The start of this is so strong, full of rich worldbuilding and tricks with first-person POV and actually making a solid story point out of coHmm. HMM.
The start of this is so strong, full of rich worldbuilding and tricks with first-person POV and actually making a solid story point out of constantly talking about beautiful dresses (that mainstay of YA fantasy). The main character's in a wonderful emotional quandary of wanting to succeed but also being up against her sisters and friends. There are all sorts of tantalising hints of problems and plots lurking.
And then it just bogs down in a middle of things happening to the main character, and her making firm decisions and then doing nothing about it. It seemed to be far more concerned with setting things up for book 2, when it could have been doing things now. The finale twists, when they finally came, were no longer surprising, and the cavalcade of terrible things just left me rather numb. Which was very disappointing, because that start really was SO strong....more
Setting this one aside circa 50 pages in. I'm just having my usual YA-fantasy troubles - too quick, not deep enough on any of the fascinating world elSetting this one aside circa 50 pages in. I'm just having my usual YA-fantasy troubles - too quick, not deep enough on any of the fascinating world elements that are whizzing past, which just leaves me rudderless and unengaged. Sometimes I can be pulled through if I'm interested enough in the main character, but this young man is too much fight-starting and not enough demonstration of internal reasons for same, and mostly I just want to smack him upside the ear, even as I sympathise with his pretty horrible plight. (I'm also not really in the mood for horrible plights and the gritty struggle therewith right now. No one's fault on that.)...more
This is a tricky one. There are some things I really enjoyed about this (and that prompted me to finish it when I teetered on setting it aside) but thThis is a tricky one. There are some things I really enjoyed about this (and that prompted me to finish it when I teetered on setting it aside) but there are a number of things that I found a bit jarring.
The good? It's an intriguing fantasy world with a driven and engaging gender-fluid main character. The action of auditions for one of the Queen's assassins interweave with political intrigue and a personal revenge arc for our main character.
But in a way, that's also the bad. There's perhaps too much happening, and though it all comes together well in the finale, I found the middle quite choppy in jumping between things, and that many developments felt more imposed than organic and inevitable. Nothing quite got enough space to develop naturally and deeply. I found the author's style a little choppy as well, with a habit of jumping between parallel elements in a scene that just didn't flow for me.
All in all, this was interesting and while I'm not desperate to read the sequel/conclusion to this, I am interested in seeing what the author does next, with a little more practice and polished under her belt....more
Setting aside circa page 60 because I'm (once again) just not feeling it. Which is a shame, because I've enjoyed other of the author's work a lot, butSetting aside circa page 60 because I'm (once again) just not feeling it. Which is a shame, because I've enjoyed other of the author's work a lot, but this was (for me) sitting uneasily between YA intensity and epic fantasy breadth, not really doing either in a way that gripped me....more
I loved this book. It was a delightful read in so many ways, with a world that just wrapped around me in its finely picked detail, characters that breI loved this book. It was a delightful read in so many ways, with a world that just wrapped around me in its finely picked detail, characters that breathed and yearned and prickled, and a plot and theme that tangled together and hauled each other along. I was hooked from the first few pages, which pulled me immediately into the character, her world, her fears, her limits, and kept pushing the boundaries of all of those from then on, constantly unfurling things that felt both right and wondrous. In that unfurling--very much though not entirely rolling back the boundaries of the viewpoint character's world to reveal the strange things that were there all along--it felt almost old-school fantasy-for-kids, like something Diana Wynne Jones-ish, which made it a perfect blend (for me) of comfort and discovery....more
Fun, facile, forgettable. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot that's good about it. It's blisteringly readable, and centred around a pair of fantastic gFun, facile, forgettable. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot that's good about it. It's blisteringly readable, and centred around a pair of fantastic girls. Rose is magnificent: sassy and resilient. Lissa is equally but differently magnificent: powerful and troubled. A key strength of the story is their friendship, which is real, negotiated, shifting, complementary, powerful. The issue ground trodden may not be innovative - Rose's gendered issues of bodily freedom, Lissa's issues of personal control - but I felt like it was done well.
But it's just a bit too blithe, too pacey at the expense of language artistry, too silly. I enjoyed reading this one a lot, but I don't think I'll be reading any further in the series....more
Call it Harry Potter meets Memoirs of a Geisha and that sounds amazing, right? But I am wildly ambivalent on this one. Because there are some aspects Call it Harry Potter meets Memoirs of a Geisha and that sounds amazing, right? But I am wildly ambivalent on this one. Because there are some aspects of it that are amazing--the witch-warrior geisha, the curses and troubles and politics laid over the world, the personal tragedies running through the plot like veins. But then the whole thing is 80% concerned with the training and coming-of-age of the main character, and I found her the least interesting thing about all of it.
I mean, mostly it's the same problem I have with all stories framed in this manner: the older, jaded, fallen character tells an unrelated person all about How They Came To Be Here. I am never interested in that story. I am always interested in what the older, jaded, fallen character does now. Thus was the case in Name of the Wind and it's the case here.
So I'm particularly torn upon reaching the end of this. Because we still don't know quite how our heroine came to be here, but what she does next is definitely going to be spectacular. So do I read the sequel or not? I just don't know......more
Fun, frothy with an edge of demonspawn, and a nice close to the trilogy. Some things were a little too glib, a little too coincidental, and the pacingFun, frothy with an edge of demonspawn, and a nice close to the trilogy. Some things were a little too glib, a little too coincidental, and the pacing was a little odd--I felt like we spent a lot of time with the first two acts and then crammed a whole buncha stuff in the third. (And thinking about it now, I wonder if maybe that's a pacing-of-the-trilogy issue, but anyway.) However Sophie throughout has been a delightful narrator to hang around with, snarky and canny and normal and strong. She carries us home....more
Like the first volume of the series, this was highly readable, peopled with great characters who have believably tangled and in-need-of-maintenance reLike the first volume of the series, this was highly readable, peopled with great characters who have believably tangled and in-need-of-maintenance relationships, and pacey with deft intertwining of various plots. Also like the first, it wound up over the majority of the book only to let fly with a flurry of activity in the last quarter. Unlike the first, the this-changes-everything final blow felt like a bit of an anticlimax, leaving me with a faint frown in the final few pages. It's particularly unfortunate when the big driving plot of the book - the Thing Our Heroine Must Do Or Else - has also evaporated.
I still enjoyed reading this heaps, but I'm feeling faintly perplexed about the idea of reading on....more
I think this shouldn't have been a YA book. It's got a world so solidly envisioned, so broadly explored, with a cast so large and varied, that trying I think this shouldn't have been a YA book. It's got a world so solidly envisioned, so broadly explored, with a cast so large and varied, that trying to cram it into this space leaves it feeling thin, the characters not really compelling, and overall this feeling like one third of a story, rather than an arc in its own right. (I mean, two chapters from the end, I was still wondering, "Where is this going?" No one is really trying to achieve anything solid and overarching, except perhaps Silyen, and the most we can say about his ambitions is that probably everything is proceeding much as he had foreseen it.)
I think it's well done for what it is; as in, I think the author does well at delivering this. I just think that this probably wasn't the right way to do it in the first place. So I don't know where that leaves my opinion on the book....more
I wanted to enjoy this. (I was hoping this could be my chance to get past my sausage-festival discomfit and enjoy Lawrence like everyone else seems toI wanted to enjoy this. (I was hoping this could be my chance to get past my sausage-festival discomfit and enjoy Lawrence like everyone else seems to.) And for a good half of this book I thought that was still likely to happen. The style is cracking, the main character is a lot of fun, in an angry neuroatypical murder-kitten way, and the world is fascinating, peopled with lots of other interesting characters doing interesting things.
But I kept waiting for the book to harness these ready-to-run workhorses to a sturdy plot and... it didn't happen. Lots of stuff happens, but for me the book really lacked a single driving line to pull me strongly through all that stuff. Discussing it with my husband, I described it as, "All the hijinks of Harry Potter, but no mention of Voldemort yet. So do we really care if there's a troll in the dungeons?"
There are lots of interesting hooks and questions--who or what is Nona really?--and lots of fun narrative games being played. But the reason why those questions mattered really only showed up in the last hundred pages of the story, and as a result I found the latter half of the book really dragged for me. All of the and-then-this-happened events of the unfolding ninja-nun schooling that should have been (and in some ways were) exciting just seemed like cheap distractions, and in particular the heavy playing of one of my least favourite literature-for-young-people cards (that being: we can't tell authority figures, we have to fix it ourselves despite being children) took a lot of shine off proceedings for me.
