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A review by petaq
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.25
Kind of an uneven novel imo? Dimaline is wonderful on a sentence level and her depiction of the main character is convincing, as is her depiction of her family, community and longing for her lost husband but her handling of the 'antagonists' felt a bit hammy and detracted from the novel. I think it would have been a stronger novel without their POVs, assuming we kept the same number of pages.
The prologue also seemed like the intro to a different novel ( unfortunately it was probably my favourite part of the book )
The outcome or twist at the end of the novel didn't really seem earned. I didn't hate it! It makes sense in retrospect, and there's interesting thematic implications to it but its more like I wished the seeds were planted and watered a little earlier (they were planted, but a little too late to chew on).
The prologue also seemed like the intro to a different novel ( unfortunately it was probably my favourite part of the book )
The outcome or twist at the end of the novel didn't really seem earned. I didn't hate it! It makes sense in retrospect, and there's interesting thematic implications to it but its more like I wished the seeds were planted and watered a little earlier (they were planted, but a little too late to chew on).