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A review by kewlkat70
Between by L.L. Starling
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This was a tough book to rate. On the one hand the humour and situations were delightful and whimsical and funny. The humour reminded me of the Villians and Virtues series that was a 4.5⭐ rating over all.
But I had to subtract points for 2 major issues I had trouble with. Firstly, I found Lyla, the main character's best friend to be highly annoying for 3/4 if her character arc. I understand that she is supposed to be a foil so that the FMC, Sasha, can remain openhearted and optimistic. Lyla overdoes the cautious, suspicious routine and it goes on for a bit too long. It starts to drag the action as the reader knows Sasha will end up going to Between, but Lyla sticks her nose in and they end up spending an extra day of running around in disbelief. Eventually, Lyla stops being dismissive and dragging the storyline from progressing and starts working with the protagonist.
In other words, it's very tiresome to have a character deny and dismiss all the action that the reader has just had described to them in detail. It can happen once but after a while it's boring and repetitive.
However her character improves by the end of her story arc in this book.
I mention her "story arc" because of the biggest problem I have with this novel. For whatever reason, the author decided to approach the narrative by telling the story through the FMC's perspective and just as the novel is about to make a major plot point, the narrative goes back to the beginning and tell the entire story from the MMC's perspective.
So on some level this is a creative way of following both characters and does a wonderful job of building the world and secondary characters as we see their action from the POV of each protagonist. But unlike many books that go back and forth between POV, the author is repeating everything. I find this made the novel much longer and repetitive and at times boring. The humour saved the story but I hate ready nearly 500 pages only to end up in the same place I started.
There are certainly readers out there that will love this format as they also love re reading their favourite novels. This will allow those readers to spend more time with the characters and the world.
However, for myself it was a chore. I already know what is going to happen and while a few questions about motivations and mysterious actions were answered when reading the event from the other POV, I don't think I needed to go through every single interaction again. I'd much rather have the POV interspersed between each other so that by the end of the novel I didn't feel like I read it two times over.
It's also why I don't care for novels that tell the same story from a different perspective, no matter how much I loved the series.
I hope she doesn't plan to keep up this narrative device.
But I had to subtract points for 2 major issues I had trouble with. Firstly, I found Lyla, the main character's best friend to be highly annoying for 3/4 if her character arc. I understand that she is supposed to be a foil so that the FMC, Sasha, can remain openhearted and optimistic. Lyla overdoes the cautious, suspicious routine and it goes on for a bit too long. It starts to drag the action as the reader knows Sasha will end up going to Between, but Lyla sticks her nose in and they end up spending an extra day of running around in disbelief. Eventually, Lyla stops being dismissive and dragging the storyline from progressing and starts working with the protagonist.
In other words, it's very tiresome to have a character deny and dismiss all the action that the reader has just had described to them in detail. It can happen once but after a while it's boring and repetitive.
However her character improves by the end of her story arc in this book.
I mention her "story arc" because of the biggest problem I have with this novel. For whatever reason, the author decided to approach the narrative by telling the story through the FMC's perspective and just as the novel is about to make a major plot point, the narrative goes back to the beginning and tell the entire story from the MMC's perspective.
So on some level this is a creative way of following both characters and does a wonderful job of building the world and secondary characters as we see their action from the POV of each protagonist. But unlike many books that go back and forth between POV, the author is repeating everything. I find this made the novel much longer and repetitive and at times boring. The humour saved the story but I hate ready nearly 500 pages only to end up in the same place I started.
There are certainly readers out there that will love this format as they also love re reading their favourite novels. This will allow those readers to spend more time with the characters and the world.
However, for myself it was a chore. I already know what is going to happen and while a few questions about motivations and mysterious actions were answered when reading the event from the other POV, I don't think I needed to go through every single interaction again. I'd much rather have the POV interspersed between each other so that by the end of the novel I didn't feel like I read it two times over.
It's also why I don't care for novels that tell the same story from a different perspective, no matter how much I loved the series.
I hope she doesn't plan to keep up this narrative device.