Disclaimer: I got this book from the library without knowing ANYTHING about it. I didn't know it was a romance, didn't know when it was set, didn'tDisclaimer: I got this book from the library without knowing ANYTHING about it. I didn't know it was a romance, didn't know when it was set, didn't know anything. It's the first of Ahern's books that I've read.
And it was garbage. I don't like insta-love at the best of times, but it can be done right; and this book? It was done terribly, awfully, eye-rolling-ly bad.
This whole book felt like it was still an early draft, with stereotypical characters that really didn't have any depth to them. The plot was basically: an isolated girl, living in the idyllic woods, reveals her secrets; gets a taste for literal worldwide fame; then goes back to her idyllic life with a terrible boyfriend she insta-loved one day. It's about a documentary crew, but then it's about a weird talent show, then it's about romance, then it's about a murder mystery. It just felt like it was trying too hard at.... everything.
Solomon is the epitome of toxic masculinity. He's the entitled guy who feels possessive of whomever he loves--think Ross Gellar, but instead of being whiny about dinosaurs, he's angry, aggressive, and absolutely violent. He made me uncomfortable the whole book. There were no redeeming qualities about him.
And Laura/Lyrebird? Half the time, it seemed like she was a stereotypical "wild child" with no worldly knowledge; but the other half of the time, she was this wise woodswoman who made magical sounds (which she is sometimes aware of and sometimes not; she can practice the sounds, but she also doesn't realise she's doing them? It was so silly). She's 26 for god's sake, and the book is set in 2016. She was born in 1990 and has grown up with media and television--she says she watched TV and read books growing up, even before moving to the cottage at age 16--but it didn't seem/feel that her character reflected that culture at all. She had no depth.
I was mildly interested in Bo, but didn't get a lot of the story from her. She could have been interesting if the author had written more about her or from her perspective, but nope, we get a forced shitty romance between Solomon "I throw things and fantasise about assaulting people" Fallon and Laura "Am I mystical? Am I self-aware at all?" Button.
There's the character Rachel who has a WIFE! named, uhh, Susie I think? Rachel is basically written out of the book because her wife is pregnant, then in labour (they have a son named Brennan who is used to further the "magical" feelings that Laura emits; AKA, she mimics a baby cry and people get all paternal about it). No brownie points for having a queer character, because Rachel and her wife are basically plopped in to take up space, left out for parts 2 and 3, then brought in at the end THE DAY AFTER SUSIE GIVES BIRTH, so that Laura can mimic the newborn's cries. So stupid.
The writing quality was not very good. Lots of head hopping between characters, with no order to it, and many, many awkward sentences. Like the first example, below, of a paragraph I almost skipped over because it was an 80-WORD SENTENCE. So much passive tense. I don't know if it's a style thing, either, but the subject-verb agreements for collective nouns was REALLY bugging me.
Here are two instances that made me contemplate DNF'ing the book: a racist statement and a rape joke with a shitty cover-up afterward.
(Brace yourself for these TWO sentences.)
Previous formats of the show saw eliminated contestants who'd received the executioner's thumbs down leave in a cage carried off by gladiators, but this was abandoned after the first season when viewers protested at the offensive image of a ninety-two-year-old mother of eleven, whose children and grandchildren were in the audience, being carted off after her rendition of 'Danny Boy', and a crying ten-year-old boy whose magic trick had failed had a panic attack when forced to enter the cage. The execution cage, however, remained popular in a Middle Eastern version of the franchise.
(pg. 191)
What an unnecessary bit of racism. It's so offensive that the Irish audience has a stew, but it's popular in "a Middle Eastern version"? Fuck off!
___
Perhaps Rory realises he's losing Solomon's anger, that Solomon is no longer the underdog, because then he scrapes the barrel. 'She's a great little ride though,' he says, to his mother's dismay and a yell from his dad.
(pg. 330)
A rape joke. A fucking rape joke about Laura, who was blackout drunk. BUT THEN! It's followed up with this, a page later:
'There's such a thing as consent, probably not a word you're familiar with...' Cara explains. 'It requires the woman saying yes. It's a real thing. Other men actually have sex with women who aren't locked out of their heads. Women who can see the faces of their lovers. Now I know it's not usually how you operate, but--' 'Shut the fuck up, Cara.'
(pg. 332)
Ms. Ahern, you're still contributing to rape culture when you include a rape joke. I don't give a damn if you have a (weak) spiel about consent in response to it, because you still included the joke. You can't just include a little soundbite about consent, which is dismissed by the character who MADE the rape joke. Just gross. So gross.
Don't read the book. Find a better insta-love romance than this one, because this was garbage....more
It spoke to my broken teen heart in a way that made me feel heard in a way nobody ever did when I was a kid. My only wish is that it were longer so IIt spoke to my broken teen heart in a way that made me feel heard in a way nobody ever did when I was a kid. My only wish is that it were longer so I could continue being inspired by Kiko Himura...more
This is an incredible book, an incredible story, an incredible message, an incredible writer. Angie Thomas's writing has one of the strongest voicesThis is an incredible book, an incredible story, an incredible message, an incredible writer. Angie Thomas's writing has one of the strongest voices I've ever encountered in fiction. THUG is probably the most important book I've ever read, too.
