That Inevitable Victorian Thing Book Review

So, “That Inevitable Victorian Thing” was a strange book. The premise immediately sounded like something I would love – an alternate reality Victorian society where genetic compatibility is a key factor in many marriages. What this means is the world is more of a melting pot than America ever was; nearly everyone has a combination of Hong Kong Chinese, First People, or other random ethnicity in their blood. In fact, even the princess of the Empire is described as having brown, freckled skin. All the diversity was a nice change and a happy vision for the world.

However, once you step into the plot, things get a little weird.

My “That Inevitable Victorian Thing” Book Review

Even though it’s the future, the world still apparently follows outdated Victorian values when it comes to marriage and courtship. Girls still have to make their debut, and of course nothing can happen between a couple before marriage. It was a strange but unrealistic idea.

The book starts slow and switches between a lot of different characters, making it a bit hard to get into. It was a little tedious hearing how nervous every character was for their debut; since they were all feeling the same, this could have been condensed. Honestly, the entire story could have started when the two main characters head to their summer cottage.

Helena, a young girl who’s romantically linked to August, has become friends with Margaret, who is posing as a normal girl but is really the crown princess. Helena has a problem – she signed into the genetic database and realized she’s intersex! How she never realized the symptoms was quickly glossed over and kind of ridiculous. However, she somehow strikes up a convo with Margaret, and the two have no idea they are chatting even as they are hanging out with each other in real life.

From Friends to Lovers?

Then, all of a sudden… they proclaim their love for each other and start making out. I wish I was kidding. This whole thing was so rushed and weird. How do two girls who clearly never had any experience with sex or relationships just suddenly realize they’re gay? It went from them being the best of friends to them wanting to stick their tongues down each other’s throats.

The ending is the most bizarre. Rather than proclaim their love to the world and take a stand for homosexuality, Margaret decides that she will marry August, Helena’s sweetheart. That way, Helena can accompany her back to England and they can live in some kind of weird lesbo love triangle where Helena gets to have sex with both August and Margaret. Since she’s intersex and can’t get pregnant, everyone wins!

Yeah… if you’re confused, you probably should be. Definitely a weird turn for a supposed young adult book to take. I think the story had a lot of potential, but it kind of went off in a different direction than I expected. Which wasn’t a good thing in this case. However, I did blaze through the last half of the book to see what happened, so it was entertaining. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.