[Day 8 of 30 Day Writing Challenge - A book I loved and a book I didn't]
Ha! I give you a book that fits both Loved and Hated category: The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson.
This is a book I'd just love to run out and recommend to people, but then in the same breath I would have to warn them away from it. A few days after I had read it I was stuck in a repeating YES!/NO! loop. The Writer-Me would whisper "YESSS!" and the Reader-Me would be screaming, just screaming.
Dickinson expertly crafts this story with very real, wonderful, flawed characters to fall in love with or if not at least respect. Every scene is painted with rich language that builds setting so lush it's palpable. And something I didn't think I would find engaging was the most fascinating aspect of the book: an accountants role in shaping a revolution.
And now, if I get into what I hated about it, I am going to give away or ruin what the story so carefully builds up. On that chance that you might still want to read it I can't in good faith tell you what I didn't like about it because that may very well be spoiler-ish. If you'd rather not anything be hinted you can stop reading now.
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Seth Dickinson does such an exquisite job of setting you up that when you fall, you do so with this admiration for such a well played hand. You quietly whisper "...You magnificent bitch." right before you are knocked to the ground with the concussive force of the ending.
In this book, if you fall, you are going to fall hard.