Top Ten+ Problematic Books

**trigger warning**

Hello everyone!! So this is an odd post to write, not gonna lie. I mean this post, as the title says, is about problematic books which means that in some way, shape or form the books on this list include something misrepresentative or wrong or just hm. That’s not the odd part though, the odd part is that some of the books on this list are favorites and it feels weird to call books out especially when they are favorites. Nevertheless, they do have problems and I don’t want people to get hurt by said problems. Before I list the books out though, I should warn you that I will be directly stating some keywords/phrases that explain why the books are problematic as well as I’ll be linking to any reviews or discussions I have on the book’s problematic aspects. I’m not going to go any further than the keywords/phrases & review links as I don’t want this all to be explanation and I don’t want to unintentionally hurt anyone. Therefore, please be mindful in the comments section and feel free to ask me in the comments or on my Twitter to privately discuss anything in depth. Now, onto the list…..

1. Nevernight – cultural appropriation
2. The Continent –  white supremacy, ‘savage’ indigenous people trope
3. Carve The Mark – racist, white supremacy
4. Ender’s Game – includes sexist/discriminatory comments
5. Cinder/The Lunar Chronicles – homogenizes Asia, racially ambiguous MC, Japanese family ruling Asia (aka imperialism), misuses honorifics
6. A Court of Thorns and Roses – romanticizes drugging
7. Paper Towns – manic pixie dream girl trope
8. The Glittering Court – colonist MC + ‘savage’ indigenous people
9. Soundless – poor Chinese culture rep, ableist
10. Rebel of the Sands – misrepresentative of Islam
11. Anything from Colleen Houck – white savior trope, romanticize rape, cultural appropriation
12. Eleanor & Park – racist
13. Storm Dancer – cultural appropriation
14. Max – normalizes Nazis
15. Age of X series – appropriation of Islam, rape
16. The Loose Ends List – offensive to disabled people, Brazilians and more
17. Throne of Glass series – has minimal POC and the ‘main’ POC is killed off, poor disabled rep, mistreats sexual workers and bisexuals, romanticize abuse
18. A Thousand Pieces of You – romanticize/explained away rape
19. The Winner’s Curse – white savior trope
20. Nemesis – white savior trope, appropriation of Egyptians
21. Everything, Everything – poor disabled rep/use of disability as plot device
22. Magonia – poor disabled rep
23. Roseblood – uses the word ‘G****’ multiple times
24. Moon Chosen – racist, biracial character uses blackface
25. The Society – slut shaming

And that’s the list. I’m sure there’s more and that there will be more but for now this is the list. I might update it as I read and hear more but ya, this is the list. Again, the keywords/phrases on the list are very minimalist/basic breakdowns of the problems in the books. Other people have explanations, however, I do not want to unintentionally bring hate or hurt to anyone so I’m leaving it as is unless people specifically ask me to add their reviews/discussions to the list. If you have a comprehensive review or discussion on the problems of the books, you can comment down below. As well, if you want me to explain more to you on any book privately – or link you to someone who’s better suited to answer your questions – feel free to drop a comment or ask me on Twitter. Thank you, I hope you have a great day/night and tata for now!

Advertisements