#and yeah considering how corrupt all versions of those people -- fictional and otherwise -- are?

[carewyncromwell]

“And the big bad man and his big bad clan, Their hands are stained with red... Oh, how quickly they forget... They aren't gonna help us --  Too busy helping themselves! They aren't gonna change this:  We gotta do it ourselves... They think that it's over, but it's just begun!”

~“Only the Young” by Taylor Swift

x~x~x~x

“And so…esteemed members of the Wizengamot…based on the overwhelming evidence – the factually bankrupt, inflammatory anti-Muggle and Muggle-born leaflets sent out by the defendant’s Commission and promoted by the defendant herself; the transcripts of trials overseen by the defendant that spell out blatant corruption and unsanctioned cross-examination techniques, including having Dementors present during all trials and actively refusing to give any defendant proper legal representation; the testimony of over fifty Ministry employees, speaking to the defendant’s close working relationships with known Death Eaters and to her own willingness to overlook Wizarding Law to advance herself and her Commission’s political aims; the countless memos written in the defendant’s own hand condemning nearly a thousand people, including over a hundred children, to unjust captivity; and the defendant’s well-known reputation among her ex-students, her coworkers, and even her own family for enjoying the suffering of others and persecuting fellow wizards and witches not just for their blood, but also for suffering from medical conditions like lycanthropy and blood maledictions – all of which the defense has offered no suitable defense for, aside from incorrectly asserting that the defendant was ‘simply following orders’ from her superiors…I think there is no question as to her guilt, or to what justice would be appropriate.

Although I – as a private citizen of the Wizarding World – agree with Minister Shacklebolt’s measure to remove the Dementors from Azkaban prison…I must acknowledge that if there were ever a case for a criminal from our world deserving the Dementor’s Kiss…it would be Dolores Jane Umbridge. But because we – unlike the defendant – have a code of honor before us that we will not break just to achieve a political objective…I believe it’s our solemn duty to ensure this basilisk in human skin never walks free again.”

~Carewyn Cromwell, prosecutor for the trial of Dolores Umbridge // January 1999

x~x~x~x

About two-and-a-half years ago, I drew a concept for Carewyn as a lawyer for the Ministry of Magic, and...yeah, looking back at that concept, I knew I could improve on its visual, if I tried it again! 

Carewyn Cromwell was still a fresh-faced, idealistic young lawyer of twenty-five when she became the Chief Prosecutor behind the Ministry of Magic’s trials of ex-Death Eaters after the end of the Second Wizarding War in 1998. That very same year Carewyn also became the legal guardian of one of the Muggle-born children she defended in court (a drawing of whom is also coming soon!), even while unmarried and only living in a small flat in London. Despite her relatively short time with the Ministry, however, the fashionable young prosecutor left a strong impression, not only taking charge and putting Dolores Umbridge under citizens’ arrest when the Death-Eater-controlled Ministry fell, but also in fiercely advocating for those who had been most hurt during the War. The Daily Prophet was eager to spotlight the young Cromwell in their articles, both flatteringly and otherwise, simply because of how much fascination such a pretty and paragon, and yet stoic and ruthless woman evoked in both reporters and the paper’s readership. There were even several points, both during and after the trials, when Carewyn’s name was floated by the Prophet as some possible future replacement for Ministry Shacklebolt, or even just as a permanent member of the Minister for Magic’s support staff -- but Carewyn, thoroughly disinterested in working directly in politics, instead remained steadfast in her pursuit of legal justice. 

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #future!mc challenge #my art #carewyn cromwell #dolores umbridge #erik apollo #but yeah that erik and carewyn drawing is coming up very soon I'm just about done editing it <3 #I hadn't heard this taylor swift song before now but I really like it! #it's very inspiring :) #I know the song kind of talks more about kids and teenagers but come on 25 is still young #especially in the sense of government officials and law enforcement #and yeah considering how corrupt all versions of those people -- fictional and otherwise -- are? #carewyn's a young idealist who's determined to change the way things are for the better #plus that first snippet of lines I snatched really evoked the death eaters to me :< #it was fun to try to draw these bad-ass robes again!! #they're kind of biker princess and I love them <33

[gffa]

