I wanted to like Rivera, but the central conceit of letter writing fell through for me and I couldn't hack it.
I found The Poppy War brutal because of the way the protagonist's strengths were also her greatest flaws: every time someone said to her "you can't do that," she fucking did it. And up until the end, it's the only thing keeping her from being ground down to dust, but you can see it coming the whole time that someone's going to tell her "you can't do that!" for a good reason, and she's going to fucking do it, and she does. It's very 'hamartia'
Tried 'Jade City' and then was like "oh right, I *hate* The Godfather", so didn't get very far.
Love A Memory Called Empire, but I do wonder about its/the reader's feelings about complicity in the systems that oppress us. Like, did I end up going "oh well, can't fight city hall!" because it's the easiest conclusion, or because it's the book's conclusion?
Read the first two Dellamonica (even though on reading the first one, I was like, "Wait a second, is she heterosexual?" literally two thirds of the way through the book), keen to get my hands on the third.
Making a note to follow up on the Gladstone, Bear, and Cho, which I have meant to get to but haven't.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-08-07 04:33 pm (UTC)I found The Poppy War brutal because of the way the protagonist's strengths were also her greatest flaws: every time someone said to her "you can't do that," she fucking did it. And up until the end, it's the only thing keeping her from being ground down to dust, but you can see it coming the whole time that someone's going to tell her "you can't do that!" for a good reason, and she's going to fucking do it, and she does. It's very 'hamartia'
Tried 'Jade City' and then was like "oh right, I *hate* The Godfather", so didn't get very far.
Love A Memory Called Empire, but I do wonder about its/the reader's feelings about complicity in the systems that oppress us. Like, did I end up going "oh well, can't fight city hall!" because it's the easiest conclusion, or because it's the book's conclusion?
Read the first two Dellamonica (even though on reading the first one, I was like, "Wait a second, is she heterosexual?" literally two thirds of the way through the book), keen to get my hands on the third.
Making a note to follow up on the Gladstone, Bear, and Cho, which I have meant to get to but haven't.