dreareads_'s review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
4.75
"Nothing touched by empire stays clean"
I came into this book expecting a cool sapphic SciFi story and was taken aback by my reaction towards this book. I knew that it played with themes of colonialism but I was not expecting to be moved by Mahits own experience. By the idea of loving parts of your colonizer while simultaneously supporting and fighting for your own people. In many way, it made me think of my own feelings towards to US while being Puerto Rican.
I really loved the characters, and would love to be best friends with Three Seagrass!
The political intrigue of this books was masterful. It was exciting to uncover the conspiracies that make up the Texicalaan Empire, culminating in an ending that was fairly unexpected. The creativity and thoughtfulness that went into this books was fully engaging. This was such a great book!
4.75 stars because I have some nit picks.
1) At times it felt like the plot was taking place AROUND Mahit, instead of WITH her. There were moments where everyone was making decisions that Mahit had very little impact on. Thankfully this changed towards the end but still something that was very evident throughout the book.
2) The world is built on the complexity of language. In many occasions we are TOLD that the Texicalaani language is full of depth but we are rarely SHOWN. Honestly, I understand why we aren't shown (It would've been unreadable) but I would've appreciated a few more examples.
Still. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I came into this book expecting a cool sapphic SciFi story and was taken aback by my reaction towards this book. I knew that it played with themes of colonialism but I was not expecting to be moved by Mahits own experience. By the idea of loving parts of your colonizer while simultaneously supporting and fighting for your own people. In many way, it made me think of my own feelings towards to US while being Puerto Rican.
I really loved the characters, and would love to be best friends with Three Seagrass!
The political intrigue of this books was masterful. It was exciting to uncover the conspiracies that make up the Texicalaan Empire, culminating in an ending that was fairly unexpected. The creativity and thoughtfulness that went into this books was fully engaging. This was such a great book!
4.75 stars because I have some nit picks.
1) At times it felt like the plot was taking place AROUND Mahit, instead of WITH her. There were moments where everyone was making decisions that Mahit had very little impact on. Thankfully this changed towards the end but still something that was very evident throughout the book.
2) The world is built on the complexity of language. In many occasions we are TOLD that the Texicalaani language is full of depth but we are rarely SHOWN. Honestly, I understand why we aren't shown (It would've been unreadable) but I would've appreciated a few more examples.
Still. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Classism, Blood, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Murder, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
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