Read something else by TJ Klune instead!
1) I officially adore TJ Klune. – 2) I recommend skipping this book.
Yes. I hold both of these truths in the palm of my hand.
I adored the story. The characters. The voices. The plot. I adored Nick's hyperactive cluelessness. His completely over-the-line sense of humour. I adored his slippery brain parts, and the way he loves his friends. I adored the superheroes and supervillains arc, and the way it played with the canon. I adored the super queerness and everything about it. It's funny and darling, and stop-your-heart-sweet.
But it's also unabashed pro-police propaganda.
Like so many books I have read this summer, this is a Before-times book, written and edited before COVID, before the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and before the Defund the Police movement entered the popular consciousness.
In perhaps a nod to the superhero genre, there is a very present B-Plot about police and law enforcement, and the tension between superheros and cops. Nick's dad is a cop, as is a close family friend, and over the course of the narrative, cops are repeatedly referred to, un-ironically, as heroes who risk their lives to keep their city safe. The only references to police-instigated violence are a few crass jokes about police brutality and abuse of power. There's no acknowledgement that cops harass, arrest, assault, and kill a disproportionate number of Black and brown people within our communities.
I know from my own writing that it's tempting, as a white person, to include cops and try to show in the text that "these are the good ones." It's an example of white privilege that I didn't fully understand in myself until this summer; but by including cops and claiming that they are heroes or that they uphold the safety of the [ahem white] community we're presenting an argument in favour of their continued place in our communities, even when we are conscious of the danger cops pose to communities of color.
We need to set aside the idea that there are good cops. Law enforcement is an institution that perpetuates racism and modern incarnations of slavery. Cops were originally created to hunt down runaway slaves. Our laws have been designed specifically to target people of colour (example: drug bills criminalize drugs used by Black communities with higher punishments than "white-collar" drugs, eg crack vs coke, weed vs weed; example: laws criminalizing certain styles of dress as suspected prostitution.) Our prison industrial complex puts imprisoned populations to work as slave labour. And people convicted under these unfair systems often lose their rights to vote and to participate in our democracy.
And then there's the fact that police publicly murder our Black friends and neighbors on a painfully routine basis.
This summer, across the world, we have seen people and organizations speak out against systemic racism and police brutality. I've seen anti-racism declarations from publishers, bookstores, underwear brands. But when confronted with the opportunity to speak out against the violence committed by their fellow cops, and to declare that this is not what the police are about, police departments and individual cops across the country (and world) have marched against their fellow citizens, beating, arresting, tear-gassing, and threatening anyone who dares to speak out against police brutality.
Police organizations have allied themselves with the killers among them. And cops have been out on the streets, showing exactly which side they are on. Until and unless we see police holding police accountable, for hate crimes, assault, battery, and first-degree murder, we can let go the myth of the good cop who wants to keep their community safe.
The idea that we can shape our society with a structure that no longer includes cops and prisons is new to all of us. I can't fault Klune for falling prey to the same blindness of privilege that I myself held onto until quite recently. But given how painfully important it is that we change these systems now, while we have momentum and focus on our sides, I cannot recommend any piece of writing that reenforces the perceived positive roles of police in our communities.
There were elements about this book that I absolutely adored. I. Fucking. Loved. so.much. about this book that wasn't cop related. But after my own experiences with police violence this summer, the pro-police elements were so triggering I ended up in tears. I would love to get this book back, without this ugly film cast across it.
I really hope that Klune and the publishers explore a second printing with a major editing overhaul to better align with our world today. In the meantime, if anyone does a fan-cut to remove all references to cops, hit me up. I'm not even minutely kidding.
So much of this book is about Before and After, and unfortunately this is a Before-times story that really does not fit in the After.
Yes. I hold both of these truths in the palm of my hand.
I adored the story. The characters. The voices. The plot. I adored Nick's hyperactive cluelessness. His completely over-the-line sense of humour. I adored his slippery brain parts, and the way he loves his friends. I adored the superheroes and supervillains arc, and the way it played with the canon. I adored the super queerness and everything about it. It's funny and darling, and stop-your-heart-sweet.
But it's also unabashed pro-police propaganda.
Like so many books I have read this summer, this is a Before-times book, written and edited before COVID, before the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and before the Defund the Police movement entered the popular consciousness.
In perhaps a nod to the superhero genre, there is a very present B-Plot about police and law enforcement, and the tension between superheros and cops. Nick's dad is a cop, as is a close family friend, and over the course of the narrative, cops are repeatedly referred to, un-ironically, as heroes who risk their lives to keep their city safe. The only references to police-instigated violence are a few crass jokes about police brutality and abuse of power. There's no acknowledgement that cops harass, arrest, assault, and kill a disproportionate number of Black and brown people within our communities.
I know from my own writing that it's tempting, as a white person, to include cops and try to show in the text that "these are the good ones." It's an example of white privilege that I didn't fully understand in myself until this summer; but by including cops and claiming that they are heroes or that they uphold the safety of the [ahem white] community we're presenting an argument in favour of their continued place in our communities, even when we are conscious of the danger cops pose to communities of color.
We need to set aside the idea that there are good cops. Law enforcement is an institution that perpetuates racism and modern incarnations of slavery. Cops were originally created to hunt down runaway slaves. Our laws have been designed specifically to target people of colour (example: drug bills criminalize drugs used by Black communities with higher punishments than "white-collar" drugs, eg crack vs coke, weed vs weed; example: laws criminalizing certain styles of dress as suspected prostitution.) Our prison industrial complex puts imprisoned populations to work as slave labour. And people convicted under these unfair systems often lose their rights to vote and to participate in our democracy.
And then there's the fact that police publicly murder our Black friends and neighbors on a painfully routine basis.
This summer, across the world, we have seen people and organizations speak out against systemic racism and police brutality. I've seen anti-racism declarations from publishers, bookstores, underwear brands. But when confronted with the opportunity to speak out against the violence committed by their fellow cops, and to declare that this is not what the police are about, police departments and individual cops across the country (and world) have marched against their fellow citizens, beating, arresting, tear-gassing, and threatening anyone who dares to speak out against police brutality.
Police organizations have allied themselves with the killers among them. And cops have been out on the streets, showing exactly which side they are on. Until and unless we see police holding police accountable, for hate crimes, assault, battery, and first-degree murder, we can let go the myth of the good cop who wants to keep their community safe.
The idea that we can shape our society with a structure that no longer includes cops and prisons is new to all of us. I can't fault Klune for falling prey to the same blindness of privilege that I myself held onto until quite recently. But given how painfully important it is that we change these systems now, while we have momentum and focus on our sides, I cannot recommend any piece of writing that reenforces the perceived positive roles of police in our communities.
There were elements about this book that I absolutely adored. I. Fucking. Loved. so.much. about this book that wasn't cop related. But after my own experiences with police violence this summer, the pro-police elements were so triggering I ended up in tears. I would love to get this book back, without this ugly film cast across it.
I really hope that Klune and the publishers explore a second printing with a major editing overhaul to better align with our world today. In the meantime, if anyone does a fan-cut to remove all references to cops, hit me up. I'm not even minutely kidding.
So much of this book is about Before and After, and unfortunately this is a Before-times story that really does not fit in the After.