The emptiness of Tiffany.

 

Cool cover Edition.

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang.

I was very excited for this book, as I am enjoying a lot The Tensorate series, so it came as a huge surprise how I couldn’t get into this one.

Random mumbling.

I had the impression all along of some kind of hurry in the narration, going hastily from one part of the story to another, skipping important things, like characters, their interactions. Even Misery, that is the sole developed viewpoint, at a certain stage, it just stops and the voice that started strong, fades. Again, it fits the general picture, the fanaticism and religion calling senseless, but it didn’t feel solid for me, no moment of personal reflection, just reaction and Misery quite quickly became hollow, a mouthpiece for the plot. Yeah, yeah, it fits, so do my old shoes and they are not for walking anymore.

It may be pure genius that the main narrating voice (Shocking ending of book spoilers or not really shocking, but you know… spoilers) was an Ai and that the book felt as it was really narrated by an AI; with a thin and hollow handle on human depth. I am not quite sure about it, for one, I didn’t enjoy it, for two, at moments, it gave bits of insight on some human undergoing and mostly, details were just… moot (End of spoilers).

When faith hit, it became repetitive and boring and I was getting personally annoyed, like if you double a cake height of just cream, to make it more fun when splashing it at someone’s face, but that cream piling felt condescending, the big reveal wasn’t surprising at all. I have to say, I am not moved very much by big reveals, in the sense that I enjoy immensely when they are very surprising, I really don’t get fixated on figuring out something before it happens, nor I am disappointed when I do, I just didn’t like the cream piling, if that makes sense.

I felt just so sad reading this book, not by the conflicts or what happens to the characters, but by the emptiness of everything. I am also not very keen of the everybody-does-bad-stuff-so-who-is-judging like, yeah, I am nasty sometimes, but I am also pretty sure I am not as guilty as a mass murderer or a shameless manipulator. Just saying.

And then...

The setting was interesting, the vague drawing of the characters was promising, the queerness delightful. it just didn’t work for me.