A review by venusfawn
The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress
2.0
I grant this story some credit for having an interesting premise and for its attention to the portrayal of someone trying to adapt in an unfamiliar country, because I don’t always see things like culture shock and language barriers given much thought.
But there the credit ends. Nellie and Cora were both supremely obnoxious and cringey; basically loudly self-proclaimed feminists “ahead of their time.” If they existed in modern times, I’m sure they’d march around in pussy hats, Cora especially. And while I know that given the historical setting of the story women being seen as inferior is not unrealistic, it all just felt so forced and melodramatic anytime Cora started off on a tangent. I physically grimaced at these conversations, and at the fact that Andrew Harris was such an utter caricature of the Patriarchal Male ™, clearly designed for the sole purpose of goading Cora into said tangents. Even though she routinely made out with him for some reason. He didn’t remotely feel like a real person. He was a gimmick, and his larger role in the story could be seen a mile away. That can’t even reasonably be called a plot twist.
On a side note I was weirdly annoyed by there being a Harris and a Harrison (Nellie) in the same story. Talk about complete unoriginality in name choosing. Further I was annoyed by the constant appearance of language that felt way too modern for the period. Nellie referring to her parents as “two hot people” who “hooked up” made me cringe for a few reasons. These girls often came off more like millennials in the Central Valley of California than they did girls from 1900-era Europe and Japan in their speech and mannerisms. It was hard to stomach.
There were bits that were interesting and bits that were funny (I did rather enjoy Sherry the parrot), but the writing often felt lazy, the characters quite flat and hard to like or relate to, and just felt like such a letdown given that a steampunk story with an inventor, female samurai, and magician’s assistant has the potential to be so kickass. But the execution of The Friday Society fell flat and just came off as corny and amateur.
But there the credit ends. Nellie and Cora were both supremely obnoxious and cringey; basically loudly self-proclaimed feminists “ahead of their time.” If they existed in modern times, I’m sure they’d march around in pussy hats, Cora especially. And while I know that given the historical setting of the story women being seen as inferior is not unrealistic, it all just felt so forced and melodramatic anytime Cora started off on a tangent. I physically grimaced at these conversations, and at the fact that Andrew Harris was such an utter caricature of the Patriarchal Male ™, clearly designed for the sole purpose of goading Cora into said tangents. Even though she routinely made out with him for some reason. He didn’t remotely feel like a real person. He was a gimmick, and his larger role in the story could be seen a mile away. That can’t even reasonably be called a plot twist.
On a side note I was weirdly annoyed by there being a Harris and a Harrison (Nellie) in the same story. Talk about complete unoriginality in name choosing. Further I was annoyed by the constant appearance of language that felt way too modern for the period. Nellie referring to her parents as “two hot people” who “hooked up” made me cringe for a few reasons. These girls often came off more like millennials in the Central Valley of California than they did girls from 1900-era Europe and Japan in their speech and mannerisms. It was hard to stomach.
There were bits that were interesting and bits that were funny (I did rather enjoy Sherry the parrot), but the writing often felt lazy, the characters quite flat and hard to like or relate to, and just felt like such a letdown given that a steampunk story with an inventor, female samurai, and magician’s assistant has the potential to be so kickass. But the execution of The Friday Society fell flat and just came off as corny and amateur.