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A review by kentanapages
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.
From what I know of this author, he’s a white liberal who is trying to write non-white characters and bring that to his (mostly white) audience, which can have value. However, sentences like the following, not followed by some addressing of the larger issue, are damaging and problematic and this is going to be a DNF book and series for me
“I suddenly had a horrible thought. What if they were thinking of sending me to Trident? That was the operational command unit charged with tackling gun crime within the Black community. Trident was always on the lookout for Black officers to do hideously dangerous undercover work, and being mixed race meant that I qualified. It’s not that I don’t think they do a worthwhile job, it’s just that I didn’t think I’d be very good at it.”
“I suddenly had a horrible thought. What if they were thinking of sending me to Trident? That was the operational command unit charged with tackling gun crime within the Black community. Trident was always on the lookout for Black officers to do hideously dangerous undercover work, and being mixed race meant that I qualified. It’s not that I don’t think they do a worthwhile job, it’s just that I didn’t think I’d be very good at it.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexism