The Queen of the Tearling Book Review

Rawr Reader,

I've been on a role and I am in no mood to pull up the brakes anytime. Great news, right! I felt I needed some strong females for my next read and had to turn to one of the titles that was a gift by my best friend. She'd never read it but books by best friends are always the best. Even if they're not...
It makes sense! The synopsis is provided by Goodreads: 

On her nineteenth birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa. But though she may be inexperienced and sheltered, Kelsea is not defenseless: Around her neck hangs the Tearling sapphire, a jewel of immense magical power; and accompanying her is the Queen’s Guard, a cadre of brave knights led by the enigmatic and dedicated Lazarus. Kelsea will need them all to survive a cabal of enemies who will use every weapon—from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic—to prevent her from wearing the crown.

Despite her royal blood, Kelsea feels like nothing so much as an insecure girl, a child called upon to lead a people and a kingdom about which she knows almost nothing. But what she discovers in the capital will change everything, confronting her with horrors she never imagined. An act of singular daring will throw Kelsea’s kingdom into tumult, unleashing the vengeance of the tyrannical ruler of neighboring Mortmesne: the Red Queen, a sorceress possessed of the darkest magic. Now Kelsea will begin to discover whom among the servants, aristocracy, and her own guard she can trust.

But the quest to save her kingdom and meet her destiny has only just begun—a wondrous journey of self-discovery and a trial by fire that will make her a legend . . . if she can survive.

Reference:

    I've seen this book when walking down the aisles at the bookstore, however I never picked it up. It wasn't until my best friend gave it to me as a gift for my most recent birthday. 

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this book yet)

    One of the reasons why my best friends chose this book was because it had a strong female heroine at the storefront. Can't get enough of those in YA lately and the quest really began when I imagined me finishing this book, wondering if I was going to like this one. And my answer is, unfortunately, not so much. 

    This year has been kind of tough on me. I've read 5 books so far this year and all of them are on the same par. Some have great worlds but the characters are a drag, or the characters are great but there's something wrong about the plot and the world-building. For me, the latter is the case. 

   Something missing for me in A Darker Shade of Magic was that there were like 5 real characters in the story. In The Queen of the Tearling, I'm constantly and consistently meeting someone new. I won't lie at times I had to pause and trace who was who because some of these names sort of blend together, but then after a couple of pages I'd figure it out and everything would be okay. For example, we have the Mace, aka Lazarus. I loved how Kelsea shifted how she addressed him depending on the situation. Also just the fact he had two names. Reminded me of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings. This is stuff we see so often in real life but rarely in fiction, and for the author to use it comfortably and often made me find him not only intriguing, but incredibly three-dimensional. Aside from him being the Mace: independent, headstrong, but incredibly loyal. Loved him. We're actually bombarded with a ton of characters in the first chapter and overwhelming, yes, however if I have to choose, I'd rather be overwhelmed. Large cast of character with a range of personalities gets a plus from me.

    The chapters, however, get a thumbs down. Large chapters slow down the pacing of the story on it's own, but then the story itself lacks real action from start to finish. One chapter was like 50 pages while another was barely 10. Consistency. I need it. And smaller chapters... Yes we're thrown into a "pursuit" at the story's commencement however, even then the journey is rather slow-taking. Adventures need more then just traveling across the countryside. Well--- action-packed ones do and by the blurbs behind the front cover make me anticipate a lot of it (which was entirely misleading).
    While I won't elaborate in this section of the review, another aspect of the novel which bothered me was the character inconsistencies. For me, tragically, by our female protagonist. I liked her at first. She had this spunk and craving for the wide world, all with the hopes of finding it to be all she imagined it to be and with a family she'd dreamed of all her life. Although separated from society, she had a firm grasp about how life should be. Which has to be given credit by all the books she's read. May I say it--- a warrior Belle. Who does what she believes is right with a compassionate, selfless heart. That is, until her oscillating feelings makes me cringe at every thought the author reveals. One reason was for how she believed the world should be after a day of leaving the secluded cottage she'd spent all her life in, away from the only two people she'd every truly spoken to. How could you possibly know? Then, *deep sigh* there comes her immediate and shallow judgments of the Queen's Guard coming to collect her and take her safely to her new home. Nine men she'd never seen before and all she could do was rave (well, in her head at least) about how attractive they were and they must've been chosen by her mother because of their beauty. But then, a couple pages later, they're not attractive anymore. Only to be attractive a couple of pages later. This was at the beginning of the first chapter so I won't put page numbers. Then she meets an interesting, questionably moral character a couple of pages later and on the surface, she shouldn't like him based off of all the morals she so proudly asserts. But *another deep sigh* he has to be attractive and, ergo, she can't stop thinking about him for all of the book. There's no romance in this story, so if you're looking for that in this story you won't find it. And I may be a little cynical since I'm beyond the good girl crushing on the "bad boy" cliché (thanks to all the kdramas I've watched where that cliché is a dime a dozen), and since she's supposed to be "strong," this just enraged me all the more. She's the Tearling's Daenerys. (I'd like to note I love the A Song of Ice and Fire series and I loved Daenerys in the first book, however in all the ones following she was just an annoying little girl. Check out my reviews~)
    Whew, that was a big point I had to get out. Now, let's get to the world. First off, I really enjoyed how it developed. We start off in this classic fairy tale cottage, leaving the safe borders of the known and familiar to stumble upon a world running at a different pace. Suddenly it's a new fantasy world. Until it's not. We soon discover this Tearling land is actually some sort of dystopian land. I've never read a book where the two were combined and found it really interesting, until magic came into the picture and I couldn't quite find how the two could work. Yes there's magic in urban fantasy, but in this case it just didn't work for me.
    I don't usually bring this up since I don't mind it in literature, but the profanity in fantasy, especially in YA fantasy is a little jarring. I'd only wished they used it more in the beginning so that I wasn't taken back when they finally used it a couple of chapters in. It came out of nowhere and it not only breaks the trust of the reader, but it brings into mind the dangerous question of consistent characterization. Yes, like a baby Kelsea slowly came to use it the more she was surrounded by it, however at the time, it just felt off.

   A character I found myself loving was the Mace. He was the strong foundation the new queen needed on her journey and in the beginning of her reign. His relationship with Kelsea was the one I admired the most. Obviously because we see it more than the relationship between anyone else, but something I think I'll always admire about this novel. 

