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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
adventurous
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
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:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
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
adventurous
funny
tense
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
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
More fun and tense adventures with Gus and Julia. I didn’t like that it ended with a tease to another book, but I liked it and look forward to the next. Hopefully there won’t be a ton of them with the relationships drawn out across them all. Also I don’t like Harriet or Duffy and I think Harriet is up to something
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I should first say that I listened to this book while severely mentally distressed so like, idk if my opinions rights now will remain the same.
The writing is good and the characters are complex. That in itself is an accomplishment that any author should be proud of. There were a couple moments when the grammar felt a little off but that could just be that it’s 18th century English and I’m not as familiar with it as I am modern American English. The references to current events of the time was fun and I appreciate how dedicated Goodman is to the dress and technology of the setting.
My conflict with the first and second book clashes with how important it is the characters must motivate the story. Augustus as a character in the first book made more sense to me than she does in this sequel. Being a woman struggling against the reality that women are full people and the demand from society that they belittle themselves is one that I relate to and can believe. Her going to an asylum to rescue Hester was wild but also made sense. The fallout was understandable.
Augustus’ reasoning in this book makes less sense to me. I cannot understand all the lengths she goes to for Evan or how firmly she believes everything he tells her. I tried to reason that some of her outlandish behavior was just from her being a spoiled rich lady. Her nonexistent sense of danger bothered me. Working to rescue women, though sometimes extreme, I understand. My own sense of justice especially in relation to women, LGBTQIA+ people, and POC can lead to facing danger and putting oneself in the path of evil stupid people. I do not understand her trying to clear Evan’s name, even if he is an innocent man. Maybe just because I’m not straight? Even for men I love and treasure, I don’t mind letting them suffering some and maybe it’s just bitterness but like. He was born a rich lord and has countless connections, even if he has to stay out of the way of the law he’s going to be fine. Boohoo Augustus and he can’t be together because he’s known to be a criminal. I also can’t understand why he’s pro gay people and anti-racist. It’s shocking enough that Augustus is, how the fuck did he get there? It also infuriates me how Goodman tried to draw a parallel between Julia and Augustus loving men beneath their station and gay people. It was a scandal when high class women were caught sleeping with lower class men but it didn’t lead to hanging, workhouse, or asylums fight away. The thought that, yeah people are abused in upper class homes too and it’s so sad also pissed me off. Not to be awful but they had more options.
What kept bothering me most was the way the Watherby is treated throughout the story. Augustus just drags him everywhere with her and because he’s her servant and butler he has to go. She says that he doesn’t have to but it’s not like there are many families willing to hire a black butler. Towards the end is Augustus’ POV she says that they’re both rushing towards death not as Lady and servant but as friends. Bro, wtf. At first I thought that Goodman was just writing Augustus as extremely naïve but as the characters talk later on I began to have the sneaking suspicion that Goodman actually believes this shit. Even if Augustus is wholly against the slave trade and slavery, she has some subconscious bias. Secondly, so does Weatherby. Being treated like a lesser person your whole life convinced you bodily that it’s true and no matter how fucking bad it feels, even if you know consciously that it’s untrue, your lived experience is comfortable with this and to change it is almost as exhausting as continuing on living in the lie. An employer and an employee will never have a balanced power dynamic because it’s an employees job to be ordered around. Even when that employee’s rank is raised, even as they have family dinners during the weekend. Even if that employee gets a different job, that power imbalance lives in the boss’s and employee’s relationships and can almost never be undone. Weatherby’s livelihood depends on Augustus relying on him and liking him, not just because he’s her servant but because he’s black. POC in the modern day have to, for their own social safety as well as financial security, be unfairly kind to complete strangers and especially to their coworkers and managers. Even when their jobs put them in extremely uncomfortable and difficult situations. It is a fucking relief when they have white coworkers and friends that can trust back them up and speak up for them but even fucking then, as I’m told by POC, they cannot completely relax because history. Even when I know about internalized bias, and I check myself, and see POC as my peers, simply because of my experience as a white person, I am not entirely trustworthy. Even when I do everything I can to improve the lives of people of color, I can never believe or feel entitled to my friends of colors’ raw feelings because there is nothing I can do to erase the absolute fucking evils of white colonizers even in the modern day when slavery is illegal in the West. So it feels very fucking weird that Augustus not only believes that she is doing so so good as Lady to Weatherby, but that she constantly asks him to put himself at risk for her personal benefit and believes him when he consents and the story tells us that this is just because he just loves Augustus that much. Weatherby had no guarantee that Augustus isn’t going to cast him out of her household if he says no and if she did, as far as we known as readers, we do not know that he has any security elsewhere. For his own. Weatherby is not Augustus’ friend, because with the power imbalance he cannot freely chose how much he can give and take. Augustus has forced him into several racist situations and she thinks that because he says so, it’s fine because she thinks she’s earned his true honesty. I’m hoping that third book destroys this notion but I’m starting to think that Goodman believes this bullshit.
