silvercat17

Okay, so, in my 2026 reading binge, a lot of what I've been reading has been elementary/middle school fiction. It's mostly been a journey of nostalgia for me, and I've been pretty happy revisiting these old series, even if they don't hold up.

There are some old faves that I would hesitate to recommend to a kid now, mostly because there's too much protagonist-centered morality in them. The black-and-white message of, "Well, they're Bad because they're on the evil side and the protagonists can do no wrong by them because they're Good," kind of sucks as a mentality to reinforce in kids imo.

I'm also noticing that some series in the modern fantasy genre have the protagonists go to college/university when they turn 17/18, just as a matter of course. Which is a great next step for a lot of people after high school but, anecdotally, isn't one that mapped out cleanly for most people in my life, including me. I'm not sure why I'm so dissatisfied with "high school --> university" being the default life path (aside from how that obviously doesn't match my life, lol). I wonder if I wouldn't be happier with the protagonists chilling out after high school or whatever and just, like, doing a part-time job or taking a sabbatical after graduation? Or taking a break in the middle of their school year to Process what happened to them/their friends before going back to finally get their HS diploma? Or even leaving school entirely to have more adventures?

I have to remember that I'm reading kidlit, so it makes sense that the end of the journey is simple and aspirational since most parents/authors probably want their audience to aim for higher education. I think that that's fine! I just wish that when I was a kid, I could've imagined any other way to live after school than "high school --> university". (Or worse, "failing high school --> poverty" as my parents and grandparents used to tell me, hah.)

I'm not actually sure if those sorts of stories would've really helped me any while I was a struggling HS student with depression but, y'know, it probably wouldn't have hurt? …Maybe? (shrug)

I've been tearing through the books available in my library like crazy, partly on a nostalgia trip, and partly to expand my horizons and try to pin down what I like and what I don't like in stories.

Some stuff about my tastes I knew going in — I like happy/hopeful endings, I like action, I like funny protagonists, and I like a good mystery. Some stuff I'm learning as I revisit my old childhood faves and check out popular reads. Like: I loathe real-life Christian messaging in fiction (Narnia, Oliver Twist), stories where the characters are just vehicles to exposit about the worldbuilding (1984, Brave New World, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), and books marketed as cozy fiction (The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Mimicking of Known Successes).

In fact, The House in the Cerulean Sea in particular was so saccharine, so Hallmark-movie-like that I actually started feeling a little nauseous near the end. I've honestly never seen a Hallmark movie before, but if they're anything like this book then I think that I'll continue to steer clear. It's a book that probably works for anyone who wants a comforting, uncomplicated, predictable story with a gay romance but that's just not where my tastes run, unfortunately.

The Mimicking of Known Successes worked a little better for me on all fronts and should've appealed to me on paper (mystery, action, lesbian love interests who previously had a falling out, sci-fi worldbuilding, happy ending), but somehow just did not grab me. I'm not sure what it is exactly — too much time spent gathering clues and not doing much else? Too much exposition to describe the setting? Is it the prose? The characters being too flat? The absence of a supporting cast? I can't pin down the exact reasons why, but I was left so unenthused afterwards that I cancelled my holds on the other books in the series.

I'm discovering that a lot of classic literature isn't working for me either. I like being able to say that I've read them, but I did not enjoy a lot of them at all. I'm also not really willing to set aside the racism, sexism, ableism, etc. to appreciate the prose or originality of the work on its own merits, even if I understand that they're products of their time. I'm too infuriated to be objective about the literature tbqh (plus, I'm just reading for myself so, thankfully, I don't need to be).

I do like plenty of fundamentally flawed stories, still. Somehow though, despite how I feel more certain in sussing out stories that I won't like, I still feel no closer to figuring out why I'll like a story than I did before. Guess I just gotta read more to find out.