- Assigned Literature Tier List -

The Great Gatsby (1925)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• I was really obsessed with this book for a while. Queer high school kid having a hyperfixation on TGG? Fork found in kitchen.
• At this point I'm pretty sure the total word count of all the fanfics I've read is more than the original book.
• Confession: Natsby is what got me into reading fanfics.
• Shout out to this video by Alexander Avila (formerly known as Mr. Are They Gay).
• The fact that Nick is practically acting as the widow at the end of the story😔it's even more obvious in the 2013 movie.
• We watched the 2013 movie in class and it felt like a fever dream. I will never forgive this movie for making Nick a womanizer. What the hell in the original story he was not interested at all why did they have him make out with Catherine🥀
• I've yet to see a Not Gay interpretation of the McKee scene that makes sense. "They're drunk and it's to show that they're careless people-" I do NOT buy this explanation lmao they're drunk and doing WHAT huh?? I find it funny how this was just kinda awkwardly skipped over in class; I was so confused when I first read it. It's even more funny how my teacher pointed out the lever as a phallic symbol, but did not give an explanation for why it's significant.
• Nick "I never judge people" Carraway whose favorite passtime is judging people. What a guy /pos
• Check out The Great Gatsby Game!
• Why this book is special to me: TGG is the reason I got into reading fanfics. I'm 100% serious. The first fanfic I read on AO3 was a TGG fic (pretty sure it's this one).

The Stranger (1942)

Albert Camus

• Monsieur Meursault my favorite depressed Frenchman.
• My blorbo didn't deserve this💔He deserves so much better omg... he could've lived happily ever after with Marie in Paris.
• I will die on the hill that there are only two things he ever did wrong: helping Raymond write the letter and killing the Arab man.
• This book completely blew my expectations out of the water. It's so good that I binged it in one sitting.
• Meursault is loveless aroallo and you can't convince me otherwise!! I thought I was imagining things when I first read him as aro like 20 or 30 pages in but nope...
• I haven't seen anyone done a queer interpretation of this novel, but there's definitely materials to work with!

Then she asked me again if I loved her. I replied, much as before, that her question meant nothing or next to nothing—but I supposed I didn't.

Then she said she wondered if she really loved me or not . . .  she murmured something about my being "a queer fellow." "And I daresay that's why I love you," she added. "But maybe that's why one day I'll come to hate you."

• In a strange way, this book has a happy ending. Meursault dies but he lowkey dgaf. He lived his life to the fullest because Absurdism™
• You should go listen to Killing an Arab by the Cure.
• Why this book is special to me: I headcanon Meursault as loveless aroallo and as someone who's aroace I find some of his experiences relatable.

Lord of the Flies (1954)

William Golding

• When I first read this book I did not enjoy it. Then about a year or two later I decided to read up on some *ahem* fanfiction, which made me reevluate the story.
• Final concensus? It's pretty good.
• The open ending is lowkey fanfic material. Post-island canon-divergence fix-it anyone?
• This book has a surprisingly active fandom on Tumblr? I imagine it's made up of mostly high school students who had to read it in class like I did.

Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Ray Bradbury

• One thing I really like about this book is that, despite being set in a technologicallly advanced future, it's not overly futuristic. It feels tangible—Montag's house feels like a regular suburban home and I LOVE that. It's something you don't usually see in sci-fi movies.
• Speaking of movies the 2018 movie SUCKS.
• I remember feeling quite unsatisfied with the ending. The city got nuked and they go back and rebuild society... it's kind of anticlamatic isn't it?
• Montag/Beatty is my guilty pleasure ;) I really enjoy their dynamic. This too, is old man yaoi😋

Anyways enjoy my F451 Shakespeare Sonnet 130 Mimic
Inspired by this banger song—genuinely one of the best English vocal synth songs I've ever heard.

The burning fires my Captain so enjoys;
Glacier is far less icy than his fate;
To raise the flames, the salamander's voice;
To feed the hounds, the firemen terminate.
I feel the words remembered by the few,
Peculiar, to hear the same from him;
The need for kerosene to dull my view
Or something sweeter, for our future's dim;
I never cared for violence or for peace
Except for him, whom I'm bound to betray;
If I was anything but a chess piece;
My Captain, he commands, still, I obey.
And yet, by God, I think I love him still
Burned into what is left of my free will.

