The rabbit hole that starts with this white author’s “Hoodlum” series being called out goes so, so much deeper.USA Today Bestselling author K.
Webster is in hot water after people outside of her immediate “Booktok” audience caught wind of her Hood River Hoodlums romance series.The series begins with Hood River Rat, a gay romance novel between a teen guy new to Hood River, Oregon and his bully, the leader of the “Hoodlums” gang.With Webster being white and “hoodlum” being a highly racialized term, the optics were less than stellar:Hood.
River. Rat.my jaw is on the floor pic.twitter.com/h9CEJzLu3h— ✨ Maya ✨ (@Thunder_reads) August 17, 2022The optics continue to deteriorate.The above TikTok shows the author excitedly displaying the most recent series installment, a prequel titled Hoodlum Heat featuring a Black member of the gang on the cover.Black Twitter was not feeling this at all:I wish you saw my face with the cover reveal I actually YELPED skakakshsb https://t.co/JlALReS75O— Bolu Babalola (pure) & (@BeeBabs) August 17, 2022Hood.
River. Hoodlums. pic.twitter.com/9QPgu57vmm— Samantha-Louise ☀️✨ (@sammiisammii_) August 17, 2022K Webster will not see heaven, that’s for sure.