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A review by maanorchidee
The Silenced Tale by J.M. Frey
4.0
It is finally time to get Turnt again!
(And again, I am sorry for that pun.)
It is the third and last installment of the Accidental Turn series, because as Pip says: "Fantasy books are often trilogies". In contrary to the first two parts, I didn't get the third part for free but a) I happily paid for it and b) you're still getting an honest review.
It took a while for me to start this book. Despite checking J.M Frey's newsletter, I completely missed the release of this book (how???) and when I bought it, my eReader died and it took me months to get a new one, since I tried saving my old one. It was worth the wait, since the series ended on a high note.
The Silenced Tale takes place around a year after The Forgotten Tale (I think?) and it alternates between two POVS: Elgar's and Forsyth's. While writing this sentence, I came to the realisation that I've been mispronouncing Forsyth's name for a year.
The story fully takes place in the so-called Overrealm, aka our world. I was a bit disappointed that we weree not going to get some Hain, but alas. Strange things are happening in the Overrealm to both Elgar and Pip. Elgar is having a crazy stalker that even kills his cat Linux and tries to kill his assistent Juan. Pip's nightmares increase and she gets weird episodic attacks. Turns out that the Viceroy has made his way to the Overrealm and he wants to kill Elgar and use Pip.
Forsyth, or Syth (wasn't it Seth?), only has his computer programme Finnar and his returning magic.
Whereas the book wasn't perfect, I only have some highlights to give in this review.
First, PIP'S FEMINISM. If you've read my reviews for the other two books, you sense a pattern: I love Pip's feminism, but I find it very exclusive. In this book, she actually gets called out for it! It started with Forsyth thoughs. He thinks his wife's need to not be feminine can be seen as degrading to the ones who do want that. I fucking yelled, but I thought: "man, if only someone would tell her that to her face", and it happened. Abni, a new character, flat out tells Pip that her feminism is exclusive and not only that, but Pip realises what she's done wrong and apologizes. That's character development.
Second, new characters like Juan and Abni were added to the story and it was great. Of course, there were multiple new characters, but these two played a big role.
Third, Elgar.... he's something. He genuinely tries to be better and become less sexist/racist/homophobic/yikes. He slips up and I am happy to see that the other characters do not tolerate it in any way, while also still giving him room to grow as a person. His reasoning behind his book series felt... eye opening. Now you understand what kind of awful pathetic person he was. Now you can see him grow. Well, up until his death.
Fourth, the actual ending. PLOT TWIST. J.M. Frey did a wonderful job with Abni, who turns out to be a radicalised fan and who eventually kills Elgar (holy shit!). Just like Pip, you liked her. Damn, I loved her even. And as Forsyth points out, the violence is the bad part. Everyone can have different thoughts, but when they become extreme, it's not okay. It's not bad that Pip liked Abni and agreed with her. It would've been bad if Pip would agree to killing people.
I mean, as Forsyth says, the difference lie in the actions that people do. When this racist dude told Pip that she would look "anime" after buying those weird material arts props, I had a moment of "yeah kill him Pip", but Pip never would and it's nothing more than a matter of speech. Abni, on the other hand, went fucking crazy.
The whole ending was just wonderful with the Viceroy and the fans battling. I can't believe that it resulted in 57 deaths, including Elgar's. It was nerve wrecking and I couldn't put the book down. It was also a bit too gore-y for me, but I'll manage. In the end, Pip was the big hero, and I applaud that decision. I also love the plot twist that made Forsyth the main character, not Kintyre.
One thing that surprised me is that Kintyre and Bevel got pulled to the Overrealm and that they stayed, leaving Hain and Wyndam behind. Honestly, I finished the book a week ago and I still don't really know how to feel about that. It's not a bad thing, but I am also not thrilled. Mostly, I'm upset that they didn't get a proper goodbye. Maybe I should write fanfiction about this.
And yeah, those were my main thoughts. As always, I loved the meta and I loved Pip calling out sexism and racism. I loved the fact that Alis and Forsyth are learning Chinese.
