The 75 Books Challenge total is up to 54! I knew I wasn't going to make it to 75, so everything after 50 has really just been icing on top of what I thought was feasible. The most recent two books that I've read are The Cater Street Hangman and Lichgates, and I reviewed both of them over on Goodreads, so I'll just say a little bit here and then include the review texts. It's a two-for-one!
Lichgates
I was actually more impressed by this than I thought I was going to be, considering that I got it as a free ebook and really wasn't expecting it to be all that good (there's my anti-YA-romance bias talking again). It was actually decent and held my attention, but it wasn't without its flaws.
Lichgates by S.M. BoyceMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was better than I thought it was going to be, considering that I got it as a free ebook on Amazon. It had a refreshing lack of insta-romance, which was nice for a YA novel, and a main character who I actually liked. The world of Ourea is pretty cool, with a good undercurrent of danger running through it at all times, and I was interested in seeing how it all turned out. It kept me reading an ebook, which I usually hate doing, when I had a stack of hardcovers waiting for me at home. So, overall, a pretty good read if you aren't looking for anything too heavy or complicated, and already like YA magic-based stories.
Still, it did have its irksome moments. Firstly, I found that Boyce tended to rely a little heavily on the "Because magic" route of explaining things. I am a lover of books involving magic, and if magic really is the explanation behind something, great, fine, but you need a couple of details other than, "It's magic." Does the magic have a name? Why is it there? How does it work? Is it special to this character, or does everyone have it? (view spoiler) Because magic! (view spoiler) Because magic! This was where Boyce's world-building was a little lacking. Magic is great, but, as an author, you don't get to be a magician. You have to explain the magic behind the trick.
Another thing I found a little hard to overlook was that, at times, it felt like Boyce's characters just had inappropriate emotional reactions to things, or at least used inappropriately casual language when talking about something really dangerous and/or important. Royals (well, Bloods) speak in almost exactly the same way that the main character, Kara, talks to her friends, even though one would expect them to have a more polished and authoritative way of speaking, being in such a position of power. Characters seem to not take things seriously when they know that those things are actually life-and-death serious. It just kind of threw off the effect of the dialogue.
Finally, I still have my reservations about the Grimoire itself. It's a cool idea, to be sure, but I'm always wary of magical, all-knowing answer books, because they can turn into a cop-out really quickly, magically getting the main character out of every seemingly impossible situation, like a leather-bound Mary Sue. The use of the Grimoire in this installment borders on that, and, for the sake of balance, it would be nice to see Kara ask the Grimoire something and have it not know, not just because she "didn't ask the right way," but because it actually just doesn't know. It needs a couple of limitations to avoid turning into a major cop-out.
The Cater Street Hangman
This one wasn't bad either, but I did find it mildly disappointing. The whole thing was a little dry, and I was expecting more focus on the murder itself and less focus on social customs. I would read the next couple of books in the series, though, just to see what happens to the main character, Charlotte, as her life goes on.
The Cater Street Hangman by Anne PerryMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The overarching thought I had the whole time I read this book was, how in the heck did they get anything done back then? Seriously, how could you manage to say five words without thinking about it for twenty minutes first, trying to make sure you weren't about to offend anyone? Even if you wanted to offend someone, you would have to spend another twenty minutes figuring out how to do it so cleverly that the person might not even realize that he or she had been insulted.
This issue, for me, made the reading a little dry and made me feel disconnected from the characters. From the characters' reactions, I could understand that the preceding bit of dialogue had been shocking, offensive, or "impertinent" (a word that pops up dozens of times, particularly when Charlotte and Pitt are around), but I couldn't see how. This is probably just my lack of knowledge of Victorian social customs talking, but it was a little strange to read about people gasping in shock and horror when something not at all offensive by today's standards was said. Perry could have better conveyed why things were so shocking, for those of us who aren't well-versed in etiquette.
I liked Charlotte, although I frequently had to remind myself that she was, in fact, a 23-year-old woman. The way she spoke and understood the world, as well as the fact that she was genuinely disturbed by the thought of her father finding out she'd been reading books of which he wouldn't approve, made her seem more like a teenager than a grown woman. Again, though, that's my lack of knowledge of Victorian life popping up, and I understand that we can't compare characters set in Victorian England to the 23-year-olds of today.
Overall, this was an enjoyable little mystery, and it wasn't completely soured by the two above points. It was good, not great, something that one could read in a day if it's raining outside and one has nothing better to do. I wouldn't mind picking up the next few books in the series, to see what happens to Charlotte and Pitt later on.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi, thanks for commenting! Your comments will be moderated before posting (just to make sure they aren't spam or otherwise irrelevant), so don't panic if they don't appear right away!