kore: (Default)
K. ([personal profile] kore) wrote in [personal profile] osprey_archer 2024-10-27 05:28 pm (UTC)

That's Le Guin's arguably most famous YA work after the Earthsea trilogy, yeah. It came out in 1980 and I read it at around the same time as this book. It's partly a tribute to and takedown of high fantasy, it also has a very angry independent heroine and George Orr-esque hero, and it's all about the sexual cliches and gendered violence Natalie and Owen escape. The chapters from the heroine's POV are amazing and it's got one of Le Guin's best openings. It's kind of very late seventies and All About Sex. It was famous at the time for being reviewed by John Updike in the New Yorker (they didn't start publishing her stories till much later), and he criticized the sex scene.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting