Do Better: SFF without Sexual Violence discussion

Hey everyone! I hope you're all well! And if you're new to Do Better, welcome!

We wanna know, what did you read in September? What did you like, what didn't you like and which (if any) do you think might be suitable for our DB bookshelf-database?

Pop by anytime this month and share. Elena and I will research/validate all member's suggestions for the DB bookshelf-database at the end of the month.

Note: For any books you are recommending, if possible, let us know of any common content warnings that you noticed. Here is our current list on our bookshelf-database: (view spoiler)[

Animal abuse
Animal Death
Body Image
Bullying
Child Abuse
Child Death
Child Neglect
Emotional Abuse
Fat Shaming
Graphic Violence
Homophobia (that is acknowledged)
Low female rep
Mental Health
Memory Manipulation
Oppression
Racism (that is acknowledged)
Self harm
Sexism (that is acknowledged)
Slavery
Suicide
Transphobia (that is acknowledged)
Enbyphobia (that is acknowledged)
(hide spoiler)]

September has been a fantastic reading month for me - albeit really short on DB material (but I knew what I was getting myself into, so I can't complain).

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway: the only DB book of the lot, and it's already on our shelf. I can (re)confirm it contains no SV nor any particular CW (there's some sexism and misogyny but they are very clearly framed as such and they're localized only in certain parts of the narrative, where it makes sense from a historical perspective for them to be there. And a male character acts violently against the female MC but not in a way that speaks of gendered violence necessarily - he's the baddie and he's portrayed as being... grotesquely villainous: he's verbally and physically violent against everyone). I especially appreciated the positive framing of the one sex worker that features in the book.

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard: already features in our Excluded Books list (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

Kindred & Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler: both excellent, excellent reads, but very much not DB (By Butler's design, of course: the woman famously never shied away from taking a veeery close look at racialized and gendered violence after all).

La nostra parte di notte by Mariana Enríquez, hands down my favorite read of the year (It isn't available in its English translation yet: once it gets published, I'll provide a detailed list of the many, many CW needed for it).

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami: not SFF but heads up for (view spoiler)[some brutal portrayal of psychological, emotional and physical bullying - some of it could actually be described as straight-up torture, really - SV and mention of suicide (hide spoiler)] should you decide to check it out.

Elena C. wrote: "September has been a fantastic reading month for me - albeit really short on DB material (but I knew what I was getting myself into, so I can't complain)...."

I'm so glad you had a great month! Now it's my turn to have reading envy 😁

I'll get to Butler and Enriquez one day, when I'm feeling brave. And thanks for the details on Heaven, I'll probably skip that one.

I too had a great reading month!


Recommending to DB:

Testing Pandora - This was our book of the month at wotf. I don't recall anything that would exclude it, but I know a few other members have read this so please speak up if I'm mis-remembering. 😁

The Vanished Birds - already on our shelves so I'm seconding. And I'll add that though it does have some CW tags, overall, imho it didn't read as a dark book. In fact, I think it firmly fits withing the hopepunk genre. I particularly liked how the author unveiled the story over 1000 years.



SFF, Not Recommending to DB:

The Future of Another Timeline - it does have a long list of CW, that made me hold off reading. But other than a couple of brief scenes, I didn't think it was all that dark. I thought it was an important post-2016 battle cry for womxn's rights and I'm so glad I finally read it.

Fireheart Tiger - our botm over at wbtm, excluding for the same reasons Elena linked to.



Not SFF, Not Recommending:

I read some great literary fiction last month. Two standouts had lots of CW - Detransition, Baby and Queenie. I applauded both for their humour and for tackling destructive behavior and consent and in a nuanced manner.

Just 1 SFF book read in September. Sword of Destiny. Absolutely not friendly to our database.

2/2 so far of this Witcher series contains SV (and a slew of other CWs), which is not surprising for the genre... but it seems that the author is really into writing that. And casual paedophilia... eh. I enjoyed the book overall, found it to be well-written, etc. but I couldn't bring myself to give it more than 3 stars in my review.

Only one new book to add from this month, Testing Pandora. Hopefully, we'll all have more luck in October 😁