Review by onthesamepage - Arch-Conspirator

onthesamepage 's review for:

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

3.0

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"You'll never fear your wife. But every wife fears her husband, even if she doesn't say so."

I actually don't have too much to say about this book. I wasn't familiar with Antigone and didn't look up the original story until after I'd read this. I can see the inspiration, but the motivations are very different, and I don't think I really understood why characters acted the way they did here. The world gets established reasonably well within the smaller scope of the novella, but there are a few things that left me with questions. I think it would've benefited from more pages to flesh everything out just a bit more.

Having read Poster Girl last month, it's interesting to me that this is another story where the author does something with women's autonomy over their bodies. In this universe, most of humanity has died out, and women's bodies are valued because of their ability to give birth. Pregnancy is no longer a choice but a duty. It's anti-abortion laws kicked up to 11—fitting for a dystopian world.

The ending felt extremely rushed to me, and maybe a bit unsatisfying. I also think there were too many different POVs for something this short. I ended up not really connecting to any of them, which makes the ending less impactful than it could've been.

Content Warnings