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A review by katyanaish
The Broken Crown by Michelle West
4.0
This book was hard for me to read.
Firstly - and honestly, the smallest reason - is that it had all the unwieldy bulk of the first book in an epic fantasy series, as you meet a very large cast of characters and establish the world of the Dominion. Frankly, it was a relief to get back to the Northern city, because I'm reading this series in the order suggested on The House War series page - the first 3 books of that series, and then all 6 of this series - and it was great to get back to characters I know, however brief our time with them.
The biggest reason why it was hard for me to read is because I loathe - and that word is not an exaggeration - the Dominion. Utterly loathe it. The casual disdain for women, the rampant misogyny and abuse, the constant cruelty to slaves ... everything combined to make me hate that entire society and literally every man in it (except perhaps one, but the par el'Sol that was maybe decent wasn't around much, and I fully expect him to be a bag of shit if we get more of him, because every man in the Dominion is). These are people that partner with demons for power - and that in itself is idiocy, because the demons aren't even subtle about the fact that they will turn on them as soon as they've used the humans to eliminate the threats to the demonic court - but proclaim to hate the Northern empire because they are led by demons (which they are not - and even their own lore of the Lord calls that out, because the Northern empire allied with them to overthrow the demons centuries ago, when the demons last ruled the Dominion - they are ruled by the children of gods) with astonishing hypocrisy.
And it was the hypocrisy that became so tough to swallow. You've got a father continually trading his daughter for power - he leverages her several times over the course of this book - lamenting that she doesn't seem to have affection the same affection for him that she used to. The treatment of the women is just gross, and it isn't that a couple characters are awful, it is that their entire fucking culture is awful, and it was nearly impossible for me to read the first 60% or so. It was that hard to swallow the evil of their entire society.
It also, I think, hurts the male characters that the author clearly wants us to see as complicated, flawed men. I'm sorry, but I can't do anything but despise Sendari and Alesso. Their disdain for all women, and their willingness to use / discard / murder them - and their demand that all women just accept that as their role - is so awful that I can't find even a moment of sympathy for their occasionally conflicted feelings. Oh, I'm sorry Sendari, does it give you a sad that your daughter might despise you for trading her away for power, and then murdering the entire family you gave her to after she has built a home for herself? Awww. I am playing the world's tiniest violin for you, asshole.
I want them all to die, and I mean die horribly. And I want the Dominion to be wiped from the face of the world like the toxic hell that it is.
But I love the complicated women that are at the heart of the story - Diora, Teresa (who is underappreciated by Diora for all that she's done to help her, behind the scenes), Jewel, Kiriel, The Kalakar. (Not Evayne though - she's a self-righteous asshole that uses everyone as a pawn.) And I'm drawn by the overall story... so I will certainly continue on. After all, the women are the leads of this series, and so hopefully their journey will shatter this bullshit world that they are bound within.
Firstly - and honestly, the smallest reason - is that it had all the unwieldy bulk of the first book in an epic fantasy series, as you meet a very large cast of characters and establish the world of the Dominion. Frankly, it was a relief to get back to the Northern city, because I'm reading this series in the order suggested on The House War series page - the first 3 books of that series, and then all 6 of this series - and it was great to get back to characters I know, however brief our time with them.
The biggest reason why it was hard for me to read is because I loathe - and that word is not an exaggeration - the Dominion. Utterly loathe it. The casual disdain for women, the rampant misogyny and abuse, the constant cruelty to slaves ... everything combined to make me hate that entire society and literally every man in it (except perhaps one, but the par el'Sol that was maybe decent wasn't around much, and I fully expect him to be a bag of shit if we get more of him, because every man in the Dominion is). These are people that partner with demons for power - and that in itself is idiocy, because the demons aren't even subtle about the fact that they will turn on them as soon as they've used the humans to eliminate the threats to the demonic court - but proclaim to hate the Northern empire because they are led by demons (which they are not - and even their own lore of the Lord calls that out, because the Northern empire allied with them to overthrow the demons centuries ago, when the demons last ruled the Dominion - they are ruled by the children of gods) with astonishing hypocrisy.
And it was the hypocrisy that became so tough to swallow. You've got a father continually trading his daughter for power - he leverages her several times over the course of this book - lamenting that she doesn't seem to have affection the same affection for him that she used to. The treatment of the women is just gross, and it isn't that a couple characters are awful, it is that their entire fucking culture is awful, and it was nearly impossible for me to read the first 60% or so. It was that hard to swallow the evil of their entire society.
It also, I think, hurts the male characters that the author clearly wants us to see as complicated, flawed men. I'm sorry, but I can't do anything but despise Sendari and Alesso. Their disdain for all women, and their willingness to use / discard / murder them - and their demand that all women just accept that as their role - is so awful that I can't find even a moment of sympathy for their occasionally conflicted feelings. Oh, I'm sorry Sendari, does it give you a sad that your daughter might despise you for trading her away for power, and then murdering the entire family you gave her to after she has built a home for herself? Awww. I am playing the world's tiniest violin for you, asshole.
I want them all to die, and I mean die horribly. And I want the Dominion to be wiped from the face of the world like the toxic hell that it is.
But I love the complicated women that are at the heart of the story - Diora, Teresa (who is underappreciated by Diora for all that she's done to help her, behind the scenes), Jewel, Kiriel, The Kalakar. (Not Evayne though - she's a self-righteous asshole that uses everyone as a pawn.) And I'm drawn by the overall story... so I will certainly continue on. After all, the women are the leads of this series, and so hopefully their journey will shatter this bullshit world that they are bound within.