It is just a really great conclusion to a great series and I will miss these characters.
(And again, I am sorry for that pun.)
It is the third and last installment of the Accidental Turn series, because as Pip says: "Fantasy books are often trilogies". In contrary to the first two parts, I didn't get the third part for free but a) I happily paid for it and b) you're still getting an honest review.
It took a while for me to start this book. Despite checking J.M Frey's newsletter, I completely missed the release of this book (how???) and when I bought it, my eReader died and it took me months to get a new one, since I tried saving my old one. It was worth the wait, since the series ended on a high note.
The Silenced Tale takes place around a year after The Forgotten Tale (I think?) and it alternates between two POVS: Elgar's and Forsyth's. While writing this sentence, I came to the realisation that I've been mispronouncing Forsyth's name for a year.
The story fully takes place in the so-called Overrealm, aka our world. I was a bit disappointed that we weree not going to get some Hain, but alas. Strange things are happening in the Overrealm to both Elgar and Pip. Elgar is having a crazy stalker that even kills his cat Linux and tries to kill his assistent Juan. Pip's nightmares increase and she gets weird episodic attacks. Turns out that the Viceroy has made his way to the Overrealm and he wants to kill Elgar and use Pip.
Forsyth, or Syth (wasn't it Seth?), only has his computer programme Finnar and his returning magic.
Whereas the book wasn't perfect, I only have some highlights to give in this review.
First, PIP'S FEMINISM. If you've read my reviews for the other two books, you sense a pattern: I love Pip's feminism, but I find it very exclusive. In this book, she actually gets called out for it! It started with Forsyth thoughs. He thinks his wife's need to not be feminine can be seen as degrading to the ones who do want that. I fucking yelled, but I thought: "man, if only someone would tell her that to her face", and it happened. Abni, a new character, flat out tells Pip that her feminism is exclusive and not only that, but Pip realises what she's done wrong and apologizes. That's character development.
Second, new characters like Juan and Abni were added to the story and it was great. Of course, there were multiple new characters, but these two played a big role.
Third, Elgar.... he's something. He genuinely tries to be better and become less sexist/racist/homophobic/yikes. He slips up and I am happy to see that the other characters do not tolerate it in any way, while also still giving him room to grow as a person. His reasoning behind his book series felt... eye opening. Now you understand what kind of awful pathetic person he was. Now you can see him grow. Well, up until his death.
Fourth, the actual ending. PLOT TWIST. J.M. Frey did a wonderful job with Abni, who turns out to be a radicalised fan and who eventually kills Elgar (holy shit!). Just like Pip, you liked her. Damn, I loved her even. And as Forsyth points out, the violence is the bad part. Everyone can have different thoughts, but when they become extreme, it's not okay. It's not bad that Pip liked Abni and agreed with her. It would've been bad if Pip would agree to killing people.
I mean, as Forsyth says, the difference lie in the actions that people do. When this racist dude told Pip that she would look "anime" after buying those weird material arts props, I had a moment of "yeah kill him Pip", but Pip never would and it's nothing more than a matter of speech. Abni, on the other hand, went fucking crazy.
The whole ending was just wonderful with the Viceroy and the fans battling. I can't believe that it resulted in 57 deaths, including Elgar's. It was nerve wrecking and I couldn't put the book down. It was also a bit too gore-y for me, but I'll manage. In the end, Pip was the big hero, and I applaud that decision. I also love the plot twist that made Forsyth the main character, not Kintyre.
One thing that surprised me is that Kintyre and Bevel got pulled to the Overrealm and that they stayed, leaving Hain and Wyndam behind. Honestly, I finished the book a week ago and I still don't really know how to feel about that. It's not a bad thing, but I am also not thrilled. Mostly, I'm upset that they didn't get a proper goodbye. Maybe I should write fanfiction about this.
And yeah, those were my main thoughts. As always, I loved the meta and I loved Pip calling out sexism and racism. I loved the fact that Alis and Forsyth are learning Chinese.
It is just a really great conclusion to a great series and I will miss these characters.