πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ

filled star filled star filled star filled star filled star
rachelisce Avatar

By

Honestly what have we done to deserve E.K. Johnston? She is a blessing upon this earth. The first of her books that I read was Ahsoka, and it was so exhilarating for me every time I hit on another example of her commitment to gender neutrality. She goes even further in this book: Any time a person is not explicitly named as a man upon their first mention, you can fully expect them to be a woman. In fact, while reading this book, you can fully expect your male-default assumptions (the ones you were raised to have; there's no shame in it) to be challenged constantly. And E.K.'s commitment to diversity and representation doesn't end there! This book also includes the following: a discussion of different hair types (re: race) and the different needs they have; a character's asexuality being accepted AND defended, with an incident in which magic is used to create sexual desire in the character being seen by others as an extreme violation; a character musing on the fact that discovering that another character is trans doesn't change her perception of the second character at all; further wonderful treatment of that trans character; a character wanting to make an effort to pronounce another character's name correctly even though she doesn't have the right accent; a discussion of head scarves and why someone would continue to wear a culturally significant piece of clothing even though others judge them for it; cultural appropriation being frowned upon; a number of conversations addressing class privilege; people not being comfortable with reciprocating certain sexual acts and that being perfectly okay; AND MORE.

Also: a whole team of diverse, badass women of different ages being amazingly supportive of each other all the time; a sassy wizard, who happens to be the only male character with more than two brief scenes of dialogue*; and two girls who love each other a whole lot.

This book is just so delightful, and such a joy. I'll admit that I didn't love the flashback systemβ€”it felt less like the flashbacks were supporting the main story and more like there were two stories happening, with one (the flashbacks) getting overwhelmed by the other. Personally, I would've loved to have seen the stories as two separate books in a duology, as I think the flashback story would've been just as compelling as the "afterward" story, and both of them could've gotten a little more attention that way. Also, as much as I loved Olsa, I didn't really connect with her as much as I wanted toβ€”but I connected with Kalanthe a LOT, and I really, really loved her storyline. I also loved all the other knights, and would buy books about their solo adventures and younger days in a heartbeat.

Anyway, I highly recommend this treasure of a book. And I can't wait to read whatever E.K. has in store for us next.

*If there's a Bechdel test for male representation, this book does not pass it.