That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston
Rating: ★ ★
Synopsis: Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved, not by the cost of blood and theft but by effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.
Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendant of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history two centuries earlier. The imperial practice of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage like her mother before her, but before she does her duty, she’ll have one summer incognito in a far corner of empire. In Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire’s greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir apparent to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an unusual bond and maybe a one in a million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process —just like the first Queen Victoria.
Genre: Science Fiction, LGBT, Historical Fiction, Alternate History
Review: I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one. I knew it was supposed to be some kind of diverse alternate futuristic history, so I was more than willing to hop on the bandwagon. But after reading it…can I jump back off?
In this book, the reader follows three main characters through a series of events that lead them to deception, secrets, and the ultimate self-discovery. In the British Empire, matchmaking is the name of the game. An online cataloging system contains the DNA of every citizen and, once activated, will provide matches based on genetic compatibility. Victoria-Marget, who spends most of the book going by just Margaret, is the princess to the empire. She is spending time in Toronto before her debut undercover, getting to know her people and the lands she will be ruling before it is her time to take the throne. There, she meets Helena and August, who have been in love and betrothed since they were children. But when they discover that they each are keeping dangerous secrets from each other, what will unfold? Will they be able to live on as they were, or will their worlds be changed forever?
(Note: This review will have spoilers! Consider yourself warned!)
Full disclosure, I was very confused throughout this whole book. Between the different names people went by and the different places they traveled to and the way the dual POV jumped around, it was very hard for me to follow the story. The characters seemed very similar, too, which made things even more difficult. They tended to have similar names and brief descriptions, so when they appeared later I completely forgot who they were and ended up confusing them for someone else until things were so tangled up that I realized it was somebody else.
Am I the only one who’s tired of dual POV? Some are beautifully done (When Dimple Met Rishi recently breathed a little life back into it for me), but on the whole, it seems to be overdone now and lends more toward oversharing than a tool the author uses in order to use dramatic irony to their benefit. I really have to become invested in all the characters narrating in a dual POV to enjoy it (the shining beacon of dual POV? The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon), and I just could not attach myself to any of these characters. The POV changes just became tedious and confusing and exhausting.
This book seemed to be very caught up on one singular issue that was not resolved until far too late in the book, and that was Margaret’s gender identity. Once the “secret lesbians” bit finally happened and I went, “Ohhhh, there it is,” there was still so much more to be resolved. Why was Margaret asked for a boy’s name when she logged into the system? Why did she have to have a third undercover name when I could hardly keep Victoria-Margaret and Margaret straight? Especially when Helena’s online name was Lizzie and there was already a character in the book named Lizzie? It was all too much.
I am all for diversifying gender identity in books, but I did not like how this one played out. I think the most unsettling part of it was that Margaret is intersex because her parents had her given shots as she grew up and never told her about them. The fact that she got no say in her gender identity and it ended up looking like more of a problem than a solution or something to celebrate really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It is honestly just a poor example of representation and this should have been done in a way that leaves intersex readers feeling like they have hope and not like their gender is a problematic burden.
Originally I had rated this book three stars, but I had to knock it down because I can’t even say it was just okay. Ultimately, this book reads like a messy draft. I was not invested, the story was hard to follow, and the poor handling of the representation was the cherry on top of a bad cake. Good idea in theory, but poorly executed. Definitely not a book I recommend.
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