I think the thing with fans opinions on the Jedi is they tend to be one extreme or the other, with both usually claiming there are far more people on the opposing side (which makes them defensive over their opinions). It's not bad, or that they're wrong, but people who feel like the Jedi are praised too much tend to ignore any time they were right or doing their best even if they fail, and people who feel they are criticised too much tend to ignore any valid criticism and make any issues (1/2)

not their fault. And even when people say they acknowledge things, a lot of people have a but after that statement, which seems contradictory to such a claim. Also, there’s so much Star Wars media that has different opinions on those things, so even just depending on what media you’ve consumed, your opinion will be different. (2/2)

Hi!  One of the biggest problems I’ve found is that one person’s valid criticism is another person’s unfair criticism.  What you might consider as me dismissing a valid criticism, as someone who is a fan of the Jedi, may be me going, “I disagree with that being a valid criticism.”  My disagreement is not the same thing as a dismissal in that case.I’m not beholden to anyone else’s interpretations of what is or isn’t valid criticism, just as no one is beholden to what I say is valid and what isn’t.  We can only make our cases, respect each other, not make ad-hominem commentary or treat each other poorly over fictional stories and characters, other than that, we have to make our peace with others disagreeing with our approaches on things.  Or at least we should be doing that!I do find that things get pushed into extremes and it’s incredibly hard to meet back in the middle–for a variety of reasons (again, as I’ve experienced, no part of fandom is a monolith, I can only speak on what I’ve personally been through!), like how even the slightest flaw I talk about tends to get amped up into “Yeah!  The Jedi are terrible!” responses and I have to go back to going, “No, that’s not it.” and defending them.  (In addition to the “I disagree that that’s a valid/invalid criticism.” aspect.)And I do find that it’s usually only Jedi fans who are being scolded for ignoring criticism–where is the same attitude when it comes to Luke or Ahsoka or Leia or the Mandalorian?  So, it gets really hard to take calls for more Jedi criticism in good faith when it only ever seems to be the Jedi fans who get this.  (And maybe Ahsoka fans are being asked to be more critical of her, maybe they are being criticized for dismissing valid talk about her flaws, but I’m genuinely not seeing it.  This doesn’t mean that you’re not being genuine, I believe that you are!  But my experiences come with different associations than yours, I suspect, which means my approaches are going to be different.)For me, I’ve found that there’s an expectation for Jedi fans to meet in the middle and admit to a list of flaws that someone else wrote up, and if we don’t, we’re dismissing valid criticism, and I just very thoroughly disagree with that entire framework.  (Again, not everyone is putting that out, no part of fandom is a monolith, only that this is something I’ve experienced multiple times.)  It’s fine if you don’t!  We do experience fandom differently and register various things differently–I register the expectation to agree to someone else’s interpretations otherwise I’m being a terrible, awful Jedi stan, probably way more than you do, as someone who aligns more towards the middle ground, for example.  I see it constantly and maybe you’ve hardly seen it at all.  Both of these experiences can be true for each of us!So, for me, I don’t see a need to adjust my lenses (in the sense of adjusting to someone else’s specifications, I adjust my own all the time) or come down from someone else seeing me as being extreme, because my framework is my own and I’ve given it a lot of thought and I have my reasons for why I’m in the position I’m in.It’s funny, because I came to fandom as extremely Jedi-critical, that just a few years ago, I did the whole “they were kind of a cult” and “they died because they didn’t adapt to the galaxy’s needs” and “they kind of brought their doom on themselves” and “they suppressed emotions” and “they did a lot of fucked up things” and “Obi-Wan didn’t support Anakin at all, who was desperately seeking help” and “that was the POINT of the prequels that the Jedi were stagnant and corrupt”.  That was my starting point and I slowly started moving towards the middle ground once I got deeper into the canon, and started writing more meta as I watched/read more of it, and started reading more of George Lucas’ interviews, and thought a lot about this stuff, and eventually ended up here.It’s not that I can’t ever fathom a world in which I would be more critical of the Jedi, because that’s where I originally was.  And after all that, I just really thoroughly disagree with a lot of what I’ve seen presented as valid criticism of the Jedi.  It’s fine that others don’t, this is a fictional story and it’s far more important how we treat each other as actual human beings, I get along fine with plenty of people who see things in a different framework than I do, who think different things are valid/invalid!There’s also a ton more that goes into this (including “which version of SW are we talking about here? Legends? Canon? George’s SW?” or women have expectations placed on them by society to soften everything they say with a ‘oh, but that’s just my opinion!’ or trail up their voices at the end of a sentence to make it a question rather than a statement of theirs or how fiction is really not a 1:1 to reality, that fiction is an extension of reality, not the other way around) that we could be here all day to just lay out the complications, not even actually talking about how to approach them!Ultimately, we all have different views on various aspects of SW and of course we can talk about them, as long as we’re genuinely respect of others’ boundaries and their experiences as real people over the emotional investment we have in a story.  I’ve said this for years and I WILL SAY IT AGAIN [holt.gif] – fandom is like an entire group of us watching a movie and drawing a picture of it afterwards.  Every person is going to draw a different picture–some are going to use purple to color the clouds in the sky, some are going to use blue, and some are going to use bright green.  Some people are going to use colored pencils, some are going to use markers.  Some are going to draw a picture that is wildly different from your own, in ways you can’t predict.  But it’s their drawing and your drawing is yours, what they do with theirs doesn’t affect your drawing, so long as they’re not yelling at you for the colors you chose to use.(The metaphor is about lenses of interpretation, not about how you behave towards other fans, etc.)

