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the_chaotic_witch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
416 pages; 2015; 2/5 stars; 4.14 CAWPILE; spoiler-free
This book has gotten a lot of hype over the past few years since its release, and from what I have noticed, either people love it, or they hate it, or they do not care enough to even give it a chance. As for Me: this is the third time I’ve read it (the fourth time I’m reading the series, yeah, yeah, I know). What can I say? I am one of these people that absolutely love it. The series, that is.
In itself, as a stand-alone, which it very well could have been the first book… is really not that good by far less good than I’ve given it credit for in the past. The first few times I have read, it was only to get to the rest of the story, which really only kicks off after the first book set down the necessary basis. Then afterward, I was too caught up in the controversy around this book. Now. With most of that controversy, I do agree.
But when I read those books, the trilogy was complete and the novella out. So I didn’t read it as a singular book but as part of a story which I basically swallowed as one without dissecting it into different parts. And I love the whole story deeply, which is why it is a bit hard for Me to judge this book on itself fairly. But let’s try nonetheless.
This is a The Beauty and the Beast- retelling. And to be honest, the first time I read it, I didn’t notice that. Now that I have more experience with a) stories in general, b) the source material, c) critical writing and reading, and d) different kinds of storytelling, I very much see it, and to be honest, I rather liked it this time around. I have heard many people say that we have – or rather had when this came out – already enough and so so many Beauty and the Beast retellings that I think that might have been partially why people got so frustrated with this book. Along with a few other things.
But first, quite quickly and spoiler-free, do not worry, about the plot:
Our Main character Feyre is the youngest daughter of a family fallen from grace; once they were rich now, Feyre hunts in the woods to keep her family barely alive through the winter. And as if that wasn’t bad enough already, to actually find game this time of year, she has to go deep into the woods close to the Wall that separates her half of the world from that of the deadly Fae. The Wall was put up 500 years ago after the humans barely won the war against their fae slavers, captors, and torturers. To protect them, grant them life in freedom and keep the Fae from ever interfering with them again. But the woods this close to it are not safe anymore: More and more sightings of faeries creeping through holes in the Wall have risen. Creep through it to destroy villages and slaughter humans.
So when Feyre runs into an unnaturally big wolf with inhuman silence, she does not hesitate long to kill him. To rid her lands of at least one more of these hated faeries. And that’s that.
At least so long until a terrible beast shatters her home and takes her through the Wall into the land of the deadly Fae to repay a life debt she did not even know she would owe.
Let’s start with the world-building: When you look at the map, you might be a bit underwhelmed. The lands are fairly square and symmetrical, the landscape is only partly filled in. But world-building is not just mapping. It is atmosphere, coherence, magic-system, the history of the lands, cultures, and people, and how the singular characters, parties, and places are connected and interact. Because of structural issues – which we will yet explore – we only see very little of the world-building in the first three-quarters of this book, and even after that, this book is so character-driven and the situation of our Main character so focussed inward and set-apart from everything that there isn’t even much chance for world-building.
While we explore the Spring Court – the territory closest to the Wall on the Fae side, we get glimpses of it: magical places and enchanted meadows, strange masks, and stranger creatures. And while the dangerous parts of that world feel somewhat coherent in the terror they emit – the positive spaces of the story, the ones that should highlight daily life in these lands charged with immortal, cruel power; they fail at weaving a picture. They feel separate, and even the parts of the two house(-ish)s our Main character stays at are singular.
As much as I want to go in-depth with this, I can’t really because most of the world-building is interwoven with the characters. So, let’s talk about them next.
Oh, the characters. Are they bland as toast? Most of the time, yes. Does our Main character make stupid decisions though she should know better, that are clearly there to drive the plot? Most of the time, yes. Does she sometimes do things right? Sometimes. Is the love interest toxic af, and the sidekick, too? 100% Do we ever explore this in the text? No. Is that probably the biggest problem with this book? Yes.
Anyway, for the basics first.
Thankfully, our main character has a backstory, a personality, and her own mind, even if she isn’t the quickest. And I don’t say that to be malicious or bully anyone, but because in the other books, she gets better. And if you are going to counter with “but I didn’t get the riddle either,” don’t worry, neither did I. Was it obvious in the way of the plot? Yup, still I didn’t guess it, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
Apart from the love-interest and his not her sidekick, we don’t really have many more important characters. 1 servant. 1.75 villains ( .75 because, again, the action starts so very late that I don’t even really want to count them as a whole character). Some minor nuisances at the side that are only there to get out main characters together. 1 plot device to further someone else’s development. 3 background characters that serve as motivation but hardly appear themselves, and some creatures made of nightmares and teeth that are there to be killed but not have their own personalities. As well as people we hear about but don’t actually interact with ourselves, that mainly help to get a backstory on our main characters.
