"Absurd racism" is a good descriptor of it. Because not only is it absurdly extreme, it's also absurdly absurd. Like what the fuck is this even, I have never seen anything like it before.
I've seen stories in which servants of whatever race stay with their now-relatively impoverished employers out of the goodness of their hearts, but in those said servants are always living in the house, so it's not like they're getting nothing material out of it. I've seen stories of various types in which servants sleep with their employers (really happened often too, and often it was pure exploitation but it wasn't rare for women to experiment with a guy they knew would be able to afford supporting a bastard child). But never where everything was so cavalier -- like yep, she's a dick-warmer, and she's happy to be. And then the bed warmers, which what? I keep expecting Quinn to tell Lestat about the time he stood on a street corner to wait for Godot.
As for the rest, yech. I've noticed that people have gotten far more gender essentialist in the past couple decades than they were when I was growing up in the 90s. Maybe it's the internet. But I'm glad I didn't grow up with it.
Also I still have no idea what the plot of this book is. Why are we meeting ANY other character now? From a story standpoint, I don't care about Petronia. I don't care about Mona. What happened to Rebecca? It's not like any of them are likely to matter, considering. It'd be nice if this book were about Goblin and Quinn and Aunt Queen. Instead it's a gigantic waste of the reader's time.
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I've seen stories in which servants of whatever race stay with their now-relatively impoverished employers out of the goodness of their hearts, but in those said servants are always living in the house, so it's not like they're getting nothing material out of it. I've seen stories of various types in which servants sleep with their employers (really happened often too, and often it was pure exploitation but it wasn't rare for women to experiment with a guy they knew would be able to afford supporting a bastard child). But never where everything was so cavalier -- like yep, she's a dick-warmer, and she's happy to be. And then the bed warmers, which what? I keep expecting Quinn to tell Lestat about the time he stood on a street corner to wait for Godot.
As for the rest, yech. I've noticed that people have gotten far more gender essentialist in the past couple decades than they were when I was growing up in the 90s. Maybe it's the internet. But I'm glad I didn't grow up with it.
Also I still have no idea what the plot of this book is. Why are we meeting ANY other character now? From a story standpoint, I don't care about Petronia. I don't care about Mona. What happened to Rebecca? It's not like any of them are likely to matter, considering. It'd be nice if this book were about Goblin and Quinn and Aunt Queen. Instead it's a gigantic waste of the reader's time.