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.