Scan barcode
A review by caterina_x
Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare
3.0
I remarked to someone recently, when I was halfway through the book, that it felt long because of too many subplots, but I realised I was wrong. There weren't any subplots, they were all plots. And that was my main issue with this installment. I've read 1000-page books in the past and never tired of them, but here I was often frustrated. When I finished, I actually said "Finally."
My issues:
--Too many POVs. Everyone was a POV; even someone who was supposed to be a cameo (Alec if I remember correctly?) had a POV section. None of the POVs had a different voice, and occasionally I'd be unsure whose POV I was reading for several paragraphs. Several of these sections weren't necessary at all, imo. What was the point of having Helen's POV, for instance?
--Too many stories happening at the same time (the subplots I was talking about). Instead of a central story + subplots, we followed each one in detail. Every Blackthorn plus their friends were deemed central to this story and thus all the plots were afforded equal space in the narrative. It made the book sprawling and not in a good way. A lot was happening at the same time, but there wasn't a decent sense of progression, of things actually happening and moving forward. I felt impatient at several points of the narrative.
--In this book I was reminded why I'm not a fan of Clare: everyone (who was of age) got paired up. I wonder if she's terrified of a character ending the book single, that it means it's a failure of them. Even Diego is hinted at becoming close to someone, in a desperate attempt to assure us that he didn't stay single. As someone who's been single for a long time, I'm almost offended. The worst part was how this affected the pacing: not only did we have to follow everyone's plotline, but we also followed each and every romantic side-story in full detail. The pure fluff love declarations in the end (by almost everyone) are the kind of writing I hate and I skimmed all of them.
--Another reason I'm not a fan of Clare's prose: half of her word count is Julian's blue eyes, his "sea-green glass bracelet", and Emma's blond hair. The book might have been a good deal shorter if we weren't reminded of the "Blackthorn blue" eye colour every other page.
--The cameos from TMI stopped being cameos and became secondary characters. They were there in half the book. It's fun to see familiar characters (the point of a cameo), but at some point my head hurt trying to make sense of the huge number of named characters interacting together.
--There was a resolution of sorts, but when you're a mega-selling YA author you can get away by not resolving everything in the final book of a trilogy. Instead, you use it to set up the next one.
All in all, although I enjoyed the fast-pace and the immersive, uncomplicated fun of the previous two books, I felt disappointed by this one. I'm not a huge fan of Clare's and although the first two TDA books started changing my opinion of her writing, now I am firmly back in my belief that she's not for me. They're good fun, if you like this sort of story & the endless romantic adventures of young adults, and I'm happy I read the trilogy, but I'm also very happy that I read it for free on scribd and didn't pay for it. After reading 2500 pages of Clare-writing in a short space in a time, I'm satiated and will be pleased not to read anything of hers for a few years.
My issues:
--Too many POVs. Everyone was a POV; even someone who was supposed to be a cameo (Alec if I remember correctly?) had a POV section. None of the POVs had a different voice, and occasionally I'd be unsure whose POV I was reading for several paragraphs. Several of these sections weren't necessary at all, imo. What was the point of having Helen's POV, for instance?
--Too many stories happening at the same time (the subplots I was talking about). Instead of a central story + subplots, we followed each one in detail. Every Blackthorn plus their friends were deemed central to this story and thus all the plots were afforded equal space in the narrative. It made the book sprawling and not in a good way. A lot was happening at the same time, but there wasn't a decent sense of progression, of things actually happening and moving forward. I felt impatient at several points of the narrative.
--In this book I was reminded why I'm not a fan of Clare: everyone (who was of age) got paired up. I wonder if she's terrified of a character ending the book single, that it means it's a failure of them. Even Diego is hinted at becoming close to someone, in a desperate attempt to assure us that he didn't stay single. As someone who's been single for a long time, I'm almost offended. The worst part was how this affected the pacing: not only did we have to follow everyone's plotline, but we also followed each and every romantic side-story in full detail. The pure fluff love declarations in the end (by almost everyone) are the kind of writing I hate and I skimmed all of them.
--Another reason I'm not a fan of Clare's prose: half of her word count is Julian's blue eyes, his "sea-green glass bracelet", and Emma's blond hair. The book might have been a good deal shorter if we weren't reminded of the "Blackthorn blue" eye colour every other page.
--The cameos from TMI stopped being cameos and became secondary characters. They were there in half the book. It's fun to see familiar characters (the point of a cameo), but at some point my head hurt trying to make sense of the huge number of named characters interacting together.
--There was a resolution of sorts, but when you're a mega-selling YA author you can get away by not resolving everything in the final book of a trilogy. Instead, you use it to set up the next one.
All in all, although I enjoyed the fast-pace and the immersive, uncomplicated fun of the previous two books, I felt disappointed by this one. I'm not a huge fan of Clare's and although the first two TDA books started changing my opinion of her writing, now I am firmly back in my belief that she's not for me. They're good fun, if you like this sort of story & the endless romantic adventures of young adults, and I'm happy I read the trilogy, but I'm also very happy that I read it for free on scribd and didn't pay for it. After reading 2500 pages of Clare-writing in a short space in a time, I'm satiated and will be pleased not to read anything of hers for a few years.