I can't say I am surprised about how this turned out. I don't know, maybe it's not the book but me...but well, let me start at the beginning. [image]
I can't say I am surprised about how this turned out. I don't know, maybe it's not the book but me...but well, let me start at the beginning.
I did not like the write style. Apart from being rather juvenile bordering on downright childish it neither captivates with its beauty nor with any uniqueness or whatever one usually expects. Apart from that, it also has an abundance of dialogue where dialogue is not necessary. On a sidenote, I did not find it particularly funny or sassy either, it was merely annoying but more on that later. Don't get me wrong, I like interesting dialogue and can go without dozens of pages of landscape descriptions but only when I, as a reader, am not thrown directly into a completely different world and time that is, on top of everything else a strange combination of sci-fi and fantasy. When I start reading sci-fi or fantasy I expect at least some basic world-building and yes, descriptions. No such luck in this one. And when they feature, they feature far too late and I do not particularly appreciate reading what feels like drabbles in terms of describing the world the novel is set in.
Which ties together with my biggest problem with this book - lack of solid world-building. Maybe combining sci-fi elements with fantasy elements and magic is not such a bad idea, but it is not well executed in this one. We get a desolate living space and necromancy and longswords at the beginning and then BAM spaceships. Ok. Whatever, I guess. History? Explanations? Logic?
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Sorry, but I just don't buy it. Any of it. It didn't make any sense. Maybe it would have, if there had been some solid explanations, but nah. I don't care that you're not supposed to info-dump as an author, I want the world I am reading about to make sense and get some foundations for the world-building within the first five chapters. The world itself seems interesting enough but due to a poor execution I lost interest halfway through the book and didn't recover from it.
Now, briefly back to the dialogue-topic and the characters. Damn was it annoying. And so were Gideon and Harrow. YA? More like - teenagers in the middle of their 'rebellious' phase trying to seem witty/funny. It was worse than Meda in the Soul Eaters trilogy, and that's saying something. Banter? Sass? Are you sure? More like disrespectful teenagers being annoying, pretentious and disrespectful while messing shit up. Thinking is apparently optional and I am so over the trope where the MC is all brawn and no brains whatsoever and shit happening in a way that conveniently makes the MC seem less idiotic while simultaneously progressing the plot in manner that is far from subtle.
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Gideon is just one big fat stereotype with apparently no brain and no ability to keep her mouth shut. And as I have already said, the banter with Harrow is just annoying and brattish. Maybe it's just me, but both seem like completely flat characters. Some of the secondary characters have a lot more potential than either of these two. Besides, the fact that neither of them can just shut up frequently distracts from the rather scarce plot. Or at least it distracted me. Also, I like the enemies-to-lovers trope, but only if done well. Which it wasn't. Which brings me to the plot. Yes, it is present although it picks up rather slowly and confusingly. Stuff happens and for two thirds of the book various plot threds are thrown and flying around, and it's a clusterfuck and then the author manages to tie it together in the last third, though again, not with finesse (I get it, debut, new author, etc. but honestly, no) and by that time I was so annoyed that it didn't manage to salvage anything.
And lastly, I love the concept of necromancy but damn it it requires some effort to do it well because it is not something that features very widely in fantasy, and particularly YA if we are talking non-stereotypical and well executed necromancy. I firmly believe that the author should have focussed solely on the necromancy and tried to create a more solid and believable world and magic system and then it would have worked far better. Instead, the concept I adore so much was completely effed up and I could not enjoy either the sci-fi or the fantasy part of it.
As a fellow reviewer put it - it seems more like a parody than sci-fi/fantasy YA. I could not take this book seriously regardless how hard I tried, and I tried hard. Great premise - terrible execution, that's what it is.
Not recommended. Annoying flat immature characters, the author tried to hard with the humour/wit/sass, the plot has some noticeable holes in it, the world-building is severely lacking, the writing is mediocre.
P.S. Also what's up with those names? Even effing star or constellation names would have been fine, but names like Harrowhark Nonagesimus? Lachrimorta? Lachrimorta? Keeping it Lacrimosa would have been fine. Even fucking normal names would have been perfectly fine rather than this...they are ridiculous, completely and utterly ridiculous and one more reason why I simply couldn't take this book seriously.