    I mentioned before the character inconsistencies regarding Kelsea but I forget to mention how her strength seemed questionable at times. At first I loved how sure of herself she could be, and then suddenly she wasn't as strong as I thought. Which brings me to the question: what makes a strong female protagonist? Everyone will have their own answer to this, and while I won't give my definition, ultimately I'd have to say she wasn't. For me. Something just didn't click for me. It has to do with the Daenerys connection, you need to be more than just someone giving commands. Now, Kelsea does some remarkable things for women in the novel. Great strides were made to make women strong overall in this story. However, by the end something just didn't click with me. With no real reason, I felt the strength was rather fabricated. Maybe it has to do how vain she was the entire story, intentional or as unintentional as she meant to be.

   Let me end with the finale. The story was slow and I thought it would rise to this huge climatic moment, only it just plateaued to this moment that felt unsatisfying. It's called deus ex machina and for a first novel, plot wise everything was resolved while there still remained some big questions regarding characters and world-building holes. As a first in a trilogy (they're always trilogies, I'm just assuming this is just another one), I know they can't answer anything in the first novel, but if you drag the story on at parts, I want to be given some explanation by the time I finish reading the last page. Short story: On one of my trips to college after break I got stuck in traffic on one of the major highways. It happens, I bore through it. Roughly forty-five minutes later the traffic starts moving again and I drive for a little before suddenly the highway clears up and I resume the posted speed. Now I don't know if they cleaned up the reason we were at a stand-still for, but I felt unsatisfied that I had to endure a forty-five minute wait and there was nothing to show for it. That feeling was as close as I could get to this ending. Not nearly as irritating as waiting in traffic, but I think you get where I'm going with this. 

   I hear a lot of reviews say that a lot of answers are given in the next book, but my interest is so low at the moment that that just isn't going to happen. My curiosity will never be quenched.

   I don't want it to be like I hated this story because honestly, while reading, I enjoyed everything. The writing was lovely and captivating. But that's the problem, because everything's pretty in the moment. It's after, in retrospect when my darned literary mind plugs in and I start to look at everything in a package. No matter how hard I try to look at stories at its surface, all my English classes and all they've taught me start to nitpick and look at everything.

   A good start, but I don't see myself finishing the series.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

Quote:
“Even a book can be dangerous in the wrong hands, and when that happens, you blame the hands, but you also read the book.” 

― Erika Johansen, The Queen of the Tearling

My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

Armada by Ernest Cline

River Song's Spoilers:

(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)

   The Fetch. The Fetch. I wish there were more scenes with him so I could understand this obsession Kelsea had for him. Sure he had a charming face and act, but they shared maybe two real scenes together. I didn't understand why she asked for him at the end. It felt so odd, and forced. Do any of you guys feel that way? That you're forced to like this guy because the female protagonist just thinks he's the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. (Though to be fair Kelsea hadn't seen many other people her age.) I think we had more time with Kelsea's uncle the Regent. A main person shouldn't be so stuck on someone who had maybe 20 pages of speaking dialogue in 400+ page novel. I'm just throwing that number out there, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was less.

    The necklaces of magic sort of irked me. Not at first, mostly in the last half of the story, but the explanation for where they're power came from and why there were two was never explained. Something else not explained--- how can a man and woman (Regent and Red Queen) sit still for 18 years and then worry about the Princess Apparent to come and take her throne back? They sent assassins after her months before she was to return and reclaim her power. And even the characters made that claim: the Tearling wasn't large but how could no one have found them? Was the cottage/forest they lived in under protection of the necklaces? It seems to easy for all the action to start when Kelsea leaves the cottage. Which, actually since we're on topic--- what happened to the cool hawks in the beginning of the story? They were in the first three chapters and then never appeared again. Killer hawks the size of dogs--- the author could have done more with this. Also could've done less of the tedious managing of Kelsea's early reign. Everything was just too easy. She just walked into the Keep and slept that first night. No one attempted to kill her until her coronation which seemed overly dramatic. She's stabbed by a knife, losing blood at an alarming pace, but takes her time asking for the Father to finish her coronation and then amiably asks her uncle to get out of the throne so she could sit on it. I mean--- what???

   And in my review I said I loved Mace. And I do. It was only every time Kelsea wanted to do something and voiced it, he said no, and she was like: darn maybe next time. I understand you can't just let a recently exposed nineteen year old to the throne for a kingdom she'd not even seen and let her do everything she wants--- but really how am I supposed to take her seriously and think her "strong" if she just behaves like a child. I wanted her to reach for power and fail and then learn. It isn't enough just to run your mouth (I'll unofficially call the Daenerys problem).

   Also in the beginning, I didn't realize it until I read another review, but the fact that the party was being pursued by assassins and yet the party lit fires at night, got inebriated, and sang songs while claiming that they needed to be on their guard seemed ironic. They were the best of warriors, yet they were old and seemed to show poor judgment and influence to a girl who'd been raised in isolation.

   Now let's get to the Red Queen. I've never met such an inactive villain. She's mentioned in brief episodes maybe three times in the entire novel. Three scenes in a 400+ novel. And none of which really show her ambition and drive. All we know is she rapes her slaves and is subservient to an evil that doesn't want to enact evil onto her enemy--- though this evil master has no qualm of devouring innocent children. There's no drive in the heroine when there's no drive by the villain. That was where the story really seems to rise to a plateau and stay there. And the incline isn't very steep. 

    Beautiful writing, but sometimes drive really is everything. Especially, especially in fantasy adventures.

   And while Kelsea's drive to be a great queen is admirable, I feel I need something for her to want and for it to be a real challenge for her, if not outright met with failure. She just wants stuff and gets it. Externally, not as vain as her mother but in a way, ironically, becomes just like her. And it doesn't help she has to comment on the attractiveness of pretty much everyone she meets. And she thinks her mother was vain. Pl-eeease!

    I want to end on my favorite scene: when Mace surprised Kelsea with the collection of books from her cottage now safely transported to her bed chamber. Never had I ever felt like Belle. I think it's every bookworm's dream to have their own library like the one the Beast gives Belle and the fact that this world is deprived of books and yet here her closest confidant and head guard (someone who showed ill-favor to retrieving the books in the first place) goes out of his way to bring all (a good two thousand) books across the country for her. Dare I say? Awww. Just, awww.

