On Genre Mashups and Fictional Relationships ⚙️💖📚
Happy Bookish Valentine's Day!
Hello!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Or Happy Wednesday if Valentine’s Day isn’t your thing. As for me, I’m ambivalent about the holiday. I love the idea of celebrating relationships of all kinds, but I think it can also lead to too much pressure on partners and/or FOMO. Personally, I prefer getting flowers (and books) on a random Tuesday just because or after achieving a milestone. With that being said, this week’s newsletter is all about genre mashups and why I think relationships are at the core of storytelling. 💖
I’m a mood reader, and if I’m being completely honest, my music and film tastes are very much mood-based as well. My recommended playlists on music apps are all over the place, from classical to rock. I’m just as likely to watch Moulin Rouge as I am John Wick. 😂 I love having a wide range of influences, but no matter what I’m reading or watching , my favorite part is seeing how relationships motivate characters and help drive the story forward.
Sci-fi, fantasy, and steampunk are three of my favorite genres, but for me, all the cool machinery and magic mean nothing if there is no heart to the story. Not every story must have a romance, but I think without relationships, the motives of characters can fall flat. Frankenstein is one of my favorite books of all time, largely due to the complicated relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his unnamed, abandoned creature. Without that dynamic, I don’t think the story would be nearly as compelling.
With that said, I do love mixing romance in with my steampunk stories. I think this stems from my tendency to ship characters together that started when I was younger. (Scully and Mulder, Batman and Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Seiya and Usagi… I could keep going 😂) For me, while romance is great alone, I also want my characters to go on adventures, meet monsters (or be monsters 👀), and experience cool inventions.
Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favorite movies. It’s a beautiful blend of humor, romance, magic, and light touches of steampunk. The lead characters, Howl and Sophie, are both cursed, though neither can talk about their affliction due to the magic involved. Watching Howl and Sophie’s quiet moments of tenderness between scenes of adventure and peril makes their eventual romance all the more meaningful.
I love the book, too, but the Studio Ghibli adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle is wildly different. If you’ve never read the original novel by Diana Wynne Jones, definitely pick it up!
The first book that drew me into the world of steampunk was Gail Carriger’s Soulless, the first novel in the Parasol Protectorate series. I loved the idea of blending paranormal elements with romance and alternate history. The steampunk world-building and fantastic banter were a delightful surprise and I tore through the rest of the series.
If you’re looking for more romance to add to your TBR this week, check out Forsaken Beauty and the Etherbeast, my steampunk fairy tale retelling. If Valentine’s Day is not your thing, read Monsters and Machines, a collection of related short stories centered around the 1893 World’s Fair. Though it’s not a romance, the lead characters do care about each other more than anything. I guess I am a hopeless romantic at heart, no matter how many gadgets and monsters I throw at my characters. 😂
Happy reading!
Kelsey
P.S. I might not do the voice over every newsletter, but I saw it was an option and wanted to try it out for readers who might prefer listening. If this is something useful for you, please let me know!