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venneh 's review for:
To Cage a God
by Elizabeth May
I was being kinder to this until I read the author's notes on the book on Goodreads. I want to note this is May's first adult book, and her perceptions may be skewed from working in YA up until now. May mentions that she sees her characters as morally gray, but no, it's very clearly telegraphed who exactly is the baddie here (it's the eeeeevil Empress, spoilers) and any casualties that result can be laid at her feet. Saying sexy things and cutting to black is not three of five chili peppers, it's more like a two of five at the best (but I do want to note that the sex scenes are solid). My broad issue with this is it feels like character sketches pasted over a worldbuilding document, uses some at best bad YA shorthand to try and convey fantasy (there's a dragon in my bones but we won't talk about it much, silver eyes, etc), and feels very black and white about its morality rather than the shades of grey that are desired. It's a mid market fantasy with a dash of romance and doesn't deal with a lot of the realities of Imperial Russia as much as it tries to ape its aesthetics. Better luck next time?