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A review by lizshayne
The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I see we've progressed from just stopping the book where it is to cliffhangers. I would like some resolution, please, I did not realize I was signing up for a trilogy. (The perils of literally anything sff, I suppose.)
And the story is fine and it's interesting to see the characters from another point of view, but I feel like I've been promised quick answers or at least to have things go somewhere and the arcs of these books are just not satisfying.
Also, disability rep is super complicated and I am very pleased to have a disabled character as the protagonist and also...this occasionally feels like a book written by someone imagining how much it must suck to be disabled. It's not that Rae's way of relating to her body, and specifically her foot, is unreasonable, it's more that she is overall a pretty practical person at home with her disability and who more or less acts like she owns it and then *thinks* like someone who is constantly grieving the body she doesn't have. It feels like the text can imagine the disabled character who goes through the world with the quiet surety that comes from knowing that she both has limitations and is not broken, but the text can't quite imagine how that character might think about living in a body that needs tending to for what it cannot do without constantly grieving its existence.
And obviously the answer isn't "don't write it!" or even "do better" because the purpose of critique (certainly in an online review) is not constructive criticism from a writing group, but a way of thinking about the text. And this is what this text made me think of and wonder. What would it look like to have that more whole depiction? What it is that feels off to me and how? What is it about the text and what is it about my readerly stance towards it?
Anyway - I still kind of want to read the third one, but I also feel like this series is wearing through my commitment to it.
And the story is fine and it's interesting to see the characters from another point of view, but I feel like I've been promised quick answers or at least to have things go somewhere and the arcs of these books are just not satisfying.
Also, disability rep is super complicated and I am very pleased to have a disabled character as the protagonist and also...this occasionally feels like a book written by someone imagining how much it must suck to be disabled. It's not that Rae's way of relating to her body, and specifically her foot, is unreasonable, it's more that she is overall a pretty practical person at home with her disability and who more or less acts like she owns it and then *thinks* like someone who is constantly grieving the body she doesn't have. It feels like the text can imagine the disabled character who goes through the world with the quiet surety that comes from knowing that she both has limitations and is not broken, but the text can't quite imagine how that character might think about living in a body that needs tending to for what it cannot do without constantly grieving its existence.
And obviously the answer isn't "don't write it!" or even "do better" because the purpose of critique (certainly in an online review) is not constructive criticism from a writing group, but a way of thinking about the text. And this is what this text made me think of and wonder. What would it look like to have that more whole depiction? What it is that feels off to me and how? What is it about the text and what is it about my readerly stance towards it?
Anyway - I still kind of want to read the third one, but I also feel like this series is wearing through my commitment to it.