Those final fifty pages unfolded some interesting answers, hooked into a bigger plot, and are ready to push things forward. But basically, this isn't a story. It's the first third of a story. (It's been too long since I read Prince of Thorns, it's entirely possible it unfolds things similarly; big difference being that PoT was approximately half as long as this book.)
So. I really wanted to enjoy this. But I think I just don't particularly like the way Lawrence plots. All good, no book's for everyone, all y'all do you....more
Setting aside circa page 75 with more of a meh than a nope. There's simultaneously too much and too little going on--lots of things happening, but tooSetting aside circa page 75 with more of a meh than a nope. There's simultaneously too much and too little going on--lots of things happening, but too many crossing threads hang loose and it's hard to pick which are important. I'm quite interested in Suzan's circumstances, but we're spending the bulk of time with Luca, who can't even be bothered to talk with his father about his sister's panic about a sexual predator, despite repeated entreaties and promises to do so, so nuts to him....more
History-adjacent urban fantasy with sassy magic flappers and a diverse cast. I enjoyed it a lot. Our central duo of main characters are just wonderfulHistory-adjacent urban fantasy with sassy magic flappers and a diverse cast. I enjoyed it a lot. Our central duo of main characters are just wonderful girls, with flaws and edges and a believable best-friend bond that flexes and strains and glows. (They both get delightful romance lines, but the most important relationship is with each other, and it's wonderful.) And the magic system is full of art and wonder, but also misuse and consequences and responsibility.
So there's a lot to like. It didn't quite come together in searing magnificence for me; things felt a little disconnected and aimless through the first half, but the world and characters carried it through. I look forward to seeing what this author does next....more
This was a really interesting world with genuinely intricate and fascinating politics... that we hardly saw any of. I was constantly frustrated, tryinThis was a really interesting world with genuinely intricate and fascinating politics... that we hardly saw any of. I was constantly frustrated, trying to peel back the edges of our viewpoint character's narration to see more, since to my mind the main character is actually one of the least interesting people in the whole thing. (An interesting element of the world, but she herself is not the most fascinating thing going on here.)
And so I am left in something of a dilemma. Do I keep reading to see more, including the intriguing elements unveiled in the steep cliffhanger of an ending? Or do I not reward this sort of nonsense? Hmm.
Anyway, it's sort of "Cinderella: the Hunger Games", so if that sounds like a great time, you'll probably enjoy this....more
I noped out very quick on this, because after six chapters of alternating POV, one had been all fleeing through the desert (promising to begin with; qI noped out very quick on this, because after six chapters of alternating POV, one had been all fleeing through the desert (promising to begin with; quickly tedious) while worldbuild-info-dumping (...always tedious) and the other had been all "oh shit oh shit I'm not ready to be king" with actually zero immediate threat or conflict (the grand vizier seems really supportive and helpful actually, and while the thing that killed Your Father The King was a strange new illness, it's more mystery than pressing concern).
This book has an amazing premise and a fascinating matriarchal world, and I have never been more frustrated to spend an entire book faffing around witThis book has an amazing premise and a fascinating matriarchal world, and I have never been more frustrated to spend an entire book faffing around with teenage nonsense rather than exploring the awesome stuff. I feel like I spent two-thirds of the book waiting for the story to really start, and the interim was mostly filled with boy trouble and plot-coincidences that would have been less eye-rolly if they'd been more supported by character. (For instance, (view spoiler)[if Mirabella's urge to escape had been less sudden, less one-off, more of a Thing--perhaps if she'd been fixated on the story of Arsinoe's attempted escape, constantly wishing she had the gumption to try, whatever--then her randomly busting out and traipsing across half the island just to accidentally insta-love bonk another girl's bloke would've seemed less bizarrely contrived. (hide spoiler)])
I've been thinking a lot, as I plowed my way through the book (though it's charmingly easy to read in a line-by-line sense), about what I would've preferred this story to be. There are, for my money, two ways this could have been done really well. 1) Cleave to that fantastic premise--three sisters in a fatal fight for the throne--and kick into the actual struggle in the first third of this book. Keep things tight and pacey and emotional. Assassination attempts interspersed with memories and regrets and feel-struggles. Whee! 2) Revel in that great setting, really dig into it, make this the female Game of Thrones--whee!--in the process making the book at least twice as long and no longer YA.