And you know what? I’m not really mad about it because it makes sense in the plot. Our Main character hates the Fae and is spirited away into their lands, confined to one singular place and kept away from people. So she really hasn’t got much opportunity to meet and mingle. And the second part, when she finally takes action for herself, she gets thrown into a similar situation where she doesn’t have the ability to socialize. If this story had been told from multiple points of view, the reader might have explored a little more, but it wasn’t. And so we - the reader, too - are confined to a limited set of characters and a limited set of recourses to learn about the world.
Here the toxicity comes in. Apart from the plot-contrivances that keeps information from the Main character and the reader both, the love-interest is deliberately not telling us things, has anger-issues that tend to threatening behavior, tends to turn the harm he does to others around to make them feel sorry for him, clings to toxic traditions and is extremely possessive, controlling and jealous. While for the first part of the book, he’s sneering at and degrading the humanness of our Main, in the second part, he presumes to own her so much that if he is not able to act, she is not allowed to. Setting her life over those of a whole people – his people being part of that.
The sidekick is far less active, but his toxicity appears in letting it happen and telling the Main to “give him time,” making excuses for the love-interest where he can, and sending our Main character into situations he knows will trigger the others violent outburst.
As for the villains, as I have said, there are more than one, and one of them is by far more fleshed out. You can very well tell which and why. While v1 is super petty and gets no own character, only things others say about them to convey to us how evil they are, v2 gets a personality and aura even before we learn who they are. It is very easy to tell that this is because they will be important in the upcoming books. Even while the focus of book one lies somewhere almost entirely different, the way this villain - especially in contrast with the characters we got so far - is already being characterized for the upcoming installments. Going so far as glossing over some truly horrific things, making them appear more harmless than they actually are so that they can transition better into the upcoming plot.
As for the structural problems I alluded to earlier: Three-quarters of the plot is spent almost stagnant while the last quarter is rushed and cramped. This first part is all about the characters as themselves and in connection with one another, hardly focussing on the world-building or the overarching plot; the second part is almost only about the plot - and the characters we do explore are different ones and in different dynamics, and they get defined differently.
The most significant bit of world-building we get is in between those two parts and is conveyed through a multiple-page-long expositional monologue, there to justify everything that has happened so far - all the toxicity and plot-issues.
As for the plot itself, it’s fine? I don’t have much to say about it. Take out the specific characters, make them random, less toxic, annoying, and from time to time dump, space out the parts evenly, make the world-building more dynamic, and the plot is actually decent.
Whether or not you enjoy the story depends on you. My enjoyment was slightly dimmed by the parts that were illogical, by the issues of characterization, by the graphicness at times which is very prominent in this entire series; there is a reason for it being New Adult and not Young Adult... (I’m ace, hi, I usually am not bothered by graphic scenes because I just think to myself, well that’s how allo people work, apparently. But it gets brought up a lot. A lot.). But I personally wasn’t that bothered by the structural issues. Even Miss Exposition didn’t bother Me, really. Did I want to shout at the Main for staying with all that toxicity? Yeah, sure, but after all of this, I have to come back to the initial point I made about not having read this book as a stand-alone.
As a singular first book, is it not recommendable? Yes. As an integral part of the series, were some of those deep, deep flaws necessary? Also yes. This book serves as a basis for the other books. It sets characters and backstories into place that could not have been explored aside from the bigger plot and still have kept their significance. It was necessary to set up the characters, their dynamics, and interactions and make their future actions necessary.
So. If you decide to pick this book up, be prepared to find issues with it. Be ready to dislike it, maybe even. But give the second one a chance just to see why you had to fight through that mess of a first book.
For Me, I can’t explain to you why I love the series, because that would be spoilery, just that I love it so much I am willing to overlook some of these issues while rereading it for the umpteenth time. But I have to make clear, as I did here, as I did now. That there are huge issues with this book. And what these issues are.
That’s it from Me, be kind especially to yourselves, I love you!
Bye ♥
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
bookishemma's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Violence, and Sexual content
Minor: Genocide
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