First things first - I read it because a friend needs help with a paper on this book and I needed to know the details to be able to help. I would haveFirst things first - I read it because a friend needs help with a paper on this book and I needed to know the details to be able to help. I would have never picked this book up otherwise.
The writing is...difficult. I must admit, I read George R.R. Martin's doorstoppers faster than this one. It is overly descriptive, particularly when it comes to sex, and particularly when descriptions aren't truly needed. It is overly detailed, the author frequently digresses and focusses, I think, on all the wrong things. In the end, the writing left me with a pounding head and immensely annoyed.
There is no plot per se because the book tells the story of a family from the nineteenth century on and into the 90's focussing particularly on the character of Pono, who is apparently capable of magic and has some uber-creepy habits and unhealthy behaviours. But the problem is - neither is there any real character development in the book. Because when I thought it would finally occur the author killed several characters off and everything went back to the same old. Maybe that is some modern or postmodern statement, to me it seemed merely unnecessary.
Lastly, what it is essentially about is Hawaii. Its annexation and the fight of the natives to save their land. It directs the attention of the reader to all the important topics like economy, politics, social constructs and the overall term - exploitation of the natives by...heh, who do you think? I think I don't need to say it. This is great, don't get me wrong. I didn't know about most of it, at least not that it had happened in Hawaii as well, but I guess the colonisers weren't really creative in their cruelty, were they?! So kudos for that. But frankly, I could have read it in a non-fiction book, would have liked to actually get a detailed non-fiction book instead of this one, and come to the same conclusions.
Recommended if you are interested in Hawaii and its history....more
Really, it wasn't atrocious, but it was very far from being good. Or maybe my expectations, by now, are too high fo[image]
This was not my cup of tea.
Really, it wasn't atrocious, but it was very far from being good. Or maybe my expectations, by now, are too high for a newcomer to live up to them. I won't dive into lengthy explanations, here, mostly because the book bored and annoyed me so much, and instead just present everything I did not like.
First and foremost, the mythology the Belles are based on. It was just...weak. Perhaps the author will elaborate on the foundations of the world she created in the next installment, I do hope so (although I don't plan to continue), but I found the mythology very strange and lacking in this one. The idea itself is interesting, I suppose, but not exactly new since I remember some similar abilities in the Grisha Trilogy. It didn't help that the author didn't really elaborate on the Belles' abilities either. Next comes the writing which I found bleak and stiff and not engaging at all. And accompanied by the lack of world-building, an excess of frankly boring descriptions and a godawful protagonist the result was a disaster, in my eyes. Rather than providing the readers with world-building the author goes on describing and describing and describing how beautiful everyone and everything is with all types of synonyms which, after a while repeat themselves (which I found just lazy and serving the function of page-fillers).
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And Camille, wow, just wow is she stupid and vain and shallow and have I mentioned stupid? Thinking? Haha no. Learning from her mistakes? No. Again - THINKING? Nah, what for?! Character development? Forget it. I can't even. I haven't encountered such a stupid protagonist in a while. She was almost entertaining in her stupidity and hence, predictability. Which brings me to an almost complete absence of a plot and what was there was painfully predictable because we've encountered it in a 1000+ other YA books.
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The villain, the potential love triangle and love interests, the sibling rivalry, the dumb special snowflake protagonist who doesn't undergo any development at all, the dead parent, the monarch who has no agency, or brain for that matter... ALL. THE. YA. TROPES. ...more
This collection of stories reminded me why I usually go for full-fledged novels or series. Because in my opinion more often than notNot my cup of tea.
This collection of stories reminded me why I usually go for full-fledged novels or series. Because in my opinion more often than not such collections prove to be fragmentary, occasionally nonsensical and all about being unique and strange. I'd rather they made sense, if I am honest.
