Seanan McGuire

This is my second read for this book. I DNF-ed with a two-star rating the first time but always felt I was maybe unfair in my opinions. I've seen a lot of people get frustrated with this book or the series in general for not being quite what they had hoped, and I tend to agree that the book is not at all what I expected. It suffers from a very interesting premise and pretty average writing. On the whole, I enjoyed it this time around, but I still feel like it could be improved on.

To begin with, I never much connected with Nancy as a main character. While I was interested in the world she had visited, she never had very much personality to speak of, and meanwhile, the surrounding cast of characters, even the minor ones, were infinitely more interesting. Second, there are parts of the story that are actually rather gruesome but the plot itself is very juvenile/obvious, so the confusion of tone makes it hard to determine what the author intended this book to be. Third, it was always going to be a meta concept, and that's alright. I enjoy meta. However, it was always stated so implicitly, and usually more than once in the exact same terms, that the meta lost meaning and just became annoying.

And I only list all of these faults Because the premise is so great, it's honestly hard to admit how mediocre the novella is in itself. I would like to continue reading this series to see if maybe the author manages to better develop some of the other characters, especially since the next one is Jack & Jill's story, and I am a big fan of Jack's character and would be very interested in seeing more of Jill. But now my expectations are tempered, so maybe I'll be able to enjoy it casually instead of the fanatic joy I was expecting when I first picked up this book.

3 stars seems right, less judgmental than 2 because it really isn't a bad book but it's still not able to climb over all that heavy-handed exposition and boring MC to reach a 4.… (altro)

I have to say, I liked this one much more than the first one. Right away, Jack is a very interesting protagonist. My only real complaint with this one is, I would have liked a longer story and an equal amount of Jill's perspective! Not to mention getting to see more of the Moors, which sounds like a really interesting setting. That and it could get a little too preachy with the whole "parents should not force their ideas onto children." For such a short book, it made that point repetitively.

And though I appreciated this one more than the first in the series, I'm also not sure if I'll be continuing with the others. It seems like the author has very interesting ideas but either doesn't take time or doesn't quite know how to flesh them out into something bigger than just an idea. The concept of the Moors and its neighboring societies is so fascinating, and a pair of twin sisters raised by a vampire lord and a mad scientist respectively is phenomenal. But we get so little of it and nothing of real substance before we receive our pat on the back, are handed a moral lesson, and are sent back through the door. Much like Jack and Jill, we're left wondering why we can't stay!… (altro)

I've seen people hating on this one for the plot not making sense, and I? Don't understand? This one was probably the most fun installment yet, and I had a blast with it. I feel like the deeper we get into the series the better these stories get since we don't have to keep rehashing the same ground that the first two got a little repetitive with. It can still be a little preachy, which is why I've settled on four stars instead of five. I am begging Seanan McGuire to embrace subtlety with her characters and their struggles.… (altro)