#ace narrative shouldn’t be explored I guess. it was just a smidge too portrayed as him being the problem | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aroaessidhe · 7 months ago

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2024 reads / storygraph

Song of the Huntress

historical fantasy set in 8th century Britain

follows three characters:

a woman who has spent centuries leading the wild hunt & reaping souls after being tricked into it, who disguises herself as a human to enter the kingdom

the queen of Wessex who never lives up to the demands of the court, despite leading their people in battle - and after a battlefield defeat they turn against her

and her husband, the king, deals with magic and political upheaval as his brother tries to usurp him and conflict arises between new and old religions

bi woman MC, lesbian MC, ace man MC

#Song of the Huntress #aroaessidhe 2024 reads #This is - okay? some very interesting and complex characters #i liked the women of the wild hunt and I liked how aethelburg as a warrior queen is just sort of normal not some kind of girlboss thing #it’s very slow paced - I doubt I would have gotten through it if not for the audiobook #the historical setting and details and complexity of the plot is interesting #I did read it for the ace character so:#unsure how i feel about how his asexuality's the reason for the problem in their relationship. like the book tries to make it the issue tha #he didn't TELL her about it but.....but ultimately it is just his asexuality as the issue. idk. not that I don't think that this kind of #ace narrative shouldn’t be explored I guess. it was just a smidge too portrayed as him being the problem #I feel like if he were aroace at least it’d be like okay; she finds in someone else what he doesn’t want to give her #but he literally does love her romantically lol. which makes the subplot of the romance between the women like......ok she's cheating #bc her husband won't fuck her? not to minimise complex characters down to surface level ships but also….#the sapphic relationship is kinda undeveloped/insta attraction and not much else -the book is conscious of this &#I don't think it tries that much to convince us it's something more than that (other than how it affects the character's personal journeys)#but still. idk. I guess I do like that it doesn't conform to perfect-narrative-romances but evidently unsure about how it did so #this makes it sound like I hated the asexuality and the sapphic relationship - I didn't hate either I just didn't love them lol #also his sister is also aroace and becomes a nun and otherwise she's offscreen - lost opportunity imo!

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