Non Serviam
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Coming across some problematic subjects
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Beatrice wrote: "Greetings! I haven't finished Non Serviam yet, I have around 90 pages to go, so maybe I'm missing something that's not happened yet although I highly doubt less than a hundred pages would be enough..."All very good points. What really concerns me is the rampant use of ageist tropes. Why are all of the older characters portrayed as being evil? I love a good “okay boomer” joke here and there but this just comes off as quite childish.
Additionally, this is also true of the “ugly” characters. This old trope works well enough in old fairy tales made for children I suppose, but such simplistic characterization does not belong in a grimdark story, let alone one that is supposed to be a breakdown of the evils underlying the beauteous façade of the bourgeoisie.
Really missed an opportunity to take advantage of the juxtaposition, which is what was promised from the blurb…. Then again, addressing classism and labor exploitation seems to be missing entirely, which is a curious omission concerning a story about revolution.
I also take exception with NS’ depictions of all the male characters as being mustache twirling baddies, aside of course from the man protagonist’s father. There was an opportunity to really put the depraved patriarchal structure of the city on display in a believable way, but this borders on Saturday morning cartoon villainy.
Lastly, as you pointed out, the paltry LGBTQ representation is worthy of the most criticism. This book is labeled under a “Queer” tag but seems to follow the Disney code of ‘write gay characters on the periphery’ in order to both check a box and to make it easier for international censors to remove it. What a shame.
In tandem with that, there was a real opportunity to explore Giorgianna attaining solidarity with other female characters, but the author instead decided to go for the "All Women Hate Each Other" pettiness trope. The same could be said of Cesare. Why not have him in a saucy poly relationship with the powers that be of Vencenza and manipulate them behind closed doors? Seems like a more effective strategy than just waltzing into some random city with no political support from the other city states, guerilla forces or supplies.
Ugh, I could go on and on about how the worldmap was underutilized and also the lack of representation for the average person's perspective, but I'll just cut it off here for now....
Beatrice wrote: "Greetings! I haven't finished Non Serviam yet, I have around 90 pages to go, so maybe I'm missing something that's not happened yet although I highly doubt less than a hundred pages would be enough..."I'm so glad someone else noticed all of this! I'll be real when I picked up the book seeing the "LGBTQ+ cast" listed on Instagram I'd been expecting something far more queer than we ended up receiving.
As you mention Giorgianna is that standard "man-hating bisexual woman with an exception for one man" trope that is incredibly damaging to the community and lowkey biphobic imo. Take this one quote for example:
In truth, I hadn’t realised I could fancy men at all until age sixteen. And what an unfortunate revelation that was! Even still, my markedly sapphic predilection persisted, though it took far more than arbitrary and reductive biologic attributes to enkindle my desire.
Like??? WTF? Giving off some strong Not Like Other Bis energy here by implying Giorgi is above liking dick or that other bisexual women aren't into men for their personalities and not just their genitals. And again the author dangles the idea of portraying a sapphic-leaning bi woman before snatching it away from us and I just found it more than a little bit disappointing. Her and Cesare were dull and boring, tbh. No better than the other tiresome enemies to lovers pairings you can find in romantasy books. They even have the weird, uncomfortable racial dynamic with Giorgi being an Italian woman constantly berating him and thinking about abusing and killing him when he's coded to be a Roma man if I understood correctly. Gave me the ick ngl.
There is one trans woman character but she falls into a lot of truscum/bioessentialist tropes with the way she talks about herself and her body that makes me think the author didn't have a transfeminine sensitivity reader at all. IDK how shes identifies but trans people are a broad spectrum and not interchangeable so if she wanted to include a trans woman she should've done her due diligence.
Dee Z. wrote: "Beatrice wrote: "Greetings! I haven't finished Non Serviam yet, I have around 90 pages to go, so maybe I'm missing something that's not happened yet although I highly doubt less than a hundred page..."I don't know how I didn't notice the ageism and the equating of ugly=evil, because WOW it's quite obvious now that you mention it. As you said, simplistic and reductionist in a grimdark novel.
There was an opportunity to really put the depraved patriarchal structure of the city on display in a believable way, but this borders on Saturday morning cartoon villainy.
I feel like you nailed it with that last sentence, this right there is a shamefully common issue throughout the book. The moment something remotely interesting is mentioned, you become disappointed upon seeing one more time how it's not being fleshed out. The few concepts that appear to be somewhat developed, are written in such a way that feels naïve and, yes cartoony.
Once again, Cesare's revolutionary antics were disappointing and underdelivered (yes, I've finished this mess). The guy needs funding for a whole revolution yet he goes around spending money on drugs? Huh? Of course he's a murderer and a revolutionary and a mysterious guy, and he wears a flowy white shirt oh he may be dark but he helps kids because he has a soft spot or something cliché. That is cool but how is the social revolution happening? The details didn't even scratch the surface.
Don't get me started with the useless map... It's unreadable, pixelated, cramped and it clearly went through zero design feedback filters. Moreover what is it there for? I'd rather have a map of the city of Vencenza.
Anyway thank you for reading, I see now I'm not the only one who sees this novel as problematic and messy.
It's the author's first novel, though. Maybe it was too ambitious for them and they should've recognised their limits. Starting humble and going up.
