Tootfinder

Just finished "Beasts Made of Night" by Tochi Onyebuchi...
Indirect CW for fantasy police state violence.
So I very much enjoyed Onyebuchi's "Riot Baby," and when I grabbed this at the library, I was certain it would be excellent. But having finished it, I'm not sure I like it that much overall?
The first maybe third is excellent, including the world-building, which is fascinating. I feel like Onyebuchi must have played "Shadow of the Colossus" at some point. Onyebuchi certainly does know how to make me care for his characters.
Some spoilers from here on out...
.
.
.
I felt like it stumbles towards the middle, with Bo's reactions neither making sense in the immediate context, nor in retrospect by the end when we've learned more. Things are a bit floaty in the middle with an unclear picture of what exactly is going on politics-wise and what the motivations are. Here I think there were some nuances that didn't make it to the page, or perhaps I'm just a bit thick and not getting stuff I should be? More is of course revealed by the end, but I still wasn't satisfied with the explanations of things. For example, (spoilers) I don't feel I understand clearly what kind of power the army of aki was supposed to represent within the city? Perhaps necessary to wield the threat of offensive inisisia use? In that case, a single scene somewhere of Izu's faction deploying that tactic would have been helpful I think.
Then towards the end, for me things really started to jumble, with unclear motivations, revelations that didn't feel well-paced or -structured, and a finale where both the action & collapsing concerns felt stilted and disjointed. Particularly the mechanics/ethics of the most important death that set the finale in motion bothered me, and the unexplained mechanism by which that led to what came next? I can read a couple of possible interesting morals into the whole denouement, but didn't feel that any of them were sufficiently explored. Especially if we're supposed to see some personal failing in the protagonist's actions, I don't think it's made clear enough what that is, since I feel his reasons to reject each faction are pretty solid, and if we're meant to either pity or abjure his indecision, I don't think the message lands clearly enough.
There *is* a sequel, which honestly I wasn't sure of after the last page, and which I now very interested in. Beasts is Onyebuchi's debut, which maybe makes sense of me feeling that Riot Baby didn't have the same plotting issues. It also maybe means that Onyebuchi couldn't be sure a sequel would make it to publication in terms of setting up the ending.
Overall I really enjoyed at least 80% of this, but was expecting even better (especially politically) given Onyebuchi's other work, and I didn't feel like I found it.
#AmReading

Series C, Episode 06 - City at the Edge of the World
KERRIL: Right. What are you expecting him to do?
VILA: I'm expecting him to try and kill us.
KERRIL: What?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/306/332 B7B4

Oh hey, good things do happen even in the darkest times. Yarvin is taking about fleeing the country.
The thinks that Trump's fascism is failing (which it is) and tha Trump is incapable of doing what it takes to actually hold power. He's afraid of vengeance, which is honestly unlikely given how completely useless the democrats actually are. But I'm glad he's afraid. I hope he runs away to Russia, gets drafted and deployed to Ukraine, and eats a drone.
I also hope he can somehow convince Thiel to be afraid, but I think that's unlikely.
The fact is that if Trump fails, which I think he will (and Yarvin thinks it could be soon), it won't be because of Democratic leadership. It will be because of antifascist organizing and community resistence. We will have, once again, kept ourselves safe while the DNC argued over how much of their values they should abandon and how much of the left to sacrifice to "get votes."
#USPol

Series C, Episode 06 - City at the Edge of the World
KERRIL: Sorry, Vila, it's all my fault.
VILA: No, you were right. Bayban would never have let me out without finishing the job.
KERRIL: How long do you think the air will last?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/306/402 B7B2