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A review by olliums
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett
5.0
Oh I'm deeply emotional about this book.... I read this for the first time in probably.. early high school? it was formative, I've never stopped thinking about it, so glad that it held up in re-read. did i pick my own name based on this book? like not ENTIRELY but surely, not entirely NOT
picked this up, of course, due to recent Terry Pratchett twitter discourse, and it really is fascinating to like, look back upon some of the early pratchetts vs. this one- I mean you can kind of tell as of like Equal Rites that he doesnt really.. Know what women are.. but imo always in like a decent and goodhearted way. I think you can bring that forward here and be like, mr. pratchett has clearly never met or heard of trans people, and so GIVEN that it's really shocking how much he gets it and he vibes. like.. jackrum at the end? jesus!!
this book, which i ofc remembered being about Gender and Women's Rights, surprised me with the amount that it's about war, bureaucracy, nationalism. I suppose to some degree all Discworld is about bureaucracy, but here the Catch-22 style military bureaucracy really pops. I don't think I fully picked up as a child that the Only cis man in this book is the lieutenant, and then the degree to which Jackrum is like "the rupert is the manager who needs to be managed" which is. a real feeling
I don't know it's just- damn! It's extremely extremely good. I'm writing up all these reviews of actual "I am Trans Gender" YA books from like 2015-present and I don't want to say this book is BETTER on the topic than they are but (this may just be my like, adult self talking) I'm extremely into its lesbians without needing to say so & its old trans grandpa without having to say so. sometimes things that are not subtext..... are worse
picked this up, of course, due to recent Terry Pratchett twitter discourse, and it really is fascinating to like, look back upon some of the early pratchetts vs. this one- I mean you can kind of tell as of like Equal Rites that he doesnt really.. Know what women are.. but imo always in like a decent and goodhearted way. I think you can bring that forward here and be like, mr. pratchett has clearly never met or heard of trans people, and so GIVEN that it's really shocking how much he gets it and he vibes. like.. jackrum at the end? jesus!!
this book, which i ofc remembered being about Gender and Women's Rights, surprised me with the amount that it's about war, bureaucracy, nationalism. I suppose to some degree all Discworld is about bureaucracy, but here the Catch-22 style military bureaucracy really pops. I don't think I fully picked up as a child that the Only cis man in this book is the lieutenant, and then the degree to which Jackrum is like "the rupert is the manager who needs to be managed" which is. a real feeling
I don't know it's just- damn! It's extremely extremely good. I'm writing up all these reviews of actual "I am Trans Gender" YA books from like 2015-present and I don't want to say this book is BETTER on the topic than they are but (this may just be my like, adult self talking) I'm extremely into its lesbians without needing to say so & its old trans grandpa without having to say so. sometimes things that are not subtext..... are worse