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

A Darker Shade of Magic Book Review

Rawr Reader,


I think there should be an award given to readers that lose interest in a novel and pick them up again in hopes of reigniting your interest. I started this last summer and set it aside for eight months, picking it up primarily because the chapters were short and the stack of titles on my shelf for unfinished books kept rapidly growing. In the end, I think I chose a good book to give another chance to. The synopsis is provided by Goodreads:

Kell is one of the last Antari, a rare magician who can travel between parallel worlds: hopping from Grey London — dirty, boring, lacking magic, and ruled by mad King George — to Red London — where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire — to White London — ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne, where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back — and back, but never Black London, because traveling to Black London is forbidden and no one speaks of it now.

Officially, Kell is the personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see, and it is this dangerous hobby that sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to take her with him for her proper adventure.

But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save both his London and the others, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive — a feat trickier than they hoped.

Reference:

While I follow Victoria Schwab on various social media sites and am aware of how often she releases new titles, I'd have to say that I heard this from other booktubers who continued to rave about this action-packed adventure.

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this yet)

   One thing I find myself never getting tired of is Schwab's gift for offering an original story. And if not entirely original, the world-building is on its own level. I thought this when I first read The Archived. And then Vicious. And now. It's for this reason I'll keep reading her future works because I know without a doubt I'll be on an adventure in a world I'd never thought of before with pretty kick-ass characters to kick it up a notch. 

   And so it is for A Darker Shade of Magic. Four Londons. Only two Antari to travel between them. That is, until Kell (our star on the front cover--- may I digress, what a cover!) meets a don't-take-no-for-an-answer, spirited girl with dreams of captaining her own ship and seeing the world (or in this case--- worlds). It hurts to say that while I didn't care for Lila (at all), I did cackle at her sass and fire to keep the scenes interesting. I cared more for what she was going to say as a comeback than for the ambivalent feelings she had being a thief and then being a slightly more normal human with morals. Together, the more cool-headed Kell and the firecracker Lila could only run into adventure... Thought I was going to say trouble huh? Well don't worry they run into plenty of that too! We really find each world has a garment of their own, and I really appreciated that each London actually embodied the color-ID they were given. 

    One thing that made this novel a quick read was the short chapters. There's a dozen larger sections but for the most part, each chapter was three to four pages long. Very convenient if you're reading on the bus to school or on the train to work or during lunch. Even if it's a couple of pages, if you finished a chapter it makes you feel as if you've accomplished something big.

    Something I always take into consideration is pacing, especially in my fantasy adventure novels. For me the beginning was a little slow because the main two characters don't meet until many chapters after the book begins. So while I would say the book picked up a little after the first quarter of the book (way too late for me to think very highly of it by the end), it didn't last very long and soon I sort of wished to be done with it. I'd have to say this was because the characters (Lila) more annoyed me than made me chuckle at her sass, and Kell seemed to always be brooding over a certain item he carries with him and it just reminded me of Frodo with the Ring from The Lord of the Rings. Actually, since I'm mentioning it, for a good portion of the book I felt scenes would closely emulate a theme or idea from Tolkien's series. It hurts me to admit it, but I didn't like it when I read Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (one of my favorite series) and there were names or scenes or small moments that just reminded me of The Lord of the Rings more than the original masterpiece I had in my hands, and I definitely still don't like it now. It's hard because not everything will be completely original, but for me to be taken out of such an interesting world and story and to be distracted into another world and story on multiple occasions is problematic.

    Another reason I felt this book didn't resonate with me as much as others was due to a small cast of characters. There are maybe only five characters that regularly show up, everyone else is rather fleeting. While this is expected for an adventure novel, usually we meet someone once and then move on, I still wished for more. Maybe not A Song of Ice and Fire large cast of characters, but I need more than just two sides of a coin to contrast each other. 

   While I didn't take as much a fancy to this series, I'm definitely going to continue to follow Schwab's works and pick up her upcoming novel The Savage Song.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

Quote:

“I apologize for anything I might have done. I was not myself."
"I apologize for shooting you in the leg. I was myself entirely.” 
― V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

My Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

River Song's Spoilers:

(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)

   Every time Kell struggled to resist the evil stone from Black London, all I kept thinking about was Frodo and the Ring. I'm repeating myself because I really wonder if anyone else got that vibe. And sure, Lila could resist it better but I was never given an explanation as to why. 
   I think the moment I knew I disliked Lila was when she and Kell were arguing over who had a worse life, Lila with no family but freedom or Kell with family (forced as it was) and no freedom. She, with nothing, thinks that life with everything, in lieu of friends or family to rely on, is better than a life with friends and family but nothing to your name. In my mind, she made it sound like being a servant, or in Kell's unfortunate case a slave, was better than being a rat on the streets. Yes having money and stability and a home is nice but how can someone who has had no one to care for cast him aside so easily. She doesn't know what it means to have people in your life who actually mean something to you, or only use you for some talent you possess.
  Astrid gave the stone to Kell to transport to different worlds and her angle just makes no sense to me. And how can two pathological sadists not somehow turn on each other for all the power of the throne? And how can they go from such powerful masters of magic and then they're defeated so easily by a weakened Kell? I guess if there were more characters the fight would have been a little more epic in my eyes.     Let's talk romance. I felt that most of the exchanged between Lila and Kell (mostly in Lila's part) was foreplay and she was egging him on. Because whenever the author revealed their private and intimate thoughts, I kept wondering did it really have to be there? I thought their friendship weighed more than a romance that Schwab had built for them. 

Until Next Time,
Nicole Ciel

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender Book Review

Rawr Reader,

I have a 2016 Reading Goal to read 30 books and I was trailing behind by 5 books. So I put my foot down and said enough! Hehe. I was "reading" (aka had on hold) three books and this one was the easiest and shortest to read. I wanted to change my 5 books behind schedule to 4 so I felt a little better about my laziness. 
Disgrace.
I know. Let's carry on shall we?
The synopsis for Leslye Walton's The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is provided by Goodreads: 

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.

That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.

