A review by balletbookworm
The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

4.0

A very thought-provoking examination of race in media and YA speculative fiction through the lens of the Dark Fantastic (spectacle, hesitation, violence, haunting, and emancipation). Thomas uses four key Black characters - Rue from The Hunger Games, Gwen from BBC’s Merlin, Bonnie from CW’s The Vampire Diaries, and Angelina Johnson from Harry Potter - to explore this cycle and how fanfiction and counter-storytelling are changing these characters in the fandom. This monograph sits between popular lit-crit and academic theory so be ready for a more formal argument.