4.25-4.5 🌟

Al-Gharbi persuasively demonstrates how we have never been “woke”. Weaving the literature of Pierre Bourdieu and contemporary examples, al-Gharbi lays the foundation and evidence of symbolic capitalists' hypocrisy and paradoxes in the United States. This is a hard read because it challenges assumptions about social justice and highlights how observations should emphasize actions over expressions/beliefs.

3.75⭐An informative, evidence-based critique of the over-reliance, over-funded, historically and conceptually racist purpose of the police in the US.

Less of a constructive framework on the actual end of policing and what comes after, and more so a deconstructive outlook on why + where policing is 1) not working and 2) alternatives for better options. Vitale discusses the myriad of places the police are insufficiently utilized and the historical conception, why the liberal police reforms are perpetuating the same harm or creating new ones, and provides alternative options with a leftist approach. From policing in schools to assistance with mental health and homelessness to sex work and war on drugs to border policing, Vitale purposely breaks down the overcriminalization police create by being the societal outlet for these communities and the continuous cycle of harm their participation brings. Organized well, I thought this was a fair, good approach to discussion and a well-informed argument to a lot of liberal and centrist takes when it comes to being pro-police, the ever-repeating: "well who else will help you if not the police?" I personally enjoyed how Vitale utilized social and economic data to deconstruct the pro-police arguments because it's always--always--about the fucking money.

Unfortunately, a few things stood out to me. While this is a book on ending policing, it is more so the end of overpolicing. Vitale clearly still supports some areas of where policing is "necessary", and I just can not with that. Additionally, while the history and breakdown of proposed police reforms (remember this was published in 2017) are well-constructed and highlights the reason for end of policing, some of his proposed alternatives almost have a "head in the clouds" ideology because of the amount of work we (the collective) will have to break the system before we can even get to the alternatives is less constructive. Many are ideal and Vitale argues well for them, but simply "voting the bad guy out" is not an option. He doesn't say this, but I would have appreciated as much time and effort explaining how to get to the alternatives too. Lastly, the elephant in the room is the State of Israel and it's undeniable impact of policing in America. While Vitale mentions Israel in the most surface level—as the youths say "nothingburger"—approach, it was clear this needed more time discussing or at least mentioning in the history and modern era of American policing. Again, published in 2017, but as an academic scholar, it felt like quite a choice to very blankedly mention.

Personally, while there are many alternatives that I thought were well-constructed and well-argued, I think it's important to mention my place when it comes to policing. I grew up with a single mom in a lower income area, and unfortunately we were targeted many times by men, attempting to break into and/or follow us home. I have stark memories of barricading our door as my mom called the police to "prevent" very bad people from harming us. One night, a car wouldn't stop following us so my mom parked in the police parking lot and we stayed/slept there for hours until the car stopped circling (notably, I remember my mother screaming at PD because they said they couldn't do anything, which is why we slept there). This is all to say, I grew up believing in the "safety" of the police from a different version of privilege until my late teens, early twenties, and have done lot of reconciliation and deconstruction on the true, factual harm and history of the police. I can say proudly shout ACAB all day (and I will, no problem), but there is still a lot of learning I'm actively doing myself, and so while I appreciate parts of this book and think it's an accessible introduction and worth reading, this in no way an end-all-be-all, and further reading is needed.

I received an e-ARC of this book for free and I am giving my honest review at 64% read. It is possible some of these criticisms get addressed later on in the book.

Our Rogue Fates somehow felt like everything was over-explained yet underwritten. The main characters just didn't feel particularly compelling to me - they lacked distinctive qualities and I often found myself questioning why the plot was happening, aside from the fact that this was a book and plot needed to happen.

We're told a lot about how Griff and Mal had a traumatic friend break up. I felt that very little groundwork was laid for the trouble between them, mostly people telling each other about the relationship and sulking on everyone's part. The drama between them felt immature and artificial, and lacked the thing that I'm pretty sure most people come to enemies-to-lovers stories for, which is catty dialogue, glaring and genuine anger and tension.

I can understand the idea of wanting to start them from a low point and having them kindle something from that, but the thing is: no one really wants to be in the same room with two people who no longer like each other and aren't talking to each other about it. Seeing two people who are enemies working toward a common goal can be compelling if the reader buys that the goal is important. However, the quest that Griff, Mal and Alys went on lacked that urgency.

The fight scenes were sometimes interesting, other times they wound to a grinding halt for developments that felt random and were perhaps meant to be humorous. I never felt I truly understood if anyone was any real danger because things seemed to happen mostly to hit the very worn romantic plot beats. I also felt an incomplete sense of how competent any of the characters were supposed to be, given their choices. There were some moments of horror and atmosphere that I liked, but they felt brief.

The sex scenes and romantic confessions were very by the book for anyone who's spent time on the M/M side of Ao3. I could give a lot of notes on that alone, because the romance and sex lacked the inventiveness, emotional vulnerability or character payoff I think most readers hope for.

I also have to pay special attention to the confusing relationship status between the two romantic lead and their lady bestie who mostly seems to be there to cheer them on and be quirky. Childhood best friends to enemies to lovers (to enemies? I didn't finish the book) seems exactly the kind of messiness I like, however, it came off as overly complicated and contrived. The narrative seemed to go through a lot of hoops to explain how these characters were best childhood friends who were then orphaned and then all raised together in order to justify the plot of them all going on a quest involving their dead parent.

Part of me just wants to say, just make the three main characters step-siblings or cousins, I don't personally care, just don't be a coward about it. The other part of me also says that but understands not wanting to court that controversy for your lighthearted romantasy. I can't be the only reader who made that connection, though, which means the controversy's already waiting with flowers on the doorstep. It should be dealt with. Something about all the family relationships just needed to be streamlined better.

On a craft level Our Rogue Fates is puzzling. There was a distinct lack of sentence variation which often made it a little difficult to read, and this is coming from someone who reads genres known for their wordiness. Sarah Glenn Marsh has been published in some franchise anthologies, so I assume there is more competence in her other works. This could be an editing issue considering it was an ARC, but over all I'm not sure how much the flow and narration can be fixed for a book that felt like it just lacked the sauce it needed to be delicious.

My final thoughts on this book before I decided to DNF were just that it felt like trying to read fanfiction about a set of characters I wasn't familiar with. Really, I could've started and ended it there.