A review by themtj
The Seeds by Ann Nocenti
3.0
Hear my deep dive podcast about it at https://www.storiedarcs.com/the-seeds/
I would love to do 3.5 stars but I decided to round down. The art is incredible, as you would expect from Aja. The writing is thoughtful, nuanced, and complex as you would expect from Nocenti. However, the book teases a few too many themes without payoff for any of them. The controlling metaphor of bees is underused and shares equal time with magpies. The synopsis makes it sound as if Astra the journalist is the main character when she is actually the most tropey character and the book really doesn't have a main character. The dystopian setting seems to comment on the grim future of our world, but has some optimistic beats. The criticism of twitchy technology users with screen addictions feels a little boomery. Both overplayed and underwhelming.
All in all, this book is a mess, but a beautiful one.
I would love to do 3.5 stars but I decided to round down. The art is incredible, as you would expect from Aja. The writing is thoughtful, nuanced, and complex as you would expect from Nocenti. However, the book teases a few too many themes without payoff for any of them. The controlling metaphor of bees is underused and shares equal time with magpies. The synopsis makes it sound as if Astra the journalist is the main character when she is actually the most tropey character and the book really doesn't have a main character. The dystopian setting seems to comment on the grim future of our world, but has some optimistic beats. The criticism of twitchy technology users with screen addictions feels a little boomery. Both overplayed and underwhelming.
All in all, this book is a mess, but a beautiful one.