Reference:

   By a friend and fellow book lover Sasha. She She also reviews book but in video format, check her out! 

https://www.youtube.com/user/akaMissFierce/featured

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this yet)

    My memory of the beginning of book is a little fuzzy since I started it earlier this month, but I'll do my best to discuss the early chapters of the book. Before that, let's start with the facade. The cover is bright and represents the hopeful and sunny personality of the narrator. While the design is rather simple, simply a feather serving as the backdrop. It's appealing and is partially the reason why when my friend recommended it I gave it a chance. Also the title. It's a mouthful but it works and the name's unique and whimsical. 

   Diving into the book we're taken back to the beginning of family's life in America. We hop back three generations---highly risky for a novel of only three hundred pages--- and follow as her great-grandfather and mother leave their homeland France for New York. Already we're thrown into a world of fantasy without a mention of anything truly supernatural happening. The immigration of Europeans to the New World isn't unheard of but because of the selective and spotlighted details the author chooses to focus on in their lives makes the story fresh. I found the story to move at a slow-pace because she focused on their lives over actions that move the story forward. She establishes the lives of the oldest generation so that we can see how the later generations fare. 

     The first half of the book I'd like to say is a collection of tiny anecdotes that establish characterization than actually move the plot. This was probably my biggest con while reading. The writing is lovely, as are the stories of the lives of the protagonists and the secondary characters. I've never read a book where the author didn't neglect the lives of the minor characters and gave each of them a story that had to be told. Usually authors just give them a scene to show their characterization but Walton took the time to dedicate a mini chapter in the chapter for them. That being said, it made the title seem rather fraudulent. For such a title and focus on a certain character, while the narration is done by her, the first half of the book she doesn't physically appear. I'm sorry if that's considered a spoiler but when I say that the author begins from the life of the great-grandmother and goes through the lives of the next two generations before finally reaching the "main" protagonist, including all the lives of the town and even of the lives that aren't in town anymore, then 150 pages goes quickly.

    So the second half of the book is where the "real" story begins. I would've been okay with this if the title was different. For example a couple of years back I read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang, and it details the intimate and impactful lives of three generations, from the author all the way to her grandmother. While it's over 500 pages and the story of the author doesn't begin until later in the novel than earlier, at least the title explicitly tells me. It isn't the story of one woman that's important to note but all. 

     I understand that the author had to write the lives of the mother and grandmother and great-grandmother and honestly I love how it centers so much on women. They were all real women with disappointments and joys that couldn't be passed on to the next generation. I doubt it was the author's choice to title it what it is, but if she did then I'd have to mark her down for it. Not every title has to be centered on the protagonist. The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings, Frankenstein, The Giver are all prime examples of that. The title only gave me an expectation, and considering the pace wasn't as fast-paced as I'm accustomed to in the YA books I read it's a reason why I'm atypically critical.

     I want to briefly discuss the magical realism aspect of the novel. I don't know how to critique it properly since I've read maybe three magical realism stories in my life. I understand it's seeing the abnormal as normal in every day life, but the world didn't see the girl with wings as normal. For some reason I accepted and believed Pierette as a tiny canary than the unusual case of Ava. 

    I don't want to downplay the novel as bad because it's really colorful and detailed, and unlike many stories it has a wide cast of characters (a whole town full which I love love love), however it had the same problem I had with The Night Circus. I need more of a structured plot than just a beautiful story. 

For this, I give this book 3/5 stars.

Quote:

“Just because love don't look the way you think it should, don't mean you don't have it.”

-Leslye Walton, The Beautiful and Strange Sorrows of Ava Lavender 

My Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

River Song's Spoilers:

(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)

   Something I wish I got to see more was the time-placement of the world-building. The world-building was very detailed and every move we made she gave us the smells and the sights, however it didn't seem like it belonged in that time frame. Actually the world was no different had the story been placed in 90s. Or the 70s. She mentions WWII with the mother Viviane while she was a teenager and the Depression in passing when Viviane was young but that's the only time we really get a glimpse of the world affecting the lives of the family, which I kind of found disappointing. 

    Another disappointment that came to mind was the incident where Cardigan takes Ava on her first adventure from the house to the reservoir and she outs Ava immediately with having wings. I thought she was drunk but then she apologized afterward and suddenly became sensitive to Ava's feelings. I had trouble reading her character after that point because what was once a best friend was suddenly a backstabber. Why was it her brother that had to defend Ava when he didn't spend nearly as much time with her. While I liked Rowe and probably due to his connection to Ava, he had the least amount told about him. The only unique thing about him was that he stuttered. He likes Ava out of no where and defends her out of no where and is unusually loyal to her. I say unusual since we never get a glimpse of their relationship before they started to like each other. Walton should have put the focus spent on John Griffith and his obsession with Emilienne that was never pursued or expanded on after his abrupt departure, and gave that novel space to develop Rowe's character. 

    Like I said in the review above I need more of a plot than just a beautiful story told, but something I wanted to add I didn't want to spoil in the safe part of the review was the fact how unbalanced the story was because of it. The first half of the book is dedicated to the generations before the protagonist, and then when the last half of the book should be dedicated to her arc, it sort of drags to the climax and when the climax comes, it barely lasts a page. The synopsis describes this scene as the "devastating crescendo" of the novel which is way way way overplayed. It's resolved so quickly and awkwardly I couldn't really believe that all the suspense and stress and beautiful imagery resulted to just...that. Maybe the author was rushed to finish the novel...I'll never know. There was more emphasis on the baked goods Emilienne created that people just couldn't deny than there was on the protagonist in her most important moment. And then after the climax, in the last chapters, it continued to talk about baked goods and by this point I couldn't wait to finish it. It's disappointing when a novel is better in the beginning than in the end. Especially when the most important character isn't in the parts that you liked about the book.

    A moment I found was the most moving moment in the novel was at the end when Ava's in the hospital and her grandmother comforts her. It's a scene that we see everywhere but because we're given 250 pages of Emilienne refusing to truly care for anything suddenly reveal a soft moment made the first 250 pages mean something. It took a long time for me to see the coldness of her reserved personality could be thrown aside when her granddaughter needed her. It was one of the events of the book that worked, despite it taking so long to be shown. 

