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booksthatburn's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
AN UNSUITABLE HEIR follows Pen, the newly discovered heir to the fortune so contested in AN UNNATURAL VICE, and Mark, the one-armed investigator who has been trying to keep his friends and new acquaintances from getting killed as they attract the ire of the high and mighty.
Closing out the trilogy, AN UNSUITABLE HEIR expertly weaves together the remaining story threads left open from AN UNNATURAL VICE. Pen and Greta are twins, trapeze artists, and most commonly known as the "Flying Starlings", present since the beginning of the series. The timeline overlaps between scenes are artfully done, giving new context and perspective to the exact same events by showing them through a different character’s perspective. Even reading the whole trilogy in two days, the repetitions of some scenes felt poignant and fresh at the same time. The trilogy as a whole (and this book in particular) have many discussion of class, privilege, and the ways that bigotries have similar echoes, even when shaped to hit different targets. Pen is some variety of genderqueer by modern standards, the historical setting means he doesn’t have access to that specific language. Pen's pronouns are the best he can get as both "she" and "it" are wholly unsuitable, and "he" works well enough when necessary. Mark is generally described as one armed, with one full arm and another that ends in a stump at the elbow. It’s a congenital limb difference, not something he lost, and he and Penn have several long conversations about the weight of social expectations and the dissonance that’s caused when other people are upset that their bodies are not what was assumed.
I love AN UNSUITABLE HEIR as an end of the trilogy. There’s genuine tension in what Pen will choose, hemmed in by inheritance laws, the desire to do what’s best for his sister, and the need to be himself. Mark is caught between promises already made, and his growing attraction to Pen and care for Pen's wellbeing.
Closing out the trilogy, AN UNSUITABLE HEIR expertly weaves together the remaining story threads left open from AN UNNATURAL VICE. Pen and Greta are twins, trapeze artists, and most commonly known as the "Flying Starlings", present since the beginning of the series. The timeline overlaps between scenes are artfully done, giving new context and perspective to the exact same events by showing them through a different character’s perspective. Even reading the whole trilogy in two days, the repetitions of some scenes felt poignant and fresh at the same time. The trilogy as a whole (and this book in particular) have many discussion of class, privilege, and the ways that bigotries have similar echoes, even when shaped to hit different targets. Pen is some variety of genderqueer by modern standards, the historical setting means he doesn’t have access to that specific language. Pen's pronouns are the best he can get as both "she" and "it" are wholly unsuitable, and "he" works well enough when necessary. Mark is generally described as one armed, with one full arm and another that ends in a stump at the elbow. It’s a congenital limb difference, not something he lost, and he and Penn have several long conversations about the weight of social expectations and the dissonance that’s caused when other people are upset that their bodies are not what was assumed.
I love AN UNSUITABLE HEIR as an end of the trilogy. There’s genuine tension in what Pen will choose, hemmed in by inheritance laws, the desire to do what’s best for his sister, and the need to be himself. Mark is caught between promises already made, and his growing attraction to Pen and care for Pen's wellbeing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria
Moderate: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Violence, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail