A review by hartd
The Resignation Letter by Dax Murray

I'm sorry to say that I didn't enjoy this short story much at all. I was going to give it a one-star rating, but it is in fact not classified as a romance at Amazon. So it's my fault that I thought it was a romance. I'm not going to give it a rating at all, since I was so mistaken about the genre.

I really dislike the fact that stories about wlw are usually very angsty. Why must women always suffer so much in fiction? This story is pretty much a slide into misery. The ending

Spoiler

could be interpreted as hopeful, but it's pretty bittersweet. I imagine Amalthea carrying the burden of knowing that Eleanor used and manipulated her for the rest of her life, even if she does manage to find some kind of happiness elsewhere.

I am honestly sorry I listened to it, which is not a familiar sentiment for me at all.

Aside from my own issues, the writing feels clumsy. I never knew how old either of these characters were or how much time had passed at any point. The author's word choices moved between fairy-tale-style phrasing and modern language in a really jarring way.

I do like the setting, kind of a vague fantasy world with magic and with no homophobia or transphobia, but with racism and xenophobia. There is some really lovely poetic writing in this story, and the cover is beautiful. I listened to the audio version narrated by Sydney Beck, who did a great job.