Warning: While I am trying not to spoil the book, the rest of this post may contain information some readers would prefer to discover on their own. To make a more in depth and serious review, I need to touch upon these matters. Do not continue reading of you dislike any type of spoiler.
As you hopefully recall from my interview with Schechter, defining her books is difficult yet Fantastic Fiction Publishing labels this Bisexual Romance and Fantasy on the back cover. It is certainly a fantasy book. This appears to be set post devastating world-wide collapse of civilization; on Earth or another planet is unclear. There is some technology but it is hoarded by Elders in charge of specific towns. At first we think that these towns are all that is safe in the world because it is all our main character, Matthias, has ever known. Except that isn't quite true; he doesn't live in the town, he lives outside of it because his mother, a rape survivor, is condemned by their town for having a child out of wedlock. Sounds like the neo-con religious fanatics have taken over, huh? The "new" powers in charge have counseled the world in a very wicked fashion.
Matthias is undoubtedly our main character, about half the book is spent looking at his experiences as an outcast, his abuse at "The School" the High Elder sends him to, and his life on the run after he is rescued from that nightmarish place. Schechter gets us into his mind and his heart from chapter one and so we can feel great empathy with him even if he has a very limited world view and knowledge. Is he bisexual? He seems more uninterested in sex except to please his partners. He survives sexual assaults in "The School" and yet it felt like he worked through that fairly quickly once he and the rebel group that rescues him were on the run. As a survivor, I could read this two ways -- an attempt to keep the protections of the group by using sex to appease them or forcing himself to reject the abuse and go back to his normal sexual activities. Matthias seems to have no sexual interests and he doesn't seem driven to keep his rescuers happy. He is selective about whom he shares his body with and this demonstrates that no matter his situation, he has maintained his personal power. He can do this because he has been alone and needed to care for himself, having more than one friend, needing help to the degree he does at "The School" those are new experiences for him. I would expect some emotional fallout eventually from everything that has happened to him once the rebel group gets a few days to recover and calm down.
Before "The School" Matthias' only friend was Balthazar, the son of the town's Elder who also happens to be the High Elder on the Council of Elder. Note the clever word play that Schechter has used here -- "counsel" and "council." But are these true wicked people in this story? There are hints that they are not. Balthazar is naïve because he has had a sheltered life of privilege. Oddly, Matthias attempts to let his friend know what his life has been life seem very recent. Of course, Balthazar wants to be more than friends and his pressuring of Matthias for more left a distaste in my mouth but also foreshadow some truly horrific events later in the book. Balthazar is definitely bisexual; we see him having sex with one woman who is a leader among the rebels who have survived outside the Council controlled towns. Unlike with Matthias, I couldn't manage to feel empathy for Balthazar at any point in the story. When the novel switched to following him around, I just wanted us to get back to Matthias. That's sad because a lot of good world building was revealed through Balthazar's own adventures.
It is primarily after Balthazar leaves the Council towns that we see hints of what has happened to create this dystopian world. Information through the eyes of the High Elder, the other "students" at "The School," and the rebels they encounter suggest this is not Earth but another world which has survived a great war only to be thrown into pockets of civilization. Just how far the authority and influence of the Council of Elder goes is yet to be revealed. Matthias himself has newly discovered talents that are only being nursed by otherworldly allies.
Schechter tackles a lot of difficult subjects in this 290 page paperback. I've mentioned the destruction of civilization, the rule of the corrupt, and even sexual assaults, but there are other topics as well. Religion is the cover for much of the corruption in this book but these are not Earth religion so get into a tizzy about it. Gender roles and control over the female body are also addressed though given that our main character is male with male love interests it may seem larger to me because I am a woman. There is no clean authority in this book when it comes to women; both the Council of Elders and the rebels who are led by women have no problem dictating what women should do in terms of their careers and reproductive lives. I'm curious to see if Matthias will care about this in future books and I hope that he does or his status as "hero" will be lessened in my eyes. All of these subjects are dealt with in a matter-of-fact fashion that is also sensitive just not in a "I'm teaching you a lesson" way that can detract from the story and character development.
There explicit sex in the book though I've seem far more explicit... heck, I've written it! In general the sex flows naturally from the storylines and character development though the scenes between Matthias and Solomon (one of the "students") once they are on the run felt a bit forced; do you really make time for sex when the baddies are on your heels? Maybe folks do this but I can't imagine it myself. That doesn't make this story bad, it just follows in the expected flow of sex in most popular books. If you can't handle explicit sex or complex social ideas and violence, don't buy this book! It is as simple as that.
Council of the Wicked is a good setup for at least one more book, possibly more.
No comments:
Post a Comment