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rainwaterspark(Content warning: the books discussed below include child abuse and rape.)
So, full disclaimer first: I skimmed the 3 books (because this is what law school has done to me, it's made me unable to read books in full anymore).
I usually don't read "hardcore" sci-fi, and while those elements remained less than comfortable for me, I thought the Warchild series was an interesting space epic that focused keenly on the effects of abuse and trauma on people. The writing didn't always hit the mark for me, but there was definitely a haunting poetry to it that I didn't expect for the genre and I appreciated that. I also liked the way the author experimented with POV in the books when dealing with the horrors of traumatic experiences.
Mostly I was interested in Jos and Evan's (queerplatonic?) relationship and Yuri's story. I recently read another series that dealt with abuse, torture, rape, and Stockholm Syndrome/brainwashing in a somewhat similar way (I'm not going to name this series because...well...I usually consider myself pretty desensitized to torture and abuse in fiction, but this series actually really disturbed me and made me severely question my life choices for days, and I don't want to be responsible for causing a similar reaction in anyone else), but I found the treatment of such topics in Yuri's case more grounded. For one, in Cagebird (Warchild #3), the effects of it all made sense for Yuri because he was so young (whereas in Series I'm Not Going To Name, the abusive "brainwashing" bit was somewhat hard to believe for a young adult who was over 20 years old); for another, even though Yuri didn't run from his abusive situation (unlike Jos), the narrative conveyed that he still found some aspects of it horrifying and not right (whereas in Series I'm Not Going To Name, the character became some sort of strange happy sex slave robot who stopped minding rape after a while...).
It's been a while (a pretty long while, I think) since I've read a book that was open to interpretation from the reader, and you know what? I kind of miss that. Reading the TVTropes page for the Warchild was interesting for that reason (although unfortunately the discussion about Jos's aromantic asexuality was somewhat cringe-worthy). For example, I don't agree that Yuri's decision not to run away from Falcone, whereas Jos and Azarcon did, means Yuri should be responsible for the things he's done. Or, rather, he should be responsible, just not for that particular reason, because that would be very victim-blame-y. Also, Yuri outright says that he was treated differently from Jos and Azarcon (because apparently Falcone finally got the memo that killing a child's family and then abusing said child isn't a great way to inspire loyalty...).
So, full disclaimer first: I skimmed the 3 books (because this is what law school has done to me, it's made me unable to read books in full anymore).
I usually don't read "hardcore" sci-fi, and while those elements remained less than comfortable for me, I thought the Warchild series was an interesting space epic that focused keenly on the effects of abuse and trauma on people. The writing didn't always hit the mark for me, but there was definitely a haunting poetry to it that I didn't expect for the genre and I appreciated that. I also liked the way the author experimented with POV in the books when dealing with the horrors of traumatic experiences.
Mostly I was interested in Jos and Evan's (queerplatonic?) relationship and Yuri's story. I recently read another series that dealt with abuse, torture, rape, and Stockholm Syndrome/brainwashing in a somewhat similar way (I'm not going to name this series because...well...I usually consider myself pretty desensitized to torture and abuse in fiction, but this series actually really disturbed me and made me severely question my life choices for days, and I don't want to be responsible for causing a similar reaction in anyone else), but I found the treatment of such topics in Yuri's case more grounded. For one, in Cagebird (Warchild #3), the effects of it all made sense for Yuri because he was so young (whereas in Series I'm Not Going To Name, the abusive "brainwashing" bit was somewhat hard to believe for a young adult who was over 20 years old); for another, even though Yuri didn't run from his abusive situation (unlike Jos), the narrative conveyed that he still found some aspects of it horrifying and not right (whereas in Series I'm Not Going To Name, the character became some sort of strange happy sex slave robot who stopped minding rape after a while...).
It's been a while (a pretty long while, I think) since I've read a book that was open to interpretation from the reader, and you know what? I kind of miss that. Reading the TVTropes page for the Warchild was interesting for that reason (although unfortunately the discussion about Jos's aromantic asexuality was somewhat cringe-worthy). For example, I don't agree that Yuri's decision not to run away from Falcone, whereas Jos and Azarcon did, means Yuri should be responsible for the things he's done. Or, rather, he should be responsible, just not for that particular reason, because that would be very victim-blame-y. Also, Yuri outright says that he was treated differently from Jos and Azarcon (because apparently Falcone finally got the memo that killing a child's family and then abusing said child isn't a great way to inspire loyalty...).
