Andrew Wheeler (4)

There is a lot to like here. The storytelling has a good pace, the characters are immediately fairly memorable and clearly drawn (both metaphorically and literally), the aesthetics are pleasant and the narrative -- considering it is based on slightly skewed tropes -- is reasonably fresh.

That said, in my eyes, the book suffers greatly from being caught between wishing to address the protagonist's morals and desires with real complexities, nuance and realism, but also wanting to write a morality tale where having the virtuous goals and the strength to stick to one's principles magically carries the day. This leads to a frequent set up where the protagonist is confronted with the naivete of her behaviour, only to then make barely any adjustments to it, and largely through blind luck and storytelling needs still succeed. (And indeed, the entire book ends on decisions which, based on the factors already established in the story, should likely lead to enormous amounts of violence and suffering, but which is presented as though it's purely a Good Thing and so no mention of the almost inevitable negative consequences is done.) It would perhaps have been better to not lampshade these issues by first introducing the moral complexities in the first place, and keep it a simple black-and-white fairy tale where goodness of heart wins the day.

As it stands, the story is decent, if simplistic, has some clever mythological building blocks (particularly the logic of the villain's scheme is good) and has several lovely moments, as well as opportunities for the protagonist to overcome (largely self-caused) problems with actual resourcefulness. And I very much enjoyed the additional, aspirational level of meaning the book's title took on in the last page. I just wish it by then hadn't been already undercut by the sparse attempts at realism.… (more)