This is super cute. It's not often you'll see a hijabi/niqabi in manga (we're usually in the background when the characters go to Muslim countries lolThis is super cute. It's not often you'll see a hijabi/niqabi in manga (we're usually in the background when the characters go to Muslim countries lol) so it's nice seeing it here. The relationship between the girls is cute and I like how it feels authentic to Muslim life/culture....more
I’ve been on a book reading slump. I just can’t find myself excited about reading anything and keep pushing back books that are waiting for me at the I’ve been on a book reading slump. I just can’t find myself excited about reading anything and keep pushing back books that are waiting for me at the library. I’m sure I’ll eventually get out of this slump, but I felt like I should mention that before I start this review because my slump, might be one of the reasons why I didn’t care for the Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth.
That being said, Roth has always been an author that I’ve enjoyed. Everything I’ve read from her has gotten three stars because the potential is there, but there were problems. However, I’ll still pick up a book of hers if I see it because I know there will be something compelling in it.
I can’t say that this happened for Roth’s adult novel, Chosen Ones. I’ll be honest with you. At about 35%, I got fed up with the story and stopped reading it. This didn’t feel like Roth novel to me. I don’t know what happened, but this was a chore to get through from the beginning and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way from a Roth novel.
Chosen Ones is a story about five adults, who as teens, defeated the Dark One. All of them suffer from the after-effects of that battle and try to live their life, only for their past to catch up to them.
Our main character is Sloane who is described as a blonde bombshell who doesn’t give a f. (It’s Ramadan, I’m not going to swear) She’s angry, she lashes out, and she’s so hot that you just want to f her.....If you don’t believe me, there’s an article at the beginning of the novel where a male journalist decides to be a total creep as he talks about how much he wants to bang Sloane even though he doesn’t like her.
That article...it didn’t feel like a real article that I’d see in any publication. It felt more like a way for Roth to tell us how Sloane is without actually showing it to us.
This brings me to problem number one with the story. There’s a whole lot of telling, but not showing. Even when topics about race play into the story, it’s done in a shallow way while trying to be deep.
For example, Sloane’s boyfriend is a black guy named Matt. He’s one of the Chosen Ones who played leader for the group. We’re told he’s the perfect guy. He helps out at fundraisers, participates in outreach programs and uses his platform to help those less fortunate. He’s a real golden boy, except he’s black and the world keeps trying to remind me of this fact. People hate on him and feel like Sloane and Albie, the two white members of the Chosen Ones, should get more praise for their work over Matt.
This is a compelling issue that I was looking forward to hearing about. As a Black person, this is something that I think a lot of Black folks will relate to. We need to work harder to be seen as someone of value and it is exhausting. And Sloane, in her third-person narrative, constantly tells us this fact.
Just remember now, the book just told us about Matt’s circumstance. As a Black person, I’ve now filled in the blanks because I can understand his struggles. But watch what the book does.
When the Chosen Ones are at an event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Dark Ones arrival, we see Matt signing autographs before taking his seat. This is meant to show that he’s fake-ish (kinda?) or always has to be on and in front of the cameras. He’s meant to be a dig at him, but we’ve just been told that due to his race and the comments he gets about his position in the group, he has to work harder to be recognized. If he didn’t sign the autographs or spoke to people during the event, he’d be chastised. But the book is making him signing autographs seen as a bad thing.
We’ve just been told a compelling aspect of Matt’s character, but now we’re meant to disregard it because we’re now being told something else. It wouldn’t surprise me if we learn that Matt isn’t the Chosen One, which is something he knew, so he had to prove his worth in other ways.
Sloane also tells us that Matt wants her to be okay and move on from her traumas. How he doesn’t see her for her and she’s tired of trying to be good enough for him. But Sloane also doesn’t know much about him either...I don’t get how they’ve been together for ten years and still be so shallow in their relationship.
He wants her to go to therapy and stop letting the past control her, this is seen as bad. She acts like a white saviour without understanding his struggles, but outside of Ines (another member of the Chosen Ones who is a lesbian and a non-entity in the novel) who calls her out about this, it’s generally glossed over.
