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A review by ojtheviking
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
4.0
I enjoyed this book a lot. I find it cool how the narrative pretty much starts in the middle of the plot, right when a significant incident takes place, and the story that unfolds from there is a jump back and forth between the aftermath of the incident and the events leading up to it, making it a non-linear way to piece together what caused what happened and who was responsible for it.
The world-building is wonderful. This novel falls under the historical fiction category, yes, but this has in no way limited the author. It truly does feel like we are taking a journey back in time, to the summer of 1876 when San Francisco was a Wild West town and you can truly sense the summer heat, and experience first-hand the epidemic and the anti-immigrant uproar (although, I suppose you don't really have to be a time traveler to experience such things nowadays)
The friendship between the two main characters is both beautiful and tragic; tragic not just because of what happens during the aforementioned incident, but also due to how this era's society deals with topics such as LGBTQIA+ and female rights. Although, once again, we haven't necessarily seen that many changes in the past 145 years. That's really one of the clever things about stories like this; it paints a picture of society as it was in a specific era and inspires us to look at how things are today, making it all the more clear that some societal problems are still ongoing. And on top of that message, the story is sprinkled with other timeless topics such as love, lust, jealousy, parenthood, and the longing for autonomy.
We also get some humor and lightness to counterbalance the underlying murder mystery. Especially in the flashbacks; there is laughter, song, and the playful nature between the two friends slowly turns into something more intimate. It feels like the seemingly random and sudden way the two main characters meet is a stroke of fate in disguise, that they've crossed paths for the purpose of self-discovery and growth. Even though tragedy strikes along the way, there is still something to hold on to from there on out.
The world-building is wonderful. This novel falls under the historical fiction category, yes, but this has in no way limited the author. It truly does feel like we are taking a journey back in time, to the summer of 1876 when San Francisco was a Wild West town and you can truly sense the summer heat, and experience first-hand the epidemic and the anti-immigrant uproar (although, I suppose you don't really have to be a time traveler to experience such things nowadays)
The friendship between the two main characters is both beautiful and tragic; tragic not just because of what happens during the aforementioned incident, but also due to how this era's society deals with topics such as LGBTQIA+ and female rights. Although, once again, we haven't necessarily seen that many changes in the past 145 years. That's really one of the clever things about stories like this; it paints a picture of society as it was in a specific era and inspires us to look at how things are today, making it all the more clear that some societal problems are still ongoing. And on top of that message, the story is sprinkled with other timeless topics such as love, lust, jealousy, parenthood, and the longing for autonomy.
We also get some humor and lightness to counterbalance the underlying murder mystery. Especially in the flashbacks; there is laughter, song, and the playful nature between the two friends slowly turns into something more intimate. It feels like the seemingly random and sudden way the two main characters meet is a stroke of fate in disguise, that they've crossed paths for the purpose of self-discovery and growth. Even though tragedy strikes along the way, there is still something to hold on to from there on out.