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A review by citrus_seasalt
In the Vanishers' Palace by Aliette de Bodard
3.25
It took a bit for me to get invested in the story, but this was my first time reading a sapphic monster romance, and this was interesting. It borrows a couple elements from Beauty And The Beast, which is how I found out about it(I love queer retellings), but it seems to be only inspired by that story: The world of magical, ravaging diseases, architecture so impossible it’s like illusions to a human’s eyes and mind, and villages ruled by the fear of being “disposable”(ableism connotation) is something specific to Aliette De Bodard’s writing.
While the story is written in English, Vietnamese language is often important to both the plot itself, and how the characters are gendered. I don’t know if I’d consider this to be a “queernorm” world, but there was casual non-binary representation in not one but two of the characters, and I liked how that was represented with both how they were described as referring to themselves, and the cultural clothing they’d wear. (Also, while this is a slightly different topic, honorifics are used to show the progression of Vu Côn and Yên’s relationship, and I liked that.)
Unfortunately, one of the reasons it took a while for me to start liking this was because I felt detached from the main character—although Vu Côn’s POV was alright, I don’t think a third-person POV worked for Yên. Some of this could also be attributed to the writing style, which while there are some beautiful passages, a lot of it was confusingly dreamlike. The story is already surreal because of its impossible setting(I mean this in a matter-of-fact way), but some of that seeped into the character writing and worldbuilding. My experience reading was notably strange, as a result. (Also, none of the village characters stuck with me except for her mother, Kim Ngoc?)
I definitely feel like the twins had the strongest characterization of all the cast, which isn’t exactly a hot take among the reviewers(they seem to be a crowd favorite). Their motivations were the easiest to grasp, and I liked them as characters, too. Their mother-child relationships with Vu Côn were a little complex but also sweet.
Can’t think of anything else to say except for that while I liked how the different ethics and implications of Yên and Vu Côn’s romance were addressed, Yên running away whenever there was tension(the bad kind, not the other kind) got repetitive. Some of the explanation on the Vanishers was also confusing to me, but I don’t know if that’s because I zoned out in the first third or so?
Not sure if I’d read any other books by this author. There were elements of “In The Vanisher’s Palace” that I liked, but not enough to recommend it?
While the story is written in English, Vietnamese language is often important to both the plot itself, and how the characters are gendered. I don’t know if I’d consider this to be a “queernorm” world, but there was casual non-binary representation in not one but two of the characters, and I liked how that was represented with both how they were described as referring to themselves, and the cultural clothing they’d wear. (Also, while this is a slightly different topic, honorifics are used to show the progression of Vu Côn and Yên’s relationship, and I liked that.)
Unfortunately, one of the reasons it took a while for me to start liking this was because I felt detached from the main character—although Vu Côn’s POV was alright, I don’t think a third-person POV worked for Yên. Some of this could also be attributed to the writing style, which while there are some beautiful passages, a lot of it was confusingly dreamlike. The story is already surreal because of its impossible setting(I mean this in a matter-of-fact way), but some of that seeped into the character writing and worldbuilding. My experience reading was notably strange, as a result. (Also, none of the village characters stuck with me except for her mother, Kim Ngoc?)
I definitely feel like the twins had the strongest characterization of all the cast, which isn’t exactly a hot take among the reviewers(they seem to be a crowd favorite). Their motivations were the easiest to grasp, and I liked them as characters, too. Their mother-child relationships with Vu Côn were a little complex but also sweet.
Can’t think of anything else to say except for that while I liked how the different ethics and implications of Yên and Vu Côn’s romance were addressed, Yên running away whenever there was tension(the bad kind, not the other kind) got repetitive. Some of the explanation on the Vanishers was also confusing to me, but I don’t know if that’s because I zoned out in the first third or so?
Not sure if I’d read any other books by this author. There were elements of “In The Vanisher’s Palace” that I liked, but not enough to recommend it?