That said I did like some of the stories because I actually got their message. Or because they had a message, let's go for that. "The Husband Stitch" was wonderfully told, the stage directions that were included there did not bother me, and the ending was exactly on the right side of unnerving. Throughout the story the reader could detect what problem the author hinted at and the ending contributed to that too. "Eight Bites" was interesting too, examining the obsession of women with perfect bodies and how society is to blame for it. And that's it. I did not like any other story. "Especially Heinous" was the most boring, redundant and annoying short story I've ever had to read. God, how I wanted it to end. Just...no. Fragmentary and dissatisfying with no real plot, message or well...anything interesting about it. I just did not care. At. All. "Difficult At Parties" was weird and mildly alarming. "The Resident" terrified me in how it portrayed a woman's downward spiral into madness. Was it even madness? "Mothers" was bizarre, as was "Real Women Have Bodies" though at least the latter had a point and a plot, to some degree. "Inventory" was another redundant one. A list of a woman's sexual encounters. Which leads me to another aspect that I found annoying. Don't get me wrong, I am feminist but being feminist for me doesn't mean that as an author one has to stuff women having sex with each other and men and people of all genders and sexes into a story or book to make it, well, feminist. Or interesting. I prefer for the books and stories that I read to have meaning, plot, character development, some insight, new perspectives. I could not care less about sex. So this collection left me entirely underwhelmed bordering on seriously annoyed for having wasted time and energy on this.
Not recommended. There are better stories out there....more
One word - Meh. I have certain expectations whenever I pick-up suck a collection. An author does not get the opportunity to gush and elaborate much inOne word - Meh. I have certain expectations whenever I pick-up suck a collection. An author does not get the opportunity to gush and elaborate much in short stories. I expect them to be succinct, wrapped-up well and have a certain depth to them. Unfortunately, this collection had none of the qualities listed above. First things first, Liska and Ruth sounded almost exactly the same, the voices of these characters were difficult to distinguish and if you take into account what the collection claims right at its beginning it is highly unsatisfactory. Then, there is the aspect of the stories. Like, the mothers agreed that they wouldn't lie, but why and why can't the other one listen to the story and the culmination was cringe-worthy at best. Also, I had difficulties with seeing the connections between the stories and the women and in how far they were relevant for the future kid. I did not like the whole idea of "telling-stories-to-your-future-child" either. It felt corny and somewhat unnecessary. Then, there is the problem of the stories. Most had very abrupt or overly vague endings or no real endings at all. I struggled with determining the purpose of some others and generally the stories seemed overly simplistic. The author tried to graze important, deep, controversial topics in this collection, or so I think, but ended up barely touching the surface of most of them. Yes, the magical realism, folklore and mythological elements were beautiful and interestingly incorporated and the write style was beautiful as well, but what I wanted was content. Beautiful writing is great, but if a work of literature lacks content, depth and/or coherence (in my eyes) it's going to get a low rating either way.
Read at your own risk. Not exactly the best short story collection I've read. Very far from it, actually. ...more
Depending on the ultimate goal of the author this one could have been told in either 50-80 or 400-500 pages. To be frank, I did not manage to grasp whDepending on the ultimate goal of the author this one could have been told in either 50-80 or 400-500 pages. To be frank, I did not manage to grasp what exactly her goal was hence the rating. The ghost/witch concept wasn't too confusing, however it was surely lacking some details and most importantly - sense. Why? This is probably the most important question. Why? The characters are not well-developed which made it impossible to care for them, the plot twist (I struggle to call it plot twist because it was rather anticlimatic) made me shrug and roll my eyes and the ending was plain weird. Perhaps because the author never elaborated on Jenna's obsession with her sister, but emotionally I found it incomprehensible. Just, what kind of stupid, messed up person would do something like that? So yeah, what motivated the protagonist was logically not quite sound... The whole thing was just very anticlimatic and somewhat depressing.
Apparently last time I "cleaned up" on my Kindle, I wasn't thorough enough and today, on the ride back from university I found it somewhere on the lasApparently last time I "cleaned up" on my Kindle, I wasn't thorough enough and today, on the ride back from university I found it somewhere on the last pages of my "standalone" folder. I thought - why not?
