Kevin G. (sackett) reviewed on + 14 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Well written and entertaining, with a likable and dimensional protagonist and compelling, complex twists of the tongue on familiar themes.
The books greatest strength is the unique, feisty, quick-witted voice of its narrator, particularly as she waxes on about her perspectives on life in general and her life, in specific. These riffs are invariably entertaining and often laugh-out-loud funny.
Also worthy of high praise is the author's deft handling of her universe's paranormal elements. She reveals information on all the many monsters and myths-made-flesh that populate her reality in a voice that smacks of naturalistic musings, never stilting her internal dialogs up until they become info dumps, but rather elegantly brushing just enough detail into her wandering narrative to force the reader to intuit for themselves how her world differs from ours, and how it does not. This technique is a double bonus in that it lends both a deep sense of textured reality to the idea that this character actually LIVES in this world of which she speaks while, at the same time, encouraging all manner of reader assumptions for her to verify and/or blow out of the water as she sees fit while she takes us along on the journey of her story.
Where the book is less successful is in the pacing. Around the 1/3 mark, the action takes a siesta that goes on FAR too long, filled with precious little but hand-wringing and waiting and more hand-wringing and more waiting and then a little more hand-wringing ...
It's an unfortunate flaw that replicates itself later in an even more unfortunate place, bringing the book to a virtual stand-still that all but stalls the climax into a fatal nosedive before finally hopping off the dime and getting ON with it already.
The bad pacing is significant enough to leave a lingering dissatisfaction as the story winds itself up; a sin that is compounded by a scattering of sub-storylines opened as if they are relevant to the whole only to be left dangling with no attempt to clarify why they were introduced in the first place.
Upon turning the last page, I actually went online to look for the sequel, somewhat irritated to find this was the first in a series of books, only to become far MORE irritated to find it ISN'T the first in a series of books, but rather a standalone. And that the "to be continued" feel it left for several subplots are not set-ups for the next installment, but rather just dangling strings left untied for all eternity while the author makes statements about not being one to revisit characters already created, much preferring to create a new cast for every book.
That's all fine and dandy if you finish your book before it closes, but when you leave as many strings swinging in the wind as this book left, it becomes ... irritating.
That being said, on the whole, the story, and particularly the protagonist, are entertaining enough to make the book worth the time it takes to read it. Just be advised going in: you're going to be left needing another book to finish what McKinley started, and that "other book" does not exist. And will not, according to McKinley, who flat out stated that no, there will be no more books about this character so richly created to such good effect.
Damn shame, really. I would have read it, if for no other reason than to tie up those dangling strings. And also because laugh-out-loud protagonist POVs are worth their weight in gold, and this book has that benefit in spades.
The books greatest strength is the unique, feisty, quick-witted voice of its narrator, particularly as she waxes on about her perspectives on life in general and her life, in specific. These riffs are invariably entertaining and often laugh-out-loud funny.
Also worthy of high praise is the author's deft handling of her universe's paranormal elements. She reveals information on all the many monsters and myths-made-flesh that populate her reality in a voice that smacks of naturalistic musings, never stilting her internal dialogs up until they become info dumps, but rather elegantly brushing just enough detail into her wandering narrative to force the reader to intuit for themselves how her world differs from ours, and how it does not. This technique is a double bonus in that it lends both a deep sense of textured reality to the idea that this character actually LIVES in this world of which she speaks while, at the same time, encouraging all manner of reader assumptions for her to verify and/or blow out of the water as she sees fit while she takes us along on the journey of her story.
Where the book is less successful is in the pacing. Around the 1/3 mark, the action takes a siesta that goes on FAR too long, filled with precious little but hand-wringing and waiting and more hand-wringing and more waiting and then a little more hand-wringing ...
It's an unfortunate flaw that replicates itself later in an even more unfortunate place, bringing the book to a virtual stand-still that all but stalls the climax into a fatal nosedive before finally hopping off the dime and getting ON with it already.
The bad pacing is significant enough to leave a lingering dissatisfaction as the story winds itself up; a sin that is compounded by a scattering of sub-storylines opened as if they are relevant to the whole only to be left dangling with no attempt to clarify why they were introduced in the first place.
Upon turning the last page, I actually went online to look for the sequel, somewhat irritated to find this was the first in a series of books, only to become far MORE irritated to find it ISN'T the first in a series of books, but rather a standalone. And that the "to be continued" feel it left for several subplots are not set-ups for the next installment, but rather just dangling strings left untied for all eternity while the author makes statements about not being one to revisit characters already created, much preferring to create a new cast for every book.
That's all fine and dandy if you finish your book before it closes, but when you leave as many strings swinging in the wind as this book left, it becomes ... irritating.
That being said, on the whole, the story, and particularly the protagonist, are entertaining enough to make the book worth the time it takes to read it. Just be advised going in: you're going to be left needing another book to finish what McKinley started, and that "other book" does not exist. And will not, according to McKinley, who flat out stated that no, there will be no more books about this character so richly created to such good effect.
Damn shame, really. I would have read it, if for no other reason than to tie up those dangling strings. And also because laugh-out-loud protagonist POVs are worth their weight in gold, and this book has that benefit in spades.
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