It's not I didn't like this book. At least, I like the beginning for awhile. But this book's plot was I curse this book with a thousand crotch louse.
It's not I didn't like this book. At least, I like the beginning for awhile. But this book's plot was enough to drive me into a rant.
Getting out of the way the fact that the characterisation is great and the setting is stunning and all that shit, let's get into possibly McKinley's only, and truly great weakness, which is plotting and pacing.
The book reads at the speed of an unhurried snail. It starts a full 2.5ish years before Beauty even meets the Beast and shows no sincere interest in moving things along for the sake of actually telling the story. Beauty spends a stunningly little amount of time with the Beast and when we actually meet him, most of that time is glossed over in narrative telling rather than showing.
ARE YOU TELLING ME I JUST SAT THROUGH 2.5 YEARS OF THIS GIRL'S LIFE ONLY TO HAVE FIVE MINUTES WITH THE ACTUAL GREAT ROMANCE THIS FAIRYTALE IS FAMOUS FOR?!
[image]
Then, right, the whole thing is wrapped up in about 20 pages. It was infuriating. I don't feel like Beauty's back story and life before the Beast helped us understand her motivations and character arc any great deal. I felt like it was cumbersome for the sake of being cumbersome and wordy and artistic.
I'm so mad about this, that I'm practically hopping. I'm hopping mad, I say!
Adams has written a total psychopath, and sometimes I’m kind of worried because he doesn’t seem to think this character is necessarily a psychopath. OAdams has written a total psychopath, and sometimes I’m kind of worried because he doesn’t seem to think this character is necessarily a psychopath. Or maybe he’s fooling us. See, I interviewed him about this terrifying character and this was his response:
“I loved writing X because he doesn’t see himself as a bad guy at all. And maybe he’s not. What he has is a plan to save the world and the power to put it into action even though his means seem ruthless. But, like he tells Danby, God didn’t say to Noah, “Hey, beardy, get all the animals” – he said get two of each. X thinks it’s important to save people with skills to rebuild the world rather than try to save everyone. I think if you got access to government emergency plans, they’d have similar sort of ideas on the books. If you’re an author, sucked in. If you’re an engineer, we’ve got your Ark berth all made up. X’s point is also that circumstances have allowed him and Danby to create a new world from the ground up. There are no billionaires or politicians or celebrities to get preference over ordinary folk. Being able to explore his complexity – and Danby having to admit that he makes sense – made him feel very real and their relationship a joy to write. Those themes are picked up in the second book. Danby might not be as all-knowing as she can think she is. Or is she? Whaaaaaaaat?”
No, Adams. You’re a tops guy and I can’t wait to chug back beers with you one day (Editors note: OMG. We are so goddamn Australian it hurts), but no. He is eviller than someone who doesn’t like My Little Pony (the worst kind of evil).
I say this because The Last Girl is the best kind of Apocalypse book around. Not only original, but an actual apocalypse. With a lot of apocalypse books, you tend to see things just after the world has gone to shit. The story starts with a survivor, just after most of humanity is lost. The Lost Girl doesn’t shy away from all that, and Danby is in a situation where she has to choose who dies and who lives. Who she can save and who she has to abandon. That’s pretty intense. And that’s also hard work for a writer, thus why a lot skip it over in preference for getting down to the fun carnage bits. Believe it or not, it’s kind of hard to orchestrate a believable end of the world, from a writerly point of view.
Doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Mainly, it’s biggest issue is me. Because I’ve read so many bloody apocalyptic novels that they all tend to blend into each other. However, for someone mostly new to the genre – this would be a good place to start. Think John Marsden meets Pyscho, though I’m not sure Adams meant it to be this way. The concept is original, Danby is cool, but the set up isn’t. Love triangle, psycho boyfriend, only one girl who can save them all. It’s pretty run-of-the-mill stuff in Young Adult Landia. Shatter Me did the psycho boyfriend better, but since The Last Girl doesn’t have the horrible purple prose, it wins on all other accounts. And the setting in Sydney is refreshing to the usual middle America. Writing is pretty good.
It took me a while to get into this book. The love-triangle thinggie didn’t help, but then things get full on scary and that’s when the book gets good. The first half of the book is a 2.5 star read for me, but the second half was a solid 5 star because it gets suspenseful as all hell. The narrative itself feels kind of critical of social media, and Adams seems to be aware of that. Is constant connectivity a good or bad thing? I feel like that’s what The Last Girl is really asking. And it’s answer is that we don’t really want to be connected to everyone at all times, we only think we do. We want everyone to know that we’re eating a cake in the shape of Steampunk Harley Quinn’s face for our birthday party, but not that we think anal beads would be a fun thing to try this weekend. And that’s an interesting distinction, one it pays to wonder if future generations will have to struggle with more than us. The line between our real selves and our online selves becomes increasingly blurred. And what if we stop knowing the difference? The implausibility of the story vehicle aside, The Last Girl asks a lot of questions. Ones I’d be happy to answer as soon as I’m finished looking up pictures of cats who like cheese burgers and can’t spell.
