As February has Valentine's Day, I chose Romeo and Juliet to commemorate it. Without further ado, the first installment of "Twelve Months of Shakespeare": Romeo and Juliet.
Showing posts with label Grade: 4 Star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grade: 4 Star. Show all posts
This book has everything I want: a stoic tortured knight, his cunning and equally tortured lady, Medieval politics, courtly intrigue, knightly devotion, courtly love, pining, and loyalty. AND THE LOYALTY. My god, let me tell you all about the loyalty.
Loyalty is one of my assured catnips. Any book that has the hero being quietly loyal and devoted to the heroine that he will do anything, even sacrifice his own life, for her happiness and safety, and I will be rolling in the floor, squealing like a happy cat. And Sir Ruck, the hero of this book, is pretty much slathered in all the good knightly devotion and courtly love tropes. He is like succulent braised pig in terms of satisfying my hunger for loyalty kink.
Sir Ruck is my favorite kind of hero: quietly tortured and utterly loyal and devoted to his lady. He's been through a lot: his house's not truly his due to some legal entanglements and his first common-born wife entered a convent and then "donated" all of his money and horse and armor and arms to the Church. A mysterious benefactress helped him get himself a horse and armor and arms by giving him a pouch of emeralds, and he had pledged himself to her forevermore. Little did he know, thirteen years later, that he would see his benefactress again. The Princess Melanthe is cold and calculating, nothing like the perfect, saintly lady that had sustained him in chastity for thirteen years. He was shattered at first, and yet he grew to love her still, despite her ruthlessness, despite her demons.
The Princess Melanthe had gone through a lot in her life. She was wedded, when she's twelve, to a man old enough to be her father. Her husband had taught her everything she knew about surviving the deadly intrigues of the Italian court, but when he died, Melanthe found herself suffocating there and conspired to be installed in her father's lands in Bowland, England, her childhood home. To achieve this gain, she must tell lies upon lies, break promises upon promises, and woo dukes and knights and princes and nobles. She was always guarded and cold in the continent, for fear that anyone who is dear to her will die, but in England, far away from the vicious court of Italy, she had let her guard down and allow herself to fall in love with a lowly runisch knight.
Both Sir Ruck and the Princess Melanthe are haunted by the demons of their past. Both of them are lonely, alone in the cold hard world. Both of them found love and companionship in each other, when they thought they couldn't. I love that Sir Ruck remains utterly loyal and devoted to Melanthe, even when he doesn't quite know what's in her sleeves. He had pledged himself to her for life, first as her knight, then as her husband, and by god he will upheld that pledge and vow, come rain or hellfire. The Princess Melanthe too, slowly but surely allowed herself to open up to this rough Northern knight, despite her fear for his safety if he got close to her.
The Middle English language employed in the dialogue can be quite disconcerting. I confess, sometimes I don't even know what Sir Ruck is saying, rough-speak as he is. But that's what I love about this novel, it doesn't feel like a pastiche, like some historical novel are. The narrative is very much grounded to the period. Sir Ruck and Princess Melanthe all act like Medieval people in a Medieval world, not modern people in a Medieval world. So there are some of their actions that to us might seem vile, for example Sir Ruck raping his wife for a week straight until he grew tired of her screaming, but they're perfectly reasonable for the characters. As in the Medieval times, religion plays an important role in the story, and the reason why Sir Ruck stayed chaste with Melanthe before they're wed is because he believed he would go to hell for committing the sin of adultery and fornication.
But I love this book and the characters, partly because they are so vivid and full of life. The side characters too are given their own plots and characterizations, not merely some two-dimensional paper-dolls. Sir Ruck and Lady Melanthe's relationship is like catnip to me, but the language can be disorienting, so that's why I gave it a 4.5 star, rounded down to a four star.
Ms. Heyer has quite an eye for detail, and although I cheerfully do not know what a phaeton and a gig is, or the difference between the two, years of experience in watching historical BBC miniseries and reading Regency-set bodice rippers have provided me with just enough knowledge to paint a broad picture. Ms. Heyer, too, has a wit that reminded me a little of Jane Austen. There's romance and humor in her beautiful prose.
