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A review by lizreadssurprisinglyoften
The Brilliant Death by A.R. Capetta
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
My mind feels too cluttered to really process books right now, so I'm not sure why I keep reading them at this pace. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this book seemed to go by too quickly for me to connect.
I really liked Capetta's writing style and how detailed the world was. The romance had a lot of potential, but it relied way too much on physical stuff (I saw one reviewer describe it as 'insta-lust' rather than insta-love, and I think that's fitting) which I'm just too tired and ace for.
My other main concern was with the non-binary representation. I've seen several reviewers praise it for 'destroying the gender binary', but it doesn't really? It felt like the main characters were only genderfluid because they had the magical capability to transition to 'male' and 'female' bodies whenever they wanted to. There was no exploration of how they'd identify if they couldn't do that, no exploration of any gender that isn't binary, a weird subtext assumption that the only way you can be male or female is if your body looks like the cis ideal, and no discussion of pronouns beyond one short, unsatisfactory paragraph at the start of the book (you could make the argument that it's a historical fantasy and thus they wouldn't know about neutral language, but in my opinion, if you can invent a magic system, you can invent a way to include they/them pronouns.) I know the author is non-binary, and if this is how she represents her experience, then she's free to do so, but as a genderflux non-binary person it really didn't click with me. I hate to over-critique representation, and I'm glad that non-binary characters are becoming more acceptable in mainstream fantasy, but I don't think I'd recommend this book.
I really liked Capetta's writing style and how detailed the world was. The romance had a lot of potential, but it relied way too much on physical stuff (I saw one reviewer describe it as 'insta-lust' rather than insta-love, and I think that's fitting) which I'm just too tired and ace for.
My other main concern was with the non-binary representation. I've seen several reviewers praise it for 'destroying the gender binary', but it doesn't really? It felt like the main characters were only genderfluid because they had the magical capability to transition to 'male' and 'female' bodies whenever they wanted to. There was no exploration of how they'd identify if they couldn't do that, no exploration of any gender that isn't binary, a weird subtext assumption that the only way you can be male or female is if your body looks like the cis ideal, and no discussion of pronouns beyond one short, unsatisfactory paragraph at the start of the book (you could make the argument that it's a historical fantasy and thus they wouldn't know about neutral language, but in my opinion, if you can invent a magic system, you can invent a way to include they/them pronouns.) I know the author is non-binary, and if this is how she represents her experience, then she's free to do so, but as a genderflux non-binary person it really didn't click with me. I hate to over-critique representation, and I'm glad that non-binary characters are becoming more acceptable in mainstream fantasy, but I don't think I'd recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia
My mind feels too cluttered to really process books right now, so I'm not sure why I keep reading them at this pace. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this book seemed to go by too quickly for me to connect.
I really liked Capetta's writing style and how detailed the world was. The romance had a lot of potential, but it relied way too much on physical stuff (I saw one reviewer describe it as 'insta-lust' rather than insta-love, and I think that's fitting) which I'm just too tired and ace for.
My other main concern was with the non-binary representation. I've seen several reviewers praise it for 'destroying the gender binary', but it doesn't really? It felt like the main characters were only genderfluid because they had the magical capability to transition to 'male' and 'female' bodies whenever they wanted to. There was no exploration of how they'd identify if they couldn't do that, no exploration of any gender that isn't binary, a weird subtext assumption that the only way you can be male or female is if your body looks like the cis ideal, and no discussion of pronouns beyond one short, unsatisfactory paragraph at the start of the book (you could make the argument that it's a historical fantasy and thus they wouldn't know about neutral language, but in my opinion, if you can invent a magic system, you can invent a way to include they/them pronouns.) I know the author is non-binary, and if this is how she represents her experience, then she's free to do so, but as a genderflux non-binary person it really didn't click with me. I hate to over-critique representation, and I'm glad that non-binary characters are becoming more acceptable in mainstream fantasy, but I don't think I'd recommend this book.