From my goodreads!
Every single person who cares about social justice and/or thinks that Canada could never sink to a level of horrors that history has taught us have already happened needs to read this book.
Every single person who cares about social justice and/or thinks that Canada could never sink to a level of horrors that history has taught us have already happened needs to read this book.
Dystopian fiction where in response to a climate crisis, Canada embraces genocide against all people of colour, disability and the LGBQT2 community. It‘s sort of Station 11 + Handmaids Tale, and like them there is enough truth that it all feels possible. It‘s a well told story and a wake up call. “When I do not act, I am complicit. When I know wrong is happening, I act. When the oppressed tell me I‘m wrong, I open my heart and change. ...”
We got a dumping of snow and my magnolia is stressed out. I‘ve been a distracted reader all day. I‘m blaming this stupid weather on my lack of concentration. I just want to go to bed and have tomorrow be a new day
Best to just hunker down and read. How ominous is this forecast 😱
Pandemic or no pandemic, I‘d probably still be having a cocktail and reading on a Saturday night 🤷🏻♀️
I‘m back reading in my front window ( weather has gotten chilly so no reading outside 😢) I walked to the library yesterday, I had 2 holds come in. It feels like like forever since I‘ve had old school paper books from the library 🤣 I LOVED Catherine Hernandez‘ book Scarborough LOVED it, so I‘m so happy to be reading her second
They collectively watched broadcast footage of a newly formed militia in Toronto patrolling flooded city streets in their helmets and leather uniforms. Extreme close-ups of the militia using their steel-toed boots to kick down doors in search of illegal immigrants siphoning resources. Those same resources being distributed among “True Canadians,” who smile and give a thumbs-up to the news cameras.
The global rise in fascism in the real world makes this near-future dystopia particularly frightening and relevant. “Others”—people with black or brown skin, trans and disabled folk, etc—lose citizenship rights in Canada. Will the majority of the population just sit back and do nothing? A fast-paced climate change novel that reminds me of Cherie Dimaline‘s The Marrow Thieves. #LGBTQ #CanadianAuthor
I‘m having a wonderful intertextual reading experience lately. Gardner‘s Grendel, in the POV of the monster in Beowulf (quoted passage above), connects with the other books I‘m digesting. The new translation of Beowulf, of course, but also Noelle Stevenson‘s memoir, & the tagged dystopia by Hernandez, which has a military man unaffected by protest chants, yet “the poets stirred something in a place so deep within his body he could not locate it.”
“I download and listen to it for appearances, in case my phone is seized. As if Khalil isn‘t white and Christian. As if Khalil is his name. As if he exists. We can‘t even see him. It‘s a fucking podcast. And yet, people still believe it.”
(Serendipitous match to the Tweet I saw this morning)
Just because this book is heavy handed at times does not mean it‘s subject matter isn‘t urgent. I loved Queen Kay.
Good morning! A cup of tea and the last few pages of this book greeted me this morning. This is a hard book to read in terms of subject matter but Hernandez weaves a beautiful story that flashes in and out of the past and present, giving the reader backstory on the protagonist and the political situation. The characters really drive this story in their response to the politicians and white privilege that creates the environment of oppression.