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bbitzan 's review for:
Wicked Saints
by Emily A. Duncan
I wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't obtained a free copy of it, on account of the antisemitism it abounds in. But I did obtain a free copy of it, which meant I could check it out without giving any money to the author.
I think it's important to consume media that has problematic aspects, I think it helps with media literacy. It helps you learn to recognize other times you may stumble upon those problematic aspects.
I find it incredibly disheartening how many fantasy authors write stories that would fall apart without the various -isms that fill the world. It makes me mad that we can't simply enjoy media without having to worry that said media was created to cause harm or was inspired by other media that was created to cause harm.
There are so many ways that Emily Duncan could have changed this book to maintain the same aesthetic of blood magic and dark gods and questioning one's own religion without directly compounding on harmful tropes, so many ways to choose not to directly benefit from the violence that has been enacted upon Jewish people for countless years at this point, and yet she chose none of the above. She chose to almost directly copy those harmful stories, she chose to make the "villians" of the story look like those of Jewish ethnic background, she chose to make it clear what part of history and geography inspired her, and she chose to publish this thinly veiled bigotry in a way that she knew would probably reach those who had never heard of blood libel, making it easier to indoctrinate them. She could have had all of the cake of blood magic and a dark gritty world with dark gritty gods and characters without directly invoking blood libel, and yet here we are, where somehow I just find myself having to be thankful that she didn't go as far as Jay Kristoff did in Nevernight. But this is just book one, so honestly, I'm sure it just keeps getting worse
I'm not saying it's impossible to write a book that addresses antisemitic tropes in an appropriate manner. I'm just saying that Emily Duncan failed miraculously at it, and that perhaps she shouldn't have tried in the first place.
I would like to say that aesthetically, this could have been super neat, I feel the same way about this as I did about Seven Faceless Saints in that aspect. But the author really butchered the MC and made her only important contribution to the story that of her romance with a boy. She could have written about a badass religious zealot going through a questioning period in regards to her religion without it being because she inexplicably found herself attracted to someone that her religion has taught her to hate. It really just felt like Nadya was along for a ride in a book that's actually just about Malachiasz and Serefin.
I think it's important to consume media that has problematic aspects, I think it helps with media literacy. It helps you learn to recognize other times you may stumble upon those problematic aspects.
I find it incredibly disheartening how many fantasy authors write stories that would fall apart without the various -isms that fill the world. It makes me mad that we can't simply enjoy media without having to worry that said media was created to cause harm or was inspired by other media that was created to cause harm.
There are so many ways that Emily Duncan could have changed this book to maintain the same aesthetic of blood magic and dark gods and questioning one's own religion without directly compounding on harmful tropes, so many ways to choose not to directly benefit from the violence that has been enacted upon Jewish people for countless years at this point, and yet she chose none of the above. She chose to almost directly copy those harmful stories, she chose to make the "villians" of the story look like those of Jewish ethnic background, she chose to make it clear what part of history and geography inspired her, and she chose to publish this thinly veiled bigotry in a way that she knew would probably reach those who had never heard of blood libel, making it easier to indoctrinate them. She could have had all of the cake of blood magic and a dark gritty world with dark gritty gods and characters without directly invoking blood libel, and yet here we are, where somehow I just find myself having to be thankful that she didn't go as far as Jay Kristoff did in Nevernight. But this is just book one, so honestly, I'm sure it just keeps getting worse
I'm not saying it's impossible to write a book that addresses antisemitic tropes in an appropriate manner. I'm just saying that Emily Duncan failed miraculously at it, and that perhaps she shouldn't have tried in the first place.
I would like to say that aesthetically, this could have been super neat, I feel the same way about this as I did about Seven Faceless Saints in that aspect. But the author really butchered the MC and made her only important contribution to the story that of her romance with a boy. She could have written about a badass religious zealot going through a questioning period in regards to her religion without it being because she inexplicably found herself attracted to someone that her religion has taught her to hate. It really just felt like Nadya was along for a ride in a book that's actually just about Malachiasz and Serefin.