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natalielorelei 's review for:
Spindle's End
by Robin McKinley
Reread, for the first time in over a decade. I deeply love this book, but the pacing is WEIRD AS HELL, and I always want more of the first half of the book about Kat and Aunt raising Rosie. (Also, apparently I spent enough time thinking about that time in their lives as a teenager that I completely made up a favorite scene that appears nowhere in the book--that was a really weird discovery!)
I am also deeply underwhelmed and annoyed by the unnecessary (and HELLA CREEPY) romance being shoe-horned in at the end. (I remember thinking, "This is weird, but okay, I'll go with it!" as a teenager. Noooope. No more. Adult me is way too cranky for that shit.) This was really not a book that needed a romance, particularly not the one that ended up happening.
However, despite those things, I really, really love it. I love Katriona and how kind she is and how that kindness is always presented as a strength. I love how stubbornly herself Rosie is, and the way that all the fairy gifts turn inside out. I love that Peony is the sort of Traditionally Feminine Girl who is almost always a villain in early Robin McKinley, but here she and Rosie are besties, despite their differences. I love all of Rosie's animal friends, and the way they all work together to help her at the end, still in very animal-ish ways. And I love the way that this world's magic has a very catlike personality.
I am also deeply underwhelmed and annoyed by the unnecessary (and HELLA CREEPY) romance being shoe-horned in at the end. (I remember thinking, "This is weird, but okay, I'll go with it!" as a teenager. Noooope. No more. Adult me is way too cranky for that shit.) This was really not a book that needed a romance, particularly not the one that ended up happening.
However, despite those things, I really, really love it. I love Katriona and how kind she is and how that kindness is always presented as a strength. I love how stubbornly herself Rosie is, and the way that all the fairy gifts turn inside out. I love that Peony is the sort of Traditionally Feminine Girl who is almost always a villain in early Robin McKinley, but here she and Rosie are besties, despite their differences. I love all of Rosie's animal friends, and the way they all work together to help her at the end, still in very animal-ish ways. And I love the way that this world's magic has a very catlike personality.