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keep_it_creepy_booktok 's review for:
Sister, Maiden, Monster
by Lucy A. Snyder
A world-wide pandemic breaks out, one that gives some the infected an unusual appetite. We follow Erin, an infected woman trying to figure out how to navigate her new situation, Savannah, a woman who begins to hear a calling, and Mareva, whose lifelong illness might be the harbinger of something much, much worse.
Okay, full disclosure--pandemic/apocalypse stuff is not usually my thing, especially after the last three years. Despite that, it sounded interesting, I've been hearing about it left and right, and I always love queer protagonists, so I wanted to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me, and not just because of the subject matter. Separate from my personal preferences, there were some issues I had with plot/characterization.
For example:
-The book started out with Erin and her experience with being infected, which, while stressful for me to read, was well done. It quickly devolved when the POV changed, and the last 2/3 of the book were exposition-heavy, confusing, and tried to cram wayyyy too much in for such a short book with minimal world building.
- the characters are all fairly shallow, which made it hard to care about their relationships or what was going on with them. I was excited to read something with queer characters and relationships, but because the characters were so flat, I was a little disappointed. the relationships were oddly paced and there wasn't much chemistry (romantic or otherwise) between any of the characters.
- on that note, I feel like at some points this book tried to engage with issues of gender, race, and sexuality, but all of those efforts came off as rushed and disjointed because of the relatively weak characterization and the sheer amount of things going on plot-wise
- like some other reviewers, I thought the use of an actual victim of a brutal torture and murder's full name in a glib way was jarring, unnecessary, and came off as disrespectful
In regards to more personal preference:
- sometimes the more shock value scenes came off as a little edgy and gratuitous to me, and the narrative just wasn't enough to hold them up. The violent scenes in this book were supposed to have a point, to further the plot, to help build out the background of this virus and world, but because the plot was so muddled, they felt a little repetitive to me.
Discussion of the ending, because I can't help myself:
Overall, I just didn't enjoy the book. You might enjoy this book if you like a gory read or you like pandemic/apocalypse horror, as long as you are willing to overlook plot/character issues and just enjoy the gore, if that's your thing!
Okay, full disclosure--pandemic/apocalypse stuff is not usually my thing, especially after the last three years. Despite that, it sounded interesting, I've been hearing about it left and right, and I always love queer protagonists, so I wanted to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for me, and not just because of the subject matter. Separate from my personal preferences, there were some issues I had with plot/characterization.
For example:
-The book started out with Erin and her experience with being infected, which, while stressful for me to read, was well done. It quickly devolved when the POV changed, and the last 2/3 of the book were exposition-heavy, confusing, and tried to cram wayyyy too much in for such a short book with minimal world building.
- the characters are all fairly shallow, which made it hard to care about their relationships or what was going on with them. I was excited to read something with queer characters and relationships, but because the characters were so flat, I was a little disappointed. the relationships were oddly paced and there wasn't much chemistry (romantic or otherwise) between any of the characters.
- on that note, I feel like at some points this book tried to engage with issues of gender, race, and sexuality, but all of those efforts came off as rushed and disjointed because of the relatively weak characterization and the sheer amount of things going on plot-wise
- like some other reviewers, I thought the use of an actual victim of a brutal torture and murder's full name in a glib way was jarring, unnecessary, and came off as disrespectful
In regards to more personal preference:
- sometimes the more shock value scenes came off as a little edgy and gratuitous to me, and the narrative just wasn't enough to hold them up. The violent scenes in this book were supposed to have a point, to further the plot, to help build out the background of this virus and world, but because the plot was so muddled, they felt a little repetitive to me.
Discussion of the ending, because I can't help myself:
Spoiler
- okay, so aliens???? sent the virus???? through octupi (I actually liked the octupus element tbh, one of the only things I liked in this book)??? to wipe out the human race by infecting parts of humanity that would transform into monsters to kill the rest (also why do these monsters end up talking in like old english using 'thou' and stuff, that came out of nowhere??)???? and the aliens want to repopulate the earth with little squid-pod things with this one girl who is saved from this fate by a magical ring??? It just went so off the rails for me in the last section of the book, I had to really push through it.Overall, I just didn't enjoy the book. You might enjoy this book if you like a gory read or you like pandemic/apocalypse horror, as long as you are willing to overlook plot/character issues and just enjoy the gore, if that's your thing!