Lizzy H’s Reviews > Some Desperate Glory > Status Update

spoilers: i think there’s something interesting the author could have done that speaks to the violence a queer boy raised in a homophobic society might feel towards the people that abused and hurt him so constantly, but instead, the characters just act in opposition to how they’re originally portrayed. it’s a frustrating kind of character development that isn’t nefarious per say, but doesn’t dig into what queerness might lend itself to.

the trans and nb characters so far are underbaked and poorly written. they’re uninteresting. they just do weird gender expression stuff but don’t illustrate a deeper understanding of sex change and transformation

i also wonder the extent to which the author is sexually repulsed and therefore, desire throughout the book is portrayed as an ugly thing as opposed to something paradoxical and powerful. idrk. so far, i get why the plot won this a hugo prize, but this is maybe one of the most undeserving hugo awards of the last twenty years. yikes!