Anyone else run into an issue with authors who get so into the important irl meaning of their story that they actually lose track of what’s actually going on and end up accidentally ripping up their own message?
I recently read Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh, and I have to tell you, she 100% does not stick the landing with that book.
The idea of the book is that, after the total destruction of Earth and the death of 14 billion people, the main character grows up in an oppressive, militaristic, fascist autocracy built to get vengeance for Earth’s losses; and believes in the cause 100% (think Adora from the Netflix She-ra series but played even more serious).
Obviously most of the book is her realizing that the way she was raised is bad and that fascism is bad and then overthrowing that bad fascism…EXCEPT:
At the end of the book they go seek refuge from, drumroll please, the fascist theocratic ethnostate that originally committed genocide against humanity and its kinder, gentler, more systemic forms of oppression.
By the end of the book the message is essentially ‘overthrow oppressive governments; unless you have an apartment and can eat cake sometimes, then just shut up and learn your place, trash.’
by Bellfast123