About halfway through Alone In an Untamed Land and I've got some thoughts
1. she is not alone. She has monsiour aubrey and seraphine and Kateri and her aunt. also these lands are not untamed
So weird how people used to do shit in the 1660s
Like whenever she thought she might've done something wrong she had to run to her priest. Is it a sin that I'm curious about what's gonna happen to me? Is it a sin that I keep a diary?
Reminds me of how ppl run to tumblr
Language in this book is kinda outdated. idk if it's cause it was written in like the 2000s or if it's cause they were writing like it was the 1660s. They talk about one of the characters being indian and I was like, damn, this bitch is travelling all over, but no, they're just mohawk
Why are all these sisters dying on ships???? Like in the acadian book too, her sister died on a ship. This ship was at least a little better but damn
I cannot beleive people used to spend 3 months at sea, does kinda make sense why they're all dying now
But some of them are just like taking trips and idc how much I miss home if there's a 50% I die on the way there and a 50% I die on the way back I'm not fucking going
Oh and the filles du roi part
it's not as bad as when I first heard it. The girls do get to choose who to marry
some of them just got married to the first well off guy they saw in 'new france' which is wild
oh yeah, our girl helene is coerced into becoming a fille du roi because her sister died and now she owes the king a debt
Also these girls are supposed to be like the prettiest and best france has to offer and one is missing a front tooth (helene calls her mary with the missing front tooth (there are 5 maries, all of them survive the ship ride (that's a statistical anomaly))), anyways I feel like maybe this program doesn't have as high of an entry bar than was first discussed
More on Helene! I'm kinda worried about her, she's the youngest (apperantly some of them were as young as 10!) and also because she is under 16 she's the only one to get paid for marrying which is wild
She has her friend Kateri and then also became friends with Kateri's dad, monsiour Aubrey who doesn't want to marry but is legally required to so he can trade (wild laws they have) so I feel like they're building up to the two of them marrying which I think is dope as like a platonic friends with legal benefits situation but sometimes it is kinda like 'is he flirting with her or is he just being kind?" and the fact that they are expected to reproduce is really where this all becomes fucked up
It's one of those things where he does a lot of stuff to help her which I interpreted as him being a caring adult and going "oh fuck, there is a child left alone and her only guardians view her as an object to be traded away, I've got to help her find people who are actually going to take care of her" but looking back it could be a slight romantic gesture
I don't think there are specific laws requiring them to reproduce so they might be able to get away with just being friends with legal benefits but hopefully if they have to they can at least wait until she's an adult
There's also seraphine who is closer in age to her but there doesn't seem to be that much romance going on between them
Umm official rating I'm-very-glad-I-live-in-2026/10
