Scan barcode
A review by foggy_rosamund
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng
2.0
I had two major problems with this book:
1. The story centres around missionaries in the mid-19th century, but the novel is not at all critical of missionaries in general, and does not mention that missionaries were integral in destroying many cultures all over the world, and can never be considered a force for good. I thought this book would be a satirical take on missionaries, as it is set in Fairyland, or at would at least be critical, but it never gives any indication anywhere that missionaries are anything but a positive force. For a novel published in 2018, this is shocking.
2. The author is hugely imaginative and creates a varied and charismatic Land of the Fae, but her writing is not strong enough to hold together the gruesome and shocking story she spins. The characters' response to murder, death or cannibalism are all too restrained, and while the events described do send some characters mad, I still felt that all the reactions were not well-observed, and rang hollow. The author is inventive and intelligent, but her prose style and development of narrative are not yet sophisticated enough to carry off her ideas.
1. The story centres around missionaries in the mid-19th century, but the novel is not at all critical of missionaries in general, and does not mention that missionaries were integral in destroying many cultures all over the world, and can never be considered a force for good. I thought this book would be a satirical take on missionaries, as it is set in Fairyland, or at would at least be critical, but it never gives any indication anywhere that missionaries are anything but a positive force. For a novel published in 2018, this is shocking.
2. The author is hugely imaginative and creates a varied and charismatic Land of the Fae, but her writing is not strong enough to hold together the gruesome and shocking story she spins. The characters' response to murder, death or cannibalism are all too restrained, and while the events described do send some characters mad, I still felt that all the reactions were not well-observed, and rang hollow. The author is inventive and intelligent, but her prose style and development of narrative are not yet sophisticated enough to carry off her ideas.