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A review by ibvandersluis
Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
3.0
3.5
I can imagine Juno Dawson sitting down to write this book, thinking calmly to herself, alright, J.K. Rowling, let's right some wrongs.
In terms of plot and worldbuilding, this book isn't very original and treads familiar story arcs and tropes. The setup feels very much like a mesh between the plot of X-Men (shouldmutants witches help humanity or dominate them) and that of Harry Potter, with HMRC being something like the Ministry of Magic. This book is not revolutionary in that department, but it does execute those tropes with competence.
The real strength of this book is that it is fully siezing on storytelling as a device to talk about real issues. It's not shy about it either; this book has a very clear, progressive stance on the various issues it touches on. It's a book about identity and being your true self, and being your true self to those who matter most to you. It's a book about love - matronly, sisterly, and romantic; love isn't always easy, it's so important. It's about fighting against cultural hegemony that, perhaps even unintentionally, drowns out and pushes away things that are too 'different' from what is accepted as normal. It's about the horrible things people can convince themselves are right and good, all because they're afraid.
This book didn't rock my world, but I did really enjoy it and I respect it for being a pretty blatant 'FUCK YOU' letter to J.K. Rowling.
I can imagine Juno Dawson sitting down to write this book, thinking calmly to herself, alright, J.K. Rowling, let's right some wrongs.
In terms of plot and worldbuilding, this book isn't very original and treads familiar story arcs and tropes. The setup feels very much like a mesh between the plot of X-Men (should
The real strength of this book is that it is fully siezing on storytelling as a device to talk about real issues. It's not shy about it either; this book has a very clear, progressive stance on the various issues it touches on. It's a book about identity and being your true self, and being your true self to those who matter most to you. It's a book about love - matronly, sisterly, and romantic; love isn't always easy, it's so important. It's about fighting against cultural hegemony that, perhaps even unintentionally, drowns out and pushes away things that are too 'different' from what is accepted as normal. It's about the horrible things people can convince themselves are right and good, all because they're afraid.
This book didn't rock my world, but I did really enjoy it and I respect it for being a pretty blatant 'FUCK YOU' letter to J.K. Rowling.