Abandoned books, YA edition
Jun. 29th, 2019 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightreadsArchivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Good book, wrong time. This is a haunting and strange tale of a girl who is the designated ghost-catcher in a possibly post-apocalypse world. The writing is strong, but. The protagonist is the subject of such unrelenting awfulness. I counted, and I was at the 22% mark before anyone said something to her that wasn't actively cruel, and even that was complicated more than kind. I imagine that improves, but. Not right now.
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Oh man, this could have been so great. Secondary world where powerful men enter into triad marriages with two women, one to have the babies, one to be his political partner. You know, the pretty one and the smart one. But in this book, the two women – enemies from finishing school – fall in love with each other. Also there is a revolution and blackmail and spying and immigration politics and stuff. And yet I am abandoning it. The whole thing is subliminally annoying like a constant high-pitched noise. Which, come to think of it, also describes the pitch of tension and emotion, which is perpetually at, like, 13/10. Exhausting, and not very effective.
Good book, wrong time. This is a haunting and strange tale of a girl who is the designated ghost-catcher in a possibly post-apocalypse world. The writing is strong, but. The protagonist is the subject of such unrelenting awfulness. I counted, and I was at the 22% mark before anyone said something to her that wasn't actively cruel, and even that was complicated more than kind. I imagine that improves, but. Not right now.
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Oh man, this could have been so great. Secondary world where powerful men enter into triad marriages with two women, one to have the babies, one to be his political partner. You know, the pretty one and the smart one. But in this book, the two women – enemies from finishing school – fall in love with each other. Also there is a revolution and blackmail and spying and immigration politics and stuff. And yet I am abandoning it. The whole thing is subliminally annoying like a constant high-pitched noise. Which, come to think of it, also describes the pitch of tension and emotion, which is perpetually at, like, 13/10. Exhausting, and not very effective.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 09:04 pm (UTC)My guess was that it was only for a very few men at the top of the pyramid (our protag appears to have only two parents, and she was born poor and gets into finishing school on false papers), but this was not explained and I read over half of it.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-30 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-30 06:10 pm (UTC)It makes me curious whether anyone has done an index of spec fic stories based on what the dominant family structures are.
ETA: Hah! I couldn't find it when I was commenting before, but this is what I was thinking of: http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/diverge.html, the store that lists AU stories chronologically, by when their universe docs from ours. I'd been wondering if anyone has done something similar with stories, grouping them by the most-common family configurations of each ficton. Probably not: it would be reductionist. But interesting.