Liz Hyder

First, thank you to the publisher, SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK, and to Netgalley, for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

This is a complex story, but one that's definitely worth your time and energy to read and think about.
At first, the introduction of various parallel characters confused me, but I soon became very invested in the stories of Etta, Annie, Natalya and Mary, and was eager to see how they would intersect. The writing is lovely, and all the characters are fully three-dimensional and rendered with much care.

I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but this tale contains elements of the best fairy tales, historical fiction and feminist allegory -- all wrapped into one. If you're interested in any of those, I highly recommend you give The Gifts a read once it's published later this month.… (mehr)

I'm sure the writing style will put a lot of people off, but I found it fascinating--it takes a lot of skill to consciously break the rules like that. I loved the setting, which was wonderfully fleshed out given how short the book is, and the commentary on classism and revolution. I do wish that Newt's gender had been explored with a little more nuance--what is it like to be a girl when you're the only girl you know, when you have no frame of reference? That question opens up a lot of possibilities that I wish had been explored. Also, it was a bit troubling that the only character of color both A. existed mainly to impart wisdom to the (presumably white) protagonist and B. died.

Other than that, though, this was a great read.… (mehr)