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A review by silquesoleil
The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal
2.0
I regret buying this book and as a physical copy no less because it has been such a letdown. I could only finish it because the writing was good.
I expected more mystery and court intrigue, kind of a historical thriller. Instead what you get is a villain whose very motives are so obvious and who is the nastiest kind of person, but I feel like he is never met with enough disgust, his actions are never condemned enough by this book.
I had no joy reading about marrying off actual children and people making inappropriate remarks about it because, hahaha, pedophelia is such a joke right? Too bad it's not even historically accurate. And before you say 'oh well that's just to establish how little qualms the villain has in his greed for power' - it has been established enough. He rapes women, he has his co-conspirors tortured. And despite all of this, not a single soul is properly appalled at his actions. It's just kind of glossed over.
The author is not very sensitive to matters of race either, the author does not seem very sensitive to anything at all, really.
The ending is kind of all over the place too. The only interesting part was the medical aspect of it because I recognized some of this from Sawbones.
So, if you think about picking up this book, consider investing your time into listening to a podcast called Sawbones instead. It's free and it's fun, while this book is neither
I expected more mystery and court intrigue, kind of a historical thriller. Instead what you get is a villain whose very motives are so obvious and who is the nastiest kind of person, but I feel like he is never met with enough disgust, his actions are never condemned enough by this book.
I had no joy reading about marrying off actual children and people making inappropriate remarks about it because, hahaha, pedophelia is such a joke right? Too bad it's not even historically accurate. And before you say 'oh well that's just to establish how little qualms the villain has in his greed for power' - it has been established enough. He rapes women, he has his co-conspirors tortured. And despite all of this, not a single soul is properly appalled at his actions. It's just kind of glossed over.
The author is not very sensitive to matters of race either, the author does not seem very sensitive to anything at all, really.
The ending is kind of all over the place too. The only interesting part was the medical aspect of it because I recognized some of this from Sawbones.
So, if you think about picking up this book, consider investing your time into listening to a podcast called Sawbones instead. It's free and it's fun, while this book is neither