Tag: science fiction book

Saving
Askara by J.M. Link

Victoria’s
day starts out like any other aboard the transorbital ship, Phoenix.
Such is the life of an emergency medicine specialist in the age of
“post-discovery”. Sure, she had always dreamed of
interacting with intelligent extraterrestrial life- the real thing,
not those microbes on distant moons. Who wouldn’t? She was still
happy with her career, however mundane and demanding it might be.
That’s what it took to run a ship the size of a small city smoothly.
Monotony. But all that changes one morning, and suddenly she’s not so
sure she didn’t stick her foot in it… 


Be
careful what you wish for. 


*** 
Escape
had been their only drive, and even death was preferable to the
alternative. But they never thought their flight for freedom would
put them in an uncharted system. Forced to interact with an isolated
world and its inferior, albeit curious people. When it affords them
an unforseen and unprecedented opportunity to take back their world
from those who seek to destroy them, however, Aderus begins to wonder
if it wasn’t fate. Earth’s proposal is shocking and uncomfortable for
a fierce, independent race that relishes in their solitude. But the
more he learns of humans, the more he comes to admire and respect
them. One, in particular. 

*WARNING*
Not intended for readers under 18. 
Contains
explicit sexual content.

Attention
Monsterfuckers

This
is a good one.

The
novel introduces a group of (all male) aliens who managed to escape a
prison. They are at war with another race and their main goal is to
free their females who are still imprisoned. Seeking
help they contact earth.

Ok,
let’s get my only point of critique
out of the way before I start gushing: The plot explains some things
a little too conveniently. For
example the way the heroine remains practically the only liaison
between the aliens and the humans requires some suspending of
disbelief. But this is nitpicking when applied to a book about highly
fuckable aliens. 😉

Now
the gushing:

The aliens in this book are not just humans with different
skin color and some fun accessories like a spare dick but
truly alien in appearance. They
reminded me of the Yautja
from Predator with
only their mouths being not quite so extreme. Coming from a violent but advanced society their rules and behaviors are quite different from human norms. Also their females are described as stronger and even more
violent than the males. Only the strongest get to mate…

The
protagonists Victoria and Aderus experience neither instalust nor,
god forbid, instalove.
Instead
they slowly get to know and become
strangely fascinated by each other. Lots
of talking, confusion,
awkwardness and cultural misunderstandings ensue. It’s adorable. 

Victoria is the first who realizes that she’s sexually attracted to
Aderus and she definitely acts upon it. To ascertain her dominance
and therefore
desirableness she even manages to knock him out (by surprise) in
front of an audience. Poor Aderus doesn’t know if he should be angry, embarrassed or horny.

Saving Askara is a wonderful character driven slow burn romance with an
emotionally satisfying pay off. Nothing
is rushed, everything happens at the right time. When they finally
have sex it’s hot and sexy but also awkward, a
little bit frightening
and confusing which keeps
their first time from being unrealistic (as far as alien fucking goes) and
makes it even more intense.

Oh,
and the best thing? Saving Askara seems to be the first in a series.
🙂

aelia-likes-monsters:

horrorlovergirl:

ever-hungry-aria:

aelia-likes-monsters:

Did you like District 9? Did you wish it had about 200% more alien fucking?

If so, have I got a book for you. 

Cottonwood by R. Lee Smith

The cover doesn’t really do it justice. It’s dark. It’s got depth. It takes its time building the plot so when things really get moving you care what happens to the characters. 

It really is dark. It’s got violence, references to rape. People get attacked and assaulted. It’s not fluff, but it’s so good.

This book was so intense, it literally gutted me and I LOVED IT! It was also recommended by @fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains and I’m so glad I’ve read it.

But seriously, this book is really dark, it had me crying a few times so be prepared to suffer!

Hey guys, they’ve also wrote a book called The Last Hour of Gann. It’s one of my favorite books of all time! It’s about a plus size woman on a pilgrimage with a badass religious lizard man and a bunch of incompetent human assholes. She writes some of the best character you will Fucking loathe. The main character Amber is my spirit animal and her lizardman Meoraq does not put up with human’s bullshit. Plus, it’s HELLA long. You have time to get super invested in all the characters.  I love it. 

image

 However, I need to warn that if anyone has suffered from sexual abuse they may want to skip this read. It’s well written, but there is an entire chapter that will trigger some people. Smith’s books are always VERY dark and not for the faint of heart. That chapter is very uncomfortable, but if you can get past it then please give this book a chance. 

I was kind of looking at The Last Hour of Gann (Which is over 1,000 pages) and also Heat* (about 600 pages). Both are by R. Lee Smith. All the books by this author look somewhat heavy, and like they deal with darker themes; the shittier sides of humanity, rape, torture, and brutal deaths, so honestly if you want happy fluff please steer clear.

