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A review by jennaclarek
Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland
4.0
So. This book was a LOT. I picked it up for the asexuality rep bc hello it is I an asexual person! And I want to say first off - the ace rep was FLAWLESS. I loved seeing my sexuality in a fantasy book. However, as someone critiquing a fantasy book (ace stuff aside)...I actually had some issues with it. And I want to be honest about it all because I think people should know.
ASEXUALITY REP:
One of my FAVORITE things about this book was the little moon chart that explained gender identity and sexuality. The author says there will be a print of the chart in the finished copy (I read the ARC). It was just so GENIUS as a metaphor to explain how gender identity and your sexuality work. And I loved how even though this was a fantasy world/setting, the characters took the time to discuss sexuality and really understand how it works.
It was odd because this book is about sex workers so I wasn't sure how an ace person would fit into that, but I loved how it all worked. We really got to see the MC explore her sexuality and figure out if she enjoyed physical touch/kissing/romance and how that all affected her. I felt so seen and it was really kind of amazing to read. If I had had this book 10 years ago I think my entire life would be different.
My only issue with the ace rep is potentially at the beginning of the book it's hinted at that Kamai doesn't have a soul + she also spends a lot of her inner monologuing claiming that she's broken and asking if she's even capable of love. Now, as the book goes on everything dispels that and basically tells her she's fine at she is, but I was very weary of it at the beginning bc so often those remarks are used against ace people and I didn't want that in this book. So, I forgive the author...but it's still important to note that there are those phrases in there.
(I did love her weird relationship with Vehyn but I wish we got to see their relationship more! She just kind of claims that they're in love and we don't actually get to see much of them falling for each other.)
CRITIQUES:
First of all, I don't have the knowledge or experience to actually critique this BUT there is a trans character in this book and I'm not sure if the author wrote him in the best way. Mainly what happens is halfway through the book, a woman explains to her friends that she thinks she's "soul-crossed" (which I do actually think is a beautiful way to explain trans people) and she identifies more as a man. However, she doesn't insist people call her a him until the very end of the book where she publicly announces that she's a man and changes her name. I felt weird about it mainly because even after the woman explains she identifies as a man, everyone continues to call him a her...but then again, they do that because he told them to. All that to say, I don't know enough about trans rep to know if that's harmful or if that's valid - which is on me more than anyone, but I wanted to see if anyone had an opinion about it for future reference. I want to get pronouns right and my brain started to get very muddled with this character bc I viewed him as a him, but the MC kept calling him a her.
^^UPDATE ABOUT THIS FROM THE AUTHOR: https://twitter.com/AdriAnneMS/status/1143707818391793664
I also want to say that from a fantasy perspective, I think the world building could have been stronger. By the time we got to the end of the book, I felt like I had a basic knowledge of the world, but even that was not really explained well. I wanted it to be more fleshed out (this book could've been like another 100-300 pages probably). More than that, I felt like it cut a lot of corners with a few cop outs and a lack of good explanations. The magic of the world makes sense, but how it was used and how the mythology of the world was used/explored was very basic. (And I know this is a standalone YA fantasy but come on I have high standards!) I still don't think I could tell you how all the goddess mythology works even after 400 pages.
Additionally, I felt like some of the dialogue was a little bit...amateur. A lot of times the dialogue took me out of the story because it seemed like something I would write in a basic first draft and it didn't seem super realistic. (But that's like...extreme nit-picking on my part SORRY)
--
So at the end of the day, I really LOVED this book because it was great ace rep...however, I had a lot more issues with it than I wanted and at the end of the day I felt that the ace rep > the actual world/technical writing of the book. I think it could have been fleshed out more and edited a little deeper. I will definitely be recommending it to my ace pals though!!
ASEXUALITY REP:
One of my FAVORITE things about this book was the little moon chart that explained gender identity and sexuality. The author says there will be a print of the chart in the finished copy (I read the ARC). It was just so GENIUS as a metaphor to explain how gender identity and your sexuality work. And I loved how even though this was a fantasy world/setting, the characters took the time to discuss sexuality and really understand how it works.
It was odd because this book is about sex workers so I wasn't sure how an ace person would fit into that, but I loved how it all worked. We really got to see the MC explore her sexuality and figure out if she enjoyed physical touch/kissing/romance and how that all affected her. I felt so seen and it was really kind of amazing to read. If I had had this book 10 years ago I think my entire life would be different.
My only issue with the ace rep is potentially at the beginning of the book it's hinted at that Kamai doesn't have a soul + she also spends a lot of her inner monologuing claiming that she's broken and asking if she's even capable of love. Now, as the book goes on everything dispels that and basically tells her she's fine at she is, but I was very weary of it at the beginning bc so often those remarks are used against ace people and I didn't want that in this book. So, I forgive the author...but it's still important to note that there are those phrases in there.
(I did love her weird relationship with Vehyn but I wish we got to see their relationship more! She just kind of claims that they're in love and we don't actually get to see much of them falling for each other.)
CRITIQUES:
First of all, I don't have the knowledge or experience to actually critique this BUT there is a trans character in this book and I'm not sure if the author wrote him in the best way. Mainly what happens is halfway through the book, a woman explains to her friends that she thinks she's "soul-crossed" (which I do actually think is a beautiful way to explain trans people) and she identifies more as a man. However, she doesn't insist people call her a him until the very end of the book where she publicly announces that she's a man and changes her name. I felt weird about it mainly because even after the woman explains she identifies as a man, everyone continues to call him a her...but then again, they do that because he told them to. All that to say, I don't know enough about trans rep to know if that's harmful or if that's valid - which is on me more than anyone, but I wanted to see if anyone had an opinion about it for future reference. I want to get pronouns right and my brain started to get very muddled with this character bc I viewed him as a him, but the MC kept calling him a her.
^^UPDATE ABOUT THIS FROM THE AUTHOR: https://twitter.com/AdriAnneMS/status/1143707818391793664
I also want to say that from a fantasy perspective, I think the world building could have been stronger. By the time we got to the end of the book, I felt like I had a basic knowledge of the world, but even that was not really explained well. I wanted it to be more fleshed out (this book could've been like another 100-300 pages probably). More than that, I felt like it cut a lot of corners with a few cop outs and a lack of good explanations. The magic of the world makes sense, but how it was used and how the mythology of the world was used/explored was very basic. (And I know this is a standalone YA fantasy but come on I have high standards!) I still don't think I could tell you how all the goddess mythology works even after 400 pages.
Additionally, I felt like some of the dialogue was a little bit...amateur. A lot of times the dialogue took me out of the story because it seemed like something I would write in a basic first draft and it didn't seem super realistic. (But that's like...extreme nit-picking on my part SORRY)
--
So at the end of the day, I really LOVED this book because it was great ace rep...however, I had a lot more issues with it than I wanted and at the end of the day I felt that the ace rep > the actual world/technical writing of the book. I think it could have been fleshed out more and edited a little deeper. I will definitely be recommending it to my ace pals though!!