ashurredly's reviews
453 reviews

1930s China, a funny protagonist, and embroidery mixed in with scandal. This is not a particular combination I was looking for, but I'm very glad I found it.

Desolation Called Peace is bigger than Memory Called Empire - more voices, more characters, more space. And in some ways I like that! The world is interesting, the intrigue is interesting, I enjoyed the book a lot. But there's a bunch of bits that don't quite make sense. Or maybe they will eventually make sense and just haven't been resolved yet.

Also, after reading this and Mexican Gothic, I never want to think about fungus ever ever again.

Well, damn. This was good. I thought early on I knew where the book was going and it kind of did but then it was so much more than I expected.

This was incredibly good. Read it, for real.

In this book, Ireland switches between Katherine and Jane's perspectives and it works really well! I love how committed she is to keeping a very distinct voice for each narrator. The second half-ish is maybe a little slow, but overall, this is a great follow-up to Dread Nation.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It's queer! There are pirates! And magic! But it overall fell very flat and while I might have still given it three or four stars, the ending played into one of my least favorite tropes.