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A review by ejopet
Low Town by Daniel Polansky
CW: Discussion of sexual assault
I don't know how to feel about this book.
I read it avidly (sorry Alicia!), but I didn't necessarily enjoy myself. I don't plan to read the sequels, but I'll admit that I checked out their summaries to see if they sounded interesting.
I'll say up front that a lot of my problems with it are specific to me. I don't usually like grimdark/grimdark adjacent fantasy, and some of the things I didn't like are features of the genre.
Some disconnected thoughts/rambling:
The background of the Warden is actually really interesting. He grew up as a street kid in Low Town, before eventually becoming what is basically a policeman, but now he's back in Low Town, a drug addict and drug dealer. I liked the perspective this gives him into class in his city--it's clear that even when he had his prestigious job, he never really fit in. And because of his glance into another world, he is deeply skeptical of wealth and power. To be honest, I read Low Town around the same time as I read this article about how invisible social structures keep people from working-class backgrounds from succeeding at prestigious blue collar jobs, and anyway, maybe read the article instead of this book? But yes, I liked the class elements/commentary.
The plot "hook", the thing that kicks off the events of the book, is the Warden discovering the body of a young girl who has been raped and murdered. I just...am so over sexual violence against women used to motivate men's stories. I'm sure it can be done well, but it's not easy, and it requires a careful tone. Low Town doesn't do a terrible job--trust me, I've read plenty worse--but in the end, the book is going for a jaded, cynical, black humor-ish vibe, and it doesn't mesh with the serious subject perfectly.
I felt like the plot could have done with some finessing. The actual stakes for the Warden aren't put in place until maybe a third of the way through the book, and until then it feels like he wanders around investigating just so the plot can happen. Also, looking back, so many of the major plot points are just...coincidences. It just happens that he stumbles on the body. It just happens that the first agent responding to the scene is his old partner. It just happens that ten years he was one of a few soldiers to see the monsters from the war. It just happens that. None of those things are related--he didn't find the body because of his experience in the war, or anything like that.
I personally just don't like books where the main character is cynical and misanthropic and very clever. I'm not into the whole shtick. I just don't like reading insulting/dismissive descriptions of people the main character has just met.
Okay, the resolution to the central mystery was incredibly obvious. It was so obvious because the main character developed an inexplicable blind spot around any clues that would have pointed to the solution. Paradoxically, this improved the book for me. Alfred Hitchcock had a theory, that, paraphrased, says that suspense comes when the audience knows more than the characters. Put a bomb under the table, and tell the audience but not the characters that it's going to explode, and you have suspense. That was how I felt reading the end of Low Town. There's a brilliant scene near the end where I thought I was going to scream. It was so so good.
To sum up, Low Town wasn't for me, but there were aspects of it that I liked. It made me think a lot about suspense, and using narrative conventions to increase it. If someone already can stomach the conventions of dark noir-ish books, Low Town is a fine choice.
I don't know how to feel about this book.
I read it avidly (sorry Alicia!), but I didn't necessarily enjoy myself. I don't plan to read the sequels, but I'll admit that I checked out their summaries to see if they sounded interesting.
I'll say up front that a lot of my problems with it are specific to me. I don't usually like grimdark/grimdark adjacent fantasy, and some of the things I didn't like are features of the genre.
Some disconnected thoughts/rambling:
The background of the Warden is actually really interesting. He grew up as a street kid in Low Town, before eventually becoming what is basically a policeman, but now he's back in Low Town, a drug addict and drug dealer. I liked the perspective this gives him into class in his city--it's clear that even when he had his prestigious job, he never really fit in. And because of his glance into another world, he is deeply skeptical of wealth and power. To be honest, I read Low Town around the same time as I read this article about how invisible social structures keep people from working-class backgrounds from succeeding at prestigious blue collar jobs, and anyway, maybe read the article instead of this book? But yes, I liked the class elements/commentary.
The plot "hook", the thing that kicks off the events of the book, is the Warden discovering the body of a young girl who has been raped and murdered. I just...am so over sexual violence against women used to motivate men's stories. I'm sure it can be done well, but it's not easy, and it requires a careful tone. Low Town doesn't do a terrible job--trust me, I've read plenty worse--but in the end, the book is going for a jaded, cynical, black humor-ish vibe, and it doesn't mesh with the serious subject perfectly.
I felt like the plot could have done with some finessing. The actual stakes for the Warden aren't put in place until maybe a third of the way through the book, and until then it feels like he wanders around investigating just so the plot can happen. Also, looking back, so many of the major plot points are just...coincidences. It just happens that he stumbles on the body. It just happens that the first agent responding to the scene is his old partner. It just happens that ten years he was one of a few soldiers to see the monsters from the war. It just happens that
Spoiler
he was one of maybe TWO people in the city who actually knew the person behind the murdersI personally just don't like books where the main character is cynical and misanthropic and very clever. I'm not into the whole shtick. I just don't like reading insulting/dismissive descriptions of people the main character has just met.
Okay, the resolution to the central mystery was incredibly obvious. It was so obvious because the main character developed an inexplicable blind spot around any clues that would have pointed to the solution.
Spoiler
For example, the Warden fears that the murders are related to the Red Plague, a terrifying possibility. But then he ignores that line of inquiry entirely.Spoiler
the Warden receives a package that a reader who has been paying attention knows will resolve the mystery and stop him from confronting the wrong person. And then he DOESN'T OPEN IT.To sum up, Low Town wasn't for me, but there were aspects of it that I liked. It made me think a lot about suspense, and using narrative conventions to increase it. If someone already can stomach the conventions of dark noir-ish books, Low Town is a fine choice.