CONTENT WARNING: This novel contains violent depictions of rape and sexual violence.

To unwind after an eleven hour day, I like to curl up on my sectional sofa with a fuzzy blanket and read a book. I try to end my night reading, however I end up crashing at 8:30 with my boyfriend removing the book from my hands. I’m a self proclaimed bibliophile as they’re certain books on my shelf I treasure more than others. One of these books is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

When I was a junior in high school, I enrolled in a Detective and Gothic Literature course. It was one of my favorite high school classes where I read Frankenstein, Dracula, and A Study in Scarlet. One assignment was a book report to present to the class. As you can predict, I chose The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo begins with Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist who lost a case of libel against a powerful industrialist. Immediately after the sentencing, he’s summoned to Henrik Vanger’s mansion. Vanger is a retired CEO of a successful company who originally heard of Blomkvist following his trial. Vanger says he will give Blomkvist evidence of this industrialist’s illegal activities in exchange for helping Vanger solve the murder of his niece, Harriet Vanger which occurred over 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, we have Lisbeth Salander. She’s an intelligent computer hacker who has been assigned to conduct research on Blomkvist specifically for Vanger before Blomkvist meets with him. Salander and Blomkvist become entwined when she helps Blomkvist unravel the mystery behind Harriet’s disappearance along with revealing a horrific family secret.

As I first read this book, I was disgusted by the sexual violence Salander was subjected to. It was uncomfortable to read this book while comparing how society handles sexual assault. I will never forget reading the section where Salander gets revenge on her rapist. It made me really like Salander as a character because even though hypothetically, this was not the way to seek justice, it was a relief to see her rapist get what I felt he deserved.

I was feeling inspired to write this post since I finished reading the first volume of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel released in 2013. I’m preparing to read the second volume shortly as it’s a nice recap of the story while also showing some gritty artwork in each panel.

Before I end this post, I wanted to share a story Stieg Larsson told. When Larsson was fifteen, he witnessed three men raping a friend of his while he stood by and didn’t intervene. This moment altered him as he pled for forgiveness to his friend and they never forgave him. Let’s stop sexual violence by believing survivors when they come forward and intervening if there might be unwanted sexual activity occurring. We can all be allies to prevent sexual violence.

I started watching Riverdale back in the Fall of last year and it became one of my favorite shows on the CW’s lineup. One of the writers on the show, Britta Lundin, released their debut novel combining geekiness, LGBTQIA+, and fandom together in a book titled Ship It. Ship It is easily one of my favorite books I read in 2018 despite the controversy surrounding the novel which I will discuss below.

Ship It details the life of Claire, a sixteen-year-old who recently became obsessed with the show Demon Heart with similarities to Supernatural. She has shipped her two favorite characters Smokey and Heart together as romantic partners even though it isn’t canon. Claire attends the Demon Heart panel at a local convention and asks the cast about her ship between Smokey and Heart. Forest Reed, the actor who plays Smokey comes across as a jerk and calls Claire crazy. Claire is immediately stunned and leaves the panel as fans boo the cast.

The crew makes amends with Claire by inviting her on the convention press tour to help renew Demon Heart for a second season. Throughout the convention tour, Claire starts to realize maybe she isn’t straight herself and Forest recognizes what he has to do to save his career from being tainted by the Smokey and Heart ship.

I enjoyed this book for multiple reasons. The book is excellent in exploring the downsides of toxic masculinity. Forest Reed when prompted about the chance of his character being gay on the show reacts negatively. Forest reacts this way partly because he’s also auditioning for a role in a hyper-masculine action movie. He doesn’t want the chance of playing a gay character to ruin his chances of attaining the role. Apparently, gay men can’t be action heroes? Is this because of how gay men are perceived as being less masculine? All of these horrible stereotypes play a role in toxic masculinity. Forest has quite the character development as he starts to fully embrace his own geeky personality along with becoming more educated about Tumblr and the LGBTQIA+ community.

Most of the book takes place at various conventions across the U.S. I absolutely love attending conventions and I feel it’s the perfect atmosphere for me to thrive. I liked reading about Claire’s reactions to attending her first convention along with Forest and the rest of the Demon Heart cast.

After reading multiple reviews on Goodreads for Ship It I discovered the multiple controversies surrounding this book. This book doesn’t depict fans in a flattering way. Claire hijacks Jamie’s Twitter to convince him to make Smokey and Heart fall in love with each other. Jamie being the creator of Demon Heart has every right to be angry with Claire. Claire comes across as a ruthless fan trying to get what she wants even though Demon Heart doesn’t belong to her. As a fan, I personally would never attempt to do this.

