The Touch of Twilight (Signs of the Zodiac Series #3)

The Touch of Twilight - Vicki Pettersson I am working my way through this series at a pretty rapid rate because it is enjoyable and each book leaves unanswered questions and problems that need a solution. Each book makes the world larger but still leaving the reader wanting more.As much as I like this series I do have a few continuing issues. This is now the third book in the series and beyond a brief mention in book one, the world is still all White. This is absolutely unrealistic for a city like Las Vegas and speaks very much to the authors belief in White supremacy. If you cannot even imagine people of colour, in a world of your creation, it means that we are less than nothing in her mind. The same erasure of course exists for the GLBT community in this book, with the exception of the following line: "I wasn't going to get into a conversation about transgenders with a kid who read National Geographic for the boobies."(emphasis mine) pg. 177The use of the word transgenders is absolute dehumanizing though not surprising considering how Pettersson through around the word hermaphrodite in the first book. If I find her choice of words upsetting, I cannot imagine how much more so people who are gender variant find them.Much of the book centered around the fact that the zodiacs get their importance from their mothers rather than their fathers. As much as this series is about light vs dark it is also matriarchy vs patriarchy. Often this question does not arise in society let alone the media. If you doubt it question why it is most children carry their fathers last name and why it is always a concession to add a mothers name using a hyphen. In much of what Joanna/Oliva does she is directly withstanding her fathers claim on her identity. When we think of the rise of things like purity balls this can be seen as transgressive. Does the daughter naturally belong to her father until ownership can be transferred to a husband or does the daughter have a right to choose her mother or even herself? Indirectly I would say that these are question that Pettersson is seeking to explore with this series.Read More