Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/06/horrors-await-poor-sophie-fost.html
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Fuck. I’m a busy person, so I rely on reviews of children’s lit. I saw some rave reviews of this book, some of them here, irc, and so I got them for my kids. My two older kids (8, 10) love the books. But this sounds pretty disgusting. I guess now I have to read the stuff and have some conversations.
Thanks for posting about this.
Follow-up: is this the sort of sexual advances and flirtation you see in the Ranma 1/2 books, or is it more intense (suggestive, aggressive, objectifying) than that?
I have not read or heard of the Ranma books.
Every age-appropriate character is a potential love interest for Sophie. Teen boy elves are all obsessed with matchmaking as pertains to Sophie. All teenaged to ‘not full adult’ characters have some romantic twist attached to them by Sophie’s imagination if not character intent.
It is clear she is being driven into the breeding program by her attraction to a boy who doesn’t believe in it but is forced by sake of Family.
She gives up her first kiss to make someone go away.
She does not do things out of a sense of peer pressure and seeking to not be made fun of very often, even tho she feels them to be right.
Its not Harlequin Romance, but its not healthy teen romance imho.
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I saw an earlier post about this series and bought the first book, thinking my nine year old daughter would get a big kick out of it. We haven’t read it yet because we’re currently ploughing through the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time, but I read it myself and was somewhat disappointed.
It wasn’t a terrible story, but felt like a cheap Harry Potter rip-off to me. I could forgive that if not for some of the details that get washed over - e.g. Elf abilities defying physics is science just being wrong.
I haven’t read the rest of the series though, perhaps the other books set it apart?
Are you using that literally or figuratively? I’m hoping it’s a metaphor. I mean, yikes.
Metaphor for 'BREEDING PROGRAM" yes. The Elves have a moderately managed system of eugenics and shame folks for non-participation while not directly penalizing them.
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I wanted to come back with more questions, but they’re all basically boiling down to “WTAF?” So I’ll let it go.
Again, thanks for the review.
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