Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsA strong feminist sci-fi story
Reviewed in Australia on 23 December 2021
A girl born poor, rebels against everything to avenge her sister’s death. The concepts that underpin this story world are borrowed, hacked and reformed into a narrative about choices, inequality and perceptions. The main character, her sheer force of will and power is breath taking.
The men in the story I feel are mere plot devices, to serve the main female character— and you know, that’s okay. But I wished that their relationships were more poetic, heart rendering, like I wish I could care more deeply about them. And I think that’s where the book lost me— in the relationships, in the humanity of their corrections. So much of who they were, were metaphors for something else.
In the end, maybe because she was so unconventional, maybe because an important point was always being made, maybe because the book was imbued with so much rage & sheer unending pain— I didn’t like the main character by the end of the book.
This book needs to be read & celebrated— its amazing in what it says & achieves. But for me I could’ve used a bit more beauty & stillness in it too.