#lumi.txt #Anonymous

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 27 of 26

Title: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Short Story Collection, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopia, Magical Realism, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, Female Protagonist(s), LGBT Protagonist(s).

Rating: 8/10 (Note: This is an average of all the stories -- see below the cut for individual story blurbs/ratings).

Date Began: 9/27/2020

Date Finished: 10/4/2020

I really liked this collection! Jemisin wrote my favorite fanstasy/scifi series ever with The Broken Earth trilogy, and I really enjoyed her recent novel The City We Became. I was in the mindset for shorter fiction so decided to read this collection of short stories. Of these 22 stories, my absolute favorites (9/10 or higher) were:

The City Born Great - 10/10

The Effluent Engine - 9/10

Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

The Trojan Girl -10/10

Valedictorian - 9/10

The Evaluators - 10/10

Stone Hunger - 9/10

The Narcomancer - 9/10

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A more detailed summary/reaction to each story under the cut. WARNING: IT’S LONG.

1. Those Who Stay and Fight - 8/10  

Describes a utopia called Um-Helat that exists solely because no one is seen as superior or inferior to anyone else. Over time we learn it's a future, or potential future, of America. But America today is pure anathema to it due to rampant structural inequality. In order to achieve its utopian ideal, Um-Helatians have to root out and destroy people corrupted by the past.

This story was apparently written as a tribute/response to the Ursula K. Le Guin story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. I first read this without context, then went and read the Le Guin story. I definitely see the parallels. Both feature a narrator describing a wonderful utopia in the midst of festival, trying to convince the reader of the place's existence, before introducing something dark that is the price of the utopia. In the Le Guin story, the utopia exists at the price of the horrible misery and suffering of one child, and everyone is aware of it. Most live with it, but a few leave for the unknown rather than continue to live there (hence the title). In Jemisin's story, the price is instead the annihilation of those tainted by exposure to the evils of the past. The choice, instead of leaving, is for those tainted yet capable to become protectors of the new world, or die.

The thesis is pretty clear: that only by abandoning horrible ideologies and refusing to give them any ground or quarter can a utopian society truly exist. I will say that rings clear, especially when one considers Naziism and fascism. Not all ideologies deserve the light of day or debate, and even entertaining them as valid allows it to take hold. I liked this story, though it comes off as a social justice essay more than a story in and of itself.

2. The City Born Great - 10/10

This one is told from the perspective of a homeless young black man who feels a strange resonance with New York City. He meets a mysterious figure named Paulo, who tells him the city is about to be born as a full-fledged entity, and the man has been chosen to assist with its birth. However, there’s an eldritch force known simply as The Enemy that seeks to prevent this from happening.

