Oh how I love books that heavily embed linguistics not only the culture of the people in the book but also so deeply into the very plot of the book! IOh how I love books that heavily embed linguistics not only the culture of the people in the book but also so deeply into the very plot of the book! I may not be a linguist (that title falls to my baby sister), but both she and I grew up with a love of languages and how language evolves over time. This book made me so very happy in my linguistics pants just because it was so clever and almost effortless in how it took the English language and showed how much it could have shifted and then been embedded into the social fabric in the future. I won’t give any examples, because I really don’t want to ruin the fun. Some of the changes are just so downright spot-on they become hilarious. I found myself saying, “Of course that’s what we’d end up calling that in the future!” This book also relies heavily on how technology has changed language on a global scale, with American English, fragmented sentences, and emojis being the most common languages spoken when the digital world is involved.
I am simply mad about this book. It’s one of the best sci-fi novels I’ve read this year, and it’s not even pure sci-fi. It’s also an amateur sleuth mystery, a little bit of a thriller, and a crafty bit of speculative fiction. There are many great points to be made about first contact with an alien civilization: what kind of considerations and how many considerations would we be willing to give to an alien civilization to gain access to their technology, should they come in peace? Would they have an advantage over us once some of us could learn their language and act as translators (in case they didn’t speak out loud, which is the case in this book) because it would give them a buffering time between speaking and then having to hear someone’s reply in which to craft more questions, thoughts, decisions, and answers? Would they have an advantage in composing oneself between one statement and another just by virtue of the translation lag time?
The overall murder mystery plot is an engaging and a twisty road. It’s unpredictable and it seems that just when the mystery might be solved, it’s another red herring or the logic falls apart and we’re a few steps back again. A few steps forward, a stumble back. That’s how this book goes and that’s how I like it. And just when you think all the players have been identified, there’s sure to be another piece put into play or one of the pieces is found to have not been part of it at all. In the end, I was about 85% surprised by who it was. And then I felt like, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Trust me, pick up this book. Then actually read it. If you’re a fan of speculative fiction I can almost guarantee you’ll enjoy it.
Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan-Tor/Forge, and Tordotcom for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
No matter how a book reviewer may feel about a book, we cannot simply come online and type, “Meh. It was sort-of okay. I definitely wouldn’t read it aNo matter how a book reviewer may feel about a book, we cannot simply come online and type, “Meh. It was sort-of okay. I definitely wouldn’t read it again.” That’s not what book reviews are about. That’s closer to a book opinion. That’s telling someone simply whether or not you liked the book. That’s not a review. Neither is simply reciting the synopsis. A review takes the elements of book writing and breaks down how well the book does these things (which differs from genre to genre), while also assessing how well the reviewer enjoyed the book and whether or not the book achieved the objective it set out to accomplish.
The reason I’m telling you this, which you may or may not know, is because I got frustrated thinking of what to write as a review for this book that teeters on the edge of dipping below 3 stars and just wondered to myself (in a rhetorical manner), “Why can’t I just type ‘It was meh’, and leave it at that?” Well… see above explanation. Reviews aren’t about whether or not I simply think a book is meh. Reviews are about why I think it’s meh, how it might have gotten that way, and why the book failed to elicit a reaction from me that was in any way more enthusiastic than meh.
My primary complaint about this book is that it is too long and the pacing is uneven. For a crime-suspense thriller/mystery, there is little to no suspense. Any and all attempts to create a suspenseful atmosphere fall completely flat because our villain is just so pitiful and our hero is practically the picture of a perfect county sheriff whose only “character flaw” is that he’s gay and prefers to live alone in a small town.
As a matter of fact, Amazon has this book listed as a LGBT+ Thriller, LGBTQ+ Mystery (Kindle Store), and a LGBT+ Mystery (Books)... when the plot of the book has absolutely nothing to do with the sheriff’s sexual orientation. The book is about two missing teens and the sheriff’s efforts to find them! He could be straighter than a 2x4 of solid oak and that wouldn’t have changed a dang bit of the main storyline. The main storyline remains the same: a boyfriend and girlfriend leave their houses late one night after their parents are in bed and disappear without a trace and they have to be found. Please, please tell me how this rates as a LGBTQ+ book in any manner?
My secondary complaint is the opioid-centric drug ring component of the plot. I don’t know the state of affairs in Minnesota, but where I live, almost every drug dealer has moved on from Oxy, Percocet, and Vicodin. They’re too hard to get ahold of and the ones you get off the streets are too dangerous to risk taking unless you have a testing kit. It made what’s supposed to be a present-day novel seem terribly out-of-date. If this book was set about ten years ago, maybe the drug aspect of the plot would have seemed more believable, but in 2022, it seems almost laughable.
The book just has an overall feeling of “average”. Where it doesn’t feel average it just feels “meh”. I don’t recommend the read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. As per personal policy, this review will not appear on social media or bookseller sites due to the 3 star or lower rating. ...more
Being a woman with a science degree myself (I mention this often in my reviews of books that include geography as a component of the plot, since that Being a woman with a science degree myself (I mention this often in my reviews of books that include geography as a component of the plot, since that was my field of study), I love books of the STEMinist persuasion, and this book is no exception. Part historical crime fiction and part closed loop mystery, this novel has a curious charm about it even as it reminds us of just how bad discrimination is academia was toward women in the 1920s (it’s still bad today, of course).
I’ve become a bit wary of novels taking place in the 1920s as of late, as they seem to be full of cliches and stereotypes of the decade without taking into account not everyone spoke the same, imbibed or partook of the same drinks or substances, or dressed the same. I was pleased Khvavari chose to forge a different path than a lot of authors and not indulge in the same tired cliches. It made for refreshing dialogue and thoughtful prose.
Seeing as the novel is set in 1923 London, there was no doubt Khavari was going to have characters in her novel that had either seen battle in WWI or had relatives that had been killed there. After all, between soldier deaths and civilian deaths, the UK and Northern Ireland lost nearly 1.4 million people in the war (this is, of course, nothing compared to the Russian losses or the untold number lost in the Armenian Genocide). Brothers, fathers, and sons were all lost. Estates, inheritances, and titles were all thrown into disarray. The 1920s were a time of upheaval all over the world. Khavari is sensitive to the topic without tiptoeing around it, respective without kowtowing. It was appreciated.
Lastly, I appreciated the great amount of attention paid to the importance of empirical research, even if it’s gained through less-than-ideal means. Science is nothing without methodology, people!
Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for granting me early access to this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
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