1984 (1949)

George Orwell

• Seen on the left: I made this into a bookmark and pinned it to my AP Lang/Lit teacher's classroom wall :P It might still be there to this day, who knows.
• I really enjoyed reading Part 3 and the ending is perfect imo. Bad ending = best ending in this scenario.
• Toxic old man yaoi strikes again. Lmao. Winston/O'Brien is such a crackship.
• I feel like in another life, Winston and Julia would've been a couple who hates their job but can't afford to quit. I wouldn't exactly describe their relationship as healthy either, but they seem happy with each other so yay?

Grendel (1971)

John Gardner

• The Beowulf fanfic we deserved🙏
• In all seriousness this book was *great*. However I do NOT want to relive the hour-long discussions we had in class.
• I freaking love the characterization of Unferth and Beowulf in this it's so close to my headcanon <3 And great characterization of Grendel too!
• Even though Beowulf only shows up at the very end of the book and barely has any lines, I think he's a way more of an interesting character here than in the original poem/epic.

  Grendel, Grendel! You make the world by whispers, second by second. Are you blind to that? Whether you make it a grave or a garden of roses is not the point. Feel the wall: is it not hard? He smashes me against it, breaks open my forehead. Hard, yes! Observe the hardness, write it down in careful runes. Now sing of walls! Sing!—Beowulf as he smashes Grendel's head to a wall.

• This quote goes hard and it's so Beowulf. I can feel the ego and insanity radiating off his words—I love it.
• Wealtheow deserved better :( I don't like how she's mistreated both in this book and in the original.
• I gotta I admit I did not fuck with the zodiac signs motif. I'm an astrology hater so this all bullshit to me lmao.

Hamlet (1623)

William Shakespeare

• Hamlet is so melodramatic and pathetic and I love him for it. He had *one job* and he fumbled so hard.
• Fortinbras my beloved🫶 He feels like the main character of a different story (perhaps entitled Fortinbras) who shows up in Hamlet as a minor/side character. He was my favorite character when I first started reading, but I grew to love him and Hamlet pretty much equally now XD
• In another life these two would've been great friend. That is, if we ignore the uhh "your dad killed my dad" vendetta.
• His character shows what Hamlet could've been if he actually set out to do the things he said he was gonna do immediately. But alas, Hamlet's gonna Hamlet.
• DOOMED YAOI😭If Hamlet/Horatio isn't true love then I don't know what is...

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
 . . .
Good night, sweet prince

I CRY
#Horatio is like the biggest Hamlet simp ever
#Hamlet will jump off a cliff and Horatio will follow
#Find yourself someone who cares about you and listens to all your problems like Horatio did for Hamlet

• I saw a reddit comment that said "Horatio is the Nick to Hamlet's Gatsby" and I CANNOT emphasize how much I agree.

Frankenstein (1818)

Mary Shelley

• HOLY FUCKING SHIT this book is SO GOOD.
• I read most of it in one day. Couldn't put it down. Stayed up until 2 am to finish reading it and it's so worth it.
• Did I mention that this book is really good? It's so good that I had to immediately go read a fluffy fix-it fic afterwards.
• I went into this book completely blind. My impression of Frankenstein before reading it was the popular perception of "mad scientist creates evil monster." And oh my god this book is so, so much more than that. It's not so much about the creation of the creature, but the aftermath.
• Unpopular opinion(?), but I didn't find the creature to be a likeable character. I understand where he's coming from, but he also kinda screwed things up for himself lol; can't really blame him though.
• Everything that can go wrong went wrong. No one has a happy ending :( at least in Hamlet Horatio lives and Fortinbras gets his crown. I guess the closest we have to that is Walton. His dream is crushed (probably for the best) but at least he lives.
• Robert Walton saw Victor and was like "I want him" and it's the funniest thing ever.

Even now, as I commence my task, his full-toned voice swells in my ears; his lustrous eyes dwell on me with all their melancholy sweetness; I see his thin hand raised in animation, while the lineaments of his face are irradiated by the soul with.

// Characters I Liked

• Victor Frankenstein - such a disaster of a human being. Creating the creature is morally questionable choice but abandoning him is not.
• He had so many chances to right his wrongs and he never did.
• He ends up blaming the creature for basically everything; I'd say his tragic flaw is not being able to recognize his actions are what caused the downfall.
• Henry Clerval - should win best supporting character. Him and Victor are (or I guess were) pretty cute together.

