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A review by syllareads
Windwitch by Susan Dennard
Did not finish book.
I got about a hundred pages in and while I was genuinely curious to see how this book would go, I simply cannot continue reading at this point.
One minor thing: there was SO MUCH happening in between book 1 and 2?? Why were we not allowed to see any of that on screen/paper? Merik, though understandably, had a 180 when it came to his character and we never got to see his slow descent into madness and grief (and I took that personally---). It felt like both a year and 5 seconds had passed between book one and two and I did not Enjoy That
The major thing however is something I learned by accident outside of the book: Cam, a character traveling with Merik, is supposed to be trans.
Why do i say "supposed to"? Because I literally could not tell from how the text aka Merik as our narrative figure frames it. He constantly misgenders Cam even though OUTWARDLY he manages to call him "boy" and even puzzles over as to why Cam would like to "pose" as a boy (which gave me, as the reader, the first impression of Cam being a girl who wanted to prevent stuff like sexual harassment on a ship full of sailors by saying "hey I'm a boy!" out loud. Boy, was I wrong :) ) while constantly using the wrong pronouns to refer to him in his head. Now, while I don't LIKE transphobia in my fantasy books per se bc it's fantasy, who needs that shit in 2k21, this somehow felt worse. Since Merik is the eyes and ears and thoughts through which we experience this world, I, as the reader, was obviously influenced by him somewhat and after finding out that Merik just doesn't CARE enough to treat Cam well, I felt like I had been the one to wrong Cam since we're literally in Merik's head during his parts of the narrative!
TL;DR: I didn't like the transphobia comPLETELY EMBEDDED into the narrative figure. Even if it's "just ignorance", it reads wrong and I would rather not. I'm sorry, Windwitch, but this is a pass from me
One minor thing: there was SO MUCH happening in between book 1 and 2?? Why were we not allowed to see any of that on screen/paper? Merik, though understandably, had a 180 when it came to his character and we never got to see his slow descent into madness and grief (and I took that personally---). It felt like both a year and 5 seconds had passed between book one and two and I did not Enjoy That
The major thing however is something I learned by accident outside of the book: Cam, a character traveling with Merik, is supposed to be trans.
Why do i say "supposed to"? Because I literally could not tell from how the text aka Merik as our narrative figure frames it. He constantly misgenders Cam even though OUTWARDLY he manages to call him "boy" and even puzzles over as to why Cam would like to "pose" as a boy (which gave me, as the reader, the first impression of Cam being a girl who wanted to prevent stuff like sexual harassment on a ship full of sailors by saying "hey I'm a boy!" out loud. Boy, was I wrong :) ) while constantly using the wrong pronouns to refer to him in his head. Now, while I don't LIKE transphobia in my fantasy books per se bc it's fantasy, who needs that shit in 2k21, this somehow felt worse. Since Merik is the eyes and ears and thoughts through which we experience this world, I, as the reader, was obviously influenced by him somewhat and after finding out that Merik just doesn't CARE enough to treat Cam well, I felt like I had been the one to wrong Cam since we're literally in Merik's head during his parts of the narrative!
TL;DR: I didn't like the transphobia comPLETELY EMBEDDED into the narrative figure. Even if it's "just ignorance", it reads wrong and I would rather not. I'm sorry, Windwitch, but this is a pass from me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia