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A review by laurel00
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I genuinely don't think I will ever recover.
It took a while for me to get through this, only because life kept getting in the way. Under normal circumstances, I would've finished it in one weekend. But as I was making my way through it, I kept seeing people talking about this book, saying specifically that it absolutely devastated them in the most heart-wrenching way. I'm always so nervous when I hear these types of comments, because I cry a lot even for novels that are pretty tame emotionally speaking, so to hear people hype up a book like this, it was setting up these huge expectations for me. I promised myself that I wouldn't give it 5 stars unless it drained me of every tear my body could muster.
And, goddamn, it did.
I am exhausted. I have cried so much in the last few days as I made my way through the second half of the story. I have been destroyed, mind, body, and soul. I mean, this is what sci-fi should be; this is how you do it.
I think I could write three separate novels discussing everything that was addressed in this book: every message, every dilemma, every part of our MC's character arc. There is so much depth to it, and the story itself, while being complex and rich and full of content, was also very clear. Everything was laid out in a way that made it easy to understand, while still giving you space to make your own connections, reach your own conclusions, develop your own opinions and ideas about it all.
I loved every single character, in so many different ways. I'm obsessed with SFF novels that use their characters to talk about what it means to be "good" or "bad". People who are simultaneously severely unlikeable and yet also extremely relatable. They hate each other and themselves, and you hate them all but also you feel more love for them than you thought you could for a fictional character. And I hated how consistently this book called me out, but I also loved every minute of it. Why go to therapy when you can just get obliterated by this masterpiece of a story?
I will probably never shut up about this book, for as long as I live. A part of me is sad that it isn't a 20-part series because I would have read every single page of that. But I also think it was a genius decision on Tesh's part to write this as a stand-alone; it was perfection. I am truly obsessed with it and from now on, this is the standard to which I will be holding all other sci-fi novels I pick up.
Without a doubt, you need to read this as soon as humanly possible. I will never be able to recommend it enough.
Source: NetGalley
It took a while for me to get through this, only because life kept getting in the way. Under normal circumstances, I would've finished it in one weekend. But as I was making my way through it, I kept seeing people talking about this book, saying specifically that it absolutely devastated them in the most heart-wrenching way. I'm always so nervous when I hear these types of comments, because I cry a lot even for novels that are pretty tame emotionally speaking, so to hear people hype up a book like this, it was setting up these huge expectations for me. I promised myself that I wouldn't give it 5 stars unless it drained me of every tear my body could muster.
And, goddamn, it did.
I am exhausted. I have cried so much in the last few days as I made my way through the second half of the story. I have been destroyed, mind, body, and soul. I mean, this is what sci-fi should be; this is how you do it.
I think I could write three separate novels discussing everything that was addressed in this book: every message, every dilemma, every part of our MC's character arc. There is so much depth to it, and the story itself, while being complex and rich and full of content, was also very clear. Everything was laid out in a way that made it easy to understand, while still giving you space to make your own connections, reach your own conclusions, develop your own opinions and ideas about it all.
I loved every single character, in so many different ways. I'm obsessed with SFF novels that use their characters to talk about what it means to be "good" or "bad". People who are simultaneously severely unlikeable and yet also extremely relatable. They hate each other and themselves, and you hate them all but also you feel more love for them than you thought you could for a fictional character. And I hated how consistently this book called me out, but I also loved every minute of it. Why go to therapy when you can just get obliterated by this masterpiece of a story?
I will probably never shut up about this book, for as long as I live. A part of me is sad that it isn't a 20-part series because I would have read every single page of that. But I also think it was a genius decision on Tesh's part to write this as a stand-alone; it was perfection. I am truly obsessed with it and from now on, this is the standard to which I will be holding all other sci-fi novels I pick up.
Without a doubt, you need to read this as soon as humanly possible. I will never be able to recommend it enough.
Source: NetGalley