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A review by emcfeely
Zazen by Vanessa Veselka
3.0
I appreciated that this was a story involving radical politics that didn't turn into a story about the main character realizing that radicalism is horrible and dangerous and totally wrong - that was refreshing. This book was delightfully non-judgmental. I don't know, I love vegans and sex parties and farm collectives. They're all a little silly and earnest (yes, even the sex parties), but I feel an undeniable fondness for that sort of thing, and usually when they show up in books it is solely as the butt of a joke - look at the hilarious counter-cultural idiots, don't they know that operating outside of expectations is a waste of time, etc. This book pokes fun at them, but it doesn't feel malicious.
So there were things that I liked, and there were moments of undeniably beautiful prose. It occasionally felt uneven. And this isn't the author's fault, but god, the copy-editing was not good. However! This is one of the first books from a new indie publishing imprint, and I decided to be super excited by the fact that people are still starting independent publishing companies instead of getting too worked up over what I'll chalk up to growing pains.
So there were things that I liked, and there were moments of undeniably beautiful prose. It occasionally felt uneven. And this isn't the author's fault, but god, the copy-editing was not good. However! This is one of the first books from a new indie publishing imprint, and I decided to be super excited by the fact that people are still starting independent publishing companies instead of getting too worked up over what I'll chalk up to growing pains.