Sunday, February 12, 2017

#queer52 Review 1 - Unicorn Tracks

Goodreads Summary: After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s tracking skills to shine, it helps her to hide from the terrible memories that haunt her.

Mnemba is employed to guide Mr. Harving and his daughter, Kara, through the wilderness as they study unicorns. The young women are drawn to each other, despite that fact that Kara is betrothed. During their research, they discover a conspiracy by a group of poachers to capture the Unicorns and exploit their supernatural strength to build a railway. Together, they must find a way to protect the creatures Kara adores while resisting the love they know they can never indulge.


Goodreads Link

Content warnings: Sexual assault, animal cruelty

Rating: ***

My Thoughts:

This was the first book I picked up, back at the start of January, for YA Interrobang's #Queer52 Reading Challenge. I did so because (a) Ember's upcoming novel The Seafarer's Kiss sounds fantastic and I wanted to try her writing, and (b) I loved the premise. And I meant to review it back at the start of January too, but I had such trouble parsing my feelings about it that I didn't. There were aspects of it I really appreciated, and others I found deeply frustrating.

I continue to love the premise: two young women -- one working as a wildlife tracker & the other as a scientific researcher -- track unicorns on the savannah, fight poachers, save the day, and fall in love with each other while they're at it. I mean… yes? As a basic storyline this is deeply difficult for me to argue with.

I also loved Mnemba, the main character, from the getgo. As a wildlife conservation student I've had a little (only a little) education in tracking, and find it a completely fascinating pastime, so I might be a little biased to like any character who makes that kind of stuff her life's work. Though she's working with fantastical creatures instead of real ones, her tracking skills ring true as far as my limited knowledge goes, as do her moments of I-am-100%-done-with-rich-white-city-people (those moments where the tourists she guides think that the wildlife is there entirely for their entertainment are all too believable). She's also bi, which is awesome given the lack of bisexual MCs in YA relative to lesbian and gay MCs. She is courageous, intelligent, and pragmatic, but not so pragmatic that she won’t take completely ridiculous risks for the girl she's in love with.

And that's where I start running into problems, because… hm. Kara, Mnemba's love interest, is an interesting character. Her passion for animals, her dedication to research, and her courage are sympathetic. However, she frequently comes off as condescending and self-centered when it comes to interactions with other people, particularly Mnemba, even when she thinks she's being friendly. There's an early scene, for example, where she informs Mnemba of the real name (i.e. the scientific name) of the species of unicorn they're studying, as if what a bunch of scientists from another continent have decided to call a creature of course overrides anything the people who actually live and work around that creature have to say about it. She does that kind of thing a fair bit and is never really called on it.

Then there's Mnemba's own discomfort with intimacy, and how Kara -- and the narrative -- handle it. Mnemba is haunted by a brutal sexual assault that someone committed against her over a year ago, and is understandably hesitant about being physical with anyone. She's attracted to Kara, but her feelings are mixed up with memories of what happened to her.

So. There's a scene where they've been both kind of dancing around their attraction to each other for a bit, and Mnemba, in a bold moment, kisses Kara. Kara reciprocates, and in short order they're both pulling their shirts off -- and Kara sees the scars Mnemba bears from when she was attacked. Mnemba freezes up and tells Kara to stop.

Kara instead begins to kiss all of her scars and tell her they're beautiful and not to be ashamed of them, and they have this big Sweet Happy Romantic Moment, and I almost threw my Kindle across the room. Like, hi, Mnemba was assaulted, PTSD is a thing, there might be more than shame going on here, and it is not remotely romantic to keep making out with someone who has asked you to stop because you think you know what's going on in her head better than she does. And Kara continues to have subtle but persistent issues with boundaries, more than once pressuring Mnemba for intimacy and failing to pick up hints when this is unwelcome.

The thing is, they're all small moments in the larger story, to the extent that I kept asking myself if I was overreacting. For me, though, those moments added up. I think if the story had been longer and more room had been devoted to acknowledging the potential problems between Mnemba and Kara and working through them, it could have worked. As it was, I had serious questions about how quickly their relationship fell together and where it was going once the poacher-thwarting, unicorn-saving adrenaline rush wore off.

As for the wider plot, it was interesting, but -- much like the romance -- it got none of the depth or detail it deserved. There was some pretty heavy subject material going on, and 180 pages just wasn't room to deal with it all thoughtfully.Had the book had another hundred pages or so it might have had a chance, but in the space it was given it felt rushed and shallow, with many things that happened, and many actions the characters took, feeling contrived to move the story along. 

For all my ranting about Mnemba and Kara's relationship, I can understand why a lot of people liked Unicorn Tracks. I would be delighted to read more about Mnemba, I'd be almost as delighted to read more about Kara if the narrative came with a slightly healthier dose of self-awareness about her character flaws, and while the plot wasn't well-developed it had the seeds of a good old-fashioned over-the-top fantasy adventure. For me I couldn't quite get past the problems I had with it, but there was enough potential there that I suspect I'll still be picking up Seafarer's Kiss when it comes out.

Up next from my #queer52 reading list: Nalo Hopkinson's The Chaos. Review to come soon.

1 comment:

  1. I haven't read the book, but I was cringing right along with you when you described the scene where someone says "stop" and someone else... doesn't. That would probably be a stopping point for me and that book, and it's definitely worth calling out when consent issues are presented as "romantic."

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