Come one, come all! The story so far:
- the rapist guy was MISUNDERSTOOD all along (This! Is! Important!)
- all chapters begin with either Ai Ling waking up, going to sleep, or at a meal
- all women are PETITE or DAINTY; tall, muscled, or large women do not exist in Cindy Pon’s world
- WEST IS BEST, WEST IS BEST for an exciting bout of INTERNALIZED RACISM
- despite having “Phoenix” in the title, referring to Silver Phoenix, a woman 300 years dead reincarnated as Ai Ling, Fury of Fuck This Shit is entirely about Chen Yong and Mr. Misunderstood Rapist. Ai Ling, as all women should, merely tag along as an admirer and vehicle for their experiences
- Ai Ling’s and Chen Yong’s romance continues to be dysfunctional, creepily obsessed on Ai Ling’s part, and with FUCKED-UP power balance
- many, many, many flashbacks from Misunderstood Rapist’s point of view (one would think that, logically, since Ai Ling is Yin Fenghuang Silver Phoenix reincarnated the flashbacks would be from SP’s point of view but after all, these books are really about men and making sure the rapist is absolved and given a sympathetic viewpoint)
- quality of writing continues to be DEATHLY DULL
- emphasis: Ai Ling has gotten completely creepy and stalkery about Chen Yong
- despite everything MISUNDERSTOOD RAPIST is characterized and written with more nuance, attention to detail, and complexity than Ai Ling, Chen Yong, or any other character who’s appeared heretofore
- Yin Fenghuang Silver Phoenix is a much better and stronger character than Ai Ling, to absolutely nobody’s surprise; however, she is also the only other female character not portrayed negatively… and she is effectively Ai Ling
Stay tuned for the RAGEQUOTES and thirlling HATEBLOGGING! Witness as I write my first series of posts that are simultaneously tagged “poc writers” and categorized under “Racefail”!
Sean Wills
/ June 22, 2011I really can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this one. I imagine they’ll be enlightening :)
Sean Wills
/ June 22, 2011Double-posting, I know, but have you seen the cover for this one? It’s got this hilariously inappropriate…thing that not only looks terrible, it also tries to make the book out to be a paranormal romance. (Also the image of the girl on the front is CLEARLY a stock photo of somebody that they just threw on there. It doesn’t suit the book at all.)
alexdallymacfarlane
/ June 22, 2011That’s because the original cover for Book 1 probably contributed to its poor sales, and the publisher’s marketing department went straight from ‘this fairly bad cover that happens to feature a POC on it didn’t sell’ to ‘obvs we need a white girl with urban fantasy stylings’.
Evidently there is no middle ground that involves keeping a Chinese girl on the cover, or having a different kind of non-UF style.
acrackedmoon
/ June 23, 2011The faux-dagger is funny as hell. It doesn’t even–it looks like cardboard! Shittiest artist.
Caio Marinho.
/ June 23, 2011Hi, acrackedmoon. I don’t know if you already saw this news, but I just thought it too appropriate not to mention, although It IS kinda off-topic. (Sorry I couldn’t think of a better place to put it.)
http://io9.com/5814200/mermaids-and-toxic-waste-the-first-science-fiction-novel-published-in-zimbabwes-native-language
acrackedmoon
/ June 23, 2011This is way cool, thank you for giving me a heads-up. It’s okay, I don’t mind off-topicness. :)