Upside Down : : Inverted Tropes in Storytelling

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fantasy / Upside down	4-week checkout	Due 05-16-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Fantasy / Upside down	4-week checkout	Due 04-30-2024

Introduction / Jerry Gordon -- Section I: Inverting the tropes. On loving bad boys: a villanelle / Valya Dudycz Lupescu -- Single, singularity / John Hornor Jacobs -- Lazzrus / Nisi Shawl -- Seeking truth / Elsa Sjunneson-Henry -- Thwock / Michelle Muenzler -- Can you tell me how to get to Paprika Place? / Michael R. Underwood -- Chosen / Anton Strout -- The white dragon / Alyssa Wong -- Her curse, how gently it comes undone / Haralambi Markov -- Burning bright / Shanna German -- Santa CIS (Episode 1: No saint) / Alethea Kontis -- Requiem for a manic pixie dream / Katy Harrad & Greg Stolze.
The refrigerator in the girlfriend / Adam-Troy Castro -- The first blood of Poppy Dupree / Delilah S. Dawson -- Red light / Sara M. Harvey -- Until there is only hunger / Michael Matheson -- Super duper fly / Maurice Broaddus -- Drafty as a chain mail bikini / Kat Richardson -- Swan song / Michelle Lyons-McFarland -- Those who leave / Michael Choi -- Nouns of nouns: a mini epic / Alex Shvartsman -- Excess light / Rahul Kanakia -- The origin of terror / Sunil Patel -- The tangled web / Ferrett Steinmetz -- Hamsa, Hamsa, Hamsa, Tfu, Tfu, Tfu / Alisa Schreibman -- Real women are dangerous / Rati Mehrotra.
Section II: Discussing the tropes. I'm pretty sure I've read this before ... / Patrick Hester -- Fractured souls / Lucy A. Snyder -- Into the labyrinth: The heroine's journey / A.C. Wise -- Escaping the hall of mirrors / Victor Raymond -- Tropes as erasers: A transgender perspective / Keffy R.M. Kehrli -- Section III: Defining the tropes. Afterword / Monica Valentinelli & Jaym Gates -- Trope definitions/Index of tropes -- Section IV: Acknowledgements and additional bios.
An anthology of short stories, poetry, and essays edited by Monica Valentinelli and Jaym Gates. Over two dozen authors, ranging from NYT-bestsellers and award winners to debut writers, chose a tired trope or cliche to challenge and surprise readers through their work.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Interesting Stories for Fans of Fantasy or Sci-FI submitted by Maria Maguire on June 24, 2018, 12:08am I enjoyed the unexpected and sometimes outright ridiculous takes on old tropes. But as someone who tends to read realistic fiction, some of the stories were a little hard to get into. I believe if I was a regular reader of fantasy or sci-fi - the genre of most the stories - it would have been an easier read. The stories were still interesting, but sometimes left me a little confused, as short stories don't provide a lot of room to explain world building.

Overall, I did enjoy the collection of stories, as well as the definition of the tropes used, short insights from the authors on why they chose that trope to subvert, and essays exploring the harm (and potential!) of using tropes in writing. My favorites include "Lazzrus", a story rejecting the idea that the black character dies first and featuring an immortal black man, and "Can You Tell Me How to Get to Paprika Place?", following speaking puppets re-purposed as cybernetically enhanced soldiers during the "Brand Wars" told with the perfect mix of absurd humor and genuineness.

There is a full range of stories from deep and serious to flat out ridiculous (in one case the trope of the girlfriend in the refrigerator is inverted to refrigerator in the girlfriend), so even if you don't love every story, there is sure to be at least one that enjoy or at the very least makes you think.