I had done what I had for the right reasons. If not for the lie, we wouldn’t have marched out to protect the empire at all.
We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson
It took a little longer than I would like, but I finally finished We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson. Though I really enjoyed the first half, I feel like the latter 50% fell off. The three different storylines became kind of tedious and predictable by the end, and none of the mysteries laid out were even remotely answered. The ending I felt extremely meh about, but there was something else that bothered me about the whole book.
A lot of the culture depicted in the story felt heavily Asian appropriated, even while it centered white coded characters. Madson is a white woman, so this came across as, well, gross. I understand that Madson originally self published, before getting picked up for trad pub, but I have a hard time believing this was given a sensitivity read at any point in the process when it really could have used one.
I don’t know that I’ll continue with this series. I just feel… sort of underwhelmed. The first half had a lot of promise that the second didn’t quite live up to, and the lead to the sequel just doesn’t seem interesting to me.
All told I’d give it 3 out of 5.
Next up on my TBR: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. I’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do, so I better get to it. Ta!
Kerry Share
Just Another Struggling Writer 
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