As one person described it in their reviews; “If you’re used to reading romance, it’s going to be really dark. If you’re used to reading horror, it’s about average.” 

And yeah, like @ever-hungry-aria said, I think I also heard of Cottonwood because of @fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains and I’m glad as hell they shared their recommendation. 

*Heat gets its own disclaimer as being extra dark even on the scale of this author. One of the main characters is an evil sadist. Tread carefully.

I can absolutely confirm everthing that’s been said about this author. I’ve read three books by R. Lee Smith so far and I have to say that there are hardly any writers out there that got me invested that much in their characters. The plot, the descriptions, the world building, actually everything is unbelievably good.

Imagine my surprise when I started The Last Hour of Gann for the space lizard-man alien erotica but got so much more. But yeah, it left me emotionally drained. The themes and descriptions are VERY intense.

Cottonwood was a light fun read in comparison. Although this still might not be the the book for you if you are easily triggered. 

The third book I’ve read was The Land of the Beautiful Dead. 

image

Unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me in comparison to the two other books. The writing is still top notch, I simply wasn’t overly invested in the main characters. The male main character has a harem (yes, yes he’s lonely and tortured and a man’s gotta cope…) and the heroine is a mix between a “sacrifice everything for the cause” and a “stand by your man” type. I’m into neither of those things. Still, great writing, far above the average fare within this genre (or any genre, actually). Don’t let my personal taste deter you from reading! 😉 

I thought about trying The Scholomance next.

image

From Goodreads:

For centuries, there has been a legend of a hidden school where magic is taught by the demons who dwell there to anyone who seeks them out, but they ask a terrible price: Anyone who reaches the door of the Scholomance may enter, but the Devil takes every tenth student who tries to leave.

A hidden school. Demonic masters. An inescapable fate for one out of every ten graduates. But Connie would do anything to have the magic her best friend was born with.

And Mara would do anything to get Connie back. 

X-rated Harry Potter but with a female protagonist and demon sex? Yes, please!!! 

As far as I could glean from the reviews on Goodreads this might feature a love triangle, a trope which I normally loathe (unless it ends in a three-way, then it’s fine). But if there’s one author I’d trust with the execution of a love triangle it’s R. Lee Smith.

Has anyone already read this one? 

@ever-hungry-aria @aelia-likes-monsters @horrorlovergirl

Ugly Badass Girls Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

A very specific list of books and movies with unconventional looking/conventionally unattractive heroines

Some good examples for ugly heroines are featured in this article (x)

“Ever notice how most heroines in novels just happen to also be devastatingly gorgeous? As if their long, flowing hair or sparkling eyes somehow make them more worthy of the title of heroine? Of course, given that so many classic popular novels about women were written about [sic] men, it kind of makes sense that literature would be so full of idealized versions of women that dude authors kind of wish they could hook up with.

It’d be nice if the occasional lady in literature was just, you know, a person, rather than some silk-skinned goddess or one of the other many adjectives that plague the women of literature who are just trying to go about their business of surviving whatever cruel plots the author has devised for them. I mean, there are plenty of male heroes in literature who get by with the looks of Cyrano de Bergerac, or Quasimodo, or Oscar Wao, or, more often than not, with no idea at all as to their general attractiveness. So, where are all the “ugly” ladies in literature?”

This article also makes some good points about the importance of ugly heroines. (x)

And here is my personal list (in no particular order):

Books 

The mother of all ugly heroines.

The heroine perceives herself as unattractive. After being cursed
she spends the majority of the book as an old woman.

The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line. 

  • The
    Darkangel     (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce

The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.

This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.

Very masculine looking heroine (hairy).

She’s plain.

Other characters in this book are baffled by the interest of
the very attractive male protagonist in the heroine. 

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.

The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.

The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.

  • Herb-Witch (Lord
    Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy

Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.

The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development. 

The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.

This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married. 

Books I haven’t read yet:


Movies / TV series

I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.

TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.

Weiterlesen

Update:

@dasfeministmermaid suggested:

suggested for Brienne and Jaime (I haven’t read ASOIAF, so I don’t know how they are described in the book but Brienne and Aria from the TV series are certainly great unconventional looking female characters.)

Written by the wonderful @liberlibelulaart. I think everbody in the Reylo fandom knows her beautiful and often hilarious art.

Booktrailer:

Very cool to also have a manga on the list of unattrative heroines!

@amamymayer suggested:

Features a heavily scarred heroine.

Thank you for your suggestions. I hope there are still more books, movies and comics out there with conventionally unattractive heroines. 

