Scan barcode
A review by pivoinnne
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Comparing this book to Ursula LeGuin or Octavia Butler is an insult. The concept in the blurb is interesting, but the incomprehensible pacing, flat, dimensionless characters and weak writing muddle the whole story to the point where it’s hard to tell what it’s even about at all. None of the characters are compelling, nor do they really have any arcs, and on top of that they barely act like humans. They’re constantly bursting into dramatic fits of sobbing or throwing up at the most minor inconvenience, and even the side characters seem to have no backbone. People in both of the planet’s tidally-locked cities frequently form murderously violent mobs for, textually, no reason, and there’s a passage towards the later part of the book where groups of what are supposed to be hardened soldiers (I think? It’s unclear, like much of the rest of this book.) are throwing up and crying for their mommies just because of some turbulence while driving through the tundra. Meanwhile, the main characters are all fine despite being crybabies at every other turn, even the supposedly battle-hardened Mouth.
Speaking of Mouth, I loved her cool sci-fi name, but the rest of the characters, despite being descendants of a diverse number of Earth cities (Ulaanbaatar, Shanghai, etc.) have white person names like Sophie and Bianca - except for the characters that were implied to be Muslim (Ahmed and Ali). It was just strange. Paul Atredies and Luke Skywalker having normal American names works, but this doesn’t.
The switch between past tense third person and present tense first person for Mouth and Sophie’s chapters was constantly jarring, and I couldn’t find a single reason for that choice other than perhaps the author was worried the two characters voices wouldn’t be easy enough to distinguish between if they were written in the same person and tense - which is likely. Not a single character really had a unique voice, except perhaps Bianca, who was just a bitch. Not a conniving, manipulative mastermind, like I think she was supposed to come across- just a mercurial, annoying jerk.
For how time-obsessed the city of Xisophant supposedly is, time in this book is soupy and incoherent. Even within the Xisophant, I found myself wondering if their days passed at uneven intervals because the movement of the characters made no sense within a usual human circadian rhythm (Which was the whole point of the cities time regimens!). Several times, I thought perhaps only a few weeks had passed, but it might as well have been months, or even years. Bianca’s feeling of betrayal at Sophie not revealing herself as alive after her “execution” makes it seem like it’s been actual years since they last saw each other, but I had no way of verifying that. Similarly, at the end, Sophie and Mouth’s stay in the midnight city could have lasted anywhere between a month and ten. This unclear passage of time contributes to the absurdly poor pacing, and overall I felt like I was grasping trying to understand anything about the timeline.
The last thing I’ll say (and I have plenty more, but this review is plenty long) is that the whole political intrigue plot was absurdly messy and should have been completely scrapped. Who were the governments ? What did they stand for? The Xisophantian government apparently controlled people’s time, but the only time we see any evidence of this is when the police … attempt to extrajudicially execute Sophie for stealing three dollars? This isn’t a dictatorship, it’s just lunacy. The fact that this is the entire inciting incident of the book just makes it even more ridiculous. The Argelan “government” isn’t much better; after the girls arrive to Argelos, Bianca seduces her way (off-screen) into the good graces of one of the ruling families, which isn’t unreasonable, but there’s constant mention of her and Sophie being “heroes” to the city. What, precisely, did they do? Why do people in the city seem to know them? It’s bizarre. There certainly is an interesting seed for a gritty sci-fi political drama hidden in this book, but the execution scrambles it beyond comprehension.
There’s much more to discuss - the disappointingly weak world building for such an interesting concept, the pointless character deaths and meandering, dropped plot lines, the ineffective commentary on climate change, not to mention the weak writing - but I’ll end here. I genuinely cannot believe this got the nominations it did. Go read Left Hand of Darkness instead.
Speaking of Mouth, I loved her cool sci-fi name, but the rest of the characters, despite being descendants of a diverse number of Earth cities (Ulaanbaatar, Shanghai, etc.) have white person names like Sophie and Bianca - except for the characters that were implied to be Muslim (Ahmed and Ali). It was just strange. Paul Atredies and Luke Skywalker having normal American names works, but this doesn’t.
The switch between past tense third person and present tense first person for Mouth and Sophie’s chapters was constantly jarring, and I couldn’t find a single reason for that choice other than perhaps the author was worried the two characters voices wouldn’t be easy enough to distinguish between if they were written in the same person and tense - which is likely. Not a single character really had a unique voice, except perhaps Bianca, who was just a bitch. Not a conniving, manipulative mastermind, like I think she was supposed to come across- just a mercurial, annoying jerk.
For how time-obsessed the city of Xisophant supposedly is, time in this book is soupy and incoherent. Even within the Xisophant, I found myself wondering if their days passed at uneven intervals because the movement of the characters made no sense within a usual human circadian rhythm (Which was the whole point of the cities time regimens!). Several times, I thought perhaps only a few weeks had passed, but it might as well have been months, or even years. Bianca’s feeling of betrayal at Sophie not revealing herself as alive after her “execution” makes it seem like it’s been actual years since they last saw each other, but I had no way of verifying that. Similarly, at the end, Sophie and Mouth’s stay in the midnight city could have lasted anywhere between a month and ten. This unclear passage of time contributes to the absurdly poor pacing, and overall I felt like I was grasping trying to understand anything about the timeline.
The last thing I’ll say (and I have plenty more, but this review is plenty long) is that the whole political intrigue plot was absurdly messy and should have been completely scrapped. Who were the governments ? What did they stand for? The Xisophantian government apparently controlled people’s time, but the only time we see any evidence of this is when the police … attempt to extrajudicially execute Sophie for stealing three dollars? This isn’t a dictatorship, it’s just lunacy. The fact that this is the entire inciting incident of the book just makes it even more ridiculous. The Argelan “government” isn’t much better; after the girls arrive to Argelos, Bianca seduces her way (off-screen) into the good graces of one of the ruling families, which isn’t unreasonable, but there’s constant mention of her and Sophie being “heroes” to the city. What, precisely, did they do? Why do people in the city seem to know them? It’s bizarre. There certainly is an interesting seed for a gritty sci-fi political drama hidden in this book, but the execution scrambles it beyond comprehension.
There’s much more to discuss - the disappointingly weak world building for such an interesting concept, the pointless character deaths and meandering, dropped plot lines, the ineffective commentary on climate change, not to mention the weak writing - but I’ll end here. I genuinely cannot believe this got the nominations it did. Go read Left Hand of Darkness instead.