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rebecamojica's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, and Sexual assault
beanjoles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
There was a lot to love about this story: a unique spin on time-travel; an interesting and personal exploration of the relationship between past and present selves; teenagers serial murdering unsavoury men who clearly get off on abusing women. As I am learning is typical for Newitz's writing, the prose is clear and evocative, and their facts are well-researched and presented.
But... I can't help but feel they tried to take on too much with this book, and ultimately it failed to come together in a way that I found satisfying.
The serial murder subplot feels like it should have taken place in another book entirely. For being such a keystone in the Tess/Beth relationship, it's given surprisingly little emotional weight outside of Beth feeling conflicted about their actions. It's not until too far into the book that we learn Tess actually Loves To Murder and that it's a key element of her personality (???), which seems like something important to give a taste of sooner than was done.
The concept of Comstockers vs Daughters of Harriet was actually the least compelling part of the book to me. If this had been fleshed out better, I might have been able to look past other flaws. The Comstockers' motive is essentially to ensure women are relegated to a life of servitude and subservience to men forever—genuinely frightening!—but the book can't quite decide if they're a well-organized pseudo-militia or a bunch of bumbling MRAs whose sole purpose in life is to make women stop being "sl*ts". I almost think the story would have been stronger without adding an opposition group of mustache-twirling but ultimately toothless megavillains. Like, what if it were just the Daughters fighting against the tide of history in their alternate universe? That's a story worth telling. And I think it would have helped Newitz clarify and explore some of their philosophical thoughts about Great Man Theory vs Collective Action. We got a lot of Telling about that but not as much Showing as I think should have been done.
No regrets on reading this, but I wish it had come together better in the end.
A note on the audiobook: I found the narrator's style to be a bit amateurish, overall, but there were some stand-out moments too and I felt she did particularly well reading Beth. It was cool to have a musical interlude partway through the story! I haven't experienced that in an audiobook before. Unique and fun!
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, Child abuse, and Sexual violence
krhysling's review against another edition
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
xeniaaaaaah's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Murder
hwaldooo's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, and Murder
Minor: Incest, Sexual assault, and Transphobia
amalyndb's review against another edition
5.0
Basic premise is an alternate history, where reproductive rights are threatened from the far future via time travel. There's a whole lot more than that.
There is some potentially triggering subject matter. That may be an understatement.
Heed the warnings: I had a visceral reaction to some of this. I've read other stuff written in more explicit ways that didn't impact me as much. An observation, rather than a complaint. Will reread again in future when I feel able to.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, Murder, and Misogyny
Moderate: Mental illness and Child abuse
Minor: Suicide
Brief within text overall, but there iselle_g's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Murder and Child abuse
Moderate: Abortion
Minor: Suicide
pandact's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Abortion, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Sexism
Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Cultural appropriation
kelseymn18's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Abortion, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse and Transphobia
hamstringy's review against another edition
- 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
1.5
Let's sort my criticisms into petty and conceptual:
Petty Nitpicks:
- Women in the 1890s wearing "lacy bras"
- A character predicting she'd graduate from UCLA in the 90s with $50k in debt (which there is no way to do in 4-5 years)
- People using modern slang while time traveling while having people of the times understand them (okay sure, we're ignoring historical linguistics, that is a valid choice), but they catch enemy time travelers because they use modern slang??
- I find this book to be quite bioessentialist--a lot of it is focused on an expanded Comstock act and the legality of abortion, which does most obviously affect people with uteruses (often women). This is fine, but the narrative keeps harping on the fact that the Sisters of Harriet are for women and nonbinary people. What about trans men? Are they not central to the underlying themes of autonomy, particularly with people obsessed with "female" fertility? What does the Comstock act do to affect nonbinary people and trans women? Why are all but one of the main characters women if there is gender diversity? It takes a lot of wind out of this book's sails, and, honestly, part of me wished the author just chose to make the Sisters of Harriet focused on abortion for women, because that's all they seemed equipped to handle.
- I find the constant pacifism of the Sisters to be incredibly annoying. I think this is in large part because I'm not a staunch interpersonal pacifist myself, but it also doesn't really make sense in-book: what is one man versus the global health of all women? No one ever seems to express a very "sanctity of all life" sentiment, so it feels really disappointing a choice to shy away from the conflict between violence and autonomy.
- I wish the Comstockers weren't made out to be these cartoonish villains. People who are anti-abortion can seem that way, but I think it's a generally more interesting and more compelling struggle if the Comstockers have complexity and nuance--this is hinted at in the very first scene, where a Comstocker is anti-college because of its establishment roots, but their politics quickly devolve into calling all women sluts and wanting them dead.
A riot grrl band never exists because the main character and her friend succeed and legalize abortion in the 21st century, but the riot grrl movement (and in particular this Latina-fronted band) was never just focused on abortion. Did men suddenly stop raping, harrassing, and objectifying musicians?
Graphic: Sexism, Transphobia, Cursing, Abortion, and Rape
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, Murder, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Drug use, and Pregnancy
Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic friendship