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erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
This was a book that was recommended to me by StoryGraph, but I'm not really enthused. Still trying to decide if I should give it 3 stars? because it's not really worth that.
It ticked a lot of the boxes that should put it in the running for a favourite for me: teen quest with prophecies in a world where magic is real and incorporating a lot of myth and legend from different places, loads of puns, multicultural rep with characters who are an international grab-bag, shape changers, geriatric warriors, magical creatures, an unknown betrayer, a non-binary character, and some LGBT+ rep. The title itself could even be considered a reference to Princess Bride "..as you wish." And yet..
I don't know how much of the cringe I get from this title comes from the performance of the narrator, who seemed to be hired for her talent with Tagalog but who fails MISErably when challenged to pronounce Japanese, Irish or French words, and even some English ones. I don't believe that they camped near a corpse of trees (copse, surely), groused doesn't rhyme with caroused, plover doesn't rhyme with clover, or wizen with horizon. English aside, the narrator sounds like she hasn't heard of the Marquis de Carabas (from the story of Puss in Boots), and I struggled to hear the actual name of the mythical Japanese sword but from guessing it as Ju-uchi ? I managed to websearch 十千夜寒 Juuchi Yosamu (clearly I haven't watched enough Naruto). I just about howled and threw down the book in disgust when she tried to read Oisín as Oy-sin.
I would feel like the work of the author had been heinously wronged by these abuses, but it seems to match with her literary prowess, in that while it is functional and sometimes interesting, it is often not very aesthetically pleasing. I feel like parts of the story are written to make it more accessible, but it just means lots of clumsy tautologies; saying everything twice... (humour intended). Descriptions were full of things like "noisy din", "large titan" or the mindboggling "daybreak broke through the horizon". I TRY to ignore these things and focus on story. I'm owning that part of this is my own snobbish insistence on conventional language.
It's really unfortunate that most YA fantasy authors seem to think that stories become more exciting with magical weapons, mythic monsters, and cinematic fight scenes. Possibly this book would work better as a graphic novel, because blow by blow battles are not really made any more fascinating for me with mythic swords, sticks, extending staff, electric whip or groovy scythe. A protracted fight scene is still... kinda dull. Multiple protracted fight scenes.. even more so.
I wonder if I got more or less out of this book by already knowing quite a few of the stories the characters were based on. Kay and Gerda were obviously lifted from the Snow Queen, though in this telling he was also Sir Kay from Arthurian legend. The Locksley and Nottingham family feud was no surprise to those who recognise the names from the Robin Hood stories. I did have a chuckle at the transMOGrification of Cheshire. Melucine was combined into the legend of the Little Mermaid in stories told by the characters. There was a lot of world explanation, history and politics that was spelled out in dialogue between characters. Unfortunately that didn't make it feel much more relevant or less dull. The theory of how the magicks work was, as is common in this type of story, covered in training montages or discussions of magic-school lessons.
Although there was a diverse cast, and some cool Pinoy family parties with loads of food, which made me smile, there were also a lot of low-key problematic things in the story.
Pro: a powerful city in the magic land that is inhabited by beautiful people from Africa
Con: and we think it's really important to focus on how hot these women are, that they win Miss Universe pageants, and we need to try and keep the boys from flirting with them
Pro: a diverse cast of teens from different areas of the world and different strengths and weaknesses
Con: casual meanness / teasing about those people's gifts and weaknesses, such as trying to get a character to "shut up" when he's having a conversation with an animal, or laughing at the guy who doesn't understand idioms, or the guy who is always honest and doesn't understand how it hurts people's feelings.
Pro/con: The use of pro/con lists, and the hassling of the use of pro/con lists.
I was so keen to like this story. I still rate it as better than Shannon Messengers "Keeper of the Lost.." series, but (as so wonderfully addressed) "m'ladies, m'gentlemen, m'NBs"... unfortunately, for me, that's a bounce.
It ticked a lot of the boxes that should put it in the running for a favourite for me: teen quest with prophecies in a world where magic is real and incorporating a lot of myth and legend from different places, loads of puns, multicultural rep with characters who are an international grab-bag, shape changers, geriatric warriors, magical creatures, an unknown betrayer, a non-binary character, and some LGBT+ rep. The title itself could even be considered a reference to Princess Bride "..as you wish." And yet..
I don't know how much of the cringe I get from this title comes from the performance of the narrator, who seemed to be hired for her talent with Tagalog but who fails MISErably when challenged to pronounce Japanese, Irish or French words, and even some English ones. I don't believe that they camped near a corpse of trees (copse, surely), groused doesn't rhyme with caroused, plover doesn't rhyme with clover, or wizen with horizon. English aside, the narrator sounds like she hasn't heard of the Marquis de Carabas (from the story of Puss in Boots), and I struggled to hear the actual name of the mythical Japanese sword but from guessing it as Ju-uchi ? I managed to websearch 十千夜寒 Juuchi Yosamu (clearly I haven't watched enough Naruto). I just about howled and threw down the book in disgust when she tried to read Oisín as Oy-sin.
I would feel like the work of the author had been heinously wronged by these abuses, but it seems to match with her literary prowess, in that while it is functional and sometimes interesting, it is often not very aesthetically pleasing. I feel like parts of the story are written to make it more accessible, but it just means lots of clumsy tautologies; saying everything twice... (humour intended). Descriptions were full of things like "noisy din", "large titan" or the mindboggling "daybreak broke through the horizon". I TRY to ignore these things and focus on story. I'm owning that part of this is my own snobbish insistence on conventional language.
It's really unfortunate that most YA fantasy authors seem to think that stories become more exciting with magical weapons, mythic monsters, and cinematic fight scenes. Possibly this book would work better as a graphic novel, because blow by blow battles are not really made any more fascinating for me with mythic swords, sticks, extending staff, electric whip or groovy scythe. A protracted fight scene is still... kinda dull. Multiple protracted fight scenes.. even more so.
I wonder if I got more or less out of this book by already knowing quite a few of the stories the characters were based on. Kay and Gerda were obviously lifted from the Snow Queen, though in this telling he was also Sir Kay from Arthurian legend. The Locksley and Nottingham family feud was no surprise to those who recognise the names from the Robin Hood stories. I did have a chuckle at the transMOGrification of Cheshire. Melucine was combined into the legend of the Little Mermaid in stories told by the characters. There was a lot of world explanation, history and politics that was spelled out in dialogue between characters. Unfortunately that didn't make it feel much more relevant or less dull. The theory of how the magicks work was, as is common in this type of story, covered in training montages or discussions of magic-school lessons.
Although there was a diverse cast, and some cool Pinoy family parties with loads of food, which made me smile, there were also a lot of low-key problematic things in the story.
Pro: a powerful city in the magic land that is inhabited by beautiful people from Africa
Con: and we think it's really important to focus on how hot these women are, that they win Miss Universe pageants, and we need to try and keep the boys from flirting with them
Pro: a diverse cast of teens from different areas of the world and different strengths and weaknesses
Con: casual meanness / teasing about those people's gifts and weaknesses, such as trying to get a character to "shut up" when he's having a conversation with an animal, or laughing at the guy who doesn't understand idioms, or the guy who is always honest and doesn't understand how it hurts people's feelings.
Pro/con: The use of pro/con lists, and the hassling of the use of pro/con lists.
I was so keen to like this story. I still rate it as better than Shannon Messengers "Keeper of the Lost.." series, but (as so wonderfully addressed) "m'ladies, m'gentlemen, m'NBs"... unfortunately, for me, that's a bounce.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Ableism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, and War
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Slavery, Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Colonisation, Genocide, and War
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