A review by riverlethe
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

Did not finish book.

1.0

DNF @ 10%. It felt like much longer. I really wanted to like this book (non traditional family structures! Community networks! Village parenting! Sustainable ecological practices! Xenodiplomacy!) but it just didn’t work for me. Is the author actually a parent or do they just revere parenting? Because “think of how many hostile negotiations would be disarmed if we all brought our infants and had to halt for diaper changes in the middle” is a statement I’m pretty sure no normal parent would make, for many, many logistical reasons. Kids are not magical merit badges you compare with other parents, they’re other human beings with needs. This felt like someone drank too much Quiverfull kool-aid, doesn’t see children as separate beings, and wanted to drive it home in a sci-fi novel.