I have no complaints, people. I’m putting this on my Christmas List Recommendation Guide Thinggie for Teenagers. I guess I’m just waiting for book #2 to come out to see if it can really deviate into amazing territory, and if Adams can keep up the momentum from the second half of the book. It seems to me, his strength lies in the psychological thriller side, which the second book seems to promise a lot of.
Until then, peanut butter jelly time! (Because I’m shallow and all moral quandaries result in the celebration of useless memes.)
[image]
This book was provided to me for review purposes. Nobody paid me for it and I received no favours or gifts for it. This is a problem. Where's my goddamn pony?! I was promised a pony! Can someone get back to me asap with my pony?!
Damn you, Leigh Barduga. Damn you for tricking me.
Leigh Barduga is like some kind of literary crouching tiger, hidden dragon or something.
You would beDamn you, Leigh Barduga. Damn you for tricking me.
Leigh Barduga is like some kind of literary crouching tiger, hidden dragon or something.
You would be forgiven, upon commencing this novel, for thinking Shadow and Bone is redundant, cliched piece of tripe book with poor story-telling, average writing and a predictable plot. People who haven't read countless Young Adult novels probably wouldn't notice the trends, but I did. This is what I thought and Leigh led me down the primrose path until... BOOM!
Game change. Glorious, glorious game change. Black is white, up is down, you are not secretly attracted to me. EVERYTHING CHANGES.
Kaching. Lights on. Real show begins and we hope you enjoyed that prelude. Also, while you weren't looking, we falcon-punched your ovaries.
The themes of Shadow and Bone center around power, and the struggle for it. What does it mean? What is it worth? What do you do with it? Also, there's love and romancey stuff for those who care for such things - and who have a functioning heart.
More importantly, for me, was the violence, court intrigue and sexy times of which make up some part of this novel. These aspects were definitely there but they were flirted with. I would have liked more of these and a little less of the boarding-house shenanigans and bitchy-mean girl drama. It was outside these factors that I loved the novel.
It's strengths definitely rely on its characters and powerful storyline because the actual narration and writing tended toward the telling as opposed to showing side.
For example:
Alexei's fingers slipped on the railing. I lunged forward and grabbed his arm.
"Hold on!" I cried.
Then the flame vanished, and in the darkness I felt Alexei's fingers pulled from mine.
"Alexei!" I shouted.
His screams faded into the sounds of battle as the volca carried him into the dark. Another burst of flame lit the sky, but he was gone.
Still, I'm wondering if maybe the things I loved most about Shadow and Bone will be carried on in the next novel. To the very last page I loved the Darkling - not because he was sexy - but for the dark, rawness of his character. The dynamic it played with Alina in how she saw herself. Identity, concepts of misplaced idealism. Lust, love, ownership vs freely given love. It was all there amidst a world-building that was surprisingly lite for this caliber of novel - yet hinted at so much more.
Overall, a great read and I look forward to the next book where Leigh will probably rip out my still-beating heart and feed it to a raging bear while I applaud in amazement. Or, you know, something synonymous....more
**spoiler alert** Email To: Mr. & Mrs. Crisparkle Email from: Sedgewick Crisparkle
Dear mother and father,
How are you enjoying Christmas there at home i**spoiler alert** Email To: Mr. & Mrs. Crisparkle Email from: Sedgewick Crisparkle
Dear mother and father,
How are you enjoying Christmas there at home in sunny (ha!) England? Is father's vicarage going well? Look, to put it plainly, I understand that I have only recently confessed to you that I am a gay man and that you are coming to grips with this. Which is why I feel it is necessary to explain to you what happened to our precious family artifact as soon as possible. Our treasured, undiscovered Christmas book by Dickens truly was a proud heirloom in our family and an excellent tradition that we have upheld all this time. I'm so grateful it was bequeathed to me so that I could sell it in order to finance my lifelong dream.
However, a little while ago I met a man. Three days ago to be exact. We are in love. Now, I understand you might be concerned about the fact that he has an extraordinarily sordid history with artifacts and that he spent two of our precious three days together lying and scheming to get our book. However, he is a man of great character. I presume. I am positively hopeful that he actually did love me and is a good person on the inside despite his actions shown for the vast majority of our courtship.
He slept with me on the understanding that I would at least show him the book and thus, by my calculations, he would be willing to spend the rest of his life with me if I just give it to him. I see this as perfectly justifiable and I'm sure you will too once you actually meet him. I'm not sure when that will be since the future is currently hazy for us. We have yet to discuss any permanent plans past me giving him this priceless and irreplaceable artifact (and more sex but I don't think you're ready to hear about that) but I'm sure we'll work that out in a satisfactory matter. Once he comes back from getting us some milk. Does milk take a long time to retrieve in LA?
I'm sure nothing will happen to make me come to regret this decision.
Kat Kennedy
>
Books:
drunk-when-i-wrote-this-review
(5)
Loading...
