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A review by drridareads
The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
1.0
MORE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THESE BOOKS ARE RACIST.
I loved A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue so I was left disappointed when I didn't feel the same about this one. I really wanted to enjoy this book but couldn't.
The best part of A Gentleman's Guide is Percy he is absolutely fucking charming. And Percy with his great nature was like a bonus. So In this book we left those two for the majority of it and it's just not the same anymore it's frankly dry.
Felicity Montague was relatable only superficially (until she was problematic more on that later). She is perusing medicine in an age when it was illegal. I am Thank God doing it in an age when it is legal but still I'm surrounded by misogynistic pricks. I cannot count the times when my male professors ignore what I was saying but listened to it when a male colleague repeated it. And countless other sexist instances. Felicity is a feminist. Voilah me too! But then she is epitome of I'm not liking other girls and so I'm better. Disgusting. And yes she learns.
But it's too little too late. After spending so many pages of her shaming girls around her for having different interest than her. And yeah most of us were conditioned to these beliefs too and we had to learn and it was easier for us in this day and age. But no Idc it's historical fiction I shall not accept problematic characters!
Now about when it got even more problematic. This book took feminism to white feminism too fast. I mean I guess it always was until it became clear. Just because you add characters of colour to your book does not mean it's not racist problematic.
Since I'm a Muslim; do me and black people now how to thank this white lady for giving us representation.
Fuck no. Sim black hijabi pirate is supposed to awesome and goals. The white girl (Felicity) can break laws and whatever but she's gonna call Sim Thief. Sim is trying to protect dragons because ya know White People can not leave anyone alone not even dragons. They gonna colonise the hell outta them too by making them into medicine.
Her intentions are absolutely pure. But then she's manipulated by her 2 white not friends (friends ain't horrible like that). Yes these white girls that hated each other for their different interest now band together against our character of colour; Sim. And can we talk about how they keep talking of Johanna's mom like she's some hero when she's a thief who stole from black people. And of course Felicity and Johanna are not bad people for going to the island and suggesting we use the dragons only the other white people doing this are bad because their not our main characters.
Sim could've been absolutely fucking badass. Instead her whole personality is being attracted to Felicity and doing everything she says.
Oh and I forgot there is this whole part where Johanna and Felicity actually rescue all the African pirates. Because you know we all need some white saviours!
Also Felicity is asexual which thought so from the first book too but she's also low-key homophobic.
I don't know what Hogwarts house Mackenzie Lee is; but I think it's Diversity. And yay you get 10 points for diversity. That's clearly all you wanted.
The dialogue is also annoying. It becomes repetitive. It's witty and tries hard to convince us that this is all a great feminist adventure. When it's just white privilege.
Alternative title:
A Lady's guide to White Feminism!
I'm not a black person so I'm not sure how this white author discussed race and slavery in this book was appropriate or not and so I'm not going to comment on it.
These are my words from my review of the first book. Oh God if I was even thinking about whether or not something was racist it probably was. And I will not be reading any of Mackenzie Lee's books ever again. Because while racism is just plain wrong in her books it's covert racism which is far more problematic because most often we don't realise it's racist so we don't see the problem.
And I'm really sorry my review is sort of all over the place but basically this book is problematic and no amount of witty banter will make me give it more than a single star.
I loved A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue so I was left disappointed when I didn't feel the same about this one. I really wanted to enjoy this book but couldn't.
The best part of A Gentleman's Guide is Percy he is absolutely fucking charming. And Percy with his great nature was like a bonus. So In this book we left those two for the majority of it and it's just not the same anymore it's frankly dry.
Felicity Montague was relatable only superficially (until she was problematic more on that later). She is perusing medicine in an age when it was illegal. I am Thank God doing it in an age when it is legal but still I'm surrounded by misogynistic pricks. I cannot count the times when my male professors ignore what I was saying but listened to it when a male colleague repeated it. And countless other sexist instances. Felicity is a feminist. Voilah me too! But then she is epitome of I'm not liking other girls and so I'm better. Disgusting. And yes she learns.
But it's too little too late. After spending so many pages of her shaming girls around her for having different interest than her. And yeah most of us were conditioned to these beliefs too and we had to learn and it was easier for us in this day and age. But no Idc it's historical fiction I shall not accept problematic characters!
Now about when it got even more problematic. This book took feminism to white feminism too fast. I mean I guess it always was until it became clear. Just because you add characters of colour to your book does not mean it's not racist problematic.
Since I'm a Muslim; do me and black people now how to thank this white lady for giving us representation.
Fuck no. Sim black hijabi pirate is supposed to awesome and goals. The white girl (Felicity) can break laws and whatever but she's gonna call Sim Thief. Sim is trying to protect dragons because ya know White People can not leave anyone alone not even dragons. They gonna colonise the hell outta them too by making them into medicine.
Her intentions are absolutely pure. But then she's manipulated by her 2 white not friends (friends ain't horrible like that). Yes these white girls that hated each other for their different interest now band together against our character of colour; Sim. And can we talk about how they keep talking of Johanna's mom like she's some hero when she's a thief who stole from black people. And of course Felicity and Johanna are not bad people for going to the island and suggesting we use the dragons only the other white people doing this are bad because their not our main characters.
Sim could've been absolutely fucking badass. Instead her whole personality is being attracted to Felicity and doing everything she says.
Oh and I forgot there is this whole part where Johanna and Felicity actually rescue all the African pirates. Because you know we all need some white saviours!
Also Felicity is asexual which thought so from the first book too but she's also low-key homophobic.
I don't know what Hogwarts house Mackenzie Lee is; but I think it's Diversity. And yay you get 10 points for diversity. That's clearly all you wanted.
The dialogue is also annoying. It becomes repetitive. It's witty and tries hard to convince us that this is all a great feminist adventure. When it's just white privilege.
Alternative title:
A Lady's guide to White Feminism!
I'm not a black person so I'm not sure how this white author discussed race and slavery in this book was appropriate or not and so I'm not going to comment on it.
These are my words from my review of the first book. Oh God if I was even thinking about whether or not something was racist it probably was. And I will not be reading any of Mackenzie Lee's books ever again. Because while racism is just plain wrong in her books it's covert racism which is far more problematic because most often we don't realise it's racist so we don't see the problem.
And I'm really sorry my review is sort of all over the place but basically this book is problematic and no amount of witty banter will make me give it more than a single star.