    Now, about the antagonist Nathaniel Sorrows. I'm not going to delve into the crazy religious man's life before the climax because to me that was just a trope, but I will briefly mention his ending scene. The suspense and ominous mood was well written as he Hansel and Gretel'd Ava into his house out of the storm. It was the trapping her in the house and she couldn't find her way out that was only the beginning to making the climax fail. I couldn't really believe she couldn't remember the way to the front door. That was warning number one. Number two was when she happened to stumble into his room of bird butchery. I'm going to skip the brief rape scene and highlight his reaction to attack was to flee. Warning number three leading perfectly to number four--- Vivianne happened to pass him at this moment and he just stops like a deer in the headlights. He stops and is suddenly vanquished by Emilienne's haunting relatives. O_O

   What?

   I couldn't help laughing at this horrifying scene because I'm temporarily imaging him being sucked into darkness like when Willy was by demons in Patrick Swayze's Ghost. While Nathaniel's death is more sudden than that, he sort of explodes in flames, I couldn't see the justice being served as much as the author wanted me to to believe. Why were the grandmother's relatives his executioners? Why did Marigold Pie, a pious woman who didn't divulge herself in the "desires" of the flesh like sweets suddenly go on a craze and have to have her nephew come. Why didn't her family check up on them to see if she was getting better? The only solution the author gave was she was drugged in her room. Since when? Why did Henry suddenly go to his father's house on the day of his sister's attack? Was he the bad man to Henry-- someone he'd never met? I thought it was the creepy guy living next door talking to his sister in the middle of the night from behind a bush who had a fixation on touching her wings. I could go on with the unanswered questions.
    And how about the brother with premonitions? Personally I dislike the "normal" brother as being bizarre and having premonitions. The few words he says is disregarded--- ironically believable since the words are nonsense in context of every day life--- but on the night it happens he keeps repeating the "There's blood on the floor and feathers everywhere." I could see this whole night being filmed in a movie and how it was written-- I think she's ready for it to be made into film.

     I didn't think my review would go on this long but I'd like to end on one of my favorite characters. A character who never appears (in human form anyway). Fatima Inês. Another tragic life that is more a mystery and urban myth to locals. Her contribution to the novel made it one of the reasons why this novel's a good read.

   

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

The Bell Jar Book Review

Rawr Reader,

I've read Sylvia Plath's Ariel for my poetry class one semester in college and considering myself far from an exponent of poetry, I do believe it's one of the best ways to purge the streams of emotion that you can't properly communicate simply in conversation with another person. Out of the four authors we read for her class, she was neck and neck with another as my favorite study in the class. So when my sister and I decided to make our on little book club, I thought what could go wrong with a classic? Let's get started! The synopsis, as always, provided by Goodreads.

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

Reference:

Pardon the redundancy. I first heard of the author from my poetry class.

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this yet)

      If I must start I will start with praises, because I'll be honest, this book didn't click much with me. First area of praise. I could tell by the rhythm of the story that she took care to include each word. If that doesn't scream poet then I don't know what does. One of my favorite quotes is "Easy reading is damn hard writing;" and I know Plath struggled just as much to accurately portray the descent down a path that she herself would have been suffering down, particularly since during the 1960s depression and suicidal thoughts were deemed more bizarre and rare among the public. It was a step closer to recognizing mental disorders with mass audiences--- not only the results of them but how people can fall into them. She showed you don't have to be a case of depression all your life to have it, that it can come suddenly and without good cause. There were many times I found her words to sink deep into my mind, to find a corner to snuggle in and to completely resonate with me. 

      I have learned something from this book though, which is when deciding what to read next I should never rely on the generalization of an experience to deem a book as interesting. For me. Of course just for me. For the most part, I found The Bell Jar too episodic for my taste. Another thing I've learned about myself, I'm quite superficial in what books interest me. Give me interesting characters. Give me complex plots. Give me colorful magical stories. However if a book only offers me mostly only glimpses in a person's life which are ideally included to fall under the umbrella of a theme, then I'm expecting that book to be autobiographical. I have read that this book is semi-autobiographical which makes me feel like I'm not criticizing the fictional character but the author. While characters can feel real at times, they are merely ideas and characterizations put together on paper. However who am I to talk about a story about a woman who shared emotions and thoughts and feelings to a stranger and can only say that I didn't like what she had to say because for me it was unrelatable. For me, Esther seemed to be only a shallow privileged woman who was consistently unhappy. On more than one occasion when I was reading I just thought she was an adult throwing a temper tantrum. Not outwardly. Not immaturely. But she had people who cared for her and looked out for her and yet she could only look within. She only could spot what was wrong with how they lived and how they went about her. It's easy to spot what's wrong. For most of her faults, at least that's something any reader can communicate with.

      Now this is a very sensitive subject, particularly now, so I'm afraid anyone reading this will think me insensitive. I can't stress this enough. If you or someone you know is suffering from depression, then I sympathize with them. I don't argue the illness, only the relatability of the character. It's hard to discern one from the other in cases like these and it's hard for me to describe! It's unfortunate that a tragic life isn't properly applicable to its reader. 

    In a way I find the synopsis a little misleading since she doesn't go down the insanity rabbit hole, but one of depression.

   Also for a book this small, and it pains me to say this since I'm an avid fan of a large cast of characters, but this book was too overrun with characters. Most I can't remember without a memory or mnemonic as a reminder from when she met them. Granted, I read this book over a course of days and not in a single one.

     The Bell Jar is like Mrs. Dalloway. A novel before it's time and significant in its time because it branched from the structure and standards of its time because it delved into the minds and made the reader think. I didn't intend to mention authors, both of who committed suicide due to their mental disorders, but because the latter was the first that came to mind that holds such high critical acclaim and for which, unfortunately, I fail to recognize why that is. I give this novel a low review because while it departs from generic literature in its subject matter, it fails to resonate with me. While it makes me think, it isn't a good think. It's a think process understanding why other people talk about this novel and not why I want to talk about it.

I give this book 2/5 stars

Quote:
“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; 

I lift my eyes and all is born again.” 

―Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

River Song's Spoilers:

(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)

    The book really only got interesting in the last 60 pages, since when the narrative a straight-forward approach with less steps backwards as the first 75% of the novel took. It just told the story from when her descent really plummeted and kept itself on that path without any divergence. 

