Born under a forgotten sign
Aug. 18th, 2025 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deemoyzaThat must make me extra special, right?
I caught a whiff of the Audra Winter Booktok controversy, and... well! She absolutely deserves all the criticism for overpromising and underdelivering, but a part of me is cringing so hard in secondhand embarrassment. You see, at 19, I was still being a pedantic little shit on Elfwood (I so wish I could properly apologize for that!), and at 22, I was deep in the throes of writing what I was convinced was a masterpiece novel but what was in reality just some bog-standard fantasy slop. My point being, if I had access to the tech and ease of self-publishing that exists today, I could've found myself in a very similar situation (though I don't think I'd be delusional enough to try to create a "multimedia studio" business around the book). So, while I can empathize with Winter, I can't quite feel sympathy for her; we all need our Lessons Learned™, and some people are taught more publicly than others.
I haven't read the book myself (it's no longer available for purchase and the sample has been removed from Amazon), but from the excerpts I read in reviews, it was certainly very rough. Something about the concept, though, has been gnawing at my brain and will not let go until I scream it into the void:
In a world where your personality is literally determined by your zodiac sign, how have people not gamed the system? Don't want a Scorpio child? Simple, just don't have sex in January and February, and you have a pretty good chance of not having one! How have entire star signs not been bred out due to "undesirable" traits? Are people forced to conceive during certain windows? Is there a class-based system at play? Is there some kind of delicate astrological balance that must be maintained or else the world will implode?
Like I said, I haven't read the book, but based on the reviews, I don't think the author went that deep with this concept. Which is a shame, because it does have a lot of dystopian potential. Ultimately, the author knows what story she wants to tell. I do wish she would respect her readers enough to make sure that it was edited and coherent before accepting money for it, though.
I also would hope that in that alternate universe where I am a young adult with access to current technology and way too much confidence in my creative pursuits, that I would at least have that.
After all, I am an Ophiuchus, the specialest of the special signs. 😝
I caught a whiff of the Audra Winter Booktok controversy, and... well! She absolutely deserves all the criticism for overpromising and underdelivering, but a part of me is cringing so hard in secondhand embarrassment. You see, at 19, I was still being a pedantic little shit on Elfwood (I so wish I could properly apologize for that!), and at 22, I was deep in the throes of writing what I was convinced was a masterpiece novel but what was in reality just some bog-standard fantasy slop. My point being, if I had access to the tech and ease of self-publishing that exists today, I could've found myself in a very similar situation (though I don't think I'd be delusional enough to try to create a "multimedia studio" business around the book). So, while I can empathize with Winter, I can't quite feel sympathy for her; we all need our Lessons Learned™, and some people are taught more publicly than others.
I haven't read the book myself (it's no longer available for purchase and the sample has been removed from Amazon), but from the excerpts I read in reviews, it was certainly very rough. Something about the concept, though, has been gnawing at my brain and will not let go until I scream it into the void:
In a world where your personality is literally determined by your zodiac sign, how have people not gamed the system? Don't want a Scorpio child? Simple, just don't have sex in January and February, and you have a pretty good chance of not having one! How have entire star signs not been bred out due to "undesirable" traits? Are people forced to conceive during certain windows? Is there a class-based system at play? Is there some kind of delicate astrological balance that must be maintained or else the world will implode?
Like I said, I haven't read the book, but based on the reviews, I don't think the author went that deep with this concept. Which is a shame, because it does have a lot of dystopian potential. Ultimately, the author knows what story she wants to tell. I do wish she would respect her readers enough to make sure that it was edited and coherent before accepting money for it, though.
I also would hope that in that alternate universe where I am a young adult with access to current technology and way too much confidence in my creative pursuits, that I would at least have that.
After all, I am an Ophiuchus, the specialest of the special signs. 😝
