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A review by ruth24
Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez is one of my favourite books I've read this year and one that will stick with me for a long time. I know my review will not be able to do justice to all the things this book made me think and feel, but I'll give it my best shot!
Crosshairs is a dystopian story set in a near future in Toronto, Canada where climate change disproportionately affects those in lower-income neighbourhoods, non-white people, disabled people, immigrants, refugees, and members of the LGBTQ2S community. This sparks the Canadian government to sanction an oppressive regime, the Renovation, which uses military police to round up these ‘Others’, forcing them into work houses-cum-concentration camps. The government's discrimination, control and genocide of the Others is hidden behind a vision of providing housing, jobs, peace and economic prosperity.
I loved that this story was set in Canada, because all too often we Canadians believe racism is an American problem or claim that it either isn’t as bad over here or doesn't exist at all, which is obviously not true. Crosshairs opened my eyes to the racism that persists in Toronto and Canada as a whole, and where this could lead if we continue to sweep it under the rug. This book was disturbing in many ways, but most terrifying for me was how easy it was to see the steps that led to the regime, how they justified what they were doing and hid behind visions for a ‘brighter’ future. We need only look to history to see that this has happened again and again.
I loved the characters in this book - Kay, Firuzeh, Bahadur - and how Hernandez showed the many different ways they and others coped, either by fighting, by hiding or by refusing to live in a world in which they could not be their authentic selves. There was no right or wrong, only the individual and their unique philosophy and ability to cope. I also liked how Hernandez used the white characters, Liz, Beck and his family, as blueprints to demonstrate how we should work to challenge the institutional racism we've grown up with, step aside and uplift the voices of the oppressed in a way that's not performative.
Raw, beautiful, challenging, compelling - this book is a must-read and could not be more timely. Look for it in December 2020!
Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez is one of my favourite books I've read this year and one that will stick with me for a long time. I know my review will not be able to do justice to all the things this book made me think and feel, but I'll give it my best shot!
Crosshairs is a dystopian story set in a near future in Toronto, Canada where climate change disproportionately affects those in lower-income neighbourhoods, non-white people, disabled people, immigrants, refugees, and members of the LGBTQ2S community. This sparks the Canadian government to sanction an oppressive regime, the Renovation, which uses military police to round up these ‘Others’, forcing them into work houses-cum-concentration camps. The government's discrimination, control and genocide of the Others is hidden behind a vision of providing housing, jobs, peace and economic prosperity.
I loved that this story was set in Canada, because all too often we Canadians believe racism is an American problem or claim that it either isn’t as bad over here or doesn't exist at all, which is obviously not true. Crosshairs opened my eyes to the racism that persists in Toronto and Canada as a whole, and where this could lead if we continue to sweep it under the rug. This book was disturbing in many ways, but most terrifying for me was how easy it was to see the steps that led to the regime, how they justified what they were doing and hid behind visions for a ‘brighter’ future. We need only look to history to see that this has happened again and again.
I loved the characters in this book - Kay, Firuzeh, Bahadur - and how Hernandez showed the many different ways they and others coped, either by fighting, by hiding or by refusing to live in a world in which they could not be their authentic selves. There was no right or wrong, only the individual and their unique philosophy and ability to cope. I also liked how Hernandez used the white characters, Liz, Beck and his family, as blueprints to demonstrate how we should work to challenge the institutional racism we've grown up with, step aside and uplift the voices of the oppressed in a way that's not performative.
Raw, beautiful, challenging, compelling - this book is a must-read and could not be more timely. Look for it in December 2020!