The description on the website read, "Technix: A turnkey provider of excellence" - what the hell did that even mean? I didn't care. Technix offered
The description on the website read, "Technix: A turnkey provider of excellence" - what the hell did that even mean? I didn't care. Technix offered insurance, and I wanted it. Technix could be a cover for a Mafia money-laundering business, and I wouldn't care.
This has been on my radar, but I picked it up on a whim. Mostly, I just wanted something easier to read and this year I didn't focus on indigenous authors as much as I wanted to, so this seemed like a great combo of that.
I really liked and enjoyed this book, but I won't lie the anxiety the MC was giving me was unreal! And the working environment didn't help in that regard. I feel like the lying is going to be a dealbreaker for a lot of people. It does make sense in the beginning, I mean, I would never do that, because I would shit myself, but... okay, get it, but when she gets into it, she starts lying about the stupidest stuff, see below:
A cat was worse than a baby. I hated cats. "Oh, I love cats," I said. I wanted to slap my palm to my forehead.
And even when he calls her out on her bullshit - because she has a very noticeable allergic reaction to the cat, TWICE! She doubles down and insists that it has to be a pollen allergy *face palm*
But to be fair, the lying does make sense - psychologically and it did made me laugh a lot, but it also almost made my soul exit my body.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and there was a lot of lovely moments and I really appreciated the indigenous side of the story, but there are two pretty minor complains I want to address. Nava is clearly trying to make her book overall more diverse and kudos to her for that. My favourite example of that is that we casually learn that Natalie's partner (she is a pregnant coworker) is a woman, so that was pretty nice since Natalie is pretty minor character. On the other hand, Ember's best friend Joanna is bisexual and while I appreciate the effort (as a bisexual person myself) I have to say that I overall wasn't a fan? I'm not sure what it was exactly, because I can enjoy the good stereotypical slutty bisexual if done well, but here... it didn't work for me, the vibe was just off.
Then there was Danuwoa's sister Walela who has a Down syndrom and while again, I was really excited to see this, it just... I mean, if we weren't told she had Down syndrom, I couldn't tell from anything else in the narrative? And I'm kind of struggling with myself about that one here, because that's definitely better than the way people with Down syndrome can be overwritten and infantilized, but.... it felt almost erased here? I don't know, I just felt like more could have been done with it in the book, I'm not saying that there should be drama or plot around it, but a bit more substance would have been nice.
Overall, this was a very good debut and I will be reading her next book, even though from that preview it looks like the protagonist is at least as annoying (if not more) as Ember ...more
Loading...
