Category: Cristina’s Close Look

Cristina’s Close Look [4]: Abuse and Assault in Fantasy Featuring A Court of Mist and Fury

Posted May 30, 2016 in Cristina's Close Look, Discussions / 19 Comments

Cristina’s Close Look is a more specific type of discussion here at Girl in the Pages, where I find a trope, topic, or theme and explore the topics more in depth with a little bit of analysis and a lot of enthusiasm. Feel free to join into the discussion in the comments! Topic: Abuse and Assault in Fantasy Featuring A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas *Warning: This post will contain spoilers for the novel A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Thorns and Roses. Just a heads up if you haven’t read it […]

Cristina’s Close Look [3]: Gender-Bending Villains

Posted April 29, 2015 in Cristina's Close Look, Discussions / 8 Comments

This post was in part inspired by Cait @ Paper Fury’s post “Are You a Fan of Gender Swaps?” Thinking about her post made me start looking at which characters in popular stories transcend their gender boundaries, or exhibit traits of different genders, which I found to almost always be villains. If you like this post, go check out Cait’s discussion as well! Looking at popular stories, villains always have more of a license to break social norms and taboos, as they’re already “bad,” and such “misbehavior” won’t cause readers too much discomfort because they’re not supposed to root for […]

Cristina’s Close Look [2] Boyfriend Knows Best: On Oppressive YA Relationships

Posted February 11, 2015 in Cristina's Close Look, Discussions / 25 Comments

As someone in their twenties, I’m often considered to be an “older” YA reader, as publishing houses market the YA demographic as targeting those who are 12-17. Being a YA blogger makes this difference and age range seem insignificant, as many of those who primarily read and purchase YA span an age range well into the 40s and 50s. Most of the time I don’t feel disconnected from YA novels due to being a bit older than the characters, but one of the exceptions can be romance. Since I’m out of my teen years I have a wider range of […]

Cristina’s Close Look: Marginalized Identities and Intersectionality in Eleanor & Park

Posted January 16, 2015 in Cristina's Close Look, Discussions / 22 Comments

I’m really excited to launch this new feature! Cristina’s Close Look is a more specific type of discussion here at Girl in the Pages, where I find a trope, topic, or theme and explore the topics more in depth with a little bit of analysis and a lot of enthusiasm. Feel free to join into the discussion in the comments! Topic: Marginalized Identities and Intersectionality in Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell *Warning: This post will contain spoilers for the novel Eleanor & Park. Just a heads up if you haven’t read it yet! I picked up Eleanor & Park […]