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rachaelarsenault's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
What I Liked
-There's a scene where Mercury is jealous of other women flirting with Ford, and Stella is about to say that she doesn't need to worry because Ford is only interested in her. However, Ford interrupts by calling over Mercury, unknowingly finishing Stella's sentence for her. It's a subtle, cute little moment.
-Stella covers a dead body with a Confederate flag and Mercury says that's the best use she's seen for it.
What I Didn't Like
-EMPs don't work like that.
-The main characters encounter 700 people over the course of the story, living and dead, and yet somehow not a single person is trans, nonbinary, or intersex. Given that gender is central to the plot, this reeks of erasure and cisnormativity.
-3/4 queer characters die, all in minor roles, two never even appearing in text. The only on-page queer death literally involves a man tripping and dying.
-4/5 POC die, all in minor roles, two never appearing in the text. The most central character of colour, Imani, doesn't have much of a role in the book except to be a mother and be black. She is entirely excluded from large sections of the book.
-Ableism, fat shaming, sex shaming, and a 45-year-old high school teacher genuinely considering having sex with a teenager
-The treatment of Karen by the other characters is atrocious, especially Mercury and Stella. For all Mercury insists in her narration that Karen is a narrow-minded bigot, none of her claims are ever backed up in-text.
-The entire plot is railroaded by Stella's intuition.
-Somehow, despite Stella's intuition, they still find themselves in an incredibly dangerous situation that ends in someone dying. No part of this scene makes any sense, from build-up to execution. It literally comes out of nowhere and serves no purpose except to kill off a character.
-Excruciatingly slow pace.
-Way too many excessively long sentences.
-Writing that doesn't fit the tone, sounds way too immature for the middle-aged characters, or otherwise feels like an early draft.
More detailed review: https://medium.com/@rachaellawrites/not-good-feminist-fiction-not-good-apocalypse-fiction-an-in-depth-review-of-into-the-mist-3300900a3e28
Reading vlog: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sq_aFBPYgE0&t=212s
-There's a scene where Mercury is jealous of other women flirting with Ford, and Stella is about to say that she doesn't need to worry because Ford is only interested in her. However, Ford interrupts by calling over Mercury, unknowingly finishing Stella's sentence for her. It's a subtle, cute little moment.
-Stella covers a dead body with a Confederate flag and Mercury says that's the best use she's seen for it.
What I Didn't Like
-EMPs don't work like that.
-The main characters encounter 700 people over the course of the story, living and dead, and yet somehow not a single person is trans, nonbinary, or intersex. Given that gender is central to the plot, this reeks of erasure and cisnormativity.
-3/4 queer characters die, all in minor roles, two never even appearing in text. The only on-page queer death literally involves a man tripping and dying.
-4/5 POC die, all in minor roles, two never appearing in the text. The most central character of colour, Imani, doesn't have much of a role in the book except to be a mother and be black. She is entirely excluded from large sections of the book.
-Ableism, fat shaming, sex shaming, and a 45-year-old high school teacher genuinely considering having sex with a teenager
-The treatment of Karen by the other characters is atrocious, especially Mercury and Stella. For all Mercury insists in her narration that Karen is a narrow-minded bigot, none of her claims are ever backed up in-text.
-The entire plot is railroaded by Stella's intuition.
-Somehow, despite Stella's intuition, they still find themselves in an incredibly dangerous situation that ends in someone dying. No part of this scene makes any sense, from build-up to execution. It literally comes out of nowhere and serves no purpose except to kill off a character.
-Excruciatingly slow pace.
-Way too many excessively long sentences.
-Writing that doesn't fit the tone, sounds way too immature for the middle-aged characters, or otherwise feels like an early draft.
More detailed review: https://medium.com/@rachaellawrites/not-good-feminist-fiction-not-good-apocalypse-fiction-an-in-depth-review-of-into-the-mist-3300900a3e28
Reading vlog: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sq_aFBPYgE0&t=212s
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Genocide, Child death, Death, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Sexism, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Alcohol, Racism, Fatphobia, Drug use, and Body shaming
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Ableism
Adult/minor relationship tag is used because a 45-year old character talks about genuinely wanting to have sex with a teenager. Several grown women also bully another grown woman into drinking wine when she declines their offer of alcohol. They also allow and encourage a minor to drink and smoke.
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