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dipanjali 's review for:
Winterblaze
by Kristen Callihan
OMG. i was not expecting to like poppy's story at all, and i didn't like it. i'm head over heels in love with it and with her. i was not expecting anyone in this verse to be more badass than miranda but HELLOOO, POP. first daughter, ass-kicker, knowledgeable AF paranormal nerd queen, totally and always in control, yet with such an intense capacity for feeling and morality in her brain and her heart and her hands (and feet tbh 'cause oh shit poppy can kick ass).
let me be clear, poppy is a flawed as HELL character. her introduction in firelight made sure the readers were aware of that. nothing, nothing excuses the way she kept the paranormal world from miranda despite miranda's powers. she rationalizes it in the book, but you can't really forgive or forget that kind of manipulation by omission, no matter how solid the reason or how clearly your own parent manipulated you as a child.
and yet given all of that, given how stupid winston could be in so many parts of the text, i appreciated this novel much more than i did firelight. how to articulate this? firelight was an ideal space. archer was a type, built ideal to the point of almost an other even to himself. and in a way i suppose that was his struggle too - becoming an other in his own skin and to miranda. but the framework of firelight was such that there was no space for us to move beyond miranda and archer's observations of their circumstances and their past. there was feeling, yes. immense feeling. but it was a kind of framework that i think can only be sustained with a certain levity of spirit on miranda's behalf. archer is controlling to the point of me wanting to punch him in the face even though i love him immensely. the two don't have to be mutually exclusive deals.
winston is not archer or ian ( <3 u ian you communicator, you're the best of all of us). even in ian there is a certain... character. so to speak. a construction of a character that i personally feel would not exist irl because, well, seriously? men. winston is such a guy . like there is no other way to describe him. he's a little too real. his errors are real. he oscillates between unbelievably generous and stupidly selfish. his love for poppy is palpable and there is a certain understanding that i associate with wrt the fact that maybe you can't love without a certain amount of obsession involved in it. depends on your perspective, i suppose. if you believe in things like 'healthy' love and whatnot. i find it difficult to categorise things in that sense without experiencing them or watching them unfold in front of me in a narrative. there is no necessary spectrum of health for love. and winston, even if there were a spectrum tbh, would be quite healthily on the positive side of it, given how much he cares for (and by cares for i mean the physical care he provides as well for) poppy.
poppy herself is a whole other ballpark. i associated so, so hard with her oscillation between control and the lack thereof. and the narrative of this oscillation was balanced beautifully. her intellect, her accomplishments, her ability to compartmentalize and yet feel so keenly. tl;dr: poppy lane = (and i don't say this lightly) total goals (minus the lying. seriously, poppy. what were you thinking?).
and winston. winstooooon. how are you so immensely fucked up and yet so entirely real and true and grounded? i was not expecting a lot from this as a relationship, even if the book had been amaze (because clearly paranormal scifi/steampunk is callihan's playing field). but the marriage, and the intimacy and the affection was so on point. and despite all of that, the starting-over trope was handled so well. no idealistic flat decisions, neither character was cut any, any slack.
tbh this book got so real so fast, like. the problematics, the lying, the mistrust, the depth of feeling, it was such an intense read. i know a number of people who couldn't abide by the book, but for me it was probably the best of the darkest london series. even the flashbacks, dealing with the back and forth motion of the narrative and the characters' feelings in realtime vs flashback modes. it was a really really good balance to the otherwise super-tight four-days-ish in which the whole text is framed.
let me be clear, poppy is a flawed as HELL character. her introduction in firelight made sure the readers were aware of that. nothing, nothing excuses the way she kept the paranormal world from miranda despite miranda's powers. she rationalizes it in the book, but you can't really forgive or forget that kind of manipulation by omission, no matter how solid the reason or how clearly your own parent manipulated you as a child.
and yet given all of that, given how stupid winston could be in so many parts of the text, i appreciated this novel much more than i did firelight. how to articulate this? firelight was an ideal space. archer was a type, built ideal to the point of almost an other even to himself. and in a way i suppose that was his struggle too - becoming an other in his own skin and to miranda. but the framework of firelight was such that there was no space for us to move beyond miranda and archer's observations of their circumstances and their past. there was feeling, yes. immense feeling. but it was a kind of framework that i think can only be sustained with a certain levity of spirit on miranda's behalf. archer is controlling to the point of me wanting to punch him in the face even though i love him immensely. the two don't have to be mutually exclusive deals.
winston is not archer or ian ( <3 u ian you communicator, you're the best of all of us). even in ian there is a certain... character. so to speak. a construction of a character that i personally feel would not exist irl because, well, seriously? men. winston is such a guy . like there is no other way to describe him. he's a little too real. his errors are real. he oscillates between unbelievably generous and stupidly selfish. his love for poppy is palpable and there is a certain understanding that i associate with wrt the fact that maybe you can't love without a certain amount of obsession involved in it. depends on your perspective, i suppose. if you believe in things like 'healthy' love and whatnot. i find it difficult to categorise things in that sense without experiencing them or watching them unfold in front of me in a narrative. there is no necessary spectrum of health for love. and winston, even if there were a spectrum tbh, would be quite healthily on the positive side of it, given how much he cares for (and by cares for i mean the physical care he provides as well for) poppy.
poppy herself is a whole other ballpark. i associated so, so hard with her oscillation between control and the lack thereof. and the narrative of this oscillation was balanced beautifully. her intellect, her accomplishments, her ability to compartmentalize and yet feel so keenly. tl;dr: poppy lane = (and i don't say this lightly) total goals (minus the lying. seriously, poppy. what were you thinking?).
and winston. winstooooon. how are you so immensely fucked up and yet so entirely real and true and grounded? i was not expecting a lot from this as a relationship, even if the book had been amaze (because clearly paranormal scifi/steampunk is callihan's playing field). but the marriage, and the intimacy and the affection was so on point. and despite all of that, the starting-over trope was handled so well. no idealistic flat decisions, neither character was cut any, any slack.
tbh this book got so real so fast, like. the problematics, the lying, the mistrust, the depth of feeling, it was such an intense read. i know a number of people who couldn't abide by the book, but for me it was probably the best of the darkest london series. even the flashbacks, dealing with the back and forth motion of the narrative and the characters' feelings in realtime vs flashback modes. it was a really really good balance to the otherwise super-tight four-days-ish in which the whole text is framed.