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amalelmohtar's review
2.0
I think I can genuinely say I've never read so smug a book in my entire life.
I enjoyed a few things about it -- the bright colours, some dialogue here and there that made me laugh -- but overall this was one-note throughout, with very little narrative tension, inconsistent narrative logic, and an appalling case of Manic Pixie Dream Girl Protagonist.
It's a great case of something passing the Bechdel Test and being bad. A pair of sort-of alien sisters, one of whom, Susan, is super-powered, being front-and-centre in a narrative that's attempting to be a send-up of superhero comics sounds pretty good to me. The sisters talk! They have a relationship! The super-powered one is queer! She has a black female lover! All of these are things that would make me go "hey, thumbs up, book."
But it turns out the relationship throughout most of the book is one of paper-thin irritation, the queerness is thrown in as an afterthought (her sister's narration on page 5 informs us that "anti-gay activists" hate her even though she's not gay, then on page 52 the fact that she's "been bi since college" is apparently common knowledge), as is the black lover, Martine, who doesn't actually get a name until page 91.
Susan turns a gang of neo-Nazi rapists into nice people by having sex with them. There is video of this, which, as it goes viral, turns everyone who watches it into a nice person (unless the narrative requires them to stay "broken," like, say, the jerk who made the video in the first place, or the sort-of boyfriend who watches it but remains a junkie who tries to commit suicide by setting himself on fire).
I could go on and on about the inconsistencies, mainly to do with her limitless powers (she can teleport but flies everywhere instead, so there's some faux-tension generated when a bunch of loved ones at different parts of the globe are under threat and she CAN'T REACH THEM ALL IN TIME OMG except she could have teleported them all to her and in the end it turns out she didn't because they were already all protected by ... Stuff), but the main annoyance with this book is the unbearable smugness that's papered over with an attempt at winking at how smug it is by ... Being more smug.
Lip service is paid to the fact that it's really messed up that a "spoiled rich white girl" is flying around the world and fixing it unilaterally, giving Ethiopia rain and crops, disarming nukes, and drying up the world's oil reserves, but lip service is all it is; the narrative is revelling in these things, more or less saying throughout "yeah sure white saviours are kind of shitty but does it matter LOOK AT ALL THE GOOD this is in no way a problem she's helping people solve their OWN problems (with occasional brainwashing but that's actually fixing broken people with sex so it's okay)."
It's just ... Really icky. A lot. And then it all goes cosmic and I was just waiting for it to end and basically the single note held over 220 pages totally shattered my ability to enjoy it.
I will say it was still frequently engaging -- even though my reading of it was often punctuated by heavy sighs and banging it against my forehead, as my Glaswegian can attest -- so it's not a 1-star thing. Also I'd feel bad giving it less stars than I gave that bloody Heinlein book. But it's really ... Just the smuggest book that ever smugged, and all I can do is shake my head at it and roll my eyes.
I enjoyed a few things about it -- the bright colours, some dialogue here and there that made me laugh -- but overall this was one-note throughout, with very little narrative tension, inconsistent narrative logic, and an appalling case of Manic Pixie Dream Girl Protagonist.
It's a great case of something passing the Bechdel Test and being bad. A pair of sort-of alien sisters, one of whom, Susan, is super-powered, being front-and-centre in a narrative that's attempting to be a send-up of superhero comics sounds pretty good to me. The sisters talk! They have a relationship! The super-powered one is queer! She has a black female lover! All of these are things that would make me go "hey, thumbs up, book."
But it turns out the relationship throughout most of the book is one of paper-thin irritation, the queerness is thrown in as an afterthought (her sister's narration on page 5 informs us that "anti-gay activists" hate her even though she's not gay, then on page 52 the fact that she's "been bi since college" is apparently common knowledge), as is the black lover, Martine, who doesn't actually get a name until page 91.
Susan turns a gang of neo-Nazi rapists into nice people by having sex with them. There is video of this, which, as it goes viral, turns everyone who watches it into a nice person (unless the narrative requires them to stay "broken," like, say, the jerk who made the video in the first place, or the sort-of boyfriend who watches it but remains a junkie who tries to commit suicide by setting himself on fire).
I could go on and on about the inconsistencies, mainly to do with her limitless powers (she can teleport but flies everywhere instead, so there's some faux-tension generated when a bunch of loved ones at different parts of the globe are under threat and she CAN'T REACH THEM ALL IN TIME OMG except she could have teleported them all to her and in the end it turns out she didn't because they were already all protected by ... Stuff), but the main annoyance with this book is the unbearable smugness that's papered over with an attempt at winking at how smug it is by ... Being more smug.
Lip service is paid to the fact that it's really messed up that a "spoiled rich white girl" is flying around the world and fixing it unilaterally, giving Ethiopia rain and crops, disarming nukes, and drying up the world's oil reserves, but lip service is all it is; the narrative is revelling in these things, more or less saying throughout "yeah sure white saviours are kind of shitty but does it matter LOOK AT ALL THE GOOD this is in no way a problem she's helping people solve their OWN problems (with occasional brainwashing but that's actually fixing broken people with sex so it's okay)."
It's just ... Really icky. A lot. And then it all goes cosmic and I was just waiting for it to end and basically the single note held over 220 pages totally shattered my ability to enjoy it.
I will say it was still frequently engaging -- even though my reading of it was often punctuated by heavy sighs and banging it against my forehead, as my Glaswegian can attest -- so it's not a 1-star thing. Also I'd feel bad giving it less stars than I gave that bloody Heinlein book. But it's really ... Just the smuggest book that ever smugged, and all I can do is shake my head at it and roll my eyes.
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