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A review by saguaros
Brother's Ruin by Emma Newman
3.0
I told myself I'd try to write a review--however short it might be--for every book I read this year, so here goes...
I love novellas. I love that they're essentially having a revival. But it seems (in my limited experience of them so far anyway) that it's a format difficult to tackle and get right for some reason. Rarely do I think "This should be longer" when reading short stories. Sometimes I *wish* there was more because I find the world and/or characters fascinating, but usually the stories are constructed--it feels--with their eventual length in mind. Novellas, due to their longer length which more often than not rub elbows with short novel lengths seem to invite grander ideas that eventually feel unfinished or rushed. Not all novellas, mind, but definitely more often than other short(er) fiction I've read.
This is definitely the case here. I know it's the first in a series (duology so far and I haven't read the second one yet) so it's not required to have everything wrapped up neatly, but even taking that into consideration, this just felt like the opening of a much longer novel (and I've read other novellas that were first in series that did not feel that way). There were some interesting ideas here that I really enjoyed about magic, a conspiracy, sibling relationships, a protagonist wound tight from all the secrets about herself she's keeping for the sake of others on the verge of cracking... but. It stopped when it was getting interesting.
And it suffered from a few clichés which unfortunately I couldn't tell if they were being played straight (boring) or were being set up to be subverted (could be interesting)--such as the beautiful mage from the school who takes an interest in our protagonist. And we know he is utterly, amazingly, knee-melting beautiful because our heroine cannot stop mentioning it every time she's in his presence in almost cliché purple prose, and how alluring he is, and how annoyed she is by it, but also how she can't help leaning in... you get the gist. I was hoping that it would come out, somehow, that he has a glamour, or uses some kind of spell/charm, since it was so--in my opinion--over the top, bodice-ripper-like in not a good way. Unfortunately, no such information was provided and I ended the book thinking that no, it was probably just meant to be read as the beginning of an obvious romance. But again, I haven't read the sequel.
3 stars because it was a quick, sometimes enjoyable read, with decent writing, but ultimately I found it disappointing. I will read the sequel eventually, though, out of curiosity, and I hope some questions will be answered, and some character growth will happen.
I love novellas. I love that they're essentially having a revival. But it seems (in my limited experience of them so far anyway) that it's a format difficult to tackle and get right for some reason. Rarely do I think "This should be longer" when reading short stories. Sometimes I *wish* there was more because I find the world and/or characters fascinating, but usually the stories are constructed--it feels--with their eventual length in mind. Novellas, due to their longer length which more often than not rub elbows with short novel lengths seem to invite grander ideas that eventually feel unfinished or rushed. Not all novellas, mind, but definitely more often than other short(er) fiction I've read.
This is definitely the case here. I know it's the first in a series (duology so far and I haven't read the second one yet) so it's not required to have everything wrapped up neatly, but even taking that into consideration, this just felt like the opening of a much longer novel (and I've read other novellas that were first in series that did not feel that way). There were some interesting ideas here that I really enjoyed about magic, a conspiracy, sibling relationships, a protagonist wound tight from all the secrets about herself she's keeping for the sake of others on the verge of cracking... but. It stopped when it was getting interesting.
And it suffered from a few clichés which unfortunately I couldn't tell if they were being played straight (boring) or were being set up to be subverted (could be interesting)--such as the beautiful mage from the school who takes an interest in our protagonist. And we know he is utterly, amazingly, knee-melting beautiful because our heroine cannot stop mentioning it every time she's in his presence in almost cliché purple prose, and how alluring he is, and how annoyed she is by it, but also how she can't help leaning in... you get the gist. I was hoping that it would come out, somehow, that he has a glamour, or uses some kind of spell/charm, since it was so--in my opinion--over the top, bodice-ripper-like in not a good way. Unfortunately, no such information was provided and I ended the book thinking that no, it was probably just meant to be read as the beginning of an obvious romance. But again, I haven't read the sequel.
3 stars because it was a quick, sometimes enjoyable read, with decent writing, but ultimately I found it disappointing. I will read the sequel eventually, though, out of curiosity, and I hope some questions will be answered, and some character growth will happen.