Bringing this back because I feel like it. 🙂

Also…

LIST UPDATE!

I can’t believe I forgot this book the first time around. The heroine is plain and capable and has a sexy voice but not when she sings. It’s weird. Great book.

I haven’t read this one yet but Tanith Lee is always highly recommended.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand another addition…

Older Women Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction

I have thought long and hard if I should make a separate post or just add it to this one. I decided to do the latter because the list for older heroines is so ridiculously short (as of yet) I wouldn’t even call it a list.

Ok, first let’s define “older woman”. According to who gets storylines that center around personal growth, getting it on with a desirable love interest AND saving the day, thirty is the onset of old-age in genre fiction. Very, very seldom have I read a book where all those good things happen to a woman older than twenty-nine. Oh and BTW I’m practically a crone by these standards. So if any of you are offended by this just remember that this post is written by the most offended old hag aka ME.

“But,” some of you might say, “there are plenty of BAMF woman over thirty in fantasy and science fiction.” Yeah, true but they get different kind of stories than woman below that magic age ESPECIALLY in books.

And that’s because these woman are so very mature that having adventures, falling madly in love and behaving accordingly is absolutely beneath them. Also there is no more character growth possible because the typical human woman is mentally complete by that age. Excitement, immature decisions and the use of sarcasm are also absolutely out of the question.

Have you read the last paragraph in a sarcastic voice? If not, try again.

“But,” I hear some of saying, “I know tons of really cool female characters over the age of thirty or at least played by actresses older than thirty on TV and in movies who fall in love, make mistakes and learn from them, save the day and go on great adventures.” Very true, I agree. And out of all these cool characters I will take Captain Janeway as example. She’s smart, capable, the hero of her own story, feminine AND strong, just a great character in short. She’s also physically attractive. I’m not holding that against her character but it’s just a perfect example how not being young anymore is not much of a problem if the female character in question is beautiful. Beauty trumps age in the visual medium. In genre books however any women above the age of thirty is “ewww old” apparantly.

End of rant. Here is my (very short) list of books with older women in genre fiction:

The heroine is 47(!). And she’s not even compensating it by being stunningly beautiful (for her age). How dare!!! AND the LI is an Orc. 🙂 If you want to know more @ever-hungry-aria has written a great review here.

Sci-fi space opera classic. 

Capable and honorable woman and infamous warlord come to understand and love each other. 

If I were to use a very short and over-simplifying descriptor it would probably be “Jane Austen in space”.

Haven’t read this one yet @ever-hungry-aria confirmed that there is a slow-burn romance between the two titular characters.

Not sure if this one qualifies because the heroine is 37 or 38 if I remember correctly but ends up looking like 17. The character doesn’t change her behaviour. She continues to act believably like a woman closer to 40 than 20 which is sometimes hilarious. Great book, some LGBT themes and hard to pin down genre-wise.

TRANSMISSION LOST by Stefan Mazzara

Jack Squier is a civilian cargo pilot in a future where humanity has begun colonizing other worlds throughout space. This period of expansion has led to prosperity, but has also led to the unfortunate realization that humanity is not alone in the universe. Humanity is now at war with the Ailian Ascendancy, a fiercely territorial empire that does not take kindly to humanity encroaching on their domain. Over this decade-long conflict, humanity’s ships have been spread thin across space as they fight to hold back the Ailian fleets.

With military ships becoming such a precious commodity, civilian pilots like Jack find themselves pressed into service running supplies for the UN Navy. On one such cargo run, Jack encounters the enemy in the worst way possible, and sets in motion a series of events that will change the future of humanity. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27236475-transmission-lost

Teratophilia recommendation by @winged-wolf-tsuki who shared some relevant information for monster lovers: ”It features a female character that is not only stronger than her human partner but much taller. The start of it has some similarities between Enemy Mine and Starkissed but then it starts to branch out a bit more. I found it a unique read.”

More books with monsters as the love interest: HERE

claudiagray:

thepaige-turner:

ig: thepaige_turner

It’s DEFY THE WORLDS launch day! Hit your local bookstore to find out what happens next for Abel and Noemi. Separated by the Liberty War for the independence of planet Genesis, Abel and Noemi have an entire galaxy between them. When Earth strikes at Genesis through biological warfare, however, Noemi is forced to venture back into the greater galaxy in an attempt to find help. But doing so puts her incredible danger–from which only Abel may be able to save her. Yet Abel knows that stepping forward to help means exposing himself to his creator, Burton Mansfield, who will stop at nothing to reclaim Abel for his own. 

Did I mention DEFY THE STARS is $2.99 on all online platforms this week? BECAUSE IT IS. Time to plunge in, people! 

