A review by quietjenn
The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent

3.0

2 1/2, but I feel generous, so we bump up. That said, I feel really conflicted about this book. I wanted to like it so much more than I actually did. There's a lot that is theoretically very good here, but I feel like the execution is off. Someone else used the word "muddled" to describe it, and I think that's spot-on. I feel like Trent did a whole heck of a lot, in terms of coming up with the alternate world she gives us here, but sometimes forgot that we readers don't live in her head and as such, the rules and realities of that world aren't as clear to us as they are to her as their creator. Which is a very convoluted way of saying things, perhaps, but there you go. I just felt very thrown into things and it was difficult to make sense of them at times. I also had a bit of an issue with a certain plot revelations, in that they were really, really obvious and the fact that Vespa didn't realize them made her seem really stupid.

And yet, for all that I'm sort of hoping that there are other books set in this world, because now that I finally sort of get the hang of it, I wouldn't mind more.