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A review by katiescho741
The Book of Etta by Meg Elison
2.0
I discovered The Book of the Unnamed Midwife earlier this year on Kindle Unlimited. I loved it so much that it got a 5* rating from me. When I saw the two sequels were also on KU, I figured I’d give them a go. I sort of wish I hadn’t.
There is some interesting stuff in this book, such as the changing ideas of gender, gender-roles, and sexuality in the event of an apocalypse, but there’s not enough good stuff to make this a good book. The gender-roles idea brought some good tidbits such as the society where men make beautiful quilts and women hunt. Also how the new and dangerous world brought with it assumptions that women shouldn’t waste their motherhood potential by being gay.
There is so much about gender and sexuality that it takes over the story and becomes the story: so many descriptions of sex, sex slavery, genital mutilation, how each community thinks of men and women. There just wasn’t much of a story among all this. The only thing I can say is it’s a story of Etta trying to find herself and deal with the conflicting sides of who she is, but even that becomes a bit stretched when the different faces she presents (Etta and Eddy) start talking to each other.
Perhaps as a standalone, this book would have looked better, unfortunately, it looks really poor next to Unnamed Midwife. The Unnamed is mentioned and it’s interesting to see how her legacy has lasted and how people think of her, but this book was nowhere near as good. The title alone is confusing because Etta hardly writes in her journal and what she does write is brief and superficial. One of the things I loved about Unnamed Midwife was how it alternated between first-person diary entries and third-person. But this one dispenses with that technique and is just a lot of walking and inner turmoil about boring topics.
I admit I skimmed the final 20% due to boredom.If you liked Unnamed Midwife, don’t bother with this one. Needless to say, I won’t be reading The Book of Flora!
There is some interesting stuff in this book, such as the changing ideas of gender, gender-roles, and sexuality in the event of an apocalypse, but there’s not enough good stuff to make this a good book. The gender-roles idea brought some good tidbits such as the society where men make beautiful quilts and women hunt. Also how the new and dangerous world brought with it assumptions that women shouldn’t waste their motherhood potential by being gay.
There is so much about gender and sexuality that it takes over the story and becomes the story: so many descriptions of sex, sex slavery, genital mutilation, how each community thinks of men and women. There just wasn’t much of a story among all this. The only thing I can say is it’s a story of Etta trying to find herself and deal with the conflicting sides of who she is, but even that becomes a bit stretched when the different faces she presents (Etta and Eddy) start talking to each other.
Perhaps as a standalone, this book would have looked better, unfortunately, it looks really poor next to Unnamed Midwife. The Unnamed is mentioned and it’s interesting to see how her legacy has lasted and how people think of her, but this book was nowhere near as good. The title alone is confusing because Etta hardly writes in her journal and what she does write is brief and superficial. One of the things I loved about Unnamed Midwife was how it alternated between first-person diary entries and third-person. But this one dispenses with that technique and is just a lot of walking and inner turmoil about boring topics.
I admit I skimmed the final 20% due to boredom.