Akwaeke Emezi

3.75. This novel is reaching for so much and playing with such interesting stuff. It is immersive and vivid and sometimes genuinely cracked open the ontological framework my brain spends most of its time in in really interesting ways. I have some qualms about its success as a novel, as that specific kind of storytelling, that unit of art. To be fair, that is definitely one of the things Emezi deliberately deprioritized--I'm just not sure it's quite for me. I liked this a lot but wanted to like it more, maybe.… (mais)

I wouldn't say it's a new favorite, but interesting and thoughtful. What it takes to build and maintain a utopia is sometimes scary and harsh---that's given verbal acknowledgement at the beginning of the book, and then shown in practice through the rest.

The writing is a little young for the characters' ages (they're supposed to be what, 16?). On the other hand, part of the story is about the dangers of enforced naivety, so maybe it does fit. The theme of coming into adulthood as a person separate from your parents and making your own decisions is very appropriately teenager, though maybe expressed in the story with more clarity than most teenagers would be able to muster.

Every character had a really different voice---vocabulary, grammar, accent, method of speaking---which, come to think of it, is an interesting artistic choice! I particularly liked Pet's longer bits of dialogue, repetitive and poetic.… (mais)