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Edinburgh Nights by T L Huchu
Jun. 4th, 2022 01:41 pmThe Library of the Dead and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
3/5. First two books in a series about a girl who can talk to the dead making her precarious way in Edinburgh long after some sort of apocalypse. She solves magical mysteries and barely clings to the ragged edge of survival.
I passively DNF’ed the second one in that way where you mean to finish it . . . right up until the library disappears it off your phone. It’s one of those things where my problem was that the book was doing something well. Specifically, our fourteen-year-old protagonist is extremely poor, like half a sneeze from homelessness poor. She’s dropped out of school and is functioning like an adult, because no one else can make rent so she has to, even though she is demonstrably not mature enough to handle a lot of what is thrown at her. And the books do a good job of showing how the system keeps her down, keeps her from even slightly improving her life no matter how hard she tries. Which is a real thing. But also, it got to the point where it almost felt like the books were victimizing her too, not just the system. And by the middle of the second book, I didn’t actually trust the books to give the kid a damn break for fucking once. Like ever.
They’re otherwise pretty good though? Creepy magic and a strong, distinctive voice.
Content notes: Child death, child harm.
3/5. First two books in a series about a girl who can talk to the dead making her precarious way in Edinburgh long after some sort of apocalypse. She solves magical mysteries and barely clings to the ragged edge of survival.
I passively DNF’ed the second one in that way where you mean to finish it . . . right up until the library disappears it off your phone. It’s one of those things where my problem was that the book was doing something well. Specifically, our fourteen-year-old protagonist is extremely poor, like half a sneeze from homelessness poor. She’s dropped out of school and is functioning like an adult, because no one else can make rent so she has to, even though she is demonstrably not mature enough to handle a lot of what is thrown at her. And the books do a good job of showing how the system keeps her down, keeps her from even slightly improving her life no matter how hard she tries. Which is a real thing. But also, it got to the point where it almost felt like the books were victimizing her too, not just the system. And by the middle of the second book, I didn’t actually trust the books to give the kid a damn break for fucking once. Like ever.
They’re otherwise pretty good though? Creepy magic and a strong, distinctive voice.
Content notes: Child death, child harm.