A review by bewilderduck
The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix

Can’t rate since dnf. Didn’t get the racism vibes that many people are seemingly swarming about, that surprised me when I went to check the reviews after deciding to not finish. The black characters are complex and are not the villains—I stopped at 30-40% and the main character was already proven wrong for directing her anger at them. Anyway what made this a dnf for me personally was the writing style?? You’d have sections of wonderful prose and then the characters would talk in the most modern slang and voice. They’d have back and forths that were the most stereotypical/stilted things like “hey look at me look at this incredibly funny banter between my characters” and it really took me out of it. It was so inconsistent. I also could not get a feel for what kind of technology exists in this world—they know about cells and viruses and stuff, but the aesthetic is more high fantasy.