. That we should not feel guilty or be condemned for natural and normal human experiences. That we should not carry guilt for the sins of others. That we should be free to think, learn, experience and create without such restrictions. That we can choose to question things.

Lyra’s ‘fall’ is about her choosing love, choosing compassion and choosing to dedicate her life to growing up and learning. Understanding the true nature of Dust, which she sets out to do at the end of the first book, means understanding what it means to be ‘sapient’ or human. The mulefa have a wonderful relationship with dust and with the world they live in. Their symbiosis with the trees they make their wheels from that allows them to create more Dust.

In the end, Lyra chooses the selfless path, even though it means losing the one she loves. Even her parents, who have done some really reprehensible things, make the right choice in the end, sacrificing their lives to oblivion to bring down Metatron and protect Lyra. The important thing is that Lyra was free to make that choice for herself. They remember and observe a small ritual to honour and cherish their love for each other but they agree to go on and live full lives. Even permitting each other to find love again if they can. All for the sake of removing death’s hold on people and keeping the way out of the land of the dead open.

This is what the Magisterium and the Consistorial Court wanted to prevent. This goes against what they want because they do not want people thinking freely, questioning their teachings or seeking to understand more about the world. Because people might see that the Churches teachings are not in people’s best interests.

People should be free to form their own beliefs and decide how they want to practice their faith. People should also be free to make their own choices. Of course, with that freedom is the freedom to be wrong. Believing something alone, does not make it true. But learning and questioning is a natural thing that makes us human. Children are full of curiosity about the world, and this is why ‘because I said so’ doesn’t make sense to them. Answering their questions honestly, obviously in an age-appropriate way, helps them understand the world.

As I said, this isn’t a condemnation of all relgions and religious beliefs but it is a criticism of the hypocrisy present in some parts of religious organisation. Such as claiming that the Bible condemns homosexuality while priests are molesting young boys.

Or telling a woman she can’t get a necessary abortion because the foetus implanted in her fallopion tube has more rights to bodily autonomy than the living person who will die if the pregnancy isn’t terminated. Because it is against your beliefs. You don’t get to use your religion to tell other people what to do.

People are very quick to jump on the First Amendment rights of the US Constitution, preserving freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. The USA was basically founded on the freedom of religious expression, with many of the early immigrants traveling to avoid religious persecution at home.

It’s a wee bit more complicated in the UK due to some rules around the monarchy and the established Church of England. The reigning monarch cannot be Roman Catholic and until 2013 could not marry a Catholic. You can thank Henry VIII for that one.

It’s obviously a complex and sometimes emotive issue. Personally, I feel that you are welcome to act in accordance with your own beliefs and I am welcome to act in accordance with mine. But you do not get to tell me that I have to act according to your beliefs if I don’t share them. Sounds reasonable, yeah? I think so.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this interesting. I welcome all comments and discussions as long as they are kept respectful. 

Emi the Cat Lady 💜

His Dark Materials Trilogy: In-Depth Theme Analysis

 Welcome to my new series for the month of March. I'm digging deep into my favourite story of all time, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. This consists of The Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the USA), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I have not yet read the Book of Dust trilogy, but it will be on my TBR. 

Today I'm covering Lyra's story arc. She's the main protagonist of the series and a fascinating character. The journey she takes in the story is all about her coming of age. Her transition from childhood towards adulthood and the lessons she learns along the way. 

Childhood - Jordan College

Lyra's character is well established early on and we know she is curious and clever, independent and confident but stubborn and rebellious as well. She is a natural leader, and resents being told what to do. 

She will break the rules when she disagrees with them or if her curiosity gets the better of her. She's an explorer as well, and knows the college and the city of Oxford very well. 

Attempted Poisoning of Lord Asriel

Witnessing the Master poisoning the Tokay shows Lyra that adults are capable of doing seriously bad things. Even adults she trusts and respects, and this throws her off. She does the right thing by letting Asriel know about it, saving his life. She also learns of Dust for the first time and has a strong desire to understand it better. 

