A review by yourbookishbff
The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

HEED CONTENT WARNINGS. This was DARK and angsty and felt reminiscent of Stevie Sparks for me? I loved it, but I did have to set it aside a few times because I was simply too stressed to pick it back up. Peckham tackles a lot here. Her "Society of Sirens" is truly a found family of women outcasts who have discovered community and security within their shared "radical" politics (radical, ie, women should have rights equal to men), and I grew to love how they support and protect one another throughout this first installment. Sera, our female main character, is managing bucket-loads of trauma - ruination as a teen and its extended personal, familial and communal fall-out - when she meets our male main character, Adam Anderson, handsome and self-restrained Scot raising his two children after the death of his beloved wife in childbirth. Both characters are navigating reproductive agency and childbirth-related trauma, grief and loss, political pressure (Sera as a radical feminist and Adam as a Scot during a tense time in England), alcoholism (and its generational impacts), and classism. Given the heavy subject matter and significant barriers for these two, I really appreciated that Peckham focuses on personal healing for each individually - at the exact moment when they could have become a toxic and codependent hellscape, she pulls them apart and recommits each to their individual paths. Without that moment, this wouldn't have worked for me. Each character is challenging to read at times - they hurt one another repeatedly - but ultimately, their path back to each other feels real and hard-won, and I appreciated seeing their unconventional and perfectly wholesome happily-ever-after. 
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