This is my one 6/5 book of the year. Hall of famer, for sure.

Clarke’s writing is so unique and beautiful, playing with the rules and expectation of prose to huge success. They write Marney’s voice and narration so beautifully that it brings her alive in a way most characters never are, making her three dimensional. Her hurt, rage, horniness, and especially her fits seem to lift off the page and make you feel them all with her.

The cast of characters around Marney are all so much fun, and all so fucking insane. We’ve the old guard of the Choir who take Marney in, the new young bandits, and the absolutely psychotic aristocrats. They were all their own brand of crazy, and often their actions didn’t make any sense, but what a joy to watch them fight and fail and fuck.

While we didn’t get the full breadth of knowledge about the different countries and their politics and religions, we got what we needed for the story we were reading. We knew as much as Marney did, getting to learn how they all spawned from the same inciting event but rapidly split into vastly different stories was really fun.

Finally, the message of hope this book carries. Hereafterism as a type of communism/collectivism, getting a glimpse at the kind of lives we could have if we shed our individualism and glorification of industry. So many moments made me tear up, knowing it is possible. We could have a better world.

Unapologetically queer, with a diverse cast of races, genders, and religions. Angrily anticapitalist and anti individualism, anti cop. Pro loving recklessly and often, pro doing what you need to do to protect the people you love, pro stone butches and sapphic yearning and sleeping with your girlfriends ex-girlfriend and then all hanging out. 


Unalone toward dawn we go, toward the glory of new morning!