A terribly depressing book that really isn't science fiction, and is more about abuse and depravity. Its science fiction trappings are razor thin and superficial. Nicola Griffith could have easily placed this story in a wholly contemporary setting and it would have read no different. The sad thing is Neal Stephenson's [b:The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer|827|The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer|Neal Stephenson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388180931s/827.jpg|2181158] lost out to Slow River in the Nebula award that year. His book is full of mind blowing science fiction concepts. Slow River, none. I expect more futurism from my science fiction reads than a "net" and a long chapters about sewage treatment.

That being said, it was an interesting read and I generally liked it. But it wasn't really my cup-o-tea thematically. I can now cross another Nebula/Hugo winner off my to-read list.

Story: 4 / 10
Characters: 6.5
Setting: 7.5
Prose: 6

3.5

Very engaging. I found myself wanting to know more about the water treatment process and was fascinated by the blend of science, fiction, mystery, and relationships that Nicola wove through the story. I am looking forward to picking up another of her books.

Excellent, though a bit too much dwelling on the gruesome for me to 100% love it. A bold authorial move to make a lesbian thriller slow-paced and set in a waste processing plant. :) All the usual high points of Nicola Griffith's writing: excellent queer women content and relationships, strong yet vulnerable characters, intelligent mystery, way outside the box yet realistic, sexy. Would highly recommend, esp to queer women.

Not only interesting speculative fiction, but with lesbian characters, which is a plus for me.

“Kittens should be round.”

CW for child sexual abuse.

So What’s It About?

She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore Van Oesterling had been the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families...and now she was nobody, and she had to hide.

Then out of the rain walked Spanner, predator and thief, who took her in, cared for her wound, and taught her how to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore now: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped...but the cost of her newfound freedom was crime and deception, and she paid it over and over again, until she had become someone she loathed.

Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows, stay with Spanner...and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and creating a new future.

But to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents--Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's game one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van Oesterling to be paid. Only by confronting her family, her past, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be…

What I Thought

When I say that this book is unique, I don’t mean it in that condescending critical-but-not-critical way that people often mean it. I do truly think it’s genuinely unique! Three narratives from the main character Lore’s life interweave to create a story about broken families, broken partnerships, and, finally, healing. I think the book’s ultimate message is the quote I chose to start my review with: “kittens should be round.” It means that children should be cherished and nurtured rather than abused or used as pawns in their parents’ fights or trained to be miniature adults without experiencing the things that make childhood special. I really appreciate Lore’s journey of working towards this realization, during which she gardens, takes care of a cat, carves out an independent life for herself and slowly makes friends. She gradually becomes her own person after so long spent caught up in her family’s business, privilege and secrets, the pain and fear of her kidnapping and her toxic relationship with Spanner.

Spanner is definitely an interesting character - she’s magnetic and hurt and volatile and cruel, brilliant and full of a self-loathing and cynicism that keep her trapped in a life of crime. She also works as a sex worker using an aphrodisiacal drug and lies to Lore about the reasons why she has them keep doing this work. I wonder if she was intentionally written to be bipolar, but there were definitely scenes where it seemed like she was struggling with the highs of mania and the lows of depression that are familiar to me due to family diagnoses.

I mentioned child abuse previously, and while I generally think the book has some good things to say about this topic, it’s somewhat disheartening that the villain who orchestrated Lore’s kidnapping and is more or less responsible for everything bad happening at her family’s company is revealed to be her sister Greta, who was sexually abused by their mother as a child. The reason she did all that bad stuff? The CSA “made her crazy.” It’s a disappointingly cheap reliance on stereotype for a book that otherwise manages its themes pretty well.

There are many pages of descriptions of how water purification plants work. All of this went entirely above my head, and while it’s impressive that Griffith has such a base of scientific knowledge and/or did so much research, I have to say that it was extremely boring to me and I really wanted to skim those parts. Then again, I also had no idea what was happening with all of the PIDA hacking that Spanner and Lore were doing…this might just be why I tend to like fantasy more than sci-fi.

Finally, while I’m happy that Lore ended the book reunited with her family and entering a positive new romantic relationship, I kind of think that the romance with Magyar developed out of nowhere; it felt like Magyar really disliked her until the very end and they mostly just talked about water plant business until *poof* romance happened! Overall I say 3.5 stars and I’ll definitely be interested in reading more by Nicola Griffith.

Three and a half stars, rounded up. The beginning of the books starts out a bit slow and the fact that the story is told in three parts (Lore's childhood, recent past, and present) makes it a little awkward to get into. The only signaling of the change of time is a shift in the POV, which took a couple changes to get used to. I liked how the three parts wove together though, so it was definitely worth the minor adjustment. The three timelines all come together just as Lore is finally figuring everything out.

The main character, Lore, comes from a rich family who run a water management company. After being kidnapped and realizing that her family is kind of messed up, Lore decides to leave behind her previous life and start anew in a life of crime and deceit. The rest of the book is pretty much Lore trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs. Also how messed up her family actually was. There's a lot of waste management technobabble at points. Which is kind of nice that it's been thought through and explained, but kind of boring in parts. The explanations can pretty much be skimmed without missing anything if one wishes. In the end though, this book manages to make working in a waste management plant interesting, which is a big accomplishment. I'd kind of liked to see a bit more of how things played out at the end, especially

Spoiler

with Greta as she seems like someone who would still have some tricks up her sleeve

, but overall I thought the whole end of the plot was great and worth the kind of slow start.