I didn't totally love and adore this book for two reasons: the first, I felt very outside of the age demographic. It was very clear to me that this book, targeted for teens, knows its demographic and writes to those teens. Which is a good thing.
The second reason was a specific moment and character relationship that sat very, very uncomfortably for me due to personal experiences negatively mirroring the events in the book. Starr says if she weren't straight, she'd date a fellow basketball player. Starr makes a few comments like this about the girl in the first half of the book. At the time, I kinda frowned for a second and then continued reading; but by the end, I felt as if that girl were there only to sorta... be objectified? That might not be the right word. She didn't make another significant appearance after Starr establishes that this other character is cool and would be romantic material under different circumstances. I thoroughly appreciate Starr explicitly stating her sexuality, but it felt like it was done at the expense of same-sex attraction.
Still giving it a 5-star, though.
This is an incredibly important book and everyone needs to read it. I look forward to Thomas's next book, regardless of what she chooses to write about. Her writing voice drew me in completely and I read this book in literally 2 nights, and I'm a slow reader. I hope her next narrator has the same degree of deep voice that Starr has!...more
A hesitant 3.5 stars, and hesitantly shelved on "diverse"
I'm a big Westerfeld fan, so this was a book I would inevitably finish and enjoy to someA hesitant 3.5 stars, and hesitantly shelved on "diverse"
I'm a big Westerfeld fan, so this was a book I would inevitably finish and enjoy to some extent. His writing is so easy for me to read. At first, I was intimidated by the page count, but I knew I'd get through because of the writing style.
First and foremost: this is two novels packaged as one and they have zero crossover, aside from Darcy being the writer of the other story. I wondered how this combined narratives would pan out, and I honestly think it wasn't necessary. If anything, they feel like 2 incomplete stories. I enjoyed both, but would have preferred to read two separate novels.
Basically, we have a contemporary LGBT story, and we have a paranormal romance. They were both okay. I wasn't blown away by either story, but I do have a strong appreciation for the romantic relationship in Darcy's. It was very deep, and acted as a great foil to the superficial romantic relationship in Lizzie's story.
My biggest issue was with Darcy. A small kudos to Westerfeld for having a POC protagonist... but she lacked authenticity. I don't mean she should've been using Hindi phrases or followed her culture. But considering she is the daughter of two Indian immigrants, I expected a bit more of that reality and identity coming through, which might have been improved with more characterisation of Annika and her husband (whose name I can't remember; I finished the book a few hours ago and can't remember the protag's father's name!!).
The "American assimilation" message was incredibly present: Darcy essentially rejected all notions of her culture, including the food, and her parents did the same, though maintaining the food. She landed a book deal before she could legally drink (also, I'm so over underage drinking; it's not cool), managed to find a rent an apartment in New York City, and got a 2-book, 6-figure deal. To me, that's the American Dream, and it seems like Darcy could only achieve it by adopting a more American life and writing an American story. If it weren't for her last name of "Patel," Darcy could have been anyone, though I would have assumed she were white due to the amount of luck (and therefore privilege) she displayed. I'm not going to offer suggestions on what he could have done better, because as a fourth-generation Canadian, that's not my place.
The issue of race in publishing was mentioned once, quite early on, and I wish it had been more predominant. I also wish I had known more about the people publishing Darcy: Moxie, Rhea, Paradox house. The scene where Westerfeld wrote the characters talking about the whiteness of publishing and the problems with cultural appropriation by white authors... It seemed like a sticker put in there to say, "See? I addressed the issue." It was very slapdash and I almost forgot about it.
It's hard to think a book is good, let alone great, when you look at the Indian protagonist in a lesbian relationship and think, "She's not real enough." This isn't to say I have a problem with Indian protagonists, or lesbian protagonists, or Indian lesbians. I'm saying that Darcy wasn't written well enough to convince me of her identity as even Indian. I think at some point it seemed like she was all, "Oh I don't know who I like and I don't think I'm a very sexual person" but I mean. I don't know anyone who is asexual or lesbian or queer who hasn't started questioning their orientation (or even researching it. Darcy is a writer, for goodness' sake; if she could stumble across a news story of a murdered 11-year-old in India in the 70s, then she could find something about LGBT identity). I wish Westerfeld had tried a little harder, or perhaps let this story be told by a queer Indian author.
Also, I really didn't care for Nisha.
The more I think about this, the more I wonder Why did Westerfeld write two novels together? My only conclusion is that... Well, neither of the stories would have been able to stand on their own. I don't particularly think they work well together, though I did love the interior design, but that might have been the best option.
It was refreshing to read a romantic relationship treated with such maturity. I love Imogen's character in the book and for my own personal reasons/relatability to her. I think Westerfeld managed to pull off the two-narratives-in-one-book structure just because he has, like, 4 series under his belt and a large readership; and not because it was a good way to structure these stories. It's worth a read, though--and I'm going to keep calling them "valkyries" instead of the silly title Lizzie picks at the end. (You could have at least made it similar to Mindy's "livers" in form! Come on!)...more
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