I feel like I am supposed to like this book because I was a librarian and work to be an LGBTQ+ ally. I share the disappointments of some readers that the story wasn't filled out more. The Librarians seem superhuman (the whole thing with superpowerful women who are better at violence than men seems vaguely misogynistic to me--it sets up expectations for female performance that should not need to be met in order to be considered equally human), taking down multiple gangs of men while sustaining only a flesh wound. The perspective is historically underrepresented but there's a lot of it available right now, so a new entry has to stand out in some way and I can't see where that special something is here.
I rate it a bit better than the disappointed set, though, because I think the protagonist has potential to be more complex than the rest of the book setting, and I do think there's a series being set up here. Esther is oppressed by her situation and looks to blossom as a librarian, but she's also got quite a bit of moral and personal flexibility. Some wonder why she took to Cye so quickly after losing Beatrix--I read the story as Esther having started to distance herself from Beatrix before she was killed. Her character could go any which way, possibly simultaneously. Not sure if I am motivated to pick up the next one, but I might if someone else reads it and says this is what happened.
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