#oooh shes so plain and boring and utterly un noticeable but let's make her secretly super special awesome and powerful

[belle--ofthebrawl]

🌻!

For the longest time, I've been reading decades old paperbacks from 2006 to the late 80's and early 90's. I got them for free at a variety of garage sales and from a swap table back in March for national reading month. I really enjoyed a majority of them.

This past week I finished two that were published within the last four years or so and the whiplash I got seeing the introduction line for a character being "she dresses masculine but uses she/her pronouns" was. Odd. I can't tell if the line is genuinely clunky in context or if I'm too used to reading those old books.

The book in question was Ace of Shades. I almost didn't read past the first page because the author did that thing where the FMC is described as "petite" and "doll-like" "oh my gawd if she's not careful she's going to fall into my pores and die". that's enough to get me wrinkling my nose. I won't give away spoilers but there was one other thing that made me roll my eyes and viciously remind me why I don't read YA by authors I don't trust. But really, it's a pretty typical twist if you're familiar enough with the genre.