A review by lisaisabobisa
Kea's Flight by John C. Ricker, Erika Hammerschmidt

4.0

This was a great book and I'm excited to see more from Hammerschmidt. I read the first edition which has some harmful/outdated terms (such as a bit of a hang-up on the concept of Asperger's and savant skills) which is understandable for a book published in 2011 by a person with that diagnosis. In addition to this, the co-authors' name is Elle (or ZA Tanis) and it just really bugs me that it was so hard to find their name online, as even Amazon and Erika's website (and THIS website) have her deadname. I've looked a bit into the author and her partner/contributor, and I believe the errors are the result of their ongoing self-education into the confusing world of neurodivergence and gender identity. These meta-issues aside, the writing could have used some revision which was exacerbated by the author-self-insert protagonist bragging incessantly about how great of a writer she is. This is hyper-critical of me, but I must explain that this book is an amateur effort...that punches way above its weight class.
The author presents us with a lived-in dystopia that feels honest and terrifying. She perfectly captures the feeling of millennial self-diagnosis/ the ex-gifted kid experience through a fantastic literary allegory. The book seems to ask the question, What if Winston Smith was autistic? What if the victims of authoritarianism had been forced into masking their differences, capable of divergent thinking, and unable to accept illogical systems without explanation? I really, really enjoyed this book, and I hope it gets re-released with some edits so that more people can enjoy the fantastic concepts therein.