It’s just such a strange dynamic in the story.
There’s also Esther, who is Asian and another member of the Chosen Ones, who is an Insta influencer. She’s constantly made fun of and whatnot, but outside of Sloane telling us that she butts heads with Esther and that Esther wears loads of makeup....there’s not much else with her character. So once again, as a fellow POC, I filled in the blanks that maybe Esther is trying to live her life like this so she doesn’t have to deal with her trauma and PTSD.
There’s one moment where Sloane mentions that underneath Esther’s pounds of makeup, she looks tired, but like that’s glossed over too.
Maybe this is discussed with more nuance later on in the novel, but as I said I stopped at around 35% because I got bored.
I kept having to fill in the blanks with regards to the characters, because the story kept telling us things without showing it, but also everyone is very one-note. This brings me to problem number two: This should never have been written in the third person.
This is a book that needed to be in the first person with multiple characters telling their story. Every one of the Chosen Ones should have been a narrator in this story.
Every character desperately needed a voice, because they were all one-dimensional. Even Sloane, who followed every “white woman who has issues” trope.
This isn’t the Roth I know and this book wasn’t it....more
I’ve watched only one season of the Bachelor, but I always found it to be a weird concept. The idea of 25 women vying for one man seems dumb and if I I’ve watched only one season of the Bachelor, but I always found it to be a weird concept. The idea of 25 women vying for one man seems dumb and if I was there, I’d be a bit closed off. I mean, how do you fall in love with a guy who 25 other people are trying to fall in love with? If I see him kissing up others or spending the night with them, while he says he might have feelings for me, then I’d be pissed off....that being said, the idea of having 25 men vying for my attention seems fun. I would probably feel uncomfortable with it, but if they want to love me then let them love me. And if they look good and have a great personality, then bring it on. What can I say, it’s hypocrisy at its finest and I’m okay with it.
Unless I’m the one being sought after, I find the concept strange, but it’s also fun to read about. I’ve read books where the MC was one of the contestants fighting for a chance to gain the attention of the ‘Bachelor’ but this might be the first one I’ve looked into that had the MC be the ‘Bachelor.’ The fact that the One to Watch also has backstage drama also raised my expectations for the book. Give me the Bachelor, meets UnReal, meets body positivity and you have all the makings for an awesome book.
So why the two stars....
Before I get to that, let me start by saying that since Corona happened, I’ve been on a book reading slump. Whenever I crack open a book, I just let it fall to the wayside and do something else. It’s been a struggle to read the books I have on hand. I did want to push myself to read and finish a novel though, so I found the One to Watch and pushed through. My slump may have contributed to my feelings towards the book, so I might come back to it one of these days and see if my feelings change, but as it stands now I had a lot of issues with Kate Stayman-London’s debut novel.
If I had to narrow it down, I’d say that the book suffered from three major issues; the Bachelor sections, the body positivity, and our resident MC. If that sounds like all of the book, then you’d be right. But breaking it down makes it easier for me to get my words across.
Let’s start with our MC, Bea Schumacher. Bea is a fat, fabulous, beautiful fashion blogger who is all about body positivity. Think Tess Holiday, minus the modelling. I loved that we had a MC like this, because it’s kind of rare. She’s happy with who she is, she won’t take crap for those who come for her looks and she’s all about raising people up and not tearing them down....
At least, I thought she’d be like this, but she isn’t. Bea comes off as judgmental, insecure and a bit of a sourpuss, which is fine. There is nothing wrong with being like this at all, nor is there anything wrong with feeling self conscious about your weight, but Bea is a body positive influencer who is massively popular for talking about how fat and fabulous she is, while also talking about fashion.
If someone like Tess Holiday became the Bachelorette and spent the entire time there feeling sorry for herself, talking about how men don’t like bigger women and how it’s hard being someone who is fat, while also shunning all the guys who are putting in the effort to get to know her, how would you feel? For me, I’d start to wonder if Tess’s brand of body positivity is just a front and she’s actually a super insecure person who hates being fat.
