Discussion: Problematic Content in Historical Fiction

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts the other day, and they started talking about Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, a book which remains the only Steampunk novel I’ve actually enjoyed. I admit I was a little taken aback when the hosts mentioned that they had a problem with the way Priest talked about Chinese-Americans in the novel. Many of her characters are outright racist, but then what else would you expect from the Civil War era? I hadn’t batted an eye-lid at it when reading.

But as I started thinking about it, this is something I have noticed people critiquing other historical fiction for as well. Specifically the two things I most often see historical fiction critiqued for is racism or inclusion of asylums.

As I am right in the middle of reading a historical fiction novel with some extremely offensive language right at this moment, I thought I would take a second to weigh in.

First of all, let me start by saying that we can not go back and change the past. Like or not, people in the past made mistakes. They were racist, they were anti-gay, they didn’t know how to handle mental health problems, they killed people who were inconvenient to them. The past SUCKED. I don’t know why it is that we are so drawn to it, but there it is.

So the way I see it, any author writing a historical fiction novel has three choices for how to deal with history’s problems:

1. Ignore the problem all-together. Make everyone white, straight, and healthy.
2. Put the diversity in there, but make your characters okay with it, even if that means losing some authenticity.
3. Write your novel authentically, even if that means leaving in some problematic content.

Review: Boneshaker

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Series: The Clockwork Century
Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Fiction
Maturity Level: 3+
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

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In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

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Boneshaker is probably the best reviewed and most popular Steampunk Novel out right now, so possibly my expectations were a little too high. Truthfully, I was slightly disappointed. While it was a lot of fun, very interesting, and extremely well-written, it wasn’t quite as suspenseful as I was anticipating. While I loved Briar and reading from her point-of-view, Zeke annoyed me and I did not look forward to reading his perspective. The friends Briar made along the way were appropriately crazy and eclectic, but the main antagonist, Minnericht, was not particularly frightening.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but I probably wouldn’t read it again. Still searching for that just-can’t-put-it-down Steam-punk Novel.

How I Choose My Books Tag

There is basically no rhyme or reason to the way I choose books. Sometimes I take recommendations, sometimes I just spot a book in a store that looks interesting, sometimes I seek out a particular kind of book. So this tag should be fairly interesting! Thanks to The Orangutan Librarian for tagging me!

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Find a book on your shelves or ereader with a blue cover. What made you want to pick up this book?

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I was actually working at Borders Books when they went out of business, and I got this book during the liquidation sale. 40% off! I wanted to read Sherlock, and this was the first I’d ever seen that was a stand-alone.