Scan barcode
A review by anakuroma
Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman
3.0
TW: ableism, death, fire, child abuse
(Note: I am an autistic/ADHD reviewer)
I was excited for a book to challenge the historical ableism of the 'changling' myth - where parents thought their children were swapped by faeries with a changling, a "human but not 'quite human' creature". This was how they explained their children acting "odd" or "strange". This could easily be our disability history.
Now, while this is an interesting exploration, I felt the metaphor was muffled. Like the problem with Zootopia's tackling of racism. This felt similar. In Zootopia the metaphor breaks due to carnivores... You know... Historically eating herbavores. Here the 'changling is actually autistic, not a dangerous magical creature' fails since... there are actual (dangerous) fearies and magic in this world. Seelie has powerful magic that litterally accidently kills a guy, so people's fears (while rooted in error) were logical in-universe. I just felt the author tried to hard to keep the story as BOTH metaphorical and yet also factual, and while well intentioned, muddied the message a bit.
Despite this there were good moments and an intriguing plot to carry the often slow paced story along. Having an autistic protagonist set in a fantasy relm was fun and different. A decent read.
(Note: I am an autistic/ADHD reviewer)
I was excited for a book to challenge the historical ableism of the 'changling' myth - where parents thought their children were swapped by faeries with a changling, a "human but not 'quite human' creature". This was how they explained their children acting "odd" or "strange". This could easily be our disability history.
Now, while this is an interesting exploration, I felt the metaphor was muffled. Like the problem with Zootopia's tackling of racism. This felt similar. In Zootopia the metaphor breaks due to carnivores... You know... Historically eating herbavores. Here the 'changling is actually autistic, not a dangerous magical creature' fails since... there are actual (dangerous) fearies and magic in this world. Seelie has powerful magic that litterally accidently kills a guy, so people's fears (while rooted in error) were logical in-universe. I just felt the author tried to hard to keep the story as BOTH metaphorical and yet also factual, and while well intentioned, muddied the message a bit.
Despite this there were good moments and an intriguing plot to carry the often slow paced story along. Having an autistic protagonist set in a fantasy relm was fun and different. A decent read.