Helpful Score: 1
ROUGH MAGIC is a poorly written and narratively overdone tale, difficult to swallow because it tried to tell four characters' stories in the course of about 200 pages. The story moves over several decades and lifetimes; as a result, important, character-defining events are merely glimpses that poke in and out within one chapter, never to be mentioned again. Additionally, nearly every chapter tends to awkwardly explain in flashbacks the life-altering events that occurred since the last chapter. This skipping-stone method of narration ensures that we readers never feel as if there is any action going on, since everything important seems to have happened invisibly between the chapters!
That being said, the world that ROUGH MAGIC creates for us is a rough-and-tumble, fantastical one. I enjoyed the idea of the island's wildness being almost a character in itself. Unfortunately, ROUGH MAGIC was not very successful in telling a clear and intelligible story, but that doesn't mean it's without its attractions. Readers and writers may do well in considering this book as an example of what not to do with one's own writing: overly ambitious and directionless saga-stories will drag a perfectly intriguing idea down to its death.
That being said, the world that ROUGH MAGIC creates for us is a rough-and-tumble, fantastical one. I enjoyed the idea of the island's wildness being almost a character in itself. Unfortunately, ROUGH MAGIC was not very successful in telling a clear and intelligible story, but that doesn't mean it's without its attractions. Readers and writers may do well in considering this book as an example of what not to do with one's own writing: overly ambitious and directionless saga-stories will drag a perfectly intriguing idea down to its death.
Reviewed by Cat for TeensReadToo.com
Forget everything you know about THE TEMPEST, 'cause Caryl Cude Mullin's ROUGH MAGIC ain't your mama's Shakespeare.
Born of a corrupt king and power-hungry sorceress queen, raised in complete isolation on an island stripped of its magic, Caliban - previously portrayed as a nonsensical, gibbering rapist - takes center stage. In contrast, this Caliban is a quiet, gentle soul, subject to the whims of a magic-maddened mother, angry island spirits, and a pompous, self-important alchemist king.
Caryl Cude Mullin depicts not just the events of William Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, but the origins of Caliban's mother, his childhood on the island, his subsequent departure as Prospero's servant, and his final return.
Spread out among multiple characters, including Prospero's granddaughter, Chiara, and a mysterious young girl disguised as a boy; the expanded narrative allows for a rich, nuanced exploration that has, until now, been one-dimensional. Ms. Mullin depicts the characters' plights with such sophistication and deft that it's possible to empathize with each one, even the villains.
Books like this are a rare and genuine treat.
Forget everything you know about THE TEMPEST, 'cause Caryl Cude Mullin's ROUGH MAGIC ain't your mama's Shakespeare.
Born of a corrupt king and power-hungry sorceress queen, raised in complete isolation on an island stripped of its magic, Caliban - previously portrayed as a nonsensical, gibbering rapist - takes center stage. In contrast, this Caliban is a quiet, gentle soul, subject to the whims of a magic-maddened mother, angry island spirits, and a pompous, self-important alchemist king.
Caryl Cude Mullin depicts not just the events of William Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, but the origins of Caliban's mother, his childhood on the island, his subsequent departure as Prospero's servant, and his final return.
Spread out among multiple characters, including Prospero's granddaughter, Chiara, and a mysterious young girl disguised as a boy; the expanded narrative allows for a rich, nuanced exploration that has, until now, been one-dimensional. Ms. Mullin depicts the characters' plights with such sophistication and deft that it's possible to empathize with each one, even the villains.
Books like this are a rare and genuine treat.
