Take a photo of a barcode or cover
So I dunno. It was fine, I guess...
I just got caught up in the whole thing where their plan to bring down the evil queen was to show everybody what she looked like without her glamour. Like, it doesn't matter that she murders people, or rapes people, or takes away babies to use as enforced Matrix-style blood donors, or that she enslaves her people or is just generally a terrible person. What changes the war is that SHE'S REALLY UGLY.
And I don't like that, especially when set against a backdrop of all of the glamourous beautiful "princesses" who are the heroines. Even the ones with physical flaws (Cinder's cyborgness, Winter's scars) are nevertheless somehow MORE beautiful because of these, while the queen is ugly. She's the only character who is described as hideous.
And I think there was a point later where someone (Cinder?) points out that it's because she's ugly on the INSIDE that it's important, but after all of the harping on about her outside, it rang a little hollow, like someone read the book and pointed out to the author that maybe this ugly = horrible message wasn't the BEST one to be sending to the intended audience of teenage girls, so she threw something in to soften the blow. I think there was literally one sentence, maybe two, about how it was the ugliness on the inside that mattered.
I still largely enjoyed it, as one enjoys eating popcorn (not particularly nutritious, but hard to put away when there's more available). I liked the whole approach to immigration (but what if the immigrants are BAD? Well, some might be, but lots aren't so stop being racist) and was pleased with where Scarlet and Wolf ended up. I also liked whatsisname's approach to Winter's mental illness (the whole "There's nothing wrong with you. I don't want to fix you. I just want you to be happy").
I guess that's all I have to say.
I just got caught up in the whole thing where their plan to bring down the evil queen was to show everybody what she looked like without her glamour. Like, it doesn't matter that she murders people, or rapes people, or takes away babies to use as enforced Matrix-style blood donors, or that she enslaves her people or is just generally a terrible person. What changes the war is that SHE'S REALLY UGLY.
And I don't like that, especially when set against a backdrop of all of the glamourous beautiful "princesses" who are the heroines. Even the ones with physical flaws (Cinder's cyborgness, Winter's scars) are nevertheless somehow MORE beautiful because of these, while the queen is ugly. She's the only character who is described as hideous.
And I think there was a point later where someone (Cinder?) points out that it's because she's ugly on the INSIDE that it's important, but after all of the harping on about her outside, it rang a little hollow, like someone read the book and pointed out to the author that maybe this ugly = horrible message wasn't the BEST one to be sending to the intended audience of teenage girls, so she threw something in to soften the blow. I think there was literally one sentence, maybe two, about how it was the ugliness on the inside that mattered.
I still largely enjoyed it, as one enjoys eating popcorn (not particularly nutritious, but hard to put away when there's more available). I liked the whole approach to immigration (but what if the immigrants are BAD? Well, some might be, but lots aren't so stop being racist) and was pleased with where Scarlet and Wolf ended up. I also liked whatsisname's approach to Winter's mental illness (the whole "There's nothing wrong with you. I don't want to fix you. I just want you to be happy").
I guess that's all I have to say.