The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
Jan. 27th, 2011 12:16 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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50books_poc#7: The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez.
Succinctly: a race conscious, lesbian feminist take on vampires. I'm not quite sure how much I liked this. I love the idea of queer vampires of color, and it has a strong beginning, but it doesn't always keep to the same level. In part, I think this my own subjective response. Sometimes the vampire aspect seems mostly an excuse for Gilda to live a long time. Gomez's vampires go out in the sunlight just fine as long as they have some of their native soil on them. In fact, native soil can apparently solve just about any obstacle a vampire might have. Not only that but drinking blood is overall a neat and tidy operation. The vampire can close up the wound as if it were never there, and they can leave good memories or new resolve in the victim's mind. In fact, the whole thing is presented as being good for both parties. I was personally unnerved. Going into someone's head and changing their thoughts without their permission, even if it's supposed to be beneficial, strikes me as skeevy. Gomez has apparently heard criticism of this part, and defends this in the afterword. However, I wasn't convinced.
Gomez's protagonists are safe vampires. Sometimes I wondered what the point of them being vampires was. Honestly, for me the best parts of the novel were when Gilda and the other nice vampires were facing evil vampires, who like killing and terror instead of affirming life like the heroes because I felt there was some meaning to the vampire aspect. Also, Gomez is good at writing tense action scenes despite that for the majority of the book she chooses not to.
Gomez's protagonists aren't sexy vampires either. There's some sexuality in the book, but it all feels very safe and gentle.
Plenty of people are probably scratching their heads, wondering why I have a problem with not killing and happy sex. I imagine that a good number of people love these aspects. I' m sure I would too... if it weren't a vampire story. I want danger in my vampire stories. I want sexual tension. It's not a flaw in the writing, it's just a disconnect between the writer and this reader.
Don't think the book is bad, or that I didn't enjoy myself. I liked the way Gomez honestly addresses race, parts of the novel are very exciting, and the speculative fiction bits at the end were well done. I think many people will enjoy it much more than I did.
Succinctly: a race conscious, lesbian feminist take on vampires. I'm not quite sure how much I liked this. I love the idea of queer vampires of color, and it has a strong beginning, but it doesn't always keep to the same level. In part, I think this my own subjective response. Sometimes the vampire aspect seems mostly an excuse for Gilda to live a long time. Gomez's vampires go out in the sunlight just fine as long as they have some of their native soil on them. In fact, native soil can apparently solve just about any obstacle a vampire might have. Not only that but drinking blood is overall a neat and tidy operation. The vampire can close up the wound as if it were never there, and they can leave good memories or new resolve in the victim's mind. In fact, the whole thing is presented as being good for both parties. I was personally unnerved. Going into someone's head and changing their thoughts without their permission, even if it's supposed to be beneficial, strikes me as skeevy. Gomez has apparently heard criticism of this part, and defends this in the afterword. However, I wasn't convinced.
Gomez's protagonists are safe vampires. Sometimes I wondered what the point of them being vampires was. Honestly, for me the best parts of the novel were when Gilda and the other nice vampires were facing evil vampires, who like killing and terror instead of affirming life like the heroes because I felt there was some meaning to the vampire aspect. Also, Gomez is good at writing tense action scenes despite that for the majority of the book she chooses not to.
Gomez's protagonists aren't sexy vampires either. There's some sexuality in the book, but it all feels very safe and gentle.
Plenty of people are probably scratching their heads, wondering why I have a problem with not killing and happy sex. I imagine that a good number of people love these aspects. I' m sure I would too... if it weren't a vampire story. I want danger in my vampire stories. I want sexual tension. It's not a flaw in the writing, it's just a disconnect between the writer and this reader.
Don't think the book is bad, or that I didn't enjoy myself. I liked the way Gomez honestly addresses race, parts of the novel are very exciting, and the speculative fiction bits at the end were well done. I think many people will enjoy it much more than I did.
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