Soldier girl and robot boy are back!!!!

Source: instagram.com

ohtze:

ohtze:

ohtze:

ohtze:

me: *is neck deep in angel-monster erotica*

also me: ah, but why stick with angel monsters when you can ALSO read alien elf erotica

Oh mY the author is on tumblr! This explains the very vivid descriptions of very specific genitals. Also angsty pretty boys. And somewhat heavy handed handwringing over power dynamics and consent. Like I love how this erotica is trying to be more than erotica, and informed, but if they both wanna fuck and it’s clearly telegraphed as consensual just let em fuck mate. They don’t gotta be politically correct about it when there’s nothing to be politically correct over? This book is full of knotting and alien peen that looks like a tentacled lotus plant, so it don’t have to be that deep

me: *sees a novel where a woman sleeps with a kraken*

me, with a hundred unread samples already on her kinkle, pointing to the shelf: I want that one

HNNNNG. So after being coy and finishing this book in less than a day I’m gonna have to recommend it with some (fairly) large caveats, because even though I’ve got quibbles I really enjoyed it and think it deserves to be read:

image

Genres: Erotica/Alien kink
Read it if you like: knotting, extremely graphic descriptions of VERY creative alien peen, captivity scenarios, tsundere alien princes, soft boys, actual feels, very passionate/loving romances that transcend species and differing genitalia, actual emotional character development in your erotica
Warnings: Rape/Attempted Rape (not by the love interest to the protag, though, thank god–he’s good)
Things I loved: The book tried to be more than erotica, which was really cool? Like I went into it thinking it would be alien kink junk food, but it actually was really thoughtful and self-aware in its depictions of gender, gender fluidity, power imbalances and depression. The alien prince is great. The pacing is great and the sex is hot.
Things I wasn’t too hot on/the caveats: The subtext/philosophical discussions were heavy-handed af and kinda clumsy. As you can see from my complaints above there were points where the author seemed tortured by the current zeitgeist of fictional hand-wringing that we see on tumblr, and it detracted from the story. There was some real shoe-horned death and the maiden stuff at the end that also felt out of place, and the protag–Lydia–really has no character development at all, whether its internal or external. I felt like I was reading about a blank piece of paper designed to reflect the prince’s emotional state–like it was reader x alien–and I’m not a fan of self insert. I’m annoyed at the rape/attempted rape and the subtext surrounding it.

ANYWAYS, IT’S STILL A V GOOD READ. Very quick, only took me a couple hours.

Great review!

For more books with strange, unusual and monstrous love interests take a look at this list:

https://fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains.tumblr.com/post/171011429752/heyy-do-you-know-some-books-with-teratophilia

Heyy do you know some books with teratophilia themes? Or if not, some good monster books?

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

Thank you for
asking! Really, your ask was exactly what I needed. You see, I was thinking
of writing this list for some time now but I was too lazy.

I have stuff to
recommend because I‘ve been actively looking for books that
feature inter-species/monster romances for a long time. Fun fact: Up
until recently I didn‘t know that this kink was called
teratophilia. 🙂 Thanks, tumblr for educating me. Also, since I found
out how to navigate the relevant tags my life has improved
immeasurably.

Books with monsters as love interests:

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

The
male protagonist is terrifying by human standards. He finds the human
heroine appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other
from the start.

Alien-lizard-man,
monk and fighter… Need I say more? Ok: The heroine is fat. She does
lose weight while trying to survive on a hostile alien planet though.
The lizard man protagonist is interested in her either way. All kinds
of trigger warnings for this book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s
also over 900 pages long. Crazy.

Alien-Insect
man, single dad and adorable. The human social worker really tries to
help him and she does… Reads like District 9 fan fiction which is a
good thing! This book is a bit tamer than The Last Hour of Gann but
the sex is still graphic. 🙂

Check
out this author’s other books as she seems to specialize in
monsters of all kinds.

Girl
is abducted by the King of the Goblins. This is not a David Bowie
Goblin King, this one looks really monstrous. It’s a YA book but
the good kind. The heroine is not an insufferable brat and there is
no love triangle (note: love triangles are only acceptable for me if
they end in a three-way).

Really
beautiful and magical book, sex happens but off-screen.

Another
one where the Goblin King really looks like a goblin. Set in
Jane-Austen-Land.

The
heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really.

Add
a really inhuman demon to the mix with whom the heroine also has an
intense relationship. Don’t worry it’s not a fucking love
triangle (the bane of my existence). You’ll see… Actually the
description of the whole demon society is very cool and unique and
probably my favorite part of the book.