    One of the few scenes I began to dislike Esther was unfortunately in the beginning. Discouraging thought since it is... the beginning. It was the scene after the party and Esther is grumbling about Doreen hooking up with Lenny, when she's just returned to her apartment and is whining because her friend was able to hook up with someone when she couldn't. Doreen followed Esther out of the cab and tried to include her at the bar and when he they went to the guy's apartment, trying to include her and not completely turn her back on her. However, when Doreen returned drunk, Esther just left her out in the hall. I mean, some friend! There's depression, and then there's indecency. Esther wasn't that drunk so she doesn't have that excuse. And it isn't like Doreen stole someone who was in Esther's life for a prolonged time. It was literally some random guy. Sorry that your ego was dampened down a little bit but it isn't enough to treat your friend like dirt.

    And what about how she broods on Buddy? Repeatedly she calls Buddy hypocritical but as a writer, she should be well aware of all kinds of men. Sure he wasn't as "pure" as she would have liked, but at least he was honest. He didn't try to hide the fact he was a little more loose than her and at least he didn't criticize her for being her age and a virgin the way she criticized him for being coquettish. If anything, he was the only one outside of her family who tried to keep in touch with her. I connected more with him at the end (in one of the handful of scenes he has) when he visits Esther and asks her if the problem is him. Because all we have is Esther saying he's a hypocrite this and hypocrite that and to see this character come out and have feelings that people would normally feel when people they were close with attempting suicide. Out of all the characters, I feel he's the character that readers will connect with most. He's human. He's minor, but he's important to the story. The story isn't just about who's suffering, but about the people who have to survive after they've gone. 

    Another moment Esther absolutely got on my nerves was at the end just before Joan's funeral, Esther was told that she was one of Joan's best friends. Sure Esther didn't care for the girl, but it just shows how incapable and cold she was to others. All she ever did was complain that the right kind of men weren't interested in her or that the type of women she was surrounded by were shallow and only were interested in fancy parties and their place in society. At least they were honest about who they were. She viewed the world through a lens and remained at a distance. She only viewed how people lived and criticized them about how wrong they were. A moment that she shows the shallowness of her character is when she's comparing how students in a community college held higher credentials in their studies than she did at this private university she attended "on scholarship," because they knew subjects that she didn't. Amazing! That other institutions will have differing curriculum than her more reputable prestigious university. Sure it's a community college, and during the 60s they might not be as heuristic and diverse as her education should have been in her university, but this was just another element where I could only roll my eyes at her.

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

My Top 10 Kdramas

Wait a minute... not about books? Did I read that right? Why am I still here?

I'm sure you've thought at least one of those statements and to be fair, I'm cheating you of a review on a book on a blog dedicated to books. The only excuse I can offer is that I wanted to share my top Korean dramas somewhere without having to make a new blog. While this is a departure from the purpose of the blog, I hope you can forgive me and I'll work on getting a new post up that you might find more relevant. As for now, let's get started.

I can't necessarily say these are in order from least to most favorite, but these are the ones that come up first to mind.


1. Boys Over Flowers (2009)

This drama is my first K-drama love. Why? Mainly because I've rewatched it more than any other drama and is currently the only one in my TV collection. While I don't really fancy high school dramas, this one and maybe two others are the only ones I can tolerate. A classic, it's one of three (Japanese Hana Yori Dango and Taiwanese Meteor Shower) to be adapted into a TV show from the Japanese manga. I checked it out since I always heard how great and popular it was (and still is), and since it was one of the few Korean dramas available on Netflix. One of the few long dramas that actually don't feel like it drags after the half way point (that happens more often than I like). I love this drama since it intertwines friendship and romance almost equally throughout the series.

It follows the story of a headstrong female student from the working class survive an elite high school run by four prominently prestigious "flowers" (handsome men). It follows her life from high school to college.

The drama has 25 episodes and can be found on: Dramafever, Viki, and Netflix.



2. Coffee Prince (2007)
Apparently the classics are coming to mind first. I heard about this drama for a while before I gave it a chance. Initially the premise didn't interest me, however the acting won me over, turning me from an outcast to a full on fan. I choose this drama because like Boys Over Flowers there is a strong element of friendship and romance throughout the series that is naturally depicted through the delivery of performances by the actors. I'd have to argue that the female and male leads have the most authentic and natural relationship I've seen in a K-drama and are the reason why people have continued to love this show so long after it's aired.

The story follows a tomboyish woman work at a coffee shop revered for by many for the "flower" boys that work there. We follow how she struggles to support her family and how she tries to manage her feelings for her boss (who thinks she's a man), while trying to achieve her dream of becoming a barista. 

The drama has 17 episodes and can be found on: Dramafever and Viki.



3. Healer (2014)
Alright perhaps you're looking for something more recent, and maybe a little more action. Well then look no further because this drama's a gem. There is romance in this story (pretty much unavoidable in every drama sorry) but it doesn't outweigh the other elements of the story, such as the action, focus on family, comedy, and mystery. The main characters were really fun to watch and they each had their own charms that helped each episode progress and not feel like it was dragging on to reach the final episode. Also the relationship between the female and male lead wasn't oscillated for dramatic effect, very refreshing compared to most.

The story follows a well-known reporter try to discover the truth to a mystery stretching back two decades, employing the use of a cheerful though steadfast journalist and a night courier known as Healer.

The drama has 20 episodes and can be found on: Dramafever and Viki.



4. The Master's Sun (2013)

While I don't particularly chase anything horror, once an avid fan of the TV show Supernatural (2005), I have to admit an interest in the darker fantasy shows involving ghosts, monsters, mythical and religious creatures--- and especially those that intertwine comedy with it. There aren't many Korean dramas that involve the supernatural, so when I kept hearing about how great this great was, ultimately I had to check it out and give it a chance. 

The story follows a buoyant woman with an unfortunate gift of seeing ghosts that finds a ghost deterrent when she's in contact with a haughty, money-obsessed CEO of a mall. However over time, the cold CEO begins to thaw to the sweet woman who in turn helps him to overcome a traumatic scar from his youth.

The drama has 17 episodes and is available on: Dramafever and Viki.



5. Shut Up Flower Boy Band (2012)
Friendships are really important to me and since 80% of the time in Korean dramas the relationships are usually put on the back burner to focus on the main lead character's relationship, I really admire ones that take the time to focus on the instability of friendships when things begin to change. Over time we meet new people and fall in love and friendships weaken, sometimes they strengthen, and this drama explores it in the lives of these high schoolers as they begin their journey to becoming a famous rock band. Remember what I said about high school? Yup this is the second one I love. Ironically enough, every drama that centered on the lives of high school students I dropped and gave another chance later--- ultimately loving. Well, at least the ones on my list. What I really admired about the series is that there are twists early on in the series not commonly seen in Korean dramas, as well as the focus on friendship is equal with the focus on their ambitions and the focus on the romance.

