The Political Correctness Grade will be determined by using a Pass/Fail System, with ‘Pass’ meaning the writing of a sane honest writer not in the thrall of PC, nor intimidated by it, nor wanting to employ PC for virtue-signaling aimed at social or career climbing.
In addition, an overall letter grade is provided summing up all other aspects of the book’s writing.
Political correctness grade for 'Hush': Pass
After you peel away the layers, political correctness is primarily about race, with PC trying to impose a moral racial hierarchy that presents a false narrative, an untrue picture of our society, looking toward a happy future Multi-Cultural Marxist utopia--which of course will be a nightmare. Although usually making an exception for the protagonist and his or her love interest–after all most writers and readers of such novels are European ethnics--Whites are presented on the bottom of that hierarchy.
Believe it or not, I do not harbor any ill feelings toward various other races or ‘lifestyles,’ but am highly critical of the PC agenda that has been imposed upon us for decades. Of course, the center of the PC Dark Star is Hollywood. Long ago PC also took over our educational system, and so forth. You can find it everywhere, including the lion’s share of all fiction. For example, I’ve about given up on courtroom thrillers because they usually deal with big city politics and therefore are usually mind-numbingly PC.
Awhile back I began reading one police detective thriller that soon started describing the best friend of the protagonist hero. This was his good buddy back in school. Handsome. Brilliant. Personality plus. Upon leaving school he had become a professional major league quarterback. And a European American! What gives? Well, I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m too familiar with PC to be fooled. Kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And sure enough it did. This perfect friend, ultimate buddy, a paragon of looks, talent, intelligence, athletic ability and personality was ... gay. Obviously this set of circumstances would not be impossible in the real world. It is just that authors MUST make such choices over and over again in almost all fiction. It becomes unintentionally comical.
Of Course, if any one of us, in our nonfiction lives, were to go about our daily activities we could quite possibly run into such exemplary examples of various racial and lifestyle minorities. That is why a couple of minor examples of this in one book, like 'Hush,' can still get an author a passing grade.
In the case of 'Hush,' there are the two homicide detectives, the Black one, of course, with the “kind eyes.” There is also the next-door neighbors at the vacation house who are predictably the salt-of-the-earth wonderful gay couple.
The first example again demonstrates that multiracial societies do not work. How so?
Because they fail the test of reversibility. If you had two homicide detectives and you, as the author, made the point that the White one was the one with “kind eyes” it would be, if not ‘racist,’ a very suspect choice. Even when it comes to lifestyles you run into some of the same problems. If you were to include a gay couple in your novel and they were complete jerks, readers would wonder why in the world you had made such writing choice. In general, straight White, especially men, especially Christians are the only ones permitted to be seriously flawed.
Otherwise there would be a fermenting speculation. Hmm, could you be a ‘hater’? What in the heck is wrong with you anyway? As the Church Lady might ask, “Could it be ... SATAN?!” Maybe you are the type who become unglued at the mere thought of a happy festive LGBTQ rainbow pride parade? All of which edges you closer to being The Pariah–someone who dwells on the Dark Side.
LGBTQ aside, race remains the true ‘third rail,’ where being un-PC can destroy your career, your social life, including marriage prospects, and income, which is how it was designed. A person on the Left might smirkingly ask, ‘You mean a conspiracy?’ Well, some things can be accomplished because some people are working in semi-concert because they see those things as benefitting themselves or even required for their survival, but that is not necessarily saying that everything is–all together now–‘one big conspiracy.’ Or another fun way to answer the Left today on this conspiracy charge: You mean like the Trump campaign Russia! Russia! Russia! collusion conspiracy? Supported by, to date, no actual shred of hard evidence?
On the over all writing grade for 'Hush': B
A ‘B’ may sound lackluster, but it is a good solid well earned B. I’m not like one of those blurb-type writers who enthuse about every book they read as if each one is the best book they ever read.
Somehow it seems surprising to yours truly that there are so many women who write crime thrillers. However the more good writers--both women and men--the better. Some of the female crime and suspense thriller authors tilt in the direction of appealing more to women readers, which is true of 'Hush,' and of course, there is nothing wrong with that.
'Hush' is smoothly and professionally written by a successful author of many books, a work of good pacing, at different times quietly suspenseful and a full-throttled thriller. There are also flashes of sparkling humor, such as the main character, Lake Warren, describing a section of New York City as a combination of Old New York and 'Blade Runner.'
As they say, a good read, much appreciated by this humble blogger.
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