The
male love interest is a genetically manipulated cat-like human. Plot
driven science fiction book.

Trigger
warning: atrocious cover art

Still,
give this book a chance! Fluffy and sweet romance between a human
woman and an alien-lizard man. Enough plot to be still considered a
science fiction romance rather than just erotica in space.

  • Earthrise
    (Her Instruments, #1) – M.C.A Hogarth

This
is an actual furry novel. I did not know such a thing existed.
Thankfully the main couple is a WOC and a space elf but there are so
many furries in this book. For example there is a furry (tiger-like ?) couple. They are siblings (twins actually)… But don’t
worry that’s perfectly normal on their planet.

Now
one might think by this description that this book is completely
depraved erotica. Unfortunately it’s not. The tone of this book is
so sweet and cute it could be directed at children. Spoilers: It’s
not because, you know, incest…

So
yeah, strange experience but if your are into this stuff this might
be the book for you.

This
one is really erotica. Mainly sex, a little plot.

Human
heroine meets impossibly tall gender-fluid space-elf prince who grows
an interesting cock over the course of this novella. Yeah.


Books
I haven’t read yet :


(I
don’t know if they are good.)

  • Books
    with dragons:     They are really easy to find. Just type ‘dragon’
    in the search bars of Goodreads or Amazon. From children’s books to
    erotica – there are many titles to choose from. I can’t really
    recommend a specific book because they are not my preferred kind of
    monster. I have read a few books with dragons but nothing that was
    memorable enough to recommend it. I’ve yet to find an interesting
    dragon. 😉

Do you know a book with a monstrous love interest? Please, contact me or reblog with your recommendation! Thanks 🙂

Reblogging
to add some books I forgot in my initial post:

It’s
the end of the world but in a remote valley a small group of people
survived. A woman strikes a deal with a magical creature, the Hob to
keep them safe.The
Hob is monstrous, magical and mischievous and also the last of his
kind. The poor monster boy just wants a girlfriend. 😉

Human
blogger tries to raise awareness for the amphibious hero’s people
who suffer on their occupied home world. The first book seems to set
up a polyamorous relationship.  

Books
I haven’t read yet:

Seems
to have a lot in common with The Shape of Water. It’s also the only
book on this list that falls into the category of literary fiction.

For
Orc lovers. I don’t know if there is romance. 

Thanks
to @roguesareth who suggested

  • Valiant
    (Modern Faerie Tales
    #2)
    – Holly Black

The
love interest is a bridge troll.

LIST UPDATE

@cuthbertflangenibbler asked me if I knew any books with female monsters. I had to think
long and hard to come up with the three following examples. Female
monsters are even harder to find. This may or may not have to do with
beauty standards. Often a woman’s physical attractiveness
determines if they are worthy of being loved. Yes, it also happens to
men but why then is it so difficult to find monstrous women?

BTW
if you know a Beauty and the Beast version where the beast is female
(and not just on the inside because that’s lame) and Mr. Prettyface
Bell needs to fall in love with her to save her or something similar,
please send this precious piece of media my way! That is actually
roughly the plot of the adorable movie Penelope which is on my list
of Ugly
Badass Girls Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction.


Ok,
here is my short list of FEMALE MONSTERS:

I
read two or three of this series ages ago but I really liked it back
then. I’m not even sure why I didn’t continue.

Human
survivors of a spacecraft build colony on the home world of humanoid
aliens. They are very tall, their skin is pitch black and they are far
less emotional than humans. The story centers around the human (male)
emissary who lives among these aliens and his struggles to keep the
political relations smooth while trying to regulate the technical exchange
between the two cultures (the alien culture is per-industrialization
as far as I can remember). A female bodyguard is assigned to him.
Their relationship slowly turns from professional to romantic.

The
main protagonists of this fantasy novel are actually a  human woman and a male who is described as a golem is this book. There are also
female golems with interesting story arcs. One of them gets her own
tentative love story with a human girl.

The
golems in this book are hard to describe. They are human shaped, have
clawed hands and interact strangely with light which changes their
appearance.

I
haven’t read this one yet but as far as I know the male protagonist
has a female alien (insectoid?) lover.


After
going through my “to read list” I found some more books which are
a good fit for this post:

  • Adaption
    (Adaption Series #1) – Pepper Pace

The
alien in this book seems really quite far from humanoid looking.

A giant spider by the name of Nth is turned into a human to help on a
quest against a dark lord.

Review HERE

This one is probably a literary cyborg/human love story paralleling
the story of the golem in Jewish folklore.

@xmiss-megafaunax recommended:

  • Cinder
    (The Lunar Chronicles #1) – Marissa Meyer

“Not
fully centered around the monstrous love interest, but Scarlet’s
love interest is kind of like an alien version of a werewolf.”


