Scan barcode
A review by iam
Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities by Lyn Gala
4.0
I gotta stop reading this series's blurbs, they give such a wrong impression about the books?!
Content warnings include: political machinations, humans in gernal being stupid and self-centered, attack of a wild animal that is then killed in self-defense, BDSM (mostly non-sexual D/s, light bondage), sex on-page; mentions of rape, sexual abuse and assault, sex work, respecting someone less for working as a sex worker, neglect and parent kicking out a child.
I loooooooved that this book included Ondry as a POV character! Reading from his POV was delightful, and I even enjoyed the cultural barriers that kept him from understanding what Liam was doing - and sometimes that was even hard for me to interpret - and vice versa.
The plot made me anxious at time but never truly escalated, which I appreciated. It kept just the right tension, creating suspense without ever actually making me sad about what was happening.
At times it did feel like things were going terribly convenient for Ondry and Liam, though, to the point where it almost felt unbelievable. But just almost, it never truly went past that tipping point that would have broken suspension of disbelief, and included enough drama and ups and downs to distract from it through excitement.
I loved learning more about Rownt culture, and I'm hoping to learn more about the other alien species in the next book, and that the humans .... well, that there are less humans and that those who are there cause less trouble. (Not that I think my hopes will be met. But, eh, hope dies last...)
In general I think this series excells at all the culture clash and mainly focussing on a culture and society that is so different from humans. It's truly delightful to read, but also make you question what you assumed to be normal, logical or natural while reading.
Upon rereading, this book has some of my least favourite moments of the series, but I love it for giving us Ondry's POV for the first time, and it makes a lot of necessay steps and introctions that become vital for the development of the plot of the overall series plot.
Content warnings include: political machinations, humans in gernal being stupid and self-centered, attack of a wild animal that is then killed in self-defense, BDSM (mostly non-sexual D/s, light bondage), sex on-page; mentions of rape, sexual abuse and assault, sex work, respecting someone less for working as a sex worker, neglect and parent kicking out a child.
I loooooooved that this book included Ondry as a POV character! Reading from his POV was delightful, and I even enjoyed the cultural barriers that kept him from understanding what Liam was doing - and sometimes that was even hard for me to interpret - and vice versa.
The plot made me anxious at time but never truly escalated, which I appreciated. It kept just the right tension, creating suspense without ever actually making me sad about what was happening.
At times it did feel like things were going terribly convenient for Ondry and Liam, though, to the point where it almost felt unbelievable. But just almost, it never truly went past that tipping point that would have broken suspension of disbelief, and included enough drama and ups and downs to distract from it through excitement.
I loved learning more about Rownt culture, and I'm hoping to learn more about the other alien species in the next book, and that the humans .... well, that there are less humans and that those who are there cause less trouble. (Not that I think my hopes will be met. But, eh, hope dies last...)
In general I think this series excells at all the culture clash and mainly focussing on a culture and society that is so different from humans. It's truly delightful to read, but also make you question what you assumed to be normal, logical or natural while reading.
Upon rereading, this book has some of my least favourite moments of the series, but I love it for giving us Ondry's POV for the first time, and it makes a lot of necessay steps and introctions that become vital for the development of the plot of the overall series plot.