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A review by spacestationtrustfund
The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic
2.0
It's interesting thinking about this series again. I was probably amongst the first couple hundred people to read the books after they were published, and definitely one of the first several dozen who got involved in fan communities; I remember when Sakavic regularly answered fan questions and otherwise interacted directly with fans. Anyway, in terms of the actual book... it feels like it was very cathartic for Sakavic to write,* and I have a lot of respect for that. Self-publication generally** means a lesser standard of editing than traditional publication, but in this series, it didn't show. It's a series that deals with very dark topics while managing not to become overly dark in and of itself.
The main issues I had with this book (and, broadly, the series) were the pacing, the racism (there's a difference between characters' racism and a frankly ridiculous amount of unnecessary racist shit), and the inconsistent gravitas of Exy (it's no small feat to invent an entire sport! I understand that, but I also think the focus shifted too much between having the sport as the primary driving motivation versus having the characters' interpersonal relationships as the same).
*I mean, I know it was.
**This is a generalised oversimplification, obviously.
ETA: I think this review makes a lot of salient points.
The main issues I had with this book (and, broadly, the series) were the pacing, the racism (there's a difference between characters' racism and a frankly ridiculous amount of unnecessary racist shit), and the inconsistent gravitas of Exy (it's no small feat to invent an entire sport! I understand that, but I also think the focus shifted too much between having the sport as the primary driving motivation versus having the characters' interpersonal relationships as the same).
*I mean, I know it was.
**This is a generalised oversimplification, obviously.
ETA: I think this review makes a lot of salient points.