lightreads (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightreads) wrote2021-04-11 01:46 pm
lightreads) wrote2021-04-11 01:46 pm
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What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
What Abigail Did that Summer
3/5. Rivers of London novella about what Abigail did when Peter was off in the countryside. Because I guess he's trying a YA spinoff since the American spinoff hasn't taken?
This is entertaining, and Abigail is delightful, but. But he wanted to put her in magical peril to make this adventuresome, but that's delicate when she's a kid and also when Nightingale is around to say anything about it. So the result is that, from Abigail's POV, she thinks she's colluding with a white woman in order to get what they both want, which involves Abigail walking into peril. And from my perspective, I see a white adult with a lot of power deliberately sending a black child into danger in order to rescue a white kid. Which Abigail does not see at all, and neither does the book, judging by the ending. So a big yikes on that one.
3/5. Rivers of London novella about what Abigail did when Peter was off in the countryside. Because I guess he's trying a YA spinoff since the American spinoff hasn't taken?
This is entertaining, and Abigail is delightful, but. But he wanted to put her in magical peril to make this adventuresome, but that's delicate when she's a kid and also when Nightingale is around to say anything about it. So the result is that, from Abigail's POV, she thinks she's colluding with a white woman in order to get what they both want, which involves Abigail walking into peril. And from my perspective, I see a white adult with a lot of power deliberately sending a black child into danger in order to rescue a white kid. Which Abigail does not see at all, and neither does the book, judging by the ending. So a big yikes on that one.
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But I am surprised at Aaronovitch. His own son is black, so you'd think he would be more aware of the dynamics. Plus, Aaronovitch is writing Peter, so he can't be less aware than Peter is, right??
I did love Abigail's last conversation with Nightingale. Thomas treats her with as much respect as he does Peter (maybe, at Thomas' age, they both seem equally children). He gives Abigail a strategic answer to her question, one that would matter to a grown combatant. It reminded me a bit of the dynamic between Holmes and Mary Russell when Mary was a child. They both know he's miles more expert, but he doesn't act like she's stupid.
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Yes, if the whole book had been about her and Thomas I would have eaten it with a spoon. He respects her mind so clearly, it's great. But he has to be offscreen for the plot to work. And I'm guessing we need Simon's mum to exist to set up the spinoff to run on a slightly different track, so it's not weird that her stories and Peters' only cross occasionally.
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