A review by spaghetti_noodle
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a solid 4 star read. I started reading this in September of 2021 and finished in February of 2022, and throughout that time I was reading this book off-and-on. For that reason, I don't completely remember everything that happened and there were some parts of the book that were confusing to me. There's probably an underlying message that I'm not picking up on because my brain is fried from school work and stress, but I like the vibes. I would absolutely read this book again. I enjoyed it while I read it, and I think I would enjoy it even more if I read it consistently! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

There are moments when the gore is described in just the right amount of detail that makes you realize how horrific the situation is. In regards to the sexual content: while it's present, it's not written in a lot of detail and it's not written in a way that really focuses on the arousal (nor is it meant to make the reader aroused). It's very matter-of-fact and Hurley doesn't linger on it. All of it is consensual. There was a quote on page 295 (around 83%) that really stuck out to me for how horrifying it was and I just needed to write it down because it really shook me. I had to stop listening to music when I first read this. TW for gore. Minor spoilers.

Logistics started encountering issues. That was how they put it. Our experience was different. A whole platoon from Tangine Company came back wrong. They dropped into the deployment field as a mass of contorted bodies, arms and legs attached to the wrong torsos, heads facing backward, spines made impossibly sinuous, feet twisted like claws, when they were recognizable as limbs at all. I didn't see them come in, but somebody put a bootleg recording, and I downloaded and watched a copy before the corp had them all purged--including the soldier who shared it. What shook me wasn't even the images as much as the sound. The grunting, sobbing mass of them, like listening to a squealing bunch of pigs in a pen destined for the slaughter.

The last two sentences especially stood out to me. Needless to say, I'm glad that I'm only reading this. If gore makes you uncomfortable, this gory incident isn't described for more than 2 paragraphs.