Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion
2022 Read Harder Challenge
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#13: Read an adventure story by a BIPOC author.
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Thanks. I'll consider it.


BookRiot included The Fifth Season in their newsletter for this prompt!

The Unlikely Thru-Hiker: An Appalachian Trail Journey"
I just finished this. Read it in 2 days and loved it.



"An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist's ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action. Adventure stories almost always move quickly, and the pace of the plot is at least as important as characterization, setting and other elements of a creative work."

Nice. I have Firekeeper's Daughter on my YA shelf. I keep meaning to read it but other books keep coming into play.

I agree. By my definition of "adventure," Firekeeper's Daughter wouldn't fit this prompt. That's why I'm having so much trouble with this category.
When I think of adventure stories, I think of Treasure Island or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Indiana Jones or The Mummy. I've seen a couple of recent YA books that fit the bill, but since I'm an adult librarian, I really wanted to find an adult story like that, and I really haven't been able to find anything. Anytime I mention this problem to someone, Alexandre Dumas is the first name that springs to mind, but it bothers me that I can't seem to think of any more recent examples.
Obviously, adventure stories, at least the way I am defining them, rely heavily on colonialist tropes, which might explain the scarcity of examples coming from a BIPOC perspective, but that's exactly why I want to find a story out there that helps to deconstruct that narrative.

I don't think that adventure stories are inherently pro-colonial. Books like Washington Black, American Spy, The City We Became, The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, The Three Musketeers, even Black Girl in Paris are filled with adventure and fun.

The only entertaining thing about it was Milady DeWinter.

I read this! I adored the first half, but didn't vibe so much with the 2nd unfortunately :(


Magical realism novel, ends up being the family sort of questing to uncover the past of the matriarch.



Sounds really interesting. Thanks for mentioning.

I read Iron Widow for this prompt - well, I read it because of glowing recommendations from friends, but it fits the prompt beautifully. It is one of my top 3 reads of 2022 so far! It was so, so good.




Books mentioned in this topic
The Verifiers (other topics)Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (other topics)
Firekeeper’s Daughter (other topics)
Amari and the Night Brothers (other topics)
How Much of These Hills Is Gold (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Nnedi Okorafor (other topics)Roshani Chokshi (other topics)
Alexandre Dumas (other topics)
Most definitely!