Scan barcode
A review by scarletviolet
Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. The premise was great. A thirteenth child living on the frontier where magic and nature clash. The world building was great and the premise was super solid.
But somehow this book managed to make that kind of...dull.
Eff as a character didn't seem to have any real arc. She was hemmed in by tradition and by the roles outlined for girls and women on the frontier. Rather than overcome the limitations imposed on her gender, she just unproblematically accepted them. She spent a lot of time watching the boys do cool stuff while washing their clothes and making their beds. She never challenged her role as homemaker in waiting - never even seemed to chafe at the restrictions it imposed on her. I kept waiting for her to show some spirit and start carving out her own place in the world, but it just never happened.
All in all, the book was just kind of dull.
But somehow this book managed to make that kind of...dull.
Eff as a character didn't seem to have any real arc. She was hemmed in by tradition and by the roles outlined for girls and women on the frontier. Rather than overcome the limitations imposed on her gender, she just unproblematically accepted them. She spent a lot of time watching the boys do cool stuff while washing their clothes and making their beds. She never challenged her role as homemaker in waiting - never even seemed to chafe at the restrictions it imposed on her. I kept waiting for her to show some spirit and start carving out her own place in the world, but it just never happened.
All in all, the book was just kind of dull.