A review by kaa
The Door Into Shadow by Diane Duane

1.0

I love Segnbora (love love love Segnbora). I love dragons. I love like 95% of this book. But there are maybe 5 pages that just destroyed the story for me. You can look at other reviews for more details, as I am far from the only person to have this issue. (CW for discussion of

Spoiler

rape

in those other reviews and the rest of mine.) And look, I wouldn't have LIKED it, but I could have sort of gotten through

Spoiler

Segnbora's motivating trauma being her childhood rape by a family member. Even if I do really hate it when rape is described in more detail than any of the consensual sex scenes.

The part that was, for me, unforgivable, was

Spoiler

making Segnbora's forgiveness of her rapist a pre-condition of her coming into her own power. Fuck no. Nope. And then we start to get into "this is why I have issues with omnipotent deities" territory.

Absolutely none of this was necessary for Segnbora's storyline, nor was it at all relevant to the rest of the plot except as it affected Segnbora. There are other types of betrayal and sources of trauma - yes, even for women. And there are other ways to deal with past trauma. You could have had almost the same story, except not terrible and ruined, if that one tiny part had been changed.

Have not decided yet whether I will continue with the next book, which I already own.

CW for the book, with page numbers:

Spoiler

fairly explicit childhood rape of the protagonist - p 226-230; the part where she has to forgive her rapist - p 278-280