This is why I usually don't read indie books. There are some great ones out there, like Nenia Campbell's Fearscape, and heaven knows traditional publiThis is why I usually don't read indie books. There are some great ones out there, like Nenia Campbell's Fearscape, and heaven knows traditional publishing houses push out some horrible books every now and then, but at least I won't find missing commas or capitalization mistakes inside. And that's only the tip of what's wrong with this book.
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Once Upon a Changeling is an insult to all fey books out there. I want to fall down on my knees and kiss Julie Kagawa's feet because that woman clearly did research. She would not have a faerie fix cars or lift weights.
Puck was a faerie. Awesome. "That's how you can lift weights so easily?" She nodded. "And how I fixed your car."
Riddle me this; what are weights made up of? What are cars made out of? Then answer me this; what are the fey most afraid of?
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They hate iron. Fey are vulnerable to iron. It's the most basic stone of fey mythology and this book completely neglects that.
Then, it has the audacity to name a faerie character Puck, but that person isn't Robin Goodfellow from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm not saying you can't name your characters whatever you want, but if you're writing a book based on the fey, I'd automatically assume Puck would be the gorgeous iconic red-headed Seelie jester, not a seventeen-year-old punk chick with piercings. Piercings, I tell you. My God...
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Supposedly death-inducing piercings aside,the Puck in this story absolutely fails at being a faerie.
[Main character, Russ]: "I think you're the most beautiful girl ever. I really like you. I wanted to ask you on a date, but you got drunk. [Puck] grinned, and it lit up her face. "You want to ask me out? Really? Because I would say yes. Because you're brave, and exciting, and you do things for noble reasons, and I've never met anyone like you."
To quote Ron Weasley, are you a faerie or not? This sounds like a tween girl being asked out on her first date, not an immortal faerie who could snap a human in half without even breaking a sweat. I don't give a crap that she's seventeen in human years. She was still raised by fey parents whom, I presume, are more competent than their daughter at being fey. Where are the manipulative lies? Where is their ruthless dark nature? What have you done to the name of my beloved Puck?!
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The romance isn't much better either and borders on insta-love. The main character, Russ, first sees Puck in a parking lot and this is his reaction:
She was one of those punk chicks, but she was attractive in a weird way. Except for two thick strands of blue hair framing her face, her head was shaved. Usually, I thought haircuts like that made girls look masculine and ugly, but she looked...delicate. Rings and piercings covered her face, but I kind of liked the tiny diamond stud in her nose.
First off, Russ, fuck you. Punk girls can look hot too. So can butch girls.
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Russ rapidly falls in love with Puck soon afterwards, even though we never see any plausible reason for why he does so, and vice versa. Must be because she looks so feminine, yet can pull the butch look at the same time. I mean, the mythology already contradicts itself, why not the romance either?
I liked her voice. It was breathy and girly, but it still somehow sounded tough.
I will pay whoever can make this voice ten bucks. Seriously, I tried, but I can't do it.
Russ is also as dumb as Nora Grey when it comes to research and figuring stuff out.
Pop quiz: When you find out that your baby is actually a changeling and you want to get the real baby back, do you:
A) Google it B) Go to the library C) Waste time by running to bars where unfriendly blood-sucking fey lurk in hopes that they might have the answer
If you answered A) or B), then congratulations! You are certifiably smarter than the characters in this book!
And that's not all. They have to figure out who the baby's real dad is because Russ's girlfriend Cindi slept around a lot and only the real dad can get rid of the changeling. So what do these geniuses do? They hack into Cindi's email account because golly gosh, that's what all the kids are using these days to communicate, right?
What do you mean they text?
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And I figured out who the real dad was ages ago. There's this little thing called over-hinting.
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Execution-wise, the writing is stilted and choppy. Maybe some people like sentences delivered in sharp bursts, but this only managed to irk me even more.
One of his eyes looked as if someone had tried to put it out. The iries was a milky blue. There was no pupil. I swallowed.
I liked her voice. It was breathy and girly, but it still somehow sounded tough. But I had to watch myself. Couldn't actually be really attracted to this girl. Girls were trouble. Nothing but trouble.
[image] Funny, I was going to say the same about you.
Let's not forget the constant telling of how he's feeling, instead of showing us:
I was grateful.
I was astonished.
I was angry.
I was pissed.
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To round things off, there's also info-dump cleverly disguised as dialogue!
"Everything started at the prom last night." I rubbed my face with my hand. "Or that's not really true. It started way before that. It started when I met Cindi. Sophomore year. Journalism class. I was a first year student—because freshmen aren't allowed to work on the newspaper—and so was Cindi. She'd taken the class because she needed an elective. I'd taken it because I liked to write. We didn't have much in common, honestly. But Cindi was the girls' volleyball team, and girls who played sports were socially acceptable dating material for guys on the basketball team. We had friends in common. And she was beautiful.
This entire block of backstory aside, why are you telling me the reason they joined the Journalism class? It doesn't make an impact on the story or their personality. Frankly, it would run smoother and sound less like a narrative if it'd been edited out.
And this gem right here?
But Cindi was the girls' volleyball team, and girls who played sports were socially acceptable dating material for guys on the basketball team.
[image] Someone is obviously a High School musical fan.
Cindi is the only interesting character in this mess. I actually wanted for the book to delve deeper into her character and why she sleeps with all those other guys instead of her boyfriend. Unfortunately, her actions are casually passed off as slutty and she is branded as a lunatic for trying to kill her baby, which turned out to be a changeling, in order to get her real baby back. Sluts don't get thank-yous, even though she was the first one to figure out something was up with that baby.
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If you want a well-researched fey book with wonderful world-building and three-dimensional characters, go read The Iron King. Because this one burns like iron should.
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Thank you Curiosity Quills Press for sending me an e-copy
Merged review:
This is why I usually don't read indie books. There are some great ones out there, like Nenia Campbell's Fearscape, and heaven knows traditional publishing houses push out some horrible books every now and then, but at least I won't find missing commas or capitalization mistakes inside. And that's only the tip of what's wrong with this book.
[image]
Once Upon a Changeling is an insult to all fey books out there. I want to fall down on my knees and kiss Julie Kagawa's feet because that woman clearly did research. She would not have a faerie fix cars or lift weights.
Puck was a faerie. Awesome. "That's how you can lift weights so easily?" She nodded. "And how I fixed your car."
Riddle me this; what are weights made up of? What are cars made out of? Then answer me this; what are the fey most afraid of?
[image]
They hate iron. Fey are vulnerable to iron. It's the most basic stone of fey mythology and this book completely neglects that.
Then, it has the audacity to name a faerie character Puck, but that person isn't Robin Goodfellow from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm not saying you can't name your characters whatever you want, but if you're writing a book based on the fey, I'd automatically assume Puck would be the gorgeous iconic red-headed Seelie jester, not a seventeen-year-old punk chick with piercings. Piercings, I tell you. My God...
[image]
Supposedly death-inducing piercings aside,the Puck in this story absolutely fails at being a faerie.
[Main character, Russ]: "I think you're the most beautiful girl ever. I really like you. I wanted to ask you on a date, but you got drunk. [Puck] grinned, and it lit up her face. "You want to ask me out? Really? Because I would say yes. Because you're brave, and exciting, and you do things for noble reasons, and I've never met anyone like you."
To quote Ron Weasley, are you a faerie or not? This sounds like a tween girl being asked out on her first date, not an immortal faerie who could snap a human in half without even breaking a sweat. I don't give a crap that she's seventeen in human years. She was still raised by fey parents whom, I presume, are more competent than their daughter at being fey. Where are the manipulative lies? Where is their ruthless dark nature? What have you done to the name of my beloved Puck?!
