Tag Archives : michelle renee lane

With This Ring, You’ll Be Dead: Violence Against Female Protagonists in Romantic Vampire Fiction: Part 4: Marriage


Editor’s Note: content warning for violence, abuse, and potentially triggering subject matter. Marrying a vampire is a terrible idea. Just ask Dracula’s brides. As much as I love Bram Stoker’s novel, most of Dracula’s “romantic” encounters are nonconsensual. He uses mesmerism or some other form of mind control to seduce his prey and then he uses the bodies of his…

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REMINDER: August 2020 Book Club


Weaveworld (2001) Written by: Clive Barker Genre: Dark Fantasy/Horror Host: Michelle R. Lane Discussion Date: 8/28/2020 The Premise: Here is storytelling on a grand scale — the stuff of which a classic is made. Weaveworld begins with a rug — a wondrous, magnificent rug — into which a world has been woven. It is the world of the Seerkind, a…

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Unmasking the Stereotype of the Strong Black Woman in HBO’s Watchmen


The trope of the Strong Black Woman in fiction is based on an equally harmful stereotype, in which Black women are expected to perform a role that negates their own emotions, needs (both physical and psychological), in the service of caring for others. Similar to the Magical Negro, the Strong Black Woman protects her family and community, and even saves…

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Maybe Violence Really Can Solve Every Problem: A Review of Brandon Getz’s Lars Breaxface: Werewolf in Space


Lars Breaxface: Werewolf in Space (2019) Written by: Brandon Getz Genre: Science Fiction/Horror/Comedy Length: 299 pages Publisher: Spaceboy Books Disclaimer: I received a copy of the novel for free in exchange for an honest review. Why I chose it: Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can choose to read it based solely on its title.…

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White Privilege in A Discovery of Witches, It Isn’t Just for the Living Anymore


Welcome to the first post in a series in which I will be examining vampire fiction — novels, film, and TV shows — through the lens of identity politics. Specifically, I’ll be looking at the concepts of white privilege and racial identity/representation in popular vampire fiction and discussing why certain tropes are problematic. As a woman of color who has…

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Becoming Something Greater, a Review of Invisible Chains


Invisible Chains (2019) Written by: Michelle Renee Lane Genre: Fantasy Pages: 337 (ARC) Publisher: Haverhill House Publishing Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review. Premise: Jacqueline is a young Creole slave in antebellum New Orleans. An unusual stranger who has haunted her dreams since childhood comes to stay as…

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Weekly Roundup: July 22-26, 2019


Hey, hey, kiddos, and what a week it’s been! Weather armageddon continues throughout the world, manifesting in varied and extreme ways, and I got to experience my own scare during the start of the week, when everyone’s phones exploded with emergency alerts about my hometown in a level-4 evacuation emergency for floods and mudslides. Remember how I complained about tsuyu…

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