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A review by wolfiegrrrl
Sunset Bridge by Emilie Richards
Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.
I didn't stop reading because of any serious flaw in the book. It just wasn't catching my interest. As this is the third (and so far final) book in the Happiness Key series and I haven't read the first two, I know I'm missing a lot of context regarding the characters' relationships and that may be why I wasn't feeling super invested in what was happening. Going in blind, the writing comes across as dull to me.
One thing that did make me feel wary was the way "the Indian wife" was written in the story. She is the only character who speaks differently than the others. The white characters don't even have inflection or turns of phrase that are unique to them, yet this Indian character comes out speaking like she doesn't know English very well. And yes, I am aware that there are people who speak like that! But when all of the white people speak like the author writes (as though they are carbon copies) when that just isn't true to reality, it seems like a deliberate choice by the author to make this character different in such a... stereotypical way? It's mainly giving me "shallow surface level inclusion for the sake of ~diversity~ uwu" vibes and I am primed to be suspicious of this. This may be a too-quick judgment on my part, so take it with a grain of salt as always.
One thing that did make me feel wary was the way "the Indian wife" was written in the story. She is the only character who speaks differently than the others. The white characters don't even have inflection or turns of phrase that are unique to them, yet this Indian character comes out speaking like she doesn't know English very well. And yes, I am aware that there are people who speak like that! But when all of the white people speak like the author writes (as though they are carbon copies) when that just isn't true to reality, it seems like a deliberate choice by the author to make this character different in such a... stereotypical way? It's mainly giving me "shallow surface level inclusion for the sake of ~diversity~ uwu" vibes and I am primed to be suspicious of this. This may be a too-quick judgment on my part, so take it with a grain of salt as always.