Bea is a fat woman, but that’s all she is in this book. She starts the book off as a shy wallflower, finds a beautiful cape and becomes a body positivity icon, but she also comes off as someone who is such a victim because she’s fat. I know this is coming off as harsh, but as someone who is overweight, I was expecting more from Bea.
If a guy doesn’t talk to her the way she wants, then it’s because she’s fat. If she’s invited to a new club, she can’t like it because she’s fat. If her best guy friend cheats on his fiance by sleeping with her and follows it up by ghosting her, then it’s because she’s fat. This sort of self-loathing, self-victimization of her fatness made me wonder why she got into being a body positivity spokesperson, because she hates being fat. She may say she loves how she looks, but she doesn’t. She just doesn’t and that was jarring for me, because I was expecting Bea to be fat, confident and fabulous.
I just kept thinking how I would feel if I saw this play out on TV and it just made me think that Bea’s entire brand would suffer from being on the show and acting the way she did. She also really dislikes skinny people, which makes no sense. She’s super judgmental towards those who are skinny or take care of their health. Did this endear her to me? No, it just made me feel like she was jealous because she aspired to be like them, but is just too lazy to put in the effort.
It just hurts, because as a bigger person myself I wanted Bea to not follow the fat person stereotype that we see in books, but she did.
Let’s talk about the Main Squeeze aka Bachelor part of the book. Bea is introduced to her 25 suitors who have no idea that she’s fat, this obviously comes off as a shock to the men because the show usually uses fit people on their show. Some of the men definitely act like jerks, but there were some who were written off because they were shocked to see Bea.
It’s meant to come off as a bad thing, but why? If you saw a store that sold candies for the past 21 years and then go in and find that they changed their store and it no longer sells candy, but turmeric infused kale chips, you would be shocked. And that is perfectly normal! But no, they were horrible people who couldn’t handle being with a fat woman, when it wasn’t like that at all.
Also, the men, aside from one, were men you’d expect to see in the Bachelorette. Fit, handsome and a mouth full of teeth. This was weird to me, because it felt like a sort of wish fulfillment thing. Also, Chris Evans wants Bea to date him so....it was hard not seeing it like this. There is a part when Bea asks for diversity, so they include a Black guy, an Asian guy and I think a South Asian guy, but I can’t be too sure. According to the producer, it’s the most diverse cast ever, but Bea complains she meant body diversity, which um...made me roll my eyes because it felt like white woman feminism.
Granted, I think at that point, I was just put off from Bea so everything she did started to annoy me.
The guys are pretty interchangeable and even though I wanted more from the Main Squeeze segments, it felt lacking of everything that makes the Bachelor the Bachelor. The only guys who get highlighted are the ones who are jerks, and the ones who give Bea woke points. There’s a guy who is asexual, there’s an Asian guy who has a non-binary child, there’s a younger Black guy who doesn’t have a stable job...., there’s a fat guy and there’s a French guy who will sleep with anyone who likes food. I wanted to feel like Bea was talking to these guys and wowing them with her personality and good looks, but she crumbled and didn’t interact with them. She went on the show and it felt like she wanted to pick a fight with everyone.
There’s one scene at the end with the final three guys that really made me annoyed. (view spoiler)[In Bachelor tradition, Bea spends time with the guy’s families and then can decide whether to spend the night with them or not. One guy refuses, because he doesn’t want to come off as like he wants Bea for her body, when he wants an actual relationship. Bea gets hurt by this and feels undesirable, even though he said he wants her but wants to take their time. The next guy turns her down because he has kids and doesn’t want them to see him smash someone on camera. Bea gets hurt by this and feels undesirable, even though he’s shown how interested he is and has a valid reason to not have sex on the show. But in true Bea fashion, she feels like they hate her for her fatness and that’s that. With the third guy, he accepts and they have a fun night of sexing. She then catches him with her producer and gets angry with him for sleeping around, when Bea tried to have sex with three different guys. So...I guess we’ll have to add hypocrisy on her resume too. Bea gets hurt by this betrayal and assumes that no one can love her...because she’s fat. (hide spoiler)]
I understand being depressed, I understand hating yourself when someone you likes doesn’t feel the same way. It’s a crappy feeling to have, but Bea makes this come down to her fatness so she can’t enjoy her life and she can’t enjoy the show.