// Characters I Disliked

The Creature. Literally just him lol. Ok ok lemme explain:

1. I like it when characters commit to their schtick. The creature's action of killing innocent people set him up to be a so-called villain. Instead of embracing that identity, the creature is tormented by his actions and feels the guilt weighing on his concious. That's what makes him a great character with *depth*, but I found that to be kind of... annoying? I like Grendel because he fully embraces his villain arc and is like "this is who I'm going to become."
2. He fails to consider things from the humans' perspective. The Felix family, the father of the girl he saved, and William Frankenstein, they all reacted badly when they saw him because they perceived the creature as a threat. Given that they have very limited information to work with—which is "scary looking monster that's a totally unknown entity"—they are going to assume the worst case scenario. And in my opinion, that's a valid judgement to make. Justified even. Victor doesn't get a pass tho he fucked up through and through.
3. Is the creature an unreliable narrator? Perchance. C'mon he was able to survive in the wilderness, he's not some poor helpless baby.
4. The fact that he asked for a female counterpart of him is just messed up man. You already hate your existence so why do you gotta subject another sentient being to the same fate?

The Martian (2015)

Andy Weir

• A solid 9/10. I probably would've liked it a lot more had I not seen the movie first; it takes away the "wow" factor.
• There's genuinely nothing to nitpick about this book. Witty protagonist, solid plot that that comes to a satisfying conclusion, competence porn... I mean what more could you ask for?
• Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)
• The Martian is awesome and I've only ever heard good things about Project Hail Mary, so it's definitely on my to-read list.

The House on Mango Street (1983)

Sandra Cisneros

• I don't usually read memoirs, so I'm glad we read it and class & I got to enjoy it.
• The vignette structure and writing style works really well for the story. I think I would describe it as "emotionally charged" (in a good way).
• One of our assignments for this book was to mimic the writing style of Mango Street and tell our own life stories. Looking back, mine was a little too "woe is me" for my likings lol.
• There was one particular section where I wrote about my name(s). Looking at it now I'm like "yeah that tracks".

[My legal first name] means conventional, it means generic. It is like a comma. A neutral color. It is the white crayon that I never used but somehow went missing, hiding in the dark.

I was going to be named Crystal . . . A name that is the epitome of femininity and quirky, like a fancy glass vase. On the contrary, [my legal first name] is something more neutral, like an unremarkable white coffee mug that you can find in every department store.
[My legal first name] is my name, just as my Social Security number is nothing more than a form of identification. I would like to add some colors to my name that is as blank as a piece of paper. A nickname that reflects who I am, how I see myself. A name that will stand out like an asterisk or an exclamation mark.

There's a whole story behind how I accidentally ended up going by an unconventional nickname throughout high school and how I started to resent my legal first name. I'm learning to love/accept my legal name now, though it still leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. I think I'd like to change it one day, still. To what, I don't know yet. The crazy thing is when I wrote this I wasn't even questioning my gender yet. The whole "a name to bettter reflect who I am" part kinda hits different now.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007)

Sherman Alexie

• A nice, easy read. Funny too.
• I'm really glad we got to read this in class because this isn't the stuff you'd typically see in a classroom. You know how people say reading broadens your worldview? I feel like Part-Time Indian as well as House On Mango Street definitely did.
• The cartoons are such a nice touch to the story, definitely my favorite part of the book.
• I quite like the ending actually. Not the end, not a new beginning, but business as usual, with only difference being that Junior is more mature. Life goes on kinda vibe.
• I wrote a mimic for this too! It was about my experience growing up as a 1.5 gen immigrant. It's still a little "woe is me", but this time more light-hearted with self-deprecating humor. I like it lol.

And sure, sometimes, I feel alienated because I couldn't understand the slangs and jokes, but I know that, sooner or later, I will be able to crack the code to what makes 69 a funny number.

When I was in fourth grade, I had one of the most memorable experiences of my life, called culture shock. Every sneeze had to be followed by a phrase that sounded like gibberish. I didn't understand what I was supposed to say or why I was supposed to say it, but I knew I needed to follow the herd.

Beowulf (700–1000 AD)

Unknown Author, translated by Charles Kennedy

• I was expecting this to be Boring Old English Writing but it's surprisingly easy to read! The translator did a really great job.
• It's pretty fun seeing all the tropes we still have in the modern days present in an old writing like this. It's so over the top that it's kind of funny lol.
• Beowulf and Unferth enemies to lovers is peak literature.
• Honestly I enjoy my headcanon version of this story way more than the original haha. The original material is err not really entertaining; it's not something I would enjoy reading a second time.
• Can we talk about how insane that Beowulf movie is? It's so bad that it's good. I had a ton of fun watching it and shitting on how ridiculously different it is from the original. The designs of the human characters are great though. I can't believe they made Beowulf a DILF.

