A review by paigelm
The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
3.0
I just finished reading this book, so please excuse me if my review is slightly narrow in focus, looking at the endings of the two main story lines. While I absolutely loved the ending to Kelsea's story line in this book (I eat up the sacrificial lamb stuff) what happened to Lily?
She finally gets to hear about her sister, but her sister is on another boat and she won't be able to talk to her until they land, because Mr. Tear couldn't coordinate them being on the same ship together, ans Lily is so lonely on her ship after Johnathan dies. What? Also Lily has a reasonable question about her sister being diabetic and needing insulin and Tear's answer is just "No she doesn't." And then the book ends with her pregnant naming her kid in the future. Why doesn't her sister need insulin? What happened? Why isn't that explained? That ending left me with a bad taste in my mouth even though it was only a tiny part of the book and it seems irrational, but really? What a condescending bunch of malarky served up by William Tear himself! Also also also going back in time does not mean people don't need insulin. It just means people with diabetes died. That is what that means.
One last point...technology does not make people bad, which I guess is the point of Kelsea's story, but it seems interesting that people harken back to an age that was simpler in order to prove the point that people were better off. People even without technology in the middle ages weren't necessarily better off or safer or nicer because of it. And they certainly weren't healthier and in the middle age technology world people didn't get treated for things like diabetes with insulin. They just died.
She finally gets to hear about her sister, but her sister is on another boat and she won't be able to talk to her until they land, because Mr. Tear couldn't coordinate them being on the same ship together, ans Lily is so lonely on her ship after Johnathan dies. What? Also Lily has a reasonable question about her sister being diabetic and needing insulin and Tear's answer is just "No she doesn't." And then the book ends with her pregnant naming her kid in the future. Why doesn't her sister need insulin? What happened? Why isn't that explained? That ending left me with a bad taste in my mouth even though it was only a tiny part of the book and it seems irrational, but really? What a condescending bunch of malarky served up by William Tear himself! Also also also going back in time does not mean people don't need insulin. It just means people with diabetes died. That is what that means.
One last point...technology does not make people bad, which I guess is the point of Kelsea's story, but it seems interesting that people harken back to an age that was simpler in order to prove the point that people were better off. People even without technology in the middle ages weren't necessarily better off or safer or nicer because of it. And they certainly weren't healthier and in the middle age technology world people didn't get treated for things like diabetes with insulin. They just died.