A review by xenawl
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

 I had high hopes for this book but  the characters are very underdeveloped and what could be a fascinating world clumsily drawn. There are too many characters and too many very silly names, and while there’s some good stuff 

negotiating the relationship between Elza as a trans woman and Tina becoming a purple space alien rather than an earth teenager

there’s too much emphasis on the earth teenagers in general. The alien characters are so undeveloped that it’s almost impossible to care

when they die.

Even announcing pronouns feels clumsy, probably because I’ve seen it done so much better in other books (e.g. Everina Maxwell), and non-binary genders are virtually unexplored, just mentioned. Like, surely most of the time you would just say ‘pronouns she/her’, in an environment where it’s standard practice to announce? Also nobody on any planet has only one pronoun. A minor irritation. I tried so hard to suspend my disbelief but it kept coming back at me like an alien facehugger. Would have DNF about 1/3 of the way through if I hadn’t been going to discuss it with a friend.