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shirlev's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
3.25
"And there may be a thousand other such wights, who dream the green world out of shape. Yet the world will burn as the sun will rise."
I really liked this book for about the first third, but after that point the dreamworld sections became a slog to get through, and the only reward was coming back to a worse world. Maybe a fitting reflection of Kate's own experience, but not conducive to an enjoyable read.
Little comments here and there about race, gender, and fat people especially niggled at me-- it wasn't until I realized I recognized the author's name that I put the pieces together. She's the one who was flamed on twitter about her gendercide book with.... less than perfect trans politics.... and then secondarily about a previous book with some serious racist content. I tried not to let that color the rest of the book for me, but I was no longer giving her the benefit of the doubt, so the little comments became more and more annoying.
I was especially annoyed/disturbed with the sections where Emilia joked(??) about how Jews like herself were devils toWilliam Shakespeare (!!) , who played along. Historically accurate? Sure, but it didn't really feel like it was doing anything to justify it being there. The author herself is Jewish, but I (also Jewish) really did not like it. Speaking of
Shakespeare, I never managed to get over the ridiculousness of his presence to treat it seriously, which is probably why I felt like the second half was so much harder to get through than the first. It was certainly bold of the author to compose original Shakespeare verse-- I don't know nearly enough to gauge whether it was a convincing attempt, but would love to get a Shakespearean scholar to read this and tell me more!
I really liked this book for about the first third, but after that point the dreamworld sections became a slog to get through, and the only reward was coming back to a worse world. Maybe a fitting reflection of Kate's own experience, but not conducive to an enjoyable read.
Little comments here and there about race, gender, and fat people especially niggled at me-- it wasn't until I realized I recognized the author's name that I put the pieces together. She's the one who was flamed on twitter about her gendercide book with.... less than perfect trans politics.... and then secondarily about a previous book with some serious racist content. I tried not to let that color the rest of the book for me, but I was no longer giving her the benefit of the doubt, so the little comments became more and more annoying.
I was especially annoyed/disturbed with the sections where Emilia joked(??) about how Jews like herself were devils to
The prose itself was good at evoking the dreamlike time-slippage, but did become a bit much to bear by the end of it. The ending didn't feel satisfying or even earned. Still, the idea is really compelling and the execution wasn't completely botched, just with some serious issues.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism
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