Mrs Coulter and the Alethiometer

The Master gives Lyra the alethiometer and urges her to keep it a secret from Mrs Coulter but doesn't explain why. She is unsure of who to trust but is star-struck by Mrs Coulter. Lyra had been largely raised by scholars and had never met anyone quite like Marissa Coulter. 

Mrs Coulter shows Lyra a drastically different kind of life with high fashion, socialising and even manipulation of others. It all seems very grand and exciting at first, but Lyra soon grows bored of it.

Pantalaimon has his doubts about the promises to take Lyra North. In this series, daemons are manifestations of the soul, so his doubts indicates Lyra's sub-conscious sensing that things are not quite what they seem. They argue about a shoulder-bag prior to a party at the apartment and this proves to Lyra that Mrs Coulter cannot be trusted. This is confirmed again when they learn of her involvement with the Gobblers. 

The North

When Lyra travels north, she makes a lot of interesting choices. She defies the Gyptians who have taken over responsibility for her in order to advocate for Iorek Byrnison. She talked him down and sought justice for him, while defying the adults. This turns out to be the right thing to do though. 

After this, she learns of an odd occurrence in a nearby village and this time Lord Faa trusts her knowledge from the alethiometer and allows her to go with Iorek. There she discovers what is happening to the children taken. She finds Tony Makarios without his daemon, and despite her deep horror and fear of him, she shows him kindness and compassion. She demonstrates her bravery here as well. 

Bolvangar

She demonstrates her mother's ability to lie and deceive people very well to ensure the people don't realise who she is. She finds Roger and Tony Costa and learns more about what's been happening. During a fire drill she meets Kaisa, the daemon of a witch, Serafina Pekkala and they free the cut daemons to find their humans. Lyra notices the staff of the centre are unused to managing groups of children and spots an opportunity she can use. 

She concocts a plan to escape from Bolvangar to reach the approaching Gyptians, but Mrs Coulter arrives and rescues Lyra from the process of intercision. Mrs Coulter lies to Lyra, telling her the procedure is important for growing up and is a good thing. Yet Lyra questions why Mrs Coulter would save her from it if it was such a good thing. She knows Mrs Coulter can never be trusted, and manages to enact her escape plan. 

Svalbard

Reaching Svalbard and the kingdom of the bears, Lyra demonstrates her own mastery of manipulation on Iofur Raknison and allows Iorek to succeed in killing him and becoming King of the bears. She goes to Lord Asriel and inadvertently betrays Roger, resulting in his death. 

Lyra has learned of her parentage and sees them together but rejects them both. She is angry about their lies and betrayals and the horrible things they have done to innocent children. She makes a choice, setting out into the new world to find the truth. 

At this point she discusses Dust with Pantalaimon and they agree that if all of these dangerous adults think it is a bad thing, it must be a good thing. Dust represents consciousness: our awareness, knowledge, creativity and free will. So in the metaphor, Lyra is right that it is a good thing. 

The Subtle Knife

We begin the second book learning about the secondary protagonist of the trilogy: Will Parry. He is evading men who are looking for his father and caring for his mother. He discovers a window into Cittagaze and ends up meeting Lyra there. 

Lyra asks the alethiometer if he is a friend or an enemy and it tells her she is a murderer. Lyra believes that this makes him a safe person to travel with. She travels to Will's Oxford and meets Mary Malone, discussing Dust with her and urging her to learn how to communicate with it using her equipment and the I Ching. 

They discover the Spectres of Cittagaze and learn what they do. They feed on the daemon, or soul, and destroy dust and the ability to create dust. Only adults can see them. This represents the loss of innocence of adulthood and the loss of awareness and consciousness, which the Spectres take away from a person. They don't kill you, they just take away your soul and ability to think and act freely. 

Land of the Dead

After Will rescues Lyra from her mother who kept her in induced sleep, they travel to the Land of the Dead. They learn that after death, there is nothing but bleak emptiness and fear. She faces her own Death, her own mortality and betrays her daemon in order to make up for the mistakes she made.

She makes this sacrifice in order to atone for Roger's death. She wants to apologies for what she did. They discover that the harpies enjoy hearing true stories of a life lived well, and find a way to let the dead leave the bleak land and return to the world. They dissolve but then become part of everything once again. 

