The Steampunk Dollhouse hasn’t been updated in almost 2 years. At this point, it may never be updated again. It just became too difficult to juggle it with my work, school, and home responsibilities. Having said that, the pandemic has done wonders for my desire to hide inside of fantastical fiction lately, and some of the things I’ve been reading have given me feelings. I want to write about them. It’s a weird feeling. I started out with a book blog called “Confessions of a Book Whore” almost twenty years ago, and it was a pretty successful little blog in a time when those were pretty new. I was even contacted by a few authors who were pleased with my reviews, and it was nice. And then it got weird and then it got hard, so I stopped. That’s why I was always so adamant, with the podcast, that I WOULD NOT REVIEW BOOKS. I discussed books that I felt were important and made an impact in steampunk. But I didn’t review. And I still won’t. Not really. What I want to do is talk about the books that moved me, in good and bad ways. To be honest, though, this entire idea came up because of a book series I just finished that still has me puzzled over the gaping giant holes in representation. More on that later.
This site was created as part of a final project in my Summer 2020 class on the rhetorics of activism and disinformation. I created an entire undergrad lit course that would focus on those steampunk books that went outside of the usual tropes. I’m really proud of the work I did and I didn’t want to dismantle the site. So it’s been sitting here, gathering dust. Then I read that book series and wanted to write about it and started tossing around ideas for platforms. This one was here and ready so I’ve decided to go for it.
This won’t be primarily for steampunk books though, because that’s not what I’ve been reading. I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy of different types and I want to share them. Mostly, I just want to talk about books, in the way that I used to, before everything got complicated. There will be no marketing links, no kickbacks, no requests for arcs, and I will not be taking requests for reviews. It’s just me, rambling about books, the same way that I have been for as long as I can remember.
As for that weird and messed up 9 book series that I read, which not only lacked LGBTQIA representation but also tossed in some anti-mask propaganda in the final push? I’ll get back to you on that real soon.
Bluestocking Writes... 