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A review by vigil
Disobedience by Daniel Sarah Karasik
Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
i acquired this book as an e-arc from net galley.
i really wanted to love this book, but it i just couldn't do it. the prose was honestly just awful, full of oddly stitched sentences that didn't match with the character's own knowledge and awareness. how does shael have deep knowledge on the working of the carceral system in the narration, but somehow believes all the lie's of the camp when interacting with anyone else?
the dialogue is also honestly not great. it doesn't read like conversation, more like abolitionist 101 tumblr posts. and obviously, if that was the political stance i disagreed with, i wouldn't have requested this book. my issue is that the author simply told you the themes and philosophical musings of the book in every other line of prose or dialogue, rather than allowing for the readers to intuit it themselves from reading the story. given how lackluster the actual development of this novel was, i can only conclude that it was because the author could not trust themself to create a story that would allow for that happen.
i think this author's writing style and focus is simply not suited for fiction. i'm all for political themes, but the purpose of a fiction novel first and foremost is to tell a good story.
i really wanted to love this book, but it i just couldn't do it. the prose was honestly just awful, full of oddly stitched sentences that didn't match with the character's own knowledge and awareness. how does shael have deep knowledge on the working of the carceral system in the narration, but somehow believes all the lie's of the camp when interacting with anyone else?
the dialogue is also honestly not great. it doesn't read like conversation, more like abolitionist 101 tumblr posts. and obviously, if that was the political stance i disagreed with, i wouldn't have requested this book. my issue is that the author simply told you the themes and philosophical musings of the book in every other line of prose or dialogue, rather than allowing for the readers to intuit it themselves from reading the story. given how lackluster the actual development of this novel was, i can only conclude that it was because the author could not trust themself to create a story that would allow for that happen.
i think this author's writing style and focus is simply not suited for fiction. i'm all for political themes, but the purpose of a fiction novel first and foremost is to tell a good story.