RWG3

Like a delicious cake that needed to bake a little longer.

Revisado: 10-09-24

This book has all of the ingredients for something I’d enjoy. Queer. Fantasy. Romance. Mystery. Yes, please! And yet, I really struggled to enjoy it. I think the best way to sum up my disappointment is that I think the story needed a few more revisions. It’s like a cake that you pull out of the oven too soon. It could be perfect, but it needed to bake a little longer to get there.

For example, I don’t mind reading about sexual abuse. It’s part of the human condition, and as such should be a part of art. But if you use sexual violence as a plot point, it must have consequences. The two teenagers survived significant trauma, and it had zero impact on their personalities — other than to be ever so grateful to their savior. In addition to cheapening their experience, it makes their characterization completely unbelievable. A few more rounds of edits would have either made it more believable or found new back stories for these youths.

More editing would likely have also helped to heighten some of the drama. Nearly everything happened too easily. All the characters felt so flat.

I’d love to read more from this universe, but I really need more complexity and drama.

I also didn’t love the audio performance. I found the voice actor to be hard to follow. He used different voices for each character, but some were too close, and I couldn’t tell them apart.

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A piece of queer history I didn’t know, told through a compelling bit of fiction.

Revisado: 07-07-24

Gender and sexual minorities have existed in all times and place. Too many of their stories are lost to time. While this is entirely a fictional story, it uplifts an experience deeply rooted in queer history. I truly appreciated that.

The story itself is also extremely compelling. The plot moves forward at a quick pace, with moments of real tension. The “twist” was both a surprise and, in hindsight, completely obvious, which I personally find the most satisfying type of twists.

I must admit the collective of omniscient children, central to the plot, confused me. Maybe I misunderstood something, but that felt a little too fantasy-esque in a story that was otherwise solidly realistic. It really drew me out of the narrative.

The narration of the text was stellar. The performer did a great job breathing life to the text.

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