nerdyprettythings's Reviews (515)

I got real, live adult-lady tears in my eyes at some of the descriptions of the discoveries and failures in this book. The writing and the characters were really compelling - after that taste of Becky Chambers’s writing, I’m really excited to read the Wayfarers series.

I really like the premise, but I didn't love this book. A lot of the time I'd get excited about where it was going - ooh what happened then? What IS a formal at Catherine House like? - and then the book would cut to the characters after the scene or the next day. There were some hints at the spooky things happening that kept me guessing and noticing patterns, but then the book didn't follow up on them. I liked what was going on at the end, but by the time it got there, it was already over.

I’ve never used so many page flags or reread so many passages. James Baldwin had long since stopped being a pastor, but this book is convicting. It’s a plea not only for awareness but for action. Here-and-there wins for civil rights won’t save your soul, and they can’t save our country.
“How can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not on any level whatever live the way they say they do, or the way they say they should?”

I waffled between three and four stars, but I enjoyed the read and the resolution, and isn’t that what matters?