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A review by tigger89
Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
CW: discussion of antisemitism
Y'all. Let's talk about goblin markets. So, their origin(the poem Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti) is commonly agreed upon to have contained antisemitic depictions. You can find details on google, and I encourage you to read up if you're unfamiliar. So it's one of those things that you should tread carefully with. Maybe be extra careful not to Jewish-code your predatory goblins, right?
Unfortunately, I didn't find this book to be very careful about it. Not only did this version of goblins draw from several elements associated with negative portrayals of or conspiracies about Jews(green skin, monstrous appearance, untrustworthy, habitually disguising themselves in plain sight among the non-goblin population to seek prey, etc), but also the plot veered far too close to blood libel for my liking. Namely, the fact that the goblins are portrayed as tricking young people so that they would get trapped in the market, where the goblins would consume their flesh and, as described often and in great detail, their blood.
So that's my thoughts on that. The horror plot would have been fine without the elements that read as Jewish-coding, but with that being how it was it made me very uncomfortable to read. And it's a shame because there were other parts of this book that were so good, especially the way the relationships between each pair was written and the alternating present-past chapters. Even the environment of the market and the way the horror and suspense elements were written was great, but because of the elephant in the room I couldn't fully immerse myself in rooting for either pair of girls.
Readers who enjoy LGBTQ stories will find a number of characters here: Lou is asexual, May is explicitly bisexual, and Neela is assumed to be pansexual. I'd been concerned at first that the book might be saying something weird about bi/pan people and vulnerability to sexual temptation, but by the end of the story my concerns were assuaged. The queer rep in this book is fine. Love a good ace lead. I just wish the rest of it had avoided the antisemitic baggage.
Y'all. Let's talk about goblin markets. So, their origin(the poem Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti) is commonly agreed upon to have contained antisemitic depictions. You can find details on google, and I encourage you to read up if you're unfamiliar. So it's one of those things that you should tread carefully with. Maybe be extra careful not to Jewish-code your predatory goblins, right?
Unfortunately, I didn't find this book to be very careful about it. Not only did this version of goblins draw from several elements associated with negative portrayals of or conspiracies about Jews(green skin, monstrous appearance, untrustworthy, habitually disguising themselves in plain sight among the non-goblin population to seek prey, etc), but also the plot veered far too close to blood libel for my liking. Namely, the fact that the goblins are portrayed as tricking young people so that they would get trapped in the market, where the goblins would consume their flesh and, as described often and in great detail, their blood.
So that's my thoughts on that. The horror plot would have been fine without the elements that read as Jewish-coding, but with that being how it was it made me very uncomfortable to read. And it's a shame because there were other parts of this book that were so good, especially the way the relationships between each pair was written and the alternating present-past chapters. Even the environment of the market and the way the horror and suspense elements were written was great, but because of the elephant in the room I couldn't fully immerse myself in rooting for either pair of girls.
Readers who enjoy LGBTQ stories will find a number of characters here: Lou is asexual, May is explicitly bisexual, and Neela is assumed to be pansexual. I'd been concerned at first that the book might be saying something weird about bi/pan people and vulnerability to sexual temptation, but by the end of the story my concerns were assuaged. The queer rep in this book is fine. Love a good ace lead. I just wish the rest of it had avoided the antisemitic baggage.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism and Blood
Moderate: Confinement and Violence
Minor: Alcohol
As detailed in my review, I found the depiction of goblins in this story to draw on many antisemitic tropes, including blood libel.