That Inevitable Victorian Thing

In summary it s a book about a world in which colonialism ended before its true impact could set in, a world in which brown people and disabled people and queer people don t have to fight for our very right to breathe And yes, it definitely would never have happened, but it was fucking awesome to think about the world if it had to wish for a world without the legacy of decades of systematic oppression and scientific racism This book has a fundamental sense of hope to it, a fundamental wish for a [...]

Ok so this book had some truly awesome rep, which I ll fangirl over in a bit And I feel like I m probably being obnoxiously fussy with the parts that didn t work for me, so let me first say that I think a lot of people will like the book This is just my own personal takeHistory is rewritten so that Queen Victoria made her eldest daughter her heir and then married all of her children into families from around the British Empire instead of other European families Her subjects followed her example, [...]

I guess I respect the author s desire to show a world where no inequality of any kind exists, but execution of this premise is so limp in every respect.In this alternative or, correctly, utopian vaguely defined British Empire all traces of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, etc are completely gone and everybody lives in a state of mutual respect and harmony This approach also spills into interpersonal relationships, where it means that nobody feels jealousy, and the concept of fidelity is ne [...]

I suspect this book will get a rabid cult following, and I am 100% here for it This book deserves such a following Bring me the fanart and the fanfic Inevitable Fandom for the win I ve always loved Johnston s books There s something alluring, quirky and inviting about her prose that I don t often see in other books that are lyrical and literary It s like having a conversation with your best friend from the corner of the room and you re watching and commenting and admiring snickering about everyo [...]

2 stars Ouch, what a letdown This book had so much going for it, but delivered so little The fascinating world and the great representation just didn t weigh up against the lack of plot and the weak characters sad trombone sound This is my third book by author E.K Johnston, and in a way this novel is similar to the ones I read before The Thousand Nights duology Those novels neither have a exciting plot or a fast pace, but are great to read because the author brings such enchanting worlds to life [...]

I have so many thoughts and feelings regarding this book yet at the same time, I m unable to wrap my brain around everything Here s hoping that some semblance of this review makes sense First off, I have to mention my love of the settings within this novel Rarely do I ever get to read a book where I have visited or have knowledge regarding the setting With this novel, the majority of the story is placed in locations that I regularly visit I now understand how much that adds to the reading exper [...]

Dear Penguin Random House, thank you so much for giving me pre approved access to this book on Edelweiss The cover alone is making me hyperventilate 3 Gonna start this ASAP

3.75 Johnston puts together something quite intriguing, an alternate world where colonisation didn t take the same form and resulted in a place where multi ethnicity is valued, not curbed The mixture of old fashioned traditions from the Victorian time, such as entering society through debutante balls, with modern technology DNA matching was unusual but compelling The plot focuses on three main characters discovering who they are, their sexuality, place and role in this society, but also on how f [...]

One Million Stars Fan fucking tastic In fact it kicked The Essex Serpent out of the 2 spot for best reads of 2017 Holy SHIT

I m a little torn on this one, honestly I thought it was a bit slow for my tastes, mostly at the beginning, and I would have appreciated a bit wallowing in emotions, but I also understand this is a book designed in part to ape Victorian conventions and s, so perhaps I was never going to get the version of this book that would have pleased me best.And what a strange little book it was This is an alternate history speculative take on quite a complicated scenario Basically, what if Queen Victoria [...]

Original review What a title I m in for that alone.After reading 100 pages Too bad the title was the best part sigh I was SO excited for this book, and it disappointed me SO much From the totally uncritical acceptance of British imperialism as an integral part of this utopian alternate future to the lack of any compelling conflict to a confusing mishmash of characters in a third person omniscient narration to the fact that the book takes place in futuristic Canada in a world with an alternate hi [...]

I DNF d this at the 43% mark I wanted to like this book it s so pretty and the premise sounded really cool But this is just is one of those situations where the book just isn t for me Victorian London is my least favorite time period for historical books, but I wanted to give this one a try because I ve liked E.K Johnston s previous books and thought the premise of an alternate Victorian setting would hook me enough to get me into the time period But I was just so bored and didn t really connect [...]

3.75 Really interesting world building in this book I like the futuristic Victorian feel of it Made for an interesting blend of old and new customs There was a huge amount of diversity in this book, both in race, gender and sexuality which also made the Victorian aspect of it interesting My only complaint was really the pacing It started out kinda slow, and then once it picked up it kinda justended The resolution at the end happened so fast I went to turn the page to read and it was just the a [...]

The only thing I enjoyed about this book was the representation.

DNF at 40% because I have no patience left and this is bothering me so much Also, I made a goal for this year to DNF books that are not working for me So, here we are.That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a book whose premise is basically what if colonialism didn t bring everywhere racism, homophobia and other similar problems , and it s not an easy concept to explore at all I was willing to give it a chance, but this is not how you do worldbuilding.The worldbuilding in That Inevitable Victorian Th [...]

