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I suppose there's no better time for supernatural romances, but I'm part of the small percentage of Amazon reviewers that didn't like this book by Maggie Stiefvater. It's a ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yalitlovers fave as well, but after the first quarter it was a struggle to finish because of the uneven action, overly mushy prose and too many story conveniences. It's like the author made a checklist from TV Tropes and built the story from there. The most glaring one is the absolutely absent parents, which is not an uncommon theme in YA lit, but everyone's parents seem to be absent from the mean girl to Grace, the heroine, and her friends. Grace's absent parents are set up to be a source of anger for Grace, but that never gets resolved. There's too many plot threads and too little suspense.
It also seems like whole chunks of story are missing, particularly towards the end; characters from the beginning are forgotten, such as best friend Rachel. The last quarter, I tell ya, what a Grade A literary trainwreck. The sad thing is that Stiefvater has set up such a compelling story with Grace, who falls in love with a wolf named Sam, who turns human in the summer. The cold weather turns him and his pack back into wolves. As a big fan of Ladyhawke, I thought this was right up my alley. Now there's a love story. I cry every time at the scene where Isabeau gets shot through with an arrow when she's a hawk.
The one thing I did like about this book was the alternating point of view between Grace and Sam. That was a good idea on the author's part. This book just had so much potential that went right out the door. I can accept a few contrivances and conveniences, but there were way too many for me to enjoy the book. I realize a lot of why I didn't like it is my adult perspective - I can see why teenage girls would love this book absolutely though.
( Ranty arghness spoilers! )
yalitlovers fave as well, but after the first quarter it was a struggle to finish because of the uneven action, overly mushy prose and too many story conveniences. It's like the author made a checklist from TV Tropes and built the story from there. The most glaring one is the absolutely absent parents, which is not an uncommon theme in YA lit, but everyone's parents seem to be absent from the mean girl to Grace, the heroine, and her friends. Grace's absent parents are set up to be a source of anger for Grace, but that never gets resolved. There's too many plot threads and too little suspense.It also seems like whole chunks of story are missing, particularly towards the end; characters from the beginning are forgotten, such as best friend Rachel. The last quarter, I tell ya, what a Grade A literary trainwreck. The sad thing is that Stiefvater has set up such a compelling story with Grace, who falls in love with a wolf named Sam, who turns human in the summer. The cold weather turns him and his pack back into wolves. As a big fan of Ladyhawke, I thought this was right up my alley. Now there's a love story. I cry every time at the scene where Isabeau gets shot through with an arrow when she's a hawk.
The one thing I did like about this book was the alternating point of view between Grace and Sam. That was a good idea on the author's part. This book just had so much potential that went right out the door. I can accept a few contrivances and conveniences, but there were way too many for me to enjoy the book. I realize a lot of why I didn't like it is my adult perspective - I can see why teenage girls would love this book absolutely though.
( Ranty arghness spoilers! )
