emmyinthestacks's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Overall it's ok. The relationships between characters doesn't feel all that strong and could have been fleshed out more. Generally it feels like a very superficial story, and we don't really get into the emotional inner world of any of the characters (even though they spend plenty of time isolated from others with time to talk or reflect etc.). For example the lover Charlotte leaves England with isn't painted all that well, leaving you to wonder somewhat why she's leaving everything she knows and running away with this guy that she doesn't seem to care that much about (which is made somewhat awkward given that he was an employee of the family and thus taking a huge risk and he's written as Black, though the race of the actual person was unknown, so the character's race is a distinct choice). That lack of evidence of love or strong affection is striking. Additionally, Armstrong's continued use of the word 'refugee' to refer to a number of the English, Irish and Scottish settlers was just weird to me. Like, yes we could say that they were seeking refuge of a sorts and some may very well have fled persecution but a lot of them would perhaps be better described as immigrants. And it's not as if the language she uses is all period accurate so using the word immigrant wouldn't have been strange. All in all, it was interesting, just wanted more character and there was just some awkwardness around discussions around/descriptions of the Mi'kmaq and their relationships with some of the characters.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Violence, and Racial slurs
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