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A review by arielmerm8
The Free People's Village by Sim Kern
5.0
ARC BOOK REVIEW
I read this book as part of the #transrightsreadathon 2023.
"...all xir energy and vibrations are still ricocheting around inside me, setting off chain reactions down a zillion quantum pathways, echo-
ing out in the world, influencing the universe forever."
In an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. But really, not much has changed. Corporations and rich white people still make all the rules and bend or break them without consequences. Meanwhile, marginalized people are still criminalized and live in poverty.
The book follows a young disillusioned teacher, Maddie, who finds her place at the Lab, an old warehouse in the poverty-stricken Eighth Ward where she teaches. There, she connects with Red, with whom she quickly falls in love, along with several other people who become her found family throughout the course of the book. When the Lab is slated to be torn down for a new "green" highway, she joins the fight to save the neighborhood.
This book is a powerful statement about capitalism, colonialism, and revolution. While Maddie begins the fight for selfish reasons (to stay with Red and keep her safe haven) she begins to become "radicalized" by the movement. While her romance with Red was an important part of her story, I actually feel like the most meaningful person to Maddie's growth was Gestas, her trans band mate and a self-proclaimed anarchist. It's through Gestas that she educates herself and sees beyond herself. And then through her friendship with Shayna, the main organizer of "Save the Eighth," she learns to keep fighting even if you keep losing.
This book tipped the scales for me from being personally anti-capitalist in thought, to wanting to find ways to be anti-capitalist in practice! Not everyone in Sim's book gets a happy bow-wrapped ending (quite the opposite), and yet it still left me with hope. A hope that each new fight makes a difference in the long run.
*******
I received this eARC from Netgalley, publisher Levine Querido, and author Sim Kern in exchange for an honest review.
I read this book as part of the #transrightsreadathon 2023.
"...all xir energy and vibrations are still ricocheting around inside me, setting off chain reactions down a zillion quantum pathways, echo-
ing out in the world, influencing the universe forever."
In an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. But really, not much has changed. Corporations and rich white people still make all the rules and bend or break them without consequences. Meanwhile, marginalized people are still criminalized and live in poverty.
The book follows a young disillusioned teacher, Maddie, who finds her place at the Lab, an old warehouse in the poverty-stricken Eighth Ward where she teaches. There, she connects with Red, with whom she quickly falls in love, along with several other people who become her found family throughout the course of the book. When the Lab is slated to be torn down for a new "green" highway, she joins the fight to save the neighborhood.
This book is a powerful statement about capitalism, colonialism, and revolution. While Maddie begins the fight for selfish reasons (to stay with Red and keep her safe haven) she begins to become "radicalized" by the movement. While her romance with Red was an important part of her story, I actually feel like the most meaningful person to Maddie's growth was Gestas, her trans band mate and a self-proclaimed anarchist. It's through Gestas that she educates herself and sees beyond herself. And then through her friendship with Shayna, the main organizer of "Save the Eighth," she learns to keep fighting even if you keep losing.
This book tipped the scales for me from being personally anti-capitalist in thought, to wanting to find ways to be anti-capitalist in practice! Not everyone in Sim's book gets a happy bow-wrapped ending (quite the opposite), and yet it still left me with hope. A hope that each new fight makes a difference in the long run.
*******
I received this eARC from Netgalley, publisher Levine Querido, and author Sim Kern in exchange for an honest review.