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A review by celestine
The Madness Blooms (unpublished) by Mackenzi Lee
there have been others who already mentioned the horrendous marketing that misgenders and deadnames the trans male main character and how the book blurb and previous marketing made it sound like a f/f romance.
and there have been at least two reviews on this book (one on GR, one on twitter) that pretty much confirmed my suspicions: this book won't be good trans rep, or any other kind of good queer rep
actually, i think it might be triggering and harmful for some readers (especially young ones. i wouldnt want a young queer person to read this, especially not if they are trans bc it might leave some lasting, damaging thoughts and images)
and i guess according to this book, queer ppl in the past dont deserve to be happy; instead they all have to suffer and go through traumatizing experiences (that dont ever get resolved properly either, bc who cares, i guess).
its an interesting contrast to her previous books which were always praised for being happy queer historical novels. for a book that was in the works for 10 years... and had sensitivity readers... and it still kept all these harmful tropes... well.
i saw someone describe it as "queer pain porn" and tbh. from what i have heard, that sounds pretty accurate.
i was excited for a historical novel with a trans mc, but god, not like this, nope. lets support ownvoices authors instead
and there have been at least two reviews on this book (one on GR, one on twitter) that pretty much confirmed my suspicions: this book won't be good trans rep, or any other kind of good queer rep
actually, i think it might be triggering and harmful for some readers (especially young ones. i wouldnt want a young queer person to read this, especially not if they are trans bc it might leave some lasting, damaging thoughts and images)
and i guess according to this book, queer ppl in the past dont deserve to be happy; instead they all have to suffer and go through traumatizing experiences (that dont ever get resolved properly either, bc who cares, i guess).
its an interesting contrast to her previous books which were always praised for being happy queer historical novels. for a book that was in the works for 10 years... and had sensitivity readers... and it still kept all these harmful tropes... well.
i saw someone describe it as "queer pain porn" and tbh. from what i have heard, that sounds pretty accurate.
i was excited for a historical novel with a trans mc, but god, not like this, nope. lets support ownvoices authors instead