A review by elatedbooks
The Story of Silence by Alex Myers

2.75

For stories bear the imprint of all who tell them.

This is a very confusing review for me to write.

I loved the author’s narrative style, especially at the beginning with the more classic quest tale of Merlin & the dragon (I was so sad there wasn’t more fun fantasy things in it :( )

But the representation of women in this really made me uncomfortable. I know that it’s something the author actually acknowledges that obviously it’s based on a medieval tale & is therefore indicative of their contemporary beliefs. Plus the author explained their careful consideration of the portrayal of women & i’m pretty sure they even mention updating their roles in the story. But I don’t know if that’s enough for a published novel in this day and age because a female presence was distinctly lacking & when it was displayed it was so disgustingly flat & tropey (literally reduced to the mother figure & a couple of temptresses). It was so bad that I had to do some recon on the author & wasn’t surprised to find it written by a man but was dismayed to find it written by a trans man!

As for the gender exploration element I was similarly disappointed. It got a bit better towards the end as the final couple chapters tied it up more but it didn’t feel revolutionary or even participatory relevant for a lot of it. I know it catalyses the story & Silence does struggle with it continuously but only in quite an immediate way without touching on bigger ideas regarding gender. Its hard because ultimately, as a cis person, it’s not really my place to criticise the representation or exploration of gender fluidity but I just felt left wanting like this could have been so much more.