liszante 's review for:

The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay
1.0

Reading, or should I say, attempting to read The Summer Tree again. I am not yet as far as I got last time, but I am already remembering reasons I'd stopped before.

Reason 1: The characters. The horrible, horrible one-dimensional characters. Maybe they get better, but so far? Dave is the angry, jealous skeptic (the Edmund of the group; his and Jen's lines constantly throw me out of the story, because really?!). Jennifer is the scaredy-cat (I'll be so ever frightened!) who is, according to foreshadowing, going to face something terrible (I'm placing bets on her dying or nearly-so). Paul is the quiet, mysterious one with a tragic past. Kevin is the seemingly clever extrovert with a soft underbelly. Kim is the Special One and not yet much personality, but, hey, she has Meaningful Dreams!

I know a lot of people like these books. I know they are supposed to be an example of Secondary Worlds Done Right!, but I'm struggling to not send the book to someone else as a 'gift.'

^^I never ended up finishing it.