Here are some shorter musings on recent YA Fantasy Reads.
A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
At nearly 500 pages, this book seems long, but I actually found it to be a quick, engaging read. Brigid Kemmerer certainly has a way with words and is a gifted writer. This is the first book of hers I have read, and I will definitely be reading more. As far as "Beauty and the Beast" retellings go, this one is fairly well done. Rhen has the factor the male lead in this story needs-the realization that he is undeserving of saving. I love that he rallied not for himself but his people. As far as staunch allies go, you can't get better than Grey. He is such a wonderful foil to both Rhen and Harper. (He is my favorite. I'm reading the sequel just because he's the main character.) My main issue with the book is Harper, who I never really saw as a fully realized character. Harper has Cerebral Palsy. She has a limp due to it. This causes her to have to explain it to Rhen in a way that sounds like the author copied and pasted it from the dictionary. And then....that's it. I would love to hear from someone who has CP on this. In the course of my life, I've had two friends with it, and it is not anywhere close to being that simple for them. (Both of them have very different experiences.) My understanding is most people who have CP also have at least one other condition as well, and there is a very real fear of injuring oneself. It DOES affect their daily lives when they're trying to navigate being a person with a disability in a world that has little to no time for that. I'd imagine it gets ten times worse when one is in a world that has no concept of it at all. I imagine that is why Harper's is the mildest of mild CP can get. The fact that it was so easily pushed aside or ignored felt like it was a way to be "diverse" without having to put in the work to actualize it. That is the one thing bothered me, but as it bothered me throughout the entirety of the novel, I couldn't love this like I might have otherwise been able to. I do really enjoy the ambiguity of the end and am looking forward to seeing how Kemmerer resolves it in the sequel.
Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Let me begin by saying the crafting of this novel is good. Meyer has a talent for spinning words and her plotting is certainly captivating. I'm still going to read her previous novel even though this one didn't quite work for me the way I wanted it to. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Tam Lin". Whenever I'm reading novel adaptations of these, I always enter with a sense of caution because why two people may love the same tale differs wildly. And I know this. I think it's important to note that my favorite novel retellings of any of these are The Perilous Gard, Bone Gap, and Fire and Hemlock. It's important because it highlights what about Echo North it was that didn't work for me. Anyone super familiar with these tales knows that there is a chance to fall into creepy relationship dynamics with it very very fast. (No one understood this better than Diana Wynne Jones. Except maybe Laura Ruby.) I feel like Echo North flirted with that a little more closely than I was comfortable with. There is a lot of the Wolf/Hal apologizing for hurting Echo, telling her she needs to stay away from him, reminding her he's dangerous, but then he does nothing to remove himself from her presence. He also scars her in his wolf form and at one point seems oddly proud about this fact. Here's the thing about this character in this tale. You have to believe he's worth the sacrifice the heroine is making for him. And I never bought that here. In The Perilous Gard, Christopher can be a pompous, melodramatic arse but he is also quite obviously a GOOD MAN. In Bone Gap, the guy in that role is actually the villain and not the hero because...yeah. And in Fire and Hemlock, Tom is most definitely not worth it, but at least both DWJ and Polly seem to know this. We could argue about the end of that novel and what it means until the cows come home (and people have), but one thing everyone seems to agree with is that it isn't tidy and it isn't neat and it definitely doesn't scream happily ever after. I always interpreted it as Polly saving herself and being required to save Tom at the same time, but that didn't mean she was planning on putting up with him forever. As I was reading this novel, I was never convinced this was an actual relationship worth saving. We aren't given enough of it, but also Echo just isn't that layered. I was terribly frustrated with her character development. When the twist at the end arrived, it made it even harder for me to swallow that I was supposed to want this relationship to work. Like, girl. Shake his hand and go your own road. What did he ever do to convince you to trust him with all of you forever?
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
When this book was released, I saw the title, saw the cover, and saw that it was about fairy tales. That was enough for me, so I didn't read the synopsis. If I had read the synopsis, I might have realized it was a reworking of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and therefore never would have picked it up. Alas. I was ridiculously far into it when I realized what it was. I was already struggling by that point because my overwhelming reaction to Alice was pure annoyance. (Yes. That's her name. I fully admit I was rather blindingly stupid here.) She is exactly the sort of person who drives me crazy-aloof, mean to those who try to get close to her, sneers at everyone and everything. There is an in-world reason for all of that, but by the time I got there, I had stopped caring. I also felt that she read way older than she was. Again, there are reasons for that, but for the majority of the book it felt like the author was writing an adult novel she was told needed to be YA, and all she did was change the age of the protagonist. A lot of people have really loved this, so this is clearly a "it's me" thing. I have a deep and abiding dislike of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that typically carries over into all reworkings.
