Reviews

I liked a lot of this but it leaned into a liberal capitalist expansionist politics of inevitability (who knows what is right and wrong but I am sick of not exploiting things) that was really gross...to portray the claims of Sybil Glass and the "pirates" (ie Africans on their own lands and waters) as equivalent might be "true to the time" but that's not a good excuse in a book that has dragons and other anachronisms like pirate tattoos.

So that passive racist thing annoyed me. I also felt that while Felicity's feeling of superiority and exceptionalism was rightly critiqued by Johanna (who in other ways was my least favourite character) and rightly portrayed as stemming from deep loneliness, she leans back into it in her letter to Callum at the end. WTF was that? Most women just want to be gaslit wives sorry that I am not like the other girls???? I hate that sort of exceptionalism (again liberal feminism, the sovereign individual).

The afterword defends the idea of feminist characters (which shouldn't really need defending) which is great. And yeah I gues people like Felicity are exceptional BECAUSE MOST WOMEN WERE CRUSHED IN THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS not because few women dreamed or most didn't want it enough. All the way through the book she says "you are Felicity Montagu" as if some people are just more worthy than others. I thought the unequal relationship between Sim and Felicity was problematic too. And portraying Sim as a potential "Traitor" for caring about her people and her indigenous heritage was just awful.

I can't get past that. I really enjoyed early in the book where literally all the men were on the spectrum between awful or just useless (the pansies as useless and the hetero men as awful). I thought it was over the top but making an interesting point...I feel like toward the end of the book it became too much about empire building selfish rich white people and I was not as into that.

bookwyrm76's review against another edition

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5.0

All the love. I thought I knew where this book was going and it didn't. Same great writing as the first of the series. Now I need to go find the 3rd book.

daumari's review against another edition

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4.0

While I have been making good on my plan to read more LGBTQ+ stories this year (2019), I am pleasantly surprised to stumble upon ace (asexual) spectrum characters/leads in some of my reads (which, for one demonstrates I have a ways to go in broadening my reads but also secondly, shows that young adult lit is pretty lit in terms of having a range of characters).

I'm not sure what else I could say given that other reviews are so thorough in why this is really good- strong (and by this, I mean solidly built in their personalities, memorable) female characters that have different strengths/aren't carbon copies of one another, flaws in our heroine (Felicity is understandably upset about not being able to pursue her dream of medicine through traditional means, but it's ~fascinating~ to see it gradually dawn on her that she *is* afforded certain privileges that others don't have in fictional 1700s Western society). Also also, parts of this are DEFINITELY inspired by 1700 naturalists, and in particular Maria Sibylla Merian, who with her daughter Dorothea, illustrated intricate plates of entomology from field expeditions to Suriname. Women have been involved in science for a LONG time, and it's nice to see [fictional] acknowledgement of real world work.

also! Dogs. and dragons. Animals are girls' best friends.

ninakatzenwuschel's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

3.5

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