In which I rant about Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series. (Spoilers)

[phoenixfalls]

(Note: I'm using the terminology that Carey uses in the book; if any of the terms are racist or otherwise problematic, please let me know and I will edit to reflect that.)

So I just read the first two volumes of Jacqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series. Despite adoring Carey on the strength of her Kushiel's Legacy series and Santa Olivia I had been

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[lokifan]

:(((

I'd be excited to read urban fantasy that involved/mentioned Orishas or Yoruba religion generally, but... wow.

[phoenixfalls]

I was *steaming*. I think the worst part, which I didn't put in this rant because I couldn't articulate it well enough, was that Carey repeatedly name-checked social justice concepts (in increasingly tone-deaf ways) but so clearly did not GET IT, fundamentally did not get the concepts at their core, which was how she ended up with this racist as fuck mess. And, of course, she put half of the stuff she was saying in the mouths of her villains, so the white protagonist could brush it off as invalid.

However, may I recommend: Nalo Hopkinson's work. Hopkinson is a Canadian woman from the Caribbean (born in Jamaica, grew up in Guyana and Trinidad) and her stuff is strongly rooted in Caribbean culture. I've only read Brown Girl in the Ring, but it was excellent.

[lokifan]

Carey repeatedly name-checked social justice concepts (in increasingly tone-deaf ways) but so clearly did not GET IT...she put half of the stuff she was saying in the mouths of her villains, so the white protagonist could brush it off as invalid.

BLARGH. Both those things are so intensely irritating.

Thanks so much for the recs! I've heard Brown Girl in the Ring mentioned as good in some other context, I'll have to check it out.

It's interesting to hear you mention Yoruba stuff that's specifically Caribbean, too - I always hear Yoruba and go straight to Nigeria in my head :) But then that's the angle I've heard/read faaaaar more about, cos my dad was born in Nigeria and my parents met through study of west Africa. Plus these days I'm living in an area of London with a big Ghanaian and Nigerian population, though a mostly pentecostal-Christian one from all accounts.

[phoenixfalls]

Oooo, that reminds me of another author: Helen Oyeyemi. I've only read her first novel, The Icarus Girl, but she's a Nigerian-British author who writes magical realism/literary fantasy drawing on her heritage. And it looks like her second novel, The Opposite House is inspired by Cuban mythology.