Hello readers! Today, I am bringing you my own original book tag. I cannot wait to see other bloggers’ thoughts on problematic books and authors!
I’ve been doing this problematic authors series lately, where I deep dive into problematic elements in an author’s books. Most recently was Roald Dahl. I thought I could create a tag on the same theme.
This tag will absolutely contain some spoilers of authors I am planning to create a post about in the future.
Don’t forget to check out my Book Tag Masterlist for the 100+ book tags I’ve done before things one!
A book or series you love, but has problematic elements
A series I love that I know has problematic elements is Vampire Academy. This series takes place in a world where there are different types of vampires. The main character, Rose, is a Dhampir, which is half-vampire, half-human.
She attends an academy where Dhampirs train to become bodyguards to Moroi vampires, who are pure-blood vampires, which are vampires who are born vampire and not turned.
This is one of my absolute favorite series, but it does have a pretty big problematic element that I usually would never overlook, which is a teacher-student relationship. For some reason, age gaps never really register in my brain when it’s a vampire book.
If I read this for the first time today, I know I wouldn’t have made it past the first book. Age gaps make me more uncomfortable the older I get, even if both people are adults.
A book where you can’t separate the art from the artist
Charlie in the Great Glass Elevator is the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In this book, Charlie, Willy Wonka, and Charlie’s entire family are shot into space in an elevator.
A few of the chapters are from the perspective of the American president and have many problematic quotes, including, “The country is so full of Wings and Wongs, every time you wing you get the wong number,” when speaking of calling someone in China.
Most of the humor in these chapters are centering names. I do not think it’s funny to make fun of people’s names and how they sound, or Chinese people in general, of course.
My Roald Dahl post explores this book much further, but it was the reason I stopped reading this author and never went back until the post I did on him this last month.
A book you loved as a kid, but hasn’t aged well
I had a teacher who read us this series at the end of each class in 5th grade, and I loved watching the TV show with my mom.
I haven’t revised this series as an adult, and I have honestly been afraid to. I logged this series in my brain as something I loved in childhood, and I don’t have to ruin my own memories of it by reading it again in adulthood.
However, I do want to reread it for my problematic authors series. I’m going to not only explore the racism in the series, but also Melissa Wiley’s version, which was written 60 years later.
A book where you prefer the adaptation
It is really fascinating how many classic books have been drastically changed for the big screen because of the problematic elements. The one that shocked me the most was Dr. Dolittle.
The Dr. Dolittle movie came out in 1998, when I was 4 years old. In my eyes, Dr. Dolittle is a black man, so I did NOT expect to see racism in the book.
I have talked about this in the past, but I’ll tell the story again. When my daughter was about 4, we would frequent the library. I had picked up this book to read to her, as she couldn’t read herself yet.
At that time, I would try to read to her almost every day. As I was reading this out loud to her, I came across the use of the n-word many times. I think we only got through about 15-20 pages before we quit and went to something else.
I am very thankful we didn’t make it to the bits about Bumpo bleaching his own skin, which I learned about later in Goodreads reviews.
I am actually appalled at how many books exist like this that are in the children’s section of the library. I am by no means the kind of person who believes in censorship, but I am very concerned about how many books are in the children’s section that contain the n-word and other problematic things.
Is there an author you no longer read because of problematic elements in their books or their personal beliefs?
I have a few authors I no longer read, including Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling. I really try to give authors the benefit of the doubt, but these two, in my opinion, created a lot of harm. I did do a Dramione post where I discussed a lot of real-world harm that J.K. Rowling is responsible for.
Do you believe in separating the art from the artist? Does it make a difference if the author is living?
Problematic authors span from minor to major issues, so I decided this on a case-by-case basis. I will still read dead authors’ works if they are problematic, but not if the books have blatant racism.
Is there a book you’d recommend despite its problematic elements?
A Clockwork Orange is a story about a teen who is put into a therapy program after being imprisoned for a horrific crime.
The themes of this book centers the dangers of the government taking away your free will, and the ethics of behavioral modification therapy, such as aversion therapy, conversion therapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy.
Is there a problematic element that’s a deal-breaker for you when deciding whether to read an author or their books?
It seems for most of us that different elements are dealbreakers, from the author’s behavior to blatant racism. For me, I cannot read a book that romanticizes rape.
I fully understand why Booktok loves dark romance, but I cannot do it. I don’t know if I will ever recover from reading Haunting Adeline. Another extremely popular book that does this is Outlander, which isn’t a dark romance, but still romanticizes rape.
Should posthumous edits be made to an author’s books?
I do not believe in doing this. I think it is too close to censorship. I honestly am so intrigued to see other opinions on this for a post I am planning in the future.
Who do you tag?
Does anyone else get nervous about tagging people in these kinds of posts? I feel like I am bothering people when I do it! Let me know if you’d like to be or are okay with being tagged, and I’ll tag you in the future.
And you! Feel free to do this tag and tag me in the post, or drop it below so I can see it!
Happy blogging and bookish adventures! 📚🦒✨
Allison Wolfe created this post for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.
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