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gigireadswithkiki 's review for:
One for All
by Lillie Lainoff
DID NOT FINISH: 25%
Yes, the writing is all over the place. Yes, the pacing reads like a debut. However. None of these are the reasons I'm DNF-ing this which is that it takes a classical literature story set in centuries past (17th century France to be exact), that would be considered problematic in our modern day, then de-fangs the story, removing the historical and political context, leaving a jumbled mess of a premise.
It felt like there was an intrinsic disconnect between the politics of the story and the author's political views; okay, the Musketeers protect the king, but why did you have to add that the death of the king would result in the downfall of lives of the underprivileged because the noble class would instill a worse regime? Is the "well the king is incompetent but the other option is worse," really the story we want to go for in a retelling of The Three Musketeers?
I understand how the original text would have had some problematic views but those tropes and themes are all framed within the context of what France was in the 17th century. And when you remove those and instill modern day political ideals without a firm grasp of the purpose of the original text, you have nothing but jumbled garbage. Did I still enjoy the disability representation? Absolutely, the internalized ableism was portrayed so, so well. But I simply couldn't get past the messiness of the author's attempt at modernizing the politics of 17th century France.
It felt like there was an intrinsic disconnect between the politics of the story and the author's political views; okay, the Musketeers protect the king, but why did you have to add that the death of the king would result in the downfall of lives of the underprivileged because the noble class would instill a worse regime? Is the "well the king is incompetent but the other option is worse," really the story we want to go for in a retelling of The Three Musketeers?
I understand how the original text would have had some problematic views but those tropes and themes are all framed within the context of what France was in the 17th century. And when you remove those and instill modern day political ideals without a firm grasp of the purpose of the original text, you have nothing but jumbled garbage. Did I still enjoy the disability representation? Absolutely, the internalized ableism was portrayed so, so well. But I simply couldn't get past the messiness of the author's attempt at modernizing the politics of 17th century France.