Lloyd

Enjoyable writing, but seems to rely heavily on series of books this is set in, so did not stand well on its own as a short story. Additionally, seems like it may have contained spoilers for some of the series.

Generally enjoyed it and thought it was a fun premise, but for some reason the occasional use of characters swearing felt out of place and threw me out of the story whenever it happened.

A book of telling, not showing. For a feminist retelling, the lead character spends the first half of the book completely passive: never adancing the plot by her own actions, frequently being rescued by the men around her, and generally failing to even notice the actions put in motion by the male characters until they stop and take the time to explain to her after the fact what they had done. Meanwhile, she spends her time following along in the wake of other actors and monologuing about the importance of gender equality. It also takes an extremely limited and antiquated view of gender, with depictions of womanhood being reduced to mostly childbirth and nurturing despite claims to more.

I had been excited going in for a subversive and heretical retelling of perhaps the most classic story, but the complete lack of any nuance, combined with language that rapidly shifts between modern and a biblical style leaves the story falling far flat of hopes.