2021 Wrap-Up: In Which I Keep My Pace (And Deal With Anything Under the Sun)

Hello my beauties!

Welcome to my last post of the year, where I will wrap my 2021 up. This was, it goes without saying, YET another year of scheduling, both my reads and my posts. In my previous yearly wrap-up, I set up my usual goal of one post a week for 2021, since I knew I wouldn't be able to replicate my 2020 success (72 posts!!!) without working for it, and I made a conscious decision not to push myself past my limits. Anyhow, I ultimately managed to squeeze in a few posts more than my goal dictated, and that made me happy (granted, I would have been happy with 52 posts all the same...but it's nice to have a small edge 🙂). 2020 was an anomaly, if a pleasant one - this year I kept my "normal" pace, and to me, it was a great accomplishment.

Pt. 1: This Year in Blogging

As of today, I've been blogging for 9 years and a couple of months 😃.

This is what happened on Offbeat YA during the year, broken down by number of posts, events I took part in, books I reviewed, authors I interacted with and discussion posts I wrote...plus an off-blog, real-life section!

Tell Me Something Tuesday: What’s the Hardest Part About Blogging for You?

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters throw in for good measure). While Heidi is on an extended hiatus, there are five of us who are hosting it and providing the questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

WHAT’S THE HARDEST PART ABOUT BLOGGING FOR YOU?

It may sound counterintuitive, but reviews often are - and here they're the very reason why I started blogging. You see, they are so much WORK. What can I say, I take my reviews seriously 🤷‍♀️. Also, I like them to be structured, which makes them even harder to write (unless I'm in a state of grace and breeze through the whole thing, which happens occasionally). And sometimes I spend more time coming up with headings than writing the review proper, especially since I usually go for puns or wordplays on song/movie/series/book titles. I once joked about reviews being my favourite posts...to have written 😂 - and I stand by my word. Seriously, they feel like such an accomplishment afterwards, but before...

Seanan McGuire: "Across the Green Grass Fields"

Title: Across the Green Grass Fields [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Wayward Children (6th of ?? books)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room in my blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closest I could get)
Year: 2021
Age: 14+
Stars: 3/5
Pros: An imaginative look-in-reverse at one of the most common fantasy tropes. Puts a female intersex character front and center while telling us that "there's no right way to be a girl".
Cons: More didascalic than the previous installments, and with less memorable/rounded characters.
Will appeal to: Horse enthusiasts. Everyone who's ever felt out of place, but doesn't necessary dream of a happier world than the one they live in...

Blurb: Regan loves, and is loved, though her school-friend situation has become complicated, of late. When she suddenly finds herself thrust through a doorway that asks her to "Be Sure" before swallowing her whole, Regan must learn to live in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines - a world that expects its human visitors to step up and be heroes. But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem… (Amazon excerpt)

Review: I've read this one twice - I also wrote a mini review for it after my first read - and I stand by my word: ATGGF is the weakest installment in the Wayward Children series so far. Still enjoyable, but more forgettable than the previous ones.

SMALL WORLD

Regan is a new face for the Wayward Children series' readers - one we haven't meet at Eleanor West's school (yet?). This time, McGuire chooses to have an intersex heroine...or better, one with CAIS (complete androgen insensitive syndrome), though she does use the term "intersex" in the story (mind you, I don't know if the representation is done well, though I generally trust McGuire to do her homework...but Becca has something to say about that and the use of the word "intersex", and it surprised me). Contrary to most of the Wayward Children we've met so far, there are no parental issues or conflicts in Regan's life, but after confiding in the wrong person as a child and finding herself rejected and bullied for her condition, a door to a world of mythical equines (quite fitting, since Regan loves horses) opens for her. Now, I know that these are novellas, but there was so much potential here for McGuire to build a fascinating world (as she did in Beneath the Sugar Sky), maybe by stretching the page count a little (as it's the case with Come Tumbling Down, the longest book in the series so far with its 206 pages) - while, due to the amount of backstory and to Regan's predicament in the Hooflands, we only get glimpses of a larger universe. (Also...unicorns are stupid? 😧). [...]

Offbeat Offline: November 2021

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? More medical drama (can you see a theme to this year? 😒), and, um, that's it? Plus a car emergence (really, what's new again?), lots of post scheduling (see the previous item) and post-surgery blog-hopping failure. I read some books that I plan on reviewing later and started working on my end-of-the-year wrap-up. It was a boring month (except for the medical drama of course).