I've read early drafts of this story and I am SO EXCITED for it to be published! No ARCs out, but if you've beta-read the latest from Briana Morgan,I've read early drafts of this story and I am SO EXCITED for it to be published! No ARCs out, but if you've beta-read the latest from Briana Morgan, you know it's going to be witchy and queer and exciting....more
A hesitant 3.5 stars, and hesitantly shelved on "diverse"
I'm a big Westerfeld fan, so this was a book I would inevitably finish and enjoy to someA hesitant 3.5 stars, and hesitantly shelved on "diverse"
I'm a big Westerfeld fan, so this was a book I would inevitably finish and enjoy to some extent. His writing is so easy for me to read. At first, I was intimidated by the page count, but I knew I'd get through because of the writing style.
First and foremost: this is two novels packaged as one and they have zero crossover, aside from Darcy being the writer of the other story. I wondered how this combined narratives would pan out, and I honestly think it wasn't necessary. If anything, they feel like 2 incomplete stories. I enjoyed both, but would have preferred to read two separate novels.
Basically, we have a contemporary LGBT story, and we have a paranormal romance. They were both okay. I wasn't blown away by either story, but I do have a strong appreciation for the romantic relationship in Darcy's. It was very deep, and acted as a great foil to the superficial romantic relationship in Lizzie's story.
My biggest issue was with Darcy. A small kudos to Westerfeld for having a POC protagonist... but she lacked authenticity. I don't mean she should've been using Hindi phrases or followed her culture. But considering she is the daughter of two Indian immigrants, I expected a bit more of that reality and identity coming through, which might have been improved with more characterisation of Annika and her husband (whose name I can't remember; I finished the book a few hours ago and can't remember the protag's father's name!!).
The "American assimilation" message was incredibly present: Darcy essentially rejected all notions of her culture, including the food, and her parents did the same, though maintaining the food. She landed a book deal before she could legally drink (also, I'm so over underage drinking; it's not cool), managed to find a rent an apartment in New York City, and got a 2-book, 6-figure deal. To me, that's the American Dream, and it seems like Darcy could only achieve it by adopting a more American life and writing an American story. If it weren't for her last name of "Patel," Darcy could have been anyone, though I would have assumed she were white due to the amount of luck (and therefore privilege) she displayed. I'm not going to offer suggestions on what he could have done better, because as a fourth-generation Canadian, that's not my place.
The issue of race in publishing was mentioned once, quite early on, and I wish it had been more predominant. I also wish I had known more about the people publishing Darcy: Moxie, Rhea, Paradox house. The scene where Westerfeld wrote the characters talking about the whiteness of publishing and the problems with cultural appropriation by white authors... It seemed like a sticker put in there to say, "See? I addressed the issue." It was very slapdash and I almost forgot about it.
It's hard to think a book is good, let alone great, when you look at the Indian protagonist in a lesbian relationship and think, "She's not real enough." This isn't to say I have a problem with Indian protagonists, or lesbian protagonists, or Indian lesbians. I'm saying that Darcy wasn't written well enough to convince me of her identity as even Indian. I think at some point it seemed like she was all, "Oh I don't know who I like and I don't think I'm a very sexual person" but I mean. I don't know anyone who is asexual or lesbian or queer who hasn't started questioning their orientation (or even researching it. Darcy is a writer, for goodness' sake; if she could stumble across a news story of a murdered 11-year-old in India in the 70s, then she could find something about LGBT identity). I wish Westerfeld had tried a little harder, or perhaps let this story be told by a queer Indian author.
Also, I really didn't care for Nisha.
The more I think about this, the more I wonder Why did Westerfeld write two novels together? My only conclusion is that... Well, neither of the stories would have been able to stand on their own. I don't particularly think they work well together, though I did love the interior design, but that might have been the best option.
It was refreshing to read a romantic relationship treated with such maturity. I love Imogen's character in the book and for my own personal reasons/relatability to her. I think Westerfeld managed to pull off the two-narratives-in-one-book structure just because he has, like, 4 series under his belt and a large readership; and not because it was a good way to structure these stories. It's worth a read, though--and I'm going to keep calling them "valkyries" instead of the silly title Lizzie picks at the end. (You could have at least made it similar to Mindy's "livers" in form! Come on!)...more
Loading...