[image]
The romance isn't much better either and borders on insta-love. The main character, Russ, first sees Puck in a parking lot and this is his reaction:
She was one of those punk chicks, but she was attractive in a weird way. Except for two thick strands of blue hair framing her face, her head was shaved. Usually, I thought haircuts like that made girls look masculine and ugly, but she looked...delicate. Rings and piercings covered her face, but I kind of liked the tiny diamond stud in her nose.
First off, Russ, fuck you. Punk girls can look hot too. So can butch girls.
[image]
Russ rapidly falls in love with Puck soon afterwards, even though we never see any plausible reason for why he does so, and vice versa. Must be because she looks so feminine, yet can pull the butch look at the same time. I mean, the mythology already contradicts itself, why not the romance either?
I liked her voice. It was breathy and girly, but it still somehow sounded tough.
I will pay whoever can make this voice ten bucks. Seriously, I tried, but I can't do it.
Russ is also as dumb as Nora Grey when it comes to research and figuring stuff out.
Pop quiz: When you find out that your baby is actually a changeling and you want to get the real baby back, do you:
A) Google it B) Go to the library C) Waste time by running to bars where unfriendly blood-sucking fey lurk in hopes that they might have the answer
If you answered A) or B), then congratulations! You are certifiably smarter than the characters in this book!
And that's not all. They have to figure out who the baby's real dad is because Russ's girlfriend Cindi slept around a lot and only the real dad can get rid of the changeling. So what do these geniuses do? They hack into Cindi's email account because golly gosh, that's what all the kids are using these days to communicate, right?
What do you mean they text?
[image]
And I figured out who the real dad was ages ago. There's this little thing called over-hinting.
[image]
Execution-wise, the writing is stilted and choppy. Maybe some people like sentences delivered in sharp bursts, but this only managed to irk me even more.
One of his eyes looked as if someone had tried to put it out. The iries was a milky blue. There was no pupil. I swallowed.
I liked her voice. It was breathy and girly, but it still somehow sounded tough. But I had to watch myself. Couldn't actually be really attracted to this girl. Girls were trouble. Nothing but trouble.
[image] Funny, I was going to say the same about you.
Let's not forget the constant telling of how he's feeling, instead of showing us:
I was grateful.
I was astonished.
I was angry.
I was pissed.
[image]
To round things off, there's also info-dump cleverly disguised as dialogue!
"Everything started at the prom last night." I rubbed my face with my hand. "Or that's not really true. It started way before that. It started when I met Cindi. Sophomore year. Journalism class. I was a first year student—because freshmen aren't allowed to work on the newspaper—and so was Cindi. She'd taken the class because she needed an elective. I'd taken it because I liked to write. We didn't have much in common, honestly. But Cindi was the girls' volleyball team, and girls who played sports were socially acceptable dating material for guys on the basketball team. We had friends in common. And she was beautiful.
This entire block of backstory aside, why are you telling me the reason they joined the Journalism class? It doesn't make an impact on the story or their personality. Frankly, it would run smoother and sound less like a narrative if it'd been edited out.
And this gem right here?
But Cindi was the girls' volleyball team, and girls who played sports were socially acceptable dating material for guys on the basketball team.
[image] Someone is obviously a High School musical fan.
Cindi is the only interesting character in this mess. I actually wanted for the book to delve deeper into her character and why she sleeps with all those other guys instead of her boyfriend. Unfortunately, her actions are casually passed off as slutty and she is branded as a lunatic for trying to kill her baby, which turned out to be a changeling, in order to get her real baby back. Sluts don't get thank-yous, even though she was the first one to figure out something was up with that baby.
[image]
If you want a well-researched fey book with wonderful world-building and three-dimensional characters, go read The Iron King. Because this one burns like iron should.
[image]
Thank you Curiosity Quills Press for sending me an e-copy...more
Boy, Casey McQuiston really loves her enemies-to-lovers, huh?
I must admit, I almost stopped reading at the 20% mark because the plot was unbe3.5 stars
Boy, Casey McQuiston really loves her enemies-to-lovers, huh?
I must admit, I almost stopped reading at the 20% mark because the plot was unbearably similar to Paper Towns: privileged white girl runs away from home because she's bored. I mean, the book even acknowledges this:
“Of course Shara cast herself as the main character of her own personal John Green novel.”
Can someone who went to an American high school confirm if there are really strict stratifications among the cliques, a la that High School Musical scene where they sing about not breaking the status quo? When I went to high school, there were kids more popular than others, yes, but they didn't rule the school. No one stands in the middle of a hallway and watches them pass by.
As the novel's plot progresses though, Shara becomes a more nuanced character and I found myself caring about why she ran away. She's led an easy life, yes, but one that has been thrust upon her and comes with expectations on how she should behave—and who she should love.
There was too much Bible talk in this for my liking, but I appreciate McQuiston's reasoning for its setting: queer kids live in the Bible Belt too and deserve books that talk about how difficult it is to love your roots but yearn for more liberal policies....more
“Break the stupid rule, Eadlyn. Marry the man you love. If he’s good enough for you to approve of, then I certainly do. And if the p
**spoiler alert**
“Break the stupid rule, Eadlyn. Marry the man you love. If he’s good enough for you to approve of, then I certainly do. And if the people don’t, that can be their problem. Because who are you?”
“I’m Eadlyn Schreave, and no one in the world is as powerful as me,” I blurted without thought.
"Without thought" seems to be a fitting description of this entire series.
I actually liked The Heir because it depicted a woman in power struggling against misogynist traditions designed to keep her docile. She can't lose her temper, for instance, or risk being viewed as shrill and hysterical. Eadlyn didn't want a Selection, but she went with it for her country, sacrificing personal happiness for duty.
The Crown tosses all of that out the window.
All of the high-stakes consequences that Eadlyn would suffer if she stepped out of line are magically vanquished. She fires a general for suggesting a plan she disagrees with. No one questions her decision because she's the crown princess and her word is all-powerful. Why then did Eadlyn have to tiptoe around gender convention to be seen as a legitimate ruler? No one was going to challenge her anyway.
All the fuss about the country rebelling if she fucked up the Selection was purely a shadow threat. Eadlyn chooses Erik in the end, Henri's translator and not a participant in the Selection. Are there any consequences for her actions? No. They live happily ever after.
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I despise books and movies that issue these high stakes, but when characters do break the rules, nothing happens because the harsh, scary world is merely window dressing. Pretty sure I've said this before, but The Selection should have never been categorized as a dystopian. Let’s not insult the genre. It is a sickeningly cliche fantasy romance.
Part of the reason Eadlyn gets away with marrying Erik is because she transforms the government into a constitutional monarchy at the end. It's arguably the same ending as the original trilogy. America dissolved the caste system, offering a little democracy, but ultimately maintains the crown’s complete power. Now Eadlyn gives a little more democracy, but the royal family still gets to do all the fun royal stuff like live in a castle with servants.
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Fun fact, power is still kept within the family because Lady Brice (who is chosen to be prime minister until formal elections) turns out to be an illegitimate line of the royal family.
Yay for democracy, I guess?
Random thoughts I couldn't fit in:
-America was never going to die. Cass coddles her characters as much as Sarah J. Maas
-I will end up with alcohol poisoning if I take a shot every time Eadlyn marvels what a perfect fairytale couple America and Maxon are. Please stop sucking their dicks; you're embarrassing yourself
“You don’t choose him; he chooses you. There’s no point in hating the others for that.”
No one was more surprised than I was when I found myself a
“You don’t choose him; he chooses you. There’s no point in hating the others for that.”
No one was more surprised than I was when I found myself actually reading The One instead of skimming it.
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The series has come a long way since The Selection. The melodramatic love triangle is gone. (Props to America for admitting she keeps Aspen around as a back-up option in case things don’t work out with Maxon. That is selfish, but so very realistic and human; and I like my heroines to be imperfect). All the girl hate is more or less banished and we get to see the Elite bond and become friends. Celeste of the menacing fork-twirl is redeemed, like Zoya from King of Scars. Her cruelty is the product of desperation. She has nothing but her looks and that will fade, so she needs to lock down this marriage.
There are, of course, still loads of flaws. Despite the emphasis on female friendships, it feels insincere because the other girls are clearly minor characters. They are America's Friends, with little focus given to the person behind the label save for a few personality traits. (view spoiler)[Marlee, America's dearest friend, doesn't show up and isn't mentioned in the end, so clearly she can't be that important. Celeste is redeemed only to move readers and show how dangerous the rebels are when they put a bullet in her head. (hide spoiler)]
The rebels continue to be the vaguest threat. There’s no sense of real danger from them because in this Candyland dystopia, death only happens off-page or our characters are miraculously pulled back from the brink of death. The ending was eye-rollingly nauseous. (view spoiler)[The rebels who win are the moderate ones and hence choose to keep the monarchy. And of course, no one important dies in the rebel attack. Maxon dissolves the castes, but stays on top. America gets her man and her crown. (hide spoiler)] I’m still not convinced America or any of the other girls received enough diplomatic training to be queen. Bruh, do you know how much work it takes to run a city, let alone a country? You have to balance budgets, approve infrastructure, maintain resources, maintain cordial relations with other countries, broker trade agreements, etc. America is kind like Snow White, but someone who accepts apples from strangers should not be allowed to run a kingdom. But Candyland dystopia, therefore whoever is kind of heart gets to rule.
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With The One behind me, I finally get to read The Heir, the whole reason I started this series in the first place. I'm fascinated by the idea of a all-male Selection.
“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? B
“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.”
I'm not usually a fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope, but RW&RB does it in such an endearing way, I couldn't help but root for the romance. Alex and Henry don't immediately go from insulting each other to tearing the other's clothes off either. It's done believably, with them bonding over texts and late-night conversations. The attraction was always there—latent, buried under repressed sexuality— but affection realistically comes later.
I was taken aback by how spicy the sex scenes were. The cutesy cover fooled me into thinking this would be a fade-to-black kind of book, but nope. Be warned not to let nosy strangers read over your shoulder.
The positive reception to Alex and Henry's romance seemed a bit idealistic to me, considering the current trans panic, but then again, isn't that why we read fiction? To escape harsh reality for a better world, where the non-white son of a female president can freely hold hands with the prince of England and no one will blink an eye....more
“I could see my reflection in her gaze, the horns jutting out of my hair, the slightly feral look that seemed normal for me now. My heartbeat picked u
“I could see my reflection in her gaze, the horns jutting out of my hair, the slightly feral look that seemed normal for me now. My heartbeat picked up, and my mouth went dry as this deadly, confident, beautiful assassin held my gaze without fear.”
I initially rated this 3 stars, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I got, so buckle in your seatbelts.
Me to The Iron Raven:
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I'm too mad to structure this properly, so this will just be a list of thoughts/things that infuriated me:
-Why another heterosexual, white romance? Just why?? Puck is a faerie and Kagawa has previously confirmed on Twitter that fey have no fixed sexual orientation. In the book, Puck tells us that he has had romantic interactions with creatures of all genders and species. Then why fucking play it safe? Why give us this piss-weak attempt at representation, then not show it on page? I’m especially disappointed because Kagawa used #OwnVoices to promote her Shadow of the Fox series, but remained conspicuously silent during BLM. You can argue that she doesn’t want her Twitter to be for anything but author promo, but in my opinion, if you wanna reap the benefits of the diversity card, you have to give back to the community in return. I’m not saying she should be out there holding a sign on the street, but she can at least use her influence to promote resources and organizations.
-There’s too much mention of kissing when they really mean sex. Teenagers. Have. Sex. They likely talk about it more than we do because hormones. So stop clutching your pearls and just say the word sex. I’m not asking for graphic erotica, but this is just prudish.
-The word "stubborn" gets thrown around too much. I have hated that word since YA Paranormal Romances ruined it. You know what I'm talking about—the male love interest will sigh through his aquiline nose and say the heroine is being stubborn when he really means she has no self-preservation skills and Darwinism will take care of her. These characters are exactly the same. They use the word stubborn when they really mean idiotic, or if I’m being generous, loyal to a fault. I'll be happy if I never see the word "stubborn" used in a positive context again, k thanks.
-We get kissy-kissy scenes between Ash and Meghan and seriously, those two just need to fuck off already. I would’ve preferred they play a minimum role because this is a new series and they were titular characters in the first series. But they're still very much prominent, and I suspect it's because Kagawa wants to (not so) indirectly praise their epic romance.
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-The big bad was laughable. (view spoiler)[After all that hype, what defeats the creature is the power of lurve. Okay, maybe not exactly love, but positive thoughts. Just say riddikulus, mate, and save us all some time (hide spoiler)]
-Nyx, Puck's love interest, is boring. She was fiercely loyal to the Lady of the Forgotten and is now loyal to Kerrian, the new King of the Forgotten. I figured she’d be more upset that Kerrian murdered her queen, but I guess the narrative wanted to usher us in another direction so oopsie, no time for that grievance! She would’ve been a far more interesting character if she had to wrestle with her past and new loyalties.
Anything dark is just glossed over in general. Puck was wounded by the creature near the beginning and is consequentially reverting back to Robin Goodfellow, the vicious faerie he used to be, who had no conscience and would play cruel pranks. We get a very sanctified version of Robin Goodfellow though. Puck gets horns and goat hindquarters and says a few mean words to Ash, and that’s it. The book feels the need to remind us every few pages that Puck is feeling these daaaark things and he doesn’t want to be that person, but all these reminders only serve as a smokescreen for the fact we're never going to get Dark!Puck. It's all tell, no show. Kagawa is too scared of making this book semi-nuanced, so she never actually lets Puck off his reins. Does she genuinely think readers will turn on Puck if he does something cruel, like bomb a village with rats? The YA community is way too obsessed with villains. Most of them are still salivating over the Darkling from Shadow and Bone and he murdered and mutilated people.
-The flashbacks were the only interesting parts of the book, but they were far too few. We only get two from what I recall. We don't get a gay encounter in the flashbacks either. Lame.
The Iron Raven could have been magnificent. The ingredients were there and they were just squandered. That's what angers me the most.
Pre-review: Why are all old-timer YA authors revisiting their debuts these days? First Tahereh Mafi, then Marie Lu, and now Julie Kagawa.
Honestly I think this is linked to the incoming trend of YA authors moving into adult fiction. Sarah J. Mass is set to release Crescent City, and Leigh Bardugo just released Ninth House. They’re catching up with their audience. The readers that read Throne of Glass back when it first came out are adults now and might yearn for more mature content. Writing adult fiction is a good way to tap into your existing fanbase (and keep them for the more cynical-minded). Revisiting old series carries the same logic. Of course I’m going to fucking read The Iron Raven, even though the tropes would make present-day me throw up my eyeballs. They’re capitalizing off nostalgia and you know what—you got. Hook, line, and Puck-shaped sinker....more
“Change is a kiss in the dark. A rose in the snow. A wild road on a windy night.”
