Ace Book Review: "Beneath the Citadel" by Destiny Soria

 “If they own your future, they own you. Never let that happen.”

I’m sure most people in the world can relate to the feeling of having a few memories at least that we wish we could lose – whether they be ones of deep emotional pain and trauma or simply of a mortifying moment we don’t want to recall. On the opposite side of that, I’m sure we all have memories we never want to let go of, memories that make us happy or make us laugh or make us feel safe. As one of the characters says in my favorite video game, Dragon Age: Inquisition, “memories make us who we are.” So what if there was magic that allowed memories to be taken away, given back, shared, and even altered? What would the world look like if such a magic were possible?

This premise makes up part of the plot of the 2018 novel Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria. The story takes place in the city of Eldra, a place where prophecies – and the people who make them – are of almighty importance. Ruled by a high council that stays in power thanks to ancient prophecies, decades of unrest and rebellion were commonplace until the defeat of the rebels, known as Firebrands, who are something like legends. The story begins years after the rebellion has been crushed, leading to the death of all the Firebrands, including the parents of Cassa Valera, who still carries with her the desire to overthrow the council, as well as a thirst for vengeance.

Accompanying Cassa on this quest are brother and sister pair Evander and Alys, whose own parents have been literally branded as traitors for the simple act of helping a rebel in his dying moments, as well as Newt, whose father has more figuratively been branded as a coward by the rebels for betraying the cause. Together, the unlikely quartet of allies comes up against not only the high council, but a far more dangerous enemy that no one else can contain, as well as dangers that are rampant throughout the city. Add into this not only the magic of the prophecies, but the magic of being able to see and take memories, and the danger only compounds.

Right away, the novel starts off in an intriguing way that I did not expect and thoroughly enjoyed. [Spoilers!] The story opens with each of the four friends having been captured, now facing individual trials for treason, the sentence for which is death. They are all tried and found guilty, and the next four short chapters follow each character as they manage to break out of their prison cells, each in their own unique way. I love the way the book started with the failure of the group’s plan without having to actually show that plan, and I love that we are introduced to each of the four characters through the way they manage to break out following the verdict of their trial. It also introduces us to the point of view of each of these characters, and they become our main narrators for the rest of the story, with a few other narrators thrown in, which allowed the story to unfold in an extremely effective way.

Unfortunately, for as strong a start as this was, I ended up not caring much for the book in the end, mostly because I had trouble really getting into the characters and their relationships. We are told multiple times that this group of four are friends and allies, but I had trouble feeling as though that actually played out in the story. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I love well-done friendships and speak about them often on the blog. When I do celebrate my favorite friendships, these are often relationships and dynamics that feel authentic and genuine to me; it feels like these people genuinely care about one another and their well-being, and that even if they don’t always see eye to eye, there is real connection between them that makes their dynamic worthwhile.

I didn’t really get that from this friend group, perhaps because a lot of the dynamics are actually other relationships – Evander and Alys are siblings, Cassa and Evander are ex-lovers, Newt and Evander eventually end up together (why do all these relationships involve Evander?). The bonds that are or remain purely platonic are those dynamics between Alys, Newt, and Cassa, and I never felt those bonds were really explored well. I think part of this can also be chalked up to the fact that I didn’t particularly like Cassa as a character. While her hunger for revenge against the council and the desire to finish what her parents started makes sense, Cassa’s personality constantly struck me as overbearing, cocky, and arrogant, to the point where I often wondered why any of the other characters would be friends with her, let alone help her in her schemes at the expense of their own well-being and, in some cases, the well-being of their families.

Strangely enough, despite the fact that these four characters – and another one of the friends, a girl named Vesper – are all equally given narrator status throughout the book, everyone but Cassa felt like they were treated as side characters at times. This was another setback for me because, for most of the novel, I actually found Cassa unlikable. While much of her attitude is justifiable and it does feel like she grows a bit as the story goes on, I still found it difficult to get invested in the story because of her dominance over it. While there are some elements of the plot that are very strong and the magic system is certainly utilized in really interesting ways coupled with some good worldbuilding, I therefore just couldn’t connect with it.

This is likewise a problem I had with the story’s asexual representation, such as it was. Alys is the story’s asexual character and is identified as asexual explicitly. While using the term feels somewhat out of place for the setting, I was very glad to see it used and portrayed for the character. It’s a very familiar portrayal – wherein Alys is portrayed as very uninterested in romance and even less in sex – and often expresses confusion about the more casual relationships around her, such as the now-dormant one between her brother and Cassa. I don’t mind these types of common portrayals; as I said in my previous Ace Book Review, I think we need more baseline portrayals of aspec identities in order to increase the visibility that these identities are often starved for.

However, I will say that Alys being asexual is a very small part of the story. Again, in my previous book review post, I mentioned that having aspec representation even just in the background of a story is important and how it’s a win even when a character’s aspec identity is not overly important to the story. I still believe that, of course. But Alys’s asexuality was actually an even smaller part of this story than it was for Nancy in Every Heart a Doorway. Apart from the explicit mentions of her being asexual and some of those familiar baseline elements I mentioned, it does not affect the character herself or the story in any meaningful ways.

While I do not mind that fact, I have to admit that the story would not have changed at all if Alys wasn’t aspec and her being aspec added nothing to the story. In my review for Every Heart a Doorway, I noted how some aspec readers felt like Nancy’s asexuality was more portrayed as merely a character trait rather than any type of actual representation, and I do feel the same thing could be said about Alys’s portrayal – if not more so. In fact, I feel more emphasis was given to Alys’s anxiety and how she struggled with it than her aspec identity. However, I do like the idea that a reader may have still been introduced to asexuality as a concept because of her, even if there is very little information given about asexuality within the story itself.

Additionally, I often complain on the blog about how aspec characters are portrayed as cold, unemotional, or unlikable, and none of these things were ascribed to Alys. Rather, she is portrayed as warm, loyal, and intelligent and, in my opinion at least, she was one of the novel’s most likable characters. While I of course would have loved for Alys’s identity to be a more important part of the narrative, I think she’s nevertheless a very rewarding example of an aspec character. Regular readers of the blog know I often talk about the fact that media commonly squanders the chance to include aspec representation, either finding it unpalatable or too hard – in fact, several of my most recent posts have been about that very subject.

Because I’ve seen far too much of that lately, I am even more of the opinion than usual that even just including aspec characters that are unflinchingly defined that way is important, even if their identity doesn’t play a larger role in the story. For that reason, I definitely support Alys as good canon representation, even if there really isn’t much more for me to talk about in regard to her. While I think the way she was portrayed could be better – especially in how characters like Cassa reacted to Alys’s asexual tendencies – I do appreciate that Alys was allowed to be aspec at all.

Having aspec representation alongside other representation is likewise important. For instance, Evander is explicitly identified as bisexual and, as mentioned earlier, develops a relationship with Newt as the story unfolds. The fact that Alys’s aspec representation was allowed to exist and be featured alongside this other representation is very important, and it’s good to see asexual identities featured and celebrated alongside other LGBTQIAP+ identities. Again, this may sound fairly obvious, but with how often I’ve seen asexuality, aromanticism, and other related identities excluded from basic portrayals, this becomes even more important.

Additionally, although not ever identified as aspec, I appreciated that the character of Vesper was also never in a romantic relationship throughout the course of the story, and that her most important relationships were friendship and familial ones. The constant emphasis on family relationships of all kinds and how they affected the lives of the characters was also a welcome element that I sincerely appreciated. Thus, romance was allowed to develop or be discussed for these characters, but these other bonds were allowed to be emphasized just as much and shown to be important parts of these characters’ lives.

Like I said before, while I sometimes questioned the way characters’ actions would put their families and friends in danger (either directly or indirectly), I nevertheless appreciated the way these relationships played out. In some instances, I actually feel the novel took some interesting risks when it came to characters preserving and protecting these relationships. Although I will not spoil the book’s somewhat surprising ending, I actually felt the conclusion of the novel was perhaps the best example of that, and I really appreciated seeing it go in a surprising and unconventional direction with how the conflict was resolved and the group of friends protected.

Overall, although I had some mixed feelings on this book and the aspec representation is definitely tiny, I’m glad I read this book. Due to Alys’s asexuality only being a small part of the story, I debated not covering the book after all, but I wanted to once again discuss why some of these baseline portrayals are important and I do think that some readers might significantly enjoy the representation Alys gives them or could give other people reading the book for the first time. While somewhat lackluster in some respects, the book is really exceptional in others, so it creates an interesting journey that I’m glad I took part in.

In future, I hope books like Beneath the Citadel inspire writers – especially of fantasy stories such as this – to consider the fact that aspec characters have as much right to exist in stories as people of other identities do, and that being aspec can fit into a character’s personality or story in a way that feels organic. In fact, it’s nice to see characters for whom being aspec is just one part of who they are, rather than their whole identity. As an aspec person hoping for representation, I of course would like to see more stories where aspec identities are front and center and the stories focus on how these characters explore, express, and accept their identity, but I also hope for stories where aspec characters are just allowed to exist.

I’d like to see more characters like Alys who get to be unabashedly aspec and get to be other things too, going on adventures, saving the people they care about, and maturing in ways that are both related to their identities and not. Even if these characters aren’t major or their identities exist in the background, it’s somewhat comforting to see and know that characters of all kinds are allowed to be aspec without being ridiculed, excluded, or changed. I have far too many terrible portrayals of aspec or aspec adjacent characters in my memory and far too many memories of aphobia in media, so every now and then it’s nice to get a memory of a character who is aspec and is just allowed to be. For that reason, I think Beneath the Citadel and Alys will remain in my memory for a long time to come.