silviasilviareadsbooks's review
Okay so um I have no idea how to review this.
The thing is I loved it, I really did. The fantasy world was interesting and well built and it managed to engage me from page one. I think all the characters were well written and developed and I loved the writing style and some of the dialogue was great.
My problem was the representation.
Discussion of potentially triggering stuff for trans folk ahead:
I am not trans and I don't know if the author is, but the thing is that here you're led to believe that the main character is a trans man from early on. Male pronouns and all. And then there's this reveal where the protagonist tells the love interest about being trans and she's actually a trans woman but keeps using male pronouns even after that, even after the love interest is like "I'm so relieved you're a woman because I only like women."
This was so confusing because I felt like everything else both during and leading up to that "reveal" scene was written in a really nice and delicate way, so I wonder why fail when it comes to the most basic things, PRONOUNS???
Okay spoilery discussion:
I feel like in a way it kind of made SOME sense for the protagonist to keep using he/him because she seemed to have a lot of internalized transphobia and constantly hid behind man's clothing and wore her hair the "manly" way even though she wanted to put them in braids. BUT she also says that her companions know about her being trans and that is something somewhat accepted in that world and in her company of knights so I don't know why she had to hide it this way. Like it doesn't even make sense story-wise (not to mention it's hurtful to trans people??).
And look, even if this made some sort of sense in the story (which it doesn't) I still don't know why you would want to put real-world trans folk through potentially triggering content because you literally never use she/her pronouns for your trans woman protagonist. It's bad enough you use the wrong pronouns for most of the story but you keep using them even after the "reveal"? What???
On one hand I'd love to see a trans person review this because I hate feeling like I'm speaking for something that I can't possibly have a good grasp on and I'd never want to speak over trans people's voices but I also can't in good conscience recommend to read this if you're trans.
The thing is I loved it, I really did. The fantasy world was interesting and well built and it managed to engage me from page one. I think all the characters were well written and developed and I loved the writing style and some of the dialogue was great.
My problem was the representation.
Discussion of potentially triggering stuff for trans folk ahead:
I am not trans and I don't know if the author is, but the thing is that here you're led to believe that the main character is a trans man from early on. Male pronouns and all. And then there's this reveal where the protagonist tells the love interest about being trans and she's actually a trans woman but keeps using male pronouns even after that, even after the love interest is like "I'm so relieved you're a woman because I only like women."
This was so confusing because I felt like everything else both during and leading up to that "reveal" scene was written in a really nice and delicate way, so I wonder why fail when it comes to the most basic things, PRONOUNS???
Okay spoilery discussion:
I feel like in a way it kind of made SOME sense for the protagonist to keep using he/him because she seemed to have a lot of internalized transphobia and constantly hid behind man's clothing and wore her hair the "manly" way even though she wanted to put them in braids. BUT she also says that her companions know about her being trans and that is something somewhat accepted in that world and in her company of knights so I don't know why she had to hide it this way. Like it doesn't even make sense story-wise (not to mention it's hurtful to trans people??).
And look, even if this made some sort of sense in the story (which it doesn't) I still don't know why you would want to put real-world trans folk through potentially triggering content because you literally never use she/her pronouns for your trans woman protagonist. It's bad enough you use the wrong pronouns for most of the story but you keep using them even after the "reveal"? What???
On one hand I'd love to see a trans person review this because I hate feeling like I'm speaking for something that I can't possibly have a good grasp on and I'd never want to speak over trans people's voices but I also can't in good conscience recommend to read this if you're trans.
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