Fluffy dreams of conquest. Do not pop please.

Handsome English edition.

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

I went almost blind towards this book and was utterly surprised. It has remained very present in my mind, the reading experience was intense and captivating, just munching huge chunks of book with insatiable hunger.

There is a finesse found in every aspect of the book: the worldbuilding, dynamics, characters, pace, conflicts and the weaving of the themes. Brilliant stuff.

The main theme is Colonialism, a though subject, with an endless chain of consequences and conflict that remain and transform through time, not for the colonialist recognition of course, blessed the comfort of their minds. Well, I guess it hits home for me, the aftermath still delves mostly in the horror of slowly shattering the identity of a group of people and their worth. We hate ourselves and no one likes talking about it. It was in this regard, that C.L. Clark made a superb exploration of the state of mind of the different parts of colonization.

You have the assimilated ones, always going forward with an unnerving hurry to not look back, hell, no peeking at the sides either. Then the rebellious group, those who are committed to the surviving and fighting back even when it seems lost, both the extreme actors and the more flexible ones. The out of place colonized, that exist in the limbo. The colonizers, both bad and “good” (no good colonizer leaves home, you know) and their magical thinking that everything is game. Our main protagonist, Touraine is in the limbo lot, bad luck, and nowhere near the unflinching heroine that makes the best of everything. Not that I mind a magical hero, but in here, the human hero is the amazing one. Maybe some think, that a shattered identity can be easily solved, the cultural shock and lack of belonging in a situation that direly requires to take a side, but it can’t be and many times it lingers through entire generations. Before a glorious (or most times, a barely boring and normal) outcome, one must know where to go, who you are and where you to belong at a basic level, and what more tragic and rich journey then to be torn to pieces and go beyond, to be torn and rise again. To find your place and yourself.

Parallel is the abysmally unbalanced relationship between Touraine and Luca, our goodhearted colonizer. Goodhearted to the empire of course, but with potential. She grows despite herself as the comforting lies to make everything seem ok begin to fall one by one with much resistance, because magnificent dreams might be difficult to let go and many refuse to, even when they see the crunching of dead bones to fuel the dream.

In the end, we can go on and on as we should, but for now I can say this amazing book has a lot to munch… crunch, crunch ahead!