I've read this one before since it's the prologue to The City We Became. And honestly it was one of my favorite parts of that book. New York City is a phenomenal character. I love that the proto-avatar of NYC is a young homeless black man, one of the most denigrated groups out there. Cops being the harbingers of eldritch destruction is... yeah. It was fun to reread this. The ending is a little different, because in the novel, something goes terribly wrong that doesn't happen in this short story. There is also a flash forward where he is, apparently, about to awaken the avatar of Los Angeles. Makes me wonder if that is ultimately the endgame of the series. But otherwise it's the same thing with absolutely phenomenal character voice and creativity regarding cities as living creatures. I'm glad Jemisin expanded this idea into a full series.

3. Red Dirt Witch - 7/10

Takes place before the (1960s) Civil Rights Movement in Pratt City, AL. The main character is Emmaline, a witch with three kids. A creepy figure called The White Lady comes to visit and steal one of her children.

I love the little twist that The White Lady is a faerie. And the different take on rowan/ash/thorn instead being rosemary/sage/sycamore fig. There is a lot of touching bits about the horrible trials and human rights abuses during the Civil Rights marches (which are unfortunately all too relevant still), but ultimately a hopeful glimpse of the future of black people in America, though hard-won.

4. L'Alchimista - 6/10

Stars a Milanese master chef named Franca, who fell from glory for Reasons, who now works as head chef at a run-down inn. She feeds a mysterious stranger, who then challenges her to fix a seemingly impossible recipe.

This one was fun and charming. I thought the food (and magical food) descriptions were very vibrant and interesting, especially the last meal. I can tell this is an earlier story and it's pretty light hearted, but I enjoyed it. It felt like it needed a little more of.. something.  

5. The Effluent Engine - 9/10

In an interesting steampunk take, Haitian spy Jessaline comes to the city of New Orleans to meet one of its foremost scientists. Her goal is to find a viable, unique energy source to strengthen Haiti in a world that wants to see her nation dead.

I really liked this; it's one of the longer stories so there's more time for character development and worldbuilding. And it's gay. I'm not hugely into pure steampunk because a lot of it comes off as very... samey (hyper Eurocentric/Victorian, etc) but I thought this take was fresh.

Like much of Jemisin's work, there is a lot of racial under and overtones; this one specifically goes into the terrible atrocities committed against the Haitians during their Revolution, and the varied social classes of black/Creole people in New Orleans at the time. A lot of this is stuff I was unaware of or knew very little about. I thought it was interesting to bring all of these to the forefront in a steampunk story in addition to the dirigibles, clockwork, action, and subterfuge. Also, everything tries together in a very satisfying way by the end (the rum bottle!), which I love in short fiction.

6. Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

Takes place in a post-apoc future where some humans evacuated to space while others stayed behind and took on more indigenous traditions to heal the Earth. The sky has suddenly turned red on Earth, and some representatives from the "sky-people" come to study it and figure out why.

I really enjoyed this little story; fantasy/scifi fusions are my jam, but science fiction specifically told through a fantasy lens is just so cool to me. The cloud dragons were very interesting and imaginative. Also, I love how the opening statement's meaning isn't particularly clear until you read the whole thing.

7. The Trojan Girl - 10/10

This one is about sentient computer programs/viruses that struggle to survive in something called the Amorph, which is basically a more advanced, omnipresent version of the Internet.

Holy fucking shit was this a cool story. Probably the coolest take on cyberpunk I've ever read. The main character Moroe has formed a messed up little family of creatures like him who live and hunt in Amorph's code, but can upload to "the Static" (real life) if needed by hijacking human hosts. The way this is described is so damn creepy and unsettling. I love that while they're anthropomorphized, the characters are mostly feral and compared to a pack of wolves. Soooo much wolf pack imagery. And the ending is so fucking good and imaginative.

This was apparently a proof of concept story that Jemisin decided not to adapt to a longer series, which I'm kind of sad about, but it was REALLY cool nevertheless. The next story is apparently in the same universe and serves as the "conclusion".

8. Valedictorian - 9/10

This one is about a girl who is, well, top of her class in high school, and the stresses that mount as graduation approaches. But while it seems like a familiar setup, there is something decidedly Off about everything, which is revealed gradually over the course of the story.

I originally gave this an 8, but honestly I couldn't stop thinking about it so I boosted it to a 9. It doesn’t become clear how this connects to the previous story until the midpoint. I liked this one because it functions as a nice dystopian science fiction story but also biting social commentary on the modern American education system. I'm not going go say more on it because spoilers. While I personally like the first story more I think this is an interesting followup/conclusion with a more cerebral approach.  

