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A review by showzen
Oshibana Complex by Craig Hallam
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
"Grieving for something you've never known. That's a strange thing."
oh my GOD this book was good. i love quietly tragic cyberpunk stories and this hit that nail on the head SO hard in so many distinct ways, from xev's and marsh's sad but ever-enduring friendship, to xev's little new synth friend being shot to ribbons in the burger stop, to eir fear about handling vee's preserved violets right up to the very end scene with euripedes.
the overarching theme of this story, really, is that connection and friendship and love are what beats the evil in the end - when xev's kicked from eir pretty, spacious corporate pod with space for only one synth to stay inside, and moves into one of paizo's cubes in the belly, making special note that this mattress, though thin and uncomfortable, is big enough for two, it draws up the incredible and touching idea of comfortable solitude vs uncomfortable togetherness (particularly when you remember eir old pod wasn't even so great in the first place).
it's also a book of quiet horror, to me. obviously there's the explicitly terrifying scenes - the death of the new synth pops into mind - but xev also accepts a lot of truly horrifying things because they're just part of eir life, and it's all e's ever known, and as the reader you get drawn along into this casual acceptance of awful things, but when you really stop and think - the claustrophobia of eir burger stop tube right in the start, the absolute inescapable dead-end-ness of undezzed synths, xev re-finding a newly samed toriq - isn't it scary?
it was also really refreshing to have a cast of neopronoun-using characters! the characters' pronouns are used and weaved in so casually that it never feels forced, and hallam's writing manages to deftly avoid the awkwardness that so often comes from having multiple characters who use the same pronouns in the same scene - even though every single character uses the same pronouns!
overall this is a really, really fantastic member of the cyberpunk genre that manages to strike all the familiar emotional touchpoints of that kind of fiction whilst never feeling stale or lazy - a really good read that i'd recommend to anyone!
oh my GOD this book was good. i love quietly tragic cyberpunk stories and this hit that nail on the head SO hard in so many distinct ways, from xev's and marsh's sad but ever-enduring friendship, to xev's little new synth friend being shot to ribbons in the burger stop, to eir fear about handling vee's preserved violets right up to the very end scene with euripedes.
the overarching theme of this story, really, is that connection and friendship and love are what beats the evil in the end - when xev's kicked from eir pretty, spacious corporate pod with space for only one synth to stay inside, and moves into one of paizo's cubes in the belly, making special note that this mattress, though thin and uncomfortable, is big enough for two, it draws up the incredible and touching idea of comfortable solitude vs uncomfortable togetherness (particularly when you remember eir old pod wasn't even so great in the first place).
it's also a book of quiet horror, to me. obviously there's the explicitly terrifying scenes - the death of the new synth pops into mind - but xev also accepts a lot of truly horrifying things because they're just part of eir life, and it's all e's ever known, and as the reader you get drawn along into this casual acceptance of awful things, but when you really stop and think - the claustrophobia of eir burger stop tube right in the start, the absolute inescapable dead-end-ness of undezzed synths, xev re-finding a newly samed toriq - isn't it scary?
it was also really refreshing to have a cast of neopronoun-using characters! the characters' pronouns are used and weaved in so casually that it never feels forced, and hallam's writing manages to deftly avoid the awkwardness that so often comes from having multiple characters who use the same pronouns in the same scene - even though every single character uses the same pronouns!
overall this is a really, really fantastic member of the cyberpunk genre that manages to strike all the familiar emotional touchpoints of that kind of fiction whilst never feeling stale or lazy - a really good read that i'd recommend to anyone!