It’s an interesting story even if Evan and Augustus’ romance is insufferable at times and the balance of reality and political correctness feels smothering in moments.
The writing is good and the characters are complex. That in itself is an accomplishment that any author should be proud of. There were a couple moments when the grammar felt a little off but that could just be that it’s 18th century English and I’m not as familiar with it as I am modern American English. The references to current events of the time was fun and I appreciate how dedicated Goodman is to the dress and technology of the setting.
My conflict with the first and second book clashes with how important it is the characters must motivate the story. Augustus as a character in the first book made more sense to me than she does in this sequel. Being a woman struggling against the reality that women are full people and the demand from society that they belittle themselves is one that I relate to and can believe. Her going to an asylum to rescue Hester was wild but also made sense. The fallout was understandable.
Augustus’ reasoning in this book makes less sense to me. I cannot understand all the lengths she goes to for Evan or how firmly she believes everything he tells her. I tried to reason that some of her outlandish behavior was just from her being a spoiled rich lady. Her nonexistent sense of danger bothered me. Working to rescue women, though sometimes extreme, I understand. My own sense of justice especially in relation to women, LGBTQIA+ people, and POC can lead to facing danger and putting oneself in the path of evil stupid people. I do not understand her trying to clear Evan’s name, even if he is an innocent man. Maybe just because I’m not straight? Even for men I love and treasure, I don’t mind letting them suffering some and maybe it’s just bitterness but like. He was born a rich lord and has countless connections, even if he has to stay out of the way of the law he’s going to be fine. Boohoo Augustus and he can’t be together because he’s known to be a criminal. I also can’t understand why he’s pro gay people and anti-racist. It’s shocking enough that Augustus is, how the fuck did he get there? It also infuriates me how Goodman tried to draw a parallel between Julia and Augustus loving men beneath their station and gay people. It was a scandal when high class women were caught sleeping with lower class men but it didn’t lead to hanging, workhouse, or asylums fight away. The thought that, yeah people are abused in upper class homes too and it’s so sad also pissed me off. Not to be awful but they had more options.
What kept bothering me most was the way the Watherby is treated throughout the story. Augustus just drags him everywhere with her and because he’s her servant and butler he has to go. She says that he doesn’t have to but it’s not like there are many families willing to hire a black butler. Towards the end is Augustus’ POV she says that they’re both rushing towards death not as Lady and servant but as friends. Bro, wtf. At first I thought that Goodman was just writing Augustus as extremely naïve but as the characters talk later on I began to have the sneaking suspicion that Goodman actually believes this shit. Even if Augustus is wholly against the slave trade and slavery, she has some subconscious bias. Secondly, so does Weatherby. Being treated like a lesser person your whole life convinced you bodily that it’s true and no matter how fucking bad it feels, even if you know consciously that it’s untrue, your lived experience is comfortable with this and to change it is almost as exhausting as continuing on living in the lie. An employer and an employee will never have a balanced power dynamic because it’s an employees job to be ordered around. Even when that employee’s rank is raised, even as they have family dinners during the weekend. Even if that employee gets a different job, that power imbalance lives in the boss’s and employee’s relationships and can almost never be undone. Weatherby’s livelihood depends on Augustus relying on him and liking him, not just because he’s her servant but because he’s black. POC in the modern day have to, for their own social safety as well as financial security, be unfairly kind to complete strangers and especially to their coworkers and managers. Even when their jobs put them in extremely uncomfortable and difficult situations. It is a fucking relief when they have white coworkers and friends that can trust back them up and speak up for them but even fucking then, as I’m told by POC, they cannot completely relax because history. Even when I know about internalized bias, and I check myself, and see POC as my peers, simply because of my experience as a white person, I am not entirely trustworthy. Even when I do everything I can to improve the lives of people of color, I can never believe or feel entitled to my friends of colors’ raw feelings because there is nothing I can do to erase the absolute fucking evils of white colonizers even in the modern day when slavery is illegal in the West. So it feels very fucking weird that Augustus not only believes that she is doing so so good as Lady to Weatherby, but that she constantly asks him to put himself at risk for her personal benefit and believes him when he consents and the story tells us that this is just because he just loves Augustus that much. Weatherby had no guarantee that Augustus isn’t going to cast him out of her household if he says no and if she did, as far as we known as readers, we do not know that he has any security elsewhere. For his own. Weatherby is not Augustus’ friend, because with the power imbalance he cannot freely chose how much he can give and take. Augustus has forced him into several racist situations and she thinks that because he says so, it’s fine because she thinks she’s earned his true honesty. I’m hoping that third book destroys this notion but I’m starting to think that Goodman believes this bullshit.
It’s an interesting story even if Evan and Augustus’ romance is insufferable at times and the balance of reality and political correctness feels smothering in moments.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated