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A review by herbalmoon
Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
3.0
It's a good book, but it keeps taking a hard left and chucking me out of the story.
- Word I don't recognize...is it real/can it be looked up, or is it something that Ben made up for the story? (There are a lot of unfamiliar words, and this is from someone who feels like they have a pretty decent vocabulary.)
- Sexy moment...ruined by using the C-word.male fantasy? Nope, the author is female!
- A character that uses female pronouns and masculine titles, has masculine body parts...are they intersex? No, they're supposed to be neutral. (That's what the book infers a chapter or two later.) Now I haven't met a lot of neutral people, but the ones I have don't use gender-specific anything. Ben seems to get that right with other characters (using ey/em as pronouns), but seems to enjoy being confusing with this one.
- Two characters have their first meeting...and one kisses the other for the hell of it. What? Who does that, other than a creep? (And the kiss-ee didn't mind, what's worse.)
- The author continually refers to foreigners as "Occidentals". Last I knew, it's unacceptable to call Asiatic people "Oriental" (I'm not even sure it's okay to say "Asiatic"!), so why should the reverse be okay?
I don't mind LGBTIQ themes, but I think they're awkwardly done here--especially when the Q means the reader is questioning, not the character! Compared to authors like Linsey Miller (whose assassin duology handled the neutral protagonist with grace), the whole idea seems clunky and half-formed.
I finished the book because I was curious, but I won't read it again.
- Word I don't recognize...is it real/can it be looked up, or is it something that Ben made up for the story? (There are a lot of unfamiliar words, and this is from someone who feels like they have a pretty decent vocabulary.)
- Sexy moment...ruined by using the C-word.
Spoiler
Not only that, but our hoohas do not "flutter"! What is that, some kind of strange- A character that uses female pronouns and masculine titles, has masculine body parts...are they intersex? No, they're supposed to be neutral. (That's what the book infers a chapter or two later.) Now I haven't met a lot of neutral people, but the ones I have don't use gender-specific anything. Ben seems to get that right with other characters (using ey/em as pronouns), but seems to enjoy being confusing with this one.
Spoiler
I wondered about labeling Lussadh as "bigender", but in the same passage where Ben indicates zhe's neutral, she's also says that foreigners have a difficult time deciding whether to use male or female terms of address. I don't know any bigender folks, but I would assume either form would be acceptable?- Two characters have their first meeting...and one kisses the other for the hell of it. What? Who does that, other than a creep? (And the kiss-ee didn't mind, what's worse.)
- The author continually refers to foreigners as "Occidentals". Last I knew, it's unacceptable to call Asiatic people "Oriental" (I'm not even sure it's okay to say "Asiatic"!), so why should the reverse be okay?
I don't mind LGBTIQ themes, but I think they're awkwardly done here--especially when the Q means the reader is questioning, not the character! Compared to authors like Linsey Miller (whose assassin duology handled the neutral protagonist with grace), the whole idea seems clunky and half-formed.
I finished the book because I was curious, but I won't read it again.