the thing about rachel reid's writing is that, imo, while she is capable of creating fascinating concepts and character bases, she has absolutely no follow-through on any of the major issues she invokes as set dressing. she uses bigotry as flags to show which character is good and which character is bad, and intentionally sets each story in a deeply bigoted environment built on institutionalized racism, homophobia, and misogyny, yet has no desire to engage with any of it beyond the most surface-level reading.
structural homophobia in a massively racist and bigoted environment? that's handwaved off because obviously the only reason scott would want to stay in the closet is if he's ashamed of kip and ashamed of being gay, i.e. it's a personal issue and not a structural or societal one. oh, sure, we pay lip service to the societal issues (and even mention kip struggling with the attention after they come out together), but overall? nahhh. nothing. this is rehashed even more poorly in the long game, when shane gets outed and dragged through the mud (unrealistically so, imo) by not only his team but all of montreal's administration and even the general public and media - but this is treated as a happy ending because he got married and plays with ilya now. structural, institutionalized homophobia blowing up his life and forcing him to take a massive career demotion? not an actual conflict; it gets resolved in about three paragraphs flat, and then ilya goes on to make fun of him for no longer being a captain or even an alternate at the end.
racism gets, like, a one line mention when scott looks at his coach and thinks about him having to deal with racism back in the day when he was a player. shane is a protagonist of color in a deeply bigoted environment but rachel reid has no interest in even paying lip service to this, because the only reason she even made him half-japanese is to describe him as a tiny hairless bottom.
misogyny and rape culture in hockey are the entire set dressing of troy barrett's book, and yet there isn't a single woman harmed by it who is relevant to the plot. the only relevant woman in the book is troy's mother. why, then, use rape culture as a plot point at all? if the intent was just to write a lighthearted smutty story about a guy with a shitty ex finding love again, why even bother invoking the specter of violence against women, just to prop him up as a Good guy or whatever?
reid is constantly invoking major social issues but doesn't want to take them seriously. and i see people respond to this criticism with like "oh it's just lighthearted romance, its not the genre for delving into that, it's escapism" - and i just have to wonder, like... escapisim for who? only the people with enough privilege to not to have to contend with racism or sexual trauma or institutionalized homophobia in the workplace?
is a book that invokes sexual violence against women in order to prop up a man's emotional journey, without having a single one of the women in question be relevant to the plot at all, "escapism"? or is it maybe just a book that uses rape culture as set dressing when it frankly didn't need to? is a book that deals with a closeted character by insisting that he has to be comfortable being very publicly out or else he's a shitty partner, because his worries about his career or even his physical safety are invalid, actually escapism for queer people, or is it just a book that wants to frame institutionalized bigotry as an interpersonal issue that can be solved by simply being loud and proud enough? why invoke the very real issue of homophobic legislation in russia as a major conflict for a major character if it's immediately going to get handwaved off as "actually he could just get a different job if he loses his work visa so he doesn't actually need to care about this at all anymore and he has no further thoughts on his immigration status whatsoever" as soon as you don't want to deal with it as a difficult plot beat anymore?
like. there are things i enjoyed about these books, don't get me wrong - i wouldn't be here posting on a sideblog made just bc i really enjoyed these characters overall, otherwise. but god, the way reid frames structural and institutionalized bigotry as interpersonal issues and nothing more (if she mentions them at all, i.e. she writes as though racism is simply a thing of the past and has no bearing on any of the cast) is deeply frustrating to me.
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