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A review by sabina90
Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn
3.0
Memories can be complicated. The same one can bring us both joy and pain.
Short synopsis - This book takes place during the French Revolution, more exactly during The Terror; time when innocent people were executed for no other reason than being nobility, or speaking against the ruling government. Our protagonists are a group of unusual outcasts and rebels, and they're doing their best to help the innocent ones - usually through daring jailbreaks. Their most recent job took an unexpected twist - the girl they were to rescue is not who they thought she was. Soon they find themselves a part of events on a much larger scale than their usual scope of operations.
I am really upset with this book. It had so much potential, and I loved it as I was starting... I almost didn't finish it.
First things first: this book needs footnotes, extensive footnotes. There are so many things about the French Revolution and 18th century France I know nothing about. What is "15 Prairial Year II"? What is "Sans culottes" outfit? What is Supreme Being?... I found myself Googling things every now and then (on positive side, I know much more about the French Revolution than I did when I started reading this book). I just couldn't visualise the plot without knowing what I was reading about. And the constant Googling kept interrupting my train of thought, and I could never fully immerse myself into the plot. Second reason for footnotes - there are a lot of terms and places names in French, and not all readers speak French. Speaking of French, there were some inconsistencies that really bothered me, eg. one chapter title is "The Bal en Crystal" - this is literally half English, half French, it should either be "Le Bal en Cristal" or "The Crystal Ball".
There were also few minor writing or grammatical errors in English, and some sentences made no sense, eg. "But watching her get fed into that damn killing machine is still going to smart.". Shouldn't it say hurt??
Also, having a map would've been amazing. Even just a really simple one with major plot points.
I know these are all just technical details, but they get annoying really quickly and partially ruined the book experience for me.
Now for the plot - I loved the premises, but was disappointed with how it was executed. I constantly felt like something was missing (still have no idea what that is). At times the plot felt both really shallow and really complicated at the same time. I hated it was somewhat advertised as fantasy, and there was barely any fantasy in it. Feels more like a [a:H.G. Wells|880695|H.G. Wells|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1588944685p2/880695.jpg] or [a:Jules Verne|696805|Jules Verne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1322911579p2/696805.jpg] science fiction novel, than a true fantasy novel. Even the science fiction part was barely there.
And the covers plotline:"Their latest mission is a girl possessing dark, disturbing powers..." And then she barely used those powers, and they are far from being dark or disturbing.
I absolutely loved that the book is so inclusive, most of the main characters are LGBT and/or POC.
I loved that it is pro-feminism. Main female characters are strong, independent, smart and capable. They defy the social norms of the time both through their actions and their choices.
It was a relatively fun and light read, but again some things were really annoying. I could've easily rated it 2 stars, but considering it is the author's debut I decided on 3. I enjoyed her style of writing, there is definitely potential for better books in the future.
Short synopsis - This book takes place during the French Revolution, more exactly during The Terror; time when innocent people were executed for no other reason than being nobility, or speaking against the ruling government. Our protagonists are a group of unusual outcasts and rebels, and they're doing their best to help the innocent ones - usually through daring jailbreaks. Their most recent job took an unexpected twist - the girl they were to rescue is not who they thought she was. Soon they find themselves a part of events on a much larger scale than their usual scope of operations.
I am really upset with this book. It had so much potential, and I loved it as I was starting... I almost didn't finish it.
First things first: this book needs footnotes, extensive footnotes. There are so many things about the French Revolution and 18th century France I know nothing about. What is "15 Prairial Year II"? What is "Sans culottes" outfit? What is Supreme Being?... I found myself Googling things every now and then (on positive side, I know much more about the French Revolution than I did when I started reading this book). I just couldn't visualise the plot without knowing what I was reading about. And the constant Googling kept interrupting my train of thought, and I could never fully immerse myself into the plot. Second reason for footnotes - there are a lot of terms and places names in French, and not all readers speak French. Speaking of French, there were some inconsistencies that really bothered me, eg. one chapter title is "The Bal en Crystal" - this is literally half English, half French, it should either be "Le Bal en Cristal" or "The Crystal Ball".
There were also few minor writing or grammatical errors in English, and some sentences made no sense, eg. "But watching her get fed into that damn killing machine is still going to smart.". Shouldn't it say hurt??
Also, having a map would've been amazing. Even just a really simple one with major plot points.
I know these are all just technical details, but they get annoying really quickly and partially ruined the book experience for me.
Now for the plot - I loved the premises, but was disappointed with how it was executed. I constantly felt like something was missing (still have no idea what that is). At times the plot felt both really shallow and really complicated at the same time. I hated it was somewhat advertised as fantasy, and there was barely any fantasy in it. Feels more like a [a:H.G. Wells|880695|H.G. Wells|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1588944685p2/880695.jpg] or [a:Jules Verne|696805|Jules Verne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1322911579p2/696805.jpg] science fiction novel, than a true fantasy novel. Even the science fiction part was barely there.
I absolutely loved that the book is so inclusive, most of the main characters are LGBT and/or POC.
I loved that it is pro-feminism. Main female characters are strong, independent, smart and capable. They defy the social norms of the time both through their actions and their choices.
It was a relatively fun and light read, but again some things were really annoying. I could've easily rated it 2 stars, but considering it is the author's debut I decided on 3. I enjoyed her style of writing, there is definitely potential for better books in the future.