I almost feel like if Bea was just a regular small town lady who got picked for the show, then I wouldn’t have a problem with how she behaved in the novel. But Bea is a fat positivity icon and she just falls flat to me.
It was frustrated. I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, but I couldn’t get over Bea’s characterization. She weighed the book down with her negativity. It was exhausting to read.
On the plus side, I am in the minority regarding my feelings towards this book. I did like the writing and how Stayman-London incorporated blog posts, tweets, text messages, etc...into the story and the concept did keep me engaged, but I just wanted more and didn’t get it....more
I first learned about The Duke and I by Julia Quinn after I watched the trailer for Shonda Rhimes’ new Netflix series, Bridgertons. I have friends whoI first learned about The Duke and I by Julia Quinn after I watched the trailer for Shonda Rhimes’ new Netflix series, Bridgertons. I have friends who were excited about the show because they love the books. To semi-quote one of them, “This is the best regency romance series, ever!”
As someone who has a hard time getting into romance novels, I thought I’d check it out since the trailer for the show looked good. (If you saw the actor who plays Simon then you’d know what I mean)
So I grabbed the book and started reading.
Right away, I thought the writing was inviting and grabbed my attention. I’ve read Regency or Historical-ish fiction before, but this was probably one of the easier ones to get into. It felt like a fun beach read, which I greatly appreciated.
Actually, it reminded me of a YA novels, only it dealt with adults. As someone who enjoys YA, I was all for this. It was a quick and easy read, but still had a lot of character to it.
And it also had insta-love, which is a YA and I suppose romance book staple......yay...
The Duke and I tells the story of Daphne Bridgerton who has been in the marriage hunt game for a long time. This causes Daphne’s mother to stress out and work overtime in order to find a respectable husband for her. But the more Daphne is put out in display, the more she feels like nothing will happen. People find Daphne to be too kind, so they’re unwilling to do anything to her.
Enter Simon Basset, a new Duke who has just entered the scene and is apparently a huge rake. A rake, a word you’ll see in this book quite a bit, is essentially a man who fools around....a man who rakes up a lot of hoes, if you will.
Simon is a good friend of Daphne’s eldest brother, who is also a rake, but you wouldn’t believe that they are close if you read the novel. You see, Daphne and Simon enter a plan to pretend to be engaged. This will allow male suitors to come to Daphne because now she’s hot goods, and Simon can turn matchmakers away since he doesn’t want to get married. Daphne’s brother hates the idea and starts attacking Simon for it.
I have older brothers as well, but the level of vitriol that Daphne’s brothers show Simon was crazy. It made me annoyed instead of feeling like this was cute. They were awful. I hated them all and just felt bad for Simon.
The two eventually get married due to Daphne’s manipulation and her brothers’ anger issues and this is where the book fell apart for me. I could get behind Simon and Daphne at first. I even though their banter in the beginning was quite cute. But the more I saw Daphne’s brothers, the less I liked the book. The more I saw Daphne always win, while Simon had to concede, the less I liked the book. The more I saw Daphne get comforted by her support the system, while Simon’s traumas were downplayed, the less I liked the book.
Then that famous scene happened (view spoiler)[where Daphne pretty much rapes Simon, with him crying out no multiple times as she did it (hide spoiler)] and I was completely done with the book. I finished it, but I started skimming it. It made it worse when Simon ends up apologizing first for everything and goes with Daphne, because he loves her too much. I’m not saying Simon was a good person or that he didn’t have issues of his own, he did, but the way the book frames him and frames this event does such a disservice to this romance.
It ruins it. It made me hate the Brigerton family and feel bad for Simon, who truly had no one to rely on so he went back to Daphne. I hated it.
