When we selected March’s read, we thought we’d cracked it. A book we’d both like, because we both had read and liked the author before. It was a shoo-in.
It was not a shoo-in.
So if you want to know exactly where things went wrong, read our reviews below.
Related: our reviews of Cipri’s The Shape of My Name from November’s Book Club
Finna
Nino Cipri
Rep: bi/pan mc with depression and anxiety, Guaian American nonbinary li
When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but our two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.
Can friendship blossom from the ashes of a relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.
Charlotte’s Review
Rating: 2/5 🌈
I think my problem with this book was in the relationship. Recently, after reading two books all but in a row that have had an established relationship (or, here, follow immediately a break-up), I have reached the conclusion that I just don’t like that set-up. I want to see people getting together not already together, particularly when a whole book is predicated on that relationship. Because it’s the getting together bit (and getting to know characters pre-relationship) that lets me root for the relationship. Else I’m just bored.
And that’s what happened here. I was asked to care about a relationship with no reason for it. Our characters are introduced three days after their break-up and I’m already asking myself what do I care for the breakdown of their relationship. I haven’t seen any reason to root for it in the first place, let alone to be sad it’s broken down.
So it’s probably obvious why I found myself incredibly bored by a book that basically just follows these two characters who I don’t care about.
Anna’s Review
Rating: 3/5 🌈
It’s actually 2.5 but I’m rounding up.
The thing is, absolutely nothing here held my attention. I’ve read one novella by Cipri before and absolutely fell in love with the writing, but somehow it just didn’t feel the same here! Probably because the vibe of Finna wouldn’t work with the kind of style that The Shape of My Name offers…
The idea for Finna is great, sure! And you probably will want to abolish capitalism even more than usual after you finish reading. But so what, when the characters seem lifeless and boring? For someone who mostly choose characters-driven stories, this is just a huge disappointment. I have no one to root for! I do not care about the fallen relationship!
I probably should have expected this, given Finna is a novella. I should have expected a cool worldbuilding & imagery (which I did get!), with a slightly less cool side of characters. And yet, here I am, deeply disappointed.
I really wanted to love this story but it just ended up leaving me bored.
Did you read along with us? What did you think?
8 Comments
Alex Logan
I also was not thrilled by Finna. It somehow wasn’t what I was expecting
readsrainbow
i feel that! there was all this hype around it and then it just… wasn’t much of anything…
– charlotte
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art. now. (@joyfulrivers)
So I still haven’t read all of FINNA… but I’m going to comment anyway, because I’ve just read a piece that nails down a certain mode of writing contemporary literature, a mode that is “brisk, frank, stark, plain, competent, and readable” and which concerns “ the daily lives of a few everyday characters, usually young, usually in some kind of bad sexual relationship or complicated breakup, usually mediated by digital technology”, often focusing on detailed descriptions of the smallest expressions and interactions between the characters. The examples given are “Cat Person” and “Normal People”.
When I read that characterisation, I immediately thought of some new trans SFF authors writing in the more literary vein whom I see employ this style sometimes. One is Julian K. Jarboe (author of a great collection “Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel”) and the other is Nino Cipri. To be fair to both of them, their short stories utilise a variety of styles (and I would definitely recommend Cipri’s collection “Homesick” as well), but FINNA for me definitely seems to fall into that mode of writing, which presents relatable situations but where we observe the characters and relationships from a remove that makes them seem very bland and emotionless. I wonder if this, more than the novella length, is what makes FINNA fall so flat, because I’m definitely feeling it too (and yet “The Shape of My Name” is shorter and much more vivid). What do you think?
Having said all of that, I still think Nino Cipri is a great writer, but I’m very happy I read “Homesick” first.
readsrainbow
honestly, that description IS absolutely perfect for finna. not cipri in general, bc like u said urself, the shape of my name is written in a totally different style, more whimsical and magical, and more inviting. finna is just dry.
i’m more drown to books which are character driven, so really this whole trend has like, zero appeal to me. why would i want to follow characters when i don’t have any attachment to them, right? i can see why adult lit would go in this direction tho, how it can be perceived as more mature and elegant, and other rubbish like that.
– anna
art. now.
I think I either like heavily character-driven stuff or cool SFF ideas (or when it’s both, of course!) – so in realist fiction this approach is pretty much the worst of both worlds for me *. From what you write in both your reviews, FINNA at least has cool worldbuilding, so I look forward to that if nothing else.
* – though I will note I really liked “Cat Person” for instance, so I’m not writing off this style wholesale.
readsrainbow
fingers crossed hat u will enjoy it a bit more than we did!
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