Review: Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Review of Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse (5800 words)

Apex Magazine, Issue 99 : Purchase or Read Online

This story won a Hugo and a Nebula! It's an extremely interesting story with a second person narrative. As the story continues, the second person narrative choice starts to make it even more engaging and immersive.

Jesse Turnblatt (but Trueblood at work because "authentic") is You, and you work at a VR company that Tourists visit for an "authentic Indian" experience. Jesse is indigenous, but the experiences they create for visitors is anything but. Based on Hollywood movies and a convenient version of Indian life, it's simply a place he works a job for money - no other deeper connection to his actual heritage, because the Experiences aren't based on reality to begin with.

A white man comes for an Experience, and says he needs a friend. Jesse does too. So he gives him the benefit of doubt. All he wants is a stable home life and some measure of security, but the white man insidiously inserts himself in his life and home. Erasure, cultural appropriation and systematic gaslighting is real - in this story and in the world. This story isn't just well-thought out and detailed science fiction, it's also a hard-hitting social commentary that hits too close to home for many people who have been marginalized over the decades and centuries past. A must-read.


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