A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid KemmererAt nearly 500 pages, this book seems long, but I actually found it to be a quick, engaging read. Brigid Kemmerer certainly has a way with words and is a gifted writer. This is the first book of hers I have read, and I will definitely be reading more. As far as "Beauty and the Beast" retellings go, this one is fairly well done. Rhen has the factor the male lead in this story needs-the realization that he is undeserving of saving. I love that he rallied not for himself but his people. As far as staunch allies go, you can't get better than Grey. He is such a wonderful foil to both Rhen and Harper. (He is my favorite. I'm reading the sequel just because he's the main character.) My main issue with the book is Harper, who I never really saw as a fully realized character. Harper has Cerebral Palsy. She has a limp due to it. This causes her to have to explain it to Rhen in a way that sounds like the author copied and pasted it from the dictionary. And then....that's it. I would love to hear from someone who has CP on this. In the course of my life, I've had two friends with it, and it is not anywhere close to being that simple for them. (Both of them have very different experiences.) My understanding is most people who have CP also have at least one other condition as well, and there is a very real fear of injuring oneself. It DOES affect their daily lives when they're trying to navigate being a person with a disability in a world that has little to no time for that. I'd imagine it gets ten times worse when one is in a world that has no concept of it at all. I imagine that is why Harper's is the mildest of mild CP can get. The fact that it was so easily pushed aside or ignored felt like it was a way to be "diverse" without having to put in the work to actualize it. That is the one thing bothered me, but as it bothered me throughout the entirety of the novel, I couldn't love this like I might have otherwise been able to. I do really enjoy the ambiguity of the end and am looking forward to seeing how Kemmerer resolves it in the sequel.
Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Let me begin by saying the crafting of this novel is good. Meyer has a talent for spinning words and her plotting is certainly captivating. I'm still going to read her previous novel even though this one didn't quite work for me the way I wanted it to. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Tam Lin". Whenever I'm reading novel adaptations of these, I always enter with a sense of caution because why two people may love the same tale differs wildly. And I know this. I think it's important to note that my favorite novel retellings of any of these are The Perilous Gard, Bone Gap, and Fire and Hemlock. It's important because it highlights what about Echo North it was that didn't work for me. Anyone super familiar with these tales knows that there is a chance to fall into creepy relationship dynamics with it very very fast. (No one understood this better than Diana Wynne Jones. Except maybe Laura Ruby.) I feel like Echo North flirted with that a little more closely than I was comfortable with. There is a lot of the Wolf/Hal apologizing for hurting Echo, telling her she needs to stay away from him, reminding her he's dangerous, but then he does nothing to remove himself from her presence. He also scars her in his wolf form and at one point seems oddly proud about this fact. Here's the thing about this character in this tale. You have to believe he's worth the sacrifice the heroine is making for him. And I never bought that here. In The Perilous Gard, Christopher can be a pompous, melodramatic arse but he is also quite obviously a GOOD MAN. In Bone Gap, the guy in that role is actually the villain and not the hero because...yeah. And in Fire and Hemlock, Tom is most definitely not worth it, but at least both DWJ and Polly seem to know this. We could argue about the end of that novel and what it means until the cows come home (and people have), but one thing everyone seems to agree with is that it isn't tidy and it isn't neat and it definitely doesn't scream happily ever after. I always interpreted it as Polly saving herself and being required to save Tom at the same time, but that didn't mean she was planning on putting up with him forever. As I was reading this novel, I was never convinced this was an actual relationship worth saving. We aren't given enough of it, but also Echo just isn't that layered. I was terribly frustrated with her character development. When the twist at the end arrived, it made it even harder for me to swallow that I was supposed to want this relationship to work. Like, girl. Shake his hand and go your own road. What did he ever do to convince you to trust him with all of you forever?
The Hazel Wood by Melissa AlbertWhen this book was released, I saw the title, saw the cover, and saw that it was about fairy tales. That was enough for me, so I didn't read the synopsis. If I had read the synopsis, I might have realized it was a reworking of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and therefore never would have picked it up. Alas. I was ridiculously far into it when I realized what it was. I was already struggling by that point because my overwhelming reaction to Alice was pure annoyance. (Yes. That's her name. I fully admit I was rather blindingly stupid here.) She is exactly the sort of person who drives me crazy-aloof, mean to those who try to get close to her, sneers at everyone and everything. There is an in-world reason for all of that, but by the time I got there, I had stopped caring. I also felt that she read way older than she was. Again, there are reasons for that, but for the majority of the book it felt like the author was writing an adult novel she was told needed to be YA, and all she did was change the age of the protagonist. A lot of people have really loved this, so this is clearly a "it's me" thing. I have a deep and abiding dislike of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that typically carries over into all reworkings.
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