Her characters too are very colorful Ancilla Trent is a very sensible, elegant, and humorous woman. She is genteel, becoming a governess because of her family's strained circumstances, but despite her position, she is very much well-connected, with a General as an uncle. Despite her accomplishment and excellent manners, she is treated poorly by some of the neighborhood matrons when they perceive she has 'put a cap' on Sir Waldo Hawkridge, the Nonesuch in question. It's laughable that the matrons would treat Ancilla so poorly, considering in birth and manners she is far superior than any of them. Ancilla has lived in London, and her uncle is a General acquainted by the Nonesuch, while the matrons live in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire.
Sir Waldo is also a very dashing romance hero. He is called the Nonesuch because he excels at sports, horse-riding, has a considerable fortune, excellent manners, and an air of fashionable elegance around her. Sir Waldo is a true gentleman who cares for orphaned children in his spare-time, which has put his relatives to consider them as an 'eccentric'. He quite enjoys the rustic country society, although he lives most of the time in refined London. A good part of that enjoyment has something to do without Ancilla, of course. Her elegance, sense, and humor endears her to him. Now, if he can only convince her that it is not above her station to fall in love with him.
There are other characters too: Lord Lindeth, Sir Waldo's young cousin; Miss Tiffany Wield, Ancilla's charge and a very beautiful heiress; Mrs Umbridge, Tiffany's good-natured but befuddled aunt; etc. The cast of characters meant that we do not get to see our hero and heroine together as much as we want, but rest assured, when we do, it is evident that there's an attraction between them. Despite having other characters, the romance is still very much real and satisfactory.
However, I must admit that Tiffany's many tantrums are starting to get on my nerves. And I hate that the very sensible and intelligent Ancilla suddenly gets a case of stupid-itis that leads to the Big Misunderstanding near the end of the book. Besides creating unnecessary conflict, it also leads to an unsatisfactory ending. But, being my first Heyer, I shall relent and give it four-stars, just for Sir Waldo and Ancilla's banter alone.
But this book intrigues me. It's written by a Korean author with a biracial Korean protagonist! Siblings and familial bond play an important part in the story! The protagonist writes the letter to help her move on! And even book reviewers who doesn't really review YA recommends it! I must check it out, of course. I don't have much hope starting out - like I said I don't really read YA after several bad runs - but I finished pleasantly surprised. This book exceeds even my wildest expectations: it's actually good and it doesn't have an annoying protagonist for once.
Lara Jean is a teenage girl and yes, she has crushes on boys as straight teenage girls wont to do, but she acknowledges that her crushes are shallow and pretty much not going to happen. She thinks about boys, but she thinks about her family too - her sisters and her father - and it's pretty clear that she puts them first before any boys. I like her relationship with both of her sisters. The camaraderie between them is something I find familiar, having a sister myself. However, I am a bit cautious when reading the first few pages, since in my experience with YA the first boy that the protagonist said she had a crush on will inevitably be the end-game pairing, so when I read that Lara Jean has a crush on her sister's (ex) boyfriend, I have to pause for a bit because I think that pretty much breaks some sort of Girl Code: never date your sister's ex. Especially if your sister may or may not have lingering feelings from him. I say to Lara Jean, "Lara Jean, no boy is worth hurting your sister, so I want you to think long and hard before you do anything, girl." And what I like about Lara Jean is that she understands.
The protagonist of the past YA book I read will almost definitely throw caution to the wind and start flirting with the guy immediately, but Lara Jean understands and she doesn't. She keeps her distance and resists. And that's probably the first time I smile and think about a YA protagonist: "I like you. You're smart." One of the other reasons I love this book is because it contains one of my favorite tropes of all time which is the Let's Pretend to Fake Date/Marriage Because You Are the Last Person I Will Fall in Love with and I Have to Impress/Make Jealous of this Person But Oh Noes, Now I'm Falling in Love with You For Real! trope. Any book with this trope, I devour it like a cat devours catnip. Of course, the caveat is that the relationship between the pretend lovers have to be written well and they have to have sizzling chemistry, which are all present in this book.