Stepsister is a standard 300-page novel, but I can't hel3.5 stars
“Change is a kiss in the dark. A rose in the snow. A wild road on a windy night.”
Stepsister is a standard 300-page novel, but I can't help but feel it would've worked better as a novella/short story.
The premise and plot are very simple. Whatever ambiguous morality there is is Disney-like, which means Tavi and Isabella are about as morally grey as Elsa is for accidentally hurting Ana. Villains are villains, and good guys are good guys.
The prose has a strong fairy tale vibe, too. It's difficult to describe. But like, when you're reading Grimm Brothers' tales or Hans Anderson, you're absorbed in the story, but you feel emotionally distant from the characters at the same time. You're not meant to slip into the shoes of Cinderella or the Goose Girl. You experience their stories from the outside.
With that being said, it's immensely quotable.
“Isabelle had a strong will.
She did not know that this was a good thing for a girl to have, because everyone had always told her it was a terrible thing. Everyone said a girl with a strong will would come to a bad end. Everyone said a girl’s will must be bent to the wishes of those who know what’s best for her.
Isabelle was young, only sixteen; she had not yet learned that Everyone was a fool.”
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Even though the characters lack moral complexity, I liked that the stepsisters' hatred and cruelty towards Ella was explained. They in a world where beauty is currency; it's understandable that they would envy their beautiful stepsister. They have other strengths. Tavi is clever af, and Isabella is a fierce fighter. Even the stepmother is shown in a sympathetic light rather than a straight-up malicious witch.
Stepsister is on the simplistic side but then again, aren’t all fairy tales?...more
“He might be young, with the face of an angel, but there was no mistaking the truth in his eyes. He was a killer.”
[image]
Guess what happens next.
“He might be young, with the face of an angel, but there was no mistaking the truth in his eyes. He was a killer.”
[image]
Guess what happens next. Go on, guess!
Yes, my dear stranger on the Internet. They fall in love.
It's a hardly a spoiler. You know it's going to happen the instant Yumeko notices Tatsumui's chiselled abs.
Honestly, Kagawa's work of late is extremely predictable and derivative. Which makes me equally disappointed and annoyed because I love, love, love her Iron Fey series. I want Puck to show up at my window, make flowers bloom from my bedpost, and carry me off to a quiet meadow somewhere. Blood of Eden, though rather unmemorable, was a good read and most importantly, different from her previous novels.
The Talon Saga is where is all starts to go downhill and Shadow of the Fox, unfortunately, is a sad continuation. It also reaffirms my belief that most authors who hit it big during the Paranormal Romance craze are slowly becoming obsolete. We're seeing it with Lauren Kate, Alexandra Adornetto, Becca Fitzpatrick... The ones who continue to thrive, like Kiersten White, do so because they're willing to evolve with the times. No longer is YA willing to put up with rapey love interests and Mean Girls. It's become bolder, more diverse, more mature, more willing to push the envelope.
Shadow of the Fox is basically a mashup of familiar Kagawa tropes. Tatsumui is broody and emotionally closed off, so essentially a clone of the soldier guy whose name I can't remember from Talon and to a lesser extent, Ash from the Iron Fey. Yumeko is Meghan and Talon's heroine mushed together. Kind-hearted, sweet, naive with a mild independent streak. The ronin Okame is a sarcastic rogue and a comic relief caricature along the lines of Puck, the vampire guy from Blood of Eden, and the snarky dragon from Talon. And then there's a fourth miscellaneous character whose personality varies, but is always male.
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Seriously, what is with the lack of important female characters? There's the heroine, but that's it. Kagawa always insists on surrounding her with prominent male characters. And the villain is usually female. Make of that what you will.
Did I like anything? The Japanese mythology elements are interesting. Though it did get increasingly annoying when words like "hai" or "ano" are casually slipped in. Yes, yes, authenticity, but it's cheapened by so many anime fanfiction that do the same.
If you're going to read a Kagawa book, go for The Iron King. At least there's Puck and killer world-building in it.
Nice Natalie: It's so nice to be back—and for such a feminist book, too!
Cynical Natalie: You mean boring
Nice Natalie:2.5 stars
Cynical Natalie:
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Nice Natalie: It's so nice to be back—and for such a feminist book, too!
Cynical Natalie: You mean boring
Nice Natalie: You're saying feminism is boring??
Cynical Natalie: I'm saying this book is boring. Asha is fierce and badass and utterly unobtrusive. She's a boring bowl of spice
Nice Natalie: But she's badass!
Cynical Natalie: And thoroughly unmemorable. Also the master-slave romance is creepy
Nice Natalie: It's a popular trope and Asha isn't technically Torwin's master. She never beat him or ordered him around. There was no insta-love either. It took time for Asha to see Torwin as a person and recognize his people as well
Cynical Natalie: But Torwin pretty much fell in love with Asha at first sight. She was just a chick reading book at a library and Torwin thought, "Ermagod, she literate??!! My heart yours forever!"
Nice Natalie: It wasn't like that!
Cynical Natalie: It was exactly like that. And you're ignoring the bigger problem. Why would Torwin fall for someone from the class of people enslaving him and with no encouragement from her part either? Is it really love with such a power imbalance?
Nice Natalie: Asha was never cruel to slaves though. I'm sure he knew
Cynical Natalie: She didn't protest against their enslavement either. Forgot to mention this earlier, but for someone who reads so much, Asha is as dumb as a sack of hammers. How did she not know the king was lying to her about letting her remain unmarried if she brought him the First Dragon's head? The king told her he had to promise her hand because Jarek controls the army. If that's true, then the king obviously wouldn't want to piss him off by taking back his marital blessing.
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Nice Natalie: She was desperate and wanted to cling onto any hope
Cynical Natalie: She was stupid, my sweet summer child
Nice Natalie: The Last Namsara is a good, solid fantasy
Cynical Natalie: You keep telling yourself that while the last dregs of what we remember about the book drain from our memory, like sand escaping an hourglass
“I thought you knew the rules of the game, my dear.”
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So did I, Xia Zhong. So did I.
My biggest quibble with Descendant of the Crane is that i
“I thought you knew the rules of the game, my dear.”
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So did I, Xia Zhong. So did I.
My biggest quibble with Descendant of the Crane is that it was marketed as a Chinese Game of Thrones. I love the moral complexity and political intricacies of GoT, and He's book was listed as one of Leigh Bardugo's most anticipated reads of 2019, so obviously I applied for an ARC. Sadly, just like King of Scars let me down earlier this year, so did this book.
Hesina is a terrible schemer, alright? In terms of the player hierarchy, Hesina is right there with Ned Stark and first-book Sansa Stark. Why the fuck would you show a criminal a secret passageway to your chambers? Just because a soothsayer told you he'd be the key to finding your father's killer doesn't mean he might not have motives of his own. For all you know, he could be an assassin and/or in cahoots with the soothsayer to murder her. (Bit of background knowledge—sooths are hated and hunted in this fictional universe) Sooths receive benefits like an extended lifespan if they tell the truth, but it doesn't mean they can't twist the truth. Surely a lifetime in court should've put Hesina more on guard.
Look, I don't mind naive characters. Hesina does learn and grow throughout the book. But I was promised savvy scheming, dammit, and I didn't get it. The level of court politics is too juvenile. And don't sell me that crap about how it's YA. Six of Crows and And I Darken are some twisty serpents.
The romance between Hesina and the criminal Akira is about as obvious as a vacuum at a broomstick convention. Literally the first thing she notices is how handsome Akira is, even though she's there in a position of power to strike a deal with him for finding her father’s killer. I'd like to fast forward to the good parts, please.
Pacing is also on the slow side. Honestly, I didn't start getting invested until the last 20% when almost all the secrets are out. It took me almost two months to finish this.
There's a very clear setup for a sequel, and it seems Hesina has matured into a worthy player. She's still far from Littlefinger, but maybe the sequel will surprise me.
"My feelings about Maxon. Maxon's feelings about me. Whatever was going on between Aspen and me. And my feelings about actually becoming a princess
"My feelings about Maxon. Maxon's feelings about me. Whatever was going on between Aspen and me. And my feelings about actually becoming a princess."
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That quote up there is all you need to know about The Elite.
It's genuinely painful to read. It's worse than The Selection because, for all its flaws, it was a debut. I'm willing to cut debuts a little slack. Sequels are when writers start finding their footing, both in terms of plot and writing.
Let's start with the first. Plot, what plot? It's all about America's feeeelings, about Maxon, about Aspen, about becoming queen—which she doesn't want, because she's not like other girls. Celeste is still a slutty bitch because God forbid we get some actual depth to her character. Marlee—does anyone really care about Marlee? She's a half-baked supporting character, whose most prominent moment is defined by how America reacts and its impact on 'Mer and Maxon's relationship. The servants, who America cared so much about in the first book (BECAUSE SHE'S NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS), barely make an appearance.
You can literally copy and paste the rebel invasions from The Selection, and nothing would change. They have so little impact on this story, it's laughable. No one important can die, nothing is allowed to disturb America while she agonizes over her feeeelings.
I still refuse to believe America somehow became a monarchy. Its foundation was built on overthrowing a monarchy. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets when an orange muppet with a wig became president nine months ago. You mean to tell me they laid down and took it when a general crowned himself king? A family dictatorship along the lines of North Korea, I might be able to accept. But then that would mean dealing with icky issues like destructive weapons and torture and inhumane prisons, and stuff like that can't possibly be authorized in this Candyland dystopian. Kings and princes, on the other hands, are nice and safe and dreamy.
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America continues to take her stupidity to new heights by brandishing a historical diary—which she was warned not to tell anyone about under any circumstances, because she's not supposed to know about it—at a presentation broadcasted live to the entire nation and in front of the king and queen. But who cares? This is Candyland dystopia and she'd never suffer any real consequences. (view spoiler)[And I was right. (hide spoiler)] She has more important things to worry about, like her feelings.
By the way, why doesn't the Selection test the girls on concrete things like diplomacy and language and political science? The sexist social structure only requires the queen to be pretty and soft-spoken, but she has some form of political duties. We saw in the first book that the queen has to greet dignitaries from other countries. Surely that requires some form of schooling.
There are some instances where the girls are required to demonstrate these skills, but they're far and in between. And they're always rushed in favor of gagging romantic scenes (which we somehow we need every fucking dialogue line of, including the color of his eyes). Part of me thinks it's deliberate, so Cass doesn't have to do research or dedicate hours to thoughtfully plotting an intellectually intricate scene.
The dialogue just makes me cringe:
"The sky is blue, the sun is bright, and Aspen endlessly loves America. It's how the world was designed to be. Seriously, Mer, you're the only girl I ever wanted. I couldn't imagine being with anyone else."
You'd think a book so rooted in romance would put some actual effort toward its defining feature, but it's cheesy and cliche.
Maxon is probably the one character I give a shit about, even though his backstory has been done a million times. (view spoiler)[What is with this YA dystopian wave and fathers whipping sons? Divergent had it, The Immortal Rules had it. (hide spoiler)] I feel for him, this young man trying to juggle the desires of the public and his parents with his own. And he calls America out on her bullshit. Anyone who does that is cool with me.
Aspen is blah. All he cares about America, and he has no personality outside of her.
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Some things I liked, such as America calling out Maxon for saying he loves her, but essentially cheats on her every day with the Selection, or the line she gives Aspen about not wanting their relationship to be out of default.
It saddens me, because there stands the amazing fierce heroine America could have been and the clever intriguing story this could have been, if it weren't weighed down with the frivolity and ridiculous romance.
It might appeal to the traditional target audience for YA: 12-16. But these days I'm looking for something that respect its older readers.
"Let's face it: everyone at Bayview High hated Simon. I was just the only one with enough guts to do something about it.
You're welcome."
[3.5 stars
"Let's face it: everyone at Bayview High hated Simon. I was just the only one with enough guts to do something about it.
You're welcome."
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One of Us is Lying is basically Gossip Girl meets YA thriller. Five teenagers walk into detention, four come out. The victim Simon ran a gossip app about the school and on the day he died, he was going post incriminating stories about our four main characters: Addy, Browyn, Nate, and Cooper. All four have POVs. So the question is, who's lying?
"She's a princess and you're a jock," he says. He thrusts his chin towards Bronwyn, then at Nate. "And you're a brain. And you're a criminal. You're all walking teen-movie stereotypes."
I didn't see the reveal coming, but when it did, it seemed so obvious. All the clues were there. That, my friends, is a sign of a good mystery.
Like most YA thrillers these days, One of Us is Lying makes good use of social media to heighten tension and lead readers astray. Anonymous Tumblr posts from the killer show up as the investigation goes on, revealing details that only the five from the detention room would know. It also portrays high school with unflinching honesty, chronicling the cliques and rumors and petty alliances.
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I also like that it shows the staggering difference in how female criminals and male criminals are seen. Nate and Cooper are hot, dangerous, bad boy daydreams. Who can forget Jeremy Meeks? Addy and Browyn, in contrast, have it much harder on the Internet forums. Addy, in particular, because she cheated on her boyfriend is dubbed a slut and whore.
There's romance, though it doesn't really derail the plot. McManus no doubt put Nate and Browyn—the bad boy and the nerd—together on purpose, teasing the whole "stereotype" factor. It was nice, though rather lacking in chemistry, imo. I much preferred Addy's storyline and how she eventually takes control of her love life. (view spoiler)[I'm really glad she didn't end up with TJ. It's more realistic and a complete opposite of the standard ending mainstream media has conditioned us to expect. TJ is too intertwined with Jake and Simon. Maybe in time Addy will give it a chance. Or maybe she'll choose someone else, or not choose anyone at all. The openness of it all is refreshing. (hide spoiler)]
Honest to the twelve Olympians, the stakes in this novella is F3.5 stars
“To the stars who listen, Feyre."
"To the dreams that are answered, Rhys.”
Honest to the twelve Olympians, the stakes in this novella is Feyre and Rhys finding time to bone.
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Like seriously, Feyre and Rhy have got to stop having cosmic sex. They’re going to knock one of Saturn’s rings loose one day.
A Court of Frost and Starlight is basically the Christmas episode of every sitcom. Feyre wanders around Velaris, buying presents for everyone. There are snowball fights and drinking around a roaring fire and a decorating disaster (cue canny laugh track). (Why on earth did Maas turn the Solstice, a pagan festival, into a modern non-denominational Christmas anyway? In a high fantasy novel specifically.)
There are more serious and plot-relevant moments scattered throughout, pertaining to future books and how everyone is dealing with the aftermath of ACOWAR, but none of it really matters. It's all information that will be inevitably regurgitated in future full-length novels. (Btw, there's an excerpt of what I suspect is ACOTAR #4 at the end and it's Nesta's novel. My girl is gonna slaaaay.) ACOFAS has no value other than Christmas fluff.
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I'm too lazy to organize the rest of my thoughts in coherent paragraphs, so here they are in their glorious messy form:
-Rhys is sickeningly perfect to the extent that he doesn't feel like a real person anymore. Yes, a decent guy would buy tampons for his partner and comfort her if she were undergoing the agonizing monthly shredding of her uterus lining, but to clean her off too? Just ew. Props for mentioning mensuration though when most YA/NA novels breeze past it.
-Um, why does the task of decorating their new house fall to Feyre? It's like Hilary Clinton saying she'd still plan the flower arrangements for state dinners after she became president. Yeah, High Lord and High Lady. We're fucking equals, y'all!!! But he shells out money for a house while his wife is in charge of the domestic aspect. I didn't realize the separate spheres mentality still held.
-It’s been, like what, how many centuries? When is Mor going to tell Az she’s not interested? It’s just cruel, what’s she’s doing. She doesn’t owe him anything, but he’s her friend. He deserves a straightforward no, instead of feigned ignorance.
-Feyre and Elaine are such bitches to Nesta. She very obviously has depression and PTSD. You can’t shit over Tamlin for not handling Feyre’s PTSD right, then have Feyre be this suffering martyr to her bitch sister who's still working through her trauma.
-Also, how many more times are we going to trash Tamlin? Yes, he was a shit for what he did to Feyre. I’m not excusing that. But does he deserve to have his ACOTAR character completely assassinated beyond redemption while Rhys and Feyre sneer from their lofty thrones? Don’t tell me they haven’t done worse. I still remember Rhys twisting Feyre’s broken arm until she screamed to get her to agree to their bargain. But none of that matters anymore, does it? Because now is her Rhys is her mate and every shit he ever did is either excused or swept under the rug.
-The writing is better than ACOWAR. Thank the old gods for small mercies.
-I just want to read about Mor, Elaine, Nesta, Lucien, Azriel, and Cassian. Feyre and Rhys and their mountain-shaking sex bore me.
-The worst part is I’m still trash for this series. I had fun reading about it. And you can bet when Nesta's book comes out in 2020, I'm going to be on Amazon, ready to fork over my hard-earned dough.
Why Restore Me is Unrecyclable Trash Reason #1: Juliette is stunningly, magnificently incompetent at her job
The ending of Ignite Me is shit, alright? Why Restore Me is Unrecyclable Trash Reason #1: Juliette is stunningly, magnificently incompetent at her job
The ending of Ignite Me is shit, alright? Juliette becomes Supreme Commander of an entire country in the name of “feminism” DESPITE her having received no proper education or training. Restore Me simply highlights how terrible that decision was.
I mean, look at this crap:
“Why did I think I’d be capable of running a entire continent? How did I allow myself to imagine that a supernatural ability to kill things with my skin would suddenly grant me a comprehensive understanding of political science?”
"I did not think it would be easy to be a leader exactly, but I do think I thought it would be easier than this"
“What do you mean, my quarters? I have quarters?”
Juliette is boggled out of her tiny mind that Warner can speak seven languages, even though it should be common sense given that he was the commander's son. At one point, she wistfully wishes Anderson, the evil dictator she killed, were alive so he could take governance off her hands. Oh, she also calls him talented.
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The scenario reminds me of my experience with Wandavision. Everyone was sobbing their eyes out and bumping Wanda up to their favorite Avenger, while I had no sympathy for her at all. She held an entire town hostage and forced its residents to relive her nightmares nightly. All the good characters talk about how hard Wanda had it and how her actions are understandable—indirectly telling the audience to sympathize with Wanda. In the end, when normalcy is restored, the townspeople see Wanda off with unforgiving eyes and the special agent says to Wanda, "They will never know what you sacrificed for them." As if Wanda, not the poor people she terrorized, is the victim here.
Maybe some people sympathize with Juliette. I imagine that must be the case, given how astounding popular this series is. She's a teenager with great potential struggling to do her best. On a certain level, I sympathize with her. But my sympathy does not stretch beyond my concern for the populace. I sure as fuck wouldn't want Juliette as my president. I wouldn't trust her to run a bake sale, let alone the shattered remains of a dictatorship. It's lunacy to parade placing an incompetent woman in a position of power as feminism.
Why Restore Me is Unrecyclable Trash Reason #2: The Soap Opera Continues
In the original trilogy, we found out Warner and Adam are brothers. Now we discover Juliette’s parents weren’t her real parents and her real ones might still be alive. And she has an older sister??
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Why Restore Me is Unrecyclable Trash Reason #3: There is No Plot
Half the book is Juliette finding out she is shit at her job. Then two people show up from another country, Juliette gets shot (don't worry, it has very little impact on anything), she finds out secrets about her past, and for the grand finale, (view spoiler)[she murders 600 people (evil commanders, of course) and her real parents take her home. (hide spoiler)]
Why Restore Me is Unrecyclable Trash Reason #4: Juliette and Warner's Romance is Bullshit
“If Juliette has been supreme commander for seventeen days now, she and I have only been in a relationship for two days longer than that."
That quote seems pretty self-explanatory. They are the classic YA power couple: soulmates despite minimum interaction.
I maintain that Warner is an abusive fuck, but even if we ignore that, these hormonal teenagers know next to nothing about each other.
"I know he loves me--I can feel, in our every interaction, how deeply he cares for me--but even so, he's only ever offered me the vaguest information about his life."
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The thing is, she whines that Warner and Castle are keeping secrets from her, but the instant she finds out any type of impactful information (like Warner's ex), she has a mental breakdown. Kinda hard to blame them for hiding things.
Juliette and Warner's sex scenes are nauseatingly perfect too. There are common descriptions of heated skin to keep it age-appropriate. I actually wonder if they break into fever every time they fuck. And, of course, they orgasm together in perfect symphony.
Why Restore Me is Unrecyclable Trash Reason #5: Juliette's Thick-Ass Plot Armor
You can rest assured nothing bad will ever happen to Juliette. Her plot armor is so thick, it'd stop a dozen machetes. She’s never seriously injured and everyone kisses up to her. She never suffers consequences in her personal relationships due to her actions. It’s always the other person's fault and they’re always, ALWAYS, panting to make it up to her.
Even when Juliette force Kenji and Warner to spend time together. Even when she makes Kenji wait two hours for her because she was fucking her boyfriend. She prettily apologizes, they forgive her, and the world moves on, orbiting Juliette, the center of the universe.
UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: I honestly think this book got published purely due to its diversity factor.
Nothing else about it is appealing. NOTHING. Just UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: I honestly think this book got published purely due to its diversity factor.
Nothing else about it is appealing. NOTHING. Just the writing is enough to turn people off. It reads like the countless fanfiction you forced yourself through because a show's writers refused to make your ship canon, so now you have to wade through story after story of typos and grammar mistakes for resolution. But those authors aren't paid for their material. I'm the first to admit fanfiction is great for blossoming writers. My wallet did not have to suffer for lines like "Her eyes glittered with tears" or "The walls felt like they were holding their breath, like they'd inhaled but hadn't exhaled yet."
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And Dimple. Oh ho ho, Dimple. Judgement is her mother tongue. She's plain rude and judges everyone based on their clothes or wealth bracket. Her inner monologue is like a livestream of Gordon Ramsey criticizing food. Plus, for a feminist—which she loves to bring up because it makes her DIFFERENT!!1!!—she sure loves slut-shaming other women. You can't open a tube of mascara in front of her without her launching in a tirade about it.
I suppose you could pin it on her Indian-American social background—Her mother forces her to wear makeup and look pretty to attract a husband. But you can't have it both ways. You can't label Dimple a feminist yet have her be so radically anti-feminine. Don't wear makeup, fine. Don't stop and judge others for doing so.
All this makes When Dimple Met Rishi seem extremely juvenile. The mean kids are literally called Aberzombies. Younger teens might sympathize with Dimple badmouthing her parents for clinging to their heritage and her "me against the world" mentality. As someone in her early twenties, it lacks appeal.
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Rishi is so far up Dimple's ass, he might as well put down a mortgage. Page after page, he waxes on about her—her laugh, her beauty, her glasses, her lower lip... Yet she's done nothing but be horrible to him since they met.
He deserves better. Fuck kismet.
The format threw me off, too. Chapters had no particular length. Sometimes a POV chapter would be two paragraphs long, sometimes it'd go on for pages. And its third-person style is poorly written. It feels like (and I bet my liver it really happened) it was originally written in first-person, but then a beta reader said it was too hard to tell the POVs apart, and Menon panicked and immediately replaced every "I" with a person's name in Word without considering the subtle differences between these two styles.
Ending is a vat of nauseating cheese. Airports! Crying! Declarations of love while passersby stream by, secretly glaring at them because they're blocking the fucking road!
This is a trope that CAN be done well. If there'sThings that Make Natalie want to Flip a Table:
-Cliches
Cliche A: the hate-to-love relationship
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This is a trope that CAN be done well. If there's a fresh spin. And the characters were likable. Josh was *gasp* secretly in love with her all along, but instead of doing something radical like being nice, he embarks on a third-grader's idea of wooing women. He figuratively flicks boogers in her hair and breaks her crayons.
Cliche B: the sick scene from every shoujo manga
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Our plucky heroine is dangerously ill yet still determinedly stumbling through her day because she's a trooper that way. Then a wave of dizziness hits. She slumps back against a firm chest and strong arms. It's our handsome love interest who has been nothing been awful to her since 45 pages ago. He feels her forehead while she feebly bats him away, muttering she's fine.
"Idiot," he gently reprimands her, concerned and frustrated at the same time.
He takes her home, letting her lean on him. Delirious, our heroine wonders how strange it is he's being so nice to her while he's so mean all the time. He smells nice, she absently notes.
They're in the house. He stays the weekend, cooking for her and feeding her medicine and changing her clothes. As a bonus, he cleans her house too. Still caught in the impossible state of feverish delirium, she starts telling him things she'd never tell him in real life.
Slowly, unbelievably, they begin to bond.
Yeah, I'm not writing anymore. You get the idea. FYI, I have never seen or heard of someone so sick (exempting very serious diseases) that they're incapable of functioning.
Cliche C: the scatterbrained, nice, perky heroine and the work-obsessed, uptight guy.
I'm so tired of this dynamic. And Lucy is cute in a way that I finally understand why people hate Zooey Deschanel's characters. It's overwhelming. Suffocating. Lucy is like Jess from New Girl on steroids. She says silly things that no one would say in real life because they have mental filters.
-Weird agenda against nice guys and short guys.
Lucy and Josh both agree Nice Guys are overrated. Um, no. We need more Nice Guys in fiction and real life because a healthy relationship is sexy. Plus, Lucy loves mentioning that Josh can lift her up and that somehow makes him so much better than her old boyfriends.
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-Reminding me over and over again Lucy is 5 foot tall. I get it. My sister gets it. My cat fucking gets it.
I also know he's tall. Haha, cute contrast. Fucking shut up about it already.
-Telling me their bodies fit together for the 1,457,872th time
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-Lucy objectifying Josh to the point that HE gets uncomfortable She keeps on doing it even after he voices this.
How would we react if this were in a guy's POV and he kept talking about how tight that ass is or how great her boobs are? A few times is great, welcome even. S/he thinks her partner is beautiful and sexy. But if you keep on mentioning it every time you're together, it raises eyebrows.
-the romance is the whole story
I know it's a romance book. I know, alright. But I like to think readers have gotten a little more sophisticated in their choice of romances. Side plots involving the protagonist's family and/or career are typically told alongside the main romance plotline now.
But in The Hating Game, the only plot thread that is tied up is her and Josh's relationship. We don't find out if Lucy gets promoted. We don't find out if she goes home to visit her parents. It's like those things don't matter, which seems dangerously regressive.
Finally, a gif that sums up my entire reading experience:
First and foremost, I should mention I am a cis woman. My review is limited by my own experiences, which has unfo
"I should have been born a girl."
First and foremost, I should mention I am a cis woman. My review is limited by my own experiences, which has unfortunately not included actual face-to-face contact with a trans person.
Now that that's out of the way, I did think If Was Your Girl was a teensy unrealistic. But, BUT— *dodges flying tomato* not the kind you think. My beef is with how easily Amanda is accepted into the social fold. First day at school and she's already got two male admirers and four instant girl buddies, without her making a genuine effort to interact with people.
Remember Bella Swan? Remember that iconic line from that Twilight parody movie: “Wow, you look pretty frigid and boring! Wanna go to prom?”
Zero to hero, no time flat.
Everything else I adored. There are characters in all shades of grey. It's not LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Squad versus homophobes. Most of them are somewhere in between, transitioning, learning, like in real life. Amanda's parents love and accept her, but it also takes them time to adjust to having a daughter instead of a son. You also have someone from a very strict religious family, a semi-closeted lesbian, a bisexual woman who makes mistakes, and a boy finding his place on the gender spectrum.
Plus, special shout-out to the use of positive female relationships in the context of support systems.
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The ending is perfect. It doesn't end with a traditional happily ever after, but rather the promise of one. A promise that transgender people deserve fairytale endings just as much as everyone else.
"You can have anything," she said, "once you admit you deserve it."
"This isn't about Adam or Warner," I tell him. "This is about me and what I want. This is about me finally understanding where I want to b
3.5 stars
"This isn't about Adam or Warner," I tell him. "This is about me and what I want. This is about me finally understanding where I want to be in ten years. Because I am going to be alive, Kenji. I will be alive in ten years, and I'm going to be happy. I'm going to be strong. And I don't need anyone to tell me that anymore. I am enough, and I always will be."
Ughhhh, I'm an absolute sucker for these kinds of feminist-awakening stories. Juliette's growth is outstanding. Mafi may have been writing by the seat of her pants initially, but she clearly had an outcome in mind, no matter how vague, and she goddamn delivered.
God, when Juliette gave that speech to Kenji, I was an inch from screaming, "YAS QUEEN YAS!"
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It was a ballsy move making her timid and unlikable and not all that together in the first place, but I'm so glad I stuck around. I love the message that your first love doesn't have to be your only love and you can grow out of your teenage crush. That it's okay to walk away from an abusive relationship. That emotional abuse is still abuse.
"I think he wants me to pretend I'm the girl who doesn't really speak and spends most of her time being scared. The kind of girl he needs to protect and take care of all the time. I don't know if he likes who I am now. I don't know if he can handle it."
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Alright, still with me? Ready for the hammer to drop? (You all know it wasn't all Wonder Woman undies and Katniss braids, or three red stars wouldn't be sitting up there.)
Like I said, I love its stance on first loves, but I don't like feeling manipulated into it. The series is obviously shoving us towards Warner, so Adam becomes a needy, unreasonable prick with a stick up his ass.
In Fracture Me, his first priority was his brother and he held off on saving Juliette to make sure he's safe. In Ignite Me, he tells Juliette that she's the only thing he ever wants, which is great in terms of banishing the concept of unhealthy all-consuming love, but very messy characterization. Mafi has no idea what the fuck to do with Adam except to make him look as bad as possible.
