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In reviewing my blog stats today, I saw someone had read an article I wrote back in February 2019 called Amélie Wen Zhao, “Blood Heir,” and Social Justice (or is it vengeance).

Apparently, even before Amélie Wen Zhao’s book was published, a whole bunch of self-righteous online pundits accused Zhao of writing an anti-black tome which should, from their perspective, be shunned and never see the light of day. You can click the link I provided for the details, but among the bullies I was was able to find on twitter were Ellen 오 Oh and Paige Cee (Cee had made her twitter page private during the backlash against her, but I see now it’s available).

Unfortunately, after being brutally and unjustly attacked, Zhao did the worst thing she could do. She apologized to her abusers. Metaphorically speaking, this is like the victim of domestic violence apologizing to the person who has beaten her black and blue with their fists.

Fortunately, five months later, in my article Amélie Wen Zhao’s Fantasy Novel “Blood Heir” Available November 2019! I saw she’d had a change of heart and stopped giving her assailants power over her.

Indeed, Zhao’s novel became available that November. Good for her.

Checking out the Amazon reviews for Blood Heir, I see that 85% of them are 4 and 5 stars. That’s pretty impressive.

I did check out the 1 and 2 star ratings, since one of the ways to “game” Amazon and make a book unpopular is to troll the reviews. Most of the 1 star reviews just said they didn’t like the writing, which is fine. I mean it could be trolling, but then again, people have different tastes in stories, but there was this one titled “hypocrisy:”

her so called cross cultural perspective inspired her to be critical of Donald trump but not to say a word against Winnie the Xi. super enlightening.

I was waiting for reviews that overtly brought race and politics into the criticism, as if to say, “You must meet the social justice litmus test in order to be a ‘good’ book.”

This is why I tend to like older forms of entertainment that simply believe in telling a good story (there are exceptions, but you have to search for them).

Now I’ve never read Zhao’s book, but it is available at my local public library. I’m going to pick it up and see for myself. It’s possible I won’t like it for a variety of reasons, but that will be based on the quality of writing and storytelling, not some thuggish assault of a person who’s probably really nice and just wanted to write a book.

I’ll write a review after If read “Blood Heir.” Oh, more good news. Blood Heir is now a trilogy.

As for all you online punks and jerks, go * bleep * yourselves.