I understand why this series is as popular as it is, since the writing is on point and everything flows really well. It’s a great beach read type novel, but the romance is insta-love and the relationship between Daphne and Simon was horrible. I might check out the series, because the actor playing Simon is fine, but this book was a hot mess.
In all honesty, had that scene not happened I think I might have rated the book a bit higher, but that scene and the way they treated Simon after was just heartbreaking. I felt bad for him. I really just felt awful and I don't think this is the feeling you're meant to have for the male lead who gets the girl....more
It was okay. Time Travel is a hard subject to cover and I think Blake Crouch did the best he could here, but it didn't pull me as much as Dark Matter It was okay. Time Travel is a hard subject to cover and I think Blake Crouch did the best he could here, but it didn't pull me as much as Dark Matter did....more
In a world where women don’t have much value, things change when a death spell shakes things up, both figuratively and literally. Two women, at differIn a world where women don’t have much value, things change when a death spell shakes things up, both figuratively and literally. Two women, at different points of their lives, have to now face the a changing world where they can now access magic that no one has seen before, while fighting against the patriarchy.
It sounds interesting, but now that I’m done with the novel I found The Women’s War to be incredibly frustrating book to read. It had so much potential to be a jam-packed book filled with political intrigue, action and romance with a strong feminist stance, but unfortunately, I feel like everything fell flat. Were all of these themes present in the novel, yes. Were they as rich as it needed to be for a fantasy book, no. We only saw things from a surface level and for a book like this, it didn’t work for me.
The action? Most of it happened off screen.
The romance? Fairly tame, which as someone who doesn’t care for romance, I didn’t mind this. But there’s only one healthy relationship shown in the book and almost everything else involves rape, so I would have liked more loving couples to counter that.
The strong feminist stance? ....our two main characters, Ellin and Alys, have to face off against two male antagonists who are so cartoonishly evil that they come off as flat and one dimensional. So, I guess both ladies have their YASSS QUEEN moment, but is it doesn’t come off as genuine.
Which brings me the political intrigue aspect of the novel. Ellin is a princess who loses all of her family during an earthquake. She has to become the Queen in order to squash a potential civil war between her cousin and uncle who hate each other. Her cousin is seen as a hero among the people, which probably means he has a lot of support. Except, he comes off as super evil and woman hating which makes no sense to me.
(view spoiler)[At one point, he pushes Ellin’s boyfriend to assassinate a foreign prince. The boyfriend is jealous that the prince, who was Ellin’s former fiance, is close to Ellin. Here’s the thing, the prince is the only way that Ellin can get a deal with his kingdom. Having him killed could cause trade breakdowns or war. Why did this male antagonist decide to go this route, knowing that it would hurt the country? He is ambitious, but he should be more political savvy. This is beyond stupid.
What’s worse is that instead of using the boyfriend to take down the cousin, Ellin sends him away. Why? Use him to show that the cousin tried to do something treasonous. Nobody thinks here.
Then, in a showdown between the two, Ellin says she’ll marry someone and he calls her a whore. This allows her to say he’s going against the Queen. She then kills him. This makes no sense. I get him being angry at her marrying a foreign leader, even if it wasn’t true, but to insult her in front of everyone makes no sense. Her killing him for it, makes no sense. In fact, the people of her kingdom might see her as a messed up person since she killed their hero.
But nothing happens. Please, make it make sense. (hide spoiler)]
With Alys, her father is the king and is in poor health. Her mother, who is the king’s former wife, created the death spell to give women power, which makes her a polarizing figure to the world. Her half brother is next in line for the throne and basically hates her. This hate makes him cartoonish too.
In order to protect her family, Alys travels to a new magic well to create a new spell. Only, she doesn’t do what she’s meant to and puts her kids in danger by not being with them.
(view spoiler)[As for the half brother, his hate for Alys makes no sense. He does lose a child due to the spell that Alys’ mom created, but he doesn’t really feel any real sense of grief or loss due to it. He also acts stupid, which is weird because he’s been trained to become the next king and thus have some knowledge of how to be a King. For example, he gives his niece, Alys daughter, to a foreign king in order to secure trade. Only, he gets angry at Alys and takes his niece away only to kill her.
