Queerbaiting and Fandom edited by Joseph Brennan

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher University of Iowa Press in exchange for an honest review.

This book was everything I could have wanted and more. I was extremely excited when I got an ARC of this as the subject matter is right up my street and I was really intrigued to learn more about it in general. Part of me was concerned though because I have requested similar books before and been disappointed by how dry they are. Thankfully this was not the case with this book.

Queerbaiting and Fandom is an incredibly comprehensive, insightful and all-round entertaining read. It is a collection of academic essays so be aware that it is written in that style rather than written for the purposes of entertaining the general public. However, I was very impressed by how readable and easy to follow all of the essays were. The essays themselves cover a wide range of fandoms and topic areas, some of which I wasn't expecting and ended up being a pleasant surprise. The obvious offenders are here-Supernatural, Sherlock and Harry Potter all have chapters to themselves. But there are also essays about Nick Jonas deliberately marketing himself to gay fans, the One Direction fandom shipping real-life celebrities and the Eurovision song contest encouraging queer flirting with its hosts. These were all surprising to me and I found them the most insightful essays in terms of introducing me to new knowledge and making me think about things I hadn't considered before.

The only minor niggle I had was a completely understandable one. Every essay must take the time to define queerbaiting and other terms that it refers to, but this was very repetitive when reading the whole collection. The first two chapters were dedicated to defining the term anyway so I feel that the essays could have been edited to remove the definitions for the purposes of this collection, especially since every author used the term in the same way.

Overall, I really recommend this book for anyone interested in the topic. I genuinely wish it was more widely available as I found it very entertaining and I have several friends I know would love to read it. If you can get your hands on a copy, then definitely take the opportunity to do so. I feel this is a book I will revisit several times in the future again.

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The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon

Honestly, what can you expect from a book based off a video game? A pretty good horror story it turns out. Five Nights at Freddy's has admittedly always been a game series with a solid plot, if only you bother to look closer. I myself have enjoyed watching countless Youtube videos on the lore, which is why I knew I had to pick this book up. My expectations were extremely low but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does this add valuable insight to the games, it actually stands alone as a reasonably enjoyable story.

Don't get me wrong, the main enjoyment gleamed from this book is the way it sheds light on events from the game. There are many things in here that probably won't make any sense if you have absolutely no knowledge of the games whatsoever, and likewise it explains things that had no explanation in the games themselves. They follow separate continuities (allegedly) but honestly I could fit them together pretty well. It did give me unrealistic hopes for the plot of Sister Location but I'll try not to go too off tangent.

Back to the book as a book, it's a fairly basic horror. The characters are slightly more fleshed out than they needed to be but they are by no means hugely compelling. They have their own personalities though and I did care for them so it managed to do that much. The villain is chilling, as are the animatronics. I will say that there's not much action to be found and that is slightly disappointing. If you want tons of deaths or varied attacks from the Freddy's crew, you're going to be let down. The main threat comes from the springlocks, which was threat enough for me but might not be what people are hoping for. Again, my sense of horror was linked so closely to my knowledge from the games that some of this might be lost if you've never played them. Then again, who is going to read this never having played the games?

Overall, The Silver Eyes is a decent if not groundbreaking book. I've heard complaints that it is too long but it seems a pretty standard length to me. I would definitely recommend it to add some depth to the lore of the games, and for anyone looking for an easy read. A part of me is genuinely excited to read the sequel so they must be doing something right!

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