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hey naomi novik, at what point in your writing process did you decide that making dreadlocks magically insect-monster infested was in any way acceptable and NOT a continuation of racist misconceptions about the cleanliness of locks?
other fun things in this book:
1) mc is half-indian, but has no real connection to anything indian except that she miraculously picks up indian languages and also her indian family prophesies that she is a destroyer
1) mc is half-indian, but has no real connection to anything indian except that she miraculously picks up indian languages and also her indian family prophesies that she is a destroyer
2) mc refers to everyone else mostly by what country they are from (how does she know?) and which languages they speak
3) the narration (and author) seem to have no idea how the languages which make up the basis of the wold's magic work, are spoken, or relate to one another
4) super uncomfortable passage about half-indian MC talking about how little she showers and her relative lack of cleanliness
(there is a worldbuilding reason for this, but shit the optics are *bad*)
(there is a worldbuilding reason for this, but shit the optics are *bad*)
5) mc refers to chinese character by her last name exclusively, maybe? or is it her first name? we don't know. we just don't know.
6) there's a part of the mahabharata that makes up part of the worldbuilding, but the mc just has such a ... clinical view of everything about any sort of indian culture, it's really hard to believe she's a person of indian descent
7) the dubai enclave of magic apparently specializes in both arabic and hindi. i can only believe that the author has absolutely no idea what the relationship between the uae and south asian labor is, because otherwise... fucking yikes.
8) most tellingly, there is a miss-match of internationally-named characters who exist primarily for the worth of their languages-- ibrahim shows up when they need arabic, aadhya has links to hindi and bengali speakers, liu speaks mandarin. but they have no real other character..
...or worth to the story. there is a group of characters referred to almost exclusively as "the south and west africans." we hear a lot about the "mandarin speakers." MC is ready to mind these characters for their languages, and even tho she's half-indian herself, her attitude...
...is entirely colonialist. in that way, it makes sense that she was raised exclusively by her british mother who lives in a yurt and uses magic crystals. mc, no matter what her nominal ethnicity, is just a dressed-up white protag mining other cultures without care or knowledge.
this book has been praised as a modern alternative to h/p and j/k/r, but all i see is another white author mining other cultures for ~magic~ and continuing a colonial legacy. in that way, it is a fine successor.
my morecomplete thoughts on this book, a deadly education by naomi novik, here; this review is my own thoughts and impressions on the book, and i do not demand that anyone adopt my views. i hope the review provides some perspective. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3585134911?book_show_action=false
