Ugh. This series has been irritating me more and more, and this final book was just a big pile of blech. While I loved Bishop’s Black Jewels series (although I haven’t read them in a few years and maybe they’ve also aged poorly), this one just rankles. It relies so continuously on really outdated and rigid gender stereotypes. Constantly, throughout the novel, for both important plot points and for the “jokes,” it’s just like early 1980’s hacky comedian tropes. “Women be like this. Wocka wocka” As the shapeshifters continue to struggle to understand human dynamics, their pronouncements and conclusions about how women behave are coded for truth and humor, but are missing both qualities. The book is also so casually dismissive of the women in this world. Whenever a female employee is legitimately upset about anything, she’s infantilized and humored in such patronizing ways. Bishop is relying on a lot of well-trodden ground for her (outside groups trying to understand each other, strict gender divisions, magical powers not widely understood by all, dangerous mistrust), but it feels rote and forced and not enjoyable. Plus, at this point, the character of Meg’s continued extreme helplessness and cluelessness is just beggaring belief. And makes it squicky and gross that she’s entering into a romantic relationship with an adult when her thinking and interactions with the world are still so solidly childlike. I get that she was abused and traumatized and raised in weird isolation. But if she still can’t yet process events and emotions and can’t yet make decisions for herself, this relationship has some really uncomfortable abusive power dynamics in it. And the relationship behaviors shown (Simon and Meg both constantly keeping secrets from each other, because they don’t want to upset the other or deal with a strong emotional response right now) are super bad form. There are DIRE real world consequences to secret keeping in this active war zone world, and several previous books plots have hinged upon a character keeping secrets that have deadly consequences. But no learning and no changes in constant secret keeping is happening. (Although I’ll forgive my previous irritation, in previous books, at the continued clueless choices being made by human governments and communities in Shapeshifter politics. Because after two years of covid pandemic and bungled responses and misinformation and people arguing against their best interest, turns out that part IS actually believable).
So, a minor plot point (that gets a LOT of discussion) is the food supply chain issues and the subsequent rationing of meat at grocery stores. This is discussed a LOT in the book, constantly. In minute detail, discussing how many ounces of beef each person is allowed each week. And there’s a big plot point driven around a dropped lasagna that used up that week’s beef. But, like, apparently none of these characters have heard of the concept of vegetarian meals before?!? Like, it’s a HUGE constant worry, but if you still have noodles and cheese and sauce, you could make a delicious veggie lasagna and nobody’s kids would starve and everyone would be well sated. Like, do they not have BEANS in this world? No legumes? No nuts? No soy? No dairy? No tofu? There are so many other sources of protein and ways to build a meal. The novel does have some really dismissive comments about how “eating a salad” might be okay for the human females, but it wouldn’t feed a man. Ugh. (The book’s argument that the shape-shifters need meat is one I’m willing to allow, as that’s true for wolves or coyotes or whatever. But bears are omnivores, as are many of the shape shifters. Also, they hunt their own wild game often. So there is NOT a meat shortage for the shifters. It’s just that the humans don’t like the Taste of game meat as much, so it’s a Big Deal that they’re limited to beef meals only a few times each week. The search to maybe add poultry instead is a wild ongoing plot point, too.) Was the author born on a cattle ranch? It’s just a really strange obsession and ongoing plot issue, and it seemed so easily fixed/side-stepped, by just offering some hearty vegetarian meals a few nights a week.