For further reading take a look at these two Listopias on
Gooodreads:

I’ve read some of those and if I really liked them they are on the
list.

If you read a book from this list and like it for one reason or
another, please let me know! I love recommendations. 🙂

Heyy do you know some books with teratophilia themes? Or if not, some good monster books?

Thank you for
asking! Really, your ask was exactly what I needed. You see, I was thinking
of writing this list for some time now but I was too lazy.

I have stuff to
recommend because I‘ve been actively looking for books that
feature inter-species/monster romances for a long time. Fun fact: Up
until recently I didn‘t know that this kink was called
teratophilia. 🙂 Thanks, tumblr for educating me. Also, since I found
out how to navigate the relevant tags my life has improved
immeasurably.

Books with monsters as love interests:

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

The
male protagonist is terrifying by human standards. He finds the human
heroine appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. They like each other
from the start.

Alien-lizard-man,
monk and fighter… Need I say more? Ok: The heroine is fat. She does
lose weight while trying to survive on a hostile alien planet though.
The lizard man protagonist is interested in her either way. All kinds
of trigger warnings for this book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s
also over 900 pages long. Crazy.

Alien-Insect
man, single dad and adorable. The human social worker really tries to
help him and she does… Reads like District 9 fan fiction which is a
good thing! This book is a bit tamer than The Last Hour of Gann but
the sex is still graphic. 🙂

Check
out this author’s other books as she seems to specialize in
monsters of all kinds.

Girl
is abducted by the King of the Goblins. This is not a David Bowie
Goblin King, this one looks really monstrous. It’s a YA book but
the good kind. The heroine is not an insufferable brat and there is
no love triangle (note: love triangles are only acceptable for me if
they end in a three-way).

Really
beautiful and magical book, sex happens but off-screen.

Another
one where the Goblin King really looks like a goblin. Set in
Jane-Austen-Land.

The
heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really.

Add
a really inhuman demon to the mix with whom the heroine also has an
intense relationship. Don’t worry it’s not a fucking love
triangle (the bane of my existence). You’ll see… Actually the
description of the whole demon society is very cool and unique and
probably my favorite part of the book.

The
male love interest is a genetically manipulated cat-like human. Plot
driven science fiction book.

Trigger
warning: atrocious cover art

Still,
give this book a chance! Fluffy and sweet romance between a human
woman and an alien-lizard man. Enough plot to be still considered a
science fiction romance rather than just erotica in space.

  • Earthrise
    (Her Instruments, #1) – M.C.A Hogarth

This
is an actual furry novel. I did not know such a thing existed.
Thankfully the main couple is a WOC and a space elf but there are so
many furries in this book. For example there is a furry (tiger-like ?) couple. They are siblings (twins actually)… But don’t
worry that’s perfectly normal on their planet.

Now
one might think by this description that this book is completely
depraved erotica. Unfortunately it’s not. The tone of this book is
so sweet and cute it could be directed at children. Spoilers: It’s
not because, you know, incest…

So
yeah, strange experience but if your are into this stuff this might
be the book for you.

This
one is really erotica. Mainly sex, a little plot.

Human
heroine meets impossibly tall gender-fluid space-elf prince who grows
an interesting cock over the course of this novella. Yeah.


Books
I haven’t read yet :


(I
don’t know if they are good.)

  • Books
    with dragons:     They are really easy to find. Just type ‘dragon’
    in the search bars of Goodreads or Amazon. From children’s books to
    erotica – there are many titles to choose from. I can’t really
    recommend a specific book because they are not my preferred kind of
    monster. I have read a few books with dragons but nothing that was
    memorable enough to recommend it. I’ve yet to find an interesting
    dragon. 😉

Do you know a book with a monstrous love interest? Please, contact me or reblog with your recommendation! Thanks 🙂

Ugly Badass Girls Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction

fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

A very specific list of books and movies with unconventional looking/conventionally unattractive heroines

Some good examples for ugly heroines are featured in this article (x)

“Ever notice how most heroines in novels just happen to also be devastatingly gorgeous? As if their long, flowing hair or sparkling eyes somehow make them more worthy of the title of heroine? Of course, given that so many classic popular novels about women were written about [sic] men, it kind of makes sense that literature would be so full of idealized versions of women that dude authors kind of wish they could hook up with.

It’d be nice if the occasional lady in literature was just, you know, a person, rather than some silk-skinned goddess or one of the other many adjectives that plague the women of literature who are just trying to go about their business of surviving whatever cruel plots the author has devised for them. I mean, there are plenty of male heroes in literature who get by with the looks of Cyrano de Bergerac, or Quasimodo, or Oscar Wao, or, more often than not, with no idea at all as to their general attractiveness. So, where are all the “ugly” ladies in literature?”