They agree with the harpies that those who die will be led to the window in exchange for a true, good story. This fulfils the prophecy that Lyra will put an end to death. Death is no longer a dark, empty place to fear, but a good ending once one's life is over, returning to the world and becoming part of all life. 

Love and Loss

While searching for their daemons, and after talking to Mary, Lyra and Will realise they are in love. We'll discuss Mary's involvement more later. Finally they share their first kiss and touch each other's daemons, a line crossed when two people love and commit to each other. At this point, the daemons settle into their final forms. 

The daemons changing form represent the moldability of children. In essence, they have not yet been shaped by experience into the person they are going to be. When the daemon settles, the form reflects the person and represents their personality and nature. This is growing up, and learning who you are. We are all shaped by our experiences and that is part of growth.

Unfortunately, they learn that the windows all must be closed as Dust is being lost through them. They have also learned that they cannot live a full life in any world but their own. They make the hard decision to live apart and sacrifice their personal happiness for the good of all of the worlds. They agree to make enough Dust to compensate for keeping the window from the Land of the Dead open. 

This represents maturity and unselfishness as Lyra has learned from her experiences and knows she cannot be selfish and self-serving when it means other people will suffer. She and Will both bravely accept the heartbreak of being apart so that all they have achieved will not be in vain. 

Adulthood

Adulthood means taking responsibility, learning from our experiences and gaining wisdom and insight. It represents a loss of innocence and gullibility - we learn that we cannot blindly trust everyone we know or meet. 

However, it does not mean we need to lose our curiosity, creativity and compassion. Gaining wisdom, expressing ourselves and embracing life is all part of being an adult and living our lives to the fullest. 

Thanks for reading! I will post a new essay on a different aspect of the trilogy every Wednesday this month so I hope you will come back for the next one!

Emi the Cat Lady 💜

Reading: Content and Trigger Warnings

Content And Trigger Warnings

Last week we briefly touched on content warnings when discussing dark romance which deals with dark subject matter that might be distressing to some readers. So let’s talk more about it, because it is an important subject and needs to be covered.

Content Rating Systems

Most other media content we consume has an official rating system that allows people to be selective about what they watch or play. These tools are especially important for parents deciding what to let their children consume in the media. When I was growing up, I loved watching South Park. My parents had no idea what the content was in that show, and I probably shouldn’t have been watching it at the age I was when it came out.

The systems vary depending on the media and your location. For example the Motion Picture Association of North America uses the following rating system:

G	General Audiences: Suitable for all ages
PG	Parental Guidance: some content maybe unsuitable for young children
PG-13	Material may be inapporpriate for children under 13 years of age
R	Adult material – must have parent or guardian if under 17 years of age
NC-17	Adults only – must be 18 years old or over to view

 

These ratings will be accompanied by notes on what specific kinds of content are included in the media. This could include violence and gore, swearing and bad language, use of tobacco products, drugs and alcohol, nudity and sexual content.

The British Board of Film Classification uses a very similar system. 

U	Universal	Suitable for all with only very mild references
PG	Parental Guidance	General viewing but may be unsuitable for young children under 8 years old
12A	12 Adult	Children younger than 12 must have an adult as moderate themes
12	12 years +	For home release – must be 12 to rent or buy (obviously rare now!)
15	15 years +	Fairly mature themes but no graphic sexual detail
18	Adults	No limit on language, drugs, sexual content, gore etc
R18	Licensed	Explicit sex, fetish, extreme sex acts – porn basically

 

Video games are also subject to rating systems. The Pan-European Game Information rates video games based on content and is fairly similar to the movie rating system above. It will also provide content descriptions with symbols for things like bad language, discrimination, drugs, horror, gambling, sex, violence and online interactions which could be difficult to regulate and prevent younger children being exposed to objectionable content.

Fiction Rating Systems

There is no official rating system for books. Fanfiction websites do have rating systems. Both AO3 and Fanfiction.net use ratings to allow authors to give a general idea of the content of a work before they read. I’m most familiar with fanfiction.net. The system is largely based on the MPA one.

