Renata Sancken

I checked this out from the library twice (had to return it bc of the waitlist) and never made it beyond like chapter 6 because reading it made me feel SUCH secondhand embarrassment that I wanted to claw my eyes out. Which I do feel like is the intended effect and well done to Miranda July for achieving it but when I remembered that I simply did not have to finish reading this I felt SUCH relief.

I didn't know much about this book when I picked it up-I was just like, “Oh, new Kristin Cashore book? I'm IN” and then I was like “WHOA it's set in my backyard!” and then I was like “uh oh it's set in 2020??” And skimming through the GR reviews I saw a bunch of people like, “I don't want to read about 2020, it was bad” and like. Yeah. It was bad. But this is such a good emotional time capsule of things that were not that long ago but I'd already forgotten stuff like, when everyone was taking 6 feet apart really seriously and like going for a walk and putting your mask on if another person approached, and just the deep anxiety of feeling the slightest potential symptom of anything.

And then the dread of the election, and the days before it was announced, and how unseasonably hot it was that day (in the Boston area anyway)... yes, this is how it was. I mean I didn't have any magical realism encounters with talking birds or anything, myself, but other than that, that's how it was.

And adding in the teen-ness of it all and how extra awful it must have been to miss out on those high school/college times...oof! Powerful.

And I loved the non-linear narrative and getting to see Wilhelmina's past moments.

Just a really powerful coming of age, coming of COVID story. Not going to be everyone's cup of tea but whew. I have to imagine it will especially mean a lot to young adults who were in high school during COVID.

Overall this was very sweet and I think the premise of Darcy being queer but feeling forced to marry a woman is a great explanation for his overall ~deal~. I did catch myself being like “wow Mr. Bennet is remarkably accepting of trans identity for a Regency era man....” but then I remembered an interview I'd read with, I think Alexis Hall? someone who said something like “all we want for queer historical romance is the same suspension of disbelief for straight historical romance, like it's very unlikely that a governess would blissfully wed a duke so why can't we embrace the duke being queer and happy?” and you know what? Yeah!

I think probably for the presumed target audience of younger queer readers they will be more likely to just accept and enjoy the story. which they deserve!!