Writerly Ways

Still exploring the themes from last week, bad teachers/schools. There are very problematic themes in a lot of YA dark academia stories, where part of the dark is just how bad the teachers are (which isn't the point of dark academia) In this situation (so very prevalent in Harry Potter) the teachers fail these students time and again (imagine the fact there is no social workers with Hogwarts and they keep sending Harry home to physically/mentally abusive caretakers)

But a lot of Goodread/Netgalley arcs I've seen take it one step further; the students have to fight to the death in some cases. School competitions, no problem we have that literally everywhere. Fighting for position in the academy, fighting to not getting expelled, fighting to the death is a level above, sort of taking the idea of 'you have to have high stakes' a bit too far. Would you send a student to a school who was going to fight your child until they're killed? Would you want to be that student? I recently struggled thru an early Stephen King The Long Walk where 18 year old boys are walked non stop for hours/miles until there is just one. Fall behind? You get shot.

So this is not a new thing but it has certainly gained popularity after the Hunger Games. I would love to see other high stake things happening in a school that doesn't involve harming kids/teens


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Advent Joy

Day 15 - Write a short story or poetry. Done

Day 15 tea apple cinnamon coffee cake - this is one of ones I bought the same day I bought the advent calendar. It's more like almond flavored. That's about it. It's tasty but it's not apple cinnamon coffee