FFNET rating	Age Range	MPA Equivalent
K	Ages 5+	G Rating
K+	Ages 9+	PG Rating
T	Teens 13+	PG-13
M	Mature 16+	R rating
MA	Adults Only – Explicit	NC-17

 

MA is not allowed on fanfiction.net, but AO3 does allow this, while it includes a warning to the reader to ensure they are aware of the content.

Content Warnings

It is now becoming more common to include content warnings at the beginning of the book. Or it can be added at the end, and readers can be directed to it from the front of the book. It’s also important to give this information to anyone who reads your book during the writing and editing process such as critique partners, editors, proof readers, sensitivity readers and the like.

Authors may also include the details on their website and social media channels. It is possible to avoid spoilers but content warnings do need to be specific: so state ‘child abuse’ instead of just ‘abuse’ or the like.

There are all kinds of subjects that require content warnings: a full list can be found here.

But generally any kind of racism, homophobia, transphobia or bigotry would need a warning. As well as abuse, child abuse, sexual violence or abuse, grief and loss, blood, gore, body horror, extreme violence, suicide and self-harm.

Nobody is saying you can’t write about these subjects, just that you should be aware of the need for some sensitivity for your readers.

Why?

Because trauma has a profound effect on the body and the brain. When we suffer some kind of trauma, it can literally change the way our brains work. So an unexpected reminder or depiction of a past trauma can set off a really severe flashback and associated symptoms of PTSD. This can cause real harm. These responses cannot be controlled.

Not everyone who has experienced a particular trauma will be triggered by mentions of it. We discussed last week that some people can find reading about a subject can be healing or help them cope. But for others, an unexpected reminder can be a real issue for them.

Anyone who dismisses this or tells you that they shouldn’t be affected when it’s not real is talking crap. PTSD is a complex mental health condition and everyone’s experiences are different. First and foremost, we should be taking care of our mental health. Content warnings allow readers to do that.

Providing these warnings protects your readers from actual harm, and it shows respect for them. You can do this without spoiling things but you do need to be as specific as possible. It can only help your readers and ultimately showing that kind of care towards your audience will mean readers are more likely to recommend your books and read more of your work. So it’s a win-win for everyone.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this useful and helpful. Remember, it's not okay to shame people for what they enjoy and it is important to respect and show compassion when it comes to potentially upsetting or triggering content. For more, don't forget to subscribe to the blog!

Emi the Cat Lady 💜

 

Dark Romance: What, Why and Why It’s Okay

There’s often a lot of talk about ‘dark romance’ online in book communities. It’s something a lot of people like to read and write about, and those who don’t read it can misunderstand it. So let’s talk about the darker side of romance and what it means.

What is Dark Romance?

Dark romance stories focus on a romantic relationship between two characters where it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. These stories explore darker themes and often involve morally grey characters, taboo themes and issues around violence and abuse.

Themes like BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism) which involve more intense, potentially dangerous sexual activities. Issues around power dynamics can be involved where one character wields some kind of power over the other – whether physical, financial or something else.

Consent issues are another common theme in dark romance. You might see tags like ‘dubcon’ and ‘noncon’ in these things. ‘Dubcon’ means dubious consent – so not enthusastic affirmative consent. It’s the kind of grey area between consensual sex and sexual assault. ‘Noncon’ is over the line into non-consensual acts. This obviously means sexual assault and rape.

Characters in these stories will do things that are morally reprehensible or unethical for the sake of love. There can be themes of obsession, stalking and pursuing sex in questionable ways. Or one of the characters attacks or harms people in the love interests life out of revenge.

These are themes that are heavy and dark. They can be uncomfortable,  unpleasant and unsettling, which is kind of the point. It’s not a sweet, fluffy romance we’re dealing with. Serious themes can be difficult to read.

So Why Do People Like It?

There are many reasons people like reading or writing this kind of story. It’s a fantasy that allows for a safe way to explore dangerous things and dark themes. Nobody gets hurt for real, and the escapism is a big reason people read in general.

