Scan barcode
A review by crybabybea
The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A really solid debut that pleasantly surprised me. It does suffer from some debut novel crunchiness, but overall I think it really showed Samantha Mills' talent and I like the ideas she had to offer. The author has a clear voice with some interesting stylistic choices that were tastefully done without being heavy-handed or overused.
This book is a bit different from other science fiction books with similar vibes. It does feel like a young adult dystopia in the sense that we see the typical setup; castes of people who each follow their own guidelines, an upper government overtaken by corruption and descending into authoritarianism, a main character who breaks the mold of the world she was given. But I felt the author added her own spin on the story we know well to give it a step up. She made the interesting choice to take a myopic view on the main character, telling the story in a split POV - the main character's time as an initiate in the military, then the main character's time after being removed from the military and subsequent disillusionment.
The main character is definitely morally grey. There are times you see her fight her military programming and you are literally begging her to make a different decision than you know she's going to make. She herself is sort of lost; how do you know what's right or wrong when the thing you've been told is right your whole life is suddenly pulled out from under you? I also appreciated that Zemolai is truly just a normal person who was manipulated into believing she was righteous. She's not stupid, or lacking skill, or in a desperate situation that she had no choice but to join. She made the choice, and continued to make choices that she thought were right, and she fights her own shame as she comes to the realization that the choices she made were harmful. I really liked the experience with her and I think the hyper-focused lens paid off in that sense.
But this decision the author made had its drawbacks too. I think this would have benefitted with some polishing on the world-building as well as the structure of the POVs. Personally, I would have liked to spend a bit more time with Zemolai as a soldier before her disillusionment. I felt like we were kind of thrown into her making the decision that incites the main plot, and it messed up the build-up of her character arc just a bit. I would have also liked to see just a bit more world-building, a bit more experience with the other sects. The cast of characters besides Zemolai fade into the background and basically serve as plot devices.
I think the author had a very particular goal in mind with this book, and it definitely shows, for the better or for the worse, depending on who you ask. For me, it really worked, and I found Zemolai's experience incredibly timely, relatable, and well thought-out. I liked how open-ended the story was left, so it became a sort of mirror for the reader to project onto. The struggle Zemolai faces could look like anything depending on the person; a toxic boss, generational cycles of abuse, an abusive partner, a religious leader, a political dictator. For that reason I think that means a lot of people can get a lot out of this book depending on their life experience and where they are at in their journey.
I think this beautiful quote sums up the overall theme:
This book is a bit different from other science fiction books with similar vibes. It does feel like a young adult dystopia in the sense that we see the typical setup; castes of people who each follow their own guidelines, an upper government overtaken by corruption and descending into authoritarianism, a main character who breaks the mold of the world she was given. But I felt the author added her own spin on the story we know well to give it a step up. She made the interesting choice to take a myopic view on the main character, telling the story in a split POV - the main character's time as an initiate in the military, then the main character's time after being removed from the military and subsequent disillusionment.
The main character is definitely morally grey. There are times you see her fight her military programming and you are literally begging her to make a different decision than you know she's going to make. She herself is sort of lost; how do you know what's right or wrong when the thing you've been told is right your whole life is suddenly pulled out from under you? I also appreciated that Zemolai is truly just a normal person who was manipulated into believing she was righteous. She's not stupid, or lacking skill, or in a desperate situation that she had no choice but to join. She made the choice, and continued to make choices that she thought were right, and she fights her own shame as she comes to the realization that the choices she made were harmful. I really liked the experience with her and I think the hyper-focused lens paid off in that sense.
But this decision the author made had its drawbacks too. I think this would have benefitted with some polishing on the world-building as well as the structure of the POVs. Personally, I would have liked to spend a bit more time with Zemolai as a soldier before her disillusionment. I felt like we were kind of thrown into her making the decision that incites the main plot, and it messed up the build-up of her character arc just a bit. I would have also liked to see just a bit more world-building, a bit more experience with the other sects. The cast of characters besides Zemolai fade into the background and basically serve as plot devices.
I think the author had a very particular goal in mind with this book, and it definitely shows, for the better or for the worse, depending on who you ask. For me, it really worked, and I found Zemolai's experience incredibly timely, relatable, and well thought-out. I liked how open-ended the story was left, so it became a sort of mirror for the reader to project onto. The struggle Zemolai faces could look like anything depending on the person; a toxic boss, generational cycles of abuse, an abusive partner, a religious leader, a political dictator. For that reason I think that means a lot of people can get a lot out of this book depending on their life experience and where they are at in their journey.
I think this beautiful quote sums up the overall theme:
Every step forward is a choice, and every choice is made in the shadow of choices we’ve made before. You are every person you have ever been, continual and simultaneous, an iterative being composed of a million decisions, large and small. The question is not whether you can shed the past, but at what point you begin to control your future.
If you want intense world-building with high-stakes political maneuvering, complex magic/technology systems, and a loveable cast of characters, I don't think you would like this. However, if you like more literary-type scifi that focuses on the philosophical, the introspection of one character, and open-ended questions that make you think, then definitely pick this one up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail