Sociosexual. [Look to the Sun by Emmie Mears]

This dystopian masterpiece by Emmie Mears gives a “message of hope, acceptance and courage during the worst of times [and] will entrance the reader with its artistic flair, complexity and delivery of raw emotion.” (InD’Tale Magazine).

For fifteen years, the National People’s Voice has ruled in relative peace, quietly snuffing out dissent wherever it’s found. Silently enforcing their views and doctrine upon the people of Sanmarian as citizens disappear overnight and businesses mysteriously close.

Rose Abernethy and Beo Mataya are two strangers drawn together by one thing alone: Red Sunrise. A mysterious book no one else seems to have read. A book only two types of people ever ask about—collectors and the National People’s Voice. A book both Rose and Beo feel was written just for them and that strangely seems to echo what is currently going on in their beloved city.

As the facade of calm seethes into violent protests, Rose and Beo are caught in the middle. Drawn into the center of a forgotten tragedy, they discover the book may not only hold the key to the secret of the city’s past but also the key to its future.

I have to wonder why the decision was made to set the story in a country where the majority, the Kaeli, are darker skinned and darker features and the most prominent minority, the Roa, and the possibly most aligned with the organized resistance are lighter skinned with light eyes. Especially when you throw around words like "tchotchkes." Generally, the decision to characterize Kael as it was felt and read like an afterthought for diversity. The main diversity, despite the allusion to "Kaeli purity" was always going to come in the "sociosexual" sense. That aspect of the society was reinforced and hinted at more regularly throughout. In fact, it's so intensely in the "sociosexual" realm that the fascist regime portrayed in the book, the NPV, deals. Not the religious. The "ethnic" replaces any "racial" that might exist. Religion was barely a whisper. But no matter, fascism is fascism is fascism.

And so a lovely anti-fascist story is told in Emmie Mears' Look to the Sun, where love is love and bodily autonomy and anti-patriarchal lifestyles are under attack but always fighting back. Our two protagonists, Beo and Rose, have grown up blissfully and willingly naive of the history of horrors that have shaped their lives. What offends the most is Rose and her nonsense words. As she pleads for everyone to risk their lives and a movement hundreds, thousands strong, to help save her very new lover, Beo; as she defends the tyrant and mass murderer from the death his own wife seeks for him. Whereas no fascist regime in history has every been won without violence, Rose would try. At least, she would not participate directly. Guns are a shock to her, bullets are a shock to her. She would plead with her oppressor. All of this after she passes by heads on stakes! Sure Jan.

What confused me to no end was the repeated mention of Rose's mother, Miko, and how she'd left her family. Among these very sociosexually progressive people, did no one aim to understand her mother and her reasons for leaving that all mention of her is solely to condemn her? No fond memories of her mother are shared by others. What defines Miko is that she left. It is hinted at that maybe she left because of some unspoken tension in the polyamorous relationship she may have been on the fringes of, but it's done so as if to say, "that was her problem, not ours. It was oddly remarkable that this character received no sympathy, no balanced viewpoint on their being. Another character who was oddly noted for reminding Beo of Rose, a mention that went nowhere developmentally.

And so we end learning sympathy and understanding for the vilest character in the book, all because he was self-hating. Miss Ma'am. No. Absolutely not. Long story short, I was very disappointed by the ending. More than thirty chapter build to detailing the horrors humans can inflict upon each other out of zealous fear, all to end with a pacifist outlook that tries to overlook the counter-violence that made it an option? Yes, it is true, you can't end a cycle of violence with another one that has a different justification, but it just didn't sit well with me. Despite that disappointment that almost knocked it down a star for me, I'm still giving this 4 stars. I liked it too much and I read it too fast not too. I do enjoy a good thruple.

 Look to the Sun (ISBN: 9781643971575) was published October 2021.