At all.ĭela is a courtier in the Emperor’s court and becomes an adviser and friend of the main character. But wow, I do not understand some of her choices. The shame of it all is that the world-building IS pretty extensive and the author’s writing is compelling and her characters and story are novel and interesting. It’s uncomfortable and disappointing throughout. And who had her will controlled by said attempted-rapist. It’s pretty distasteful throughout and then, the entirety of the second book contains repeated instances of non-consensual control of other people. The main character is nearly raped twice toward the end of the first book, and then in the second book, her attempted rapist is one corner of the forced love triangle. There’s a thinly-veiled depiction of plains Native American nations, though none specific and it appears to be a white’s interpretation and amalgamation of them as well. The white Australian author based the setting on Ancient China and Japan - or at least a white’s interpretations of them. There are plenty of other issues with this series. So … More spoilery bits and a long explanation of my problems with this series below the cut. I know that these were released in 20, but they’re fresh to me, and I’m upset.
“ a major transwoman character who actually has a healthy and beautiful romance with a badass warrior dude and is one of the most important characters in the story, “ĭespite the lack of space between trans and woman, I allowed myself to get my hopes up that this might all be true.Īlas, it is, at best, an extremely generous reading of Dela’s portrayal.
Obviously, as a trans woman, the part that most captured my attention was
This post’s points were the sum total of my exposure to this series’ existence and, consequently, all of the information I had. This post was the impetus for me running to the library and picking them up. In fact, this series is aggressively heteronormative. Not to mention the ableism, severe cultural appropriation throughout this series, and the absence of a single LGBTQIA+ character other than this straight trans woman. And this post should have included a trigger warning for sexual assault and coercion. This post is not spoiler-free, so if you haven’t read it, the tl dr is that this series does not deserve the lofty accolades in this post.
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