Cocooned within the stacks, far away from any whiff of politics or violence…

🤨 Didn’t you just explain that “only the elite, the crème de la crème of the scholars, were allowed to even view” your section of the library? Reading is political — this seems to be even more so! lol

This is reminding me of how disappointed I was in the world when I learned as a child that public libraries are called that because exclusive private libraries also exist.

Like we know Kiela is close to water a bit higher with all the stairs but nothing crazy but then the rest of the village is down a cliff also on the same level as the water is there just a huge hill between Kiela and the village or what is going on here

I don't think I really much like that the basis of the story is a revolution, born out of greed from people in power crushing small islanders, and yet the main character is just this air-head girly not aware or understanding of the struggles. This is giving comfortable in my own privilege, and I know it's not the point of the book/story, but that's exactly my point : why make it the background of the situation or a character uninterested in the actual hardships of people.

I'm not fond of the "I like books better than people" POV when the reason is you just don't care about people, period.

I hope it will develop into something and let Kiela grow, but she's not relatable or cute right now.

These quotes have me absolutely buckling up. I just know Suzanne Collins is about to do a number with this one if we are starting off with these