Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - In the Watchful City

This is definitely one of my new favorite books and S. Qiōuyì Lù is one of my new favorite authors. This is genuinely the most unique way of storytelling I have ever experienced and I am rather obsessed with how it is written. Each story was distinctive and both disturbed me and filled me with wonder.

I also think the author handles difficult topics perfectly for my taste. Ae does not shy away from anything, but also describes challenging ideas, like suicide, with nuance and creativity. The different messages are clear without being too overt or preachy.

Everything about this fantasy world felt familiar and yet so, so strange. I want more, yet I am also satisfied with the level of world-building and the paths, stories, and histories left unexplored and mysterious.

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panpipes's review

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dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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linatheteafairy's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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therainbowshelf's review

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I like framed short stories like this, and always enjoy queer and inclusive stories. The framing story felt a little clumsy from time to time, but it was intriguing. I really wish we got more stories out of that box!

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laurareads87's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

With In the Watchful City, author S. Qiouyi Lu has produced a novella that feels like a novel given how much is included... yet that somehow doesn't drag. The author describes this as biocyberpunk, and the novella touches on many themes one would expect from that description - surveillance, biological/technological interfacing, the relationship between body and consciousness, and more. I liked a lot about this, including the intermingling of multiple genres and how utterly and unapologetically queer the entire story felt. I did like the 'stories within a story' structure, though some components were stronger than others and I found myself wishing that some sections were longer. I definitely want to read more from S. Qiouyi Lu.

<i>Content warnings:</i> suicide on page (drowning), suicidal thoughts, death, violence, mention of a past suicide attempt, sexism, colonization, medical content, grief, blood, consensual cutting/scarification in a sexual context

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sarah984's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

So many of the concepts were cool in theory, but I found this short story collection overall insufferable. The plot structure is very similar to The Empress of Salt and Fortune, in terms of telling an overarching story of international political intrigue through intimate details of seemingly insignificant objects. Unfortunately the reason the characters have for doing this is not well realized or interesting (a character we barely get to know makes a cop character Feel Bad about aer role in a repressive police state -

incidentally the one character the author mentions deliberately designing as a Black character in the afterword is just a vessel for reforming a cop lol

- with a bunch of didactic stories about individuals who feel like characters in a fable rather than real people who could have ever existed). There is one story told through letters and official documents that I thought was good but all the other ones had at least one huge glaring issue that annoyed me (eg. the foot binding story does that 'everyone suffers this but me' thing I hate in historical narratives, and the absolutely unbelievable character decision that drives the plot in the mermaid story). This could have been so good, but to me it wasn't.

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yavin_iv's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you so much to Tor.com and B2Weird Tours for a finished copy of this novella in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

In the Watchful City is a book about Anima (æ/ær/ær) who is an extrasensory human that interacts with the complex living network of Ora called the Gleaming. Anima maintains watch over all the citizens of Ora and makes sure no one comes to harm. But when a visitor with a cabinet of curiosities comes to visit, everything Anima thought was true comes into question.

This story is full of stories within stories. It deep dives into what emotions and experiences make us human and the bonds that tie humanity together. This story also explores queerness in a way that's so normative it's like walking into a big queer group hug. Lu tells this story in fragments, and the non-linear timeline worked so well for this story. I loved seeing all the various characters and then coming back to the main storyline between Anima and Engima (se/ser/ser). Lu's writing was rich and I know I'm going to be diving back into this book soon to relive this experience!

CWs: Suicide, death, death of sibling, foot binding, blood, colonisation, self harm, violence.

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