The story follows the lives of five "flower" boys with a bad guy image and a passion in their music compete against their new school's rival band in a chance to becoming famous and successful. 

The drama has 16 episodes and is available on: Dramafever and Viki.



6. King 2 Hearts (2012)

I'm really glad this list isn't ranked from least favorite to most because as I'm reaching the end I'm struggling to find the dramas that make the cut. One of the things I loved was the relationship between King and Prince, both brothers regretful for having the responsibilities of being royalty though they accept their responsibilities differently. Out of all the dramas I'm listing I might say this one drags at parts for being an action drama, it's definitely a watch and I think is highly underrated.

The story is set in an alternate reality where there is still a royal family ruling in South Korea, where the spoiled carefree prince is tricked into joining a World Officer Championship with a select few North Koreans in an effort of goodwill between the two nations. One of the North Koreans is a tough though innocent special forces officer who is forced to enter into an arranged marriage with the South Korean prince.


The drama has 20 episodes and can be found on: Dramafever and Viki.



7. Triangle (2014)
It's amazing that I just give a chance to a drama in my queue that I honestly forgot I'd added who knows how long ago to find that this drama is excellent and I only wished I'd seen it sooner. As is the case here. Another drama I feel is underrated, there's action, suspense, mystery, and focus on family. 

The story follows the lives of three brothers separated for twenty years, reunited as strangers as a detective, a gangster, and a cold heir to a prominent company. When two of the brothers fall for the same girl, they must overcome being each other's enemies before accepting the truth about why they were separated in the first place. 

The drama has 26 episodes and is only available on: Dramafever.





8. Secret (2013)
I don't care for melodramas since 9/10 times each episode drags from the beginning until the end where the cliffhanger makes you anxious to find out what happens in the next episode. I think what makes me able to bear this one is the fact that both female and male leads realistically learn to move on from unfair and heart-breaking events in their pasts and the mystery slowly coming to reveal itself is so cleverly done I feel I can't not add this to my list. I feel most melodramas can be a little superficial and a little unfounded in the excuses people make to one another to make the episodes drag on, however this drama actually has substance to the sadness the characters need to learn to overcome.

The story follows as a woman takes the fall for her fiance after he accidentally kills a woman in a hit-and-run and serves time in prison in his place. Years later, the man who was in love with the woman who was killed seeks revenge by making the recently released prisoner's life difficult and as unbearable as he's felt for years. Over time, the male lead finds a companion in the woman he sought to peeve and hassle and discovers she can help him learn to move on from his grief and learn the truth to his resentment. 

The drama has 16 episodes and is only available on: Viki.



9. Liar Game (2014)
So maybe none of these interest you because even the action-focused dramas involve romance. Well look no further! This thriller is full of suspense and mystery and while there are subtle romantic moments, it's never explored and focuses entirely on how their complex relationship can manage the stresses and risks of the televised reality game show.

The story follows a kind, naive woman as she's selected to participate in a reality game show in a chance of winning ₩10 billion won (roughly $10 million). She progresses through the challenges with the help of a former college professor and genius liar who reveals his own reasons for helping her.

The drama has 12 episodes and is only available on: Viki.




10. Emergency Couple (2014)

This last spot was tough to fill because I really have a lot of other dramas I wanted to be in this list but unfortunately they just didn't have enough pros. The reason I'm choosing this is because it explores the life after infatuation, love, and marriage. That's right it centers on how a divorced couple. This was my first post-marriage drama and also my first medical drama and while there may be other excellent series that follow the same themes, I found this to be a hearty show to watch as a break from the million other melodramas between single independent people which are a dime a dozen.

The story follows how a divorced couple must learn to cope with working together for three months as interns under the stressful and life-staking atmosphere in a hospital emergency department.

The drama has 21 episodes and is available on: Dramafever and Viki.

The End?

Alright now, I've come to the end. I'm sad. There are so many others I want to recommend and you know what, what else have I got to lose? I won't go into depth but I just can't resist talking about these dramas.


You're All Surrounded (2014)                                           
20 episodes - Dramafever, Viki, Netflix 



The Moon That Embraces the Sun
20 episodes - Dramafever, Viki

Goong (Princess Hours) (2006)
24 episodes - Dramafever, Viki




Bride of the Century (2014)
16 episodes - Dramafever




Answer Me 1997 (Reply 1997) (2012)
16 episodes - Dramafever, Viki




Que Sera, Sera (2007)
17 episodes - Dramafever, Viki

Movies:

Secretly Greatly (2013) 
Dramafever (requires membership)



Splash Splash Love (2015)

Viki (2 episodes but basically the length of a movie)

If you've stuck through it and read up to here I applaud you. I hope if you're bored you'll check out one of these because Korean dramas really have a way of being beautifully constructed and everlasting. And the wonderful thing is that you can watch dozens upon dozens of addicting dramas like I have at no cost since Dramafever and Viki are free (though of course you will have to sit through ads). See you in Dramaland! 

Until Next Time,

Nicole Ciel

*None of the images are mine and are borrowed from Google images.

At The Water's Edge Book Review

Rawr Reader,

We need to stop meeting like this. 
Actually I thought I posted a review a month back but apparently it's been much longer than that. I apologize. I'm not as frequent posting as I would like to have been these past months. But I just finished a book I absolutely had to share. Yes, it's Sara Gruen's At the Water's Edge and I have to say, I have much to say. So, without further ado, the synopsis, much thanks to Goodreads.

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love. 

Reference:

It's been a while if I'm to be frank, so I'm a little unsure. I think I just saw the cover while browsing books online and was intrigued. Or maybe it was looking up Sara Gruen's other novels since I didn't want to read Water for Elephants since I've already seen the movie. But like I said, I can't remember.

Review:

(safe for those who haven't read this yet)

     Okay, this book really speaks to me. First off, I've never read a book where I really connected to the writing style and story and seen in reflected with my own. Others may disagree-- but I saw it and it motivated me to want to finish working my novel.