I get being angry, but this makes no sense. You’ve lost your political tool by killing her. Why would he do this? It makes more sense for him to secure the marriage and use that to punish Alys, but no he just secures the marriage, takes the girl back and kills her. Now please explain to me how that other King is going to feel knowing that his potential bride is now dead? Would he continue trade talks? Would he maybe start a war over this?
Who knows, because the book doesn’t really cover this. These short term emotional outbursts could create devastating issues for the nation.
I just don’t get it. Please, make it make sense. (hide spoiler)]
Ellin does show some growth, but she’s still out of her element being the new sovereign Queen. Meanwhile, Alys is so taken by the new spells that she’s learning that she does forget about her family. It seems almost fitting that she hated her father for putting the kingdom before family, when Alys and her mother did the exact same thing.
There was a subplot that happened near the end that I was actually interested in, between Jinnel and Nadal. Unfortunately, that little piece of story doesn’t really go anywhere.
The entire novel just left me disappointed.
Oh, I should mention that there are good guys in this novel. I quite liked Zarsha, but the main ‘good guy’ is Alys’ brother, Tynthanal, who......*sigh* I kind of hated.
He falls in love for an older Abby, a discarded woman who is forced into sex work, and tells her this:
"But for now, just take it off. It's only you and me, and I assure you I won't be scandalized at the sight of a woman's hair."
Abbys have to wear heavy wimples and a cloak around their bodies...sound familiar? It seems like whenever there’s a novel about feminism, there’s always a subset of women who are so oppressed that they have to wear some sort of head covering. As a hijabi, I’m just tired of these tropes. When it comes to Muslim stories, there’s always this white boy who encourages the Muslim girl to shed her hijab off and embrace his way of life. Tynthanal’s entire purpose is to be that white guy, even though I don’t think he’s actually white in the book. He’s described as nut-brown, but who knows what nut this is referring to.
Either way, I was turned off by him immediately and found myself rolling my eyes.
There are good parts about this book. I really liked that conversation between Jinnel and the Prince of Nadal, along with Zarsha explaining how he’s just as much of a tool as Ellin. Nadal in general seemed like an interesting place, but we hardly see much of it.
Unfortunately, when it comes to everything else I feel like Jenna Glass didn’t dig deep enough and when it comes to fantasy novels, especially adult fantasy novels, you need a level of depth and richness that is just missing here. We only scratched the surface, which made everything weaker as a result....more
The book started off okay and Catherine House seemed like it had tons of potential to be something magical, but a lot of stuff I stopped at aroun 72%.
The book started off okay and Catherine House seemed like it had tons of potential to be something magical, but a lot of stuff didn't make sense to me. I don't mind a slow moving mystery, but I feel like the way for that to work is to have a MC be actively seeking out the truth.
Instead, our MC, Ines, is apathetic about everything. She's running away from trauma and feels like the only place she can be safe is if she's at the Catherine House. She has no where else to go, so a boarding college that spans for three years is just the thing she needs to restart her life and figure things out.
Only, Ines spends more time getting drunk, hungover and sleeping with different people every night. She hardly goes to class and sleeps her days away. I do understand that she's dealing with depression and PTSD like symptoms due to what she experienced, but if she feels like she has to stay at the Catherine House then why isn't she working hard to stay there?
There was never any real consequence for her for being this way. Her advisor would say she's acting lazy and undisciplined and she'd try to go to class, but at this point we've seen people get kicked out of the school for not performing properly. What makes Ines different that she can not care and still get a free pass.
Her roommate struggles to get good grades and obsesses over not getting kicked out; meanwhile, Ines is just sleeping her days away.
I do get that college will have teens experiment with drinking and sex, but it seemed so nonchalant in this world. Students would regularly be hungover and the amount of sex that happened here made me wonder how no one got an STD or ended up pregnant.
It just didn't make sense to me.
