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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed Red Queen , So I thought I'd read the novellas before I read the next book in the series.
Not sure if this was entirely necessary, this was queen Corion's Diery, and it was interesting, but I don't know if I found anything out that I didn't already know. It was interesting how even with in the silvers there is definitely classes, I think maybe I would have liked to learn more about the powers of the different Silvers. This was just OK, definitely not necessary.
Not sure if this was entirely necessary, this was queen Corion's Diery, and it was interesting, but I don't know if I found anything out that I didn't already know. It was interesting how even with in the silvers there is definitely classes, I think maybe I would have liked to learn more about the powers of the different Silvers. This was just OK, definitely not necessary.
I'm rather ashamed to say that I came pretty close to DNFing this 54-page novella. Maybe it was because of the fact that I lost the book for a while and didn't feel the need to get up and look for it after its exceptionally boring first few chapters. It's safe to say that I will not be giving this rather irrelevant and unnecessary novella a reread.
Underwhelming novella. This really didn't bring anything new to the table. I knew it was going to have a sad ending but I thought the story offer some insight to the present story. I was wrong.
This book starts out just like the Red Queen and is very boring. It follows the narration and diary of Coriane, the mother of Cal from Red Queen. In fact Coriane is the parallel of Mare and Elara is the parallel of Evangeline. The first half is filled entirely with how Coriane is inconsequential and unimportant- but yet she finds the fancy of the prince? It is very slow and the best way to sum it up comes in the form of this quote:
"Only her diary knew the cost of such lies.
The second half of the book diverges from the plot of the Red Queen, thank goodness! It becomes more like the narration of Shatter Me. This novella was okay and that is why I am giving it 2 out of 5 stars.
"Only her diary knew the cost of such lies.
The second half of the book diverges from the plot of the Red Queen, thank goodness! It becomes more like the narration of Shatter Me. This novella was okay and that is why I am giving it 2 out of 5 stars.
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
TOO MUCH.
I think this tried to do too many things at the same time and failed in most of them. I am all for LGBTQ+, but maybe it is just me, I do not want this to suddenly appear in a story without any hint of homosexuality and make it seem as if it is the commonest thing.
And it is not. Even in the work, many were against having a consort (especially a male) next to the king, together with the queen and their son and being a very happy family, apparently. After reading the first book, I got no hint whatsoever that consorts were a thing (much less of the same sex), sharing the throne with them was a thing and everyone else having no say in that was a thing, so throwing me this in my face entirely out of the blue, as if this was as normal as Silvers having abilities was just TOO MUCH for me. There was no set-up and having only the likable cast be ok with it, while the rest of unlikable people were not was like I forcefed the entire idea.
Then, you have this happy prince who was raised with love from his 3 parents (especially the consort), decided to marry someone out of the normal procedure, knew love and fought for it, but then he "sacrificed" his own son to marry ONLY through the Queenstrial. Lame? And then, you have Coriane, who went through hell quietly, because of reasons (and I quite liked the ambiguity the writing offered when it came to her), but I think this conflicts with what the first book said. Namely,
It was interesting to see a bit of the past, but instead of feeling that the intent was for us to read about it, I got the idea that the writer wanted to shout how great LGBTQ+ regardless of the whole social structure that high class especially has.
I think this tried to do too many things at the same time and failed in most of them. I am all for LGBTQ+, but maybe it is just me, I do not want this to suddenly appear in a story without any hint of homosexuality and make it seem as if it is the commonest thing.
And it is not. Even in the work, many were against having a consort (especially a male) next to the king, together with the queen and their son and being a very happy family, apparently. After reading the first book, I got no hint whatsoever that consorts were a thing (much less of the same sex), sharing the throne with them was a thing and everyone else having no say in that was a thing, so throwing me this in my face entirely out of the blue, as if this was as normal as Silvers having abilities was just TOO MUCH for me. There was no set-up and having only the likable cast be ok with it, while the rest of unlikable people were not was like I forcefed the entire idea.
Then, you have this happy prince who was raised with love from his 3 parents (especially the consort), decided to marry someone out of the normal procedure, knew love and fought for it, but then he "sacrificed" his own son to marry ONLY through the Queenstrial. Lame? And then, you have Coriane, who went through hell quietly, because of reasons (and I quite liked the ambiguity the writing offered when it came to her), but I think this conflicts with what the first book said. Namely,
Spoiler
Sara's tongue was cut, because she blamed Elara and Julian supported her, while Coriane herself had apparently been talking about it, as well, but no one believed her to the end. But in this book, Coriane never said a word to anyone, since she was worried she was just crazy and did not want to worry her husband or her family and Elara destroyed her diary. So no one knew anything, yet they talked about it with certainty. Also, quite lame.It was interesting to see a bit of the past, but instead of feeling that the intent was for us to read about it, I got the idea that the writer wanted to shout how great LGBTQ+ regardless of the whole social structure that high class especially has.
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The concept of this novella is great. Coriane is a character who never got enough attention during the series. So it's sad to see her not get enough attention in her own novella. This is a snapshot and not really a background on her. The time jumps leave a lot of gaps and she ages from 15-22ish within very few pages and very little actual development as a person. There are hints of it but it never gets fully fleshed out. Her paranoia seems a little unfounded since she only had that one interaction with Elara that honestly wasn't that bad and there's barely confirmation that Elara has been in her head for years. It's actually directly stated that she wasn't, which is probably untrue, but we don't get it confirmed strongly enough for that line to not conflict with the canon established by the main series. Ultimately, this novella doesn't live up to what it could be and leans too heavily on the reader already knowing the story rather than working to add something new to the lore.
4.5 stars. This could have been better is if it was a full length book. I enjoyed the characters and it was nice to see the story of Cal’s mother and histories of her and Elara and the king and his consort etc. really interesting. Made me actually want to continue the series even though I said I wouldn’t lol. I’d probably hate myself if I had to read more about Mare however so... maybe.
slow-paced