Reviews

I had tried this author's work before and couldn't get into it. But this one swept me right in, so I think I'd recommend it as a good entry to the Birdverse.

The main character is a nonbinary autistic poet, and I related to them a lot. Too often autistic characters are written as unfeeling, but this one reminded me a lot of myself.

The other character is a major contrast. She's quick to act and eager to fix things. Unfortunately, it seems their destinies have gotten swapped, and they each have all the wrong strengths to solve their village's problem.

I had high hopes for the ending, but instead it was deliberately inconclusive. I see why the author chose to do that, but I found it a letdown.

youshouldreadthisif's review

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adventurous reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

cineko's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

rootedinbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved a lot about this book: the casual queerness in a society that is just like that (truly a utopia), the concept of the deepnames and the starkeeper, the way the world was described and the poetry of the writing style. However it felt a little rushed, and more of the world building could have been expanded upon to give us all a deeper understanding of things. There was a lot of repetition of things that felt didn't really need to be repeated, but perhaps that is my own personal pet peeve about repetition cropping up. I wanted more of a development between Lilun and Ranra, because I'm not a huge fan of insta-love, and even with Lilun wanting things to go slow, it was pretty much A Thing from the get go.

However, as someone with autistic traits, I could really relate to a lot of things that Lilun experienced (though not all of it, because we're all different, and that's the beauty of things) and it felt nice to be seen in that way, but I wished that there was a bit more of an understanding of them by other characters.

theowrites's review against another edition

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4.0

The first book for my Trans Rights Readathon reads.

Lemberg's background in poetry shines here. It did take about 50 pages before I really got into the story and understood the world and the stakes. (I have not read their other Birdverse stories.) I ended up loving the messages about community and what it means for people to work together even in failure. Particularly the ideas of leadership and who's suited for what tasks and how even if you have the power, it's still all choices.

The ideas around gender and nonbinary/trans identities were interesting, and it was fun to see Lemberg play with them and expand on themes already in our communities. The Unbalancing felt specifically written for trans people, which is always a special feeling to be the target audience.

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