Fantasy Books Written By Women Are Often Assumed To Be Young Adult, Even When Those Books Are Written

Fantasy books written by women are often assumed to be young adult, even when those books are written for adults, marketed to adults, and published by adult SFF imprints. And this happens even more frequently to women of color.

This topic’s an ongoing conversation on book Twitter, and I thought it might be worth sharing with Tumblr. And by “ongoing,” I mean that people have been talking about this for years. Last year, there was a big blow up when the author R.F. Kuang said publicly that her book The Poppy War isn’t young adult and that she wished people would stop calling it such. If you’ve read The Poppy War, then you’ll know it’s grimdark fantasy along lines of Game of Thrones… and yet people constantly refer to The Poppy War as young adult – which is one of its popular shelves on Goodreads. To be fair, more people have shelved it as “adult,” but why is anyone shelving it as “young adult” in the first place? Game of Thrones is not at all treated this way…

Rebecca Roanhorse’s book Trail of Lightning, an urban fantasy with a Dinétah (Navajo) protagonist has “young adult” as its fifth most popular Goodreads shelf. The novel is adult and published by Saga, an adult SFF imprint.

S.A. Chakraborty’s adult fantasy novel City of Brass has “young adult” as its fourth most popular Goodreads shelf.

Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, an adult fantasy in a world based on Mughal India, has about equal numbers of people shelving it as “adult” or “young adult.”

Book Riot wrote an article on this, although they didn’t address how the problem intersects with race. I also did a Twitter thread a while back where I cited these examples and some more as well.

The topic of diversity in adult SFF is important to me, partly because we need to stop mislabeling the women of color who write it, and also because there’s a lot there that isn’t acknowledged! Besides, sometimes it’s good to see that your stories don’t just end the moment you leave high school and that adults can still have vibrant and interesting futures worth reading about. I feel like this is especially important with queer rep, for a number of reasons.

Other books and authors in the tweets I screenshot include:

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

A Ruin of Shadows by L.D. Lewis

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The Day Before by Liana Brooks

A Phoenix First Must Burn edited by Patrice Caldwell

Shri, a book blogger at Sun and Chai

Vanessa, a writer and blogger at The Wolf and Books

TLDR: Women who write adult fantasy, especially women of color, are presumed to be writing young adult, which is problematic in that it internalizes diversity, dismisses the need and presence of diversity in adult fantasy, and plays into sexist assumptions of women writers.

Reblog if going nonverbal is acceptable (temporarily or not).

I’m trying to prove a point.

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froggieboi35

4 years ago

israel is currently bombing damascus, syria in the middle of the night while the world is focused on the situation in the united states. please take the time to read through the carrd linked on this thread to spread awareness and help the syrian people in anyway you can

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froggieboi35

4 years ago

I don't see nearly enough positivity for heteromantic aces and heterosexual aros, so here's to those of us who identify as het apsec and LGBTQ+!

Heteromantic aces are amazing and valid! Heterosexual aros are wonderful and awe inspiring! If you're het and aspec, you are still queer, and you bring a unique perspective to the aspec community that deserves to be listened to!

Het apsecs belong in the LGBTQ+ community, and our experiences deserve to be represented and recognized just as much as any other LGBTQ+ person's do. We aren't "straight lite" or basically straight or any less queer for the het attraction we have, because our aspec identity makes us queer.

So stay gorgeous and uniquely you, and don't let the aphobes and exclusionists tear you down!

I Don't See Nearly Enough Positivity For Heteromantic Aces And Heterosexual Aros, So Here's To Those

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froggieboi35

4 months ago

I know we all make jokes and memes about it, like ‘lol, Trump said we are the gender we were at conception, we’re all female now. 🤪’

but like

that doesn’t…scare you?

This is your administration. This is the knowledge that your government has….and they get high-school biology wrong. This law had to have been cross-read by several people before it was passed.

This is your government.

A bunch of rich fascists who don’t know basic science.

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froggieboi35

4 years ago

Louisville Courier Journal

Police officer left out key facts in obtaining indictment of Breonna Taylor's boyfriend

A Louisville Police sergeant who secured an indictment against Kenneth Walker for attempted murder failed to give the grand jury key informa

#JusticeForBreonnaTaylor

The police officers were at the wrong home, in the middle of the night, serving a no-knock warrant thinking they would find drugs at the residence (which they did not, as neither Kenneth nor Breonna were drug dealers, nor was their home a trap house). Kenneth was frightened and thought the house was being broken into, and he fired one shot thinking he was defending the lives of his girlfriend and himself. Breonna was then shot EIGHT times and passed away.

He was charged with the attempted murder murder of a police officer and assault, despite not knowing at the time that those were officers, not burglars breaking in (they were plain-clothed, and Breonna and Kenneth were innocent of any crime, so how would he know), and a police sergeant intentionally omitted that information in front of the grand jury. The sergeant also did not mention that Breonna was killed by police at the scene when they shot at the pair, in fact - she didn't even mention her existence, and her testimony played a crucial role in the grand jury choosing to charge Kenneth with what they did. Sergeant Amanda Seelye misled them severely.

Seelye also told the grand jury that officers knocked, repeatedly announced themselves and then procceeded to break the door open and were immediately met by gunfire, which has been disputed by SIX WITNESSES that say there was no knocking or announcing. The mentioned "gunfire" was a single bullet.

gofundme.com

Justice for Kenneth Walker organized by Kenicia Walker

https://www.standwithbre.com/ We are raising money on behalf of our loved one Kenneth Walker… Kenicia Walker needs your support for Justice

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froggieboi35

4 years ago

Change.org

Sign the Petition

Justice for Lakeith Smith and A’Donte Washington!

Please sign the petition!!!

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froggieboi35

11 months ago

love seeing revisionism in the wild “free the nipple never meant you can walk around topless every where that’s still sexual harassment it just meant for like breastfeeding and stuff”no it literally means you should be able to walk around topless anywhere because get this. breasts aren’t fucking sexual organs.

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froggieboi35

4 years ago

Wait what's a buildings fire evacuation plan if you aren't supposed to use the elevator to get down

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