9. The Storyteller's Replacement - 6/10

This one's presented as a traditional "once upon a time" fable told by a storyteller narrator, about a shitty despotic king named Paramenter. Desperate to prove his virility, he eats the heart of a dragon, which is said to be a cure-all for impotence. It's successful, but the six strange daughters that result seem to have plans of their own.

Not really my cup of tea-- it's pretty fucked up. But it's definitely cathartic by the end, which I appreciate, and I do like how creepy the daughters are.

10. The Brides of Heaven - 5/10

Framed as an interrogation in an offworld colony called Illiyin, in which a terrible accident occurred on the way that left all the adult men dead. Dihya, who lost her only son to an alien parasite, is caught trying to sabotage the colony's water supply for reasons unknown.

I like some things in this story. I love the trope of alien biology affecting human biology in unexpected ways. I'm not terribly familiar with Islam but thought it added an interesting faith vs practicality vs tradition element to the science fiction. However I found the sexual body horror REALLY squicky which turned me off the story as a whole.

11. The Evaluators - 10/10

Stylized as a collection of logs and excerpts from a First Contact team of humans visiting and studying a sapient alien species to potentially set up trade relations. There's a focus on one team member named Aihua and her conversations with one of the aliens, but there's miscellaneous important hints/excerpts from the survey that hint Something Creepy Is Going On.

This one was BIZARRE and took me two reads to fully appreciate, but it’s a great work of nontraditional science fiction horror. Just... the epitome of "*nervous laughter* 'what the fuck'". I can't say more without spoiling but dear lord. That whole Jesus bit hits different on a second read. Fucking hell.

12. Walking Awake - 7/10

Takes place in a dystopian society in which parasitic creatures known as Masters keep a small number of humans alive to be flesh suits for them, which they take over and trade around at will. The main character Sadie is a human "caretaker" responsible for propagandizing and raising well-bred human children that eventually become the Masters' hosts. She starts to have disturbing dreams when one takes over the body of a teenage boy she was particularly attached to.

This is apparently a response to Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, which I have never read. It's a full damn novel so I probably won't. Google tells me it's about parasitic aliens, but was obviously also Red Scare paranoia about communist Russia. The argument in the Jemisin story is that the parasites are a result of human folly in an attempt to punish/control people their creators didn't like. This went poorly and resulted in the whole world being taken over.

The story itself is disturbing since the victims are innocent children, but it's ultimately about standing up and taking the first step toward revolution. I felt pretty neutral about the story itself; perhaps I would have liked it more if it was longer and I had more time with the world and protagonist. I wanted to connect to Sadie and her maternal relationship the boy who got killed more. Or maybe it's more impactful if you're familiar with the Heinlein novel and can see the nods/digs.

13. The Elevator Dancer - 7/10

A very short story that takes place in a Christian fundamentalist surveillance state. The protagonist is an unnamed security guard who occasionally sees a woman dancing alone in the elevator and obsesses over her.

I like this one but I'm not sure if I really get it. It's heavily implied the dancer is a hallucination, and the narrator gets "re-educated" but it's all a little ambiguous. I think it's about the struggle to find meaning and inspiration in an oppressive world.  

14. Cuisine des Mémoires - 8/10

This one's about a man named Harold who visits a strange restaurant that claims it can replicate any meal from any point in history. He orders a meal which his ex-wife, whom he still loves very much, fixed for him years ago.

This one was certainly different, but I really like the idea of food-as-memory, especially because that's an actual thing. This story just takes it to an extra level. Honestly this story made me feel things... the longing of memory and missed connections/opportunities. Jemisin did a great job with emotion on this one.

15. Stone Hunger - 9/10

Stars a girl in with the ability to manipulate the earth who's tracking down a man she senses in an unfamiliar city. It's heavily implied the world is in a perpetual post-apocalyptic state. When she's caught damaging the outer wall of the city to break in and injured/imprisoned, she's aided by a mysterious, humanoid statue creature with motives of its own.

