A review by himalaya
A Tale of Seashells & Shenanigans by Alex Nonymous

3.0

 Hm, I like the idea of this but it was a bit all over the place and I feel like the relationship development wasn’t great. 

The MC spends most of the book being pretty horrible to a very timid well-meaning autistic girl who isn’t mean back. (like, mutual antagonism can feel more even yknow?) 

Like yes this is the focus of their character development - we know why they’re like this, the fact that they’re mean to her is very much addressed, they apologise eventually, the author is autistic and making intentional choices here but……. 

they apologise but then are mean again. it keeps happening and it’s just not fun to read when it’s 80% of the book? them being nice to her is a way smaller part and I just don’t really buy the love at the end. 

I think the author’s strength is definitely in real world settings where it can just focus on the characters - I feel like this kind of silly anachronistic fantasy world needs to be leaned into a bit more? 

I also felt like Tillie was quite self hating (or at least: only focusing on the negatives) about being autistic and aroace, and then the MC is there to tell her that no, that’s okay actually! end scene. Of course that’s a realistic experience but I find when it’s so succinct like that it feels really….reductive, idk. I want hating-my-identity narratives to be more complex and seeing in the mind of the person, not just them being told by another character that actually it’s a good thing:) and they’re suddenly not self hating anymore. a pet peeve of mine lmao. (second book I’ve read with this this month…) 

I did kinda enjoy the detail of ‘I’m ace, sirens won’t affect me’ *immediately flings self overboard after hearing them* lmao