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (2020)

Octavia E. Butler, illustrated by Damian Duffy and John Jennings

• Gorgeous writing and gorgeous art.

We are all Godseed, but no more or less so than any other aspect of the universe.
Godseed is all there is—all that Changes.
Earthseed is all that spreads Earthlife to new earths. The universe is Godseed. Only we are Earthseed. And the Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars. EARTHSEED: THE BOOK OF THE LIVING

BANGER
Earthseed reminds me of this quote by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: "The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever."

• This book is so fucking raw. Bible for the living written on a composition notebook. The indomitable human spirit persists.
• Parable of the Sower x Heat Abnormal anyone?!🔥🔥🔥
• Guys hear me out... what if F451, but Parable of the Sower AU...

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010)

Charles Yu

• I think this is one of the most unique sci-fi stories I've come across.

"Okay fine, I'll say it. There was something, wasn't there? Between us?"
"Yeah,"" TAMMY says. "Something."

If I had a nickle every time a sci-fi novel unintentionally wrote a character to be objectum, I'd have two nickles. And both times happesn to be a character who falls in love with an AI integrated into their spacecraft too. It's honestly pretty cute. I wish this trope is explored more and not just as a throwaway joke or whatever.

• This book on itself would've been a little confusing. I think my professor's lectures really elevate it to the next level for me.
• I love all the meta parts, the references to real-world locations and companies. Yep, of course Google and Microsoft still exist and have since expanded their business to include seemingly everything.

Story of Your Life (1998)

Ted Chiang

• I've heard that Arrival (2016) is a pretty good movie, so I went into this book expecting it to be at least somewhat good too.
• And guess what? It's not just good, it's great!
• I think my favorite part has to be all the time the main characters spend with the heptapods, teaching them English and learning their languages.
• I'm sad that they didn't keep the names Flapper and Raspberry for the heptapods in the movie :(
• The movie was good btw. My university had a film screening of it to accompany the course. Here's a funny moment:
  • When the movie ended, I thought to myself, "Wow what a great movie! It's different from the book, but I enjoyed it."
  • And I shit you not, the first thing I hear when I was about to get up, was someone behind me saying—and I quote—"That was ass."
  • WTF😭I WAS ABOUT TO GIVE THIS AT LEAST A 4 STAR IF NOT 5 ON LETTERBOXD WDYM THIS WAS ASS!!

The Giver (1993)

Lois Lowry

• This is one of the first, if not the first dystopian fiction I've ever read. Needless to say it blew my mind. Man when I say this book had a big influence on some of my OCs' backstories I mean a BIG influence.
• At the time I liked it so much that I read the other three books in the quartet. However the only ones I somewhat remember are this one and Gathering Blue lol.
• The whole seeing colors part is still GREAT.
• However, I think as I grew up and consumed more sci-fi dystopian media, the story and its worldbuilding has become less impressive to me. (FYI I first read the book in elementary.)
• The movie sucks. Book is better.

Under a White Sky (2021)

Elizabeth Kolbert

• I think I'm one of the few people in my class who actually liked this book lol. However doing literary analysis on this book was pure pain.
• Not the type of book I would read out of my own volition so I'm glad we read it.
• A fairly easy read. Pretty interesting and informative stuff; I actually learned a lot.
• Looking back, I think it did help me become a little more environmentally conscious.

The Decameron (1620)

Giovanni Boccaccio

• This book is my OPP solely because I disliked my essay on it.
• If you think about it The Decameron is just the writer's poorly disguised fetish. I can't take Boccaccio seriously man what was going through this man's head when he wrote this!?
• Boccaccio walked so hentai artists can run. If Boccaccio wasnt a pussy he would write hardcore porn. Like bro at one point the stories just become HAHA SEX like at least do it tastefully dude!!
• 10 days to tell 100 stories more like 10 days to be 100% 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝒌𝔂.
• I think the brigatas should just kill themselves actually.
• Maybe The Decameron is the original hetslop. Boccaccio and his toxic straight romance istg.
  • >man abuses his wife for no reason
  • >wife takes it
  • >man doesn't even apologize
  • >they live happily ever after
  • >😐

Boxers (2013)

Gene Luen Yang

• Um will I get beaten up if I say I don't get what's so great about this book.
• It's like I read it and I'm like, ok, what's your point. The main character accomplishes nothing and is kind of an asshole, so what's supposed to be the big takeaway then? What did his whole journey mean?
• Maybe it's because I'm Chinese, so seeing all the cultural references wasn't mind-blowing or anything.
• Apparently Saints is better than Boxers? At least my friend really liked it.