A lot of these stories will have thriller or even horror aspects to them, which again a lot of people enjoy. The adrenaline from an exciting story is good and dark romances definitely can fall into this category too.

People like villains and morally grey characters, they’re interesting to read about. Perfect, happy characters can get a bit boring. There’s a bit of excitement and danger to a character who has an unconventional moral code and that can be thrilling to readers.

Lots of people fantasise about some of these dark themes and kinks that are a bit unconventional. These stories are a safer way to explore these fantasies. There are a couple of things which are still questionable to my mind, involving animals or underage characters. But other than that, I think everything else is fair game.

You might think that people who have survived horrible experiences like this in real life would avoid this kind of material but that’s not always the case. While it’s awful that such things happen in the real world, a lot of abuse and sexual assault survivors enjoy reading dark romances. Some of them even find it helps them in their healing journey and helps them process what happened to them, their experiences.

Why It’s Okay To Like Dark Romance

As I said, a lot of people find these stories help them with their own trauma and experiences. Others just enjoy darker stories and material that has higher stakes and tension. It’s no different to people enjoying horror stories and movies.

People don’t watch horror films and then go out and murder people. Same thing with dark romance stories. The fantasy and escapism is fun but it doesn’t mean that people are going to go and kidnap someone to coerce them into a BDSM relationship.

There is nothing wrong with exploring these themes and reading about them. As long as you’re not breaking any laws and harming anyone in real life, it’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with having fantasies that you would never act on for real. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what you enjoy and reading or writing what you want.

Content Warnings

An important caveat here. Not all survivors of abuse and sexual assault want to read about these kinds of topics. While some might find it helps them, others could be harmed by stumbling into topics that trigger them. It’s also okay to not like or want to read about certain things.

Trauma and the consequences of it are complex and unique to each individual. Their experiences should never be trivialised or downplayed. We shouldn’t be glorifying these horrible things either and care should be taken when writing about these topics.

So content warnings are an essential part of preventing harm when writing darker stories. Anyone who thinks they’re not needed is questionable. Having a list of content warnings in the front matter of the book helps people avoid topics that might be too upsetting for them. Including them in the description as well is a good idea.

It’s simply letting people know what is in the book that might be triggering to them. You see this in other media all the time. That’s why we have movie and game rating systems. It’s not ‘sensitive’ to want to avoid content that will harm or upset you. You have to take care of your mental health, after all.

So to authors who write darker stories, don’t forget the content warnings. If you’re not sure of it, perhaps look into a sensitivity reader before publishing. Make sure you’re handling difficult topics appropriately.

Thanks for reading!

Emi The Cat Lady 💜

Book Review: By The Orchid And The Owl by Mariah Montoya

 

By The Orchid and the Owl: Mariah Montoya

 

I really enjoyed this book. By the Orchid and the Owl is an academic fantasy where young adults are sent to an institute and gifted some kind of magic which they must learn to wield. The main character Rayna meets an older student, Coen Steeler and she uncovers some dark and dangerous secrets.

I really enjoyed the setting, it sounded interesting but leaves an air of mystery and the unknown beyond the limits of the protections around the setting. I find the magic system very interesting and it’s well explained without too much info-dumping.

The world-building is great, and so are the characters. They are all very fleshed out and well developed. Rayna is great, Coen is attractive but a little frustrating at times. The other characters are also great and while there are the typical academia archetypes, they’re written so well that they don’t feel too much like cliché tropes.

One thing that I felt a little weird about was the switch in Quinn. An old friend of Rayna’s for so long but she suddenly turned on her with little explanation? I feel like there could have been a little bit more foreshadowing that the friendship wasn’t entirely what Rayna thought it was. That Quinn would suddenly walk away from both her closest friend and boyfriend, it was a bit odd.

That said, I love the little mouse friend and her relationship with Jagaros. There were a couple of points where the book lost me in the plot but on the whole I think the storyline is solid and I am intrigued to read the next book in the series and follow Rayna’s story. I give this book 5 stars because I had a great time with it.

Emi the Cat Lady 💜