Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen
342 pages
Published 2015
Read from May 7 to May 9
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
What I respect: An author making a conscious effort to create a diverse, representative cast of characters. I'm tired of straight white dudes dominating my fantasy adventures, tired of the standard Western European influences, interested in characters that face social prejudices and inequities more substantial than "secretly the son of the true king but raised by poor-yet-wise villagers." A mixed race agender pansexual person raised in slavery is a far more complicated and original protagonist than, say, just another Anglo feller.
What makes me go "Enh, I don't know": An author dedicating her book to a diversity-in-fiction hashtag, and underlining her "commit[ment] to respecting diversity" in a special author's note at the end. It has an aftertaste of "Look how enlightened and concerned I am!" Almost a whiff of White Savior in there, as well. Well, maybe I'm projecting. I certainly don't claim to understand hashtag culture; maybe this is merely what one does in online activist circles. But in general, I feel it's great to put in the due diligence to include respectfully portrayed diversity in one's books, more questionable to make a big deal about it so that everyone notices. Kind of like the social justice equivalent of praying in a closet vs. praying on the street corner.
What comes to mind, perhaps inevitably, is Francesca Lia Block's Love in a Time of Global Warming: Another much-praised YA fantasy that does excellent, admirable things with representation and inclusion amongst its cast, yet kind of sputters when it comes to actually telling a story with those characters. But whereas Warming was kind of a hot mess (heh) in its prose and plotting and characterization, Wake is at least averagely goodish. It's a generic urban fantasy monster-hunter adventure kitted out and sent to roam the West Texas plains. Adequate enough material, but more or less rote stuff in spite of the setting, with twists I saw coming from over the horizon. Despite her background, the protagonist didn't seem all that different from a generic modern YA fantasy protagonist, adjusting to a new social life after a shitty home life, confronting hormones and confusion and boys (and girls too, but mostly boys). You'd think that a person with such a background wouldn't be able to fit ever so conveniently into our modern ideas of the gender spectrum and sexuality, or adjust to her new awareness of herself with the help of a few well-timed self-actualizing Tumblr posts from her new friends, but hey -- fiction is meant to speak to its readers and their concerns, not necessarily replicate what a bronc-busting Black Indian in the borderlands would think and feel about herself and her surroundings.
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