Well, I won't even write a proper review for this one, I just want to state why it didn't work for me. It is actually just one reason, so it won't take long.
It was overly cliché. The characters, the dialogues, the development, the culmination. Stereotypical story is sterotypical, you know? And the main character doesn't even invoke any positive feelings with her whining and her special snowflake syndrom and how judgemental she is through the entire book. So yeah, not my cup of tea at all.
No. Just no. The fantasy/steampunk/whatever part was decent, not mind-blowing mind you, but sometimes quite good. But what was done to the Japanese cuNo. Just no. The fantasy/steampunk/whatever part was decent, not mind-blowing mind you, but sometimes quite good. But what was done to the Japanese culture and language...No. Nowadays it is not so difficult to do proper research and then incorporate it into the novel. Or at least it shouldn't be. A case of cultural appropriation. Ugh.
Also, I am not sure about the time when everything happens in the novel, whether it is an alternative universe or not, but I doubt that they would have used the term "Achilles tendon". I am being nit-picking now, I know, but such minor aspects truly bother me. The author could have used "heel cord" or "calcaneal tendon" or just worked around the term, but to call it Achilles tendon in a world where Greek myths are most likely unknown...It totally threw me off. Such minor scenes cause a major Verfremdungseffekt (Eng. estrangement effect) for me.
Maybe I'll write a full-fledged review, maybe not. ...more
A brief summary of how I react to most NA books by now:
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I hadn't planned to read this one. But some of the reviews were so enthusiastic that I cA brief summary of how I react to most NA books by now:
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I hadn't planned to read this one. But some of the reviews were so enthusiastic that I couldn't help but think - what if? As it turns out no 'what if' can save you from the 80% of cliché NA drama. And the 20% of the NA books that are readable and feature something actually relevant are so difficult to find that by now I almost stopped believing in their existence.
The plot was...missing. As in most NA books. There is the romance, of course, there is supposedly Fallon and her trauma (which she conveniently overcomes after like...50 pages, or even less) and of course some drama to make the love more tragic. But a plot line, like, a real plot line?
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Apart from that everything turned out to be quite convenient for both characters, many parts and conversations were downright cliché in the worst possible way. Actually, most of the lines Ben dropped were so fucking cheesy and stupid I wanted to vomit.
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Not even talking about the insta-love and the reference/defence of shitty romance novels here. Oh and Fallon? This girl was fucking stupid. A stupid, little lamb. I hate these animals, just saying. Melodramatic and devoid of any logic, like the MC from Ugly Love. Ugh. I don't even bother with a proper review for this one, just no. It's not worth the effort for me.
Overall: predictable, cliché, overdramatic, with the factor of insta-love and lacking any believability. Not recommended.
Written during the naturalism movement...it was a nightmare to read. Almost no dialogue but overly detailed descriptions and useless musings. I had toWritten during the naturalism movement...it was a nightmare to read. Almost no dialogue but overly detailed descriptions and useless musings. I had to fight sleep all the damn time. A whiny character who can't make up his damn mind, lots of pointless occurances, somewhat ridiculous drama. Almost as bad as the "Metamorphosis" by Kafka. Almost. ...more
Or: Everything Wrong with this Book! It's just my opinion, I don't mean to offend anyone with this review. I am just angry and need to rant a b[image]
Or: Everything Wrong with this Book! It's just my opinion, I don't mean to offend anyone with this review. I am just angry and need to rant a bit to feel better.
1) The worldbuilding. I always expect a decent and believable worldbuilding in books that tackle alternative history. In case of WWII and Hitler, even more so. There was literally no worldbuilding whatsoever and it pissed me off to no end. Why would the Nazis celebrate their victory with a race? WHY? It's stupid. And Hitler himself was more of an art-person, just saying. How did they win? For the vague hints at their methods of conquering the Soviets were, to put it mildly, weak and not-believable. These, frankly ridiculous, hints made it also pretty obvious that the author has virtually no idea about how the UdSSR functioned,what its problems were and where and how and why. In the end there is a note from the author that addresses how she came up with the idea and mentions forums where people apparently speculate how it could have been. Yeah, well. At least at that point I understood why it didn't work for me at all. If the foundation of the book are forum discussions it is obviously not going to work for me because I always demand serious research. You know the book And I Darken? That's the type of research I'd expect. Especially from a book that tackles such a tragic, godawful topic.
