Ash Kingery

A couple weeks ago, I was at the library. I sat there working on a story for about an hour in the hopes that being somewhere other than my house would get the gears turning. They turned, I guess, and then a few days later they got all jammed up, so I have no idea if that story’s ever going to happen. Anyway, once I’d finished writing (because I was hungry), I went over to the graphic novel section, despite my stack of Krakoa books at home, and stopped dead in my tracks on the way.

I mostly read speculative fiction, so fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Like, I’d say at least 9 out of every 10 books I read is speculative. It’s just where my tastes lie! But this one stuck out to me… because I judged it by its cover. And the title. So I picked it up, skimmed the flap, and said, “Wow, this is totally something I’d never read normally.” And then I checked it out anyway.

I’m glad I did! Checking out a book you’ve never heard of, whether you were explicitly recommended it or it just kind of drifted across your field of view like dandelion puffs (I have had a crushing TV Tropes addiction since I was 14, so that’s how I hear about a lot of books), is always a crapshoot. A great premise can so easily be squandered, whether it’s something broad like poor prose or annoying characters, or something more personal like the fantasy politics being too dense or the science landing too far on the hard end of sci-fi for me. But sometimes… Sometimes, it works out well. Moral of the story is: absolutely do judge a book by its cover. If it even remotely interests you, grab it. You might end up not liking it, and that’s always a bummer, which is why I mainly recommend using your library for random, off-the-cuff pulls instead of spending money on them. But you gotta roll the dice sometimes. You gotta step outside your comfort zone and pick something totally new to you. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I also got a Moon Knight collection that day. I’m still me.

(It was Moon and the Mars by Kia Corthron, by the way. It’s pure historical fiction about a half-black, half-Irish girl growing up in New York City under the conditions that will soon lead to the Civil War, as well as the war itself and what comes after. It was good! I recommend it.)