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I get messages and emails from people...
- 27 June, 2026
- Emily Kimelman
Who are upset about the way that Sydney Rye acts, and it's never because of how she kills someone. It's because of some other way that she behaves—the way she lies, the way she cheats. They feel like that's crossing a line.
And I think it's because we—all of us—can lie and cheat. We can all do morally reprehensible things with our words and our actions that are very far from killing. These readers don’t complain about the killing because it’s so far from what they can see themselves doing. But when Sydney does things they could see themselves doing, they feel the need to let me know that she shouldn’t do those things. That she is wrong, and a bad representation of a feminist hero.
I think it's really important to remember that feminism is about equal rights. It's that simple: men and women having equal rights. The second we try to put women in a box and say what a woman has to be in order to be a good feminist—beyond standing up for and fighting for equal rights—we are bending to the patriarchy.
I recently saw a video by a child's play therapist who said that when kids come into her office and play with weapons, it's not because they want to hurt other people. It's because they are struggling to understand power and how to wield it.
And that's what Sydney Rye is for me and my readers. You don't have to agree with the way she does it. In fact, the less you agree with her, the more it's going to help inform what you actually believe is the right way for you to gain power.
But every time you think she's doing it wrong, that’s a good moment to stop and ask yourself: why is that the wrong way for a woman to gain power? If a man was doing it, would I think it was the wrong way to gain power? When you are subjugated, is there a wrong way to gain power?
That last question isn't abstract right now. We're living under an authoritarian regime that's breaking every single norm—rife with corruption, illegally detaining people, committing war crimes, undoing generations of work, pushing our planet toward a much-warned-about and obvious environmental crisis.
They'll lie, cheat, steal, kill. They give no fucks. And we hold ourselves to constraints they obviously don't. We have the moral high ground because we do give fucks—and that moral high ground might take us right to extinction.
I don't think the answer is to become them. But I don't think the answer is to keep doing exactly what we've always done, either, while the rules get rewritten around us. Somewhere between those is a question every one of us has to answer for ourselves: what am I actually willing to do?
My hope with the Sydney Rye Mysteries is that when someone reads them, they feel more empowered afterwards than when they began. Not because it's a manual of how to act, but because the reader—like me—spends time contemplating their own power, and the lengths they can go to claim it, and where their own lines are.
Because knowing yourself, knowing what you're willing to do, is incredibly powerful.
📚 Pay what you want for the first 8 Sydney Rye Mysteries in ebook or digital audiobook. Save 40% on paperbacks:
emilykimelman.com/SR18
📚 Continue the adventure with books 9-12:
emilykimelman.com/SR912
📚 Catch up with books 13-15:
emilykimelman.com/SR1315
📚 Catch up with books 16-18:
emilykimelman.com/SR1618
📖 Order the newest book, Feral Vengeance, Sydney Rye Mysteries Book 19:
emilykimelman.com/FV
⛈️ Preorder Tempest Rising, Sydney Rye Mysteries Book 20:
emilykimelman.com/TR
**The release date is currently set for January 2027, but we hope to move it up and will share more via the newsletter.*
📙 If you’re all caught up with Sydney Rye, read A Spy is Born, Starstruck Thrillers Book 1:
emilykimelman.com/SB
📖 If you read book 1, Lone Spy, Starstruck Thrillers Book 2 is now available:
emilykimelman.com/LoS
☕️ If you’ve read all the Sydney Rye Mysteries and Starstruck Thrillers THANK YOU.
The best way to reward yourself for all of that reading is with your very own mug, tote, or wine tumbler with quotes from the books, check out my exclusive merchandise:
emilykimelman.com/Merch
💝 Want to share your love for Sydney and Blue? I have gift cards 😉: emilykimelman.com/GC
Keep being powerful...
Emily
P.S. I promise the dog doesn’t die…but I make no assurances about anyone else. 😈
P.P.S. You should unfollow me now if you have issues with "strong" language, sex out of wedlock, or LGBTQ+ characters. 👈 Top 3 things my one-star reviews complain about.
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