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Apart from that, in the course of the race the contestants have to pass certain checkpoints. Places like Prague, Rome, Cairo, Baghdad, New Dehli, Shanghai. And once again, the unapologetic ignorance of the author became very very obvious. The author fails to describe the cities, to convey their atmosphere, their beauty, anything. She names them, WOW! Plain and simply - it's extremely superficial and badly executed. The Third Reich is, according to the author, a regime of terror and blood-shed. There was nothing in this book to back this claim up. Oh, and in the end the author remarks on the rising anti-Semitism. This is horrible, I agree. But I will not tire of repeating - whatever her intent - she accomplished literally nothing with this book. It doesn't make the reader more aware of anti-Semitism because there are only a few chapters that deal with what happened in the KZ and none at all that deal with the topic of what is happening to the Jews (or the Slavs, or the other nations who resisted) and why and how. Where are they hiding? Are there still KZ's? And what about the other religions and races? Sinti & Roma? Gay people whom Hitler had also targeted? How did he treat the Muslims? I wonder - was the author even aware that she was writing about WWII? It's a delicate topic for many people. It is certainly a delicate and emotional topic for me. So I will stand firmly by the opinion that the author dealt with the whole topic in a very inappropriate, shallow and ignorant manner.
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2) The plot. Or rather, the race. I doubt that Yael missed everything while racing. Apparently, she didn't see the landscapes, any people, anything interesting or worth mentioning at all. Action? There are perhaps three moments where something more or less exciting happens. The rest? Yael's inner struggle and whining and whining and whining and whining. Shall I go on? Though I think it's only logical that there was no real plot given that there was no worldbuilding and it isn't a character-driven book either. As a KZ-survivor who was tortured and genetically modified she can, according to the author, deal with almost anything...But a boy kissing her? Fuck, the world is ending.
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3) The characters. Shallow, inauthentic creatures. I don't care that she is 17. The book deals with the alternative history of WWII meaning a KZ survivor. I had been to several former KZ's here in Germany. Once as a school trip and once with my mother when we happened to meet survivors who had been to a KZ. I didn't buy Yael's character for even one second. She was just a whiny, Mary Sue-ish, somewhat very American girl. And that's that. You know books like The Book Thief deal with WWII as well, there are plenty of books that tackle that topic of WWII but Gods, I haven't read a single one that offended me with it's ignorance as much as this one did. Luka Löwe? Oh please, no German would be named this way in the 40's. Felix and Luka were obviously two future love interests. Predictable and boring in how stereotypical they were. Other secondary characters? Scatchy and not really worthy of being memorised or mentioned. I still don't get why Victor was so important.
4) The writing and the misuse of German. Excess of metaphors and repetitions all the damn time. Phrases like "skin glaring with goose bumps" and "mozzarella soft" accent (that's stereotyping Italians, by the way. All the stereotypes!!! All the ignorance). The writing didn't work for me, but that's not even a major problem, I often complain about write styles. What, once again, totally pissed me off was the obvious perpetual misuse of German words. The majority of characters know German, speak that language as an everyday language...then why, I ask you, would the author insert German curse words, of all possible words to use, in the dialogue? It was redundant and ridiculous. And not only did she use it, she did it wrong. "No Scheisse" - implies "No shit!". Only, you can't translate it word for word. "Was du nicht sagst" would have worked, "Nein, wirklich?!" would have worked. And these are only the most obvious choices. But no. That phrase was simply cringe-worthy. "Shut your Scheisse face!" - whatever, that doesn't even make sense with the "Scheisse" in the middle of it. The fuck? How about consulting at least some people who know German? Preferably native speakers? What is the internet for? I will never believe that the author couldn't have consulted somebody. Oh, and "dummkopf" is a noun. It is written with a capital D in German. So it would have been "Dummkopf" and in German depending on the sentence the word "verdammt" might variate ending-wise - verdammte, verdammter, verdammtes (z.B. Miststück)...I could go on. So the use of German?
