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A review by lizshayne
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Alright @RomanceNovelLi1, you were right.
This one is markedly better. Both because my hackles did not go up at the relationship between the two MCs and because the things that drew them to each other felt more real to me.
Also, I mean, historical autistic character who I really liked. Also I have some notes. I'll get to that in a minute.
This was one of those romances where the story gets equal billing with the romance and it's not always clear which is facilitating which, which I like. Overall it worked for me in a way that the previous book didn't.
2 comments:
1) Do people really spend that much time fantasizing about potential partners while they're still either strangers or just friends? Like - is this a romance novel trope used to convey interest that doesn't happen in real life or is this something that happens regularly and I'm just unaware of it? (Brought to you by the time I insisted that the conceit of reading people's emotions on their faces or people was a literary convenience and then I learned that. nope, I'm just autistic. Which was a wild experience.)
2) Ewan has a certain amount of convenient autism, meaning that the degree to which he is disabled by being (coded as) autistic depends on how much the plot needs him to be rather than being extremely consistent. Also Cole does this thing (that even autistic authors do and it drives me bonkers) where love somehow breaks through flat affect to have him show emotions and that's how you know it's love and, like, that's not how flat affect works.
I can think of one author who does it well figures out how to bring the reader into the autistic experience of feeling rather than portray autistic characters as being less autistic in moments of high drama. And this isn't to say that autistic people don't have feelings (NOPE) or show feelings (also nope). But once you write a character who has a certain amount of flat affect, you ought to honor that.
This one is markedly better. Both because my hackles did not go up at the relationship between the two MCs and because the things that drew them to each other felt more real to me.
Also, I mean, historical autistic character who I really liked. Also I have some notes. I'll get to that in a minute.
This was one of those romances where the story gets equal billing with the romance and it's not always clear which is facilitating which, which I like. Overall it worked for me in a way that the previous book didn't.
2 comments:
1) Do people really spend that much time fantasizing about potential partners while they're still either strangers or just friends? Like - is this a romance novel trope used to convey interest that doesn't happen in real life or is this something that happens regularly and I'm just unaware of it? (Brought to you by the time I insisted that the conceit of reading people's emotions on their faces or people was a literary convenience and then I learned that. nope, I'm just autistic. Which was a wild experience.)
2) Ewan has a certain amount of convenient autism, meaning that the degree to which he is disabled by being (coded as) autistic depends on how much the plot needs him to be rather than being extremely consistent. Also Cole does this thing (that even autistic authors do and it drives me bonkers) where love somehow breaks through flat affect to have him show emotions and that's how you know it's love and, like, that's not how flat affect works.
I can think of one author who does it well figures out how to bring the reader into the autistic experience of feeling rather than portray autistic characters as being less autistic in moments of high drama. And this isn't to say that autistic people don't have feelings (NOPE) or show feelings (also nope). But once you write a character who has a certain amount of flat affect, you ought to honor that.