partial book review

[psocoptera]

My library loan ran out on Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant and I don't think I'm going to re-queue for it, so, partial review. Really well-written but I realized after starting it that I remembered the short story it was based on (here) and nothing was going to end well and, look, I don't mean to say that people shouldn't write angry/frustrated/despairing books, there are lots of reasons to be angry/frustrated/despairing and to want to grapple with the harshness of the world in literature, but I am a simple little mind that enjoys feeling good feelings, I like my tragedy all beautiful and operatic, or, even better, I want hope and happy endings. I don't know, maybe I would have ended up loving it - the writing was really good - but in a world of limited time, I am just not enthused about reading a novel so I can get slammed with painfulness.