There's always going to be controversy and if I, as an author, pulled one of my books every time someone found something problematic in them, I'd have no active books available for purchase. Should she have pulled it? I personally don't think so.

It's the right of people to read and interpret the book as they choose as readers, but I also think it's foolish to suggest that this was an isolated event influenced solely by the author's agency and the controversy surrounding the book had no influence on her decision. Second, people are saying that the decision to edit was the author's choice- and while that is true, I don't think that she would have pulled her book if she hadn't been at the epicenter of some pretty ugly allegations and hardcore negative feedback. I'm honestly shocked people came at this book so hard when there are other books that are much more problematic that get a free pass- not saying either is right, but why this book specifically? Especially when nobody I saw even seemed to be considering that the PoCs might be Asian and not black.

Yes, people of color are oppressed in this world, but it seemed to me that the descriptions in the book were more typical of what you might expect to see of someone who was Middle Eastern or maybe Mongolian, and not someone who was black, which would make sense since this is set in an alternate Russia. My friend Alice has an original copy that she was comparing against the finished copy at the time of my reading this, and the final changes aren't even that different from the original and don't even seem to be describing traits that are obviously black, in my opinion.

Basically, publication was delayed and digital ARCs were pulled after some preliminary readers alleged that there were passages in this book that were, according to the articles I read summarizing the issue, 'anti-black.' After a small but vocal minority of people decried this book- either overtly or subtextually- as being racist or problematic, the author took it upon herself to remove the book from circulation and make the necessary edits before resubmitting the book.Ī lot of people who were talking about this book being racist hadn't actually read the ARC and were just quoting the statements of the people who had. It's impossible to discuss this book without addressing the controversy surrounding it.

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