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paladinphantom 's review for:
When My Heart Was Wicked
by Tricia Stirling
1.5/1.75 stars. Somewhere around there.
I had a lot of issues with this book. It unapologetically perpetuated harmful stereotypes like that of the "Magical Native American" as well as clearly unresearched misinformation about real Native American nations. It didn't address the main character's mother's homophobia, even playing it as amusing when Lacy laughed at it "despite herself." The book was too short for all the things it tried to tackle--parental abuse, sexual assault, mental illness, magic. It felt rushed much of the time, and while I appreciated and even liked some aspects of the story (such as the magical realism and the surprisingly nuanced portrayal of Lacy's harmful and unhealthy relationship with her mother), in the end it just didn't hold up. The interesting brush with the idea of an unreliable narrator was scrapped to focus on the magic, which I felt cheapened the book's otherwise strong focus on the mother-daughter relationship. And, of course, there was all that cultural appropriation and perpetuation of stereotypes that knocked off most of the stars.
(but damn if that cover isn't the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. It's about 70% of the reason I bought the book, to be honest.)
I had a lot of issues with this book. It unapologetically perpetuated harmful stereotypes like that of the "Magical Native American" as well as clearly unresearched misinformation about real Native American nations. It didn't address the main character's mother's homophobia, even playing it as amusing when Lacy laughed at it "despite herself." The book was too short for all the things it tried to tackle--parental abuse, sexual assault, mental illness, magic. It felt rushed much of the time, and while I appreciated and even liked some aspects of the story (such as the magical realism and the surprisingly nuanced portrayal of Lacy's harmful and unhealthy relationship with her mother), in the end it just didn't hold up. The interesting brush with the idea of an unreliable narrator was scrapped to focus on the magic, which I felt cheapened the book's otherwise strong focus on the mother-daughter relationship. And, of course, there was all that cultural appropriation and perpetuation of stereotypes that knocked off most of the stars.
(but damn if that cover isn't the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. It's about 70% of the reason I bought the book, to be honest.)