The Safekeep: Yael van der Wouden
A critical look at this book
One trend I dislike is the suppression of negative reviews. Many folks who enjoyed this book might feel unhappy with my review, and so I paywalled it. Too often, fans and creators alike bash anyone who dares post one (even those from professional reviewers), and it’s creating a world in while reviews cannot be trusted, everyone gets a gold star for effort, and we (including professional writers) don’t get the feedback necessary for improvement. Abuse should be rightly shut down and ignored, but it’s also necessary to differentiate between abuse and less than glowing reviews.
I spent a long time deliberating this review. In it, I discuss queerness and heteronormativity, and I was genuinely afraid of offending folks who take this book as being representative of #diversity and #queer, when the book is simple entertainment. My fear wasn’t unfounded because I received several harassing messages and several that had false information, and a fellow queer woman left a comment saying “we both …