Mike’s Reviews > Razorhurst > Status Update

Larbalestier seems a lot more interested in Kelpie than in Dymphna. Certainly, I am - Kelpie is the far more unusual and unique character, to the point where I'm not sure why Dymphna's even a protagonist.

There's just no tension to this plot. I think the big problem is that Kelpie and Dymphna aren't very motivated characters, and the stakes aren't clear. So Larbalestier is trying to shove tension into the stories by putting them in dangerous situations. But because of the lack of an overarching conflict, the tension ends the second they get out of danger and we see any downtime.

This still feels like scenes you'd see in the opening of a book, rather than scenes in the middle of the rising action. I really do want to like this - it certainly the most interesting Larbalestier book I've seen since Liar - but it's a very, very flawed book.

I almost feel like this book works better if you don't pay much attention to the plot, and just appreciate the atmosphere. I'm certainly having some fun with it on those grounds. But the plot itself is very slow and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and it's constantly interrupted by infodumps.

I do love Kelpie as a character, so much. It's almost enough to make up for the sloppy prose.

I will say, beneath all the awkward prose and excessive infodumping, there is a good book somewhere. I like Kelpie as a character, and I can see the darker, more atmospheric book that Larbalestier was trying to write. But so far - and I can't believe I'm saying this about the author of Liar - it's just too conventional for its own good. There's not (yet) enough to make it stand out, apart from the setting.

This writing is really choppy and lazy. Easily the worst prose I've ever seen in a Justine Larbalestier book. This is the first of her books with an interesting premise that I've seen since Liar, so I was a little hopeful going in, but already, I'm disappointed.