Reviews: From ok to meh to bad

[alias_sqbr]

Graceling by Kristin Cashore: It took me nearly 100 pages to get over HOW MUCH of a YA fantasy first novel this is: the main countries are Estill, Wester, Nander, Sunder and Middluns laid out exactly as you'd expect and the author still felt the need for a map, the main character is a spitfire tomboy called Kat(sa) who is the neice of the king but everyone shys away from her because her Special Eyes show she is cursed by awesome, and by the way despite being isolated and socially awkward she runs a massive secret network of do-gooders she just created from scratch one day because she thought it would be a good idea? But once I got past all that I quite enjoyed it. Although this is pure "awkward girl who feels like everyone hates them finds love and acceptance" wish fulfillment there's no moment where Katsa puts on a nice dress and becomes the prettiest girl at the ball(*), part of her arc is finding people who are ok with her cutting her hair super short and dealing with her frustrations by fighting. And I loved seeing a redemption arc for a girl who really has done some awful things, even if she had no choice in the matter (her Specialness involves being really fantastic at hurting people, and her uncle the King took complete and terrible advantage of it) Also the male love interest, despite being a bit smug, is the calm sensitive one and I liked that :) It was only once I was partway through that I remembered I had decide to avoid it because I'd heard the bad guy is a pedophile, it was subtle enough not to trigger me but ymmv. Could also have done with a bit less of Katsa being compared to a "wildcat", but it's that kind of book.

(*)I am all for those moments for female characters who HAVEN'T spent most of the book talking about how much they hate dresses and balls.

Guild Wars 2: I have found myself entirely unmotivated to play since shortly before Dragon Age Inquisition came out. It really doesn't help that once you get past a certain level it's pretty much all zombies all the time :(

Veronica Mars Movie: Have I mentioned how awful this was? I mean I did have some happy affectionate nostalgia but it was overall just an incredibly bland chewed over rehash of the most shallow nostalgia laden reading of the characters, with the worst sort of "Lol you thought we were making social commentary but actually we hate poor people" plot and an incredibly unfortunate drug use metaphor/running joke. It's ten years later and noone's really grown or changed (except Weevil, bless him) Oh and Logan has finally finished his Woobie's Journey to Sainted Male Love Interest. I liked Veronica/Logan, but over 3 seasons and a movie they rehashed the same angst over and over in increasingly boring ways until it lost all meaning. See: every other aspect of the show I used to like. And despite being overall safe and pedestrian they still managed to include some really gross rape stuff, it was just tacked on at the end instead of underpinning the whole story.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I always disliked Logan and disliked Veronica/Logan even more, so that wasn't so great for me. OTOH, Weevil was awesome and I loved that he'd got on with his life while everyone else was still rehashing their high school identities.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes!

[skygiants]

My favorite thing about Graceling is how the whole YA plot of Katsa having moral qualms about her work and building a resistance army and so forth happens, like ... before the book begins? And at the time it starts she's just like "Welp! That seems to be sorted out, I guess we can move on to the quest story now! Things to do!"

[alias_sqbr]

Haha yeah. Especially because the way the book's set up it goes "Everyone hates me I am entirely alone and untrusted...well asides from the universally beloved continent spanning organisation I run. Anyway, moving on..."