A Christmas Carol (1843)

Charles Dickens

• Yeah it's a classic I know. And yeah I hate it.
• I can't stand the writing style it's so difficult to decipher. I had so much trouble figuring out what's going on in the story and it seems like no one else had this problem? Every time I see someone praise the writing I'm just like, did we read the same book?
• I tried to enjoy the story but I just can't. Even watching the 2009 movie didn't make a difference. Just not for me I guess.
• Welp at least it helped me better understand ERB's Donald Trump vs Ebenezer Scrooge.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)

Mark Haddon

• The premise is definitely interesting, but unfortunately I never really understood the story even though we spent so much time analyzing it in class.
• This is definitely the type of book I see myself appreciating when I reread it ten years from now. For now though, it remains a ball of confusion. But that's a me problem, not the book.
• It's baffling to me why we didn't read anything about neurodivergence as a sort of "front-loading" background knowledge for this book. That would've been really helpful. My teacher didn't seem that knowledgeable about autism, which leaves an... odd feeling, I suppose, when so much time is spent discussing how certain element of the novel reflects the main characters' experience as an autistic person.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005)

Malcolm Gladwell

• I think out of all the books on this tier list, this one is by far the most like a research paper.
• The whole shebang of subconsciousness is now ingrained in my brain. From time to time I'll get reminded of this book.
• I finished this book on my own time, not because I was so enamored with it, but because I wanted to be able to call it done. I'd say it's only worth a read if you find the topic interesting.

The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Fuck Nathaniel Hawthorne and his god-awful, difficult to read writing style. I had to search up words constantly it was not a fun time. It was certainly an experience.
• I can see why it's considered a Great American Novel, but that doesn't mean I like it lol.
• Shout out to Manga Classic's Scarlet Letter adaptation🔥That shit was so fire it carried me fr (I read it alongside the book).
• I didn't particularly care for any of the characters. Dimmesdale needs to stop being so whiny and Chillingworth can go fuck himself. Pearl gives me bad vibes I never liked her. The ending pissed me off—why is Pearl the one with a happy ending! Hester is ok she's trying her best.
• I think the most unbelievable part for me was that, Chillingworth, who used to be a calm, "thoughtful for others" kind of individual, turns batshit crazy evil the moment he found out about Hester's affair? I mean I would have believed it more if he was like, a little crazy to begin with, but judging from what he was saying (which Hester agrees), he was a cold-hearted but normal guy? Maybe this is the aromantic part of me talking idk, love makes peopel do crazy things I guess.

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë

• I would've put this a tier higher had it not been 400 pages long. The story just goes on and on and on... I remember reading it and constantly thinking to myself, "how is there still MORE??"
• Gothic literature is not my thing man. Except for Frankenstein I guess.
• It's a little bit too dramatic for my liking.
• As the story progresses I switch between liking and hating a character which was kinda fun.
• Cathy's story is wayyy better than Heathcliff and Catherine's.
• I appreciate the story ending on a good note.

Oedipus Rex (435 BC)

Sophocles

• It's mid. And forgettable. The most memorable part of this book for me was how we'd get in small groups and sit outside the classroom "enacting" the story. (There was no acting, we just each picked a character and read their lines.)
• We didn't spend a lot of time on it in class, which is probably why I can barely remember anything about it besides someone getting stabbed in the eye and that was like the climax. This was like the last book we read before summer(?) break lol nobody gaf at that point.
• I don't even think my teacher cared about this book because we didn't do any assignments related to it. Literally just read it and that's it.

Republic (375 BC)

Plato

Yo shout out to the random person in the course discord server who made this.

• Doing eugenics in the name of the perfect city. Yeah man that's a totally normal thing.
• "Philosopher-King" does this man not realize how egotistical that sounds LMAO?

And I'd add this to the law: As long as the campaign lasts, no one he [anyone who distinguishes himself and earns high esteem] wants to kiss shall be allowed to refuse, for then, if one of them happens to be in love with another, whether male or female, he'll be all the more eager to win the rewards of valor.

What the hell. Sure.