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A review by simplythegirl
HellSans by Ever Dundas
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Spoilers ahead
I really wanted to love this book. The plot seems interesting and the cover is cool. For weeks I debated buying this book since it sounded so cool but I'm kind of disappointed.
I really love how the protagonists are women who are into each other. It' cool how you can read either Icho or Jane's story first. My problem is neither of them seem to have any personality. The author spends a lot of time moving the plot further and setting up the world. Despite this I didn't really get the feeling that Hell Sans was all that important or a big part of life at least by reading Icho's story. I think if I started by reading Jane instead of Icho I might have liked it better but I'm not sure. Of the two Jane seems to have more to lose so I empathize with her. For Icho I had to kind of force myself through. The main protagonists having not much of a personality also makes it hard to care about them. <spoiler When Icho gets tortured I really don't care. I don't think I even like her. I like how the author tries to create an allegory for real life societal issues. I'm kind of annoyed with the term coloureds(HSAs of color of course). The term is used by a character who has the allergic reaction to Hell Sans they're called HSAs. We're supposed to sympathize with the HSAs so I'm guessing that this is terminology as a product of higher ups targeting people of color especially to divide and conquer in the HSA community. Or is that character just racist maybe? If she is then why are you choosing to show racism through an underprivileged character instead of the higher class ones especially since there aren't many HSA characters with lines shown in the book. If that's deliberate to depict lower class getting divided as a ploy of upper class then cool otherwise really weird and counterintuitive. If it was deliberate shouldn't the higher ups also be openly racist though?(which isn't really shown so I doubt it). I guess the label is supposed to be simple so readers automatically get the picture but I felt like it was a little lazy. I appreciate the critique of society. Us colored folk end up getting the most screwed over by society so colored people allergic to Hell Sans get the worst of the worst but maybe try to be a little more creative about the terminology you use for your fictional world especially with the lack of minority representation in sci-fi books already.
I hate that we have characters like Jane and James in the same scenes it gets confusing also Icho Ino in the same scenes I would have used different terms or names just because I had to do double takes to make sure I had it straight. Since this is sci-fi the audience has to be directed well which was done pretty well but Inos versus Inexes was confusing since again they have similar names.
Icho idolizes Jane since she's thirteen?(if I'm remembering right) So how old is Jane? For me that ruins the romance for me honestly. The power imbalance not the age gap. Age gap relationships are fine but because she idolized her as a child it feels weird <spoiler that they get together.
There's also a scene where Jane touches herself to Icho's picture and that seemed unnecessary. If it were a guy and a girl it would still be weird and unnecessary.
The book needed some editing there' a lot of switching from third to first person narration which took me out of the story. The ending seemed rushed too but I liked it.
The world is cool there are some funny moments; overall I mainly got through it because of the Inexes and I liked the world concept. There's some really nice plot twists and the Inexes' unintentional humor is great. If there was a sequel I'd pick it up since I doubt there would be much world building necessary that way the author could focus on the characters.
I really wanted to love this book. The plot seems interesting and the cover is cool. For weeks I debated buying this book since it sounded so cool but I'm kind of disappointed.
I really love how the protagonists are women who are into each other. It' cool how you can read either Icho or Jane's story first. My problem is neither of them seem to have any personality. The author spends a lot of time moving the plot further and setting up the world. Despite this I didn't really get the feeling that Hell Sans was all that important or a big part of life at least by reading Icho's story. I think if I started by reading Jane instead of Icho I might have liked it better but I'm not sure. Of the two Jane seems to have more to lose so I empathize with her. For Icho I had to kind of force myself through. The main protagonists having not much of a personality also makes it hard to care about them. <spoiler When Icho gets tortured I really don't care. I don't think I even like her. I like how the author tries to create an allegory for real life societal issues. I'm kind of annoyed with the term coloureds(HSAs of color of course). The term is used by a character who has the allergic reaction to Hell Sans they're called HSAs. We're supposed to sympathize with the HSAs so I'm guessing that this is terminology as a product of higher ups targeting people of color especially to divide and conquer in the HSA community. Or is that character just racist maybe? If she is then why are you choosing to show racism through an underprivileged character instead of the higher class ones especially since there aren't many HSA characters with lines shown in the book. If that's deliberate to depict lower class getting divided as a ploy of upper class then cool otherwise really weird and counterintuitive. If it was deliberate shouldn't the higher ups also be openly racist though?(which isn't really shown so I doubt it). I guess the label is supposed to be simple so readers automatically get the picture but I felt like it was a little lazy. I appreciate the critique of society. Us colored folk end up getting the most screwed over by society so colored people allergic to Hell Sans get the worst of the worst but maybe try to be a little more creative about the terminology you use for your fictional world especially with the lack of minority representation in sci-fi books already.
I hate that we have characters like Jane and James in the same scenes it gets confusing also Icho Ino in the same scenes I would have used different terms or names just because I had to do double takes to make sure I had it straight. Since this is sci-fi the audience has to be directed well which was done pretty well but Inos versus Inexes was confusing since again they have similar names.
Icho idolizes Jane since she's thirteen?(if I'm remembering right) So how old is Jane? For me that ruins the romance for me honestly. The power imbalance not the age gap. Age gap relationships are fine but because she idolized her as a child it feels weird <spoiler that they get together.
The book needed some editing there' a lot of switching from third to first person narration which took me out of the story. The ending seemed rushed too but I liked it.
The world is cool there are some funny moments; overall I mainly got through it because of the Inexes and I liked the world concept. There's some really nice plot twists and the Inexes' unintentional humor is great. If there was a sequel I'd pick it up since I doubt there would be much world building necessary that way the author could focus on the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual violence
Minor: Police brutality