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sophia_sol) wrote2020-12-30 02:41 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2020-12-30 02:41 pm
The Untended Rue, by Caroline Ratajski
A retelling of The Secret Garden IN SPACE! And it's really well done and gave me feelings.
I love how the garden's abandonment becomes a literal danger to everyone on the station, in parallel to the emotional danger caused by the forgetting/ignoring the pain and difficulties of what had gone before. Making the metaphor real! I think this really added to the strength of the story.
I also love the various other characters Lennox meets: Anais, Medlock, and of course Kiran. And I like the change in ages/dynamics, so that Lennox is a much older sister to Corbin instead of a peer -- or rather she grows from being a peer into someone able to be an older sister type figure. And then because of Lennox's age it also becomes reasonable to add in a delightful queer romance!
And the tonal work of mood-setting that the book does is great throughout, which is also important in a book like this I think!
I did have a couple questions though. First of all: why DID everyone lie to Corbin about him being ill and weak and not being able to walk and all that? No explanation is given and it makes that part of the story feel unsettled and incomplete.
I also feel that the uncle's about-face to understanding and connection doesn't have enough context built into it for me to really believe in it and in its permanency.
But the uncle is less important than the relationships that all the various other people on the station have developed with each other, and the way that Lennox has been able to finally feel like she's safe feeling at home here, so ultimately the emotions of the ending still definitely land for me!
Anyway it's a free self-published ebook so if you want to read it you can download the pdf uhhhhhh SOMEWHERE, I lost the link and googling it isn't helping me find it. But it looks like you can read it chapter by chapter on the author's patreon if you subscribe to it, at least!
I love how the garden's abandonment becomes a literal danger to everyone on the station, in parallel to the emotional danger caused by the forgetting/ignoring the pain and difficulties of what had gone before. Making the metaphor real! I think this really added to the strength of the story.
I also love the various other characters Lennox meets: Anais, Medlock, and of course Kiran. And I like the change in ages/dynamics, so that Lennox is a much older sister to Corbin instead of a peer -- or rather she grows from being a peer into someone able to be an older sister type figure. And then because of Lennox's age it also becomes reasonable to add in a delightful queer romance!
And the tonal work of mood-setting that the book does is great throughout, which is also important in a book like this I think!
I did have a couple questions though. First of all: why DID everyone lie to Corbin about him being ill and weak and not being able to walk and all that? No explanation is given and it makes that part of the story feel unsettled and incomplete.
I also feel that the uncle's about-face to understanding and connection doesn't have enough context built into it for me to really believe in it and in its permanency.
But the uncle is less important than the relationships that all the various other people on the station have developed with each other, and the way that Lennox has been able to finally feel like she's safe feeling at home here, so ultimately the emotions of the ending still definitely land for me!
Anyway it's a free self-published ebook so if you want to read it you can download the pdf uhhhhhh SOMEWHERE, I lost the link and googling it isn't helping me find it. But it looks like you can read it chapter by chapter on the author's patreon if you subscribe to it, at least!