A review by catfish101
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

First 2/3 of the book were TOUGH to get through. Published in 1969 there was a lot of dense vocabulary and sooo many obscure names / places. The world building technique is just “u gotta fuckin keep reading” which can be tough to be motivated to continue reading. Last 100 pages were enjoyable after I felt like I had a handle on the world (kinda). I was emotional on the last 20 pages which was surprising because I didn’t really think I was emotionally invested in this at all. 

“It had taken Estraven six months to arrange my first audience. It had taken the rest of his life to arrange this second one.”

FUCK that hit hard. Still wouldn’t rly recommend it. It had some interesting gender concepts but was thrown off how even on this genderless world he/him is still the default 😭😭. I need a 21st century rewrite with some updated gender commentary.