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mlivings8's review
2.0
DNF, this one is just not for me, I liked the premise but I think it's one of those you have to be in the right mood for and I'm not there right now. I may try to read a kindle version or something later, or look at one of the authors novellas.
directorpurry's review against another edition
2.0
CW: On page rape.
What a wild ride. My star ratings varied extremely as I read and I wasn't really sure what I was going to rate this until nearly the last chapter.
Characters who deserved better: Paula Grainger, Amelia, and Edgar Allan Poe.
This is a completely non-linear story, with stories within stories within stories. But honestly, by the time we made it to the third layer, I kind of stopped caring. I didn't really want to know much about the later characters because I already knew so little about some of the ones in previous sections. It was also terribly frustrating that so much of the "action" happened in these hearsay stories, not to our direct main characters.
I was not impressed with Somtow's writing of women. Paula could have been SO much more but she just felt so flat. I don't know why I latched on to Amelia so hard because she's not really that important in the scheme of the piece but she deserved SO MUCH MORE. And I'm just going to say I was annoyed with the Poe section, especially because his name on the back blurb was what made me pick it up.
This novel is historical(ish) and set during and before the civil war, so of course racial tensions are high. I know the author did fairly extensive research (at least according to his acknowledgements) on correct non-standard English dialects, so I wouldn't venture to say how accurate they are.
But sometimes there are books where they use slurs only when necessary or like they're saying something more when they use derogatory language. Some pieces from the time period can get by because of their message. This story didn't feel like that. There was kind of excessive language that felt more like it was included for shock factor rather than the importance of historical accuracy (And even then... There are ways to get around some language.).
There was also a lot of sex. Not, like, bad necessarily but not well done either. I loved that they were open about Walt Whitman's gayness, but the other character who was pit up as gay was DEFINITELY not. It was literally called "a phase." Like can you not?
Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this story. The characters were flat, the women especially so, and the narrative wanted more effort from me than I wanted to give. There was a lot of racial slurs, sex, and violence but not enough magic or fantastical elements that I thought I might see.
What a wild ride. My star ratings varied extremely as I read and I wasn't really sure what I was going to rate this until nearly the last chapter.
Characters who deserved better: Paula Grainger, Amelia, and Edgar Allan Poe.
This is a completely non-linear story, with stories within stories within stories. But honestly, by the time we made it to the third layer, I kind of stopped caring. I didn't really want to know much about the later characters because I already knew so little about some of the ones in previous sections. It was also terribly frustrating that so much of the "action" happened in these hearsay stories, not to our direct main characters.
I was not impressed with Somtow's writing of women. Paula could have been SO much more but she just felt so flat. I don't know why I latched on to Amelia so hard because she's not really that important in the scheme of the piece but she deserved SO MUCH MORE. And I'm just going to say I was annoyed with the Poe section, especially because his name on the back blurb was what made me pick it up.
This novel is historical(ish) and set during and before the civil war, so of course racial tensions are high. I know the author did fairly extensive research (at least according to his acknowledgements) on correct non-standard English dialects, so I wouldn't venture to say how accurate they are.
But sometimes there are books where they use slurs only when necessary or like they're saying something more when they use derogatory language. Some pieces from the time period can get by because of their message. This story didn't feel like that. There was kind of excessive language that felt more like it was included for shock factor rather than the importance of historical accuracy (And even then... There are ways to get around some language.).
There was also a lot of sex. Not, like, bad necessarily but not well done either. I loved that they were open about Walt Whitman's gayness, but the other character who was pit up as gay was DEFINITELY not. It was literally called "a phase." Like can you not?
Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this story. The characters were flat, the women especially so, and the narrative wanted more effort from me than I wanted to give. There was a lot of racial slurs, sex, and violence but not enough magic or fantastical elements that I thought I might see.
revslick's review against another edition
4.0
Somtow is one of the unsung masters of horror. Where else can you get an historical fiction novel of the civil war with guest spots from Lincoln, Whitman, Byron, a shaped shifting Panther woman, and Zombies galore all wrapped up in a symbolic statement to the horrors of war written by a Thai author.
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