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Miserere Finished reading, what did you think?
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Sandra
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Feb 26, 2014 07:22PM
Talk to us here when you're finished reading this book. Let us know if you liked it or not and why.
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I will hold off with my thoughts until March. I do hope wr get lots of readers and plenty og questions for Teresa.
Mark has agreed to lead the discussion so I will bow out here! Thanks, Mark. Add whatever threads you like.
Just finished it. Good story. Really like Lindsay.
well, I agreed to join in, I carefully sidestepped all mention of leading, so please bow back in, Sandra!
There are certainly lots of points connected to the book that could bear talking about, not all of them limited to the story on its pages. Including:- did you like it, and why?
- did the real world religions add or subtract from it?
- did the overlap of modern real world and medieval-esque secondary world work for you (it's not an uncommon device)
I know the book has been mistakenly shelved as 'religious' and 'YA' in the past when in fact it's neither of those things. It seems for some that the presence of a young character and the fact of a female author automatically point to YA.
Teresa has in the past identified herself with dark fantasy and even the poorly defined (sometimes maligned) GRIMDARK, a category that female authors are said to be under-represented in. Did you feel the book to be particularly dark (or grimdark)?
It has been my observation that for some reason elves and ogres are deemed less dark than angels and devils.Of course it doesn't help that the powers of darkness frequently have a freer hand and more power, since we have to get conflict for the story somewhere.
I finished it last night and liked it. The tension and pacing were good and I cared for the characters. The elements of real world religion were a bit of a turn off for me, but not enough to stop reading. It was over all pretty dark, but with enough elements of redemption to keep it from sinking to unbearable. Perhaps it's my age (old) but I haven't been truly frightened by a demon since the movie, The Exorcist. That whole thing in the end becomes sad and a little pitiful, as Teresa was able to show in the book. I guess the ability of the main characters to 'feel' God with such certainty was a little off putting to me. I didn't at all mind the intermixture of 'real' world and 'fantastical' world. It worked fine.
'YA' is such a contaminated concept these days. I was reading an article recently about 'YA' book factories! Now there's a sign that YA has become a big money maker. But this book didn't have a YA quality to it.
I agree Sandra that this should not be shelved as YA.I am also not usually a fan of the religious but I didnt mind as much in this book.
I thought there was a good mix of characters but I did not "get" the Seraph. He was not believable to me. Rachael was my favourite.
I never want a book to sell me a religion or try to morally educate me. In Miserere the religions felt to me very like the invented religions described in fantasy books with strong world-building. I didn't feel that Miserere was trying to make me Christian or Jewish any more than George Martin was trying to make me follow the Seven or the Old Gods of the North in A Game of Thrones.
I agree Mark! If anything at all is labeled 'Christian' I run fast in the opposite direction as it takes so much arrogance to slep that label onto yourself or your creation. I guess in the end I accepted the way the characters perceived God so clearly as part of this particular fantasy world.Demons, though, just throw me right out of the story unless they're tongue-in-cheek like in Kim Harrison's Hollow books. In The Warded Man they were oafish cartoons to me so I didn't care for those books at all. The ones in Miserere are realistic enough but didn't scare me much. It's just kind of sad and pitiful that they try so hard to out bad-ass the next guy. I thought Teresa did a good job with that aspect of the book. I don't think we've seen the last of Catarina tho.
I thought it was really perfect that once people come to Woerld they keep whatever religion they had but there is no animosity or even competition between them. It's explained so matter of fact, and yet it's truly amazing when you think of the strife and hatred between religions IRL. Here the trappings of faith don't matter, only the power behind them. Beautifully done and subtle, but such a message when you stop to think about it.
I particularly like the way that Lucian carefully picked over the rumors about what the effect the Rosa had had to give Lindsey the most innocuous -- and then we find out what actually happened to the trapped people. Amazing. None of the rumors were right.
It is refreshing when hints/clues don't turn out true. In 99% of stories the minute someone mentions some legend or monster or whatever, no matter if they're saying "X will never happen." You can bet your house that the thing will turn up next chapter, if not next page. It's like the way nobody ever coughs in a movie unless they have lung cancer or are about to turn into a zombie.
My feelings on this book can be summed up with one sound effect: "Meh."There was nothing bad about this book. But nothing really outstanding or memorable either. I think this is one of those books that I will forget I have read shortly, and won't be able to remember much of the plot or characters even when it does cross my mind.
I just found it to be vaguely flat. The world-building was interesting, but lacked both depth and breadth. The characters (barring Catarina) were not complex enough. Rachael was all hopeless rage, Lucian was all desperate repentance, Lindsey was all innocent strength. Their growth over the course of the story was both predictable and simplistic. I thought the story would have been well-served by flashbacks. Something to help me understand the relationship of all these characters before the events that led to this fall out. I just didn't end up caring about them, and I think I might have, had we been allowed to glimpse the past that turned them into who they were in this book.
For instance, the love between Rachael and Lucian. It was just abstract. I had to believe in it without ever seeing or feeling it. And I found that hard. Yes, some flashbacks would have been very good. In general, this story could have benefited from more. More detail, more length, more showing not telling.
I did really enjoy Catarina though. She's the reason this is a three-star instead of a two-star review. I like a good main female antagonist, especially a complex one. I love how even to the end, she was blinded by her trust in Lucian. She was so madly evil, but had this one debilitating weakness in the form of her brother, which she never realized or overcame (unlike Lucian who did realize and overcome the weakness that she was to him.) I thought that was very well done by the author.
In fact, I think I would liked this book a lot more if the whole thing had been from Catarina's perspective. Oh well.
Meh.
I enjoyed it much more then the description had e thinking I would. I too was worried about the religiousness factor, but their acceptance of all faiths seemed to make it all right. I felt bad for the siblings parents!
Maggie wrote: "I enjoyed it much more then the description had e thinking I would. I too was worried about the religiousness factor, but their acceptance of all faiths seemed to make it all right. I felt bad for..."I felt bad for them too. All through the book I kept thinking of how horrible it must be on their side of things, to lose both children at once without a trace...
I wish there had been more of Lindsey missing them. I think she thinks of her mom maybe once. I found that a little unrealistic about her character.
I can sympathize a lot with what Jaqui says.But I gave the book 4 stars. I think it is a rather unique world concept. And I haven't seen much fantasy this dark. And it left me wanting to see more of Woerld. The 4 stars is for potential more than anything else I think.
I kinda liked Lucian too. But... it felt like it could have been a really good book, but was rather a bit too superficial. It was... sparse. And not stylistically, there just wasn't enough book. I think the world was well thought out, we just didn't see enough of it to get a really good feel. Flashbacks definitely would have helped. And more emotion. Not quite horror, more... just depressing.
I thought the religion worked as a sort of backdrop without being preachy at all.