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I hated it. Not going to continue this series, because there's only so much I can take. NOT. RECOMMENDED. Read at your own risk. And if you know history and/or German, or are German, you should really stay away from this book. It's for your own good....more
It's not that I did not like it. I just didn't see an actual sense in the story. Message, meaning, call it however you like. I didn't see it. A[image]
It's not that I did not like it. I just didn't see an actual sense in the story. Message, meaning, call it however you like. I didn't see it. And while reading I did not feel particularly 'into' it, there was nothing catchy, except maybe the end, but honestly, the cruelty of human kind was nothing new to me. Go open some historical chronicles of different wars and methods of torture, sure, the writing won't be captivating but the subtext will be the same.
I always appreciate good poetry, but alas, good poetry is not easy to find. The few poems I had read before this collection did not exactly impress meI always appreciate good poetry, but alas, good poetry is not easy to find. The few poems I had read before this collection did not exactly impress me but they were tolerable. This, however? Saying that I didn't like it is an understatement.
1. The excess of metaphors for various bits of the female body was beyond annoying after a while, at times bordering on somewhat disgusting. 2. I did not like the objectification of the lover. No, just no. 3. Some poems felt like a waste of perfectly good paper because they seemed to lead nowhere. They just stopped a random moment when one expected them to continue.
But honestly? The objectification of the women annoyed me the most. I downright hated it. Neruda's poetry is not my cup of tea. Not recommended. ...more
I am not quite sure I understand why this book has such a high rating. It was just not my cup of tea, so much is obvious. I found the writing [image]
I am not quite sure I understand why this book has such a high rating. It was just not my cup of tea, so much is obvious. I found the writing rather poor, it felt taken fom a poorly conceived superhero comic. While I can appreciate superhero comics, if the art is appealing, the plot is more or less logical and it's not too stereotypical or stupid, I do not wish to see such a writing in a book. Because there is a huge difference between comics and books when it comes to narration, character development, character depth and so on and so forth. This type of writing displeased me. And another small remark - the idiotic choice of curse words. I do understand when some authors try to avoid foul language for whatever reason, although I do think it is rather stupid since all of us curse. But exchanging the usual "offensive" language with some shit like Sparks and Slontze?
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Either be creative or just keep the good old, okay? It irritated me so much! I can totally handle a lot of 'fucks' and rude, offensive phrases, but the language the characters of this book used sounded fucking retarded. Another "pleasant" addition to the already amazing cocktail was the dialogue. Too much explaining, not nearly enough showing which deprived the reader of the jaw-dropping moments and generally too much talking and not enough action. When the action happened it couldn't be saved anymore. It's a superhero book for f* sake, who wants endless ramblings?
As for the characters. They were shallow, one-dimensional and unrelatable to me. Oh, and David was annoying. As was his lusting after Megan. Another typical comic book thing, but undesirable in an actual books that you maybe, eventually would like to take seriously. The characters were awfully cliché. Take David's lusting after Megan as an example. What he focused on was describing her clothes, how revealing they were, how hot she looked etc. I couldn't take him serious after that, and it happened on the first 50 pages. David was somewhat like this - "Yeah, I want revenge, I'll do anything to get revenge...Oh fuck, she's hot. What was I saying?"
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It was obviously written for male rather than female readers, with the excessive descriptions of weaponry, epic explosions and predominantly male characters. Though, okay, I take the argument about the weaponry back because I wouldn't h lave complained if David had described swords, daggers and different kinds of bows instead of machine guns. But the lack of female characters and their insignificance kind of annoyed me. Apart from Megan, whose main purpose for over half of the book was to confuse David, there was only Tia and she wasike a grey mouse somewhere in the background. Not cool. And I doubt it that 95% of the Epics are male or that...Really though, where did all the women go in this book? Odd. Not even annoying or bothersome anymore, just odd.