Instead, I feel the book tried to do both at once, giving not enough depth to the girls and their stuff, and not enough intricacy to the politics. Some great twists got thrown in in the final pages of the book, but for me, it's not enough to get me to read further....more
Setting aside circa page 100. There is so much going on - so many characters, so many systems, so many elements of the world in play - and I am findinSetting aside circa page 100. There is so much going on - so many characters, so many systems, so many elements of the world in play - and I am finding it difficult to keep up with it all, and frustrating that we're not spending more time with any of it, such that each new revelation feels more like a rabbit out of a hat than an inevitable development. The ideas are all big and wild and wondrous, but for me there's just too many of them, and not enough depth to their exploration....more
More like three and a half stars, really. As I noted in progress, Holly Black writes magnificent characters: people who are vivid, overlapping shards More like three and a half stars, really. As I noted in progress, Holly Black writes magnificent characters: people who are vivid, overlapping shards of intentions and regrets; people who are still figuring out how to shuffle the deck of themselves into a person; people who think they're going to be able to do that and therefore strive so hard; teenagers. I love how her characters hurt and are hurt, bleed all over each other and the page. It makes their victories taste so much sweeter and their losses hurt all the more.
But Black's works often deal with man's fey obsession with the eldritch immortal (in this case, faeries) and unfortunately I am just not so compelled by that. While it's interesting to look at how people can and will normalise living in the shadow of monsters (or, say, a volcano; something that can kill you carelessly) I'm far less into the romanticisation of the monster. (I know: revoke my goth card.) With how much selling I need on the concept, a YA novel (which by necessity doesn't have the space to layer on the sell) is probably never going to hit it for me. My fault, not the author's. But I may give future work of this nature from Black a miss, even as I keep hoping for another White Cat....more
This book was full of the sort of adventure, wonder, and light-touch meta-narrative ponderings that I associate with The Neverending Story. As I notedThis book was full of the sort of adventure, wonder, and light-touch meta-narrative ponderings that I associate with The Neverending Story. As I noted in updates, it's a physically beautiful thing, with untrimmed pages and beautiful formatting and lots of decorative detail, often hiding extra meaning. There are marks referenced in the text. There's a hidden poem. There are flourishes that pay off in both the short and long term. It's really great. (I sort of wish it had gone further. I sort of wish there had been variations in typeset for different points of view--different stories, if you will.)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I can also see how it hasn't quite set the reading world on fire. It's a rollicking good read, with the quick pace and teenage protagonists of a great YA fantasy. But it's also a little opaque and braided in its storytelling, a little tricky and clever, a little bit hard work. (And I'm not saying that YA readers can't cope with it, but YA bestsellers tend to be slick and easy in their structure.) It's also not hitting a lot of the things that bother me about YA--which obviously I consider a feature but others may consider a bug. There's a great sense of the world, wide and full of wonders, layered up across the viewpoints into shimmering mosaic. And the characters are rich and interesting and don't demonstrate their dynamics primarily through quips.
All in all, my only real discontent is that I felt the ending slammed in a little hard and fast. It didn't quite feel inexorable, and it smashed through quite quickly. It didn't really leave me with a burning and gripping need to read more, to know the answers, to see what happens. But this has been such an interesting and well-done book that I'm pretty keen to read onwards regardless....more
This was gentle and delightful. A time-travelling pirate ship gets enmeshed in Victorian-era Hawaiian politics, but as with all time-travel books, it'This was gentle and delightful. A time-travelling pirate ship gets enmeshed in Victorian-era Hawaiian politics, but as with all time-travel books, it's more about the characters, what they're chasing through time, who they are at the centre of the whirl of time and place. The titular girl is a wonderful knot of yearning and fear, and her relationships with her father, her friends, her crewmates were all delicately but deeply carved. My niggles were all pretty minor - there was some zany paragraphing errors in my copy that occasionally made it unclear who was speaking; and the romance was surprisingly sweet for such a born-of-fairytales bodice-ripping love interest. But perhaps that, too, is the point....more