Reviews: Monette, YA vampires, manga

[rivkat]

Sarah Monette, Corambis: What does it mean, really, to be bad at pacing? Okay, so if you did a timeline of the events in this novel, there would be a lot of traveling before anything much happened, and some big events don’t have the narrative importance they seem to merit, and many major plot events clump at the end. But (1) if you’re on book 4 of Monette’s series and you weren’t comfortable with that, I’m not sure why you read a thousand-odd pages of her work, and (2) I didn’t care, because I was having such a fine time travelling with the characters. Felix and Mildmay are actually struggling to be better men, and largely succeeding, and there are new characters I liked as well. I understand that there’s no fifth book, but Felix and Midmay are in a satisfactory place at the end, despite the many unanswered questions I have about Monette’s world of gods, magical theory, and lost cities.

Claudia Gray, Evernight: Bianca’s the new student and fish out of water at exclusive Evernight Academy. But things aren’t as they seem, not even Lucas, the hot boy who seems equally exiled to the fringes. I know the author, so I’m biased, but I found this a clever twist on the teen vampire genre, more clever as I thought about it.

Setona Mizushiro, After School Nightmare v. 10: Well, I’m disappointed. I was really intrigued by this manga about a student who defines himself (and then herself) as half a boy, half a girl; I thought it had potential to do interesting things with gender and sexuality. And then, in the last volume, it became uninteresting, and not really about that at all. This is what I get for starting an unfinished series!

Comments

[ariadnes_string]

What does it mean, really, to be bad at pacing? Okay, so if you did a timeline of the events in this novel, there would be a lot of traveling before anything much happened, and some big events don’t have the narrative importance they seem to merit, and many major plot events clump at the end. But (1) if you’re on book 4 of Monette’s series and you weren’t comfortable with that, I’m not sure why you read a thousand-odd pages of her work
LOL. This is totally accurate, but you know, I did care, and was absurdly disappointed by Corambis. Probably mostly because I loved the first three novels to death, and was really looking forward to reading it. I felt like it lacked the great set pieces of The Virtu and the crazily intense psychological arcs of Melusine and The Mirador (both of which had similar pacing issues, but made up for it with the emotional stuff). I think maybe Monette just isn't as good at writing about people being nice to each other (or maybe I just don't enjoy it as much...). She did a great job with Mildmay hitting the wall and coming to a new self-understanding in The Mirador, but didn't manage to make a similar arc compelling for Felix (IMO). I felt like she particularly muffed the beginning, which had the potential to be a particularly awesome h/c!hooker!fic, and which was clearly supposed to be a turning point in the Felix-Mildmay relationship...

Okay--enough bitter rambling. I still think Monette's an excellent writer, and would happily read another novel by her.

[rivkat]

Oh, I totally get that. It's the happy families problem, I think: if Felix does anything other than repeat his angst, if he actually forgives himself, then the h/c isn't as important. And since she swerved away from actual Felix/Mildmay (which I must admit makes me a tiny bit sad), there was really not anywhere for all that psychic h/c energy to go. I was just rooting for both of them to improve so hard that I was willing to forego the emotional payoff, and I liked Kay and Corbie and the other new characters even as they drew focus. I mean, "hot mess" is not an inaccurate description, but I'm still a fan!

[ariadnes_string]

oh, I know, Tolstoy was right. And I'm still a fan, too.

I actually meant Mildmay h/c: I thought when he got sick we were supposed to see Felix taking care of him for once, and then sacrificing for him, and him accepting that. And to think that that triggered the shift in their relationship. But something about it fell flat...

And you're right: defusing the Felix/Mildmay vibe defused a lot of the crazy intensity of the other books...I'm not sure I actually wanted the narrative to go there, but it sure was fun to watch them almost go there!

I liked the new characters too--especially Murtagh--though I thought Kay was a kind of interesting failure--he never came off as quite as brutal as he seemingly was supposed to be...

Oh, listen to me bitch! sorry--just haven't had anywhere to vent about the novel...

[rivkat]

No, this is a fun discussion! The trouble with making Felix's return to prostitution be about Mildmay was that she added too much realism, if that's not a senseless thing to say: Mildmay is able to identify correctly that Felix had alternatives, making extremely clear that Felix was doing it because it was a habit and because it would make him feel bad, so working through that was about fixing Felix, not about healing his relationship with Mildmay, which kind of happened alongside and not via the caretaking. Plus there is the lingering issue that Felix didn't mind all the sex; Corbie is not shown as irrevocably damaged, or even revocably damaged, just because she was a sex worker, and Felix liked what happened when he played the martyr. So once you start complicating the prostitution beyond the basic hooker h/c fantasy, it loses a lot of its kink juice, as it were. This is why I haven't ever written a straight-up hookerfic, by the way.

[ariadnes_string]

Felix was doing it because it was a habit and because it would make him feel bad, so working through that was about fixing Felix, not about healing his relationship with Mildmay, which kind of happened alongside and not via the caretaking
Oh, that makes it clearer! So, I think that's why it felt off: because it is more psychologically realistic, but at the same time I think I was feeling that Felix was off working out his own issues (and pleasures) while Mildmay was just lying there close to death, without them being particularly involved with each other (well, M because he was mostly unconscious), just when you thought they would most be...

And then even though F&M were quite nice to each other through the rest of the novel, I never felt it had the charge of their old, dysfunctional relationship (as it wouldn't, right? and would be the better for that, realistically speaking)

So it was missing the hooker h/c kink juice, and also, most of the co-dependency kink juice that powered the other books...

And giving up those kinks was a kind of brave thing to do--and to move away from the tragic implosion of an ending that the rest of the series seemed to be leading up to--but I could admire it more than I could actually enjoy it...

*likes her kink juice too much* *likes the phrase a lot too*

I see what you mean about hooker!fic. Every once in a while I read one I like--but the fantasy quotient is pretty high--