I have divided feelings on this book.
Pros: Schaeffer is a good writer in many aspects. I ripped through the pages of this book, and haven't caught myself staying up so late to read in a while. The plot is original, and this is one of the better urban fantasy series I've ever read. The characters have distinct voices, and they're morally grey, leaning to black which makes for a great change.
Cons: Does this woman preach politically though. The first book had its issues; this one was ten times worse. She has a distinct chip on her shoulder towards all things American (she's Canadian so that was bizarre; her incessant fingerpointing quickly felt like a money grab, climbing on a train of self-righteousness to grab readers).
Just a few direct quotes and points that stuck out to me:
"She wasn't actually sure what Canada was like. She knew about the States; it seemed like every day there was a splashy tale of police brutality on the news."
A character told the story of a school janitor screaming at her to go back to her own country because of her skin tone; the teachers stood around and let him do it- the implication was that they agreed with him. And the author felt the need to emphasize that the janitor had a family member in the military which probably was the origin of his racism. The very next page starts in again about racism in the United States. I'm not even going to type that one out.
"'You're in Canada, not the States. Canadians have a different attitude toward Latin America'... she remembered [Americans] noticing her distinctly Chilean features. They rarely said anything but she could see the judgment in her eyes."
Another section talked about a girl's family getting slaughtered, but the perpetrator getting released early because "we were brown and he was white."
"She thought of all the news stories she'd seen, people reaching for phones or looking the wrong way at a police officers and ending up shot. That was in the States, she told herself. Quispe said Canada was better."
I have no words for the level of disbelief I felt reading the divisive material she sneaked into the pages of this book.
Guys, one of the things I adore about the Goodreads community is that it's literally built around us, as a community, bettering ourselves through reading and then having open discussions about what we've read. A fact which I appreciate and find so refreshing in a world that just wants to scream at one another. If I seem to be coming on strong, please bear with me. I'll try to explain my viewpoint.
99.9% of people I have ever met in the U.S., despite the media portrayal, don't give a damn what someone's skin color is. And the other 0.1%? Yes, they exist. I've met only a couple (one of them wasn't white and was directing it towards light skin, so it goes every direction). But we've turned so many financial opportunities and energies towards the 0.1%.
Guys, there are so many other issues we need to be focusing on.
1) Human trafficking is at an all-time high. There are more slaves in the world today than there has been in the history of mankind. I've met human trafficking victims through my job. To this day, I can't think about one of them without tearing up, and yes I'm doing that now.
2) Mental health is an international disaster and the treatment capability for it is a dumpster fire. As in there are not enough resources to begin to win this war. I work in a psych unit. If we could put the energy for some movements into those areas, we would change the world, because mental health workers on the frontlines are fighting a very real uphill battle without the resources we need.
3) Third world countries are starving, facing true human rights crises, and need medical care. I have friends that live overseas and can only shake their heads as they listen to the false narrative happening here while they are truly seeing human rights issues in the tumultuous countries they're in. I have friends in Bolivia and Haiti. I have a friend from Myanmar who fled that country into Thailand and then came to America as a political refugee. He can't get over the blessings of living in a free country where he can be whatever he wants to be if he works hard and the safety he feels despite "being brown". He eats the bones from his fried chicken because he ate bones of any animal they cooked in Myanmar so he wouldn't starve. Talk about my eyes bugging out of my head the first time I saw him do that.
When he fled, he remembers the moms left their infants in the jungle because if they cried, the guerillas would hear them, catch them, and slaughter them all. He still has no idea where his dad is and hasn't seen his mom since he fled. Well over ten years ago.
I have friends that were adopted from the Philippines when they were old enough to remember where they came from. The stories they tell aren't great, guys. They sure aren't.
We are blessed. I'm surrounded by people telling me how blessed we are who have truly experienced racism and seen human rights issues. They are disgusted at the mass hysteria media is creating. And my friends from Myanmar and the Philippines have been told by those with naive blessings to be quiet because they just don't understand what they're talking about. Yes. That. Has. Happened. Maybe they're the ONLY ones who know what they're talking about. My heart hurts for them.
I know we all have legitimate personal pain. And if anyone has truly experienced scarring racism, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But can we also agree that the continuing efforts to point out division that may or may not be there IS creating division. And when we're telling anyone who can speak on behalf of true life experience to be quiet because they don't know what they're talking about what have we become?
I'll finish this trilogy. But I'm probably done with Rebecca Schaeffer after this. Her bio says she lives on a little Canadian plain. In all honesty, it shows. She has a pretty naive worldview.
I'd rate this an R for gore, violence, moral corruption and adult themes, references to rape, swearing, and other crime related incidences.