![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_itySo one of my pet peeves in Fantasy novels is when authors go to all the trouble of setting up Fantasy!Russia and Fantasy!Croatia, etc, and then use the slur g*psy anyway for their Fantasy!, ugh I don't want to type the word again.
(This is, I'll be 100% honest, the real reason I don't watch Pacific Rim twice a week.)
I'm moderately more forgiving when the author is writing historical, but it still kind of bugs me.
Early this year, we had a really good example of an author who wrote her way around that (i.e. just GAVE THEM A NON-SLUR NAME like she gave everyone ELSE a name), in Truthwitch, by Susan Dennard. We also had a terrible example, in a book I DNFd (which I almost never do, and the slur was not the ONLY reason I DNFd, but it was part of it).
Blood Rose Rebellion cuts it right down the middle: it's historical fantasy, so the Eves tried to be "accurate" while also being "not a dick". I think she succeeded. The way she chose to do this was kind of great. Specifically, the narrator says the slur, and then the Roma character says "Dude, that is terrible and also super rude, and we call ourselves something else", and then the narrator learns, and it was just REALLY WELL DONE.
I do hope that at some point we can stop using slurs entirely. I mean, OBVIOUSLY. Specifically, I hope that it stops being a lesson, or a way of highlighting a person's evilness (the way that rape is often used, for example, which is also a plot trope I loathe).
ANYWAY
The book is also very entertaining. The characters are interesting, and it's mostly set in Bulgaria, which is not a place I get to go very often while reading. I love books that deconstruct the Victorian era, and this does so both in AND out of England.
Also the magic was cool, and ties into both religion and politics, and you know how I feel about that. I'm interested to see how the series goes from here.
(This is, I'll be 100% honest, the real reason I don't watch Pacific Rim twice a week.)
I'm moderately more forgiving when the author is writing historical, but it still kind of bugs me.
Early this year, we had a really good example of an author who wrote her way around that (i.e. just GAVE THEM A NON-SLUR NAME like she gave everyone ELSE a name), in Truthwitch, by Susan Dennard. We also had a terrible example, in a book I DNFd (which I almost never do, and the slur was not the ONLY reason I DNFd, but it was part of it).
Blood Rose Rebellion cuts it right down the middle: it's historical fantasy, so the Eves tried to be "accurate" while also being "not a dick". I think she succeeded. The way she chose to do this was kind of great. Specifically, the narrator says the slur, and then the Roma character says "Dude, that is terrible and also super rude, and we call ourselves something else", and then the narrator learns, and it was just REALLY WELL DONE.
I do hope that at some point we can stop using slurs entirely. I mean, OBVIOUSLY. Specifically, I hope that it stops being a lesson, or a way of highlighting a person's evilness (the way that rape is often used, for example, which is also a plot trope I loathe).
ANYWAY
The book is also very entertaining. The characters are interesting, and it's mostly set in Bulgaria, which is not a place I get to go very often while reading. I love books that deconstruct the Victorian era, and this does so both in AND out of England.
Also the magic was cool, and ties into both religion and politics, and you know how I feel about that. I'm interested to see how the series goes from here.
