The Dark Winter

I’m not usually one to take issue with this, but… not a single character in this story was likable, and it made it so I couldn’t appreciate anything about the story itself, though the writing was technically good.

Brenda, is confronted with her complicity in her fiancée’s trauma (related to racist police violence), and she chooses to remain obstinate, doing something just to appease her partner and skirt around the issue of racism instead. Liz is repeatedly informed that her attitudes are harmful and her treatment of women is unacceptable and gross, but she makes excuses and eventually sexually assaults someone. Olivia is shown vilifying her son’s former wife for choosing to leave Olivia’s son when he was accused of sexually abusing his own children.

As I read how these issues were wrapped up, I was left wondering if the author meant for the victims to be seen as the ones who were actually in the wrong. The problematic characters don’t self-reflect, they get defensive and shrug it off, then the topic disappears, and the problematic themes are glossed over. Status quo.

I desperately wanted somebody to learn from the mistakes they were making, or for the sensitive issues to move the plot forward somehow, or to at least make space for character and relationship growth, but the but the book ends and nobody has made efforts to internalize critical feedback, let alone change their behavior.

cw: racism, classism, rape, attempted rape, religion based homophobia