The Princess and the Scrivener

they have their whole host of cop characters, including the straight-laced official types, regularly treat their job like a game.

yes they had an episode about racial profiling. but what was that episode telling us? that at the end of the day, there are good cops within the system actively fighting corruption and winning. i recently saw someone in exact words say “b99 taught me that not all cops are bad.” that’s copaganda. even if you believe in your heart that some cops are good, they are still people with weapons designed to kill whose job centers on apprehending anyone they deem a trouble-maker, and they are. not. your. friends.

b99 wants you to believe that diversity within the system creates fair treatment, right? that a gay Black captain and a crew of racially and sexually diverse cops are the Good Guys.

in real life, the Seattle chief of police is a Black woman who is AT BEST allowing the people in her command to terrorize their city, and at worst actively commanding it. the tear-gassing in seattle? the little girl who got pepper-sprayed? that happened under the leadership and command of a Black woman. because cops are cops first. the job itself demands that they abandon their communities and their humanity. we joke about being [x thing] first and human second a lot, right? well, cops really are.

b99 talked about the prison industry, right? they talked about guard brutality, retaliation, in-prison violence, right? but think about the fact that within that plotline, the cops were the only characters who we were told didn’t belong there. how cinnamon roll jake peralta, a Good Cop Who Didn’t Belong in Prison, was interacting exclusively with people like a gang leader and an unrepentant cannibal.

b99 is deeply insidious cop propaganda. and i’ve watched it and i’ve enjoyed it! and i don’t believe the creators set out to make copaganda. i think they were trying to do a lighthearted riff on your standard procedural, and they cast a diverse group of actors, and they tried to write socially conscious scripts, and they slowly snowballed their way into copaganda while we were all distracted by andy samberg getting hotter.

i’m not at all saying don’t watch cop shows, if that’s your thing, i guess. hell, i’ve enjoyed more than one of them in my life. but please think critically about their messaging and choose to reject what does not align with your values. think critically about your values, and what influences them. and for the love of god, stop responding to people’s angry, grieving cries over Black people being systematically murdered by cops by defending your favorite fictional cop. real people are dead.

Mexican Gothic (2020)

From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes a reimagining of the classic gothic suspense novel, a story about an isolated mansion in 1950s Mexico—and the brave socialite drawn to its treacherous secrets. He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to save me. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia  (Author)

Get it here

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow, named one of the best books of summer 2019 by Publishers Weekly; Signal to Noise, named one of the best books of the year by Book Riot, Tordotcom, BuzzFeed, io9, and other publications; Certain Dark Things, one of NPR’s best books of the year, a Publishers Weekly top ten, and a VOYA “Perfect Ten”; the fantasy of manners The Beautiful Ones; and the science fiction novella Prime Meridian. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (aka Cthulhu’s Daughters). She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

like, carlisle is a surgeon and he’s the only one doing ANYTHING worthwhile.

i need writer!bella with a new pseudonym every century, writing about her life and experiences, about what she’s been through, about her world views, and donating books to school libraries.

i need fashiondesigner!alice creating new fashion companies every century and donating nice clothes to people in poverty.

i need musician!edward that doesn’t do concerts, but releases his pieces under new names all the time, and sets up a scholarship foundation for low income students wanting to get a music/arts degree.

i need feminist!rosalie supporting planned parenthood by making silent donations of a million dollars every year and creating her own organization to help r*pe survivors.

i need activist!esme spending so much time spreading awareness to domestic violence, creating blogs and a foundation, and raising money to support women who have lost children.

i need animalrights!emmett starting up conservation sites (mostly for bears but also for other animals like wolves and cougars).