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A review by songbvrd
Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell
3.0
I finished this in one day. I’d been meaning to get to it for ages, and I picked it up today and decided I’d finish it today. I did enjoy it— however, I felt there were a lot of issues.
For a start, of all three books, this is by far the least cohesive. Rowell has always been more character driven than plot driven, which I like a lot. However, I felt like I spent this entire book waiting for the main plot to begin. Everything felt like an underdeveloped side quest.
Let’s start with Smith Smith Richards. First of all ????? But also. This character has no bearing on the story at large, at all. I felt like Smith was supposed to be used for development that never really happened. I suspected maybe we’d see Simon grow past his need for magic as a result of this, but that never really felt like a solid or explained development as a result of that.
The constant parallels to Simon and discussion of children born to Mages but not having Magic felt like something. I thought maybe he was some reincarnation of the Mage, or some relative of Simon’s and was therefore draining the magic of that family, tying their overall presence in. Nope.
Then I thought perhaps Smith really was nothing more than an exploration of the idea that the “fate” side of things really was just nonsense. That Simon really had been a self-fulfilling prophecy, and how damaging pressure and power can be. (That was before the end seemed to be trying to convince me Agatha was the chosen one… what????). Overall, I wound up feeling like this storyline/character offered nothing and was never really explained at all.
Which leads me to my next issue: unanswered questions. I’m not necessarily a believer that authors have to wrap up every missing element, but this felt like it wrapped up none. Okay, all the major players wound up in ships or whatever, but that isn’t actually story resolution.
Simon - Does he have magic or not? It seems to be a lingering foreplay that never leads to anything poignant. Even at the end, we get Professor Bunce telling us that Simon may indeed have magic, but no closure. We’re told that maybe the spell protected Simon from magic, but not for how long or, more importantly, why. We finally get to see him open up more to Baz, but there’s no real feeling of it being earned, because we never really get to the bottom of what it is exactly he’s struggling with. His arc seems to be learning how to just be, learning how to be content with relationships and mundanity, but it isn’t earned. Simon seems to struggle endlessly throughout without ever finding any answers or genuine breakthroughs, only to sort of vaguely tell us he’s okay with that in the end. This tells me nothing about Simon as a person. I don’t feel like we’ve left him at a natural conclusion to his narrative, more like no one knew where to go with him after that narrative. For the protagonist, his story ultimately felt… incomplete. Frankly, it didn’t feel like he had an arc at all for much of this.
Baz — one of the characters who suffers the least from lack of characterisation. Baz’s internal voice always feels clear and distinct, as opposed to some others. It did feel like he lacked any real storyline or development outside of taking care of Simon though, which is somewhat disappointing. His relationship to family felt underdeveloped too, especially as a catalyst factor.
Penelope — IMO, perhaps the character most let down by this trilogy finale. Penny gets to do very little except banter with a boy. Their banter is cute — they are cute — however, her storyline to Simon didn’t work for me. The idea of them developing outside of each other is fine, I like the concept of them growing up and moving on, but it didn’t feel well addressed or a progression. The ending being Penny jetting off to middle of nowhere America was absolutely rubbish. Not a satisfying ending for such an ambitious character and such a strong friendship. The fact that she and Simon didn’t disclose any of it to each other helped it to feel unimportant.
For a start, of all three books, this is by far the least cohesive. Rowell has always been more character driven than plot driven, which I like a lot. However, I felt like I spent this entire book waiting for the main plot to begin. Everything felt like an underdeveloped side quest.
Let’s start with Smith Smith Richards. First of all ????? But also. This character has no bearing on the story at large, at all. I felt like Smith was supposed to be used for development that never really happened. I suspected maybe we’d see Simon grow past his need for magic as a result of this, but that never really felt like a solid or explained development as a result of that.
The constant parallels to Simon and discussion of children born to Mages but not having Magic felt like something. I thought maybe he was some reincarnation of the Mage, or some relative of Simon’s and was therefore draining the magic of that family, tying their overall presence in. Nope.
Then I thought perhaps Smith really was nothing more than an exploration of the idea that the “fate” side of things really was just nonsense. That Simon really had been a self-fulfilling prophecy, and how damaging pressure and power can be. (That was before the end seemed to be trying to convince me Agatha was the chosen one… what????). Overall, I wound up feeling like this storyline/character offered nothing and was never really explained at all.
Which leads me to my next issue: unanswered questions. I’m not necessarily a believer that authors have to wrap up every missing element, but this felt like it wrapped up none. Okay, all the major players wound up in ships or whatever, but that isn’t actually story resolution.
Simon - Does he have magic or not? It seems to be a lingering foreplay that never leads to anything poignant. Even at the end, we get Professor Bunce telling us that Simon may indeed have magic, but no closure. We’re told that maybe the spell protected Simon from magic, but not for how long or, more importantly, why. We finally get to see him open up more to Baz, but there’s no real feeling of it being earned, because we never really get to the bottom of what it is exactly he’s struggling with. His arc seems to be learning how to just be, learning how to be content with relationships and mundanity, but it isn’t earned. Simon seems to struggle endlessly throughout without ever finding any answers or genuine breakthroughs, only to sort of vaguely tell us he’s okay with that in the end. This tells me nothing about Simon as a person. I don’t feel like we’ve left him at a natural conclusion to his narrative, more like no one knew where to go with him after that narrative. For the protagonist, his story ultimately felt… incomplete. Frankly, it didn’t feel like he had an arc at all for much of this.
Baz — one of the characters who suffers the least from lack of characterisation. Baz’s internal voice always feels clear and distinct, as opposed to some others. It did feel like he lacked any real storyline or development outside of taking care of Simon though, which is somewhat disappointing. His relationship to family felt underdeveloped too, especially as a catalyst factor.
Penelope — IMO, perhaps the character most let down by this trilogy finale. Penny gets to do very little except banter with a boy. Their banter is cute — they are cute — however, her storyline to Simon didn’t work for me. The idea of them developing outside of each other is fine, I like the concept of them growing up and moving on, but it didn’t feel well addressed or a progression. The ending being Penny jetting off to middle of nowhere America was absolutely rubbish. Not a satisfying ending for such an ambitious character and such a strong friendship. The fact that she and Simon didn’t disclose any of it to each other helped it to feel unimportant.