I like that the male lead also have flaws too; he's not as bookish as Lara Jean and normally I'm all for bookish guy/bookish girl pairing but something between them clicks in a way that's not really present with Lara Jean and Josh. It's obvious that the male lead, even though he's not "smart" in a way that Lara Jean is, is still a good, decent guy, despite the fact that the whole high school population thinks he's a total ladies' man, he's only ever had two (real) girlfriends and one he stays for four years and he obviously still care a lot about her. I'm tempted to give the book five-stars, but I don't like the ending because I think it's too abrupt and Lara Jean suddenly gets a case of stupid-itis which perpetrates the abrupt ending. Fortunately this is her only case of stupid-itis in the whole book and she recovers from it in the end, but alas that means I have to wait two weeks I can see where the story goes next.
This isolation is felt deeply by our narrator, Bankson, who's fresh out of a suicide attempt when we first meet him. From previous accounts, we are led to believe that Bankson is an arrogant man, carving up a space in the Sepik River for himself, and him alone. But when we meet him, he's tortured, driven suicidal by his isolation and ghosts, and seizes the first chance he gets to have company nearby when a pair of anthropologists is looking for a new people for them to study.
At first, I was quite disturbed by how these anthropologists treat these tribes as scientific subjects to study. I'm afraid that I will encounter one of those "mighty-whitey" tropes that I loathe oh-so-much where white people lord their supposed cultural superiority to the savage, primitive tribes. But none of that happened here. It is clear that Nell and Bankson (no word on Fen, still fuming) cared about the tribes and community they studied, although Bankson is unsure how to approach them at first, because he was a proper British man of science whose training taught him that he must be aloof to his "subjects". Nell wasn't like that; she was a maverick American who freely interacted with the community, moving among the women and children, making personal relationship with them. Bankson at first was cautious of Nell's approach, because he was afraid that it would muddle up the power imbalance and samples, making it quite not "pure" but over the time he warmed to it - and her.
I like the characters. Nell, at first, seemed like the stereotypical extroverted American who shook up a British man's life, but her extroversion was the quiet of sorts. She was, indeed, the quiet sort, even though she was fierce and she would do anything to get what she wanted, she was always the quiet sorts, the proper wife, yielding to her husband but in a way move independently of him. Fen knew that she was better for him, and resented her for that. Bankson knew that too, and loved her for that. Bankson wasn't the typical socially clumsy, brooding British man, as he was eager and passionate about his work with the natives, but family discouragement and his own insecurities made him see failures in all aspects.
The romance of this book is my favorite kind of romance: one based on a meeting of the minds. Bankson and Nell doesn't get many interactions alone without Fen, but from the interactions we get, you can see that they are perfect for each other. They are not necessarily identical copies, but they complement the other well, sharing the same interests while remaining different enough for them to work. They found support in each other: Nell, someone that honestly appreciates her work; Bankson, someone that soothes his fear and gives him encouragement when all he could see was failure.
The prose was exquisite too, beautiful, poetic, but not too purple. I read this after I finished On the Road and the difference between them was astounding. Whereas I had to spend 2 hours slogging through the last 80 pages of Dean and Sal's incoherent, drug-fueled, misogynist ramblings, I scarfed through 241 pages of Euphoria in five hours, savoring it.
I gave this four-stars instead of five purely because I think the ending is very much upsetting for personal reasons. I wouldn't say anything further, but rest assured, it was enough to warrant a full-star downgrade. Otherwise, this novel is perfect as a palate-cleanser, as it is short enough but nevertheless still engages the mind.
--
Book information:
Author: King, Lily
Edition: New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. 2014 (Hardcover).
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2255-1
But there was a sale, and I bought it, and I read it. And now I realized why this series never clicked for me:
It's so goddamn cheesy.
