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A review by luke_td
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
The saying goes you can't judge a book by its cover, but then here comes Captain Smartass saying you can if you read the synopsis on the back. Yeah maybe broadly true but here we have an exception.
Even reading the first few chapters might not prep you for what's coming (outside of letting you know you're in good hands,I wish I had better descriptors for writing than well written and lyrical but alas), building an interesting, fully realized world in bits and pieces that gives you just enough information to understand what's going on, only to yank it away and build another one.
Even here we still seem to be in back cover synopsis territory, Tan-Tan's journey to becoming a legend.
Except that's not quite how it goes, and Tan-Tan gets put through the ringer.
There are interesting flashes of how facts become myth, often warping far from where they started, but there's more about the sometimes banal, often grim truths that hide behind the myths.
If the book can drag a little in these day to day parts, maybe the problem is with me insisting we rush towards conclusions.
And what an immensley satisfying conclusion it was, where Tan-Tan gets to reclaim herself and her story by telling it her way and in her own words.
If that cuts through one myth, it may just well build another.
Even reading the first few chapters might not prep you for what's coming (outside of letting you know you're in good hands,I wish I had better descriptors for writing than well written and lyrical but alas), building an interesting, fully realized world in bits and pieces that gives you just enough information to understand what's going on, only to yank it away and build another one.
Even here we still seem to be in back cover synopsis territory, Tan-Tan's journey to becoming a legend.
Except that's not quite how it goes, and Tan-Tan gets put through the ringer.
There are interesting flashes of how facts become myth, often warping far from where they started, but there's more about the sometimes banal, often grim truths that hide behind the myths.
If the book can drag a little in these day to day parts, maybe the problem is with me insisting we rush towards conclusions.
And what an immensley satisfying conclusion it was, where Tan-Tan gets to reclaim herself and her story by telling it her way and in her own words.
If that cuts through one myth, it may just well build another.