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A review by brittbat
The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
4.0
Felicity was my favorite character in Gentleman’s Guide, so I was eager for her to take a more active role in the series. Mackenzi Lee does a good job of examining the false equivalence of vapidity and femininity and the ways that girls who consider themselves to be feminists sometimes discount their peers unfairly—the “I’m not like other girls” phenomenon. And she does so while delivering a funny and exciting story featuring travel, pirates, and sea serpents.
What doesn’t sit well with me is Felicity’s complicity in racism against a black Muslim character, who eventually becomes her love interest. Felicity admits that she misjudged her and becomes more aware of the role race plays in her life, but it didn’t feel deep enough for me. Race is conspicuously absent in discussions the characters have about their oppression as women, and that’s a problem.
What doesn’t sit well with me is Felicity’s complicity in racism against a black Muslim character, who eventually becomes her love interest. Felicity admits that she misjudged her and becomes more aware of the role race plays in her life, but it didn’t feel deep enough for me. Race is conspicuously absent in discussions the characters have about their oppression as women, and that’s a problem.