It may not be for everyone, but I personally really like having no clue as to what is going on for a good while! Here, it made things finally clicking into place all the more satisfying.
I also appreciated how different this novel was from other works of science-fiction I had engaged with before, both in style and content. It doesn't always make for an easy read, but definitely a memorable one.
That said, once getting to the end of the book, I couldn't help but feeling that this was more of a 400-page set-up than anything else. While the mysteries are resolved (maybe too many of them and too fast), the story doesn't feel complete in the way that first books in a series usually resolve a narrative. Again, this may go with the territory of "different from anything I'd read before", but it did feel slightly anticlimactic to me.
As a final note, starting this immediately after reading <i>Yellowface</i> was... a very interesting experience, all the more so when I finally rewatched the trailer to the upcoming Netflix series..........
As warm and cosy as the beverage it describes, <i>Legends & Lattes</i> made me crave coffee (and cinnamon rolls!) even though I'm more of a tea person.
But more than that, I absolutely adored the characters and their journey to one another. A story with relatively low stakes that will melt your heart, and a perfect start to my 2024!
First off: yay, neopronouns! I really love how clearly unafraid Ann Leckie is in exploring gender in various forms in every one of her books (that I have read so far).
It was also interesting to see this universe outside of the scope of the Radch, and I really hope she will continue to explore it.
The story itself was pretty interesting and well woven together, carried by three very different but similarly likable protagonists (likable for different reasons, and each with their flaws nonetheless). I enjoyed each part of the story, including the finale.
I really enjoyed most of the book. Elliot Page's story is not always an easy read, but it is definitely an interesting one. His dwelling on some of his relationships in the last part of the book weren't my cup of tea, but I did love seeing is journey into realizing who he is and becoming comfortable in his own skin. The positive moments and reflections in particular were very uplifting.
I read this volume thinking it was the last, and grew increasingly concerned as we got closer to the end, only to be relieved once realizing that there would be another ending to come. I loved the nuggets of representation of various identities, and the main story was sweet, as usual with <i>Heartstopper</i> books, while not shying away from darker topics.
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I struggled in the beginning, feeling that as soon as I got attached to a character we'd change focus and get a whole lot of new, potentially unnecessary information about yet another character. At maybe a quarter of the way through, though, things started to get together and I then struggled to put the book down. An interesting, insightful novel, that may not have gotten as much attention if it weren't for its author, but did deserve some of that attention at least.
Definitely one of the creepiest and most fascinating novels I have read in a while. I loved so many things about it: how it progressed, the (debatable)"antagonist", the finale, even the ending itself. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.
The spy intrigues were fun and only slightly confusing, and so were the romantic entanglements. The science fiction meshes pretty well with it all, although in the end it's the historical setting that was most interesting to me. I did love how queer the protagonists were, with at least one of them on the ace spectrum to boot!!