Danielle wrote: "Beatrice wrote: "Greetings! I haven't finished Non Serviam yet, I have around 90 pages to go, so maybe I'm missing something that's not happened yet although I highly doubt less than a hundred page..."Hello Danielle, thank you for your reply, it's very insightful. I almost forgot about the background trans character, honestly I didn't want to remember her, she was uncomfortable to read. Perhaps you're right and there was no transfeminine sensitivity reader at all. I wouldn't be surprised cuz it's obvious the book didn't have editors either.
It could have been a better novel if the author had focused on the story, delegated more tasks and didn't let her pride lead, but alas. I wonder if there were beta readers at all... Perhaps they weren't sincere?
You mention the writer's Instagram and how she advertised the novel as full LGBTQIA+ cast. Well the author says many things on their Instagram page and it's not good marketing, trust me. Whatever happened to keeping a professional attitude.
Apparently the male MC is now changing gender identity? How can any serious author do that after publishing? It's giving JK Rowling. So now Cesare is nb for social points. Way to pull a Netflix move.
You bring up this very valid point:
They even have the weird, uncomfortable racial dynamic with Giorgi being an Italian woman constantly berating him and thinking about abusing and killing him when he's coded to be a Roma man if I understood correctly. Gave me the ick ngl.
This is also what I meant when I said it's problematic with its stereotyping of Italians. I was very uncomfy while reading. And yes, Cesare according to the author is a Roma man, in my review I had to mention it and point out the issue because YIKES.
It's not a book I'll revisit. I definitely won't read the second part of the duology.
You are all right about how problematic this disastrous book is and, I'm sorry, but in this day of available information being an inexperienced amateur writer who self-publishes is no excuse for the dreadful formatting and ruinous editing work, particularly on thay ill-fated map and catastrophic cover that break every single ABC rule of basic graphic design.I didn't know it rips off Tolkien's work as well. Disappointed but not surprised.
Don't get me started on that terrible queer representation... It's absolute queerbaiting.
In my humble opinion, one of the most problematic issues is the black and white approach. Everything lacks nuance and feels artificial, nothing really explored beyond scratching the surface ever so slightly. Dee Z. criticises the inefficacy of those political strategies Cesare and his rebels employed and how it never describes what the average citizens' life is or what Cesare's people's lives are like... Such a childish worldbuilding with an "I'm deep" pseudo-intellectual coat.
The slothful worldbuilding is something else. The author takes an AI-like approach when "taking inspiration" that feels again nuanceless, it's an uncouth copy and paste of current real life societies rearranged into a chimera abomination with typos. The pinnacle of aphantasia.
Nahel wrote: "You are all right about how problematic this disastrous book is and, I'm sorry, but in this day of available information being an inexperienced amateur writer who self-publishes is no excuse for th..."I mean where's the lie??
I read your review. Yours and Danielle's are spot on. Tbh I think those early 5 star reviews are fake? There's no way they read this book and sincerely wrote what they wrote. Plus it's generic and feels like a template they could use for any book imo. Not to mention the book recommendations under "People who read this book also enjoyed"... Those clearly come from the 4-5 star ARC reviews and bought bookstagram reviews. It's PAINFULLY OBVIOUS how those reviewers usually read romance, smut, dark romance and would never reach for Non Serviam on their own.
THE AUTHOR IS PLAGIARISING TOLKIEN? Боже...
There are way more "little" plagiarized details in the book. I'm part of a reader community and the community host shared this one as the "controversial read" of the month. We discussed the issues around it and read it ourselves. It's worse than what this discussion thread shows.
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Anyway I digress.
I desperately wanted to be wrong about this bad feeling I was getting since the beginning of NS. I feel like the book is kind of insensitive and problematic ―not in the way you'd expect grimdark novels to be― as in it touches several subjects and themes showing little to no respect. I'm talking about the heavy Italian and Venetian themes. It feels... Sensationalised, glamourised, stereotyped, borderline caricaturesque. It's been done hundreds of times before NS so I don't blame the author, they could've been a naïve consumer of this Venetian themed Young Adult literature with no ill intent.
What made me frown during the whole reading experience was, not only that tasteless & morbid representation of a Venice where only depravity is left, but also the LGBTQIA+ and minority "representation" the author claims to feature in NS.
Yes, you come across a couple of LGBTQIA+ individuals but let's be real, it feels like the token lesbian a Netflix show adds for social and political points. The diverse cast is... Barely there. We could argue that the female MC is bisexual, yes but it's another bisexual girl who ends up with the skinny bad boy™ like... Nothing new here and super problematic. Is the female MC a canonical bisexual woman only for the author to tick all the diverse boxes? I think so because she's in a straight relationship with a man.
Another problematic theme that luckily doesn't get mentioned more is the names of certain nations that claim to represent China, perhaps the author wasn't an expert on this issue and felt insecure however in that case they could've asked native Chinese people about this. The name is giving "JK Rowling came up with it and it sounds Chinese".
Also, some of the names on that barely readable map featured on NS are just straight up ripped from Middle Earth:
Balinor = Valinor
Ithilwen = Ithilien
This is literal plagiarism and it's not ok. Why is no one else mentioning the Tolkien plagiarism? It's problematic and wrong.
All being said, maybe it's me who's looking too much into things. Waiting for your replies and opinions on the matter,
Best regards,
Trice