Warner, in contrast, is absolutely perfect now. Every sin, every bad thing he has ever done is rationalized or ignored. If he can really sense Juliette's emotions, wouldn't he have known that she was repulsed by him when he was making moves on her way back in Shatter Me? Or does it not matter because he wasn't in love with her yet and didn't care about making a half-mad teenage girl uncomfortable just to get what he wanted? If he couldn't, then his ability (and character) is pretty damn convenient.
(Also, Warner can Apparate like Game of Thrones's Varys. After Juliette has a fight with Adam, she calls him with a pager or some sort and he's there in three minutes. Just throwing that out there.)
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Next thing I had a problem with is genre. This series is not dystopian. It's a coming-of-age romance set against a really, really vague dystopian background. The Reestablishment is the Booeyman. It's the threat in the shadows, there but not really. Warner's father is the stereotypical bad guy and as flat as a pancake.
Three books, two novellas, and we still don't have a clue what the world is like. How's the environment? Are there other countries? Is there a textile industry making all these jeans Juliette finds laid out on her bed?
Even the final battle is wrapped up too easily. There's no buildup or a sense that people were ready to rebel. In The Hunger Games, we got sporadic rebellions first before the showdown in the Capitol, which took one entire book. But here, all of a sudden, everyone in Sector 45 decides to join. No snitches or anything.
(view spoiler)[Then Juliette declares herself leader of nation.
"I've always known, deep down, who should be leading this resistance. I've felt it quietly for some time now, always too scared to bring the words to my lips. Someone who's got nothing left to lose and everything to gain. Someone no longer afraid of anyone.
Not Castle. Not Kenji. Not Adam. Not even Warner.
It should be me."
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Symbolically, I get it. It fits with her overarching character arc of embracing her power. Practicality-wise, are we really going to trust a sixteen-year-old with little formal schooling and zero knowledge of politics to rule over a country? Ignite Me ends rather abruptly, without letting readers know whether she steps down eventually or if the other sectors fall in line. (hide spoiler)]
I mentioned earlier that Juliette's "feminist awakening" was a positive thing, but it also left a bad taste in my mouth towards the end. She gets really dictator-like, and it's equated with strength and girl power. She does whatever the hell her selfish ass desires, even if people die. She doesn't give soldiers from the opposing side a chance to surrender and afterwards, there are no conversations or inner monologues about the sanctity of life.
And I must have lost track of how many times Juliette forgets about James or Kenji or Castle because she's too busy worrying about her own problems. When Kenji thinks about passing the torch of rebellion to someone else because of Omega Point and their depleted numbers, she basically rips his head off. The ugly truth is she wants revenge on Warner's dad, so she drags everyone on her quest to murder him.
The girl from Shatter Me was scared of her own shadow. This girl, standing on the roof with Warner, watching the horizon, would Hulk-smash anyone who disagreed with her.
If it's a villain-in-making story, then I tip my hat. But I don't think it is. I think we're supposed to see Juliette as a hero and liberator, which terrifies me because she's morally grey at best. She's certainly a worse person than Katniss is.
This review is already pushing a thousand words, so I'm going to wrap it up with a few last thoughts:
1) Why is no one concerned about the healer girls? In Fracture Me, Kenji was all gung-ho about saving Juliette. Here, everyone's all, "Oh, they'll be fine. Warner's dad will keep them alive." I know they're minor characters, but some concern would be nice.
2) Kenji is as awesome as ever, though I wish he weren't so far up Juliette's ass.
3) Juliette is super, super powerful and basically invincible. That sentence speaks for itself.
4)
"It's like a soap opera." Ian nods. "But with worse acting."
Entire series in one quote. It's cheesy, cliche, and shamefully entertaining. I regret nothing.
"And I understand, for the first time, that I have the power to destroy everything."
Before I go into my review, let's take a moment to a2.75 stars
"And I understand, for the first time, that I have the power to destroy everything."
Before I go into my review, let's take a moment to appreciate Kenji. Practical, funny, brilliant Kenji. He's the Minho of the series. When Juliette is off angsting over Adam or with Adam, he's there to cut through their bullshit and remind them that there's a war going on. His friendship with Juliette stretches as far as his first priority—the destruction of the Reestablishment and keeping Omega Point safe.
"I'm not blind, okay? On a purely physical level? Yeah, you're pretty sexy--and that suit you have to wear all the time doesn't hurt. But even if you didn't have that whole 'I kill you if I touch you' thing going on, you are definitely not my type. And more importantly, I'm not some perverted asshole," he says. "I take my job seriously. I get real shit done in this world, and I like to think people respect me for it."
Forget Adam and Warner, he's the man I want.
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Alright, appreciation time over. The gloves are off. (Har har, subtle reference to the ending)
The melodrama is back in spades in Unravel Me as Juliette finds out *gasp* she's slowly killing Adam by being with him! (He's not technically immune to Juilette. Long story.) Oh, angst! Oh, woe! Oh, tormented gazes across the cafeteria that fall like oddly shaped stones on Juliette's bleeding heart!
But wait! Warner smashes back in the picture and she... might... be... FALLING FOR HIM!
*See how annoying capitals are? Stop using them, book.
I have ninety-nine and a billion problems with Juliette and Warner striking up a romantic relationship, but let's start with Warner himself first. In Shatter Me, he was the cruel, charismatic leader who made Juliette feel icky. Here, he's a tormented Prince Charming that was good all along. I didn't get what readers were saying about Rhys from A Court of Mist and Fury, but I get it: his character does a complete one-eighty. In fanfiction speak, Warner is OOC—out of character.
The reason Juliette initially falls for him is that she sees him being nice to a puppy. Then she has nice, long conversations with him and gets to his gooey interior. He transforms from a two-dimensional character to a three-dimensional human, so Juliette can no longer hate him.
If depth is all it takes to change villains to heroes (case in point, Warner's mustache-twirling father), then Hitler must be Jesus Christ reborn. Serial killers are capable of kindness, too, you know. Hitler was lovely to his secretary and the people close to him, according to that memoir. The rather thoughtful message of refusing to acknowledge the enemy's humanity in order to kill them is lost under this putrid heap of romance.
There's also that uncomfortable you-secretly-wanted-it reveal. Warner forced himself on her at the end of Shatter Me and Juliette pretended to go along with it so she could attack him. But now we find out she actually liked it. How fucking rapey is that?
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Despite it all, I was enjoying Unravel Me. I liked that she eventually realizes she needs to stop relying on Adam and be her own person. Then the ending happened and laughed in my face for ever thinking it could break out of the neat little Cliche Romance mold it built itself in. It spit on all the growth Juliette did in the last four hundred pages. She doesn't need a man, but look, here's something with a penis charging in to save the day! He comforts her and opens her eyes to the truth, just like Adam did in Shatter Me. Her character arc is exactly the same. It is then rinsed and ushered off to the next book to inspire false hope.
I'm going to read the last one. We all fucking know it. I'm reading Fracture Me right now.
Some random thoughts I couldn't structure into my review:
-Castle is an idiot. He's a bigger idealist than Trump. It's a wonder Omega point has survived this long if Anderson is as ruthless and intelligent as they make him out to be.
-Juliette is beautiful. This is very important because we're reminded every time she has contact with a heterosexual male.
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-I don't hate this series. I honestly don't. It's too amusing to be annoying. For someone who's currently trapped in end-of-semester hell, it's a relief to dive into something that isn't intellectually challenging. I skimmed a lot and was able to bang out a full-length review. (Trust me; you're not missing out a lot if you skip a line or two of Juliette's melodramatic thoughts.) There are some genuinely good themes if you read between the lines.
