Book #2: Ballad, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
m_stiefvater
Jan. 8th, 2010 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityTeen Urban Fantasy, Celtic, Faeries, Music, etc.
Well, I wanted more James...
This book was very compelling, but I am not sure that I felt compelled by the things I was supposed to. Each of James's chapters began with an unsent text message from Dee, detailing her complete unspooling. This made me race through Nuala's chapters in order to get to the next one.
Nuala I found...awkward. For two reasons. The first was that I didn't like her. And I didn't like her because of how she felt about Dee. The second was that she made James fall victim to my least favourite fictional plot device: when evil wins because good is stupid and won't talk to one another. She was too...quirky for me to believe she was real.
I do like James, however, so I am willing to put up with it. He does seem to attract interesting people. I am excited about Paul, for starters, and I liked the other students. I am certainly a sucker for the boarding school trope, and I love it when the teachers know what's going on.
And Dee! Oh, poor Dee. Obviously, being in love with a faerie sucks, and it sucks even more when it's one you sort of killed (or at least, failed to save), but it seems like he went very, very dark on her. And she doesn't even love James enough to get over him that way. Except she needed a friend, and he wouldn't give it to her, and that pisses me off.
Here are the things I am unclear on:
1. Okay, now I knew why Delia is on the side of the faeries, but I was expecting a little more than "I want your voice when you're done with it." I mean, we know she stole Terry's voice as well, but we don't know HOW and we don't know how she almost died, and we don't know why the fairies were willing to make a deal with her at a young age. And now she's dead, and unless we hear it from Terry, we're never going to hear it. ARGH. (This is totally why people write fanfiction.)
2. I wish we could have seen (or heard) the story of how Dee came to murder Linnet. Because it was sort of important, and hearing about it in an unsent text message was...very facebook. And why did Linnet have anything to do with faeries? Or...was it just a random kill?
3. General lack of backstory. I mean, I get the need for mystery, but JEEZ. I am not a huge fan of first person narration because of its limitations, and the why and the how are generally way more appealing to me then the what's going on right now. Apparently James is the greatest piper in the state...but without any context AT ALL beyond one abortive music lesson.
So...I'll give this one 8.5/10. It came together a bit more effectively, I thought, and with more characters, it was easier to focus on the non-"OMG, our luv is tragic!" parts. In addition, there were some marvelous laugh out loud moments, and I am a sucker for an amusing Shakespeare metaphor. Plus, Sullivan was really cool.
+++
As a random aside, I bought a toffee crunch milk chocolate Terry's orange, and am pleasantly surprised by how nice it is.
Well, I wanted more James...
This book was very compelling, but I am not sure that I felt compelled by the things I was supposed to. Each of James's chapters began with an unsent text message from Dee, detailing her complete unspooling. This made me race through Nuala's chapters in order to get to the next one.
Nuala I found...awkward. For two reasons. The first was that I didn't like her. And I didn't like her because of how she felt about Dee. The second was that she made James fall victim to my least favourite fictional plot device: when evil wins because good is stupid and won't talk to one another. She was too...quirky for me to believe she was real.
I do like James, however, so I am willing to put up with it. He does seem to attract interesting people. I am excited about Paul, for starters, and I liked the other students. I am certainly a sucker for the boarding school trope, and I love it when the teachers know what's going on.
And Dee! Oh, poor Dee. Obviously, being in love with a faerie sucks, and it sucks even more when it's one you sort of killed (or at least, failed to save), but it seems like he went very, very dark on her. And she doesn't even love James enough to get over him that way. Except she needed a friend, and he wouldn't give it to her, and that pisses me off.
Here are the things I am unclear on:
1. Okay, now I knew why Delia is on the side of the faeries, but I was expecting a little more than "I want your voice when you're done with it." I mean, we know she stole Terry's voice as well, but we don't know HOW and we don't know how she almost died, and we don't know why the fairies were willing to make a deal with her at a young age. And now she's dead, and unless we hear it from Terry, we're never going to hear it. ARGH. (This is totally why people write fanfiction.)
2. I wish we could have seen (or heard) the story of how Dee came to murder Linnet. Because it was sort of important, and hearing about it in an unsent text message was...very facebook. And why did Linnet have anything to do with faeries? Or...was it just a random kill?
3. General lack of backstory. I mean, I get the need for mystery, but JEEZ. I am not a huge fan of first person narration because of its limitations, and the why and the how are generally way more appealing to me then the what's going on right now. Apparently James is the greatest piper in the state...but without any context AT ALL beyond one abortive music lesson.
So...I'll give this one 8.5/10. It came together a bit more effectively, I thought, and with more characters, it was easier to focus on the non-"OMG, our luv is tragic!" parts. In addition, there were some marvelous laugh out loud moments, and I am a sucker for an amusing Shakespeare metaphor. Plus, Sullivan was really cool.
+++
As a random aside, I bought a toffee crunch milk chocolate Terry's orange, and am pleasantly surprised by how nice it is.
