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A review by samarakroeger
Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
cool cover, cool title, cool premise …
and HORRIBLE execution. Felt absolutely no need to continue after the first 3ish chapters seeing as I did not find the characters interesting in the slightest and I didn’t like the narrative style or vague sense of plot. There are multiple perspectives (personally not a fan, especially in first person). There is a trans character who is talked about in an icky way by the narrator/author. I didn’t recognize this as even a slight dystopia (I read the synopsis a few months ago) until I looked up reviews and figured out that Japan (unnamed) is now underwater and there are climate refugees. This was not really clear to the reader at all, and I feel you need to deliver on it being a “climate book” if you advertise it as such.
and HORRIBLE execution. Felt absolutely no need to continue after the first 3ish chapters seeing as I did not find the characters interesting in the slightest and I didn’t like the narrative style or vague sense of plot. There are multiple perspectives (personally not a fan, especially in first person). There is a trans character who is talked about in an icky way by the narrator/author. I didn’t recognize this as even a slight dystopia (I read the synopsis a few months ago) until I looked up reviews and figured out that Japan (unnamed) is now underwater and there are climate refugees. This was not really clear to the reader at all, and I feel you need to deliver on it being a “climate book” if you advertise it as such.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia