A review by schlawiner
Ten Thousand Stitches, by Olivia Atwater
5.0
This was lovely, thought-provoking and inspiring. The world is similar to the one described in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Regency England and a kind of a darkly whimsical fairy realm, set in a Downton Abbeyish upstairs-downstairs scenario.
It touches on class divides, the value of righteous anger and when it is useful to pass it on to others, intersectional feminism (a lady who is always disrespectful of her female servants suddenly shows great compassion with a seeming fellow lady treated badly by a man, because she reminds her of herself), and even appropriation (a maid character considering faeries who put on the role of servant for a day or two, like a toy they can put away anytime vs herself, who has to live the reality of it with no way of escaping).
It touches on class divides, the value of righteous anger and when it is useful to pass it on to others, intersectional feminism (a lady who is always disrespectful of her female servants suddenly shows great compassion with a seeming fellow lady treated badly by a man, because she reminds her of herself), and even appropriation (a maid character considering faeries who put on the role of servant for a day or two, like a toy they can put away anytime vs herself, who has to live the reality of it with no way of escaping).