Thom reviewed The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
Review of 'The Only Harmless Great Thing' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Three different female characters in two time frames tell one story in this printed novella, originally available from tor.com. The author expanded on two historical events, joining them in a tragic "what-if".
This quick read is about the power of story and the manipulation of truth, along with the impact of stories through history. It is also a very emotional tale about abuse of power, sentient elephants and people. It takes a few pages to get used to the writing style, quick shifting between characters with no introduction, and I almost put the volume down at that point. Glad I didn't.
The author is a self-described writer of "weird things of indeterminate genre", and is working on a novel. This story is tragedy, somewhere between alternate history and fantasy.
