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Kaethe

Kaethe

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For Darkness Shows the Stars - Diana Peterfreund

For Darkness Shows the Stars - Diana Peterfreund

Dystopian <i>Persuasion</i>

 

This isn't a perfect book, but it's a damn good one. As a retelling of Austen's book I think it is wildly successful and enjoyable.There is a very strict caste system on the plantations, and politically the society is rigid, punitive, and hypocritical. In a general sort of way (I know nothing of farming) the author has the rigors of running a large estate clear in the story, and it reminds me of Scarlett running Tara at the end of the Civil War in a good way: she is capable, doing what needs to be done, being able to see at least a little farther ahead than everyone else and surrounded by family who are worthless and other estate owners and workers who are not. The relationship between Elliot and her estate manager is a warm friendship which contrasts with how little regard there is between Elliot and her older sister. And I quite liked the nibbling-at-the-edges struggle to improve their society that many are engaged in, but always covertly. That's all great. I like the characters of the Fleet as well as the other estate holders.

 

So I also have a few issues which kept the book from being absolutely fabulous. While I love that the estate-holders are the indigenous people (of what I think is New Zealand, although it's never explicit) I really hate that the publisher screwed the author over with that dustjacket whitewash.Generally I'm sick of white models in ball gowns, but since we are told that Elliot is small and dark with difficult hair, it's particularly offensive.

 

I'd have liked to see a stronger since of place and culture and even racism. There's a farm with wheat and a dairy and it feels generic. There's mention of stringed instruments and a song lyric or two, but not enough to give the reader a sense of specifics. And in a rigid caste system there has to be stereotyping and prejudice and active repression and it can't be coming from just one man.

 

Now, here's what I couldn't stomach: there are slaves. Their enslavement is justified on the grounds of a plague that left them too mentally disabled to care for themselves, but inexplicably still able to care for their own offspring and still work at jobs without actively rebelling. It is my hope that this is actually a set-up for a greater revolution to come in a future volume.

 

Personal copy