ext_12708 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
jinian.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
50books_poc2010-11-04 03:06 pm
jinian.livejournal.com) wrote in 50books_poc2010-11-04 03:06 pm
Entry tags:
The Agency: A Spy in the House, Y.S. Lee
Despite the usual YA book-cover problem, I just bought a book with a young black woman on the cover, and she really is a character of color! The book is The Agency: A Spy in the House, by Y.S. Lee, and my further comments about the character's race are minor spoilers.
This cover did its job: it showed a person of color on the cover, and I bought it partly for that reason. (That, the Victorian setting, and the Secret Agent Girl trope were enough for me.) But it's a little weird that the very light-skinned black girl of the cover turns out to be half-Chinese! I think the artist was probably told, "this character is mixed race passing for white" and said "oh, okay then!" and made up the rest themselves. None of the non-US covers show Mary as anything but white (boo, Germany!), and most avoid the issue -- which actually I think is appropriate, given that it's a plot element. The character is cagey about her race early on, reminding me of a racism bingo square by saying that some Irish people have dark skin and hair (ha!), and the reveal is actually executed well. There's only one Chinese secondary character, who does not fare well, but he comes across as a real person; I think it works.
Overall, I liked the book. As the author says, having an academy for disadvantaged girls and a secret organization of women spies are good wish-fulfillment to combat the knowledge of the actual crummy roles available to women in the Victorian era, and if the romance wasn't all that believable the preponderance of female characters, their variety of relationships, and their story-driving agency outweighed that for me quite thoroughly.
This cover did its job: it showed a person of color on the cover, and I bought it partly for that reason. (That, the Victorian setting, and the Secret Agent Girl trope were enough for me.) But it's a little weird that the very light-skinned black girl of the cover turns out to be half-Chinese! I think the artist was probably told, "this character is mixed race passing for white" and said "oh, okay then!" and made up the rest themselves. None of the non-US covers show Mary as anything but white (boo, Germany!), and most avoid the issue -- which actually I think is appropriate, given that it's a plot element. The character is cagey about her race early on, reminding me of a racism bingo square by saying that some Irish people have dark skin and hair (ha!), and the reveal is actually executed well. There's only one Chinese secondary character, who does not fare well, but he comes across as a real person; I think it works.
Overall, I liked the book. As the author says, having an academy for disadvantaged girls and a secret organization of women spies are good wish-fulfillment to combat the knowledge of the actual crummy roles available to women in the Victorian era, and if the romance wasn't all that believable the preponderance of female characters, their variety of relationships, and their story-driving agency outweighed that for me quite thoroughly.