This article also makes some good points about the importance of ugly heroines. (x)

And here is my personal list (in no particular order):

Books 

The mother of all ugly heroines.

The heroine perceives herself as unattractive. After being cursed
she spends the majority of the book as an old woman.

The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line. 

  • The
    Darkangel     (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce

The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.

This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.

Very masculine looking heroine (hairy).

She’s plain.

Other characters in this book are baffled by the interest of
the very attractive male protagonist in the heroine. 

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.

The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.

The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.

  • Herb-Witch (Lord
    Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy

Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.

The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development. 

The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.

This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married. 

Books I haven’t read yet:


Movies / TV series

I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.

TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.

Weiterlesen

Update:

@dasfeministmermaid suggested:

suggested for Brienne and Jaime (I haven’t read ASOIAF, so I don’t know how they are described in the book but Brienne and Aria from the TV series are certainly great unconventional looking female characters.)

Written by the wonderful @liberlibelulaart. I think everbody in the Reylo fandom knows her beautiful and often hilarious art.

Booktrailer:

Very cool to also have a manga on the list of unattrative heroines!

@amamymayer suggested:

Features a heavily scarred heroine.

Thank you for your suggestions. I hope there are still more books, movies and comics out there with conventionally unattractive heroines. 

Ugly Badass Girls Getting the Hot Guy in Fantasy and Science Fiction

A very specific list of books and movies with unconventional looking/conventionally unattractive heroines

Some good examples for ugly heroines are featured in this article (x)

“Ever notice how most heroines in novels just happen to also be devastatingly gorgeous? As if their long, flowing hair or sparkling eyes somehow make them more worthy of the title of heroine? Of course, given that so many classic popular novels about women were written about [sic] men, it kind of makes sense that literature would be so full of idealized versions of women that dude authors kind of wish they could hook up with.

It’d be nice if the occasional lady in literature was just, you know, a person, rather than some silk-skinned goddess or one of the other many adjectives that plague the women of literature who are just trying to go about their business of surviving whatever cruel plots the author has devised for them. I mean, there are plenty of male heroes in literature who get by with the looks of Cyrano de Bergerac, or Quasimodo, or Oscar Wao, or, more often than not, with no idea at all as to their general attractiveness. So, where are all the “ugly” ladies in literature?”

This article also makes some good points about the importance of ugly heroines. (x)

And here is my personal list (in no particular order):

Books 

The mother of all ugly heroines.

The heroine perceives herself as unattractive. After being cursed
she spends the majority of the book as an old woman.

The heroine is certainly not as attractive as her beautiful best
friend who gets her own interesting plot line. 

  • The
    Darkangel     (the Darkangel Trilogy, #1) – Meredith Ann Pierce

The protagonist starts out as unattractive, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development.

This book has lots of female characters of all shapes and sizes.
The main heroine is plain and a bit overweight. Another important
famale character is dead and looks the part. Both have very
attractive love interests.

Very masculine looking heroine (hairy).

She’s plain.

Other characters in this book are baffled by the interest of
the very attractive male protagonist in the heroine. 

  • Radiance (Wraith
    Kings, #1) – Grace Draven

This heroine is actually very attractive by human standards.
Unfortunately the male protagonist isn’t human and he finds her
appalling and he’s just as ugly to her. The like each other from the
start.

The heroine spends her time around
(mostly) human looking and extremely attractive trolls. She’s not
quite up to their standards.

The heroine is almost a cyborg. Her extremities were replaced by
completely overpowered prosthetics after a horrific assault while
working as a government agent. She’s traumatized, in pain, doesn’t
have full control of her new body and hasn’t come to terms with her
new menacing look. The rock star demon elf protagonist is very much
into her. Yes, really. This book uses and often subverts every trope
known to fantasy and science fiction.

  • Herb-Witch (Lord
    Alchemist Duology, #1) – Elizabeth McCoy

Within the world described in this book the heroine’s look is not only considered
ugly but also shameful as it reveals her barbarian heritage.

The protagonist starts out as rather plain, later she undergoes a transformation of
her appearance which represents a turning point in her character development. 

The heroine is fat. She does lose weight while trying to survive
on a hostile alien planet though. The lizard man protagonist is
interested in her either way. All kinds of trigger warnings for this
book: violence, rape, gore, death. It’s also over 900 pages long.
Crazy.

