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paragraphsandpages 's review for:
The Story of Silence
by Alex Myers
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this, as I'm not super knowledgeable in Arthurian legend in general, and I also haven't seen a lot of nonbinary characters in fantasy and wasn't sure how well it would be done. But I seriously loved this, and I loved Silence so much, and I even had dreams about this book afterwards.
Overall, I felt like Silence and their gender was done extremely well, and I loved seeing the evolution of Silence's perception of themselves, from their gender to their dreams. I loved the way this book framed this journey through a physical journey Silence undertook, and I loved the support Silence got at times, even though most people around them didn't fully understand. I also really loved a lot of the passages dedicated to Silence's gender crisis, and the final scene where Silence accepted their whole self (and the book made the switch to they/them pronouns instead of he/him) was seriously my favorite of the entire book. So much of it just rang true for me.
I also really liked the set-up of the plot itself, and while the story spanned years and was 'slow' at points, it was almost comforting. We were watching Silence grow up, figure out what they wanted, and the struggles they went through to get there. I read the beginning 40% of this book over the span of a few weeks, and it was honestly just such a nice story to come back to every once in a while.
My only issue with the book is the false ending that's forced on Silence. This entire story is framed as if it's being recounted by Silence to a bard in a tavern some time after the ending of the story, with the bard curious about Silence as a person and their history. While the actual ending of the story hurt but fit, the bard didn't feel like it was a good ending to the story and changed it up for retelling. The bard's ending rang hollow with Silence's journey, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. I'm glad we get this duplicity of endings just so I can be happy that's not the actually ending, but I can't help and think that this bard really sat there through Silence's whole story and decided he knew of a better ending for them, that went against everything Silence had worked towards.
Overall, I really liked this book, and just try not to think of that final ending too much. Silence has become somewhat of a comfort character now at this point, and I can definitely see myself rereading parts of this in the future!
Overall, I felt like Silence and their gender was done extremely well, and I loved seeing the evolution of Silence's perception of themselves, from their gender to their dreams. I loved the way this book framed this journey through a physical journey Silence undertook, and I loved the support Silence got at times, even though most people around them didn't fully understand. I also really loved a lot of the passages dedicated to Silence's gender crisis, and the final scene where Silence accepted their whole self (and the book made the switch to they/them pronouns instead of he/him) was seriously my favorite of the entire book. So much of it just rang true for me.
I also really liked the set-up of the plot itself, and while the story spanned years and was 'slow' at points, it was almost comforting. We were watching Silence grow up, figure out what they wanted, and the struggles they went through to get there. I read the beginning 40% of this book over the span of a few weeks, and it was honestly just such a nice story to come back to every once in a while.
My only issue with the book is the false ending that's forced on Silence. This entire story is framed as if it's being recounted by Silence to a bard in a tavern some time after the ending of the story, with the bard curious about Silence as a person and their history. While the actual ending of the story hurt but fit, the bard didn't feel like it was a good ending to the story and changed it up for retelling. The bard's ending rang hollow with Silence's journey, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. I'm glad we get this duplicity of endings just so I can be happy that's not the actually ending, but I can't help and think that this bard really sat there through Silence's whole story and decided he knew of a better ending for them, that went against everything Silence had worked towards.
Overall, I really liked this book, and just try not to think of that final ending too much. Silence has become somewhat of a comfort character now at this point, and I can definitely see myself rereading parts of this in the future!