MixedThe Furious GazelleAlthough Charlie Jane Anders’ new book, The City in the Middle of the Night, is full of cool ideas, nothing gels enough to make it a standout read ... The premise is engaging, but the book fell dizzyingly short of my expectations ... I agree that the world is the best part of this book, but it’s all meaningless because of how the book is written and structured. The whole book is chaotically plotted, with random pacing. Anders introduces some ideas that seem really important, only to abandon them ... Over halfway through the book, I had no idea where it was heading – and not in a good way. Anders does tie some of the ideas together in a cool way in the last 50 pages or so, but at that point, it was too little, too late ... We never get to see more of the characters than broad stereotypes ... The characters are all vaguely bland and unlikeable ... I get the sense that Anders is trying to play on sci-fi tropes at some points – maybe – but it’s all so muddled it’s really hard to get a grip on the tone ... While I genuinely enjoyed some of the ideas explored here, I couldn’t get past everything else.
Tsitsi Dangarembga
RaveThe Furious GazelleTambu has a rich internal narration—the author’s use of the second person is very engaging. It simultaneously draws the reader closer into the action and conveys Tambu’s sense of depersonalization. Tambu is a very relatable narrator, in that she’s not extraordinarily brave or heroic or virtuous. She does what most of us would do in a dire situation ... Aside from telling an engaging story about a woman plagued by fear and dread, This Mournable Body will hopefully open the eyes of Western readers to the history and politics of a region they may have been unfamiliar with.
