Owned?: No, library
Page count: 292
My summary: The history of childbirth is a long and complicated one. From what we can tell of the prehistoric parents who gave birth thousands of years ago to more recent times, and the reversal of Roe vs Wade, this is ht story of birth and labour from the perspective of those who made history.
My rating: 4/5
My commentary:
I picked this one up largely at random because it seemed interesting, and it was! Childbirth, for all it's literally the foundation of every human life, is a subject that doesn't really get talked about so much, which is a shame because it's an absolutely fascinating history. And this is a really good overview of what childbirth looked like through most of history. The major downsides are that this book is largely Anglo-American focused - I'm sure there were interesting advances in midwifery and the medical side of childbirth in countries other than England and the USA, but this book doesn't really talk about them all so much. I was also somewhat alarmed by the author's praising Mumsnet in a very late chapter, given the horribly transmisogynistic history of the site, but other than that, this book was a solid, interesting book about birth and what it means.
The thing that most impressed me about the book was that it did not shy away from the politics around childbirth and the advances in medicine around childbirth. Sure, this doctor may have made some incredible leaps forward into repairing the vaginas of people who had complicated births, but he did so by experimenting on unconsenting enslaved women and that has to be at least acknowledged. Many of the doctors and scientists who made breakthroughs in the 19th and 20th centuries were doing so for eugenicist reasons, and eugenics is a major theme in some of the later chapters of the book. It wants to tell about the history of childbirth, and presents all of these facts straightforwardly, but never unthinkingly and with full acknowledgement of how thorny this history is, which is really interesting and commendable.
Next, a dip into the mysterious town of Gravity Falls.
"Women have been fighting for control over their bodies for thousands of years. From Neolithic hunter-gatherers to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, this is their story."
A sweeping tale of love, legacy, and wilderness set between the present day and 1867 in the dramatic landscape of modern-day and territorial Montana.
While on a trip to Montana with her mom, British teen Hope meets local boy Cal Crow, a ranch hand. Caught in a freak accident, Hope and Cal take shelter in a cabin, where Hope makes a strange discovery in an abandoned diary. More than a hundred years earlier, another British girl -- Emily -- met a similar fate. Her rescuer, a horse trader named Nate. In this wild place, both girls learn what it means to survive and to fall in love, neither knowing that their fates are intimately entwined.
I’m not going to beat around the bush: I loved this book. Did I think, at first, that Regan was a straight up carbon-copy of Will Herondale? Yes. Did I quickly change my mind? Also yes. More importantly, I quickly fell into the intricate, imaginative world created by Lucy Inglis faster than I had expected too.
I bought City of Halves because the story took place in a sort of underground, alternate-world London. I am a sucker for a number of things, two of which being London, and alternate-worlds that resemble our own, or, in this case, reside right inside our own.
At first, I was not impressed. I am quick to judge everything, books especially; I usually form strong opinions within the first couple pages, and stick to them for the rest of the book--thankfully, that was not the case with this one.
As I mentioned, I thought Regan was a Will Herondale copycat. He had the physical features, snarky attitude, estranged family/missing sibling, loner lifestyle, and bird tattoos. Come on, bird tattoos. I quickly threw that notion out the window, though, as we began to see Regan more and more, and got to know him for the person he is.
It was strange at first to read about Blackfriars Bridge and other various locations (and the mention of ley lines) alongside unfamiliar characters. I don’t live in London, so I only visit these places through books, and The Infernal Devices have had such an impact on my life that I felt misplaced almost, reading about Regan and Lily at these places. This was, of course, not Inglis’s fault, and I got over it pretty quickly, much like my other misconceptions.
The vibe from the book was very cool, though. The descriptions Inglis used to paint the picture of the City gave me a gray, mysterious backdrop in which to envision the story. I love the Victorian-era, and the description of the Rookery was beautifully haunting, with it’s out-of-use arches for carriages no longer in existence, and old plaster hanging above the doorway with an image of a bird peeling off. The way she seamlessly explained people seeing what the want to see made me reevaluate things that I see in my day-to-day life, and brought up all the wonder bubbling inside my chest. Is that just an old man building a fire in a churchyard to keep warm, or an ancient being cleaning up the bodies of the very monsters we claim not to believe in, but are terrified of anyway?
Lily was a shortcoming of the book. I thought she was a flat, run-of-the-mill character who was supposed to be seen as strong simply because she wasn’t overly feminine or scared easily. She had no defining characteristics that would cause me to remember her, or to help me pick her out of a lineup of a generic group of female characters. She was rude to her father in ways that I don’t think would fly in real life, no matter how “laid back” a parent is.
Additionally, Regan was magically there to save Lily every. Single. Time. That she needed help. Every single time! Even at the climax of the book, when she was leading a group of girls out of the horrible hospital in which they were trapped (there was some serious girl power going on there for a minute), Regan showed up when Lily made a stupid move that would have ended in their deaths. It wasn’t even really explained how he always knew where she was, but it was kind of annoying! Save your own damn self, please.
Speaking of deaths, how the hell does one come back to life after being shot in the heart? It’s impossible that she even lived through it at all, let alone died and came back because of magical blood. It would have been refreshing to have seen such an important character die, but at least if you’re going to attempt to kill them off, make it realistic. That was probably my biggest problem with this book.
I may not have been the biggest fan of Lily, but I really enjoyed her relationship with Regan. He was so set in his ways of going about his job and being a loner, but then this girl came along who wouldn’t leave him alone and was ambitious and curious and who wanted to help and plot and fight. And slowly but surely, he accepted this and took a genuine liking to her. He secretly wanted her around and cared about her, and shook when she almost died or was hurt. He slowly fell in love, and those kinds of relationships are the kinds I am a sucker for. If there’s nose touching, I’m in.
On my final note (I am well aware that this review follows no clear pattern and is a random list of thoughts and opinions), I really liked most of the supporting characters. I have a soft spot in my heart for Lucas and Elijah , and Felix always made me laugh. When Lilith and Micky and Gupta and Stanley all showed up to help Regan, my heart soared. I love a good support system, always makes me weepy. Oh, and a quick shout out to Gamble, for being the Neville Longbottom of the book, and somehow saving the day at the last second.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in YA fantasy. It was interesting and thought-provoking and put my emotions on a crazy twisty roller coaster. I’m looking forward to the sequel, when and if that happens.
