octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

Not quite as good as the first one, this is still an entertaining read. It's split into several different narratives - Sophia's off on her own following up the trail of her vanished parents in Spain. Theo's doing badly at political intrigue back in Boston, and the diary of Minna Tims recounts her attempted rescue of a friend. Following three different strands does make this a tiny bit unfocused, but all the strands were interesting, and I always thought the strand I was reading at the time was the most interesting of the three, so that was clever.

I think, though, that what The Glass Sentence had that this doesn't is a compelling villain. The Lachrima was weird and creepy as shit, a sad and hideous almost-monster. In this volume, the role of big bad is taken over by a crooked politician called Broadgirdle, and while he's a nasty sort he's a very ordinary sort of nasty. There's really nothing compelling about him, and over in Europe the plague that Sophia's dealing with lacks the visceral sense of horror that the Lachrima had in spades.

A creepy little story about a possessed doll, which goes the way of every other creepy little story about possessed dolls ever. This version of that old favourite has a steampunk flavour, however, and it's nicely told for all it's not too high on the originality scale.

Holden Caulfield is a tiresome little shit. If he were a real person I would be sick of his company in three minutes flat. That said, reading about him is tolerable because, whatever you think of Salinger's subject, Salinger's prose is just astonishingly smooth. I think what I admire most is the sheer consistency of texture - there's nary a paragraph, a sentence even, that jolts even slightly from tone. This is the first time I've read Salinger, and while I'm hoping for better characters in future I'm still looking forward to reading more as this is extremely well-written. Reading it was like swallowing a cup of beautifully made custard - undeniably repetitive, but just so very glossy.

This was utterly charming. Wee Harold takes his purple crayon and goes lucid dreaming. He nearly drowns, builds a city and grows an apple tree, stuffs himself on nine different types of pie and (my favourite bit) gifts the leftovers to a moose with ribs like toast racks and "a deserving porcupine". I am left to wonder about the remainder of the porcupine population, and what they have done to be undeserving. (I am also left to wonder which nine pies I would draw if I had a purple crayon. Custard, pumpkin, key lime...)

Granted, I am not the target audience for this. I am way past being the target audience, but you hear about these things sort of by osmosis, don't you? Best picture books for kiddies and all that. I finally got round to reading Where the Wild Things Are earlier this year and that was awesome, so I thought I'd read this as well, and what a boring piece of cutesy blandness it is. I cannot picture even child me liking this book - my tastes even then ran more to the Beatrix Potter kitten being rolled in dough to make dumplings for rats.

Suffice to say, I enjoyed even the dullness that is Madeline more than this.

Toad is sleeping peacefully in his bed. Frog, who is a mannerless wretch, enters his house without permission and commits ruthless deception because he is one of those annoying morning people who can't stand it when someone else has a lie in. Come enjoy the Spring, Toad, he says, like the noxious brute that he is, and he badgers and badgers poor Toad for a walk, until Toad gives in and walks with Frog to the nearest road, at which point he pushes him in front of a passing truck and goes back to bed. He only feels a mild bit of guilt (which manifests in the form of a slightly tedious sequence of dreams which argue in favour of snoozing over friendship) but really he thinks that Frog deserved it, and so do I.

I am so very fond of White's series on King Arthur that when I came across this, another of his books, in the local library I had to read it. It was not nearly so good - I had to force myself to keep going at some points, and luckily the thing is only about 150 pages long.

Look, in all fairness I have to admit that the blame for this lukewarm reaction is entirely on me. Mistress Masham's Repose is well-written and clever and charming in places, but it is also a deliberate response to the most painfully boring novel ever written: Gulliver's Travels. I hate that book. I really, really hate it, and it is absolutely not Mr. White's fault that the resentment regarding the hours I spent reading that dreadful "classic" has attached itself to this.

Alas, the well has been thoroughly poisoned.

A big improvement on the first volume in the series! There's more story and less meandering, as well as a greater focus on character. Of course Stewart has the advantage here in that she's working from set pieces - the sword in the stone, above all, but also Arthur's childhood with Ector. This gives a lot more shape to the narrative as the story moves on, whereas The Crystal Cave was less well-defined and tended towards sprawl because of it. Morgause appears for the first time, and while appropriately menacing there's unfortunately still something very flat about her, sort of evil for evil's sake which has never struck me as a very convincing motivation for any character. The story, though, is primarily Arthur's and his mere presence makes Merlin more entertaining in response - which he sorely needed after Cave.

Entertaining sci-fi take on Cinderella, with the added bonus of cyborgs, mind control, and moon people. There's been a really interesting world built up here, though I'm left with questions as to just why society in general is so determined to believe that cyborgs aren't human. Lose a hand in an accident, get a robotic one attached and suddenly you're a lesser being? I'm not entirely convinced, and I'd be interested in seeing the history behind it, but for the moment I'm happy to take it as read that this world exists. Basically because it's enjoyable - Cinder is an inventive take on a classic, and I like the characters I'm supposed to like, which is comforting.

The plot, however - I don't feel as if I can really say that it's obvious, as a Cinderella retelling is pretty much covering familiar ground by definition, but the twist to Cinder's true identity is blatantly clear from page 44 on. It's also, I have to say, a bit frustrating that so much of this book is based around the Idiot Plot trope, in which people don't talk to each other about obvious things and complications then ensue. I mean, I'm grasping that Cinder has a low social status, but I desperately wanted her to stop whining about her foot and start worrying more about her mouth, by which I mean opening it so that words can come out. The doctor is just as bad, but drama apparently overcomes common sense. (It's such an irritating trope.) Still, readable fun.

I'm finding this series so entertaining! There's such an undercurrent of genuine anger in it, which is frankly deeply refreshing, especially as that anger is justified and the series can so easily be interpreted as a reflection on real life. Granted, the powers that be in this world aren't forcing kids to fight to the death for entertainment, but they're happy enough watching them starve all over the world while sitting on millions, even billions of resources. It's pretty hard to watch the indulgences of the super-rich, sometimes, and to compare their lives to those who are living in slums, dying from lack of clean water or food, and not feel absolute contempt. Honestly, the most painful moment in this book is the emetic handed round at fancy parties so that the rich can gorge themselves even more while the Districts starve.

And Katniss, I have to say, remains one of my favourite YA characters. There's something very honest about her, an accurate self-assessment of flaws that is usually the province of much older characters but which, combined with her deeply ingrained cynicism and an equally pervasive fatalism, makes her the perfect protagonist for this series. I just wish she wasn't stuck in a love triangle - I hate those bloody things - especially as Katniss doesn't seem inclined to romance at all. It seems a bit like it's being forced on her (by the publishing world more so than the Games) because that's the kind of storyline teenage girls should have. It would have been refreshing to have a YA heroine where this wasn't the case, and that might have been particularly fitting in a series that is so much about revolution and the overthrow of old ideals.