Thanks to NetGalley and Recorded Books for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the content of my review.
This is genuinely one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read. It has a lot of flaws baked in. The worldbuilding is there but never explained, there is so much going on that none of it really fully works: lesbian stoner buddy comedy, political satire, the alternate history and fantasy elements, a romance . . . I spent a large portion of the book very confused. And yet, I also had a great time, and it didn’t seem to matter very much that I was never sure what exactly was going on.
I really liked Lana as a main character. She’s an incorrigible flirt, and spends half her life high on mushrooms, but she’s friendly and kind and people like her. The friendship between her and the fairy Bugbite was the best part of the book.
Everything is absurd in this book, but not so absurd that you don’t wish there was a coherent explanation for why there are no men? And why the fairies even keep creating the humans if they are so scared of them? For just two examples. Also . . . the climactic scene . . . I don’t even know if my thoughts can encompass it. Is it genius? It is stupid? Is it both???
But, I liked it. I liked listening to it, and I would listen to it again! So, those are my thoughts as conflicting, and confused as they may be.
[3.5 stars, rounding up for the good times, man]