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A review by rballenger
Misrule by Heather Walter
2.0
Type of read: Commuter Read.
What made me pick it up: I read Malice and wanted to finish the series.
Overall rating: Argh, I struggled with 'Misrule.' I thought that 'Malice' (the first in the duology) was absolutely fantastic, but 'Misrule' just had a lot of weirdness. Everything that I loved about Alice in 'Misrule' was muddied and cheapened in 'Malice.' The whole 100-year thing doesn't make sense to me. Like, I understand that a period of time had to pass, but it was just so casual. Like, 'ope, there go 100 years, but everything is pretty much the same, yet different, and now I'm just more angsty, annoying, jealous, and lost all of the normal spunk that made me the kick butt character I started out as.' I think overall, the time hop just seemed weird.
I think what it comes down to is there isn't a lot of continuity between the books for me. Yes, it's the same storyline and characters. I mean continuity in the details. I get that there's a big power shift, but you can't completely abandon entire plots, arcs, and details just because one character decided she was going to become a whiny witch solely focused on destroying those who hurt her while at the same time being obsessed with the lover she voluntarily kept sleeping for 100 years because she was too selfish to look for a real way to break to a curse.
Also, I may be misremembering this, but I thought that Callow couldn't fly in 'Misrule,' and now the bird flies. I realize there's magic and a lot apparently happened in 100 years - and let's be real, I may have been zoning in and out during 'Misrule' - but it just seemed again like a 'now I have magic and the bird flies,' type of thing. Additionally, and I said this in 'Malice,' if I have to hear her say "dragon's teeth" one more time I'm going to stab my phone.
I would only recommend 'Misrule' to those who have read 'Malice' and even then, only as a means of closure. I wish I would have just let it be after 'Malice.'
What made me pick it up: I read Malice and wanted to finish the series.
Overall rating: Argh, I struggled with 'Misrule.' I thought that 'Malice' (the first in the duology) was absolutely fantastic, but 'Misrule' just had a lot of weirdness. Everything that I loved about Alice in 'Misrule' was muddied and cheapened in 'Malice.' The whole 100-year thing doesn't make sense to me. Like, I understand that a period of time had to pass, but it was just so casual. Like, 'ope, there go 100 years, but everything is pretty much the same, yet different, and now I'm just more angsty, annoying, jealous, and lost all of the normal spunk that made me the kick butt character I started out as.' I think overall, the time hop just seemed weird.
I think what it comes down to is there isn't a lot of continuity between the books for me. Yes, it's the same storyline and characters. I mean continuity in the details. I get that there's a big power shift, but you can't completely abandon entire plots, arcs, and details just because one character decided she was going to become a whiny witch solely focused on destroying those who hurt her while at the same time being obsessed with the lover she voluntarily kept sleeping for 100 years because she was too selfish to look for a real way to break to a curse.
Also, I may be misremembering this, but I thought that Callow couldn't fly in 'Misrule,' and now the bird flies. I realize there's magic and a lot apparently happened in 100 years - and let's be real, I may have been zoning in and out during 'Misrule' - but it just seemed again like a 'now I have magic and the bird flies,' type of thing. Additionally, and I said this in 'Malice,' if I have to hear her say "dragon's teeth" one more time I'm going to stab my phone.
I would only recommend 'Misrule' to those who have read 'Malice' and even then, only as a means of closure. I wish I would have just let it be after 'Malice.'