Rating: WORTHY!
This was an advance review copy I got from Net Galley, and I really appreciate the opportunity to have read it. Thanks to the author and publisher, and to Net Galley!
I loved this novel! It was refreshingly different, had something interesting and out-of-the-ordinary to relate, and had a believable main character and a believable plot. This was written for adults and it showed. Though the main character was quite young, she was beyond the YA range and definitely more mature than your trope special princess YA character about whom I've seen far too many novels. Indeed, my desire to break that detestable mold was why I wrote Femarine!
Rock Paper Tiger is about a woman who's down on her luck, feeling sorry for herself, and in some sort of nebulous trouble that she can't get a good handle on, but she hangs in there and wins through in the end, and all without having some shining white knight coming to rescue her. This pretty much defines what I mean when I talk about a strong female character. Of course there are different varieties of strong character, but this is definitely an admirable one. She's not strong in that she can kick anyone's ass. In fact she gets her own kicked in different ways more than once. She has no super powers. She's not paranormal. In fact she's rather weak in some senses, because she's hurting inside and she's physically disabled after being the victim of a mortar attack while serving in the Middle East in the US Army, yet she keeps on going and she never gives up. It can be done, you YA authors! You can write a novel with a female character, and have her go it alone, and have her be credible!
The first thing which impressed me was that this was written in first person - a voice which I routinely detest - and yet it was completely readable. Not once did I feel nauseous reading it! See? It can be done well enough to impress even a decidedly-biased curmudgeon like me! That doesn't mean it has to be done, and it certainly doesn't mean every novel should to be written this way. I'd be a lot happier if there were significantly fewer such novels, but this one definitely made the grade. There were also flashbacks which I normally detest, and even those were interesting and actually contributed to the story, so way-to-go Lisa Brackmann! If you can write a novel that impresses me, and it's in first person, and there are flashbacks, you can't be writing wrongs!
This is also the first in a series about which I know little. I think maybe there are two more, but this doesn't mean I'm going to rush out and read them. My biggest fear is that any sequel to this, however loosely connected, cannot be as good as this one was! This is one reason I'm not a fan of series either, although there are some which have been worth pursuing. I just feel that if I read the next and it wasn't as good, it would tarnish my memory of this one! But I am tempted, which is a rarity for me.
The story is about Ellie Cooper, who has been for some time out of the US Army after being injured in a mortar attack on the base in the Middle East where she was a medic. She had a severe leg injury, but in the end didn't lose her leg - just a chunk of muscle from it, rather like Gregory House and like House, she's in frequent pain. Unlike him, she is not an addict, and doles out a meager ration of her dwindling Percocet™ supply to herself when the pain becomes too much.
She lives off her miserly benefit she got from the Army after she was invalided out. Since her injury was not obtained in combat, and for a variety of other reasons (read: excuses) she didn't get as much as she'd hoped for, but it's enough to get by on in China. What she did get was a marriage proposal from the guy she was having casual sex with on the base. Shortly after that, when he left the military for a more lucrative private employment, they moved to China where his job took him. Shortly after that she came home unexpectedly early to find him at home with a Lily - of the human rather than the Lilium variety, and he told her he's in love with Lily and wants a divorce so they can marry. Ellie is dragging her heels, and is hurting from this state of affairs too. Or is it the state of an affaire?!
She also has a drinking problem, and doesn't seem to eat very well or exercise. She gets herself into foolish situations, but none of this prepares her for the situation she's about to get into when she comes into contact with a Uighur who is staying with an artist friend with whom she's had a casual sexual relationship for some time. Because of this contact, she now finds herself both under surveillance and threatened not only by the Chinese Public Security people, but also by some anonymous Americans who are probably CIA. Her art friend disappears, as does the Uighur, and all these suits seem to think Ellie is the key to finding both of them. The story follows her as she ambivalently tries to "help" the suits to keep herself out of trouble, whilst also trying not to sell-out her friend. She suffers for that friendship.
I have to say I had to wonder why she didn't simply leave China when this began, if not at the beginning, then certainly at the end, although the author kind of has that covered. but on the other hand, she was being watched, and if she had tried to leave, maybe she would have simply been picked up. I would certainly have lit out, but maybe Ellie is tougher than I am, or maybe she simply loves the life there despite the hassle. I also had to wonder why these people thought she had such a handle on what was going on that she could tell them what they wanted to know, but maybe these suits aren't as informed as they claim to be. Intelligence only goes so far when it comes down to the way governments operate, after all, doesn't it?!
On the down side, there were some formatting issues with the ebook - a hyphen missing from between words here and there, some lines ending in a carriage return long before the edge of the screen was reached, but I assume these will be fixed in the actual released edition. Other than that, the writing was excellent - I mean really good and eminently readable. This is why I am so tempted to move on to the next thing Lisa Brackmann wrote, even if it is a sequel, despite having a list of books to read that's a mile long (and probably literally so at this point).
I loved the way the author conveyed the feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia that a person has to feel in a situation like this - not knowing who the good guys are, fearing there are none, not knowing who to trust, not knowing where to go or what to do next. That's how a totalitarian society works, and from whence its power is derived, and that came through five by five. The author has actually lived in China, so this is authentic. I didn't get the sense that she'd been in the military, but that, too, sounded authentic to me, and in the end that's all I care about! I don't require Tom Clancy detail or authenticity - in fact, that turns me off a novel - but I do like one that reads like it's true no matter how fictional it is and either way, this one worked. I really liked it, sped through it effortlessly, and was pleased by how it went and how it ended. I recommend it unreservedly.
