Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week’s theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!
This week’s theme is ‘Favourite Tropes (a trope is a commonly used theme or plot device) (submitted by Andrea @ Books for Muse)’. This week I’ve decided to share some books that subvert tropes in ways I really like, because while there are tropes I enjoy, I love books that turn common tropes on their head even more!
The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta: Those of us who enjoy fantasy and historical fiction, and especially those of us who grew up watching films like Mulan, tend to enjoy the ‘woman disguised as man’ trope – it’s definitely one of my favourites. In this Italian-inspired YA fantasy, though, Capetta plays around with this trope to explore gender fluidity when her protagonist, Teo, not only dresses as a man, but uses her magic to turn herself into a man.
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo: When it comes to romance one of my favourite tropes (and a favourite among many other readers, I believe!) is ‘the princess and the bodyguard’. With the chemistry between Nikolai and Zoya throughout this novel, Bardugo gives us a gender-reversed version of this trope and I devoured it.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: So often in fantasy, especially fantasy that includes royal characters, there are women who find themselves married off to princes and kings they don’t really know. Both Irina and Miryem find themselves in that situation in this novel, which has become one of my all-time favourites, but rather than be used as bargaining chips by the men around them, it’s they themselves who negotiate their marriages and make sure they’re treated with respect.
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence: The characters are the best thing about this book, and Arabella Jotsis is one of my favourites. When we first meet her she’s that typical horrible but beautiful rich girl, but Lawrence turns that trope on its head completely and Ara ends up becoming one of his protagonist’s closest friends.
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Rather than writing yet another vampire novel in which a man who’s hundreds of years old creeps on high school girls, the roles are reversed in this dark, vampire noir novel about vampire drug lords in Mexico City. This time it’s a woman who’s the vampire and a man the mortal, and it’s so refreshing.
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher: If, like me, you’re over heroines claiming they’re ‘not like other girls’ and never having that opinion questioned, you need to read The Raven and the Reindeer. This f/f retelling of The Snow Queen stomps all over internalised misogyny and it’s brilliant.
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse: In a lot of traditional fantasy, and even historical fiction, men are warriors and women are soft-spoken healers who think talking will resolve any conflict. Not in this urban fantasy novel. As well as having some of the most original world-building and mythology I’ve come across in SFF, it also offers us a heroine who punches before she thinks and a male sidekick who’d much rather talk it over.
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee: Another novel that celebrates friendships between women and forces the heroine, Felicity, to examine her own internalised misogyny and overcome it.
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin: Throughout this series Jemisin allows her heroine Essun to be a bad mother and a good mother, a bad person and a good person. She’s complex. She doesn’t always make good choices, but all of her choices are understandable. Rarely are women given the opportunity to be bad mothers and still be sympathetic, but Essun is a triumph.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik: I didn’t love Uprooted (and Spinning Silver is by far the superior novel in my opinion) but I did like it, and one of the boxes it ticked for me was the apprentice/teacher romance which I’m always a fan of in high fantasy when both characters are consenting adults. What I loved about the relationship in Uprooted, though, is that it didn’t take over the plot, and when The Dragon’s being a grumpy git Agnieszka doesn’t mope. She gets on with her life until he realises what he’s missing.
Trail of lightning is on my list to read! I’m excited to get to it. And I’ve been so excited for king of scars and I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet — esp bc that’s one of my fave tropes!
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I hope you enjoy them both! ๐
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Love your post! Also, how am I only just now hearing about The Brilliant Death? GUESS MY TBR CAN HANDLE ANOTHER BOOK. (Please don’t collapse, please don’t collapse, ahaha.)
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Thank you! I really enjoyed The Brilliant Death and the sequel’s due out early next year, so I definitely recommend it. I hope you enjoy it! ๐
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Oh, I like your twist on the topic! This is a very thoughtful post. Ladyโs Guide was one of my favorite books I read last year.
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Thank you!
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I never thought about King of Scars being a reverse of the “princess and the bodyguard” trope! That’s brilliant. Thank you for pointing that out. I love them even more now. XD
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Right?! They’re one of the best tropes in disguise. ๐
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Absolutely love your TTT list! I’m so happy to see Trail of Lightning on here because I feel that’s such an underrated book and deserves so much more love! People need to read its uniqueness ๐ I’m definitely a sucker for the princess/bodyguard trope and I didn’t know King of Scars had that. I’ll definitely be bumping that up my list!
My TTT post
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Thank you! I hope you enjoy King of Scars. ๐
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I really need to read King of Scars. But I probably won’t get to it until sometime after I read Ninth House.
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I don’t blame you! We don’t even have a title for the sequel yet, so reading Ninth House first is probably a good move.
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Trail of Lightning was amazing – I’ve just started in on the sequel now! ๐
Lauren @ Always Me
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I need to get to the sequel soon! I hope you enjoy it. ๐
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I’m reading Spinning Silver right now and totally agree that it does a fantastic job subverting that trope. Such a great book too!
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Hooray, I hope you love it! ๐
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I 1000% agree with you on The Fifth Season! Mothers in stories are so often angels or demons and we don’t really get to navigate the middle ground between the two, and I’m so glad Jemisin explored that.
And I loved Certain Dark Things for the same reason you mentioned. I need more subverted vampire stories in my life. ๐
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Yes, the way Jemisin writes motherhood throughout that series is so powerful. โค
I love seeing more love for Certain Dark Things – it's such an underrated vampire novel!
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I love what Roanhouse does with her Trail of Lightning leads. I’m always interested in more soft male characters and broody females, the latter of which we very rarely see.
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Definitely, I need to continue with the series!
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Thanks for reminding me that I still need to read The Ladyโs Guide to Petticoats and Piracy!
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I hope you enjoy it when you do! ๐
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I love books that subvert tropes so much! Spinning Silver, Uprooted, and Red Sister are perfect examples and I love all of them. I’ve also been really interested in The Raven and the Reindeer, I need to check it out!
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I hope you enjoy it! The Raven and the Reindeer is such a good winter/Christmas read.
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Certain Dark Things sounds sooo intriguing. I love the sound of Trail of Lightning as well. I really need to get to reading that. Nice list.
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It’s such a good book and a genuinely original take on vampires while also paying tribute to a lot of the well-known vampire lore – I highly recommend it!
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I really loved both Spinning Silver and The Raven and the Reindeer ๐
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Yay! They’re both so good.
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Such a fun take on the topic! As much as I adore tropes, it’s always awesome to see them turned upside down as well ๐ I’m currently reading King of Scars and already a fan of Nikolai/Zoya โค
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Thank you! Ahhh! Yes, I love Nikolai and Zoya’s relationship. Zoya is my queen.
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I like your take on the topic. I couldn’t get enough of the banter between Nikolai and Zoya.
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Thanks! Ugh, yes, I love them both so much.
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I totally forgot about the strong heroine contrasting with a less harsh (aka the opposite of an “alpha male”) guy troupe. Those are so good too! Guys showing actual emotion and dealing with it in a rational manner, who would have thunk?! C:
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I know, right? It’s kind of sad that that’s still such a surprise!
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Ok this is such a good twist on the theme this week and it helps that almost all of these are on my TBR and I haven’t read them yet. I need to bump them up quickly!
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Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy them. ๐
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I love your twist on the theme, and these are excellent examples of subverting the trope. Plus I always love when bloggers mention Certain Dark Things๐
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Thank you! Yes, I’ll be yelling about Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novels forEVER.
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I think it’s great you provided examples of the tropes you like. I wish I’d thought of that!
My TTT
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Thanks! ๐
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Yeah, The Fifth Season was a great book.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
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It’s so good! ๐
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