A Lesson in Vengeance

Picked up this book from a sapphic book recommendations list and overall, it was fine for me? In early chapters, I felt like if I put it down and forgot about it, I wouldn't pick it back up but around chapter 8 or so, finally got to the point where I was hooked enough to finish it.

Several minor details were distractingly incorrect, namely the fencing and climbing, which, in the face of a character who is a "method writer" felt like the writer of the book could've stood to have some similar practices when writing this. Of the three weapons in fencing, épée is the only one that doesn't wear a lamé. Fencers who value their equipment wouldn't place the tip on the floor, much less with any pressure. Serious climbers, especially Olympic level ones, don't care about Mt Everest--it takes a specific skill set and money for a good guide and enough oxygen to summit Mt Everest but it doesn't require being a good climber and is certainly not what qualifies you as a good climber.

The actual mystery was interesting once it got going, but the execution felt rushed? In a way? It left me unsure of how I was supposed to feel, who I was supposed to feel sympathetic for, and "why" some of these characters did what they did. Overall, I think it just wasn't for me, and that's okay, and think people who know less about fencing and climbing would be able to be taken in by the story itself more successfully without distraction.