Malinda Lo duology
Mar. 6th, 2019 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraAdaptation and Inheritance, Malinda Lo, 2012 and 2013. Man, when YA is good, it can be so good. I really liked these, despite some caveats. They're really well-constructed... there was some stuff that was like "why this??" and then I realized how some of the different pieces fit thematically together or informed a different conflict. The opening of Adaptation is impressively strong, going from a contemporary realistic context (teens at a debate tournament) and escalating steadily through a disaster scenario into the science-fictional main plot. And despite a trope that bugs me being central to the plot, it's handled in an interesting way that worked for me. I would definitely recommend these if you like YA SF. (Content notes for homophobia, racism, and threatened rape.)
Behind this cut, I'm going to talk about my caveats, which have to do with the romantic plotline and how the characters think about it. Major spoilers for both books. So the female main character has a brief but intense relationship with another female character she's just met, finds out that that character has been lying to her about something important, breaks up with her, and then gets together with her male debate partner who's been going through the plot with her. Debate partner is upset that the main character still has feelings for her ex-girlfriend and eventually breaks up with her because of that - I should maybe mention he's tele-empathically linked with the main character, so there's a lot of direct interaction with each other's feelings even when nobody's expressing those feelings. That was already weird for me - I'm very much "people have all kinds of feelings, do these kids honestly believe everyone's supposed to be held to the standards of monogamy *even inside their own heads*", but, okay, lots of people probably do believe that. But then we get into the final part of the relationship arc, in which the ex-girlfriend, who I should maybe mention is an alien, is like "you can love more than one person! date both of us! it's not unusual for us aliens!" and the main character is like "no, if I have feelings for both of you I can't be with either of you, it wouldn't be fair, that is super unusual for humans", and, look, the "polyamory is alien" thing was a little weird for me? Mostly in an amusing way, and the text does go on to acknowledge the existence of nonmonogamous humans (the protag's gay best friend says he has an unnamed poly friend) and the book does end up with the polyam romantic resolution so what am I even complaining about. And I liked the little shoutout to "the disconcertingly vocal support from the tiny polyamorous community", like, yes, that absolutely is how that would go. ::grin:: Just, I don't know, I guess I'm enough in the bubble where it's not that unusual that it was a little odd to read this slightly more mainstream take.
Behind this cut, I'm going to talk about my caveats, which have to do with the romantic plotline and how the characters think about it. Major spoilers for both books. So the female main character has a brief but intense relationship with another female character she's just met, finds out that that character has been lying to her about something important, breaks up with her, and then gets together with her male debate partner who's been going through the plot with her. Debate partner is upset that the main character still has feelings for her ex-girlfriend and eventually breaks up with her because of that - I should maybe mention he's tele-empathically linked with the main character, so there's a lot of direct interaction with each other's feelings even when nobody's expressing those feelings. That was already weird for me - I'm very much "people have all kinds of feelings, do these kids honestly believe everyone's supposed to be held to the standards of monogamy *even inside their own heads*", but, okay, lots of people probably do believe that. But then we get into the final part of the relationship arc, in which the ex-girlfriend, who I should maybe mention is an alien, is like "you can love more than one person! date both of us! it's not unusual for us aliens!" and the main character is like "no, if I have feelings for both of you I can't be with either of you, it wouldn't be fair, that is super unusual for humans", and, look, the "polyamory is alien" thing was a little weird for me? Mostly in an amusing way, and the text does go on to acknowledge the existence of nonmonogamous humans (the protag's gay best friend says he has an unnamed poly friend) and the book does end up with the polyam romantic resolution so what am I even complaining about. And I liked the little shoutout to "the disconcertingly vocal support from the tiny polyamorous community", like, yes, that absolutely is how that would go. ::grin:: Just, I don't know, I guess I'm enough in the bubble where it's not that unusual that it was a little odd to read this slightly more mainstream take.