Lastly, I found it very predictable. The big revelation, the surprising and shocking moments were not shocking to me, instead I was just nodding to myself and reading on. Completely impassive. The perfect hero, his hot love interest, the cliché Evil guys versus the Good ones, the exaggerated, completely brainless action scenes seemed laughable to me after about half of the book. I am not fond of cliched literature. Never have been.
You can find similar superhero elements, but with a more sophisticated writing, actual, balanced action and dialogue and wonderfully conceived characters in books like Vicious.
Do I recommend this one?
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If you cherish your brain cells you better avoid this book. ...more
And my reaction every single time was like: [image]
My biggest prGreat premise - unsatisfactory execution.
The whole time the book was like: [image]
And my reaction every single time was like: [image]
My biggest problem with this book was that it tried to be something extra-ordinary and unique and great, but both the plot-line and the characters felt like rip-offs from Cruel Beauty. As somebody who is fond of the original Red Riding Hood tale and had if not very high, but expectations nonetheless, I must say that I was extremely disappointed. First, there was the lack of a real plot, and instead Rachelle's whining and describing and thinking and most definitely too much of it all. Take that out and the book would have ended up being some ~70 pages long. Things should have happened. And even when nothing happens I have the opinion that something has to be explored, like the Forest in this case. The bloodbounds and the firstborns and God knows what and who else. Did that happen? No. Their origin, their behavior, skills, there was more than enough material to take it a step further but instead Hodge kept standing in one place.
Second, the characters. Rachelle was like Nyx but less self-aware and more self-pitying. She was beyond annoying and to avoid spoilers I will not elaborate on what exactly she did and simply say that she chewed on one and same issue over and over and over again. Not only was she unlikable, but she was downright awful because she refused to accept herself. Erec and Armand were like Ignifex and Shade. EXACTLY like them. Meaning that once again there was the love triangle that was not a love triangle because it was so obvious. And maybe, if I hadn't read Hodge's other book before, I would have ended up liking the characters. But I read it and so this one ended up being a disappointment for me. Both the primary and secondary characters were repetative and shallow and so very one-dimensional that I could not help but roll my eyes too often for my own liking.
I could go on like this, complaining about dozens of details, forever but I won't because even writing the review all I feel is boredom. Dragging plot with very little progression, no character development, a gloomy atmosphere that annoyed me after a while that's what I got in this book. But worst of all - it was just a copy of Cruel Beauty, same motives, same characters, same plot, same everything and that is something I do not forgive as a reader. Yes, I know authors tend to repeat certain themes or types of characters in their books, that is normal, every author has something like a "trademark", but this felt like the author simply changed the names and the setting, there was nothing new. First time you tell a hilarious joke everyone will laugh, but already the second time if you do it right after the first, some people will not find it amusing anymore, but strange. I am one of those who will not listen to the same joke being told over and over again.
Feel free to disagree with me or hate me now but I do not recommend this one because I think that it is simply not worth the time.
Sorry, but this was just plain bad. I have a big big problem with "modern" or "postmodern" novels/poetry of such kind. I refuse to ackno[image] [image]
Sorry, but this was just plain bad. I have a big big problem with "modern" or "postmodern" novels/poetry of such kind. I refuse to acknowledge it as sophisticated literature, I am not sorry, this is my personal and very subjective opinion. Many love it, and it's fine, but I personally hate it. I have tried to read various works, and no, we don't get along - such writing and I.
In order to make sense and to create beautiful imagery one has to write at least slightly longer and most definitely better connected lines. Sudden stops and lines that come out of nowhere do not do it for me, because I will not mule over a line of plain language for half an hour in order to try to understand what the author tried to convey. As somebody who can spend several hours analysing one of Shakespeare's shorter sonnets I am not exactly the person to chicken out from complicated writing, and that's the problem. This was overly simplistic and I see it the way that the author set the goal much too high or people are overinterpreting things. No, this is not feminist poetry to me. No, this is not good poetry either. No, I did not like the use of fairytales and characters although I am usually very open to it. In this case, however, the style and lack of atmosphere and proper writing totally spoiled what I might have liked.
Done with my rant. Thank you for reading. Not recommended, if you want to read good poetry grab some of the older poets, from 15th century on. ...more
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