Scan barcode
lolajh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- 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
5.0
DUDE definitely one of my favourite fucking books after reading this. A nonbinary genderfluid protagonist, Sal, who is an assassin and uses the pronouns he/him, they/them, and she/her, which flunctuates along with his gender. Sal uses cis people’s stereotypical view of gender and the clothes that are often assigned to it to their advantage, so when she identifies as a girl they wear fem clothes, when they identify as a guy he wears masculine clothes, and when they feel like neither he wear androgynous clothes. As a non binary person myself who experiences my gender expression in such a different way it was so lovely to learn and experience how Sal expresses their gender through clothing. Along with this, Sal is not at all shy of her identity, happily communicating his gender fluidity and boundaries that are made with everyone regarding pronouns and what to use for them and when, very much normalising gender feeling like this not only in this fantasy world but in real life too. Sal allowing herself to get mad at people who disrespect their identity is completely valid, and as someone who finds it difficult to correct people misgendering me, reading stuff like this is empowering, and the fact I was able to take all this away from a fictional book? What you consume in media does truly affect you, and this book did it in a way that was so positive. Also the fact that the author never discloses sal’s biological sex is lovely and important for deconstructing society’s views of gender, especially that of non binary people. Very very very good book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Transphobia
More...