Reviews with content warning for Slavery - The Lesson

When I first started reading this book, I was very prepared to say that it was good, but not maybe not for me. Much of the book focuses on Mera and Derrick’s relationship, but I was never sure how I felt about it, and I was never sure if that was intentional. At first, I was very against it because I thought it was stupid and dangerous for Derrick, and then the more we learned about the aliens, the more I found myself agreeing with the people who called him a traitor (especially since the aliens are a metaphor for colonialism so he’s roughly analogous to an enslaved person sleeping with a plantation owner because they’re just so much more “fascinating” than his own people? I guess?). The rage I felt at the injustice the humans experienced was directed at Mera, who was the only named Ynaa character for most of the book, and it made it really difficult to sympathize with either of them.

But the more we learned about Derrick’s feelings, the more it seemed like he was almost fetishizing Mera and was more in love with the idea of aliens and space than with her. This was also about the time we started learning more about Mera herself, and the whole narrative shifts. This, again, I was unsure about. Are we meant to be sympathetic to the Ynaa? Just Mera? What is Mera’s role in this story anyway? Is Mera just a person who idealistically thinks they can change the system from the inside, or at least work to mitigate the damage being done? Or is she “one of the good ones” who knows that what the Ynaa are doing is wrong, but ultimately realizes that she can’t do much to stop it? Mera’s “New Lesson” also seemed kind of Nihilistic, but again, I was in the mindset that maybe this book just wasn’t for me, and maybe there was something I just wasn’t *getting*.

And then those last 50 pages.

I was in the middle of a pretty bad reading slump while reading this book, so bear that in mind when I say I could NOT put this book down. By the time I reached the climax of the story, I realized that this book was just more complex than I was expecting, and I had become invested without even realizing it. The slow beginning, punctuated with sudden violence, did a great job of building tension and creating the atmosphere of a powder keg about to blow. And then, the heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat climax somehow manages to slow down again to a bittersweet and somehow hopeful epilogue. The emotional complexities were still there, but somehow felt more human. Thinking about everything the characters lost and trying to imagine how they will ever move forward, while remembering that these events are roughly analogous to real events, was pretty devastating. And yet, the story chooses to end with the slightest bit of hope, and a rejection of the idea that humans (here being the equivalent to colonized people) are somehow weak- that surviving and rebuilding takes enormous strength.

In the end, I really appreciate that this book spends much more of its time focusing on the humans and not the Ynaa (then again, I’m not super into aliens anyway), and I loved that there were so many different reactions to the colonization (I especially loved Derrick correcting Patrice with “they didn’t <i>invade</i> they <i>arrived</i>” which just says so much about him). I still wish we had spent a little less time on Mera and Derrick, because I found their views to be in general the least relatable, but I liked learning about the characters we did get to see.

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noreadingdegree's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense

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

4.0

once again, audiobooks are killing it for me. this one was fantastic. i didn't realize how much i enjoyed first contact stories until i read this book. there is something about humans trying to navigate and come to terms with extraterrestrial life that fascinates me. i loved that this book focused on multi-POVs from the same family/friend circle and how the arrival of the arrivals changed their lives with each other.

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competencefantasy's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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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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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