Back to Ines, her personality does lend her to be a great MC for a mystery novel. I do appreciate that she's a different character from most, but due to her apathetic and lazy nature, she ends up making the mystery move even slower because she doesn't care. She says she wants to know what the school is doing, but she doesn't really act like she does. I almost wish she started to stop being so meh about everything after the first group session.
For a novel like this, you expect to be captivated and hooked line and sinker. The fact that this is a story about two villains makes this ripe with pFor a novel like this, you expect to be captivated and hooked line and sinker. The fact that this is a story about two villains makes this ripe with potential.
Unfortunately, I just found myself bored by the entire thing. When it ended, I just went, "Huh?" Then I put the book down and wondered why I didn't drop this when I had the chance. Throughout the novel, I kept feeling like I was missing something. Something that made this story pop, something that would make me fall in love with it.
The Proudest Blue is a beautifully illustrated story about a girl's first hijab day. What I loved about the book is that usually this story would be tThe Proudest Blue is a beautifully illustrated story about a girl's first hijab day. What I loved about the book is that usually this story would be told by the girl who is wearing the hijab, but instead it's about her little sister who clearly loves her big sis and her sister's blue hijab.
The Queen of the Conquered is a book that will have you feeling a certain way.
I liked that Sigourney wasn’t a likeable character and while the writinThe Queen of the Conquered is a book that will have you feeling a certain way.
I liked that Sigourney wasn’t a likeable character and while the writing style is clunky, I did find myself enjoyed the story. For the most part. Sigourney’s kraft (magic in this world) allows her to see people’s minds, which means we have info dumps after info dumps about the people she interacts with. It can be frustrating, but I figured that this is what Sigourney probably deals with all the time. It might be fun to have a kraft like hers, which allows her to see into people’s minds and manipulates them, but it seems like you’d be forced to have info dumps whenever you talk to someone.
It sounds horrible and I think Callender did a good job in showing how such a power can dull someone’s sense of being. Sigourney doesn’t exactly live her life, she just goes through the motions even though she constantly tells us that she wants revenge. She seems to spend most of her time in other people’s heads, which blinds her to herself and her world.
It’s still clunky, but I found myself really liking what Callender was doing her and by the end of the novel I wanted more.
But, and there’s always a but, as I sat down ready to write a five star review, I started to think about the novel and the more I thought about it the less sense it made. The less sense it made, the more I found myself wondering why everyone did what they did when the answer to their problems was so easily found. And the more I thought about this, the more I wondered what was the point of all of this.
I already had some feelings when the twist happened, which I initially felt was well down despite being another info dump, but once again the more I thought about it the less sense it made.
(view spoiler)[When the twist occurs, it’s a smart one. Sigourney has been so focused on her island’s colonizers that she refuses to see her own people and their worth. It’s the same reason why she continues being a slave master when she shares the same skin as her kin.
But, and you knew this was coming, I started to think about the plans of the slaves and how they wanted their rebellion to go. And I kept thinking, “Why didn’t they bring Sigourney into their wing early on? Why raise her in this manner instead of leading to a better path?” Each time Sigourney waivers, she’s told to remember her goals and focus on the Fjern. Why? Why not allow her to waiver and start to change?
Sigourney stalled when she was with the Fjern, but the slaves stalled when it came to bringing her onto their side and creating a political leader who is actually for the rights of the slaves. Everyone had a compelling kraft, but it didn’t seem like anyone, side from Agatha, used it in a proper way.
Why didn’t Sigourney manipulate others and found out what was happening sooner? Why didn’t the slaves use their own gifts on Sigourney before all of this happened? Why did no one use their powers in ways that would actually push their goals?
Like I said, the more I thought about it the less sense it made. All of the actions from the characters could have been solved a lot earlier. And if it were, then so many slaves wouldn’t have had to die. Which then makes me think about the slaves who are leading the rebellion. They hate Sigourney for being a slave master and being just as bad as their white colonizers, but they too allowed their actions to kill their kin when there was a way to make sure everyone lived. (hide spoiler)]
So with all of that, I find myself on the fence. I did like the novel and wanted to see what Sigourney would do, but the actions of the characters here kind of made no sense when you really think about it....more