Okay, so maybe a little bit of background is needed. Sadie and Carter Kane are brothers and sisters, descendants of two powerful line of magicians. They became the host of Isis and Osiris respectively because of their power. In the last book they manage to release the sun-god Ra, who is a senile decrepit old man, nothing like the all-powerful First King of the God they envisioned him to be, and who's certainly not fit to take on the serpent Apophis, the primordial representation of Chaos and Ra's nemesis. Apophis has set on a deadline for the end of the world at the autumn equinox, the most inauspicious day of the year, perfect for doing bad deeds. Sadie and Carter must find a way to stop him before that day, which is only a couple of days away, and they do found a technique by binding its shadow and destroying it (thus the book's title). But to do that they have to have immense power since, y'know, they're dealing with the very personification of Chaos itself.
This book made me laugh, both the oh-my-god-this-is-so-funny laugh and the oh-my-god-this-is-so-embarrassing laugh, and there were too many of the last kind. Both of the main characters were supposed to be teenagers (Carter is 15 and Sadie is 13) so I kind of expect some dramatics from them, but I wasn't prepared for their brand of hormonal drama. These two kids were on a quest to save the world from destruction and they spent more time in their monologue wondering about their romantic partners and their ~feelings~. There are times when I want to reach into the book and smack these kids in their head so they can concentrate on preventing the goddamn Doomsday instead of wondering about boys and girls. Sadie's chapters is the worst offender, since she has two admirers in the form of the jackal-god Anubis and ordinary boy-magician Walt.
Here's one of her chapter's highlights:
At the moment I didn't even care where it led, as long as it was away from that deathless creature I had thought I loved. (The Serpent's Shadow, pg. 273)
See? See what I mean? That quote is cheesier than the cheesiest cheddar cheese, and they're pretty goddamn cheesy. I was reading this on a train ride and upon seeing that passage I had to close the book and turn away to stifle my giggle-cringe. It was that bad.
Sadie Kane. Sadie. Sadie, girl. You're thirteen. Thirteen year-olds don't fall in love, and if they 'do' then it has disastrous consequences (see: Romeo and Juliet). More importantly, you're a mortal girl who 'fell in love' with a 4000-year-old god. Hon, the implications of an immortal-mortal relationship is huge, so don't get pissy when people tell Anubis that he better stay away from you, because they're right. Don't whine "Waah waah everybody's out to get me" because it's not about you, it's about him. He's a god, an immortal being without a fixed 'body' and there are a lot of things need answering if you two have a relationship. One of the gods called her out on her behavior, and I agree with him, even though she rebuked him and the scene was meant as a comic relief. Listen to your elders, Sadie, they know a thing or two about the world.
Can you tell that Sadie annoys me? I feel like an old guy screaming "You kids get off of my lawn" when I read her chapters and I'm only a year older than Carter. She's supposed to be this stereotypical goth-tomboy who has purple highlights and wears combat boots and unlike those superficial mean girls, yet she's the most boy-crazy thirteen year-old I have the displeasure to know, and I know a lot of thirteen year-olds. Her sarcasm is not funny 80% of the time and yet she's supposed to be this witty, charming girl who manages to catch the attention of two boys at the same time.
I can stomach Carter's chapters better since he only has one love interest and does not have the complication of having a completely unnecessary love triangle thrown in. He reminds me of Percy, somehow, though I know that their personality is different. His humor doesn't feel forced and I found myself laughing at some of his jokes. He is sweet and endearing, albeit a little bit boring sometimes, but maybe that's because it's a side effect of being a professor's son.
Despite that, I think this book is pretty good, structure and plot-wise. The pacing is good, the plot is tight, and the prose is not bad for a children's book. When I review, I have to remember the intended demographic of the novel, and whether or not it's good for that kind of genre/demographic. I can't put the Percy Jackson's series in the same category as Pride and Prejudice. They were written for a different demographic, different audiences.
And that's why I'm giving this book a four-star, despite my misgivings. Because, for all intents and purposes, it's a good children's/teen book. Maybe it's me who outgrew the genre.
Final rating:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