This one stands out as it’s the only book written by a man. It’s
also one of my earliest conscious encounters with an unattractive
female protagonist. For me that was a formative experience. Rather on
the hard side of science fiction the narrative follows the good
looking male protagonist who is a kind of emissary from a culture that values
aesthetics to the extreme coming to a planet where people live by a
more practical approach to life. The female protagonist assigned to him as his assistant is so ugly to him that he can’t
stop staring. After some culture clashing they get married. 

Books I haven’t read yet:


Movies / TV series

I’m always looking for more of my beloved ugly heroines. They are quite difficult to find. So if you know of a book or a movie, please let me know! Reblog this with your suggestions, chat me up, ask or submit. All suggestions are welcome.

TAG: On my blog I use the “unconventional looking / conventionally unattractive heroine” tag.

What? It’s not realistic to have an attractive male protagonist fall in love with an unattractive/flawed heroine???? No way!!!???!

Ok, first of all you can fuck off with your realism in my escapism. And secondly what about all the boring, average and often even annoying male self insert characters? Nobody bats an eye at some Gary Stu getting the gorgeous girl in the end. That was actually pretty much the standard plot line for a long time in mainstream media. And I’m sick and tired of it.

I’m also sick and tired of over-abundance of stunningly beautiful girls and women in genre fiction. As if being unattractive or even only average looking makes you undeserving of being the heroine and falling in love. Oh wait, I’m being unfair. The romance genre actually offers a wealth of books with flawed heroines. Just google it! There are book lists on amazon and goodreads for every bodily imperfection (including disabilities) imaginable.

The romance genre in general is great in catering to the female
gaze. There is just one problem. I’m not into it. This is my
personal preference. In no way do I think that one genre is superior
to another. I love romance in my fantasy and science fiction but I
don’t want it to be the main focus of the story. I’m picky like
that.

On a personal level the reason for the wish to read about
unattractive, flawed or just average looking heroines is certainly
the identification factor. Do I think I’m ugly? No, but I’m also
not devastatingly beautiful and I’m totally ok with that. But there
was a time in my life when I wasn’t so confident, when I felt
unattractive. Some part of me will always feel like an awkward,
insecure teenager. That part of me needs to be stroked from time to
time. But I guess I’ve always been this way even before the crippling
effects of puberty. Even when I was I little girl I imagined stories
with normal (=like me) looking girls who were smart and capable and
often had to help some beautiful but useless princess. Guess who the
prince fell in love with at the end.

Apart from using an unattractive heroine as my self insert I just
think a hot guy falling in love with a girl or woman for her
character rather than her physical appearance is THE MOST ROMANTIC
THING EVER!!! It’s not that deep. Or is it? Beauty is worshipped in
our society. The pressure to be beautiful and therefore lovable is
much higher for girls and women than for men. As if a woman is only worthwhile if she is also considered physically attractive. The fact that there are
so few conventionally unattractive heroines in fiction actually
proves the point.

I’m talking strictly as a reader here but I guess having someone
fall for an unconventional looking woman is certainly more difficult
to write convincingly. Explaining and describing why someone would
fall for an average looking or conventionally unattractive woman
demands that the focus is on love rather than lust (I don’t mean
that it can’t or shouldn’t be sexy). The pay-off is also so much
sweeter. A declaration of love where the male protagonist says
something original instead of just stammering about the heroine’s
beauty is also much more satisfying.  Making the woman beautiful
often feels like a shortcut to me. Actually I’m now at point where I
need exceptional characterization to make me still care about a
beautiful heroine. That sounds petty and maybe it is but look at the
above list. It’s quite short compared to the tons of media
featuring physically flawless girls and women.

Oh, and as I’m already bitter let me talk about two tropes that I
hate with a passion: “The Makeover”. It’s most often found in movies
and goes as following. Unattractive coded (think glasses and
comfortable clothes) girl or woman played by a beautiful actress
learns how to use make-up and dons a skimpy dress and suddenly the
male love interest deems her worthy of his affection. Boom, true
love. NO, THANKS.

Yes, I’m aware that sometimes heroines undergo a physical
transformation that mark a turning point in their spiritual journey.
If that’s the case I’m usually okay with the beautifying effects of
character development.

The other trope is having a heroine that is described as unattractive within her world but is actually conforming to beauty standards of our world. For example the poor girl is ostracized because she’s a little bit too tall and rather thin. Tragic. She’d be a supermodel in our world. Or the heroine’s breasts are too round and her hips are too pronounced. So ugly. What a terrible fate to look like Nicky Minaj.

I want my heroines to be real woman. I love it when they are fat, extremely short/tall, have plain faces, have saggy breasts and huge thighs, when they are truly imperfect, when they are like me. Those fictional girls and women helped me learn to love myself.