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A review by charliauthor
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
this started out well enough with a decent premise based around an alice in wonderland retelling. I was intrigued by this as i had not heard a lot about it going in and the first few chapters were interesting with how she used the various elements of wonderland in the modern world. i especially liked how the writer was able to link the traumatic experiences of African Americans to the creations of nightmares in wonderland which, main character Alice (Alison) had to defeat. this however, was only mentioned the once and the rest of the nightmares seemed to sprout from any old place of fear, which is fine but i felt could have gone a little deeper.
anywhere, i started to lose my way with this around the 50% mark as it was tediously repetitive and slow, both in the pacing of course but textually. the writing was very choppy, short sentences written in present tense which left it feeling like a list of statements rather than actual story telling. in that vein, it was difficult to get a real hold on the dangers that were faced from wonderland with the different queens and daughters etc. which all just felt thrown at me rather than really experienced in any real way. by the end, i was skimming just to find the point and for this to finish.
on a slightly more serious note, this is another book ive come across that speaks on the difficulties of being Black in America, or indeed anywhere else, while still featuring love interests who are white. to be clear, i have no issue with interracial relationships of any kind, but when a narrative focuses so much on race thereby making the white characters the overall villains or aggressors, it makes no real sense why the romantic focus would be on them. there are 7 main characters in this book and 5 of them are white. her best friend, her love interests and her allies. for a book thats meant to bring diverse faces to the forefront, where are the other representations of your Blackness. its such an odd concept to me and i struggle to understand why so many books do it!?
overall, i didnt enjoy this book as much as i wanted to. the writing was odd, the action minimal, the plot uninspired and predictable and the main character a little annoying. the things i liked best about it were the attempt to worldbuild which was great in a lot of places and her interactions with her mother that were funny and relatable. other than that, i did not like this enough to care to continue unfortunately
anywhere, i started to lose my way with this around the 50% mark as it was tediously repetitive and slow, both in the pacing of course but textually. the writing was very choppy, short sentences written in present tense which left it feeling like a list of statements rather than actual story telling. in that vein, it was difficult to get a real hold on the dangers that were faced from wonderland with the different queens and daughters etc. which all just felt thrown at me rather than really experienced in any real way. by the end, i was skimming just to find the point and for this to finish.
on a slightly more serious note, this is another book ive come across that speaks on the difficulties of being Black in America, or indeed anywhere else, while still featuring love interests who are white. to be clear, i have no issue with interracial relationships of any kind, but when a narrative focuses so much on race thereby making the white characters the overall villains or aggressors, it makes no real sense why the romantic focus would be on them. there are 7 main characters in this book and 5 of them are white. her best friend, her love interests and her allies. for a book thats meant to bring diverse faces to the forefront, where are the other representations of your Blackness. its such an odd concept to me and i struggle to understand why so many books do it!?
overall, i didnt enjoy this book as much as i wanted to. the writing was odd, the action minimal, the plot uninspired and predictable and the main character a little annoying. the things i liked best about it were the attempt to worldbuild which was great in a lot of places and her interactions with her mother that were funny and relatable. other than that, i did not like this enough to care to continue unfortunately