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A review by literaryintersections
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
How do you review a time-bending, genre defying, futuristic yet so timely novel about what it means to not belong: in a place, in a time, in a world that looks at you as an experiment? And how two messed up people can find love in a place where they are both a means to an end.
Yall this book messed me up and I’m not afraid to admit it. Between this, Thirsty by Jas Hammond and Challengers my waking moments are wrapped around biracial people (and as a biracial I always think about us 😂😂). But seriously, my notes of this book are a lot of “wow this paragraph” and “wtf is happening” and “damn she’s really going there with the British colonial empire!” Kaliane gives the reader a lot to think about with a narrator I have a lot of complex feelings about: what it means to be weighed down by “inherited trauma” from a parent who grew up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge genocide but with a face that “does a good impression of whiteness” - and living in a Britain with a long history of playing “finders keepers”; with objects, people, countries. That’s just a small piece of what this is about. It’s also about love, acclimating to a time and place vastly different from your own, racism, violence, and displacement.
And it’s actually super freaking funny. At one point Graham Gore, the REAL 19th century commander who is pulled from 1847 into the present time and sees a scooter for the first time, calling it a “cowards vehicle” and I actually had to put the book down. The awkwardness, the laughs, the love - all help to offset the depth, the sadness, the recognition that our world, this world, is on a path of utter destruction. Playing out in the pages of this wild book.
I can’t express how much I loved this book. It’s a ride that you all must hop on. And then text or DM me when you do. Kaliane - whatever you do next? I’ll be there.
Yall this book messed me up and I’m not afraid to admit it. Between this, Thirsty by Jas Hammond and Challengers my waking moments are wrapped around biracial people (and as a biracial I always think about us 😂😂). But seriously, my notes of this book are a lot of “wow this paragraph” and “wtf is happening” and “damn she’s really going there with the British colonial empire!” Kaliane gives the reader a lot to think about with a narrator I have a lot of complex feelings about: what it means to be weighed down by “inherited trauma” from a parent who grew up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge genocide but with a face that “does a good impression of whiteness” - and living in a Britain with a long history of playing “finders keepers”; with objects, people, countries. That’s just a small piece of what this is about. It’s also about love, acclimating to a time and place vastly different from your own, racism, violence, and displacement.
And it’s actually super freaking funny. At one point Graham Gore, the REAL 19th century commander who is pulled from 1847 into the present time and sees a scooter for the first time, calling it a “cowards vehicle” and I actually had to put the book down. The awkwardness, the laughs, the love - all help to offset the depth, the sadness, the recognition that our world, this world, is on a path of utter destruction. Playing out in the pages of this wild book.
I can’t express how much I loved this book. It’s a ride that you all must hop on. And then text or DM me when you do. Kaliane - whatever you do next? I’ll be there.