Review: The Armored Saint

The Armored Saint by Myke Cole
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This interesting fantasy book is a melding of medieval life, the Inquisition, gnomish mechanics via World of Warcraft, with a satisfying sprinkling of classic Dungeon and Dragon's lore. The subplot of our heroine's lesbian attraction for her friend and the background story of a homosexual ranger-wizard's lost lover combined made me feel that the book was a little pandering toward the LGBTQ community. It would have been my personal preference to focus on one gay love story, but to have both plus the dramatic, movie-of-the-week lecture of being allowed to freely love who you love seemed a bit mawkish.
To be clear, I quite enjoyed the presence of an LGBTQ storyline in a medieval fantasy. I just think it could have been written with more finesse by focusing on one relationship, and leaving the lecture on freedom of love out. The storyline should draw those thoughts out of the reader; not tell the audience what to think word-for-word.
The storyline felt plausible, given that so much of what happened in the book has already happened in real life with religious fanaticism, political turmoil, classicism, poverty, shaming of homosexuals, etc.

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Review: Educated

Educated by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This searing non-fiction tale of family lost, found and lost again is nearly sublime for its prose and unflinchingly honest understanding of its own inadequacies and the humanity of its protagonist. It's a punishingly hard-look at how mental illness in a family can be spread like a disease over generations and will leave no one its wake untouched. Dr. Westover's triumph is hard-won and comes at a cost. The organization of the story was sharp and well-paced.

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