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Nataliya's Reviews > Blood Is Another Word for Hunger
Blood Is Another Word for Hunger
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I read this short story because it’s Hugo-nominated. And my verdict it - I did not care for it. I’m not quite sure how it got the Hugo nod, really. Which is too bad, as the only other work by Rivers Solomon that I read, The Deep, was quite decent.
A young slave girl Sully kills the slaveowner family that owns her. And then she proceeds to birth out revenant ghosts - one for each of the dead people, starting with a teenage girl and then adding others to this brood. Then the idea becomes to kill more to bring more of the revenants back. Then there’s a sort of a homemade do-it-yourself hysterectomy situation. Yeah.
I’ve read weirder plots, but the strangeness is not the only thing that makes this story not work well. You see, it’s just not well-written, and that’s a failure you can’t recover from. It’s does not flow well and feels rough, like a first draft or very much a beginner work. The language is very uneven, wooden and with many words and phrases that felt incongruous for the time period described, destroying any feeling of immersion into the story. The pacing and the story structure - none of that felt finished or polished at all. Ideas are introduced, executed, poorly developed and the result is a strange partially baked mess with a jarring ending that does not fit in this story’s framework.
It needed another draft or perhaps an editor to avoid the underwhelming result. But for now I have no idea how it made it all the way to Hugo finalists.
1 star only since I two-starred (in retrospect) much better works already. Easily my least favorite of the Hugos bunch.
Very unsatisfying.
———————
Read it free here on Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2019/07/24/blood-...
Or better - just skip this one and read The Deep by the same author instead for a much better experience.
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A young slave girl Sully kills the slaveowner family that owns her. And then she proceeds to birth out revenant ghosts - one for each of the dead people, starting with a teenage girl and then adding others to this brood. Then the idea becomes to kill more to bring more of the revenants back. Then there’s a sort of a homemade do-it-yourself hysterectomy situation. Yeah.
I’ve read weirder plots, but the strangeness is not the only thing that makes this story not work well. You see, it’s just not well-written, and that’s a failure you can’t recover from. It’s does not flow well and feels rough, like a first draft or very much a beginner work. The language is very uneven, wooden and with many words and phrases that felt incongruous for the time period described, destroying any feeling of immersion into the story. The pacing and the story structure - none of that felt finished or polished at all. Ideas are introduced, executed, poorly developed and the result is a strange partially baked mess with a jarring ending that does not fit in this story’s framework.
It needed another draft or perhaps an editor to avoid the underwhelming result. But for now I have no idea how it made it all the way to Hugo finalists.
1 star only since I two-starred (in retrospect) much better works already. Easily my least favorite of the Hugos bunch.
Very unsatisfying.
———————
Read it free here on Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2019/07/24/blood-...
Or better - just skip this one and read The Deep by the same author instead for a much better experience.
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Reading Progress
June 28, 2020
– Shelved
July 30, 2020
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Started Reading
July 30, 2020
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Finished Reading
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Jennifer
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Jul 30, 2020 05:44PM
Too bad it didn't live up to its title. Thanks for your review - I will be skipping this one.
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Jennifer wrote: "Too bad it didn't live up to its title. Thanks for your review - I will be skipping this one."You’re welcome. A few of my friends liked it, but for me it was, unfortunately, a complete disappointment. I couldn’t believe it was by the author of The Deep which, although not perfect, was a pretty decent novella.
I haven’t read this but I always feel like she’s trying too hard to be something when I read her work.
Brandy wrote: "I haven’t read this but I always feel like she’s trying too hard to be something when I read her work."This is only the second work by Solomon that I’ve read, so I can’t really judge yet. I’ll pretend that this one just never happened.
Yes, clearly a "do-it-yourself hysterectomy" is the least of this book's worries lol.... well, when her future works come out, perhaps you can just retcon this one 👀 Still appreciate the review!
Hm...I'll probably skip this one. They must be getting better as a writer, because I thought The Deep was amazing, especially after listening to the music that inspired it!