    Secondly, there's something about having characters drive us crazy, but we love them because they're so well written. Yes Ellis and Hank are the typical drunks and Maddie tags along like she has no choice, but I'd rather a writer experiment and give me characters that may be headaches in real life, than conform to a mold so all I read about are the same ordinary girls who aren't so ordinary, or the girls who are extraordinary just because they have this magical trait about them. Slightly off topic since magic isn't a part of the story so much as folk lore, but I think you get my point.
    I do have some complaints though, one being the romance. It wasn't fleshed out well between the two characters. It seemed rarher forced into a compressed amount of time. I loved the pair together, but other romance stories do it justice better. I'd say romance is definitely not a key element. I'll go more into it in the spoiler section below.
    Another key element not in the story is the war, and honestly, I loved that fact. I recently read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and it too is set in WWII, and while the writing was beautiful as this book was, the story fell flat because I wasn't getting real depth into the characters as I feel I did in this book. If I wanted facts and numbers on the battles and events of the war, I'd read a history book. If I'm reading a novel, I focus on the world and the characters and the story, not just on prose and over-compensating amount of chapter time jumps (if that sentence made any sense).
    One thing I did find really interesting between certain characters was between Ellis and Hank. Gruen has Maddie claim they're "two parts of the same person" and yet, I have to disagree. I think Hank was a drunk and a coward and capable of infidelity, but he wasn't cruel or borderline lunatic. Honestly, there were *many* times I thought he was in love with Maddie. At least so much so compared to Ellis who treated her like an accessory. Though I have to say, I was expecting there to be a scene of shall I say, closeness, between Ellis and Hank. I mean, they were always together so I suspected that they would hook up. Just a personal thought.
    Lastly I want to mention a reason to check this book out. The friendships formed between Maddie and Anna and Meg are exceptional. I rarely read a book with friendships which are as pivotal to the story as the romance (and lack thereof). It was so real and dynamic and every chapter of Maddie working with them was just as satisfying to read as her romance-central chapters. And I love me some romance in my books.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

Quote:
"Always carry a large flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and further, always carry a small snake.”

-Sara Gruen, At the Water's Edge

My Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7170636-nicole

Next To Read:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

River Song's Spoilers:

(unsafe for those who haven't read this book yet, so don't read this section)

    I need to get this off my chest first. Romance?! I mean, yes there's romance but...Romance? One of the troubles I had with this book was it was structured very much like a weighing scale. The first half of the novel was devoted to the women's friendships growing and developing whereas the last half focused on the romance between Maddie and Angus. I wished it was braided a little more throughout the story. Honestly, I thought maybe the "love" mentioned in the synopsis would be about Ellis developing a little and they find a new meaning of love in their marriage between them, but then nope, it's the motel owner who pops up occasionally in the first 160 or so pages of the novel. Don't get me wrong, I love Angus. But I don't even really have a clear idea of what he looks like, though I have his age thanks to the gravestone inscriptions at the beginning of the story. But I had an even worse idea of what our protagonist looked like, other than she had green eyes and was borderline anorexic coming to Scotland. I don't recall an age, which frustrated me for some undiscovered reason, but more than anything, I just wanted more scenes between the two. They have a lot of awkward encounters or polite small talk at first, but then all of a sudden she was completely in love with him and so he was with her (though I could believe it since the only reason he let the three stay in Scotland that first night was after seeing her--- I knew he took a fancy to her), I just wish I knew why. Did she remind him appearance-wise of his previous wife? Did she have a similar personality? We don't know. And never will. *sigh* So yes, I needed more. Because all of a sudden he rejected her and then she cries and then he changes his mind (probably scared she would reject him later---I was laughing reading this chapter it was so bizarre to see in a novel), and then BAM--- they're doing it. Their relationship is rocky from that point because she has this plan to save him by not revealing her plan to him about how to get rid of Ellis and then he has to save her and yadda-yadda. To be honest I found it cliché of her to run away. Well I mean the whole ending for me was predictable altogether, but maybe I should just take this time to transition.

    Now about that ending. It was too rushed and forced to end soon. The beginning and middle actually dragged on comparing weight and importance of story compared to the last third or so. Maybe quarter. I understand you don't want to drag out the story longer than needed, but the climax was about a handful of pages. Maddie finally lets it all out to her crazy husband---who has previous accounts of possibly becoming violent against her---on a boat that she is undoubtedly trapped in with. What did she really see coming out of that decision? Ellis has been obsessing over this. Her yelling wasn't going to snap him out of it-- least of all when he was just a fabricated video away from going home to lap and luxury. So yeah, the ending wasn't really a favorite. If anything, it disappointed me because throughout the book I was mesmerized, finding myself more and more despairing that the book would end soon and wishing it went on another two hundred pages.

    And this may be me, but I definitely thought that Ellis and Hank were going to reveal to be lovers. There were just too many moments where things would get heated and they would look at each other. It's the kind of closeness I guess people always say about Frodo and Sam's relationship in the Lord of the Rings movies-- though I refuse to see their friendship that way. But in the end I guess it will all have to fall into me reading too much into the ink on the page and they were just drunk. I'll be honest, I'm not around drunk people often enough to understand if they're drunk or if they're personally just really temperamental. 

     Another comment I have to bring forward is: I've never read another novel by Gruen but I have seen the movie Water for Elephants and I found a lot of similarities theme/structure/character-wise. Married couples going through troubles. The husband is mentally unstable and comes to be violent against his spouse. There's the outsider man who woos the woman. There's more that I'll add but I suddenly blanked on it. I don't know. It was enough to knock off a star though because that just shows she's working off of a structure or outline that compliments other novels she's done, which falls under the category of predictable author. Regardless of how beautifully written I find the novel, it's not my favorite thing to admit but I do take plot into consideration. How similar it is to other novels written, and unfortunately, how similar it is to other works by the author themselves.

    Something I was expecting to be more woven into the story was the monster itself. There are three foreboding and sinister moments that hint toward the fantastical creature(s) appearing, however it's never confirmed as real. The first time she encounters the woman that precursors death, the time she tries to kill herself and then is backed away from the lake (the spirit of the wife), and the monster itself at the end. Yes, it's in the synopsis. The three Americans are in Scotland for the creature, but the creature is just a reason to get them across the Atlantic. The story is in the characters and relationships and dynamics between them. For this, I'm partially disheartened. I wanted more Loch Ness in my story. 


Until Next Time,
Nicole Ciel