A review by columnclub
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley

slow-paced

3.0

I'm still sitting with my feelings on this one, because it did have a lot of the things I usually love about Pulley's writing, but her recurring habits in writing female characters keep sticking in my throat. Takiko Pepperharrow was by far the most interesting character in this book for me, but I get the sense that Pulley is always fundamentally more interested in her male characters, and expects that they will be more sympathetic. Thaniel, though, is frequently jealous and resentful of Takiko in ways that only served to make me dislike him. I wish we'd had a novel that had been focused on Takiko, and that had shown her friendship with Countess Kuroda and explored in full the science Grace is doing in the mountains. It's a real shame we didn't get much of any of that. Between this, the meandering plot and the dull miscommunication trope that splinters the central romance, this has easily been my least favourite of Pulley's novels so far.