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shane_the_reading_rat's Reviews (1.21k)
be warned, this book does not go light on the depiction of genocide and its aftermath, for being a ya book (particularly towards the end). it’s an amazing fantasy book that has an awesome depiction of change/revolution and gave me chills at several portions of the ending, but it doesn’t go light. one of my favorite fantasy books i’ve ever read
i will be completely honest, this book has so many flaws but i was entertained the entire time and Helena is one of the only unhinged protagonists that i haven’t been annoyed by
i have three main things to say about this book:
- i think this should have stuck to more traditional folklore, rather than branching out into things such as superheroes. it kinda lost the plot there at the end by expanding away from traditional folklore and myth.
- it would have been nice to read more about AFAB trans and nonbinary people in myth/folklore. even in the examples people bring up of indigenous cultures to show trans people have always existed (of which there are many examples in this book), the focus is (nearly) always on AMAB people, and it feels like any focus on historical AFAB trans people is (usually) extremely eurocentric. disappointing to see that in a book that talks so much about trans history in folkore/myth, trans AFAB people are still by the wayside.
- while my opinion on references/discussion of harry potter/jkr is pretty much “with how much of a phenomenon it was, it’s hard to not ever reference or discuss it, but ideally there should at least be acknowledgement of how shitty jkr is”, this barely mentioned jkr’s politics and hatred of trans people (while discussing harry potter a lot). not my biggest issue with this book, but an issue.
despite how it seems, i did genuinely enjoy a lot of this book! the folklore was interesting, and i learned a lot i didn’t know before. especially liked the chapter on mermaids :)
this book tried to do way too many things at once. romcom, scifi, mystery, superhero story(?), and it was just all too much. the side characters were annoying and the central relationship made no sense to me. i feel like there were enough important things happening that a romance makes no sense, and honestly Cleo’s friends were not NEARLY angry enough about being stuck on a spaceship to another planet. i would be absolutely livid.
this was pretty enjoyable! Patch was a pretty terrific mc (he did get a bit tiring at times, but overall he was hilarious), and the antics in this were quite fun. i do think Patch’s friends forgave him a bit too quickly considering how badly he acted towards them, but oh well. i also really hoped Jean and Tessa would get into a relationship (with it being established that Jean is an extremely vocal ally, i thought this would go down the “very vocal about allyship➡️realizes she is attracted to women” road, like Imogen Obviously by Becky Albertalli), which it didnt. felt like quite the missed opportunity
art style just wasn't really for me, and i would have liked this more if it were one cohesive timeline rather than smaller vignettes. however, i did really like several sections of this book (the section about microaggressions was a standout, in particular).
just too slow-paced and quiet for me. long sections where the characters wax poetic with no breaks and POVs are switched so rarely that it’s difficult to remember what has happened the last time [insert character]’s POV was shown. not a bad book, but i am not enjoying it.
very vague worldbuilding, flat side characters, but the POVs of the main three were done so fucking well and i love how mysticism and magic worked in this. definitely going to read the sequel when it releases next month :D i think the issues i have with this book can be fixed in the next one!
i dnf’ed this a little over a year ago and am incredibly glad i came back and finished it!! ended up really really liking this. the descriptions of food are awesome (i also just love books about food and cooking), and the romance was really sweet. the side characters were fun too!! although i did feel like Megan was pretty one note (her personality was kpop) and Tim wasn’t much better. honestly that’s my only complaint: some of the side characters were a bit flat. i’d definitely recommend this book though, despite that! it’s worth it for the food descriptions lmao.