Aw, what a lovely little story, full of twists and turns and challenges and lovely solutions.

3.5 stars This is a sweet romance set in a Canada that grew from an alternative history where Queen Victoria took the British Empire in a very different direction While the new version of history doesn t completely erase all the problems of a colonialist past, it does attempt to unravel some of those threads and provide a better alternative path forward.The first half of the book is fairly slow, setting the stage with a lot of social gatherings and that sort of thing The latter half of the book [...]

In a near future world with a very different history to ours the crown princess of the British Empire spends some time in Canada incognito.In this world Queen Victoria directed her children to marry the empire rather than marry into European noble houses This has made multiculturalism and diversity emblematic features of the British Empire and enabled it to survive to become the preeminent power of the modern world Crown Princess Victoria Margaret, posing as Margaret Sandwich has Zulu and Chines [...]

First to Read sent me an advance copy of this book thank you to review, and so even though I wasn t familiar with the author, I decided to read it In my line of work as a teacher, it never hurts to read YA, and the cover is gorgeous, so I was tempted There were some good parts to this book, notably the twisty part both the twist and the inclusion of a character like this around Helena s chip I also realized, reading the book, how little Canadian fiction US readers read, mostly as a result of th [...]

I received early access to this via Penguin Random House s First to Read program While E.K Johnston s writing commanded my attention in the first paragraph, it quickly faltered I found it easy to get lost in some points and the narrative trudged on slowly Not only that, but I was interested in learning about the world and it s alternate history and I found the concept of Victorian culture in a modern tech setting to be interesting in itself than the actual characters They felt one dimensional, [...]

So sorry, but I m marking this one as a DNF at page 102Couldn t get into the story, if there was one, I m not so sure The alternate world it was set in was beautiful Naturally, in a city I know wellToronto I loved the mentions of places I frequent and, even the Maple Leafs losing lol I just couldn t understand why there were different POVs, and their stories and thoughts were too bland.

Edit it s now the morning after I wrote this I wrote it at like 2am and was very angry but after thinking deeper I think I had such a problem with the writing because the perspectives were so confusing When you had the two main characters to switch back and forth from in the beginning, it made sense But it started getting muddled because the author would switch perspectives in the middle of the chapter like just one whole paragraph in one person s and I just got lost I understand that they were [...]

2.5 stars I feel like I should have loved this book but it just really didn t work for me.

I DNF d this at about 40% Did this book have an editor at all It felt very underdeveloped, like it was published far too early in the writing process.I impulse ordered this despite the truly awful title because the setup sounded so interesting However, this book suffered from infodump after infodump, stilted language, and mini conversations that didn t build characterization but muddied it.You know when some authors talk about how, for a 200 page book, they wrote 600 pages and cut the rest as im [...]

3.5 stars

I really want to rate this book higher, but I can t Initially, I enjoyed it but soon, the plot became stagnant and the ending just threw me for a loop Not that I didn t like it It was interesting, to say the least, but I can only foresee a handful of problems with it.I think I have a love hate relationship with Johnston s books I loved Exit, Pursued by a Bear, so I went into A Thousand Nights thinking I would love it, too Well, I didn t So I also went into this book thinking I would love I mean, [...]

grimace Loved the title and absolutely nothing else about this book Sloppy world building, goody two shoes freaking perfect characters, and seriously contrived romance made this one utterly boring read Many reviewers sing this book s praises because of the multicultural, Utopian world it supposedly presents The reality is, this world without inequality, racism, homophobia , etc is utterly boring and entirely unbelievable Like, where is the conflict Every character is warm and sweet and understan [...]

This is a book with ballgowns and dances, princesses and commoners in a not so distant future in which the British Empire rules But above all, this is a book with a TWIST you won t see coming, an unexpected turn of circumstances that will shock the reader Indeed I was so astonished that I had to read several pages twice to fully understand what was going on.The world created by the author is fascinating, an original idea that may interest many readers including the ones who don t agree with Vict [...]

Am I the only one who s not really feeling that title, though It just feels a little too much like a working title than an official one, you get it As Johnston herself puts it, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a smallish story that takes place in a very big world So true While I felt that this book s main story was a little lacking, and a little thin, it boasted some very interesting romantic spins and than lovable characters to keep those spins coming It was the bigger world building that re [...]

On the one hand, it was interesting to see a very different take on the world and what it might have been like if the Empire was really the prominent governing body, as well as seeing how technological advancements would have been used for certain things I also thought it had fun little nods to the historical romances and historical fiction I enjoy every now and again, as well as having three main characters with very different stories coming together to become one full novel However, there was [...]