Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Lesson

The pacing in this ramps up sharply as the book goes along. At first you're just getting to know the characters. Then an initial event happens and there's a jump into a future where it seems like things have reached equilibrium. There's mysterious jumping back and forth, more character development, and some more character work. Then something else happens and everything gets dark. Seriously, I made the mistake of trying to finish the book at night, but I was too wound up to sleep.

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ephemeralnat's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

5.0

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ohlhauc's review against another edition

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dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

This story is broken down into three different periods of time on the U.S. Virgin Islands. The first follows the human characters and their normal life a few weeks before aliens, the Ynaa, land on one island. The second period starts five years after the Ynaa arrive and follow the new normal that has fell upon the island, albeit with rising tensions. The third part happens a year after the climactic event in the novel.

The separation of the novel into these three acts was an effective structure to write a first contact novel. Usually we see what happens in the immediate aftermath but by choosing to choose these time frames, we get to see how big events change us in large and small ways, and how quickly we can adjust to such change.

What made the book remarkable was its ending and the themes it covered. Drawing parallels to colonial invasions and slavery (and there were some flashbacks to this time), this was a devastating, poignant reflection on the devastation that can happen when an invading culture clashes with native inhabitants and the social trauma that results when

a significant portion of the population is decimated through genocide or murder -- and even parallels to mass incarceration

. While some people have mentioned that they didn't like the vagueness behind the Ynaa's purpose on the islands and the open ending, those were my favourite parts. It reflects the realities that when a group of people go through pain, closure doesn't come neatly tied up in a bow and knowing why something was done doesn't make its impact less painful. The reflections the ending raises definitely bumped this novel up from one that was just okay to one that I ended up liking.

What didn't work for me was that I didn't care about the characters. As a society and on the whole, I cared and got emotional during the dramatic scenes but individually, we spent so little time with the characters, that I found it hard to fully connect and understand the characters. The story was told from multiple perspectives by main characters, as well as quite a few secondary and even tertiary characters. It felt like a collection of short stories of different people reflecting on the same event, but each story felt incomplete and I would've liked to see more background.

Overall, I do recommend this book if you're interested in science fiction, literature reflecting on colonialism, and vivid writing with multiple characters.

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rorikae's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

'The Lesson' by Cadwell Turnbull is an intriguing novel that utilizes science fiction to discuss colonization and its impacts.
The story follows a number of inhabitants of the Virgin Islands before and after an alien ship lands on its coast and aliens, who closely resemble humans, start to infiltrate the island's society. The main part of the story takes place a year after one of these aliens, who are called the Ynaa, brutally murders a boy and the tensions between the Ynaa and the humans on the island reach a boiling point.
Turnbull's exploration of colonization through a science fiction lens allows the reader to delve deeper into the experience of colonization both through the eyes of the colonizer and those who are being colonized. He does this by weaving through a number of individual's perspectives, mostly humans who are impacted by the Ynaa's arrival and one Ynaa who has been set as the ambassador to the island. It really succeeds in its careful consideration of the lived experiences of its characters. We follow them through their everyday lives, seeing how the Ynaa have impacted even simple interactions. Though there is a cataclysmic, devastating set of events toward the end of the book, I think the story's real power is in its small moments. The one thing I did find frustrating was that in the audiobook, the narration jumped from character to character without indication and sometimes it was hard to realize that we were on to a new perspective.
I would recommend this book if you are looking for science fiction that is focused on the lives of its characters more than the logic of the world. We don't learn a great deal about the Ynaa but that isn't necessary as the story is truly about their impact on the world that surrounds them.

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