Well. Wow. That was pretty much what I expected in a bad way, and so much better in a good way.

So. It's an adventure-y story about tons of stressful and horrific stuff, that has enough cartoon-y distance to still be more on the light-hearted side. It pulled me right in, I got invested in all the characters and what was going on with them right away, and didn't stop caring ever.

It's about weirdos in a very normative post-apocalyptic world, travelling to a lagoon that used to be a city, where they've heard supernatural neurodivergencies might be accepted, as well as any other kind of weirdness. So that's a cool vibe.

Just don't expect any subtlety. The writing of social inequality feels very heavy-handed to me. The way sexism is used to characterise a place almost made me sigh. It's mentioned that there are black characters, but the way this is done I wasn't so sure about. I also really don't get anything out of the zombie-ish folks but they are definitely meant to be a lesson on something. The way fatness is invoked to describe some chaterters quality way beyond body shape is on a different level of shitty, I think the author simply didn't question his bullshit there at all. So that's the bad part.

More of what I enjoyed though: The villain is perfectly hateable, a representative of an oppressive institution who personally loves to abuse weirdos. I was impressed by the negotiation of violence and self-defence, which is quite prominent since one of the villain's manipulative tactics is to shift blame, which is very clearly challenged.

And here I mention the really grim stuff: This is a world where eugenics are a widespread everyday principle. There's nowhere to hide between the towns with all their rules about what normal people look and behave like, and the wilderness where people get eaten unless they get very good at not getting eaten (or team up with someone who is). There's a torturous asylum-ish place, too. So that's a bit heavy despite the catoonish-ness. But the characters we follow are outcasts who don't subscribe to that bullshit at all, and there's detailed descriptions of how it hurt them, but more as backstory than as an educational "look! they suffer". It felt very good to read a story where "saving humanity" by killing folks who aren't normal enough is very clearly painted as a bad thing without making a big deal of that standpoint. Which is such a low bar! What is fantastical fiction even doing to make this stand out as noteworthy!

I found this by checking for Jonathan Stroud audiobooks at the library expecting to maybe find Bartimaeus to listen to again, and I'm definitely not disappointed to have found this instead.