I have to say it's really interesting to see an early beta concept of The Broken Earth. Orogeny is a little different (and not named)-- there's some kind of taste component to it? Though that's possibly unique to the main character? While hatred of orogenes exists I don't think it's a structural exploitation allegory at this point. Ykka + proto-Castrima existing this early is pretty funny to me. People also use metal, which is VERY funny if you’ve read the series. But I was thrilled to see stone eaters were Very Much A Thing this early and almost exactly how they appear in the series (a little more sinister I guess. At least the one in this story is. I think he basically gets integrated into the Steel/Gray character in the final version).

Anyway as a huge fan of The Broken Earth it's inspiring to see these early ideas and just how much got changed. It's hard for me to look at this as an independent story without the context of the series. I think I'd like it due to the creative setting and strange concepts, but I appreciate the final changes to narrative style and worldbuilding, which really made the series for me.

16. On The Banks of the River Lex - 8/10

Death explores a decaying, post-human version of New York City. He and various deities/ideas created by humans are all that survives in the future and they struggle to exist in the crumbling infrastructure of the city. But Death gradually observes new and different creatures developing amid the wreckage.

I liked this! Despite a typically bleak premise the story is very optimistic and hopeful for the future of the world post-humanity. I like anthropomorphized concepts/deities/etc in general. I thought the imagery of decay and life was gorgeous. Also octopuses are cool.

17. The Narcomancer - 9/10

Told from the perspective of Cet, a priest known as a Gatherer, who can take the life of someone through their dreams in order to bring them peace. When a village petitions his order to investigate a series of raids conducted by brigands using forbidden magic, Cet joins the party. However, he is troubled by his growing attraction to a strong-willed woman of the village.

This apparently takes place in the Dreamblood universe, which I have not read and know nothing about. However, I really enjoyed this story. It's the longest in the collection so I felt I really got to know the characters. The dream-based religion and fantasy was captivating to learn about. It was also romantic as hell, but not in the typical way you’d expect. I thought the central conflict of a priest struggling between an oath of celibacy and his duty to do the right thing (bring peace to someone who needs it) was fascinating.

18. Henosis - 4/10

A short piece, told anachronistically, about a lauded, award winning author on the way to an award ceremony. He gets kidnapped, but there's Something Else going on.

Honestly I get the sense this one is personal, lol. I will say I like the disturbing play on expectations, but I didn't connect much with it otherwise.  

19. Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Follows a group of bloggers who have found themselves caught in isolated quantum loops. Their only human contact is through tenuous online conversations with each other. Styled as various chat logs and emails interspersed with the thoughts and perspectives of Helen, a young black woman who before the loop was teaching English in Japan.

This one is real depressing and definitely Social Commentary (TM). The central thesis about loneliness and disconnect at the end made me pretty dang sad. Good stuff in an ouch kind of way and made me think.

20. The You Train - 6/10

Told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator talking (presumably on the phone) to a friend about her struggles adjusting to life in New York City. She regularly mentions seeing train lines that either don't exist or retired a long time ago.

This is the kind of story I'd normally really like. I think trains are interesting and like vaguely supernatural, inexplicable shit. The one-sided phone call is also an interesting narrative device. But I'm not sure I really got this one. It comes off as vaguely horror-y but also optimistic? I couldn't really figure this one out, and it was too short to feel much investment on top of that.

21. Non-Zero Probabilities - 7/10

Luck has gone completely out of whack in New York City. Highly improbable events suddenly become way more likely, both good and bad. This story follows a woman named Adele and coming to grips with the new ways of life this brings.

I liked this one well enough but I don't have a lot to say about it. I liked how the story looks at how people would adapt to a life where probability doesn't mean anything anymore.  

22. Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A magical realism story about a man named Tookie struggling to survive in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He meets a talking, winged lizard and the two help each other out. But it soon becomes clear there is something sinister lurking in the flooded ruins of the city.

This story was very imaginative and a great cap to the collection. I thought it was an intriguing time period to set a magical realism story in. I love the little details, especially those of omission -- the "lizard" is never called a dragon, for example. I can see echoes of this story in The City We Became, especially the themes of cities as powerful entities, vague eldritch fuckery centered around hatred, and certain people being guardians of the city.  

#2020 reading challenge #BONUS ROUND #taylor reads #8/10 #i am posting this Late but i was basically writing this review as i read so it's like. all done lol