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A review by alisonalisonalison
The Art of Forgetting: Rider by Joanne Hall
2.0
I picked this up for free on a whim because I love queer fantasy and it sounded like the sort of thing I might like, but it was disappointing. Aside from the often problematic queer representation, I found it to be a little flat overall and the story just didn't grab me or make me care. I didn't really connect with any of the characters and the plot gets a little unwieldy and implausible and loses focus towards the end. A lot of what happens seems a little meaningless and I wanted more depth and emotion.
While I was initially happy to see queer characters (especially the bisexual main character), I found much of the queer representation to be problematic and stereotypical in a pretty negative way, which was really unfortunate. There's a particularly nasty Villain Queer, a really sad and melodramatic Tragic Queer, and an Unsurprisingly Unfaithful Bisexual. The main character is bisexual, which is really cool and is mostly handled in a good way, but there's also some ugly negative stereotypical stuff about his bisexuality thrown in, which was irritating and didn't seem to serve any purpose. The villain is just super rapey and a really nasty and abusive bully. It's great that there's a trans character, but his transness is handled with an upsetting lack of sensitivity and respect. It really bothered me and made me sad. While I really appreciate the inclusion of queer characters (it's one of the main reasons why I read this), much of the execution was clumsy and irritating and full of unpleasant tropey queer stereotypes. I was disappointed by this book and it left me feeling a little sad. Most people on GR seem to like this, but it was really not for me.
While I was initially happy to see queer characters (especially the bisexual main character), I found much of the queer representation to be problematic and stereotypical in a pretty negative way, which was really unfortunate. There's a particularly nasty Villain Queer, a really sad and melodramatic Tragic Queer, and an Unsurprisingly Unfaithful Bisexual. The main character is bisexual, which is really cool and is mostly handled in a good way, but there's also some ugly negative stereotypical stuff about his bisexuality thrown in, which was irritating and didn't seem to serve any purpose. The villain is just super rapey and a really nasty and abusive bully. It's great that there's a trans character, but his transness is handled with an upsetting lack of sensitivity and respect. It really bothered me and made me sad. While I really appreciate the inclusion of queer characters (it's one of the main reasons why I read this), much of the execution was clumsy and irritating and full of unpleasant tropey queer stereotypes. I was disappointed by this book and it left me feeling a little sad. Most people on GR seem to like this, but it was really not for me.