Besides how fans are portrayed, Claire makes questionable decisions which leads to quite a few readers disliking her character. One such example is when Claire writes fan fiction about Forest revealing a secret kiss between Forest and another man. Forest told Claire in secret about this interaction without knowing Claire would publish it on Tumblr. This is unacceptable as Forest shared this in confidence with Claire. I stand by Claire as a character partly because of her age. Being sixteen, I remember being selfish at this age. Being a teenager shouldn’t be an excuse for behavior, but I find teenagers in their immaturity say things they don’t mean and Claire isn’t an exception.

Overall Ship It was a fictional geeky novel I enjoyed reading although I empathize with readers who disliked this book. I do recommend purchasing the novel and reading it for yourself because it’s crucial to support novels written or including LGBTQIA+ content. Don’t forget to watch Riverdale on the CW premiering on Wednesdays 8/7c and watch Britta Lundin’s writing skills in full force.

My favorite way to spend my one-hour, unpaid work break is to read comics. Thirty minutes is plenty of time to delve into a story without feeling fatigued. My comic backlog is slowly decreasing as a result of my comics reading at lunch. Included in this backlog was the first volume of the Image Comics Manhattan Project series. I was able to snag this at CONvergence a couple months ago when one of my favorite comic book stores appeared as a vendor. They were doing a buy one get one 50% off which to a comic book reader, is the perfect deal. This trade is equally intriguing, historically accurate, and entertaining.

Imagine if the Manhattan Project was more than creating the atomic bomb, but to cover up the fact the U.S. was collaborating with aliens. The inventors or contributors to the Manhattan Project are as follows:

Joseph Oppenheimer: physicist, multiple personalities, slightly psychotic

Albert Einstein: German, beer drinker, and physicist.

Richard Feynman: Genius, narcissist, slightly annoying

Harry Daghlian: super genius, fried in a radioactive accident, consists of a skeleton with black smoke around his head.

Wernher Von Braun: Nazi, rocket scientist, fake arm.

Leslie Groves: Recruiter, smokes, enjoys bombing other countries

FDR A.I: Yes, this actually exists.

Harry S. Truman: Illuminati?

This first volume details how all of these people interact with each other along with the alien species they cooperate with. What’s so intriguing about this novel is how all of these characters are real people with a twist. Harry Daghlian was a physicist who unfortunately died because of accidental exposure to radiation which I never knew about. Joseph Oppenheimer is a real physicist who is apparently not a serial killer. I felt this novel allowed me to learn more about U.S. history in an interesting way.

The Manhattan Project was written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Nick Pitarra. Hickman has been Eiser-nominated for a couple of other indie series such as Nightly News, Transhuman, and Pax Romana however, he’s also known for writing at MARVEL on books featuring the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Pitarra has completed covers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, God Hates Astronauts, and Judge Dredd. Both of their talent is being utilized in this ongoing series which has 6 volumes total chronicling U.S. history, science, and the supernatural.

Honestly, this trade is fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed how each of the characters introduced was actually a part of the real Manhattan projects and I like the twist on each character, especially the design of Harry Daghlian.  Who knew learning about U.S. history could be so enthralling.

Facebook Marketplace is where I have found cheap furniture for our apartment. Me and the boyfriend bought our living room comfy chair for $30 along with a used TV stand for $50. As I was browsing through Facebook Marketplace, I found someone selling a complete run of the 1980s Defenders from Marvel. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to acquire these comics for my collection. Three months later, I have read every single comic in the stack. It surprised me how little I knew about this supergroup.

Before Luke Cage, Iron Fist, or Jessica Jones, there was Doctor Strange..? The Defenders in the 1980s comics I had been reading were led by Doctor Strange featuring the Hulk, Valkyrie, Namor, and Nighthawk. Nighthawk was a supervillain belonging to the Squadron Sinister attempting to flood the Earth by melting the polar ice caps which by the way aren’t we as a population doing that already? Realizing how horrible this would be, he seeks out The Defenders who defeat Nebulon, a golden god reminding me of David Bowie in comic book form. Nighthawk becomes a hero and fights for the Defenders trying to right his wrongs.

Guest appearances include the Silver Surfer, Hawkeye, and Luke Cage before he became a full-fledged member of the Defenders and the Fantastic Four. Hellcat aka. Patsy Walker also appears in a couple of the comics as a friend to the Defenders. One of my favorite issues features a comic inspired by Dr.Seuss and shows the Defenders being transported to a cartoon-themed planet.

As someone who is relatively new to comics, I’m a huge fan of reading older series. This comic run helped shape the comics universe and we wouldn’t have the new Defenders without Doctor Strange or The Hulk.