Reviews with content warning for Murder - Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

7 reviews

pokecol's review

funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower is a fun romp. It feels markedly more competently written than a lot of stories I've read recently which is a nice change of pace.
The tone and direction well carried by a very strong narrator voice and direction that takes itself a mix of serious and not serious.

I enjoyed the book for the most part. But I have one really big problem with it.

To start, the tone is strange, I came in expecting it to be primarily light and comedy but there is a very drastic tone shift in severity when Floralinda starts to face the threats of the tower. The way they treat the progress as a kind of resource game using what was given was very interesting and enjoyable to read but it did not set-up quite right for the results. Following the encounter with the goblins then the direction swerves back into more light-hearted, not significantly, but enough that the dire nature of the first instance is lost. It might be that part of this is in illustrating the change of person in Floralinda from Princess to beast and how it has allow these situations to seem less impactful but I think it was a little indelicate in the execution.

Another problem is the world, which is very weird. I went into a good majority of Part 1 thinking this was some kind of new fantasy world, but we then get so many references to Earthern lore it has to be some European setting, but we cram all these fantasy ideas and directions that are so not Earth-like in anyway and it is very strange.
I kind of wish it weren't Earth, because reading things like 'Christmas' just feels so out of place in the framing as a fantasy story. And it reads almost Terry Pratchett-esque in the Witch's diatribe which would be better suited for a commentary world, but on an older Earth just feels weird.

Now the big one, I did not like characterisation for Floralinda and more importantly the ending. Cobweb is a great character, loved their time in the novel, I do think the gender expression proposal of designating being a girl was a little weird, it felt like a failed attempt at representation - but it did feel like an attempt at representation nonetheless. And I did enjoy Cobweb a lot.
Floralinda on the other hand I was very engaged with the story of, but hated her one worst decision - making Cobweb a captive. The book talks a lot about how she feels guilty but never does anything to fix it, and it just feels like I'm reading the perspective of an abuser its really disgusting.
The whole time it tries to have it both ways that; we need Cobweb in the book, but we must do it this way. So Floralinda both feels good and bad about it as if to justify the decision.
It is a truly disgusting thing to choose to be someone's captor and it is even more disgusting (not better) to feel remorse about it - ESPECIALLY if you will not actually do anything about it. Cobweb rightfully hates Floralinda. And as someone with more knowledge on this subject than I'd like, you don't ever forgive this kind of thing, because it is your life and time, your autonomy and self, lost, to the whim of someone more pathetic than you that doesn't care for your value but how they can hold it. You never forget that kind of hatred.
The whole part with the unicorn and Floralinda saying that there is no real difference to those that kill, and those that kill then regret it. And I thought there was good commentary in her own contradiction of self. When Cobweb finally escapes at the end and basically tells her to get stuffed, it made me very happy, because there was nothing else that they should have done - Floralinda was a revolting person.
But what makes this bad as far as the book actually goes, COBWEB COMES BACK????, then they make this whole B-grade childrens movie stink that 'there is no where better that she belongs' and its just so... what???
It feels horrible and disgusting and there is no way Cobweb's whole person is reduced to being the slave to Floralinda and she actually likes that - and then commodifying this experience as an allegory to her "love" for Floralinda is utterly repugnant. It feels like its trying to say you can force someone to love you, which is unbelievably gross.
The whole ending from there is terrible, Floralinda stays in the tower, basically consigning herself to the existence of it, eliminating her journey and making the meaning of her and all her being a subject of her isolation alone - which is a really gross message of never being able to leave your prisons.
And the whole making the new princess fight and become like her is horrid, and rings more of a 'I suffered, you shall too'.
Maybe the whole point is to be a negative look at this traits around captivity but it feels more like it was trying to find a positive swing and then performed all these bad things as good attributes and I lost a lot of good feeling for the story VERY fast.

The rest of the book is good. I enjoyed the learning and then the journey, the individual scenes were nice in that they balanced ingenuity and character progress, deciding which to focus on. Cobweb's dialogue was excellent, and the use of curse-words as a framing device of change was very funny and enjoyable to read (though the censorship of fuck to f--- was weird, why bother?, we know what word it is).
And I especially liked the part with the Strix, the shake-up in what was happening and allowing real consequences to feel tangible was nice, but this was the first time I've really enjoyed a scene of someone breaking into crazy, and the image of Floralinda sawing the things head off as blood sprayed everywhere was a wild image and a very good expression of change the book was trying to illustrate.

I do wish we had a little more description of the individual floors though and what the world looked like beyond certain windows, by the second half mental-images just laxed onto stone circular rooms, which was effort on the readers part to rectify.

I think overall, in just terms of expression of my enjoyment I'd put Floralinda up very high. It lacked a certain depth in character at parts, and making the 'murderers' madmen, and the siren non-diplomatic felt like lost opportunities to me.
I would like to rate the book fairly high, but the whole crux of the ending and Floralinda force Stockholm-syndroming the good character is basically unforgivable and knocks my faith in the storytelling more than I'd like.
It's not easy to say "just skip this part" on recommendation when that 'part' is the whole conclusion to the story, and therefore is too heavy an issue to ignore. So there is value in the fun, but any and all critical message is a full on negative by the conclusion.

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brianneh's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mimeflower's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I listened to this on audiobook because I loved reading Gideon the Ninth by the same author, and I wanted to get a feel for this narrator since I know she (Moira Quirk) narrates The Locked Tomb series. First of all, Moira Quirk is fantastic and I'd listen to just about anything she narrated. As far as the story, it's an interesting examination of fairy-tale tropes. As might be expected if you've read anything else by Tamsyn Muir, it can be quite dark while also being sarcastic and humorous.

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aardwyrm's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Striking the balance between riffing on riffs and intentionally clashing tones is tricky, but with very few stumbles, achieved. There are a few moments that are downright precious, but overall a fun little subversion for the generation that grew up on already subverted fairy tales.

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podanotherjessi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really don't want to say much here because I think it's best to go into this book with as few expectations as possible. This was an absolutely delightful ride and not what I thought I was getting into and all the better for it.

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notably_bookish's review

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adventurous dark lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Tamsyn Muir delivers a sometimes grim, sometimes farcical story of self-discovery. A traditional fairytale princess is locked in a tower by an evil witch. The tower is guarded by a dragon, with other creatures on every flight, and only prince can saver her. What happens when the princes all die before they can climb to the fortieth floor? This was an enjoyable look at what a princess will do when faced with certain death and no one but herself to rely on.

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