Cherae Clark

Utterly Phenomenal!

This was an absolute revelation to read and the performance was superb!

Knowing that this was a debut novel left me open-mouthed and learning it is a series made me overjoyed.

Fantasy is a genre filled with cishet white guys who are largely oblivious to the amount of politics and colonialism they include in their works without thinking about it. It's the entire foundation of much of the genre and TTRPG offshoots like D&D. But this takes the existing tropes and analogues to show more history and includes them purposely to great effect, weaving a beautiful, heartbreaking, and exciting tale filled with realised complex and flawed characters and concepts and tensions so often ignorantly and clumsily included and/ or offensively handwaved that are handled deftly with care and understanding. The book isn't just politics either, I'm just saying it handles them well.

Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read. show less

I loved The Unbroken. It could have been just another fantasy rebellion, another clusterfuck redeemed by a couple’s love for one another against all odds. Instead, it’s a full-throated fuck you to colonial empires and systemic racism; a drama of characters as compromised as they are uncompromising, whose every option is a betrayal. Everyone is as flawed as they are deeply committed, willing to countenance horrific deeds in service to their cause. The result is often bleak, but always show more satisfying. A strong debut from a fierce new voice.

4.5 stars

Full review

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. show less

This book was a RIDE. While I felt like I couldn't put it down, I often felt confused as to how I was still reading it, until I remembered it was about twice as long as most of the books I read. I struggled with how to rat this for a while, as reading this book was not always an enjoyable process. The blurbs promise that this book will break your heart, and while it certainly achieves that, I also wasn't sure how I felt about the fact that I spend large portions of the book INCANDESCENTLY show more FURIOUS WITH BOTH of the main characters. Several times I stopped and asked myself if I actually liked either of these women AT ALL. Finally I realized these were the wrong questions, because what I WAS was invested. I wanted so desperately for both of them to DO better and BE better and HAVE better. I also loved how incredibly sapphic this book was. There were only two heterosexual relationships in the whole book that I can remember, and they were only "onscreen" for about a minute. In contrast, nearly every interesting character in this book is a woman, and nearly all of them were wlw, or bi, or unattached, in a way that was completely normalized.

There is a lot of evil in this book -- of colonialism, of classism, of racism, etc. Reading this at the same time as reading a history of women in the U.S. Civil War almost certainly increased the screaming inside my heart. There is a lot of depth and trauma and conflict that can make this challenging to engage with, but also makes it so resonant and gripping.

An excellent read. show less

This sophomore installment of Magic of the Lost absolutely blew my mind. It's rare for the middle book to outshine the debut, but this one does, in spades. Clark flushed out all those juicy bits of character depth I was waiting for in book one, and upped the stakes AND the spice level considerable... which makes my queer little heart downright giddy.

One of the things I've always felt makes a successful fantasy series is the ability to span and flesh out the geography of world, to keep the show more characters relevant and the plot from becoming stagnant. With its roots in the complicated history and theology surrounding colonialism, this book does that in ways that do the HARD work double and triple time. The prose is wonderful and the struggle to understand the lines between colonizer/colonized are vivid and thought provoking.

And did I mention we finally got some of that queer SPICE I've been hankerin' for? Yum!

Definitely read it! show less