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shane_the_reading_rat 's review for:
Dragonfruit
by Makiia Lucier
in setting this book is one of the coolest fantasies i’ve ever read. in everything else, it ranges from mid to bad.
•the society in this book is matriarchal, and i was excited about this. but it offers essentially zero commentary on the meaning of that or the fact that many traditional fantasy books are patriarchal societies. in this it’s essentially just the reverse of what women in medieval fantasies face (examples i can think of are that in Dragonfruit, the prince must find a princess to marry as he cannot rule the kingdom, and when a man marries a woman all his belongings become hers). there is no discussion of queer people or trans people related to this (or anywhere in the book).
•the word “female” where “woman” would be perfectly suitable is used multiple times, which to me is a red flag. including a mention that Hanalei “has a deep voice for a female”.
•a prince of a kingdom is killed and this has no repercussions?? there’s just basically no mention of it again.
•there is rampant child labor on the island Raka (which Hanalei was in for 6 years). seemingly no one is trying to stop this? they just acknowledge it’s bad but the royals are doing nothing and it’s not discussed further. the Raka ambassador’s brother sees the scars on Hanalei’s hands from the child labor and is basically like “you’re braver than me lol” but says absolutely nothing about, yknow, TRYING TO STOP THE RAMPANT CHILD LABOR ON HIS OWN ISLAND????
•there is just,,, so much animal brutality for no real purpose or reason in this novel. the seadragons aren’t really used for much interesting, they are pretty much either killed or used to get dragonfruit (their eggs). no one is like “hey, should we try and find alternative sources for the materials we get from these dragons?” no theyre just like “lets keep killing”.
•sadly it’s not just the dragons. a dude cursed to turn everything he touches into nutmeg trees, turns his perfectly sweet dog into a nutmeg tree. not as an accident or anything, as a demonstration of his curse. one of the characters thinks, “huh that’s bad”, but nothing more comes of it.
•FETU, SAMS BAT COMPANION, IS STRAIGHT UP COOKED INTO A SOUP AND HE AND HANALEI HAVE TO EAT IT??? honestly it’s just a horrible move to kill off the companion animal with zero fanfare and for no true purpose .
•the society in this book is matriarchal, and i was excited about this. but it offers essentially zero commentary on the meaning of that or the fact that many traditional fantasy books are patriarchal societies. in this it’s essentially just the reverse of what women in medieval fantasies face (examples i can think of are that in Dragonfruit, the prince must find a princess to marry as he cannot rule the kingdom, and when a man marries a woman all his belongings become hers). there is no discussion of queer people or trans people related to this (or anywhere in the book).
•the word “female” where “woman” would be perfectly suitable is used multiple times, which to me is a red flag. including a mention that Hanalei “has a deep voice for a female”.
•a prince of a kingdom is killed and this has no repercussions?? there’s just basically no mention of it again.
•there is rampant child labor on the island Raka (which Hanalei was in for 6 years). seemingly no one is trying to stop this? they just acknowledge it’s bad but the royals are doing nothing and it’s not discussed further. the Raka ambassador’s brother sees the scars on Hanalei’s hands from the child labor and is basically like “you’re braver than me lol” but says absolutely nothing about, yknow, TRYING TO STOP THE RAMPANT CHILD LABOR ON HIS OWN ISLAND????
•there is just,,, so much animal brutality for no real purpose or reason in this novel. the seadragons aren’t really used for much interesting, they are pretty much either killed or used to get dragonfruit (their eggs). no one is like “hey, should we try and find alternative sources for the materials we get from these dragons?” no theyre just like “lets keep killing”.
•sadly it’s not just the dragons. a dude cursed to turn everything he touches into nutmeg trees, turns his perfectly sweet dog into a nutmeg tree. not as an accident or anything, as a demonstration of his curse. one of the characters thinks, “huh that’s bad”, but nothing more comes of it.
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