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A review by katyanaish
Coyote Dreams by C.E. Murphy
3.0
***3.5***
I'm not liking this series as much as I want to.
The stories are good, for the most part. But there are a couple critical problems that are really keeping me from being as invested as I feel like I could be in the characters.
I don't have a lot of tolerance for heroes that, three books in, are still denying reality. Frankly, I was over this in book 2. For her to still struggle with being a skeptic, at this point, makes her seem ridiculous. She's seen so much extraordinary, clearly supernatural, stuff that it is just unbelievable. As in, I don't believe it. And so it feels forced and unnatural, just to create friction. In other words: bullshit.
For the record, this is equally true of Morrison, but I'll get to that later.
Joanne is REALLY slow on the uptake. The universe seems to send her flashing neon signs when something is wrong, and she doesn't get it. I think the reader understands what is going on, in both book 2 and book 3, about 150 pages before Joanne does. It makes for an incredibly frustrating read. One I kept putting down, out of irritation.
Joanne has a ridiculous martyr complex. I know this is a UF trend, but it is one that I consistently hate. It's fine - it's good - for the hero to take responsibility for stuff they fucked up. It's practically required for them to show compassion and help fix things they didn't fuck up. That's pretty much the definition of heroism. But Joanne puts everything on herself. To me, this is most unforgivable when it comes to the events of book 2. And she's still flogging herself about those things. Are you fucking kidding me? Yes, Joanne was slow on the uptake, but you know what? She was faster on the uptake than the entire fucking coven of people that manipulated her into a situation she didn't understand, and forced her to do ludicrous things without explanation. Yes, she takes a hit for setting her own judgment aside, but the vast, vast, vast majority of the responsibility for that situation is on them. They never once even explained a working to her before they just expected her to do shit. It was so unethical that I frankly pretty much hated book 2, and the entire group of secondary characters introduced in that book.
Taking responsibility for the actions of everyone around you is not only idiotic, it is unbelievably arrogant. Are you a god now, Joanne? Do you have omniscient control over everyone and all the shitty decisions they make? No? Well then shut the fuck up about how all of this is your fault, already. Own up to what you did do, and let the rest of it go.
I don't like Morrison. Like, at all. At. All. The way he treats her is so incredibly douchebaggy that it flabbergasts me. Also led to massive frustration, and me walking away from the book several times. He doesn't get to treat her abilities like a foul, unclean curse, and then show up at her house demanding she drop everything and do them. He doesn't act like a boss, he acts like an OWNER. A slave owner. And he can fuck right off. I seriously, seriously, dislike him. Even worse is that, while ordering her to handle whatever mysterious shit is going on, he then disregards all of her input on it. You can't have it both ways, fucktard. She's either handling it - in which case quit fucking around and pay attention to what she says - or she's not, and you can fucking come up with the solution yourself.
I'm hoping that the way this book ends means that he's out. Permanently. And we don't have to deal with him and his emotional, manipulative, asinine bullshit anymore.
I'm not sure why I'm even interested in reading onward, as, again, I'm not as onboard with these books as I'd like to be. I guess it's because I do like the bones of the story, and I'd like to see how it plays. I just don't know how much more I can do if the characters don't stop being so ridiculous.
Maybe we could just drop everyone else, and do a story about Gary, Billy and Mel. I'd be so down for that.
I'm not liking this series as much as I want to.
The stories are good, for the most part. But there are a couple critical problems that are really keeping me from being as invested as I feel like I could be in the characters.
I don't have a lot of tolerance for heroes that, three books in, are still denying reality. Frankly, I was over this in book 2. For her to still struggle with being a skeptic, at this point, makes her seem ridiculous. She's seen so much extraordinary, clearly supernatural, stuff that it is just unbelievable. As in, I don't believe it. And so it feels forced and unnatural, just to create friction. In other words: bullshit.
For the record, this is equally true of Morrison, but I'll get to that later.
Joanne is REALLY slow on the uptake. The universe seems to send her flashing neon signs when something is wrong, and she doesn't get it. I think the reader understands what is going on, in both book 2 and book 3, about 150 pages before Joanne does. It makes for an incredibly frustrating read. One I kept putting down, out of irritation.
Joanne has a ridiculous martyr complex. I know this is a UF trend, but it is one that I consistently hate. It's fine - it's good - for the hero to take responsibility for stuff they fucked up. It's practically required for them to show compassion and help fix things they didn't fuck up. That's pretty much the definition of heroism. But Joanne puts everything on herself. To me, this is most unforgivable when it comes to the events of book 2. And she's still flogging herself about those things. Are you fucking kidding me? Yes, Joanne was slow on the uptake, but you know what? She was faster on the uptake than the entire fucking coven of people that manipulated her into a situation she didn't understand, and forced her to do ludicrous things without explanation. Yes, she takes a hit for setting her own judgment aside, but the vast, vast, vast majority of the responsibility for that situation is on them. They never once even explained a working to her before they just expected her to do shit. It was so unethical that I frankly pretty much hated book 2, and the entire group of secondary characters introduced in that book.
Taking responsibility for the actions of everyone around you is not only idiotic, it is unbelievably arrogant. Are you a god now, Joanne? Do you have omniscient control over everyone and all the shitty decisions they make? No? Well then shut the fuck up about how all of this is your fault, already. Own up to what you did do, and let the rest of it go.
I don't like Morrison. Like, at all. At. All. The way he treats her is so incredibly douchebaggy that it flabbergasts me. Also led to massive frustration, and me walking away from the book several times. He doesn't get to treat her abilities like a foul, unclean curse, and then show up at her house demanding she drop everything and do them. He doesn't act like a boss, he acts like an OWNER. A slave owner. And he can fuck right off. I seriously, seriously, dislike him. Even worse is that, while ordering her to handle whatever mysterious shit is going on, he then disregards all of her input on it. You can't have it both ways, fucktard. She's either handling it - in which case quit fucking around and pay attention to what she says - or she's not, and you can fucking come up with the solution yourself.
I'm hoping that the way this book ends means that he's out. Permanently. And we don't have to deal with him and his emotional, manipulative, asinine bullshit anymore.
I'm not sure why I'm even interested in reading onward, as, again, I'm not as onboard with these books as I'd like to be. I guess it's because I do like the bones of the story, and I'd like to see how it plays. I just don't know how much more I can do if the characters don't stop being so ridiculous.
Maybe we could just drop everyone else, and do a story about Gary, Billy and Mel. I'd be so down for that.